Chapter 62： king's troubles

His Majesty King Rodney XVI of the Aldo Kingdom has had a lot of troubles recently.

The first worry was that the granary in the capital was set on fire by the spies of the rebels, and the little grain left was sent south to quell the rebellion. The daily supply of the 100,000 residents of the capital became a problem.

The government immediately sent officials to collect food in the territories directly under the royal family, and what they found made His Majesty almost faint again—the real food in the warehouses in most places did not match the accounts at all. Rodney XVI was furious. After a thorough investigation, it was found that part of the reason was that the officials in charge of management sold it privately, and part of the reason was that local officials boasted and concealed reports in order to seek credit and reward.

His Majesty was furious, and sent law enforcement officials to **** the offending officials back to the capital, and summoned the people for a public trial.

After the judge announced the crime, the executioner pushed the criminals into the angry crowd, "It's these moths that make you starve now!"

The fate of these criminals can be imagined. The trial started at 8:00 in the morning, and it took less than an hour to announce the crime. Then it was the "execution time" for the common people to do it for them. It lasted for 3 hours, and people were exhausted by noon. Only then dispersed. When the executioner went to collect the corpses, the corpses of those prisoners were no longer human. He cut off the heads of the prisoners and hung them on the city gate. As for whether any of them were scapegoats, who knows?

According to the suggestions of many military generals, the royal government should implement the food rationing system immediately, collect all the food stored in the civilian households, and then distribute the necessary rations regularly according to the population of each household, and supply the other food to the army going south. . However, this suggestion was strongly opposed by the ministers of administration, and their reasons were very good: with the conduct of local officials, there was not much food collected by then, and the common people would starve to death first, and the common people did not know loyalty at all. What is honor and honor, they only care about whether they have food tomorrow, and they will definitely rebel when they know that they are going to starve to death. After weighing the pros and cons, His Majesty the King finally did not adopt the military's suggestion.

In order to save food, a strict alcohol prohibition order was issued to all the territories directly under the royal family: except for a few winemaking workshops that have been issued licenses, all other workshops have stopped making wine; nobles can’t buy more than half a liter of wine per day, and civilians can’t buy more than half a liter of wine. No more than one liter of alcohol can be purchased per week, and must be purchased at a designated place; public drinking is prohibited, and alcoholic beverages are prohibited at banquets, and can only be drunk quietly at home. Those who violated the above-mentioned laws and regulations would be severely punished by the nobility, and the common people would be sentenced to death.

In order to prevent merchants from taking the opportunity to drive up the price of grain and food, the royal government has designated a price ceiling, and soldiers who supervise sales are stationed in front of every store engaged in grain and catering in the capital. Even so, residents have to spend many times more than usual to buy food.

As the food collected from the localities gradually gathered in the capital, the high-level officials finally breathed a sigh of relief, but it was impossible to send troops south immediately, so King Qin’s army was temporarily disbanded, and the lords from other places went back to their homes to find their own troops. Mom, wait for the next year to choose a time to convene. Of course, it depends on how this year's harvest is.

The second worry is that the youngest daughter ran away from home. Because he did not have the power to crush Giles' rebellion for the time being, Rodney XVI had to think carefully about the wall-riding factions everywhere. The Duke of Veblen, the most powerful of the Fencers, has not made a statement on Giles' rebellion so far, but only sent an envoy to request marriage with the royal family, which is already obvious. After much consideration, His Majesty the King decided to marry his youngest daughter, Irene Rodney, to him. The Veblen family has many vassals, and the position of the territory is also very important. He must not be allowed to fall to Giles.

The eldest daughter, Catherine, is so outstanding that King Rodney XVI was reluctant to give such a treasure to others. The king has no son, so according to tradition, he can only pass the throne to his younger brother, Prince Ocassie, but Prince Ocassie is a well-known dude, spends his days drinking and drinking, likes to hang out with bards and mummers, no one is optimistic He can be a qualified monarch. His Majesty the King has already decided that after a hundred years, instead of passing the throne to his useless younger brother, it is better to pass it on to his eldest daughter, and he also trains Catherine as the prince of a country in normal times.

So he had to sacrifice his youngest daughter, Irene. Irene is not interested in politics at all. Although as a royal princess, she has not missed what she should learn, and she is proficient in poetry, poetry, art and dance, but she also has other extensive interests on weekdays, such as studying various ancient times. Writing and ancient scrolls, learning alchemy from alchemists and warlocks, or collecting various plant specimens, raising some strange animals, etc. These hobbies make her more like a scholar, but it is precisely because she dabbles too much. "Extensive", in addition to naming several uncommon plants, Her Royal Highness has not made any big names yet.

If you don't look at it from the perspective of a father, but just from the perspective of the king of a country, the little princess Irene is indeed a good tool for marriage, but... she ran away from home.

After King Rodney XVI explained his decision to his younger daughter, Her Royal Highness looked as usual, and after calmly asking her father why she made this decision, she silently returned to her room. The king was also amazed that his youngest daughter had such a high consciousness as a child of the royal family, and he felt endless shame in his heart, and then learned the news that his daughter had disappeared the next day. He immediately sent people to search around. Although there was anxiety about delaying the marriage with the Veblen family, it was more a father's concern about his daughter's safety.

The third worry is that the eldest daughter, Catherine, has a very deep relationship with her younger sister. After learning that her younger sister is going to be used as a marriage tool, she is in a state of cold war with herself. His Majesty the King".

"It's troublesome!" The king felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart.

…

"The army going to Stranglethorn Valley has been screened, and this time Viscount Klein will command the reinforcements."

Catherine made such an announcement at the military meeting, and none of the generals present had any objections. Viscount Klein stood up to take the order, and then everyone began to discuss the recent headache of military rations.

Although the large-scale counter-insurgency army is unable to go south, the army to reinforce the Duke of Dodge will still be sent there, no matter what, first defend the Thorn Pass. If the Pass of Thorns is lost, then the northern hinterland of the kingdom is open to Giles' rebels.

After discussing the ration supply and some other details, the meeting ended, and the generals went back to work on their tasks.

Only Ao Feina stayed After everyone dispersed, she walked up to the princess and said quietly: "His Royal Highness Irene has already settled down in a place called Huxin Town in the northwest of Arda." .”

Catherine nodded. Relying on her familiarity with her sister, she sent people to find the whereabouts of the little princess before the king. However, she did not bring her sister back by force, but secretly sent more people to protect her. Man sets up tracking barrier. Catherine was very angry at her father's decision to use her sister as a marriage tool, but after many attempts, she still couldn't change the will of the king of a country, so she could only resist in this way.

She asked Ofina: "Who is the lord there?"

Ofina said: "The lord is Earl Paul Greiman of the Greiman family."

"Alda? Greiman?" Catherine seemed to have an impression, but couldn't remember it.

Ofina continued: "The news came back that Earl Greiman not long ago wiped out the pirates who invaded the territory, and launched an operation called 'Strike Hard' to clean up the hooligans in the territory. The law and order there is very good now, and there should be no security issues for the time being when Her Royal Highness Irene lives there."

The worries in Catherine's heart eased a little, and then she remembered, isn't this Graeman the family that sent envoys to the barracks to ask for the imperial order when they were in the highlands a few months ago? At that time, she had also temporarily exempted him from serving as a king because of the difficulties in the other party's territory. She had also heard a little about the pirate problem in the Northwest Gulf. It seemed that this little country lord was really capable.

Catherine still can't be completely relieved: "You still can't take it lightly, let your people pay close attention, and send it back as soon as there is any situation. In addition, don't tell others about this matter."

"Yes, Your Royal Highness!" "Thank you, Ofina."