Chapter 458： The Dilemma of the Royal Family II

After struggling to speak, Rupert Walter finally asked the petitioning southern nobles and fled here with a thick stack of petitions.

Half an hour later, he appeared in the palace and went straight into the palace's meeting hall.

"Ah, Rupert, everyone is waiting for you."

His Majesty the King, sitting on the throne, greeted him.

The Minister of Finance, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Military Affairs, the Chief of Intelligence, the Chief of the Palace, the Chief of Intelligence and other important officials at the center of the Kingdom's government have already sat down in their seats.

Sitting on King Rodney's right hand is Her Royal Highness Princess Catherine.

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty the King, Your Highness the Princess, and colleagues, I'm on my way..."

Before he finished speaking, all the ministers present showed expressions of sympathy.

Earl Molin, who was in charge of intelligence, said: "Your Majesty, everyone understands. To be honest, I came in today with a disguise."

"Oh, I'm planning to dig a tunnel from home."

"Really, these lawless guys should be punished."

"There are many meritorious families who have made great contributions to the establishment of the kingdom. Do you dare to govern?"

Others also started to complain.

"Ahem!" Princess Catherine cleared her throat, and everyone fell silent.

"Ministers, the purpose of today's meeting, the first topic is to discuss how to appease the landless nobles in the south."

The princess was a little embarrassed when she spoke. Similar meetings have been held several times, but every time they couldn't come up with a thorough plan.

The direct reason for this situation is that Wang**'s team failed to completely defeat Giles in the south.

As commander in chief of the counter-insurgency force, she felt a great responsibility attached to her.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Minister of Finance explained the current situation to everyone worriedly: "Your Majesty, princess, ministers, according to the previous plan, we should take out 1 million silver shields every year to build armor and weapons, train knights and store food and grass. Prepare for the next counter-insurgency, but after these southern aristocrats came, we had to squeeze out a part of all expenditures to maintain their decent life. Among them, 150,000 yuan was embezzled from the military expenditure. If this continues, It will greatly delay our counter-insurgency progress. In addition... In previous years, the annual income of the king's land was about 5 million silver shields, but this year's harvest in various places is not good. I estimate that the income can only be between 4 million and 4.5 million. If we don’t reduce spending, we can only borrow from the private sector.”

(Note: Silver Shield, the currency in circulation in the Aldo Kingdom, is named after the shield pattern printed on it. A silver shield contains 23~25 grams of silver)

Is the situation so serious? The ministers who had just learned of the situation frowned.

"His Majesty!"

Earl Salifre Reynolds, Minister of Foreign Affairs, suggested: "In this situation, decisive measures should be taken."

Everyone focused on Reynolds.

"First take a few guys who dance the most, deprive them of the title of nobility, and then imprison the others, lower their living conditions, and send them back until we recover the land in the south."

Sir Benito Lacerda, the person in charge of the Kingdom's Heraldry Institute, immediately expressed his objection, "Using such harsh methods to deal with those ancient and noble families is very disreputable. Go abroad and become black material to attack Aldo."

"Then what do you say?"

"In short, these families cannot be treated harshly. Their ancestors have contributed to the kingdom. In this rebellion, even if there is no credit, there is hard work."

"Well, it would be nice if they just killed themselves when the territory was captured."

"What are you talking about?"

Everyone was clamoring, but they didn't discuss the reason.

There was a bang bang sound, it was the king knocking on the table, and everyone looked at their monarch in unison.

Rodney frowned and said, "Everyone, to be honest, I'm ready to take several generations to regain the South."

"what?"

Princess Catherine stood up, and it was the first time she knew about her father's "preparation".

"Your Majesty!" she exclaimed excitedly.

Rodney ordered his daughter: "Sit down, Catherine."

The princess sat down unwillingly. If she really couldn't regain the south when her father was in power, it would be a great shame to her.

The king turned to Lord Merlin, who was in charge of intelligence, and motioned for him to speak.

The earl nodded and explained to everyone: "According to what we have now, there is a mysterious force behind Giles supporting him, and all the strange and unheard of things that happened during the rebellion are related to this force It's about power."

The mysterious fire in the granary, the assassination of the admiral by his loyal servant, the fireball that appeared out of thin air during the invasion of Westport, the rebel soldiers who were stronger than knights and more fearless, and the simple leather armor with the protection of metal armor...

Earl Merlin narrated these things one by one. In fact, everyone here is a high-ranking person in the kingdom, and everyone knows one or two of them.

"The news from our informants in the rebel army also proves that there are indeed some mysterious people in the rebel army, but their public identities are priests of the church."

"Weird, I can only use this word to describe it. The weirdness of this force has exceeded our cognition and common sense. We can't even guess what other weird things it can do. For This power, and the people who represent it, I can only tentatively call..."

"Magic, and... wizards!"

"After all, I can't find a more suitable word to call them."

Earl Merlin's words silenced everyone. Fear comes from the unknown, and they are facing the biggest unknown in human history...at least in the history of Aldo.

Magic, wizards, things that only exist in legends, but not on their side, invisible and intangible.

The king knocked on the table and warned everyone: "We can only take the next step after we figure out what we are fighting against. If we do not even know the true identity of the enemy, we will suffer a big loss sooner or later. Much power and honor."

He glanced at Catherine, who bowed her head.

"Your Majesty!" the Minister of Military Affairs suggested, "Doesn't the Holy See hate wizards the most? Can you ask for their help?"

"Hmph!" The king said disdainfully, "The Holy See is still worrying about the Jiaowan matter and..."

"We also cannot give the Holy See the opportunity to intervene in Aldo's domestic affairs."

Earl Merlin said: "Actually, judging from various sources of intelligence, it is very likely that this force was involved in what happened in Jiaowan in recent years."

This was too arrogant, and everyone was astonished. Aldo is a big country, and the Holy See stomps its feet to make the mainland tremble. What kind of power dares to touch the buttocks of two lions at the same time.

But at present, at least Aldo is disgraced by it. Thinking of this, everyone was frustrated.

"Because I decided, to know them, to reach them..."

The king said in a deep voice.

"Even learn them when necessary, own them."

The words of the lord surprised the ministers.

Manipulating witchcraft has always been a taboo, especially with the existence of the Holy See.