Chapter 886

Almost the day after Loren and the imperial mission left, little priest Weber began his "reform plan".

And bear the brunt, targeting the luxury of Bain cathedral.

In short, to open source, first reduce expenditure.

Superior Nightingale wine, white bread mixed with milk, honey and sugar, traveling motorcade, church servants, stables, tableware of pure gold and silver, satin priest's robes

All the priests' pomp, supplies and servants were collected under Weber's "bishop's order", or dismissed or sold at a low price to the United Chamber of Commerce (of course, little Joad had planned long ago, otherwise the ordinary chamber of commerce could not have spent so much money at once) to subsidize the daily operation of the Byrne church and charity work.

Facing Weber, who "set an example" and was supported by the Duke of Byrne and the Holy Cross Church, the painstaking Byrne church priests can only "willingly" and raise their hands in favor of the Bishop's decision.

But this does not mean that they really gave up resistance, but aimed at Weber's second decision - layoffs.

As the "spiritual guide" of a principality, Byrne church also has a large number of things to deal with. It even has to undertake certain work of courts and tax collectors in the countryside, publicize the Duke's "great achievements", promote the principality's policies to the countryside, and occasionally deal with civil disputes.

Of course, it is impossible for the deacons of the "noble and holy" cathedral to do so by themselves; They were only responsible for coming forward, and the specific work was entrusted to all kinds of employees and church servants.

Under Weber's "new reform", the number of these employees and servants was reduced by four fifths, which made the deacons complain incessantly; So they began to use slack work and "lack of manpower" as the reason to make Byrne Cathedral almost semi paralyzed.

But they obviously underestimated the "bishop's" superhuman perseverance and his ability to win over allies and "move people with sincerity".

Weber first abolished the redundant church servants, but all employees with certain "professional skills" - propagandists, judges and tax collectors, were retained by Weber as priests in the church, and then all were transferred to the Byrne court to be loyal to the Duke of Byrne and the round table Council.

In other words, although they still hang on to the name of the church and do the same things as in the past, their salaries are paid by the principality and the church will no longer intervene.

This can be described as "mutual benefit" for both sides. Weber got rid of miscellaneous mundane affairs, while the round table Parliament had a large number of grass-roots bureaucrats overnight, and the implementation effect was much stronger than that through the court of the Earls in the past.

Charlotte Turin, who was surprised, immediately took advantage of the lack of reaction from the Earls everywhere and began to carry out her centralization plan; The "bishop Weber", who has spared no effort, can finally focus on the main functions of the church.

In the case of the collective inaction of the deacons of the cathedral, Weber showed superhuman perseverance and extraordinary energy. With only a few priests secretly bought and instructed by Charlotte, he operated the whole Bain church alone.

This time, the deacons were really flustered, because they suddenly found that they did nothing, and the church was still as usual - that means they are redundant to the bishop, and he won't even abolish his own group?!

However, Weber once again "changed his style", first deposed several greedy deacons, most of whom were only removed from their posts, but retained the clergy and remained the priest of the cathedral.

Most importantly, whether deposed or dismissed, Weber's reasons are excuses such as "getting old" and "dying of an emergency", leaving them the last thin face.

The rest of the group immediately understood it and asked the bishop to remove their posts so that they could go home for rest on the pretexts of "sore eyes", "sprained little finger", "got the mouse hand" and "lying down without remembering".

Weber was naturally happy to agree, and then promoted a group of young people with similar ideals to him from chapels around the world to fill the vacant positions.

After rectifying the cathedral, the little priest - Bishop Byrne - Weber finally had the opportunity to turn the spearhead from "saving" to "opening up".

Among all the principality churches in the Empire, the Byrne church is certainly not the most powerful, but it is absolutely one of the richest; This rich Byrne, together with the perennial donations of nobles from all over the world, and the intentional solicitation of Byrne Dukes from all generations, made the Byrne church have an amazing number of funds and real estate.

In lottel, priests in villages and towns need to "encourage" nobles and rich farmers to donate if they want to make money; The priests in the imperial capital have donations paid by believers who regularly come to pray in various churches.

Only Byrne church, almost all churches and churches have their own fields, manors and plantations; Together with the donations of believers and nobles, it is enough to make the local priests live a life comparable to that of the count; The bain Cathedral in red blood castle has the most prosperous lot in the inner city. It also has a staggering number of assets in the United Chamber of Commerce and yode chamber of Commerce, making money by lending.

However, these properties were almost sold by priests and deacons during the fall of governor Byrne and the Centaur war; In addition, Loren and Charlotte secretly "inspired", little Yoder was responsible for the implementation, which was swept away by the Turin family and Yoder chamber of Commerce from the inside to the outside, leaving only Weber an empty shell.

That's why Weber cleaned the public servants in the church and ceded the employees to the Duke as soon as he took office - unless he borrowed money, he had no spare money to supply these "idle people".

Weber, who was almost "poor and white", immediately made up his mind to those deposed deacons and wanted to confiscate the money they bought from reselling church assets in the name of "corruption".

But it's a pity, because young Joad of the United Chamber of Commerce had long guessed that he would do so.

As soon as Weber came to the door, the deacons either "ran away with money" or "failed in investment" and went bankrupt; The walls of the house are appalling; Last month, the Deacon family, who once had delicacies, lay in bed in just a few days. They were thin and haggard, hungry to the point of taking off shape, and there was only half a breath left.

At this point, even if the dying deacons didn't tell him, Weber could guess who was behind all this - the treasurer of the principality, the president of the United Chamber of Commerce, Loren's intelligence leader, Lord Joad Jr.

The only problem is that although little Joad's means are cruel, he either cooperates or dies; However, whether transferring assets or planning the "bankruptcy" of the caravan are tricks within the "rules", which do not involve the internal affairs of the church.

In other words, unless his face is torn and the needle is divided, bishop Byrne can only accuse little Joad of immorality and scold him.

Weber decided to be polite before the soldiers.

Bishop Byrne politely came to the door and told him that the Byrne church had a large amount of money in the accounts of the United Chamber of Commerce. He now needs to put forward some money from this money to maintain the operation of the church.

And little Joad said very politely, it doesn't matter, just wait a few days; Because so many investments are involved and the amount is so huge, it takes time for the United Chamber of Commerce to collect the money.

Weber nodded to show that he could understand.

So after waiting for more than half a month, Weber, who had never heard from him, finally realized that it was wrong, immediately came to the door and questioned little Joad face to face.

Where's the money?

Little Joad, with a sincere expression, shook his head regretfully.

Sorry, No.

Stopped the two attendants behind him who wanted to rush up and break up little Joad. Weber, with an indifferent expression, asked politely, why didn't he?

Sighing, little Joad immediately took out hundreds of pages of accounts, spread out half of the room in front of Weber, and told him one by one how the investment operated by the money had experienced income, growth, decline and bankruptcy.

In a word, the investments of the church were once benign investments and made a lot of money, but unfortunately these investments lost money for various reasons; Except for a pile of promissory notes and dead proofs, half a copper plate was left.

As for the process... Look at the books in this room. Didn't I tell you everything?

Don't you understand? Not that much time? Oh, that's not my problem, but yours.

Unless you can show evidence that my account books are false, this is evidence, and it is iron evidence!

Once again stopped the entourage who wanted to die with little Joad. Weber nodded and said nothing else, just give me the IOU.

Honest and trustworthy little Joad nodded, indicating that it was OK.

Finally, Weber left the yode chamber of Commerce for the second time with a loan receipt and ious full of a carriage, as well as thousands of gold coins privately donated by the "sympathetic" little yode.

But bishop Byrne knew very well that little Joad, who had shown his ugly face, would not let himself go so easily.

Sure enough... Just the next day, there was a rumor about "bishop Byrne will collect church debt" in red blood castle, which spread to half of the principality; All the businessmen in Bain changed color when they heard the wind, to the point of disturbing the round table Parliament.

In this case, Weber had only two options left;

The first is to insist on collecting these debts and completely destroy those already bankrupt businessmen; But this will bring a bad name to the Byrne church, and he will certainly lose his reputation.

The most troublesome thing is that once there is a dispute, the Byrne church will be involved in principality politics again, which is inconsistent with his original intention of reform;

The second is to give up debt, but the bain church, which is short of assets, will immediately face the dilemma of making ends meet; On the premise of having bowed to the Turin family once, another compromise is likely to make the church completely lose its independent status and become a vassal of the Duke and the Turin family.

Neither option is what Weber wants to do.

So he decided to choose the third way.

Before Charlotte and the round table Parliament were officially ready to start, Weber took the first step and announced to the principality in the name of "bishop of Byrne church" that he would officially deal with the debt problem of the church in a week.

An invitation was sent to all businessmen in the principality who were in arrears with the church - basically the vast majority - to come to the scene "on time" to discuss the matter with him.

Weber's decision was decisive and his hand was fast, which slightly exceeded little Joad's expectation, but everything was still in his plan; As the president of the United Chamber of Commerce, of course, he is also qualified to accept the invitation.

But not for the sake of debt, he was prepared to see how Weber got down - whether it was tearing the face of a "Saint" or swallowing poison painstakingly... It was exciting to think about it.

After dealing with an unscrupulous black haired wizard for a long time, little Joad, who had a very low moral bottom line, loved this social activity of "breaking idols" and "exposing human nature" more and more.

By all means, let those seemingly dignified guys show their ugliest side... Can bring a unique pleasure to little Joad.

On that day, in front of many helpless and complaining businessmen, Weber did not say a word about the debt problem, but angrily denounced the lending atmosphere in the Principality of Bain; He severely criticized unscrupulous lenders for releasing large amounts of debt for the purpose of huge compensation and controlling the caravan, allowing businessmen to bear high risks without any worries.

So little Joad could feel that those eyes, which had been afraid and resentful, began to face himself one by one.

Why? The United Chamber of commerce under the banner of Duke Byrne is the largest lender in the principality!

Then Weber ordered people to move out of the debt of the church and burn these IOUS and IOUs to ashes in front of all businessmen!

With the stunned little Joad numb, the whole Bain cathedral was immediately filled with an atmosphere of joy and tears of joy

At the end of the meeting on the same day, the Byrne church officially announced to the principality that all businessmen would be relieved of their debts and arrears to the church at one time and would not be recovered; If businessmen are willing to "pay off their debts" by paying charity money, no matter how much they pay, the church will also give them a "good faith debt relief certificate" in a "ceremonial" manner.

But this is only voluntary, and the church will never force it.

As the tax official of the principality and the president of the largest Chamber of Commerce, little Joad also shook hands with the bishop with "sincere feelings", saying that he would firmly support the church's decision of "low interest debt", severely crack down on all high interest loans and curb the lending atmosphere.

Charlotte Turin, who received a large number of low-level bureaucrats, immediately came forward and praised bishop Weber for his high integrity and "spiritual guidance" for the whole principality.

In less than a month, the financial situation of Byrne church immediately improved significantly - the "sincere debt relief certificate" issued by the church became an "official certification" of "honest business"; Many businessmen who are not in debt are very willing to donate a large sum of money in exchange for this certificate, which is hung on the facade of their own shops.

The dark tide between the Joad chamber of Commerce and the bain church has just begun