Chapter 997

"I agree that looting of the church must not be tolerated."

In the lounge behind the red blood Castle palace hall, Dalton kand in front of the round table was the first to express his attitude after listening to Loren's narration.

Charlotte frowned slightly, obviously dissatisfied with Lauren's rude approach.

But this time she didn't say anything - after eboden's war, the countess was no longer surprised by the claims of a dark haired wizard.

"But, after all, it's the church." Charles glenwell, the Duchy's governor, was still worried and couldn't help but say, "if you offend them too much, I'm afraid..."

"I'm afraid of what?" the grey pupil boy holding his arm and standing by the door suddenly interrupted him and said coldly: "instigating religious riots, excluding Bain and the Turin family, non violence and non cooperation... What else?"

"Will Lord Lorraine and Byrne today still be afraid of these?"

There was a subtle change in their expressions, which made the room quiet for a while.

Yes, if what Byrne did not fear most after the reconstruction of the principality church, it was the threat from the Holy Cross itself.

Although the Byrne church under bishop Weber refused to accept the control of the Byrne court, it also ignored many instructions of the imperial church, always maintained absolute neutrality and did not interfere with the secular world.

Without the support of the local church, the church in the imperial capital could not exert any influence on Bain thousands of miles away.

Of course, it is possible if the church really does at all costs - but after Weber's "church reform", the whole Bain church lost its power to manage and control the parish at the cost of absolute freedom.

Charlotte and the round table parliament took over the whole management and even the population and land they controlled; What is left to the church is only the local churches themselves and a small donation to maintain daily expenses.

This is also in line with the original idea of little priest Weber - we should not bind believers with churches, but let believers voluntarily choose the church to pray.

Even if the church could really be cruel and beat Weber, who was pushed to power by themselves, and put a new bishop on the top, it could not cause many waves immediately, because he had to take back the rule of the whole principality from Charlotte first.

And Charlotte is absolutely impossible to hand it in.

"That's what they say, but, after all, it's a church!" Charles still couldn't relax: "even if they don't have any action, they can secretly encourage the nobles in the imperial capital and saxophone..."

"If that's the case, the first one to stand up and beat them down is emperor Conrad!"

With a cold hum, Charlotte glanced across her eyes and made the staring black haired wizard shiver: "at present, just after the battle of eboden, our emperor has long been unable to stand the infidelity of the nobles, and is thinking that there is no suitable excuse to punish them."

"Am I right, Duke?"

With a cold hum, the countess asked angrily.

What else can Loren, with a smile on his face, say except nodding?

"But the church has a lot of resources. If they want to deal with the enemy, they have enough means - for example, against wizards." Dalton kand said in a deep voice:

"Eboden and corona are gone."

Charlotte looked sideways.

But Loren understood something: "mentor Dalton, have you got the information?"

The black wizard who didn't like nonsense just nodded slightly.

Everyone around the round table immediately concentrated.

"The... Informant in the imperial capital sent a message. After the battle of eboden, the church united with the nobility and passed many administrative orders against wizards."

Dalton said it vaguely, and of course Loren knew it; The so-called "informants" are probably the watchmen who had been "instigated" by Dalton before Conrad was incorporated.

Although it is not always possible to "wake up" them in order to prevent them from being detected by Connaught, at least it is safer to transmit this semi public intelligence.

"Property supervision, identity registration and freedom of movement are limited. At the same time, the parliament of the Empire has passed a bill to enlist two-thirds of the Wizards in the imperial capital into the army and bring them into the baggage establishment."

Dalton said expressionless, "nominally, it requires wizards to join the army and accept the imperial 'full mobilization order'; in fact, it is to facilitate control, blackmail and forcibly collect their property."

"How can they do that?!" Lucian's expression was very incredible: "the former cabinet... I mean, master elbird, the Royal wizard consultant, didn't resist?"

"He can, but he can't." after a little thought, Charlotte immediately understood the key: "because the full mobilization order of the empire is aimed at everyone."

"The Wizards... Especially the alchemists guild in the imperial capital, are known to be rich because of their connection with various chambers of Commerce." Loren whispered:

"The imperial capital is the territory of the church. It's very easy for them to arouse people's jealousy of wizards."

Of course, there is another reason, that is, Conrad also needs a lot of money to maintain his 200000 Legion and three times the cost of logistics troops.

Wizards have money. Wizards can act as engineers on the battlefield. Attacking wizards can calm the anger of nobles and churches, and get more financial and material support from them... So why not?

Without eboden, the "city of wizards", and the leader of the most powerful wizard family and wizard tower, the Wizards in the Empire are scattered. No matter who can step on it.

Bearing the envy of civilians and the envy of aristocrats, once they try to resist, they will end up being regarded as "Azores elf spies" and "imperial traitors", and suffer the most ruthless blow.

"As a royal wizard consultant, master elbird certainly can't intervene at this time." the black haired wizard whispered with his mouth raised:

"But we can."

Charlotte's eyes moved slightly: "how?"

"It's very simple. Among the eboden wizards who came back with me, there are two elder wizard tower - one is the new heir, and the other... Er, the other is still in a coma." shrugged, Loren smiled:

"Two elders, including mentor Dalton, master Halin van ashamay... Twelve elders, there are four in the red blood castle! We can take advantage of this advantage to rebuild the nine pointed star wizard tower in the red blood castle!"

People's eyes involuntarily gathered, thinking or exchanging eyes.

"It will be a signal for wizards from all over the Empire to gather to Byrne." Dalton said coldly:

"But is it really wise... When you have become a thorn in the eye of the Empire?"

"In the words of our dear highness Brandon, they can't hate me more anyway."

The black haired wizard shrugged: "there are many reasons for me, not this one."

"But if we can build a center of the wizard world in Byrne... With reference to how eboden rose, I don't need to describe it more?"

"There are still three months before the end of winter. This is our last chance to accumulate strength - until the beginning of next spring, the real battle of the Empire will start. If we can't win at that time, it depends on how many cards we have in our hands!"

In the voice of impassioned words, the people in front of the round table either nodded or looked at each other.

And after this moment of silence

"Please let go of the threat of the church and your great plan first;"

With a low hum, little Yoder, President of the United Chamber of Commerce and treasurer of the principality, said coldly, "because there is a more fatal problem right now, my Duke."

"What's the problem?"

"The problem... The problem is that there is no money!" he suddenly stood up, and little Joad angrily smashed a thick stack of account books on the table: "your speed of spending money is far from what my humble servant can catch up with!"

No, no money?

Looking at little Joad, the black haired wizard smiled awkwardly: "how can I have no money? I remember me..."

"The construction of new legions, the research and development of New Alchemy weapons, the reform of the principality system... And the 100000 legions gathered outside the red blood castle city, and the next unprecedented feast!" little Yod sneered: "how much money do you think Byrne can afford to let you and your adults squander?"

"As far as I know, there should be a lot of savings on the bill of the United Chamber of Commerce, and the Treasury of red blood castle is also very abundant." Charles frowned slightly. He is the head of the principality. He still knows these better: "it's just to support the next expenses. In theory, there should be no problem."

"You're right, in theory!"

Little Joad sneered:

"But unfortunately, first of all, the money on the bill of the chamber of commerce can't be moved at all - we can maintain normal expenses now, that is to make the businessmen and nobles in the country believe that we have money and there is plenty of money at all times; once there is any change in these basic savings, it will be a disaster in an instant!"

"Secondly, most of the savings, whether in the principality's coffers or the chamber of Commerce, are mainly gold and silver - spending this money is of no use except to raise prices, because food and materials will not appear out of thin air because of the money!"

Loren and Charlotte looked at each other.

"Since the beginning of the year, the United Chamber of Commerce has had to cut down three of its five expansion plans, and four of its six new branches have to be abolished - which one is not full of hard work and which has a bright future; no, none! My heart is breaking!"

Biting his teeth, little Joad looked very painful: "when you asked me to be a treasurer, I thought my biggest dilemma was to unify the financial power of the principality; once the financial power was unified, maintaining military spending became a big trouble!"

"I tried my best to scrape up enough military spending; as a result, I had to move the money to the research and development of the floating city; it was not easy until the floating city was built, and Byrne had to choose a new bishop!"

"After the election of the new bishop, there will be the battle of eboden, the general mobilization and the suppression of the rebellion against sakran..." he took a breath of air conditioning, and little Yod stared at the dark haired Wizard:

"After carefully considering my own practical ability and your great ideal, I can only say - if you continue like this, I'm afraid I have no second choice but to resign from you!"

"Is it... So serious?"

Lauren's expression was a little embarrassed.

"It's very serious. It's not too much to call it the edge of life and death." little Joad nodded seriously: "if you continue like this, I'm afraid it's difficult to maintain the balance of expenditure."

"With Byrne's current financial resources, how long can it last?"

"If you count the support for his highness Brandon's East Saxony rebellion... One year at most."

"One year... Isn't there still some time? Why do you say the edge of life and death?"

"I'm talking about myself!" cried Little Josephus.

"..." Loren Turin.

With a sigh, little Joad looked at Lauren with a tired face: "in short, if you don't plan to give up any of the next plans, you should do at least three things."

"First, before the first batch of wheat is harvested next year, the principality's army must not send out the whole army; second, some rumors can be released about the reconstruction of the wizard tower, but the real construction will be delayed;"

"Finally, no matter what method you use, blackmail or forced expropriation, you must strive for a batch of secret silver and precious minerals from the dwarf kingdom to reduce the development cost of New Alchemy weapons."

"In this way, at least on the surface, Bain can maintain stable expenditure and even send troops to cross-border operations."

In this case, it is basically in line with Loren's expected goal.

The coming year will be a year for Byrne to accumulate strength and observe the war situation - if the Azores are strong enough, the war may last for a long time;

But if it were just a bluff, connord would not give more achievements to Byrne and him.

"In that case, the plan of the wizard tower will slow down temporarily." nodding slightly, the black haired wizard said in a deep voice: "then next, let's convince the dwarves to see if we can achieve some offensive, and then..."

"Dong Dong Dong..."

There was a quick knock on the door. Charles, the court manager, immediately got up and looked at the black haired wizard and the countess and walked to the door.

"What's up?"

When he opened the door, Charles looked at the hurried Messenger: "I didn't tell you that the Duke is discussing important matters with your adults..."

"I'm sorry, but this is urgent news." the messenger turned his head and looked at the black haired wizard and the countess in great embarrassment: "Duke... And the count, they once said that if your excellencies Isaac Grantham and Ayn Rand arrived at the red blood castle, they would come to inform them immediately!"

"Oh, they're back?"

"No, not already." the messenger shook his head. "But they have..."

"Wedding... What wedding? Who's wedding is so grand? Is it the goose Countess during the day... I said Charlotte was getting married?!"

Before the messenger had finished speaking, Isaac's noise had reached everyone's ears.

"What, say it again? The wedding... The Duke... Was arranged long ago... Um... Um?!"

"Loren, you holy cross grandmother, come out to me. I'll devour you traitor alive!"