Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 484 Requirements and Responses

I didn't expect the SS to mutiny at this time, pushing His Royal Highness Prince Frederick to the throne. Claude thought about it for half a day before suddenly realizing that it was his own strike to land the Legion of Thunder on the mainland of the Kingdom that delayed the action plan of the Guardian Corps and nearly a year later that he took Sterling XI to the throne. It can be seen that the SS has deep guard and suspicion about the overseas autonomous territories, even if they are not hostile, they are not friendly.

Another unexpected thing was that Sterling XI would be shot to death in the sleeping quarters, which was unexpected for all overseas autonomous territories. Generally, in a mutiny like this, the life of a king who has been dragged from his throne will be either under house arrest for the rest of his life or forced into seclusion, and his life will be guaranteed. It was truly surprising to be killed as directly as Sterling XI, who was also a monarch and the brother of his successor, Frederick I.

General Bolognick was pleased to send a congratulatory mission to the King for the first time. This time, the Special Envoy was not Colonel Boquer, but several members of the Autonomous Territorial Assembly, headed by the Speaker, Sir Bennett, one-armed. General Bolognick hoped that the Overseas Autonomous Territories would return to normal relations with the Kingdom itself, and that people would be able to move freely and promote economic and trade development on both sides, as had been the case when Sterling X had previously been in office.

Claude was not optimistic about the prospects for action for the Overseas Autonomous Territories and questioned the ability of the new King, Frederick I, to control the King and stabilize the whole kingdom. The death of Sterling XI left Claude with the impression that His Royal Highness Prince Frederick of the Four could not restrain the Guardian Corps, because the consequences of doing so could easily have been left in the history books as a stain for his brother's death, which could not have been his intention.

Between March and June, messages from a number of kings were sent through the Legion of the Eagles stationed in White Deer City. After Frederick I took office, three decrees were officially issued, the first being the repeal of the seven additional tax orders of Sterling XI, which finally relieved the people of the Kingdom. The second is the apprehension and liquidation of crimes against the emerging commercial nobility of Sterling XI. The third is to encourage local counties in the Kingdom to resume production, dispatch an anti-guard corps to eliminate bandits and bandits everywhere, and vigorously rectify public order.

From the three decrees issued by Frederick I, it can be seen that the new king is still doing well and has a reputation among the people for Ming Jun. However, the return of the Mission to the Overseas Autonomous Territories in mid-July was not very good news. How can I put it, it is difficult for Wang Du's demands to be accepted by the Overseas Autonomous Territories' councils, and Claude and others are even more reluctant to accept the conditions offered by the Royal Army Department...

Sir Bennett recounted the journey of the King, and in his words it could be concluded that the new Frederick I was actually a puppet monarch, and that the real power of the kingdom was the power of the old aristocratic family. Whether their demands appear to be disproportionate to the legislators of the overseas autonomous territories or whether the overseas autonomous territories are viewed from an old perspective.

The first requirement to remove the designation of overseas autonomous territories and to restore the designation of overseas territories is acceptable. Next, however, they called for the dissolution of the Autonomous Communities' Councils, the restoration of the Governor's Governorship, and the dispatch of Governors and Governors by the King to exercise jurisdiction over the Territories, which would be strongly opposed by all members of the Autonomous Territories' Councils, who were unwilling to surrender their rights.

The second demand, the restoration of taxes and contributions levied by overseas jurisdictions on Wangdu, shows that the adults of Wangdu continue to view overseas autonomous territories in an old way. Since their proposed taxes and contributions amount to only 500,000 gold kroons per year, they are not burdensome and fully acceptable for the tax revenues of nearly 2 million gold kroons per year for the overseas self-governing territories today. However, it would be excessive to require overseas autonomous territories to hand over 70% of their mineral resources free of charge each year.

The third requirement was directed at autonomous territorial zones, which the kings believed were over and could be dismantled. It also called for the reduction of the strength of the Legion of Thunder and the Rock Legion, the conversion of the Legion into a division, the retention of the names of the Legion of Thunder and the Rock Legion, the reduction of the strength by half and the restoration of command of the two restructured divisions to the Royal Army Department.

The fourth requirement concerns the ocean cruise fleet, which Wang has requested to be placed under the jurisdiction of the Royal Navy, renamed the White Whale Fleet, which is seconded by the Royal Navy, but allows half of the crew of the ocean cruise fleet to be decommissioned and a separate overseas territorial cruise sub-fleet formed by the Overseas Autonomous Territories. To be perfectly clear, this is an attempt to nationalize the cruise fleet free of charge.

Finally, there is a demand that the autonomous territorial military region is also targeted, with the King demanding that the autonomous territorial military region dedicate the craft and drawings of the new rifle to the Kingdom. Last year's battle between the Legion of Thunder and the Legion of Red Dragons has made the kingdom's old-fashioned aristocratic family clearly aware of the sharpness of the new rifle. The idea of hitting this new rifle has been around for some time, except at that time the relationship between the two sides was very delicate and non-adversarial, because they were afraid to piss off the Thunder Legion, and they had to be patient.

To a certain extent, the old brand of aristocracy and the emerging business aristocracy share the same characteristic: greed. The only thing that's better than emerging business aristocracy is that they know how to do things differently than emerging business aristocracy. They will restore production in the kingdom itself, reorganize security, stabilize the kingdom and advance commercial development.

However, with regard to the overseas autonomous territories, they still have the old view that the overseas autonomous territories are regarded as an input point to the Kingdom's own resources, and maintain a repressive and predatory attitude towards the economic development of the overseas autonomous territories. As can be seen from their first two demands, the old-fashioned aristocratic forces want everything in the Overseas Autonomous Territories to return to the way it was before the colonial war, and they hate all new changes and developments in the Overseas Autonomous Territories that are beyond their control.

Sir Bennett said that Wangdu had told them that if the overseas autonomous leaders acceded to those demands, His Majesty could pardon the crime of landing overseas self-governing soldiers on the mainland of the Kingdom to rob military workers and civilian machinery and equipment, pardon the crime of organizing their own parliaments and pardon them for declaring autonomy without authorization.

As for the five generals of the theatre and the officers and soldiers of the two regiments, their achievements in the colonial war will be reconfirmed by the Royal Ministry of the Army and personally rewarded by His Majesty the King. Like General Claude and General Bolognick, there is great certainty that he will be promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Kingdom and given the title of Seal, as will General Scully, General Bitchlin and General Albert...

Claude's mute laughter is tempting, but unfortunately the principal money is not enough to impress the higher echelons of the Autonomous Territory. Don't look at General Bolognick, wanting to be loyal to the kingdom, but hearing Sir Bennett repeat the demands of the old noble family forces, his face turned iron and blue, he had to put a pen on his face and I disagreed with the words.

“Too much deception!” General Albert jumped out for the first time: “What do the Big Men of Wang Du treat our Autonomous Territory as? A stray dog begging for his tail? Why let us reduce the strength of two regiments, our two regiments are obviously stronger than they are, and the reduction should also be the reduction of those regiments that they do not see as useful..."

“By the way, I forgot to say.” Sir Bennett remembered: “When we returned from the Corps of Envoys, we heard that the Guardian Corps was expanding the size of a division into a large corps of four divisions, with a total force equivalent to two regular main field corps...”

The Guardianship Corps originally had three division sizes, leaving a division to guard Wang Du during the outing war. It is now expanded into four divisions, with a combined strength of more than 100,000 troops, which is the sum of the forces of the Thunder Corps and the Rock Corps. I wonder if there will be another guard regiment or something in the future, so I can go out and fight with one or two enemies.

General Skerry looked up curiously and asked: "Didn't you say that Sterling XI starved even the rats that had ravaged the treasury? Where did the Guardian Corps get the money to expand? ”

Sir Bennett lamented: "It was too sudden for the Guardians to start a mutiny, which no one could have predicted. The mutiny was accompanied by the blockade of the entire King's capital by the forces of the Guardian Corps and the capture of none of the members of the emerging commercial aristocracy following Sterling XI. Upon arrival in Wang Du, our mission heard rumours that the new king had reportedly sent people to raid the homes of the noble members of these emerging businesses, copying nearly tens of millions of gold kroner.

That is why the new King issued those three decrees, exempting the people of the Kingdom from the seven types of taxes levied, and relieving the people of the Kingdom of their burden. On the day the decree was issued, the people of Wang Du cheered in the streets, thanking Frederie I for his grace and mercy. In fact, the unprofessional wealth that the Guardian Corps has grabbed from those emerging commercial aristocracy forces has saved enough money to sustain the new king for three years. In three years' time, the Kingdom's economy should return to normal. ”

“How many members of the emerging business aristocracy have been arrested?” General Scully asked.

Sir Bennett shook his head: “I don't know. There must be hundreds of them. The newspapers I read in Wangdu said that there were forty or fifty people who were hanged because of the great evil, and their subordinates were sentenced by their families to hard work in the labour camps. ”

General Skerry thought, "It's not just tens of millions of gold kroner, like the last envoy we sent, crying for forgiveness after we captured them, willing to ransom 230,000 gold kroner for their return to the kingdom itself. If the sentenced members of the emerging business aristocracy all have the homes of these kingdoms envoys, then our new king should say he made a fortune this time..."

General Bolognick filmed the table angrily, interrupting what General Skerry and Sir Bennett were discussing, how much money did the new king get for copying the homes of the emerging business aristocrats: “What nonsense are you talking about? What do you really think about these requirements proposed by the king? I affirm in advance that I am resolutely opposed to what they see as our war zone, which is the new rifle, and that we will not be able to respond to their demands! Claude, what do you think? ”

What do I think? Claude shrugged, nothing to say, just refuse. Wangdu's old-fashioned aristocratic family power had just taken control of the kingdom and had to forget about it. He made so many demanding demands on overseas autonomous leaders. Do you really think you can eat overseas autonomous territories? Needless to say, the first and second request cannot be agreed to by the Autonomous Territorial Assembly. Now that the senators are in charge, who would like two more mother-in-laws on their heads to serve themselves.

Not to mention the restoration of the Governor's authority, which is the requirement for the Overseas Territories to surrender 70% of their mineral resources free of charge every year, will be firmly resisted by all Members of Parliament. The reason is simple, this is to pay out of their pockets, who would be happy to distribute their earnings to Wang 70% of the time each year for nothing, and then take their own little heads. Those who are most loyal to the country will also think at this moment, whether it is worth doing so...

As for the reduction of the forces of the Thunder Corps and the Rock Corps to two divisions, and the requirement to place the cruise fleet in the realm of the Royal Navy, Claude would like to know why. Who can be offended by the Guardian Corps's success in electing Frederick I and expanding it into a large regiment, the Thunder Corps and the Rock Corps guarding overseas territories, not losing soil, and adding that colony to the kingdom?

The other ocean cruise fleet, which was a trophy for both regiments, was not originally under the jurisdiction of the Royal Navy. The war zone restructured this captured joint fleet into an ocean cruise fleet responsible for guarding the territorial waters of the war zone, and invested a great deal of money to become an army. As a result, Wang now wants to return to the country without having to pay for a penny. Perhaps it also contains the meaning of limiting the ability of overseas autonomous territories to transport oceans directly to the mainland of the Kingdom, which is a daydream.

Finally, they also came up with the idea of a new type of rifle, which was the root of the life of the overseas autonomous chiefs, not to mention the five generals, members of parliament, who were mostly opposed to handing over the manufacturing process and drawings of the new type of rifle to Wangdu. No one would want to see the enemies of the overseas autonomous territories face their own forces with new rifles, and regret would be too late.

In the case of the bomb thrower, Claude transferred his production licence and manufacturing process to the old-fashioned aristocratic family forces, which resulted in the countries of the Farea continent being equipped to replicate research and throw bombs. The Kingdom of Hicks dropped a bomb on two regiments in the theatre, falling short of hand and causing heavy casualties. No one wants to go through this again.

Claude doesn't care much about the intelligence leak of the new rifle, because the real key to the new rifle is the bullet, and the key to the bullet is the powder that Mrs. Sonia invented. He kept the powder formula strictly confidential, handmade by his sister Anna, a student in the lab. One stab at a time is enough to consume ten and a half days of bullet production, and the powder used in each bullet is just a tiny dot of nasal shit.

Without gunpowder, the bullet would be mute, and a new rifle with a mute bullet would not work as well as a spear. Claude can give the new rifle to Wangdu, but no gunpowder can. And of course, it's just in your head, because new rifles are in the hands of old noblemen, making sure that all countries on the continent know how to make new rifles.

Claude can't guarantee that intelligent people from other countries will invent something similar to gunpowder to solve the problem of bullet matte fire. If this happens, Claude can't cry, then he will eat Huang Lian in silence, can't speak of suffering. So, it's impossible to accept the power of the old aristocracy...

“How do we respond to Wang Du's request?” Sir Bennett asked that he was the head of this mission and was therefore very concerned about the issue.

Claude laughed, "Why are we responding to their request by just stating that we can agree to the terms and conditions that are left to them? This thing is like bargaining in a grocery store, they're offering prices, we're bargaining, if we can't talk about it, we can just beat each other apart..."

“Come on, let's decide, let's discuss what conditions we should offer to Wang Du.” General Bolognick decided to shoot the case.

Soon after the seven members of the Executive Committee here discussed the matter, they wrote a letter of reply to Wang Du. The letter stated that the Overseas Self-Governing Territories could restore the names of the former Territories, while retaining the two main authorities of the Overseas Self-Governing Territories, the Parliament and the Military Region. This is followed by taxes and contributions of 500,000 gold kroner per year paid to Wang Du by the overseas self-governing territories, while mineral resources can be sold to traders in the mainland of the Kingdom at a discount of 70% of the market price.

With regard to the two regiments of Overseas Autonomous Territories, the requirement was simple: military expenditures were self-financed and directly under the jurisdiction of the Autonomous Territories in order to accomplish the intention of the former Wang Sterling X. to guard the Overseas Territories. With regard to the successful settlement of the colonial war with the Kingdom of Hicks, it is hoped that the King will promptly approve the rewards and promotions lists of the two regiments, which are on file and must not be deliberately distressed.

In addition, the Ocean Cruise Fleet in the Autonomous Territorial War Zone, which is a loot of colonial warfare and now under the jurisdiction of the Autonomous Territorial Military Zone, can help the Royal Navy Department to prepare a new Ocean Fleet, but refuses to include the Ocean Cruise Fleet in the jurisdiction of the Royal Navy. There is also the new type of rifle, I didn't mention it, clearly told Wang Du's old brand aristocratic family power, don't think about this new type of rifle...

“What if they don't agree?” Sir Bennett asked.

“We can't rely on the mainland side of the kingdom right now. At best, they don't give us rewards and promotions. What does that have to do with us? Our generals have long been accustomed to the injustice that kings do to us, and they would be really surprised if they agreed to me. Will the sun rise from the west in the future..." Claude gave an understated answer.

Unexpectedly, Claude, this reply was sent to the Queen of Kings as if it were a stone's throw and no response could be heard. Admiral Hadro, the leader of the Legion of the Lizards stationed in White Deer City, sent a handwritten letter to the autonomous military region, stating that the elders of Wangdu had been angry after reading the reply letter from the overseas autonomous leaders, cursing the overseas autonomous territories as treason, waiting for the kingdom to regain its energy to conscript the first overseas autonomous territories...