Black Iron’s Glory

Chapter 499: Conversations on the Train

“... everything you see, teacher, is a change in the development of overseas autonomous territories over the years. Compared to the kingdom itself, this is a vibrant land. We just need to guide, distribute the labor income fairly, so hard working people naturally bury themselves and make their lives happier and more fulfilling..."

Claude herself went to the port of Corbichous to greet Countess Maria, who was ill on her half-month journey by sea and needed to rest for a few more days in the port of Corbichous, so Claude arrived at her hotel in order to do her teacher-student friendship.

After another three days of rest, Mrs. Maria arrived in Ancano town in a carriage accompanied by Claude, entered the train station and got into a special compartment arranged for her by Claude. Mrs. Maria was surprised by the scenery along the way, and she felt it was more prosperous than the towns surrounding the King. Especially trains, which she had never heard of, so she was curious to ask Claude, who of course had to behave modestly.

This time, Mrs. Maria came to the Overseas Autonomous Territories as Frederick I's Special Envoy, accompanied by her eldest son, Heltinger, in the uniform of a captain of the Guardian Corps, accompanied by a revolver. Just before entering the car, his revolver was confiscated by the big man, the big man didn't even have the courage to defend himself. He nicely removed the holster and handed it over to the big man.

The scene was seen by Mrs. Maria, who did not say anything but sighed deeply. Compared to Claude, who was a lot older, she just thought her eldest son was so uncontroversial. If I could have been more comfortable with disciplining my children, my son might have been more comfortable. Otherwise, if he succeeds in marrying Claude's sister Anna, then now he doesn't have to tire himself out of running...

During the two days and three nights of their trip to Langhu City, Claude and Mrs. Maria had a frank exchange of views on the subject of relations between the Kingdom and the Overseas Autonomous Territories, while also exploring the reasons why the Kingdom had come to this point. Claude made it clear to Mrs. Maria that overseas territories were inevitable paths towards autonomy, and even without this colonial war waged by the Kingdom of Hicks, overseas territories would eventually become autonomous territories.

Claude believed that autonomy was not independence and that His Majesty had absolutely no reason to worry about it. After the end of the war in the eastern part of the country, the Kingdom urgently needed blood transfusions to restore its economy, and the newly occupied territories were in ruins. The Kingdom could only turn the target of the squeeze to overseas territorial jurisdiction. At that time, the people of the Overseas Territories had long been overwhelmed by the Kingdom's economic restrictions on the Overseas Territories and its scissor-like pelagic trade policy, cultivating a strong sense of resistance. The businessmen of mining and business associations, as well as many powerful local families, were the most desirable to overthrow the Territory's war zones and kingdoms.

Without this colonial war waged by the Kingdom of Hicks, it may not be long before the Overseas Territories themselves start a riot, which may be more costly for the Kingdom. This colonial war has stabilized the Rangers in the Overseas Territories and has transformed the Rangers into local regiments in the Overseas Territories, joining them more closely with the local forces in the Territories because of the Kingdom's own inability to support the wars in the Overseas Territories. The establishment of theatre was more like untying a cord tied to the neck of an overseas territorial authority.

In order to win the colonial war, the theatre could only vigorously develop the economy of the Overseas Territories without the support of the Kingdom. The battle is about logistics, and in order to tap into the potential of war and expand its troop base, the immediate territorial battlefield can only attack the kingdom with ideas. At the time, the two kings of the Kingdom contested each other and the political instability gave them the opportunity to migrate vigorously from the mainland of the Kingdom. The relocation of the families and relatives of more than two million two regimental generals to the Overseas Direct Administration has made up for the lack of replenishment in the Direct Administration theatre.

Everything that the Overseas Autonomous Territories are now doing is being painstakingly and painstakingly developed by the immigrants of the Kingdom, who helped the Overseas Territories conquer the victory of the Hicks Kingdom over the colonial war. After wreaking havoc and smoking around the kingdom, Sterling XI couldn't wait to see the Overseas Territories as a piece of fat. He sent a special envoy with a knife to cut meat and eventually aroused resentment and anger throughout the Overseas Territories. With the help of businessmen and local dignitaries, the direct administration became self-governing.

Claude did not deny the decisive role played by the zone of direct jurisdiction in the process of self-government, but it was also forced by the Kingdom. Sterling XI's injustice and harsh anger at the five generals who fought with blood and the two regimental generals provoked all the officers and soldiers who had made Khan Ma Kung Fu work for the country's expansionist soil. That was also why there was no objection to the renaming of the direct territorial war zone as an autonomous territorial military region. All the regimental generals regarded themselves as part of the autonomous territory, which had become their new homeland.

It can be said that the autonomy of the Overseas Territories is the unanimous aspiration of all the immigrants of the kingdoms living here, and no one wants the Autonomous Territories to return again to the pre-colonial war situation. At that time, it was a desolate place, and the governor and governor sent by the kingdom thought it was a place of exile, only to save money, and the people of all industries were in distress. Now, this is a hopeful hot soil, a happy new home for all the people of the Overseas Autonomous Territories.

Claude pointed out to Mrs. Maria that the biggest difference between the kingdom itself, or Frederick I, and the Overseas Autonomous Territories, was the difference in cognition, which he regarded as treason. Autonomy was not independence, nor were the people of the Overseas Autonomous Territories rebellious to the Kingdom. They also remember themselves as immigrants to the Kingdom of Auvellas, and were equally homesick and willing to help the Kingdom within its means. Unless the demands of the kingdom itself are truly outrageous, as was the case with the envoy of the kingdom who was deported last time, his demands are simply unthinkable, which is the basis for cutting off the economic development of the overseas autonomous territories...

Of course, Mrs. Maria would not agree with Claude that the country was in a difficult position and that if the overseas autonomous leaders truly believed that they were still the people of the Kingdom of Auvellas, they should abandon their previous suspicions and do their utmost to help the kingdom defend itself against foreign enemies, instead of taking the opportunity to coerce the kingdom into putting forward conditions of self-government that would amount to treason.

Claude can only laugh bitterly, and that's what makes the buttocks different. He could only tell Mrs. Maria that the Overseas Autonomous Territories had fulfilled their obligations and obligations to the Kingdom. Needless to say, 1 million gold kroner worth of food and agricultural supplies, 200,000 Obash 3 type firearms, 1,000 vintage front-loaded light infantry field artillery, and 20,000 medium and heavy projectiles and their 1,000 throwing devices each. The total value of nearly 3 million gold kroner, all provided free of charge, exceeds all the support provided by the Kingdom itself to the war zones of the Territories during the colonial war.

Claude thought he could explain something to Mrs. Maria privately, and he gave Mrs. Maria an an analysis of the item. Until the Overseas Territories have developed, for example, the Kingdom will receive only 300,000 gold kroner in taxes and 100,000 gold kroner in contributions from the entire Overseas Territories, which are the total proceeds from the Treasury and the Royal Sterling Treasury. In addition to this, distant-water commercial trade between the two continents can bring indirect taxes to the Kingdom.

The truth of the matter is cruel. The Kingdom regards the entire overseas territorial jurisdiction as the source of the resources that plunder wealth. Much of the proceeds are earned by the old noble families of the Kingdom. The profits from the remainder of the ocean commercial trade are also monopolized by the emerging commercial nobility forces of the Kingdom. The benefits available to the Kingdom are small, but the large heads have long been divided up and the names borne by the Kingdom.

To give a very simple example, 70 per cent of the mineral resources previously produced by overseas jurisdictions were bought back to the mainland of the Kingdom at very low prices and distributed to five military industries. Let us not forget that these five military industries are in the hands of the old noble families, who receive these mineral resources almost free of charge, but the arms and armaments produced are paid for by the Kingdom, and most of the proceeds go to the old noble families. Once in and out, each year these old aristocratic families earn more than one million gold kroner...

Those emerging business aristocrats are also smart enough to share a glass of mineral resources from overseas territories, but to monopolize commercial trade between the two continents. They earned no less than mineral resources by selling commodities produced locally in the Kingdom to overseas jurisdictions at high prices and by buying specialty commodities at low prices.

Old-fashioned aristocratic power was blinded by these commercial interests, which led to a power struggle between the two by limiting the pelagic commercial trade monopoly of emerging commercial aristocrats with commercial monopolies and pricing rights in local counties.

Claude has been of the view that the free trade in commerce promoted by the so-called emerging business aristocrats is in fact simply an attempt to break the commercial monopoly and pricing rights of the old-fashioned aristocratic power over local counties throughout the kingdom. In fact, they are also pursuing the monopoly gains of distant-water commercial trade, which leads them to conclude from their use of pricing rights for goods in distant-water commercial trade that nothing is good. The kingdom's descent to the present has much to do with the struggle for rights sparked by these two aristocratic factions.

If Grand Prince Hansburg succeeds successfully, it would be to the detriment of the old noble family interests, and the Kingdom of Auveras remains the eastern dominant power of the Farea continent. It's just that the emerging commercial aristocratic forces pushed Prince Widreck to compete for the throne for their own benefit. With the old aristocratic family forces standing idly by, Prince Hansburg ran off negatively and opened the prelude to the Kingdom's civil war, which caused the Kingdom the most trauma...

The problem with Grand Prince Hansburg was excessive arrogance, and it was not clear who the main enemy was until the army attacked the kingdom itself. It is believed that the whole kingdom can be cleaned up by the power at its disposal and that the original intention of weakening the power of the old noble family remains unchanged. So after the surprise attack on the Ibnister Plains to occupy Wang Du, the forces of the old noble family and the emerging commercial nobility were wiped out. Ultimately, the old aristocratic family forces were forced to take the side of Prince Widreck, laying the foundation for his failure in the kingdom itself.

The result of the battle between the forces of the old aristocratic family was two defeats, the rubble of the kingdom itself and the hatred of Prince Hansburg to withdraw his troops to the new occupied territories after his defeat, resulting in an assassination that ended on the stage of the kingdom's history. But the winning old-fashioned aristocratic power is also uncomfortable, because it is in their interests that the civil war in this kingdom is damaged. After Prince Widreck of Fisherman Delight became Sterling XI, he reused the men and women of the emerging commercial aristocracy and set aside the old noble family forces that pushed him to power.

Soon these old-fashioned aristocratic forces regretted that Sterling XI was not Ming Jun and was evolving into a tyrant. Those emerging business aristocrats he reused were more like mad dogs, and in order to make up for the economic losses they suffered during the civil war in the Kingdom, they used the name given to them by Sterling XI to liquidate and hold ambassadors accountable to capture the so-called feuds and supporters of the Great Prince in various counties throughout the Kingdom, leaving the people of the Kingdom homeland in chaos, with displaced people and bandits everywhere.

So these old-fashioned aristocratic family forces decided to disturb anyway and start a mutiny to elect Frederick I as the new king of the kingdom of Auvellas. Despite a one-year delay in transporting displaced persons due to robbery of machinery and equipment from the mainland of the kingdom by the overseas autonomous military districts, the old noble family forces used Sterling XI's father-in-law to drag them into the Red Dragon Corps of the Royal Marshal, Duke of Siegfried, to test the strength of the Legion of Thunder in the lower autonomous military districts and draw incomparable conclusions during this period.

Why, after the advent of Frederick I, did the Overseas Autonomous Territories send missions to congratulate them on their readiness to improve relations with the Kingdom, which would still be treated cold by kings? The reason is simple, the old aristocratic family forces that now hold the kingdom power still regard overseas autonomous leaders as treason. They want overseas autonomous leaders to return to the time when they wanted to take it away. Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents. For the old aristocratic family forces, they cannot give up such a large amount of wealth that would not have belonged to them...

Claude asked Mrs. Maria if the demands of the Overseas Autonomous Territories were excessive. The Kingdom's mainland is a quiet ocean from the Overseas Autonomous Territories. It will only take half a month to sail safely by boat. In such circumstances, certain independent positions in the areas of administrative initiatives, personnel promotion, fiscal taxation, economic and financial affairs and military forces are maintained in order to effectively achieve better and faster development of the Overseas Autonomous Territories as a whole. Rather than obtaining the Kingdom's approval and approval, some initiatives that could help overseas autonomous territories were prolonged indefinitely.

So the last time the deported envoy of the kingdom, the proposed kingdom had the power to approve and verify the policies of the overseas autonomous territories, it was purely a struggle, and it was nothing more than the old aristocratic power of the kingdom playing word games. If the Overseas Autonomous Territories agreed, there was no difference between autonomy and direct jurisdiction.

There is also the right of goods produced by that overseas autonomous territory to be admitted to the mainland of the Kingdom for trading, and there is no difference between that and that. As long as commercial exclusivity and pricing is in the hands of the old aristocrats and commercial aristocrats in the counties of the mainland of the Kingdom, it is up to them to sell most of the commodities produced by the overseas autonomous territories once they have been transported to the mainland of the Kingdom. The Special Envoy of the Kingdom also proposed to work with the Kingdom's comptoirs and powerful local families, which would be nothing more than for the overseas self-governing leaders to behave as processors.

Perhaps they believe that our Overseas Autonomous Territories should be grateful to Dade for these two conditions of grace, which is why the lions have spoken out, demanding that our Overseas Autonomous Territories provide free agricultural supplies such as food worth 3 million gold kroner to the mainland of the Kingdom this year and next year, mineral resources desperately needed in the mainland of the Kingdom of 5 million gold kroner, and pay taxes and contributions of 1.5 million gold kroner a year to the Kingdom.

Claude said he sometimes wondered, "What do they regard as the emigrants of nearly seven million overseas autonomous territories?" Slaves who live and die in their hands?

Precisely because nearly seven million overseas self-governing Territories emigrated to consider themselves citizens of the Kingdom of Orvilas, the overseas self-governing Territories were willing to pay the Kingdom 400,000 gold each year in taxes and contributions, recognizing that the Kingdom of Orvilas was a sovereign country of overseas self-government, in keeping with the Kingdom's diplomatic and military unity, and that the enemies of the Kingdom were the enemies of the overseas self-governing territories, which did nothing to the detriment of the Kingdom and the Sterling Crown.

Is it just too much that overseas self-governing territories are reluctant to continue to provide free mineral resources to the old-fashioned aristocratic families, demanding that they offer reasonable prices? Miners in the overseas autonomous territories are not slaves, they also feed their families, and they deserve a fair wage for their work and contributions. Why, then, should these old-fashioned aristocratic powers of the kingdom take possession of the mineral resources of overseas autonomous territories for nothing, let alone work for the kingdom and produce armaments for the kingdom? Do they have to pay for the kingdom differently in the weapons and equipment they produce?

By the way, they also wanted the Autonomous Territories to provide them with 200,000 new rifles free of charge, loaded with bullets, and production drawings to resist invasion by foreign enemies. So if the Autonomous Territories do not provide them, will they lay the responsibility for the successive defeats of the Kingdom on the Autonomous Territories?

Do they understand what 200,000 new rifles mean? That was a huge sum of nearly five million gold kroner, a pot of iron broken down by the autonomous military region, and the sale of all the battlefield seizures of the colonial war brought together two regiments of new rifle gear to enhance the combat power of two regiments under the autonomous territory, which still owes the bank two million gold kroner...

They're fine. If they move their mouth, they want to take it all. Why? Perhaps in their eyes, the two regiments in the Overseas Autonomous Territories are not the army of the Kingdom of Ovillas at all, so they crowd out the Autonomous Territories without looking at them, huh...

Which new rifle is really that expensive? Mrs. Maria was a little stunned. Claude's analysis of the reasons why the kingdom had fallen to its present level as a bystander had been a huge shock to her original position, and suddenly she felt that Claude's words made sense and that the kingdom did owe much to the Overseas Autonomous Territories.

“Actually, I'm here to ask you to send troops to save the kingdom in distress..." Mrs. Maria said.