Law of the Devil

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(Two in One Chapter)

Chapter 195 [Erosion]

Of course, Dewey will not take these 4,000 series of rebels with him to the territory slowly with his convoy. After all, this thing is somewhat disgraceful - and of course, Dewey doesn't expect it to be hidden from anyone, especially the Regent of the Emperor. Dewey believed in his actions, and Prince Chen knew them, except that he had to grab all the capital to stand on the tiger wolf's land in the northwest. Four thousand rebels, not many, not many, are also within the tolerance of Prince Chen: His Royal Highness disparaged the entire Rollins, scattered them, and looked at the large number of Rollins “sinners” who could not be used, and could not let Dewey go to the northwest empty-handed?

Extraordinary times are very important things, this stomach weight, I believe Prince Chen still has it.

But after all, it's not something that can be put on the table. These 4,000 people are stopped by bribery. If you take these 4,000 people all the way to the northwest, some of them won't give the Regent the prince much face. It would be nice if we didn't announce this kind of thing.

With two hundred Imperial Forest Armies, the Robert Knight led a rapid march of 4,000 incoming rebels, taking no roads, turning trails and heading to the territory first. There is no need to worry about supplies along the way, there are documents from Dewey, and the local guard government will provide food along the way.

And Dewey, he's going to slow down, and before he gets to the territory, Dewey's going to do a rough tour of the whole north-west situation. A lot of things, hearing them is one thing, but seeing them for yourself, that's another.

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Mulan, the capital of Nurinhang Province, is not a big city if it is located in the middle or south of the continent. The size of more than 100,000 people can only be considered second-class at best. But in the north-west, it is already one of the most prosperous places in the province of Nurin.

This is the last big city on the Northwest Side of the road. The merchants from the south, the merchants from the northwest, will all meet here. Rare shipments from the south-east of the continent, as well as cattle and sheep or leather merchants trafficked across the desert from the north-west grasslands, also stay here.

The carriage just approached the outskirts of Mulan City, and Dewey had opened the window and looked out the window.

Northwest, for geographical reasons, there is a month-to-month wind season every year. Although the Kilimaro Mountains are a natural barrier, blocking the vast majority of winds, the annual wind season still brings a lot of sand and dust from the desert on that side of the mountain.

Wind and sand, that's the northwest feature. So none of the buildings here are too tall, like the high-rise mansions of Tidu, or the towers that move more than a dozen meters high, which is absolutely not there.

Mulan City as a whole, the tallest building, is the Mulan City Wall. The 12-metre high wall is perfectly in line with the imperial military system.

And because of the low buildings that are common, this city, with just over 100,000 inhabitants, is not small.

Because the Robert knights have gone light with 4,000 rebels, and those who lead the way in front of the cavalry have been replaced by the chief of the 500 Royal Forest Army, who escorts Dewey to the northwest. Although he is only a small officer of the 500 cavalry, the status of the Royal Forest Army is naturally different.

South of Mulan City, the largest marketplace here, originally a town outside the city, has evolved into the largest trading place for business groups from north to south. As soon as Dewey's convoy passed here, the noisy atmosphere was felt.

As the road passed, Dewey looked at the market not far away, crowded with heads, shoulder to shoulder, the Northwest Fae with flat-nosed curly hair in sheepskin coats, as well as merchants from all over the empire, horseback riding, cattle huddling, and shops with all kinds of leather goods... disturbing and noisy.

But Dewey aimed at the merchants' money bags.

“My lord, this is the largest trading place in the northwest. Although Mulan City has a small population, the annual business tax revenues are extremely objective. The land in the northwest is poor and does not produce food well. Especially this Mulan City, as the capital of the province of Nurinhang, has five times more business tax revenues per year than the agricultural tax! ”

This is a young man sitting next to Dewey in a carriage. His name was Philip, and he was recommended by Blue Sea scholars to Dewey's top 80 disciples. Twenty-eight-year-old, but still alive, looking like a teenager. His name, "Philip", should be an ancient noble name on the Roland continent, a name that was famous on the continent a thousand years before the establishment of the Roland Empire, but which had fallen into the war of reunification on the continent, the once prominent Philip family had long since ceased to exist.

A civilian of Philip origin, a descendant of a civilian family south of the capital city, this man received immediate attention from Dewey after a few brief contacts, out of 80 disciples recommended by Blue Sea scholars. Good learning, steady, rigorous, and not lacking in acute wisdom. It is a very promising fellow worker.

What makes Dewey feel even more precious is that this Philip used to come northwest with a business group when he was younger. When Philip was young, he studied the terroirs of the continent, and with the encouragement of Blue Sea scholars, the disciples under the Blue Sea Gate were extremely averse to empty talk and enthusiastic about doing business. And this Philip, when he was young, joined a business association, served as a bookkeeping apprentice, and walked a big circle in the northwest.

Originally Dewey did not expect the situation in the northwest to have eroded to that point, but that day, coming out of Sin City, he felt an unknown absurdity about the so-called temporary decree of 20 years ago!

Twenty years after the end of the war, the war zone ordinance has not been revoked? Let an army in a region take financial power over the entire territory? It even replaced the distribution of goods in the centre of the Empire. Can there also be arbitrary interference with the executive power of local governments?

This is ridiculous!

Doesn't that make you a complete warlord? No wonder the Empire has not interfered in the situation in the Northwest, in fact it is simply powerless to interfere! Old Emperor Augustine VI's unconscious and joyful work made him “win” the Northwest War without taking any effective measures against the post-Northwest War problems, but instead focusing his energies on the Southern Ocean, which would allow him to continue to show off his authority!

And the Northwest Legion, almost the emperor of the Northwest! Such a military group, which controls the Northwest, is self-sufficient in its fiscal revenues, and is increasingly tied to the center of the Empire, and even extremely excluded!

Nothing else, just to say that last time Old Raymond told Dewey, two lords in the Northwest had been kicked out by the Northwest Regiment, and one of them lost his life... how arrogant is that?!

The military and political power are in hand, who else is the Northwest Army afraid of?!

Upon learning these things, Dewey immediately approached Philip, a Blue Sea Gate disciple familiar with the Northwest, and along the way, Philip stayed in Dewey's carriage and Dewey described what he knew about the Northwest. The more Dewey hears the back, the more frightened he is! There was some regret in my heart that I didn't talk to this Philip sooner.

“The Governor's Office in Nurinhang Province is located in Mulan City. The incumbent Governor is Bohan, the Baron, a Northerner, who also has a little background. He was the treasurer of a province in the South and later ascended to the top of his political career, having worked in the Treasury Department in Didu. I have no doubt that this guy is a little brilliant, and that putting him in the northwest in the center of the Empire means that the central control of the northwest army in the center of the Empire has raised some alarm, and this Baron Bohan was sent to restore central authority. He's done quite well over the years. But after all, this place in the northwest is not the south. He is a good financier and a good administrator, but he is a little short on the military. So when faced with the Northwest Army, his waist rod couldn't harden. And the Northwest Army died against the so-called wartime ordinance of 20 years ago, according to which the Northwest Army has the power to interfere with the local finances throughout the Northwest, and every year the revenue from the local finances is divided up, not handed over to the Imperial Treasury, but handed over directly to the Northwest Army as military materiel in the theatre. Financial self-sufficiency is only one of them, and another helpless situation is that, under that temporary regulation, the commander-in-chief of the Northwest Army has the power to temporarily appoint some officers as commanders of the theatre in accordance with the needs of the war and to control the local government! The so-called 'military government’. As a result, even some local governments have been overrun by the Northwest Army. ”

Dewey's eyebrows locked: “So in the Northwest, no one can control the warlords? ”

“There are still.” Philip thought for a moment, his words were very careful, after all, that in his current position, he was just a civilian, and he didn't dare be too sharp when talking about these powerful men: "When I came to the Northwest a few years ago, I felt that the situation in the Northwest had eroded to the extreme, and I even... Well, I privately felt that if the Empire Central did not do something, I would be afraid that in less than five years, the Northwest would become a country, and here, the Empire's administrative documents, the authority was far less than that of the Northwest Army. It is a terrible thing, but over the years, it has curious to me that the situation in the north-west has eased, thanks, I must say, to Baron Bohan, the Governor of Nurin province. ”

“Oh?” Dewey caught a close eye and asked, “Tell me about Baron Bohan. ”

“To be fair, my lord, I really admire him.” Philip, the young man of the Qing show, has nothing to hide from his worship: “I even think this Baron Bohan is the finest talent in the empire in nearly two decades! When he arrived in the Northwest, the situation here was much worse than it is now! ”

Philip suddenly took a thin brochure out of his pocket and laughed, "When the teacher asked us to follow you, I was already at home, writing some of my views and perceptions of the situation in the Northwest over the years, and many of them were orders from Lord Bohan that I had recorded. If you look at it carefully, you'll find it very interesting. ”

The Northwest Army, though male and northwest, still has one of their biggest weaknesses!

Grain

The north-west is not a food-producing area, where food production is low, and each year the two north-west provinces rely on food purchases from other provinces on the continent to meet local needs. And to feed an army of nearly 200,000 people, the food needed is not enough for the Northwest Territories themselves.

Every year, therefore, military food is bought from the south of the Empire… Food becomes an important means of restraining the Northwest Army in the centre of the Empire.

And Baron Bohan, he caught it too!

One of the major weaknesses in that temporary ordinance of the year was captured by the astute Baron Bohan, that is, the ordinance stipulated that the Northwest Army could replenish the military by intercepting the fiscal revenues of the Northwest local government, but... only agricultural revenues!

“This ordinance is highly epochal, and in the era when the ordinance came into being, the Northwest Hebrew insurgency continued, and where is the business tax? Few businessmen are willing to risk their lives to do business in the Northwest, even though the northwest interracial sheep and horses are tight. The north-west was poorer then than it is now, and the vast majority of annual fiscal revenues were from agricultural taxes, and the wartime ordinances were derived on that basis. That means... after the ordinance was issued, the Northwest Army cannot interfere with the new other aspects of taxes received by the local government! This is a critical issue. ”

And Philip flipped through his pamphlet, and he turned to one of the pages, and he said, "My lord, this is my statistic, and according to the official statistics revenue of the Imperial Treasury, oh, these figures are copied from the official data published each year, and although the figures in the Official Gazette are historically moisturizing, they are also somewhat informative. ”

“Prior to Baron Bohan's assumption of office, the province's fiscal revenues were 3.8 million gold coins per year, of which the agricultural tax accounted for 2.4 million gold coins. It's a big percentage now. But look behind you, after Baron Bohan took office, in the next three years, the agricultural tax in Nuringham Province began to fall, to 2.2 million in the first year and 1.8 million in the second. And in the third year, it suddenly dropped to 1.2 million! Only half of it! What does this mean...”

Dewey's eyes flickered: "Baron Bohan wants to ‘starve to death' these Northwestern armies. ”

Philip laughed: "My lord, the word 'starving to death' is very accurate, and in fact, after Baron Bohan took office, the entire Nurin province began to lose food production! He has passed a series of executive orders… These orders are very clever, as a good administrative officer, he is much better at this than the guys in the military, who were blinded at the beginning by him, not paying attention, and as a result the food production in the northwest region has been reduced a lot by the time the decree comes into play! And grain, the biggest killer who restrains the Northwest Army, depends on buying grain from the outside every year to survive! And as food production drops, Northwest Army dependence on the center increases! This is a weakening tool, which, although somewhat…, is effective. ”

“Of course, the Northwest Army will be weakened if food production is reduced and agricultural waste is abandoned, but civilian life in the Northwest will become more difficult. Baron Bohan has done well in this regard. He has vigorously developed his business, and his annual business tax revenues have climbed, and now his revenues are higher in Nurinhang Province than they were before Baron Bohan took office. ”

“The Northwest Army, of course, is not without its own means, at least in terms of military power, which has been firmly suppressing Baron Bohan. The local guard forces in the Northwest belong to Governor Bohan in command, but in supplies… are distributed by the Northwest Army in accordance with wartime regulations. As a result, local garrisons throughout the north-west are poorly equipped and supplies are frequently delayed. There is nothing Baron Bohan can do about the low combat power of the local guards. Though he had the money, he could not afford to supplement the army on his own because it was against the imperial decree! The Northwest Army, for its part, has been very clever in keeping a close eye on Baron Bohan and, if he dares to move slightly, will report him for interference in his military affairs. However, I have reason to suspect that Governor Bohan has secretly done something, at least what I know is that the local guards in Mulan City are well equipped and routinely trained. ”

“Overall, the current situation in the Northwest is that Governor Bohan stands alone against the Northwest Army. Governor Bohan died on the grain, while the Northwest Army died on the force, on Governor Bohan. Both sides have confronted each other for several years. Overall, the Northwest Army still seems to have the upper hand. But the biggest ace in the Northwest Army was the 20-year-old war order. ”

At the end of the day, Philip couldn't help complaining: “My lord, this decree is the greatest dependence of the Northwest Army, and it is absurd to say that a 20-year-old wartime decree continues to this day. ”

“But this decree has never been lifted in the center of the Empire, has it?” Dewey sighed.

“Nice.” Philip nodded, turning to another page: "You see, this is my record, and the Northwest Army plays very strictly every spring, which has to be described as a display of force. It seems to me that if the Empire wants to eradicate the scourge of the Northwest, it will be difficult for Baron Bohan to accomplish this weakening policy, because even if it were weakened, he would not be able to do so in the hands of others. Unless…”

Speaking of which, Phillip was afraid to go on.

And Dewey didn't hide anything and said, "Unless the center of the Empire has the courage... to fight a civil war! ”

Philip shook his body and looked at the young Duke in front of him, a young nobleman with the appearance of a juvenile, but the cold light in his eyes and the grin in his mouth, where is the slightest bit of naivety?

“My lord...” Phillip smiled reluctantly: “You can't just say that. ”

“Humph.” Dewey laughed and shook her head: “I'm just saying, with the power of the Empire now, can you support a civil war? ”

Phillip's eyes darkened, and he knew exactly what Dewey was talking about!

To completely eradicate the turmoil in the northwest, there is no thunderous means, and only a balance can be barely maintained by weakening and restraint. If we are to eradicate it, we have to pay a painful price!

It's just the price… Can the Empire afford it now?

To think of it, Philip couldn't help but look at the Duke. Frankly, Philip had some skepticism in his heart when the teacher recommended him to the Duke of Tulips. After all, although the Duke is famous, his age is very difficult to convince. A teenager under the age of fifteen, going to a tiger wolf's land like the Northwest, and not being swallowed by those warlords, can't even leave any slag?

Even if he is a powerful magician! This kind of thing, the strength of the individual does not dictate everything!

But with Dewey's profound conversation these past few days, Philip felt more and more extraordinary about the Duchess. A complete Imperial Duchess Army Infantry Regiment was taken from Ultra Ear City without a word from him, and by the end of the few days of the conversation, Dewey's words had revealed this temperament. It can be said that Philip is completely obsessed with the teacher's arrangements. This Duchess is absolutely worthy of her own service!

However, Philip also had some concerns about the occasional revelation in Dewey's eyes and words.

Such a resolute teenager, coming to the northwest, can bring stability to the northwest... or is it a big mess?!

“Philip.” Dewey woke up his contemplative staff with a smile on his face: “Looking at the impending city gate, I'm sure the Governor will send someone to greet us. I'd really like to meet the Governor of Bohan, whom you admire. ”

(Sorry, I finished updating a little today. It's been seven days in a row. I'm a little tired. It's slower. But don't worry, you won't jump tickets in the evening! I told you it would be better! Men talk, spit, spike, spike! Speak of it and you will do it!

Finally, ask for a ticket!

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