Chapter 164 163 Next up, Murphy will show you what

Chapter 164 163.Next up, Murphy will give a demonstration of what it means to be a lion’s advocate

“What the hell kind of name is that? My humble self is still single since my birth! Show some respect you Transylvanian barbarian!”

Shani since the debut of the scene has always been not afraid of humiliation, straight face Tris this bloodsucking world of the old-timers also did not have the slightest bit of cowardice, and the Transylvanian lord negotiation is even more show the style of the great generals, but only by the Murphy one sentence “Mrs. Shani” made a bit of a breakthrough defense.

The main reason is that she doesn’t understand the peculiar aesthetics of small players, and thinks that this is Murphy mocking her as an incompetent housewife.

It wasn’t.

“I apologize for my undignified name calling.”

Murphy smiled gently and stood half a length behind Tris, speaking softly:

“But the truth is, as my Archduke and I have just stated, that all negotiations over Transylvanian territory are unacceptable! Is that answer clear enough for me? And, if you’re not going to brush your sleeves off now, then why don’t you relax and listen to the terms I’ll be making next?”

“Of course, negotiations are so you and me.”

Lady Shani revealed an expression of interest and raised her wine glass to Murphy with an extremely dignified posture as she sat in her chair. Next to her, Tris followed Murphy’s previous posture and interlocked her fingers to prop up her chin, with an expression of “watching a good show” on her bewitching face.

This gesture made Shani’s heart vaguely uneasy.

But Murphy had already spoken.

“First of all, the Kingdom of Nordtorf is going to release the armed blood servants in your hands, and I don’t care if they are rioting or otherwise damned under the custody of the Winter Wolf Legion! You took 6,000 people from Transylvania, you’re going to give back 6,000 people.

Not a single one less!
Secondly, the Kingdom of Nordstorf will provide enough firearms and ammunition for the official army that will be formed in Transylvania to deal with the threat of the Black Plague.

Artillery is more than welcome.

Lastly, until the Black Plague has subsided, the Crimson Fortress will not be able to break its food supply agreement with Transylvania for any reason.

We don’t take yours for nothing.

We’ll pay in gold, and if we can’t come up with the money, the portion of the mines in the southern region of Transylvania that serve as collateral will be enough to compensate you for your losses.

Also, on a personal note, I have a small request to report to ‘Her Majesty the Wolf Woman’.

I hope that Her Majesty the Wolf Woman will issue an official royal decree naming me as the ‘Governor of Transylvania’, with full responsibility for all affairs in the entire Transylvania region!”

Murphy spread out his hands and spoke eloquently as Shani looked on oddly:

“The Confederation of Portia was also formed after the First Black Plague with the common approval of all the great human powers at the time, so I felt that an official royal decree from a queen would better strengthen my claim to the Transylvanian region.

Though I don’t actually need it.

As for what you get out of this deal?
First of all, I can make sure that not a single Jackal will enter your territory before we are all packaged up and eaten whole by the Jackals. You can sit in your magnificent palaces in Northwind Keep and treat the gruesome battles taking place in the Transylvanian lands as little stories from afar.

To serve as an alternate topic of conversation for the noblewomen’s little afternoon tea gathering.

Secondly, I promise you with Her Majesty, the Wolf Woman behind you, that Transylvania will never fall to the Kingdom of the Golden Sparrow.

We will do our best to maintain our neutrality and fulfill our role as a military buffer zone between the two kingdoms until the time when both of you have digested the benefits of this war and are ready for the next big fight for the position of continental hegemony, then we will decide which side we will join.”

“Finished?”

Lady Shani asked with a shrug.

Murphy nodded and looked at her with a smile.

The latter took a small sip of her drink with a decent gesture, then breathed a sigh of relief and said:
“Do you take me for a fool? Murphy, what qualifications do you have now to raise such outrageous conditions in front of me and still expect me to agree to them? I admit that His Holiness Pa Ying’s approval is indeed a considerable pressure on the Blood Clan’s side.

However, this recognition is based on the fact that you guys can contribute enough to fend off the Black Plague, and I don’t really think that you guys can fulfill His Holiness’s expectations with your current situation.

As for the pressure from the Kingdom of Goldfinch that you mentioned
Well, Nordtorf won’t enter into a more violent confrontation with the Goldenrod Kingdom just for the sake of this piece of chicken land in Transylvania, but I don’t think King Louis will make a big deal out of it if it’s just a matter of culling an ill-advised lord.

So, to return the favor with your words!

If you want to negotiate then show some sincerity.

If you don’t want to, then shut up.”

“Little Murphy your conditions are indeed outrageous, I find them excessive to my ears.”

Tris also spoke up at this time:

“Show some sincerity, or else your Auntie Shani will really get angry.”

“You two are doing this on purpose, aren’t you?”

Mrs. Shani narrowed her eyes and said in a cold voice:

“Tris, I respect that you are an Ancient One, but don’t get carried away! Is a woman’s age a topic that can just be used for flirting? Let alone in this kind of occasion. You two are truly the most unreliable Blood Leaders I’ve ever seen.

Even the Blood Fear Minor Patriarch Baburo, who hides as a pirate in the Sea of Mists, is a bit more stable than you guys.”

“Anxious, someone in this room is anxious, but I won’t say who. I’ll admit that Tris and I are ‘atypical vampires’, however it can be unseemly for someone of our stature to engage in personal attacks.”

Murphy grunted.

This time he solemnly removed a small notebook from his psychic bag and flipped through a few pages, glanced at Shani, coughed, and said:
“Then let me change the condition, the territory issue is still not negotiable, this is the bottom line.

But add one more to the three above, the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Nordtorf will step in and lend the Governor’s District of Transylvania a sum of money for the purpose of purchasing the military supplies needed to defend against the Black Plague from the factories within the Kingdom of Nordtorf.

Our captured armed bloodservants can also be exchanged back through ‘ransom’.

This money will be returned to the Kingdom of Nordtorf year by year for the following ten years, or, if interest is to be added, at no more than the median of official commercial loans within your borders.”

“?”

If it was said that just now, when she heard Murphy’s conditions, Shani was just angry, this would make her entire being dumbfounded.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that this condition of Murphy’s had already somewhat exceeded Archduke Shani’s scope of understanding, and even began to violently attack her worldview as a vampire.

It was only after several seconds that Shani got up in some shock and pointed at Murphy:
“You mean, we lend you guys money! So that you can come and buy our stuff? And give a low interest rate low enough to make those vampires in the Treasury Department come to my door with knives and ask for a duel? And you call this one a ‘concession’?
Archduke Tris!

Why don’t you get a grip on your servant?
He is clearly suffering from some sort of mental illness and is beyond redemption.”

“Emmmm.”

Archduke Tris rolled her eyes and said:
“I admit that you have some truth in what you say, but I choose to believe Little Murphy. He must have his reasons for daring to say that, so Murphy, why don’t you hurry up and explain the rationale behind this article to two old aunts who can’t keep up with the changing times?”

“She’s really going to get angry if you keep attacking her age like that, and Mrs. Charney seems to care about that.”

Murphy spat in a small voice before explaining seriously:

“If this one comes true, then the Kingdom of Nordtorf becomes a debtor to Transylvania. In this world, there has never been only those who owe money fearing their debtors, what kind of debtor would be wary of those who owe money? I have heard from the consuls under my command that Her Majesty, the Wolf Woman, is also pushing forward with reforms within the Kingdom of Nordtorf; military reforms are bearing fruit, but domestic commercial and political reforms are struggling.

The reformers who support the Wolf Woman cannot expand but inspire themselves with loyalty, and this is a time when foreign orders are needed.

Think about it, Archduchess Shani!

The amount of military supplies and logistics needed to fight the Black Plague in Transylvania is astronomical, and this is the front line of the fight against the Black Plague, so how many arsenals will our orders feed you? How many jobs will we create? How many more free people will we help you feed?
The reformers who support Her Majesty the Wolf Woman will not only gain status, but now they will also gain tangible benefits!

They will become more energized because money has always been the devil’s compelling trick! The rattle of gold coins is wonderful enough to make the most stubborn old landowner willingly surrender his property, if only he can see that it is profitable!
Well, since this is a negotiation, let me change the rhetoric to something more compelling.

White iron to honor fearless warriors, gray copper to reward sycophantic lovers, silver to buy off cunning courtiers, and gold! Only yellow-orange gold will please everyone! It can make demons learn to keep their promises, devils understand kindness, leprechauns become sick with pining, and angels fall into madness!

It is!

Gold coins! As long as the Queen has enough gold coins in her hands, she can buy everyone.

War!

With all due respect, war is the most valuable business in this world! As long as you learn to use it wisely.

If you feel that all of the above is not enough, I will even open up the markets of Transylvania to your domestic merchants, levying a very small tax on them so that they can be able to dump the goods of the Kingdom of Nordstorf in Transylvania.

And through Transylvania, the centerpiece of the continent, they can extend their trade routes to the Genoa Peninsula and even to the land of the elves.

The great queen will also receive support from the great merchant class in the country because of this effective initiative!
The more friends a ruler has, the better.

The support of the merchants will further drive Her Majesty’s reforms into the hearts and minds of the people, more investment means more factories, and more factories crave more profit, and they won’t have to be whipped to devour the old and old-fashioned old codgers for the Queen, and spit out more freemen for Her Majesty that can be of use to her.

This is how the chariot of the kingdom will be truly unleashed!

Fueled by a steady stream of blood, capital, and desire, it would crush any conservatives that stood in its way, and ultimately carry the entire, increasingly radical and greedy kingdom headlong into the abyss of expansion.

Either it will achieve continental supremacy, or fall to pieces!”

Murphy put on a smile, spread his hands, and said to Shani:
“You see, Mrs. Shani, what I was talking to you about in the beginning was politics, wars, negotiations, deals and money, all of this is just a continuation of politics, and you are clinging on to that little bit of petty profit and not willing to let go .
That’s why you can only be the head of the Thorn Clan while your great-great-granddaughter gets to be queen!

So, please deliver my terms to Her Majesty’s desk, and with all due respect, with your current sense of politics, you’re not qualified to be on the table for something as important as what I’m about to talk to her about. Perhaps, not yet qualified to be on the table.”

The room was as quiet as no one for a moment.

Shani didn’t know at what stage she couldn’t keep up with Murphy’s train of thought, but she was by now a little bewildered by Murphy’s train of thought, which was far ahead of this era.

Tris might have heard her.

But the bad-eyed Blood Vulture Archduke wasn’t about to point out some deeply buried error or omission in Murphy’s string of statements, and anyway, the opposite side of the table had been bluffed out of her mind by Shani.

“But… But you don’t have any money!”

Shani struggled to point out certain fallacies in Murphy’s logic as she rubbed her brow and said:
“Transylvania is the poorest place on the continent, and our merchants who bring their goods here your people don’t have money to spend”

“No, we have money! Her Majesty, the Wolf Girl, will lend us money to buy your goods.”

Murphy said with a wink:
“Only if we eat everything your merchants bring will we be able to better stimulate a change in the commercial atmosphere within the Kingdom of Nordtorf, so that the old-fashioned atmosphere tends to disintegrate and the hearts of the people move.

Why is it that after all I’ve said, your thoughts are still stagnant at the level of ‘money’?
Consumption!

Consumption is the most important aspect!
For every bullet we fire at the Jackals, one more bullet is ordered for your arsenal.

The more we spend, the more your productivity is pushed.

Until quantitative change triggers qualitative change.

That’s the kind of power Wolf Girl needs most, not one or two armies with reforms completed. What age is this? How can you still want territory but not focus on higher needs?

As I said, Mrs. Shani, your mind is not well suited for this kind of thinking.

You are too practical.

Too much attention to detail and not enough to see the big picture, which makes you a good executor but not a good commander.

But believe me, this offer is good for both sides.

Thus, I think we can end this conversation today, so please convey my opinion to Her Majesty, the Wolf Woman.

The sooner the better.”

A few minutes later, the dazed Archduchess Shani returned to the place Lady Tris had prepared for her to stay, and the Earl of the White Mountains, who had been imprisoned earlier, had been released, and would be facing her ancient ancestor in a posture of shame.

However, Archduke Shani was in no mood to pay attention to her own descendant who was not outstanding in her eyes.

She was still obsessed with figuring out Murphy’s strange theory that sounded reasonable, but she always felt that there was something wrong with it.

“Your Excellency the Grand Duke, is there something troubling you?”

Young Andre noticed Archduke Shani’s tangle and asked cautiously, Shani glanced at him and said:
“I was going to chastise you for messing up a simple task! But I suddenly realized that in the situation we’re facing now, your little failure is no longer relevant; you had received a so-called ‘modern’ education in the Tower of the Ring.

Come here, I need you to help me clear my troubled mind a little.”

“Uh, Archduke, I majored in literature at the Academy in the Tower of the Ring.”

Andrei was a little embarrassed.

But he still sat next to Grand Duke Shani at her request, and listened to Shani’s description of her negotiations with Murphy and Tris in its entirety, and as a young mind is better than a three-hundred year old “Ancient One”, the Earl of the White Mountains quickly discovered the holes in Murphy’s theory.

He said seriously:
“His statement in the first half is not a problem, Grand Duke, his majesty has indeed always wanted to pull the domestic forces that are eager for reform, starting from commerce and industry is an excellent method, which has been proved by the experience of the reform of the Kingdom of the Golden Sparrow.

The problem, however, is that Transylvania will not remain a willing debtor and dumping ground for our goods.

They will grow as well!

And once this region becomes self-sufficient, what we produce will be at risk of becoming backlogged, and at that point, we’ll have to find the next dumping ground before our economy at home runs into problems, or we’ll face the same big trouble that the Kingdom of Sealand has faced before.”

“Hmm?”

Shani immediately understood, but then she asked:
“You’re saying that the Sealand Kingdom had encountered the same problem during the reform? That they also encountered a similar situation? How did they solve it?”

“War!”

Andre looked at his patriarch and after several seconds he whispered:

“Thirty years ago, King Louis, now King Louis, waged a war against the Kingdom of Isa in the name of his father’s assassination!
He fought and won.

And so all the problems he encountered were solved.

Ten years ago, the consolidation of King Louis’s country was complete, the reforms of the united Kingdom of the Golden Sparrow resumed once more, and the new country, unleashed in its potential, needed new territories and victories to bridge the conflict.

Their lords crave more manpower, their factories need more cheap resources.

So they used the Old Religion rebellion as justification and spent ten years annexing a large portion of the rich and resourceful territory of the Bosian Confederacy in one fell swoop.

I don’t know when the next war will come.

But I do believe that if our rotten nation doesn’t catch up soon, then the next time, a hungry King Louis and his increasingly greedy nation will see us as a delicious cake to satiate their bellies.

My sister would absolutely agree with Count Murphy’s proposal.

For the dangers that my lowly intellect can see, she, who has inherited the true will of the Hero King, will only see them more clearly than I do.

Nordoff needs Transylvania!
At least it needs it at this stage now, not just because of security anxiety, but also a definite market.

The cunning Murphy realized this, so he dared to ask for a lion’s share.

And you
With all due respect.

You lose, Archduke.

At least in this negotiation, you have lost.”

(End of chapter)