Chapter 393 – A Bitter Victory
Chapter 393 – Bitter Victory
Cecil hurriedly ran out of his intelligence department to the lord’s mansion with a stack of papers in his arms, slightly straightening his collar at the door before walking straight in. No one came to stop him, as the third eye of the lord, Cecil had the privilege to see Paul without being informed.
Asked the servants in the mansion for Paul’s location, Cecil quickly walked to a room on the second floor and knocked on the door.
“Lord Gleeman, I have something important to report to you.”
“Ah, Cecil, please come in.” Paul’s voice came from inside.
Cecil pushed the door in and found that besides the Lord Count, there were two other people inside that he hadn’t expected – the alchemists from the chemistry lab, Wells and the old Hoffman.
These two alchemists, as well as a bunch of their peers and students, usually do not see the shadow of the people, not many people to find them, after all, anyone will be on a group of people who soak in the stinking “nitrate field” all day long with feces to deal with far away.
They came to report to Paul on the progress of the nitrate field experiment.
Paul looked at the report in his hands and frowned.
“Guys!” Lord Lord’s tone leaked with skepticism and dissatisfaction, “If I don’t remember wrongly …… uh no, I mean, the yield of the nitrate field shouldn’t be so low according to my speculation.”
The alchemists finally pounded away at some results, but it still left Paul dissatisfied.
“No memory of that? The earl has touched the so-called nitrate field before?” Doubts flickered in the minds of the two alchemists.
“Uh …… cough! Lord Gleeman ……”
Old Hoffman explained, “I’m sorry, we haven’t fully grasped the laws of it yet, please give us some more time.”
Wills on the side also called out, “There are too many variables in temperature, humidity, ventilation, and light …… and it needs to be adjusted bit by bit to summarize the experience ……”
Paul interrupted them with a lift of his hand, “Okay, [Tune-in Man] guys! I didn’t call you here to hear complaints.”
The Count’s nickname for the Alchemists caused Cecil, who was standing in the doorway, to “pfft” and the two Alchemists to blush.
“Putting aside the matter of the nitrate field, I recently heard that the chemistry lab has purchased a large amount of glassware and experimental materials, where did you get the money? It wouldn’t have been diverted from the funds earmarked for Nitrate Field research, would it?”
“This …… this …… Lord Gleeman …… we are …… you see. So many students who haven’t been exposed to alchemy, so …… so …… to let them practice more ……”
Seeing the two alchemists stammering, Paul laughed in his heart, but on his mouth he warned in a stern tone:
“Listen you two, outside of the main task, I’m not opposed to you guys doing other research in private, maybe you can get something out of it. However, if you guys are short of money, you can make a report with me, but it is strictly forbidden for the misappropriation of special funds to happen again.”
Paul learned through his investigation that the misappropriated funds had indeed not been used for the personal lives of the alchemists, and given their passion for scientific exploration, he let them off the hook for once.
Old Hoffman and Wells were like amnesties, and they gambled and swore to strictly abide by the rules set by Paul.
“Alright you two, you can go back first, hopefully within a year, the nitrate field will allow us to slow down our dependence on ores.”
“Please don’t worry Lord Gleeman, since it has already been achieved from scratch, it shouldn’t be difficult to optimize on this basis.”
The two alchemists excused themselves and went out.
Only then did Paul turn to Cecil, “My intelligence chief, what is the important matter?”
Cecil took a step forward, “Lord Greymane, I just received news that the battle in the south is over!”
“Oh? Who won, the royal army? Or was it the rebel army?”
Cecil rubbed his chin and said, “Sort of the royal army won.”
At the intelligence chief’s account, Paul was puzzled, “Sort of …… What does that mean?”
Cecil explained, “Jarls resumed his submission to the crown ……”
Paul asked, “What about the southern territories that were loyal to the crown before …… the rebellion? Did Jarls give them back?”
Cecil shook his head “Neither side mentioned it.”
Paul guessed, “It looks like the royal family is acquiescing to Giles’ annexation of these territories.”
“Yes, both sides have suffered great losses and the royal army is powerless to move south even if they win.”
What an embarrassing victory for the royal family.
“What about Archduke Veblen of the Eastern Realm?”
“Also re-submitted himself to the Crown just like Giles. But those territories in the East Realm that are loyal to the crown are likewise ……”
They were also cleaned up by Veblen, right, after all, the main force of the royal army was held back in the south.
“It looks like the royal family has already substantially lost its influence over the southern and eastern realms, and from now on these two places will become the private little kingdoms of Giles and Veblen.”
Paul and Cecil jointly made this judgment. “Well, after the war in the south, the business of Northwest Industries will not be good.” Paul was a little worried.
“Lord Graiman, there is never a lack of war in this world, you can rest assured.”
Ah, had he already fully substituted himself into the role of a weapons merchant? Sin ah!
……
“Your Highness! We should go.”
Orphena walked over to the Princess’s side and reminded her softly.
The two were standing on the majestic citadel of the Thorn Fortress, looking at the southern lands.
Catherine was silent.
Was the kingdom going to lose its rule over the south after all?
Giles had stopped the rebellion, the other party had initially shouted the slogan of taking over the Kingdom of Aldo, and now that he had resumed his title, the counter-insurgency was a victory if that alone was the case.
But it was a bitter victory.
The original Southland was not only filled with Giles and his clique, but also a considerable number of bannermen families loyal to the kingdom, however, now their territories are all in the pockets of Giles and his clique.
If these bannermen had been loyal to the kingdom, it would be fine, but after the truce, they were all politely sent over by Giles, so how to resettle these nobles who had lost their lands was another big problem.
And then there’s Veblen in the eastern realm ……
After the final battle, Catherine wanted to bite the bullet, but the huge losses and the instability in the rear eventually prompted her to accept the peace talks.
Word had come from Crystalline Flare that a large number of kobolds were infesting the forests, and the army was needed to clear them out. And there were also sporadic reports of pirate attacks on the west coast, and although the Northwest Fleet that went south to work for the King performed well, it only had a mere dozen ships, so how could it defend such a long coastline.
“Alas!”
The princess sighed.
“Ofina, let’s go. But I swear ……”
……
“Ah!”
With red eyes, Giles roared and knocked the man in front of him to the ground, then raised his greatsword in a smooth motion to slash down.
“Archduke spare my life!”
The fallen man panicked and begged for mercy.
The war was over, but the outcome was far from what Giles had hoped for.
The accumulation of successive generations of the family and years of his own scheming had only resulted in cutting off one side.
Originally, he should have ridden his high horse in the streets of Jingyao to receive the cheers of all the people.
Originally, he should have been sitting in the palace of Jingyao to receive the congratulations of the ministers.
Now he could only vent his anger in the dueling arena.
“Roll!” Giles stopped his hand.
“Thank you Archduke for sparing my life!” The man who had been caught as a dueling opponent fled.
Giles wiped his sweat, then cursed fiercely at those who had kept him from accomplishing his wish.
“Damn Vibranium!”
Without this foot-dragging “ally”, the last battle should have been a huge victory.
“Damn the Northwesterners!”
The Northwest Bay was also on the Grand Duke’s blacklist, if they hadn’t sold so much armor and weapons to the royal family, their own army with strong support would have been so powerful, and there was information that the Northwest Bay also supplied a large amount of military food during the war.
“I will clean you up one by one!”
“I swear ……”
(End of chapter)