Chapter 463 – The Royal Family’s Dilemma 3
Chapter 463 – The Royal Family’s Dilemma 3
The king looked at the silent crowd, he knew what his subjects were worried about.
“All of you are people I can trust, and your families have traditionally been loyal to the kingdom, so I have nothing to hide in front of you.”
“It seems to me that the power ……”
Rodney paused for a moment, then aggravated his voice.
“Power in and of itself is indifferent to good and evil; is killing with magic a sin, but killing with a sword is noble?”
“The difference lies in the motive for using the power, and of course …… perhaps the result of using it.”
“Specifically, [magic] is not evil, [using magic for evil] is evil, just as [swords] are not evil, [using swords for evil] is evil.”
“If magic can be used to protect Aldo’s people, how is that not a good thing?”
Rupert stroked the beard on his chin and glanced at his colleagues in the audience, no one spoke.
Well, as His Majesty’s most relied upon minister, he had to say something.
“His Majesty has a point!”
Lord Palace Minister agreed in a loud voice, “We must not stick to traditional impressions.”
The Foreign Minister asked with concern, “Then the Holy See’s side?”
Rupert responded, “Keep a low profile, never admit it if we are discovered, or find a few scapegoats to deal with it, as long as we don’t openly promote heresy, the Holy See has no way to do anything about it, and they don’t have the energy with the current situation.”
So after some discussion the ministers agreed on this, and swore the king to secrecy.
The king helplessly mused, “Since we may need a longer period of time to explore the other side’s cards, the strategy against Giles will have to be adjusted, for the time being, instead of aiming to eliminate him quickly, we should turn to focusing on suppressing him from continuing to grow in strength, and it’s all for naught no matter how much we accumulate if mundane force can’t counter magic. Therefore, the preparations for the southern expedition can be temporarily slowed down, but the necessary deterrence should still be maintained ……”
Catherine was still upset, she interrupted her father, “Your Majesty, please give me one more time ……!”
The king looked at his daughter.
“Catherine, I understand your reluctance, as a king who is already old, I am even more reluctant than you are. But the kingdom really needs time, that unknown force could be a treasure or a poison to us, whether it’s a treasure or a poison, we need to find him out, like an adventurer looking for a treasure, it takes time and effort, it doesn’t happen overnight.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Catherine tried to calm herself down, determined to investigate the bottom line behind Giles and find a way to restrain them.
“Since it’s a matter of restraining Giles’ power, Your Majesty, I have a suggestion.”
The Minister of Finance, Earl Naik Scarlet, said so.
The king nodded to him, “Go ahead.”
Count Scarlet: “We should begin by blocking Jarls’ financial resources, with a focus on targeting the trade of several cash crops in the south.”
The king asks, “What are they?” Earl Scarlet replied, “First of all tea, the south of the kingdom is mountainous and not suitable for growing food, but there are a lot of tea trees planted, and every year a large amount of tea is sold to all parts of the kingdom as well as to foreign countries, we should block the tea produced on the chassis of Jarls, and even if we don’t block it we should also impose a heavy tax in order to limit the circulation of it, and as long as we make merchants lose money because of the payment of taxes, we will be able to keep the tea in the south from selling. the tea in the south unsold.”
“Next is some precious wood that is a specialty of the south, the wood there is very popular, the nobles like to use the wood from the south to build palaces and make furniture.”
The king nodded, “Good idea, I think I can this can work, in order to prevent Jarls from being desperate, let’s use a tax.”
He instructed the clerk to record the words of the finance minister.
Palace Minister Rupert added, “Just now Naik mentioned the low grain production in the south, then I think merchants should be prohibited from selling grain to the south. And these measures against tea and timber in order to grain should be ordered to be implemented together with all the lords loyal to the crown.”
“Seconded.”
“I also second the motion.”
As soon as Rupert’s motion was made, all the ministers voiced their approval.
The city of the royal capital Jingyao was situated on a piece of land known as the Plain of Plenty, as the name suggests, this large plain was densely populated with river networks and rich water sources, which was very suitable for the cultivation of crops, and it was the largest food source in the entire Kingdom of Aldo, and there were some exaggerated rumors saying that as long as the harvest on the Plain of Plenty was good, it would be able to guarantee that the entire population of Aldo would not go hungry. Firmly controlling the Plain of Plenty is one of the important reasons why the Rodney family has been able to sit on the throne so far.
Catherine frowned, “Banning the flow of food will affect people’s livelihoods, the south is still nominally the kingdom’s land now, and the people there are also our people.”
Rupert looked at the reluctant princess and advised with a regretful face, “Your Highness, no victory is without a price, and this is the price of defeating Jarls. And if the people there are starving, the first one they would oppose would be Jarls, which would instead favor us in recovering the south.”
Listening to the discussion of the ministers, the king pondered for a long time and then said, “It is better not to do it in the way of an outright ban, it would be detrimental to the prestige of the royal family, let’s just limit it by raising the taxes just as we did with the tea.”
The foreign minister asked, “Is the same measure to be taken for the Vibranium family who had helped Giles?”
The Archduke of Veblen, who had repeatedly jumped across the board during the rebellion, eventually jumped to the side of Jarls, and then shyly sent an emissary to Crystalline Yew to show his loyalty after the war was over.
The king was false to him, and for the time being, he couldn’t do anything about the Veblen family, whose territory was the Paradise Basin located in the eastern border of the kingdom, where entry and exit had to be done through extremely treacherous mountain paths, and holding a few passes would be able to block enemy troops that were several times the size of the defending side.
However, the marriage with the royal family is out of the question.
Hearing the Foreign Minister’s inquiry, the King shook his head.
He stated his considerations, “To focus on one enemy, targeting only Giles could have the effect of dividing him and Veblen, and if we deal with both of them at the same time, it could once again contribute to the union of these two traitors.”
“And the kingdom’s southeastern border – the cloudy mountains located in the southern part of the Paradise Basin – the lords there still maintain their loyalty to the crown. Once Veblen and Giles unite again, it will completely isolate the Cloudmist Mountain Land from us, so it’s better to let Veblen go for now.”
Rupert said, “Now there is a problem, on land, we can blockade Jarls, but on the sea, there is nothing we can do for now, the kingdom’s navy that was originally stationed in West Harbor was destroyed during the rebellion.”
Earl Merlin, the intelligence chief, said, “It’s not a big problem, trade between the kingdom’s territories and the Jars territory is mainly through land, and the land merchant route must pass through the king’s territory. As for the Horned Bay, those merchants are busy converting their merchant ships into warships to deal with the tense situation, and I rebel war is going to break out soon. The only thing to worry about is ……”
Catherine looked to him, “Northwest Bay?”
Earl Merlin nodded in confirmation, “Yes, the Northwest Gulf. The sea trade there has grown very rapidly in recent years, and it’s far from the desolate place it used to be, with bay merchants running around in their oarless sailing ships. For a time during the War of Counterinsurgency, the merchant ships of the Northwesterners stopped docking at Jarls’ territory because of concern for the Crown, but with the war over, there are merchant ships heading there again.”
(End of chapter)