I will be crowned king

Wherever people gather, there will be profit; and when people begin to cooperate with each other, the wealth created will increase exponentially.

Everyone in Storm Division has always believed in this and has worked hard to achieve financial freedom and a bright future.

While Anson and the Speaker of Winter Torch City were finalizing the salt trade and military base, the rest of the officer corps present were not idle either. They all went out and took advantage of the banquet to continue negotiating with the Speakers and important representatives of each colony.

Lieutenant Colonel Fabian roped in Cavalry Lieutenant Jason Fruhauf and stopped Red Hand Bay Speaker Pete Chatham in a small corner of the hall to discuss the ore trade.

As a port city whose industry highly overlaps with Beluga Port, but whose port is not as good as Beluga Port, Red Hand Bay has always had an embarrassing status. It has long existed as a transfer station that is neither up to standard, but can barely maintain its business by relying on smuggling and tax collection. receive.

With the official declaration of war on the empire, toll taxes are no longer a concern, and smuggling is becoming increasingly rampant. The advantage is that some "well-connected" Red Hand Bay merchants are making more than before, but the disadvantage is that these parliaments cannot collect taxes, and the finances Loss to the point where one cannot make ends meet.

For this former competitor, Fabian's suggestion was "industrial transformation" - since smuggling is rampant, simply give up temporarily, or even actively win over and facilitate the smuggling trade, while using the remaining manpower to vigorously develop ore Smelting.

Hongshou Bay has coal and iron, as well as sufficient animal power and a large number of "beast slaves". The population is also quite dense, and it is fully qualified to enter the metallurgical industry.

In the past, the empire restricted the development of colonies in all aspects; it squeezed Red Hand Bay into the most common raw material supplier; but the selfless Clovis people can provide them with technological upgrades, send people to build factories for them, and even have funds in the future. support.

Of course, there are conditions - first of all, the ownership of the factory belongs to the Luen family, and the Red Hand Bay Council can only take up to one-third of the shares. At the same time, it must provide land and raw material supplies at low prices.

In return, all the steel produced by Beluga Port will be acquired, and the Luen family will also pay taxes to the Red Hand Bay Council. This means that Red Hand Bay does not need to do anything, and a money printing press will fall from the sky. An overjoyed Peter Cha Of course Tam wouldn't refuse.

On the other side, the little clerk, who also smelled an opportunity, held his purse, grabbed a certain black-robed priest who didn't know why he appeared here, and promoted a good business called "insurance" to the MPs in Black Reef Port. .

With the fall of Pigeon Castle, Blackreef Port, which was originally "in the rear", has become a frontline against the tyranny of the Empire; although the entire Blackreef Port shares the same hatred, they even did not hesitate to massacre their original loyalist compatriots.

But to say that they have not considered their options would be a bit too contemptuous.

Therefore, Clerks Karin Jacques and Alan Dawn took the documents with "Official Certification of Beluga Port" and found those Black Reef Port councilors with big businesses to sell "industrial insurance" - if Black Reef Port fell , Beluga Port will not only pay full compensation, but will also "temporarily" buy the properties they lost due to the war at a lower price.

When the war is over, as long as they still have the insurance certificate, they can buy it back at any time; of course, the price will be a little higher.

It seems that Beluga Port and Storm Division are trying their best to protect the interests of their allies. In fact, there are at least two traps.

The first is how low the so-called "lower" price is. It is a complete buyer's market. The property owners of Black Reef Port, who are about to face a war, have no bargaining power at all.

So a magical scene happened: On one side, the little clerk was sincerely analyzing the value of the industry for the sake of customers, and on the other side, the industrial owners of Heijiao Port who were eager to protect the bottom line would rather "sell at a low price" to get an insurance to avoid being sold by the empire. The counter-offensive failed and everything was ruined.

Under the eager urging of customers, the little clerk had no choice but to "buy" these properties at extremely low prices.

Secondly, as a famous military strategist said: When your supplies are taken away by the enemy, you should report the loss; if you are lucky enough to take it back from the enemy, you should report the seizure - the same If something has passed through the enemy's hands, there will be two accounts.

If Blackreef Harbor falls, and the Stormtroopers fight bloody battles to regain it, facing an industry that is already in ruins with nothing left but land, even if they have the capital to redeem it, how are they going to rebuild it?

Even if they insist on redeeming it, it doesn't matter. With the "sky-high price" marked by the little clerk, why don't they have to borrow money from Beluga Port?

As long as one person is willing to lend money, the "Coal Mine Bank" that is about to debut in Beluga Harbor will be able to show its true power: this beast of capital from the old and new worlds will completely penetrate into the Free Confederacy. In the blood vessels and bone marrow, he controls the situation behind the scenes.

Considering that Anson Bach, as well as Miss Thalia and Sophia, would have a large share of interests and voice in this bank, the loyal little clerk became increasingly confused about who he was working for.

As for a certain chief of staff who had just lost a bet, he led a group of officers to "go around" to sell logistics and arms trade.

Facing the impending war, one can never have too many logistics suppliers; after all, no matter how rich Beluga Harbor is, it will not be able to support the Storm Division from Lake Town to Sail City; the sophisticated Carl Bain knows very well, If you can't lower the price now and wait until after the war begins, the probability of being ripped off is much higher.

With the official completion of the "Auguste Arms Factory" in Beluga Port, the Leyden rifles that could only be handmade can finally be mass-produced.

The Storm Division, which had basically completed the replacement of new weapons, looked down upon this old-fashioned muzzle-loading gun that had frequent malfunctions, was slow to load and easily exploded. It seemed wasteful to only equip the militiamen of the Promise Keepers Alliance... So the Storm Division The officer corps took up the idea of ​​rebellious colonial militias.

You must know that although the Stormtroopers look down upon it, as a standard weapon of the Clovis army, the Leyden muzzle-loading rifle is still much stronger than the homemade firearms in the hands of those colonies; in addition, it is highly adaptable and easy to repair and modify. Its characteristics are simply a standard "militia artifact".

The officer corps who originally had no interest in being a salesman, after receiving Talia's promise that "all commissions except for costs will be personal", the officer corps completed the transformation from "verbal rejection" to "too much given" at the speed of light; They enthusiastically regard this murder tool as a necessity in life and sell it to everyone they meet.

The lively and noisy Dongfeng City reception banquet quietly came to an end amidst noisy red-faced faces and fierce bargaining.

……………………

In the early morning, the hungover Anson slowly opened his eyes, and gradually regained his consciousness as the fireplace fire in his vision became clear and blurred.

Boiled eggs, bacon fried in butter, hot milk, and a bowl of beef and barley porridge with black pepper... After enjoying this special breakfast of Winter Torch City, which is called "pioneer style", I changed into Thalia's breakfast. With the brand new military uniform on the hanger, Anson pushed the door open and walked out.

Prepared early, the little clerk, always in a formal dress, waited outside the door with his hands behind his back and a faint smile, and said as if he had practiced countless times:

"Good morning, Lord Anson Bach. Have you had breakfast?"

"I've used it, what about you?"

"Yes, thank you for your concern." Allen Dawn held up the silk bowler hat on his head, nodded slightly and saluted:

"Excuse me, should we leave now, or wait a while..."

Wait a moment... Anson was stunned for a moment: "Where's Thalia?"

"Miss Thalia Lune is in Miss Lisa's room, preparing to spend the whole day teaching her how to make a hearty breakfast." The little clerk explained:

"I have already gone to inquire. She said that today is a meeting of the Free Confederacy. You only need to be present at Beluga Harbor and the Storm Division. If there are too many people, it will appear to be too overwhelming - yes, that is completely literal. .”

"That Karl, Fabian and Alexei..."

"Similarly, Lieutenant Colonel Fabian is going to supervise the construction of the military camp, Chief of Staff Karl is negotiating with a group of contractors about the supply of military boots and winter clothing, and the rest of the officers are busy dumping inventory for the August Military Factory... "

The little clerk paused for a while before thinking of this relatively harmless-sounding answer.

Anson nodded and held back his laughter.

"On the other side of the parliamentary representatives, Miss Polina Frey said that she is still a little nervous and hopes that you can meet with her in private before the meeting, even for a few minutes." Allen suddenly lowered his voice;

"As your secretary, I took it upon myself to reject this invitation for you - this is Winter Torch City, not White Whale Port. We cannot guarantee that when you meet her, there will be no informants from other colonies around. In case you are If it were made public, it would have a very bad impact.”

"Of course, if you must see her... Miss Polina will stay in her room waiting until fifteen minutes before the meeting starts. You can always..."

"No, you did the right thing." Anson raised his hand and interrupted:

"We are here as guests in Winter Torch City to observe. Since we are just spectators, we should not have any private contact with a certain member of the council at this time."

He even suspected that Polina would deliberately leak the news to let other colonies see with their own eyes the strength of the Storm Division's support for the liberals in Gray Dove Castle - in effect, she wanted to tie the Storm Division to the Frey family's chariot.

It's obviously something that can be controlled from behind the scenes, but Anson certainly can't do it himself.

"In addition... there is some good news over at Black Reef Port. Our 'industrial insurance' has at least seventy property owners insured, with a total value of at least 400,000 gold coins... Of course, it is the market price." The little secretary pretended to be uneasy. Not surprised, but there was still a bit of pride in his tone:

"If everything goes well, at least after the war, it can bring fixed asset income of no less than one million, or even two million gold coins to the bank and the storm division."

Two million? Anson looked shocked:

"So many?"

"There are so many."

The little secretary nodded seriously: "These are all fixed assets, and the degree of development is much higher than that of Beluga Port, which is only fifty years old. All aspects are very mature, and production capacity is guaranteed - especially those The plantations, even if they were all pushed back after the war, would still have much higher yields than the legion farms we are cultivating.”

"Of course, this is only the result of the valuation. In fact, if it were not for the war, it would be impossible for those industrial owners to sell their properties - many of them are already third and fourth generation colonists in the New World. The family history is generally more than a hundred years."

"If it goes well, their industry, together with their family, will become the cornerstone for the 'Coal Mine Development Bank' and the Luen family to establish a foothold in the new world, and the benefits will even far exceed the Storm Division's entire income in Hantu. "

As he spoke, the little clerk stepped aside to open the door, and at the same time handed over the three-cornered hat that had been kept in his bag: "Sir Anson Bach, it's time for you to set off - all the representatives of the Free Confederacy are waiting for your arrival."

"Yeah?"

Anson took the hat, put it on neatly, and said calmly:

"Then let's go, we can't keep them waiting."

"yes."

The little clerk bowed and followed closely behind.

When the two came to the hall of the Winter torch city council, the seats under the towering vault were already full. At the same time, the original loose layout of a long table in the middle and chairs on both sides was also changed: they moved the long table sideways to the "big fireplace" "position, and placed six armchairs facing the door in a row behind it.

The reason there are six is ​​because the Free Confederacy did not exclude this important colony just because the empire's counter-rebellion army took control of Sailing City and even purged the liberals in the city.

I don't even know whether it is intentional or not, but the long table in front of the large fireplace is quite spacious. After filling the seats for six people, there is still a lot of room, enough to place more...for example, thirteen chairs.

As for himself... Anson turned around and looked around, and found Clovis' Unicorn King flag under the pillar to the left of the big fireplace, as well as the seats placed in front of the flag - the position was even higher than the six seats. Further back.

Neither they dare to offend, nor they don't want to be too groveling... This is evident from the fact that the Free Confederacy respects and fears Beluga Harbor and the Storm Division.

Feeling the five pairs of eyes with different expressions and extremely complicated expressions behind the long table, Anson smiled calmly and walked to the seat they had prepared for him without looking back. The little clerk beside him stood humbly behind the chair and took out his hand. Got out the notebook for taking meeting minutes.

Looking at Anson's expressionless face, the several speakers who had carefully prepared all this breathed a sigh of relief and looked at each other. Finally, as the host, the Speaker of Winter Torch City had to stand up and said loudly:

"I declare that the First Supreme Council of the Free Confederation has officially begun!"