Chapter 1134, Assassinate Karl Franz!

The latest website: Snow fell outside the window, and the light coming in from the glazed tiles of the palace shone on the emperor's face.

Karl Franz faced the high elves' request and was caught in a dilemma.

Whether it agrees or not, the empire seems to have a hard time picking itself out completely.

Of course, don’t say that the empire has a population of 23 million. Emperor Karl Franz’s Rickland + Brunswick capital combined accounted for 7 million people. People are not a problem.

As mentioned earlier, the empire's army is divided into three levels, from top to bottom are the urban professional standing army-semi-professional provincial army-local militia organizations, compared to the bottom-to-top serfs that Ryan has recently established with great difficulty The system of the infantry regiment - the free folk regiment - the old guard, the empire is undoubtedly more advanced.

What can be high-precision? What they asked for by name was "a regular army of no less than 20,000 people."

The emperor can't laugh or cry, where can I find you a regular army of 20,000 people? The total number of troops in the entire empire that can be regarded as the standing regular army in the city is only about 180,000, and they are scattered throughout the empire. The number of regular troops under the emperor's command is almost 50,000, and the rest are provincial troops and even militias.

As a very good politician, Karl Franz certainly would not be in a hurry to express his opinion, even if he could immediately mobilize 20,000 people, he would not immediately express his opinion. He first fully expressed the current difficulties and the turmoil in the empire to the high-spirited messenger , the endless brushing of Beastmen, the endless actions of a large number of Chaos sects, and the issue of hoarding and driving up food prices by the princes of the Marienburg business community from the side.

The result disappointed him. Tyrion sent a silver-helmed knight, not a high-spirited nobleman, and he was just here to pass on a message, not to negotiate. That was Teclis' style, not Tyrion's style. .

After the high-spirited envoy left, the emperor continued to look at the report until Marshal Rick Helberg came in: "Your Majesty, the Beastman tribe was found fighting the Goblin tribe in the blood pine forest about 78 kilometers away from Brunswick. Team Lin is paying close attention to the situation."

"What do you think, Helberg?" Karl Franz said casually, "How big is it?"

"The scale is not small. There are as many as thousands of Beastmen, and there are fewer green skins." Helberg said to Karl Franz: "Since the two sides have started a decisive battle, we can enjoy their cannibalism for the time being." Happy, but only temporarily, as long as any side needs to win, it will form a larger scale and rush towards Brunswick."

"78 kilometers,

Is it that close to Brunswick? The emperor sighed, and he threw the document on the table: "What's your opinion?" "

"Your Majesty, when the Beastmen and the Greenskins are both wounded, we should dispatch troops to sweep everything away." Helberg said, his mustache was still as perfect as it was twenty or thirty years ago.

"I think so too." The emperor couldn't help but grinned, he stood up, took a document on the table and handed it to Helberg: "Look, this is the army food standard formulated by Ryan. .”

Helberg took the file.

Type 1 kitchen: Serf mobs temporarily recruited, serf infantry regiments from major duchies, serf archers.

Food standard per person per day: 3 copper coins.

Specific food reference: black hard bread, stewed beans, cabbage, wheat porridge, stewed animal offal with potatoes and corn.

The second category: infantry regiments in various cities and towns, halberd infantry regiments, longbowmen, and combat pilgrim regiments.

Food standard per person per day: 5 copper coins.

Specific food reference: barley bread, stewed beans, fried meat with cabbage, barbecue, meat pie, meat and vegetable stew, broth and fish soup, beer.

Three types of stoves: elite infantry regiments of major duchies, infantry servants, musketeers, artillerymen, engineers, knight retinues, and knight errants.

Food standard per person per day: 10 copper coins.

Specific food reference: buttered bread, stewed beans, vegetable salad, eggs, pork, lamb, beef, special hodgepodge, ration ale.

Four types of stoves: Old Guards, Kingdom Knights, Expedition Knights, Grail Knights, and Pegasus Knights.

Food standard per person per day: 25 copper coins.

Specific food reference: wheat cheese bread, Tyrell noodles, macaroni, various meats including venison, fish, stewed chickpeas, fresh vegetable salads, candies, coffee, mead, fruit after meals.

There are also several appendices at the bottom: olive oil, refined salt, and spices.

"The food is really good." Rick Marshal Helberg complained after seeing it, and the old marshal shook his head: "Your Majesty, the food in our empire cannot be like that of Brittany, let's just talk about the current market purchases." , the price of a pound of barley is about 6 silver shillings, but if it is in Britannia, where their manors directly harvest and supply directly, the price of a pound of barley is at most 2 silver shillings, and the price is only 2 silver shillings. As you know, Brittania is now the largest food producer and exporter in the old world. How can we compare with the guys on the other side of the mountain in terms of food? Not to mention the old An army like the Guards has its own royal manor, and their food costs are really nothing more than ingredients."

It is planted and processed directly, without middlemen and transportation losses to earn the difference.

"I know!" Karl Franz frowned when he heard that, the price of food in the market was skyrocketing, and because Rickland was dominated by owner farmers and the middle class, it was very difficult to buy military food. The official naysayer: "Heilberg, we're in trouble."

"Trouble?" Marshal Rick still didn't understand, and the emperor continued: "Someone, who didn't know what was going on, got this document, copied it in large quantities and sent it to almost all the barracks in Brunswick. Now, Many soldiers were dissatisfied, and some even started to stop training, demanding that the standard of food be the same as that of the Bretons on the other side of the mountain!"

"What?" Rick Marshal Helberg almost immediately reflected that there were Chaos sect activities: "This must not be an accident, my lord, there must be something strange about it."

"Nonsense, don't I know that this must be a conspiracy of the Chaos sect?" The emperor patted the table, and Karl Franz was furious: "But we all know that these are true, the cloth on the other side of the mountain The food standards of the Retanians are like this. What should we do? Tell the soldiers who defend the country that you are not worthy? Or bury your head in the ground as an ostrich and pretend to be dead, or forcefully keep up with the standard? This is a conspiracy, but There is nothing we can do!"

"I'll take care of the military affairs, Your Majesty." Marshal Rick saluted immediately, and the old marshal also went all out: "Don't worry, the Imperials will always support His Majesty, and the Rick Guards will always support His Majesty."

"Well, as for the Chaos Sect, we also need to investigate in detail." The emperor nodded slightly with a pale face. He was about to say something when Mrs. Hawkswall, the Minister of Finance of the Empire, came in from the outside. Her face was very ugly. : "Your Majesty, there is bad news."

"The negotiation with Marienburg failed?" Karl Franz's face turned livid.

"The merchants in Marienburg refused to accept the grain purchase price we proposed." Mrs. Hawkswall lowered her head and said to the emperor with some hesitation: "They said that they would either buy at a premium, or let His Majesty do it himself. Think of a way, and there are also big problems in purchasing grain, farmers and manor owners are more willing to sell grain to Marienburg merchants than to us."

After the victory in the Battle of Blackfire Pass and promotion to the sanctuary, the emperor's prestige in the empire was at its peak, and Mrs. Hawkswall no longer dared to argue with the emperor: "Even the merchants of Rickland face our Acquisitions are embarrassing."

"What?!" Karl Franz stood up directly, the beard on his face was shaking with anger, and he slapped the armrest of the chair vigorously.

"Hmph! Is there any country that is more tolerant of these business princes than our empire?!"

"Without the defense of the imperial army, where did these merchants grow?"

"Now that something is going on, I really stand by and watch, without knowing anything in return!"

After thinking for a while, the emperor had no choice but to stop temporarily: "What about Brittania? Do they still give priority to supplying Nur?"

"Yes, after all, the special relationship between the Sun King and the Queen..." Hawkswall said hesitantly, "The Nuer side also warned us not to try to destroy the 'friendly relationship' between the Ricks and the Nuer people."

"Forget it, I don't want to hear this." The emperor shook his head, and he turned to his attendants, "Where's Wolfgang? Didn't he say he wanted to visit the zoo this afternoon?"

Wolfgang Holsweig Abernauer, grandson of Emperor Karl Franz's uncle Maximian, nephew of the emperor, recently came to Brunswick for fun, and the emperor made an appointment to bring himself in the afternoon The nephew visited the Imperial Royal Zoo.

In fact, the emperor doesn't like his nephew. He is neither talented nor learned, lazy and undisciplined. He almost never succeeds in the tasks assigned to him. He always likes to call himself the emperor's nephew. He behaves strangely and arrogantly. I don't know why he has to drag his grandfather. When he came to the capital for a visit, the emperor had no choice but to receive him in person. After all, his uncle Maximian gave up participating in the election of the emperor. After Karl Franz ascended the throne, Maximian even moved to live in Talabheim. Karl Franz unleashes all shackles.

The emperor could not but accept this sentiment.

"Let's go." The emperor signaled that the time was almost up.

In the afternoon, it was still snowing outside the house, and the emperor just took a Rick guard and walked in the zoo with his nephew Wolfgang.

It was still the Winter Veil holiday at this time, and there were no people in the Royal Zoo. Since they were relatives of the emperor and Wolfgang made it clear that he hated too many people, he didn’t bring other people with him. As for the Royal Zoo, if there were assassins, Then Karl Franz should have died hundreds of times. The emperor himself is also a strong man in the sanctuary, so there is nothing to fear.

The Rick guard who followed was a native of Rick, named Hermann Konrad von Radz, who was very appreciated by the emperor. The 30-year-old Rick guard quickly held A piping hot bowl of creamy mushroom corn soup was delivered to the emperor: "Your Majesty, creamy mushroom corn soup."

"How could this happen?" Karl Franz expressed surprise.

"Your Majesty Wolfgang, this is specially prepared for you, Your Majesty. It is said that he spent two hours in the kitchen to make it." Rick Guard Herman said seriously: "He heard His Majesty I have the habit of eating something in the afternoon, and I carefully prepare it."

"It's rare, my nephew will also have this habit." Karl Franz glanced at his nephew standing in front of a two-headed griffin, and couldn't help shaking his head: "It's a pity, my nephew really He has no talent, and he hasn't seen him for many years, and he doesn't seem to grow much taller."

Herman glanced at Wolfgang, who was at most 1.6 meters tall, ugly, with a huge aquiline nose, and long messy hair. The Rick guards were not very willing to discuss this topic, so they could only Said: "Your Majesty, it's cold, drink it while it's hot."

The emperor, who had eaten before going out, looked at Herman's armor, burqa, and cloak covered with snow, thinking that he was loyal to his duty, and he had been on guard all day today, and it was very hard work to come out after shifts, so he took a photo He patted Rick's guard on the shoulder: "Thank you for your hard work, I will reward you with this bowl of soup, I don't want to drink now."

"This...but this is cooked for you by Wolfgang." Herman hesitated.

"It's okay, as long as I feel his heart." The emperor showed a standard smile with eight teeth: "Drink it."

"Yes." Herman picked up the spoon clumsily, his gauntleted hands were not very straight, seeing that the emperor didn't mind, he simply picked up the bowl and drank it down.

At this moment, the two-headed griffin in front of Wolfgang noticed Wolfgang who appeared in front of him. The griffin immediately showed a very disgusted expression and roared loudly. Karl Franz's attention was caught Attracted: "What's the matter? Wolfgang, this two-handed griffin was finally caught from the Roof of the World..."

"Uh! Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Before the emperor finished speaking, Herman, the Rick guard, suddenly covered his throat with his hands. Rolling on the ground, black blood flowed out from his eyes, nostrils, mouth, and ears. He struggled violently a few times and stopped moving.

The jade bowl hit the ground and was smashed to pieces, the yellow-white soup inside gradually turned yellow-green.

"What? What's the matter? Hermann?" Karl Franz was shocked, but the screams that followed immediately awakened the warrior's instinct in the first citizen of the empire and the expected warrior, and the emperor immediately Stretching his hand to the Rickling Rune Fang Dragon Tooth Sword at his waist, the sword gleamed with the power of ancient runes belonging to the dwarves.

In the emperor's sight, Wolfgang changed, into a complete monster.

A pair of his eyes fell out like slugs, and were extended by two long sarcoids. Huge bat wings protruded from his back. On the extremely swollen and deformed body, two long claws stretched out. came out, and then flew directly towards the emperor: "Ohhhhh~"

"Wolfgang!" The emperor wanted to swing his sword subconsciously, but he immediately realized that this person was his nephew. Karl Franz rolled sideways to avoid it, and shouted eagerly: "Wolfgang , what's going on with you?!"

"Die! Uncle, for the Red Crown, for Tzeentch!" Wolfgang spread his wings again and flew over, with the reflection of winter shining on his sharp claws.

"..." The emperor looked at Herman, the promising Rick guard, who died suddenly on the spot, and then glanced at the broken jade bowl and thick soup on the ground, and he understood.

The two sides fought for two rounds. The emperor hesitated at the beginning, hoping to catch Wolfgang and ask the church or wizard for help, so that his nephew could be restored to normal. But after a short confrontation, he looked at Wolfgang whose whole body had begun to mutate severely Gang finally understood that his nephew was hopeless.

It is very likely that he drank various potions to force himself to maintain a normal appearance and enter the imperial court.

This is a premeditated assassination!

The emperor took a sharp step forward, attracting his completely mutated nephew to fly towards him, and then easily swiped back. The flaming blade pierced Wolfgang's right leg and chopped off one of his wings. Wolfgang fell to the ground like a rag, hitting a fence head-on, sending splinters flying.

The chaos mutant still wanted to get up, the emperor had already appeared in front of him, the rune fang pierced through his chest, and the power on it gradually made this guy burn to ashes in the flames.

The zoo was in a mess, and the guards and zoo guards who heard the sound of fighting arrived.

Holding the Rune Fang, Karl Franz's heart was as cold as ice like the snow on the ground.

Damn it! Has the corruption of the Tzeentch sect reached this level? Even the grandson of Uncle Maximian...

In the empire, how many people are Chaos followers?

Rickland, Brunswick, the palace... How far has the Chaos Sect penetrated?

Like walking on thin ice, like facing an abyss.