#862 War Loan (2)

"Currently, the one-year taxation of all the territories of Efta, including all the income of Elson City, may only reach the equivalent of three million gold coins. This is only a theoretical value. The Kingdom's share of trade, and in the case of arms sales to the Tasman Kingdom..."

Duncan took out a form of his own statistics. Continued: "Master Prime Minister, I have to sigh that the income level of Elson City is astonishing. If this territory is excluded, the income that the entire Efta can provide may be less than one million gold coins. But Elson City It is now in the development period, and more revenue will be spent on more expenses. If you continue to invest in various research and development fields, our military expenditure gap will be at least five million gold coins...

"Don't worry too much about the issue of military expenditure. I have already thought of a solution since I made up my mind to launch this war."

Rody found a letter, "We don't have enough military expenses, but we can borrow them. Rahiman's fleet will arrive in half a month."

Duncan obviously didn't expect such a method to exist. He had heard about "borrowing money to fight wars", but it was extremely rare in the Karen Kingdom. Even if there is a similar situation, it is just a battle of thousands of people in a small territory. Poor collar managers and rich lords borrow usury to recruit mercenaries to work for themselves... Even so, not many people are willing to borrow money. Because the "credibility" of the current lord system is very poor, if a lord is wiped out, then don't think about getting back the money lent out. If the lord becomes bigger, if he wants to get the money back, it depends on whether the other party is willing to say a word. The one who owes the money is the uncle.

The real reputable ones are the royal family and several dukes and marquises, plus the "Rosie Cross". But the amount of wealth of these forces is nothing compared to Rody's current handwriting.

"Is it really okay to borrow so much money from a country?"

"With cobalt-gold ore as a guarantee, and Elson City's magical technology as a deposit, plus some port conditions, Rahiman is obviously willing to cooperate with me."

Roddy's move actually started a long time ago. Since Rahiman's parliament changed direction and he showed his favor to Elson frequently, he has been considering the feasibility of "war loan". Through the strong and wealthy impression I left on them, and Houdini's analysis of this group of parliamentary mages, the loan that had been negotiated since February was finally settled after the new fleet arrived at the port some time ago.

The interest on this loan is kept very low, no more than 7% a year, and it only needs to be paid off in three years. This means that Roddy has taken care of his "worries" for at least 8 months, and he doesn't have to think about tightening his belt on everything.

What fights in war is economic strength. In this respect, the royal family, which has almost zero foreign trade and can only rely on its old background, is no opponent at all. Roddy's war budget is eight million gold coins, and if Charles II fights according to the traditional model, the budget will be less than one million gold coins after one year of fighting. At the same time, for the royal family that has been ravaged by orcs,

Whether we can come up with so much money is another matter.

Duncan calculated an account in his heart, and suddenly felt that most of the boulder pressing on his heart disappeared. Originally, he didn't think that Rody could have any profound insights in the economy, but he was still a bit airy in his heart. After seeing Roddy's ability to borrow money in units of "countries", he really admired this kind of execution ability. something to say...

"If we can solve this problem, the war is already half won!"

This is his biggest emotion, money is too important for war. He has witnessed the failure of many large and small wars... not because the soldiers are not good enough, but because the fighting party has spent all the money and is not enough to eat, and no army can escape the end of self-defeat without fighting.

Other members of the staff team were also surprised by the amazing loan method and amount, and they even didn't believe each other. But Rody didn't have much feeling for such behavior. In the era he experienced, "borrowing money to fight wars" has almost become a common occurrence in modern times, but Rody is not a war madman whose purpose is to "defeat the enemy". Remember one principle: War is the continuation of politics.

The purpose of launching this war and the follow-up plan have already been included in the future strategic policy. Roddy's fundamental purpose now is very clear, he has now bet on the future of Elson and even the entire Everta.

What the future holds depends on how this battle can be fought.

*****

On May 1st, troops began to gather in the eastern part of the Karen Kingdom.

Because Earl Mirno died in last year's war, and Earl Moore who dealt with the orcs was replaced later, it is now difficult for Charles II to find the most suitable candidate for the war.

In the era of cold weapons, Charles II had little choice in strategic planning. The only thing he can do is to gather the army to take down the outpost of Efta, the "Holy Temple", and then march westward, step by step. Only after he successfully entered the hinterland of Efta, did he have to consider how many routes to attack other places.

After all, the only way for him to enter Efta is to allow the army to turn over the mountains in the middle? That's just talking in your sleep.

Even with the support of the dragon clan, Charles II would not really think that these dragons were willing to help him transport the army from the top of the mountain. So far, the biggest support provided by the Dragon Clan is the "Dragon Tower" Academy of Magic and magic guidance. Although it doesn't sound like much, as long as this kind of support exists, the royal family's prestige can be established, and the surrounding lords, big and small, will not have half-hearted dissent.

Under such circumstances, Charles II's mood of not being able to find a suitable commander also improved a lot. In his eyes, the battle to be fought now does not have much technical content. Before dealing with the orcs, it was because the orcs were powerful and came and went like the wind, so someone who was good at field combat was needed to deal with them in time. Now Efta is completely on the defensive. Charles II and the nobles under him analyzed and analyzed, and they all think that Sally has no courage to take the initiative to attack, and must rely on the fortress to do defensive battles. Therefore, the final order was to let Earl Harrison in the northeast of the kingdom take the lead.

Earl Harrison is nearly fifty this year. As he guards the northeast of the kingdom, he has to face the attacks of scattered bandits from the eastern mountains all the year round. Over the past 20 years, he has accumulated a lot of combat experience. Sauron led the orc troops through his territory last year. Earl Harlinson had almost no losses because of the timely contraction of the defense. This made Charles II very concerned and thought he was a talent.

In fact, it was because Sauron had no time to talk to him.

The mountains to the east can also be regarded as a natural barrier. The countries dotted across the mountains on the other side have been in civil strife for the past ten years, and there is no tendency to send troops to fight at all. There are some roads between the mountains, and occasionally caravans come to the Karen Kingdom to exchange goods, but this situation completely disappeared after the orc Sauron led his troops through.

Earl Harrison had gathered a lot of troops in fear that Sauron would shoot back his carbine. But one winter passed, and the scouts sent said that Sauron should have crossed to the other side of the mountain, and there was no trace of this group of guys except for the corpses of orcs who died of illness within the border.

The earl was thus relieved. However, he did not expect that he would be assigned the task of attacking Efta in the new year. At this time, he would really like to decline, but he thought that Charles II now has the support of the dragon clan, and the territorial economy really needs special means to recover. After pros and cons, he finally took over the task.

Earl Harlinson's domain is just to the east of the "Temple" area. Whether it is economy or belief, the "Holy Temple" has a considerable influence in the territory. It's just that after Charles II's ban, he had to cut off all contacts with the "temple" after the situation became tense. All the monasteries in the city were shut down by him. In order to avoid suspicion, the bishops and priests were directly locked up by him.

Needless to say, the economic losses caused by this series of actions, now that he has become the leader of the "Western Expeditionary Army", he can only hope to get rid of Efta as soon as possible to make up for his losses.

Now that the "Assembly Order" has been issued, the number of nobles and nobles that Earl Harrison can gather together amounts to about forty, and the total number of knights, knight retinues, and soldiers they each brought exceeds 2,000. And tens of thousands of troops were gathered from other territories of the kingdom, and they were rushing here in batches.

"This fact is too troublesome!"

Earl Harrison, who was sitting in the mansion, couldn't help complaining. In front of him, letters from various regions had piled up into a mountain. If he hadn't recruited three butlers temporarily to form a "staff team", he would not be able to handle this complicated information by himself.

"For an army of 20,000 people, the consumption of eating all day is scary enough. Where can I get so much food? When the orcs passed by me, they robbed hundreds of sheep in the pasture. Your Majesty It’s going to give me a hard time!”

The three housekeepers were too busy to talk to each other at this time. Earl Harrison's previous "combat" was to deal with refugees or bandits. But three hundred people. It was the first time for him to command a large army of tens of thousands of people who belonged to different lords at the same time...Because he had no experience, it was inevitable that he would be burnt out.

Of course, being able to stand in this position also means that Charles II takes a fancy to him. The war funds appropriated by the royal family have made Harrison's heart flutter for a long time. For him, the gold coins leaked into his bowl by just doing a few small tricks are incomparable to the territory for more than ten years...

So now he can be described as painful and happy.