Chapter 1706 Imperial Decree (Ⅰ)

On the morning of November 18th, just like when it set off two weeks ago, the "Lucky" passenger magic airship slowly crossed the clear sky of Midgard Harbor again.

In the first class cabin of the airship, the young mage was sitting by the window, his pretty face was slightly tired.

Looking through the window, the familiar bay, pier and streetscape came into view, and the corners of Joan's lips rose slightly, deeply realizing how good it feels to be home.

Excluding the travel time between the two sides of the ocean by airship, Joann only stayed in the holy city of Ashan for a week.

This is the first time in his life that he has set foot on the land of his home country. The prosperity of the imperial capital is beyond his imagination. The tall and magnificent palace, the wide and tidy streets, especially the quaint old town, are like the epitome of 1,600 years of time. left a particularly deep impression. In contrast, the colonial cities of Layton Port and Midgard, which lack historical accumulation, are not much less prosperous than the Holy City District, but their cultural atmosphere pales in comparison.

On the first day of their arrival in the Holy City, Joan and his party had just disembarked from the airship when they were taken to the most luxurious hotel in the Holy City by a carriage specially sent by the Weinstein Foundation.

The next morning, Dean Franklin, Professor Moriarty and Mr. Tennyson went out to visit friends. Accompanied by the butler sent by the hotel to serve him, Joan went sightseeing in the city and bought special products of the Holy City. As a gift for friends and family.

On November 7, the day of the awards ceremony, the Weinstein Foundation booked the entire hotel as a place to entertain guests.

At first, Joan thought that the Weinstein family really had money and nowhere to spend it, showing unnecessary extravagance everywhere. However, when he learned that there were no less than a thousand guests attending this grand event, he was surprised and realized that these visitors mainly Not to attend the awards ceremony - Joan Vader doesn't have such a big face, but to celebrate the birthday of Albert Weinstein.

Perhaps because of being too nervous, Joan can no longer remember how he got through that whole day, and he is in a daze, as if he is sleepwalking.

But Professor Moriarty, Dean Franklin and Mr Tennyson all said his performance at the ceremony and banquet was impeccable.

He was polite and personable when socializing with others, and he was not so nervous that he forgot his words when he delivered his acceptance speech. Celebrities from all walks of life at the banquet won rounds of applause, and the guests all praised him for being young and mature.

Professor Moriarty told Joan that apart from nervousness, the reason why he couldn't remember the details of that night was that there was a more important reason that too many people offered him a toast that night, and he was too embarrassed to refuse, almost to the point where his drink was almost dry .

Whoever drank so much wine would have to go to the top. Joan could still maintain his sanity and basic sanity in that situation, and he didn't lose his face by drinking madly in public, even if it was rare.

After hearing this, Joan was relieved, not only thankful for his extraordinary drinking capacity that night, but also deeply grateful to Sir Custis for helping him write an excellent acceptance speech.

"In the future, if I get another 'Holy Crown Award' or 'Golden Rod Award' or something, I still have to bother my lord to write it for me... Well, I'm thinking of Tao Zi."

Recalling the dinner that day, Joann only had a deep impression on one thing, that is, His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Frank, attended the old man Alberton's birthday banquet as a student.

Although he was already half drunk at the time, Joan did not forget Sir Custis' entrustment. Taking the opportunity of Prince Frank shaking hands with him, he forcibly brought the topic to the conflict between the colonists of the New World and the aborigines, and asked the Crown Prince to His Highness urged the Imperial Cabinet to mediate the conflict between the two parties.

Joan was sweating nervously at the time, worried that the crown prince would ignore the petition he had submitted, or just find an excuse to push it to the servants to deal with.

However, to his surprise, His Royal Highness Frank, as the crown prince, not only did not take offense at the presumptuous request of this little man, but also seemed particularly enthusiastic. He unfolded the petition on the spot and read it carefully.

After reading the petition, Prince Frank immediately invited Joan to a relatively secluded room next to the banquet hall to have an in-depth discussion with him on the issues of the New World. At that time, the Crown Prince’s friend and financial advisor, a man named John Raul's red-haired man.

The Crown Prince and Mr. Lauer went over the petition submitted by Logan Volsunger on behalf of the natives, and at the same time asked Joann for details that interested them.

Joan tried to answer their questions one by one in an objective and neutral position.

After that, the Dauphin and Monsieur Lauer put him aside for a lively discussion.

Both of them acknowledged the fact that the colonial expansion of the imperial authorities in the New World, which seemed to be a great achievement in opening up territories, was actually a loss-making business.

To put it simply, every time the empire opened up a colony in the New World, it had to pay a huge cost, including establishing an administrative system and sending troops to maintain the security of the colony, and the income from the colony was far from being able to make up for these investments.

For example, this time the imperial government sent nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers across the ocean to fight in Midgard. The expenditures of the army, food, weapons and equipment, transportation, logistics supplies, and even pensions for the casualties of the officers and soldiers added up to an astronomical figure.

This money can only be paid in advance by the imperial finances. However, the imperial government has been in deficit for years and is under great pressure. It simply cannot fill such a big hole. How can it make up for this military expenditure?

It stands to reason that the mother country sent troops to fight across the oceans to protect the lives and property of the colonists. The colonists should not share the cost evenly, right?

The reason is the same, but the colonial residents don't even want to pay the taxes stipulated by the law, and tax evasion and resistance are common, so how can they be willing to pay the extra military expenses that are added to them? It's a genius if you don't fall out!

"The troublemakers in the colony are a group of unfamiliar white-eyed wolves. When they asked the imperial government to send troops to rescue them, they said all kinds of good things. Once the war is over and they can live a peaceful life again, they will put on another mean and mean face. There is nothing more ungrateful than taking a copper coin out of their pockets to be grateful for the sacrifices made by the compatriots in the mother country to protect their homeland."

John Lauer's bitter mockery of the colonists of the New World made Joan feel embarrassed, and what was even more embarrassing was that he had to admit that what the other party said was true.

Just before Joan came to the Holy City, a respectable member of the Midgard Colonial Council initiated a motion, calling on the colonial authorities and all residents to unite and refuse to pay the military expenses demanded by the Imperial Expeditionary Force, because "the Imperial Army protects the Empire It is the duty of the people, and there should be no extra levies and miscellaneous taxes for this.”