1855 Repressive Rule

Commander-in-Chief Pengeo, who was about to leave the palace, suddenly stopped and looked at a small stand beside the aisle.

Deep red wood with gold trim, it wasn't gold, it was a gold paint.

Sometimes some things are magical, such as people's fascination with gold.

For example, people will make gold paint in unison!

This is not just because of its color. When smelting technology was not yet developed, copper and brass performed much better than gold with low purity in terms of color.

But people still use gold to make various utensils instead of brass.

What gave the Commander-in-Chief pause was not the gold paint, but the stand itself.

It was a four-legged stand that looked about 1.2 meters tall. It was a typical Gevra medieval style, with beautiful craftsmanship and luxury.

He walked to the stand and picked up a vase placed on it with his hand. It looked very beautiful.

But his attention stayed on the stand.

He touched the embossment formed by placing items there for a long time, then compared it with the vase in his hand, and his expression became serious.

sorry.

He put the vase back and it was smaller. It was obvious that the vase was not originally placed here.

Emperor Pengeo did not order the palace to be moved, so they kept the palace as it was as much as possible, and then they took photos to keep in the archives.

After the news comes from the country, they will dismantle the things here and send some of the items selected by His Majesty the Emperor back to the country.

Then, not far from the Pengeo Imperial Palace, a small palace was built based on the prototype in the photo to prove the empire's conquest of it!

From the moment the landing ship docks, everything in this country is the wealth of the empire!

Right under his nose, someone stole something from this place, stealing the wealth that belonged to the empire.

"Bring the Secretary of War over."

The Commander-in-Chief knows very well that if anyone has the ability to steal the things inside, it must be a person with great power.

He heard that the Minister of War had controlled all access to the palace before he arrived. Apart from him, it was impossible for more people to do such a thing.

The Minister of War arrived here soon. He is now working in the palace and is responsible for assisting Pengeo's army to further plunder the wealth of the empire.

He didn't know what happened, and he felt a little uneasy.

"Commander-in-Chief..."

The commander-in-chief glanced at him sideways and said, "Follow me."

As he spoke, he walked towards the flower stand between the two stands. Behind the flower stand was an oil painting.

He stood in front of the oil painting and looked at it for a while, then reached out and touched the oil painting.

Just such a small action made the Minister of War break into a cold sweat!

Oil painting is the accumulation of colors. It is not a flat art of smearing, but an art of accumulation of oil.

The surface of the paint that was obviously higher than the canvas had solidified and hardened, but as the commander pressed hard, it gradually began to collapse and deform, and the solidified paint on the surface also began to crack.

He glanced sideways at the War Secretary again and moved to the next stand.

This time, he didn't even need to look carefully to see that the thing on the stand was just a worthless handicraft.

Although crafts and works of art overlap in nature, crafts are crafts and can never become works of art.

It directly threw the handicraft to the ground!

At this time, he turned to look at the Minister of War, "I need an explanation."

The Minister of War was silent. Not speaking at this time was the best choice.

Say you don't know?

Then maybe the Commander-in-Chief will ask him to investigate and give him a deadline.

If he "can't find it", there may be worse consequences.

Apologize for this?

This is not a good choice. Since you have chosen to surrender, you still want to make profits from it. This is not cunning, nor is it smart.

This is fucking asking for death!

His best answer now is silence. With his current importance, at least the Commander-in-Chief will not embarrass him too much.

After all, it is still somewhat troublesome to find someone who can replace him.

The silence lasted for more than ten seconds, and the commander-in-chief's eyes remained on the Minister of War. He was under great pressure!

Fortunately, his bet was right, and the Commander-in-Chief quickly looked away and continued walking outside.

"The federation announced that Fula would stop settlement. Our original plan fell through, but that's not important."

"Do you know the new order I issued this morning?"

He refers to the seizure of all valuable things from the people, gold, silver, jewelry, works of art, anything from before!

Even some luxury cars were driven to the port to be transported back home.

The Secretary of War nodded, "Yes, I heard."

The commander-in-chief stopped as he spoke, turned to look at him, and pressed the whip in his hand on the shoulder of the Minister of War, "Don't do anything you will regret."

"We need to collect these things as soon as possible, then we can't wait too long!"

The Minister of War bowed his head.

"Go to work, there will be time to rest!"

After the Minister of War left, the commander-in-chief looked at his adjutant and said, "Gather all the painters in this city, including those from the royal family."

"There are also those craftsmen who make art. I want to know who is stealing the wealth of the empire!"

The adjutant was ordered to leave.

In fact, for the Commander-in-Chief, these works of art are not necessary. The price of works of art during the war can almost be described as cheap!

Just like now, the prices of other genuine works of art in the palace are very low.

It's one thing if they're worthless, it's another thing if someone steals them!

He vaguely believed that the Minister of War must have done this, but there was no evidence for the time being, but he thought that was it.

He also heard from other channels that the Minister of War once said the "preservation theory". He believed that the temporary surrender was to preserve strength.

After the war is over in the future, the country's strength can be restored more quickly.

Originally, the Commander-in-Chief was not interested in what he said, or in other words, he didn't care.

A traitor will always have thousands of reasons to make excuses for his betrayal. He will not let those who betrayed this country lose their last fig leaf if they cooperate with him.

But now, he must let the Secretary of War understand that he has done a stupid thing——

If he is the thief!

The Minister of War who walked out of the palace was obviously a little angry. His little thoughts were discovered, and of course it was because everything happened too fast.

He didn't have much time to prepare, less than a month. In such a short time, he actually couldn't reproduce all the artworks well.

Except for the top ones, the others basically just look alike, and are essentially imitation crafts.

He also had a sense of urgency. He was not sure whether there would be anything wrong with this matter in the end. After all, there were too many things involved.

He has dealt with everything he thinks should be dealt with, and the rest can only be left to God's will!

It took four days to open the vault of the Royal Bank of Gefra.

The moment the door opened, everyone held their breath.

In Gafra, the largest national bank is the Royal Bank, where everyone from commoners to nobles and even the royal family store their wealth.

It is said to have the strongest treasury in the world, and indeed it is.

The special alloy process took the demolition team four days to drill a hole in the vault.

Countless gold bricks are neatly placed together, and each gold brick is stamped with the number of Royal Bank of Gefra, purity, already 440.

Each pile consists of one hundred pieces, arranged in a staggered manner. Everywhere you look are piles of gold bricks, and the entire treasury is suffused with gold.

The commander-in-chief quickly came to his senses and said, "Immediately arrange for people to pack the boxes. No problems are allowed. These things must be sent back as soon as possible."

"Check out what else is in the safe, transport the valuable ones back, and destroy the worthless ones..."

This much gold should be enough for the empire to temporarily relieve the economic pressure!

Above ground, loudspeakers broadcast new city management policies.

In the new policy, all doors in places where everyone lives must not be locked, and all doors and windows are only allowed to be fully open or fully closed.

It is not allowed to leave doors and windows ajar, and it is not allowed to stand casually behind windows, doorways, etc. in shadows and visual blind spots that are not easily visible.

If someone does that, the patrolling soldiers on the street can shoot them down at any time!

In addition, from now on, the city will have a complete water outage and power supply will be provided in stages.

Each household is registered and declared to receive drinking water based on its population. All wells must be actively broken and sealed, and it is prohibited to draw water from the river.

Violators of drinking water regulations will be directly punished by death...

A large number of new high-pressure policies suppress the ordinary people. Not only do they not receive much living security, but they also have to work voluntarily.

Whether they are men, women, the elderly, or even children, they all have to work in order to obtain limited food.

The sky above the entire Gafra is like heavy dark clouds, not only blocking the sunshine, but also tightly binding people's hearts!

Despair, depression, and lifelessness are what is shown here now.

The Minister of War obviously became a thorn in people's eyes. He asked the army to cooperate with the Penteo people to suppress and control the Gefra people.

People actually hated the Minister of War and the Army more than they hated the Penteo invaders.

In order to ensure that the overall interests of the army are not excessively infringed, under the coordination of the Minister of War, a part of the special zone has been set aside in each city.

Families of Army members can move into the special zone, retain their private property, have unlimited supplies of water, food and electricity, and do not need to work.

The Minister of War knew very well that this was a trap set by the Penteo people, but he had no choice but to step into it.

He has no choice!