Chapter 245

"Everyone, you are willing to help me in my most critical moment. I, Orson, will remember this kindness in my heart."

"Duke Orson, you are too kind. We didn't do anything." A mercenary leader said with a smile.

"That's right. We are the ones who can help a hero like you. It's because of you that we are able to help." Another bearded mercenary also praised Orson.

Of course, everyone present knew it well at this moment.

Except for the armed forces formed by the citizens outside, there is no such thing as "righteous indignation" by others. It's all because of money.

Without money, how can these smart mercenaries help?

"I know you have worked hard." Orson said with a smile.

"But I have to say it first."

Orson stood up and looked at the others.

"Now that we have united, I don't want to see betrayal."

"To be honest, my father-in-law, the Duke of Prussia, is sending 100,000 troops here, and my father, the Duke of Antica, has also sent 70,000."

"You all know my minister, the Prime Minister of Napoli, Celinina, after all, she hired you."

"In this case, I believe you all know the possibility of our victory."

"The royal family now will definitely fight to the death, and in this case you will definitely be the target of their pursuit."

"But we will definitely win, so you should know what to do next."

Orson said this, looking at the mercenary leaders around him and smiled.

This is persuasion and warning.

Chapter 54: The End of Betrayal (4K)

Faced with Orson's warning, most of the mercenary leaders present were quite sensible, but there were also a few troublemakers who were dissatisfied with it.

Mercenaries have always acted according to their own wishes, and they can only obtain the highest benefits by waiting for the price. This is their consistent style of doing things. Now Orson actually wants them to give up their previous ideas, which is obviously impossible.

"I'm sorry, Lord Orson, you should know that we mercenaries do a life of danger, living day by day, and we live for the day. What we hate most is promises that cannot be fulfilled, so please understand us."

"Of course, I understand you."

Orson opened his hands and said frankly.

"We have paid you a deposit, and the daily maintenance fee will be paid to you on time. I think we are very sincere, right?"

"Of course, if the royal family pays more money than us, what will you do?"

Hearing this, the mercenary leaders fell silent.

Orson has already made it clear for these mercenaries to stand in line.

If they choose to stand on Orson's side, of course there is no problem, but once they have the intention to defect, they will definitely be hated by Orson.

It depends on whether they choose to believe that the royal family can win, or that the Elsa faction led by Orson can win.

After a long time, a mercenary leader stood up and said, "I believe in Lord Orson's strength."

Osson saw the other party's first move to show loyalty, and smiled and shook his head.

"No, you need to believe in justice."

Afterwards, more and more mercenary leaders stood up and expressed their loyalty to Orson. Even the few mercenary leaders who were unwilling to cooperate just now stood up and said a few polite words reluctantly.

There is no way, this is the herd effect.

Everyone agreed to cooperate with Orson. If he sang the opposite tune at this time, let alone how Orson himself would view it, other colleagues would have a different attitude towards him.

It's okay, at worst, he can find another way out after returning.

The mercenaries are not stupid, and they can naturally see the current situation.

And Orson looked at the scene of everyone in the house swearing allegiance, and nodded with satisfaction.

It's not that he doesn't have the financial resources to keep these mercenaries directly by spending money, but if he spends money directly, the price he pays will be too high.

Naples had just ended the war and was in urgent need of recovery. The royal territory and Saint Laurent City had also been destroyed by the war, and post-war reconstruction required a lot of funds.

Even if the Lison Chamber of Commerce was rich, it had only risen for less than a year. With the financial support of several dukes, it could only barely exceed the current royal treasury.

This was also thanks to Odysseus not being a monarch who was good at making money, otherwise the situation Orson was facing would be even more difficult.

After everyone else left the room, a little blonde girl came out of the compartment next to it.

"How about it, do you want me to help you get rid of those disobedient guys?"

Franca said this, grinning slightly, revealing her cute little tiger teeth.

"You can do this when necessary."

Orson said so.

...

On the other side, the imperial treasury of Saint Laurent City.

This is the place where the most money is stored in the entire empire. Although many dignitaries took a lot of money from the treasury in advance due to the previous turmoil in the imperial city, there is still a large amount of money used to ensure the normal operation of the treasury.

Now, Arthas was preparing to enter the vault with his men.

At the door of the vault, the administrator saw the emperor in person and asked in confusion:

"Your Majesty, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to borrow some money." Arthas said bluntly.

"Now that the war is urgent, we must mobilize all available resources to deal with our enemies. The money in the treasury will not increase, but if I defeat the enemies, the money I can plunder from them will be endless. ”

Arthas said this, trying to persuade the treasury administrator to let him in through non-violent means.

However, the treasury administrator obviously couldn't be a fool. After listening to Alsace's words, he hesitated for a moment and then shook his head.

"Your Majesty, if someone is going to withdraw a sum of funds from the treasury during this period, we will not be able to send it out if we don't have the money. In this way, the credibility of the treasury will be greatly reduced. Moreover, if the debt is not paid after the war, The treasury...will completely lose its operational vitality.”

After all, the treasury is built with the credit of the royal family and the government as a guarantee. Once the royal family's credit collapses, the treasury will collapse sooner or later.

"So, you would rather let your emperor lose the war and lose the throne because he doesn't have enough money on the front line?"

Arthas looked at the administrator in front of him with a hint of sullenness in his tone.

"No, no, no... of course that's not my idea, but... Your Majesty, after all, we have to consider the future of the empire. Once the treasury collapses, the empire's business will be greatly affected, and robbers will become even more rampant."

Yes, the treasury itself was established to facilitate the transactions of wealthy people such as merchants and nobles. Merchants did not need to worry about their money being exposed and suffered losses when transporting goods, and the currency circulating between treasury can also be transferred through the royal family. The regular army came to escort us, so it was quite safe.

The original policy was undoubtedly conducive to business. Merchants only needed to withdraw currency from the local treasury to pay the locals. It became more difficult for robbers and thieves to take advantage of the opportunity to rob, and the cost of protection required by the merchants was reduced. After all, the empire's commodity economy was actually quite prosperous.

Once the credit of the treasury collapses, wealthy people will withdraw their assets from the treasury, and the cash flow of the treasury will be broken and unsustainable.

The first is that the empire's business is facing a very serious blow.

There is no money in the treasury, which means that merchants must bring their own money to the place of origin to purchase goods. The cost of guarding during this journey increases. Money exposed for a long time will undoubtedly become fat in the eyes of thieves and bandits, making them salivate. .

Thieves and bandits will risk their lives for exposed coins, and their numbers will increase.

At the same time, due to the increase in security costs and the increase in risks on trade routes, merchants will increase the original price of goods in order to recover costs.

When the price of goods increases, the people who buy the goods will pay a higher price, and may even become unable to make ends meet and their families will be ruined.

Poverty leads to more homelessness and crime, which increases the dangers of trade routes.

Therefore, the empire's treasury cannot collapse no matter what, otherwise the empire will face a quite serious economic crisis.

Under such circumstances, if Alsace wanted to withdraw the currency from the empire's treasury, the administrator would have no choice but to force him with his life.

The administrator stood in front of Alsace, opening his hands to block his way.

"Your Majesty, our family has protected the empire during our time.

Treasury, no one understands the role of the treasury better than us. This is related to the economic lifeline of the empire. It’s not that we are unwilling to open the door to Your Majesty... but that Your Majesty, you don’t know the serious consequences of doing so..."

"If this precedent is set and the government loses trust, tens of thousands of people in the empire will starve and eventually become bandits, jeopardizing your Majesty's rule!"

As the administrator said this, he almost burst into tears. In the end, he even knelt down and begged Arthas not to do this.

However, Alsace just looked at him coldly, and then said:

"As the administrator of the empire's treasury, you have been sitting in this position for too long, and you have lost your judgment."

Alsace kicked him away, and the administrator's back hit the wall next to him hard, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Listen, as a subject of the empire, the emperor's orders are your top priority. If you don't even listen to my orders, then there is no need to stay in this position."

"In the empire, the emperor is heaven, and everything must serve the emperor."

Alsace said this, and greeted his men to walk in.

"Go in and remove all the money inside."

Subsequently, countless imperial troops rushed into the imperial treasury and moved out the currencies that had been stored there for a long time.

The administrator looked at what the Forbidden Army had done and could only collapse on the ground helplessly, lamenting the changes in the world.

"His Majesty."

Seeing that Alsace had not left, he finally spoke slowly:

"If that day does come, don't blame me for not reminding you. The impact your actions will have on the empire will be countless."

"If that day comes, I will personally go to your grave to apologize."

Alsace said this and turned to leave.

Before leaving, he ordered the keeper of the imperial treasury to be executed for treason and then seized the family's property.

…

It was late at night and Rosalind organized a meeting.

Even though the city of Saint Laurent has fallen into civil war, there are still many neutral areas where people from both sides can negotiate.

In this meeting, there were many mercenary leaders who had attended Orson's meeting before.

"Queen Rosalind, you should know what drives us together."

A mercenary leader said this and made a gesture asking for money.

The other mercenary leader whistled and looked at Rosalin with a hint of amusement.

"Queen, if you don't want to give money and pay something else, we won't accept it."

Listening to the other party's frivolous words, Rosalin suppressed her inner unhappiness, showed a smile, and then said:

"Of course I know what our situation is now, and I also know what you need most."

Rosalin said this and made a list.

"Oxen and the others must have given you a lot of money, right? The Lissen Chamber of Commerce behind him is really extraordinary. It has amassed so much wealth in such a short period of time."

"But don't forget who the most powerful person in the empire is."

Rosalin handed the list to a mercenary leader present.

"This is the royal family's treasury. There are currently 30 million gold coins. I promise you that if everything is done, half of the money here will be yours alone. Of course, I didn't come to this meeting empty-handed. I brought 100 A deposit of 10,000 gold coins, if you are willing to accept this deposit, then we have established cooperation. "

A mercenary leader frowned when he heard this, and then looked at each other with several colleagues around him, communicating their thoughts with their eyes.

Finally, one of them spoke on behalf of all the mercenary leaders:

"I'm sorry, it's not that we don't want to do this, it's just... isn't this one million a bit too little? You know, the deposits Orson and the others gave us far exceeded this number."

After hearing what the other party said, Rosalin was stunned for a moment, and then asked: "How much do you want?"

The other person raised five fingers.

"Five million, we need one-third of the money as a deposit, how about it?"

"...Five million, this is not a small amount of money..." Rosalin hesitated for a while and then said.

"However, for the royal family, five million can solve an urgent need, which is quite cost-effective, right? After all, you are short of everything now, just a little money. When the political situation stabilizes in the future, you will still be short of money.

? "