Give Me the Name of God

Hema held a torch and led Hermes and Pan to a corner deep in the cliff, where it was blank and covered with moss and vines.

Hermes observed it from all angles, shook his head and said, "I don't think there is anything special here."

Hema peeled off a small piece of moss, revealing the mottled and rough stone surface: "Do you feel special now?"

Hermes observed for a while and then shook his head.

Herma scraped off all the moss, and Hermes seemed to see something: "Could it be said that here..."

"This is the clay taken from Hephaestus." Hema took out a clay pot and spread the reconciled clay on the stone surface.

After the clay dried, Pan Shen also discovered the problem. He touched the clay and the surrounding stone surfaces, and they felt very smooth, without any abruptness.

Hermes touched again and again between the stone surface and the clay, muttering to himself: "Someone has pulled a stone from the cliff."

"More than one, father," Hema said, "I have found three depressions, all like this, very inconspicuous. I haven't searched all the rock walls yet, and there may be places I missed."

…

Manda peeled a piece of apple and stuffed it into Kissin's mouth. Kissin devoured it. In the past few days, he had neither eaten nor drank water, but he had lost a lot of blood.

"You must be so hungry," Manda peeled off another piece, "Why bother yourself so much? I have prepared fine wine and roast chicken for you. As long as you answer me one question, what is the name of your leader?" "

Kissin licked the remaining juice on his lips and said resolutely: "I have said countless times that members of the monastery have no right to inquire into the secrets of the leader and have no right to know everything about the president."

"Just a little information, a little information is enough, even if it's a pseudonym, you have to have a way of calling him."

"We always called him Chief."

Manda stuffed the peeled apple into her mouth: "It seems that we have reached an impasse again. I can only let my family entertain you."

Manda left, and Worm stood in front of Kissin, with worm threads spitting out from his fangs, and bursts of wailing could be heard in the cell.

…

Not allowed to fight or kill, Manda could only stay in the royal capital.

Life in the royal capital is not that boring. The Minister of State has a lot to do.

Manda has always been too lazy to deal with government affairs. He always believes that as long as the rules are set, the country will run the way he wants.

This was true in the peaceful years, but now the days are not so peaceful. The food shortage has not been completely solved. The food of the Qinges people continues to be sent to the port. The food before the New Year is available. After the New Year, the food will be available until next autumn. Kaijie Luo also agreed to deliver it, but the price would double.

"Food is becoming less and less and more precious. It is not easy to collect farmers' grain reserves. I have to pay a higher price."

Manda agreed with Cajero's opinion, but the doubled price was a little hard to accept: "You know, I'm a little tight on money. In addition to food, there are a lot of things I have to spend money on."

Kjero frowned and said, "But it's really hard to buy food after the New Year."

"I understand, I won't let you suffer too much. By this time next year, I have completely overcome the difficulties. I will encourage the nobles to buy more silk, and only buy your silk, because from today on, there are only You can sell silk.”

Exclusive trade, Kegelo is very satisfied with this: "With your sincerity, I can earn less, make a few more trips, and add 40% more than the original price, I should be able to buy enough food."

Doubling the amount turned into an increase of 40%. Manda was very satisfied. He poured Cajero a glass of wine and the deal was concluded.

Cagero drank it all in one gulp and sighed: "I want to make a vulgar metaphor. I hope you don't mind. When you meet someone you like, you can pee into a wine bottle."

Peeing into a wine pot is such a friendly saying. Manda pretended to be surprised and asked: "Why do you pee into a wine pot?"

Cajero shrugged and said, "My father always likes to say this, and I don't know what it means. Maybe it's because the jug is too small. It's not easy for one person to pee in, and it's even harder for two people to urinate at the same time. This is a testament to our strong friendship.”

Manda picked up the wine can again: "Drink another drink for our friendship."

…

After sending Kejiro away, the ministers came again. They came to share Manda's worries.

They knew that the kingdom was short of money, and the difficult situation kept them awake at night because they knew where Manda got the money.

In order to help the kingdom get out of trouble, they recommended a talent to Manda.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs recommended: "This is Aix, the second son of Viscount Bert. He has traveled around the world and accumulated good knowledge. He just hopes that one day he will have an opportunity to serve you."

"Wrong choice of words," Manda corrected the Foreign Minister, "You are not working for me, you are working for the kingdom!"

Akers walked up to Manda calmly and bowed calmly. This man was about thirty years old, with a shrewd appearance and a dignified temperament. It was obvious that he did have some knowledge.

After sitting down, Akers took the lead in asking: "Sir, what problems do you think need to be solved in the kingdom?"

He has such a good aura, he speaks as if he can solve all problems.

"The kingdom has many problems that need to be solved. It would take days and nights to list them in detail."

"You are serious. In fact, there is only one problem to be solved, wealth."

Manda looked at Che Erdan beside her.

Che Erdan raised his eyebrows. He didn't like this person's attitude too much.

Talented people may be a little arrogant, but Manda didn't mind too much. He smiled and said, "Go on."

Akers seemed to be a man who knew how to speak well. Manda asked him to continue speaking, but he refused to speak directly. Instead, he tried to hide it: "Sir, I would like to take the liberty to ask you where do you think the wealth of the kingdom comes from? Coming?"

This rhetorical question made Che Erdan even more dissatisfied, but Manda unexpectedly answered: "Farmers, craftsmen, and businessmen, wealth comes from them."

"What you said is not accurate." Akers tipped the cup upside down on the table. "There are only two sources of wealth, one from outside the kingdom and one from within the kingdom. You are a peace-loving person. If this cup Below is the land of the kingdom. Since you don’t like war, we can’t dig up the wealth outside, we can only dig deeper into the land under the cup.”

Manda frowned: "You want me to exploit civilians?"

"Don't use the word squeeze. The wealth of the common people belongs to the kingdom. You are just taking the wealth back temporarily."

"You should know how many penniless refugees there are in the kingdom now."

"Don't underestimate the power of the refugees. They seem to have nothing, but they still have flesh and blood. Let's put them aside first. In addition to the refugees, there are also a large number of civilians living in the south and southwest. They have not left their homeland. In addition to the food for subsistence, they also have excess wealth. This wealth is our main goal. Of course, you don’t have to do this kind of thing yourself. It will damage your reputation. Just leave these things to the nobles. good."

Manda was surprised: "Would nobles do such a thing for me?"

"My lord, does the land of the kingdom belong to the king or the nobles?" Akers asked again.

The Romulu Kingdom is a feudal kingdom. The land belongs to the king in name, but actually belongs to the lords of various places. This question is really difficult to answer.

Ax replied for Manda: "The land of the kingdom only belongs to the king. The nobles are eligible to use the land only after they have been rewarded by the king. You can take back part of the land of the nobles and let the nobles pay to redeem it. , the nobles will not create wealth out of thin air, they will follow this approach, take away the land from the common people, and then let them pay to take it back. In this way, you gain wealth for the kingdom, and the grievances of the common people will be borne by the nobles ."

Che Erdan was stunned. What this arrogant man said did make sense.

Manda nodded and said: "Why didn't I think of such a good method? Should we take back all the land of the nobles?"

Akers shook his head and said: "Don't act too hastily, otherwise it will provoke rebellion. We will first attack some nobles in the south and only take 30% of their land. If they dare to resist, they must be severely punished to set an example. After success, We can continue to take back the lands of nobles in other areas, and the lands of the nobles in the royal capital can be exempted from taking back. The stability of the royal capital is more important than anything else."

Upon hearing this, the Foreign Minister nodded with satisfaction.

Manda nodded and said: "What price should I use to let the nobles redeem the land? I'm afraid it's too high and it's not appropriate."

"Sir, you may have never been to Bayer Country. You don't know what the price of land there is. In Silver Bear City, the value of a small courtyard is comparable to one of our manors. Even if you charge ten times the current price, It’s not much. Every inch of land in the kingdom is gold, so it should be sold at the price of gold, otherwise it won’t be worthy of the status of our kingdom!

When you have enough wealth, you can gather the refugees and sell them into slaves. You only need to give them food to survive, and you can continue to create wealth for you, and our kingdom will gain unprecedented prosperity. "

Manda praised: "Well said!"

Akers bowed deeply: "You are very grateful, my lord, this is just the first step of my plan for you. The land of the kingdom is very deep, and there is still a lot of wealth waiting for us to dig. The people of the kingdom are very hard-working, and they still have a lot of wealth." You can contribute more.”

Manda nodded and said, "You are lucky."

Akers smiled and said: "Being able to follow you, I believe that outstanding talents will eventually be put to use."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Manda smiled. "You showed up when I didn't want to kill anyone. You're really lucky."