Urban Sims

The royal capital, Dello City.

In the palace, at the imperial meeting.

The royal family, represented by King James, had a fierce quarrel with the noble ministers.

"There are 18 counties, the royal family must take 6, not one less!"

"The royal family has spent 10 million gold coins, and the royal family has spent half of the military expenditure. The royal family must have a share of the spoils!"

"Don't even think about swallowing all the loot!"

The old fox Roberts said in a hoarse voice. He had repeated these words dozens of times, and his voice was almost hoarse.

But the nobles headed by Rudolph also retorted with the same words.

"We have signed an agreement with His Majesty. Your Majesty cannot violate the agreement or go back on your word!"

"What's more, the royal family is spending money to keep Princess Xivenis. The royal family should spend this money!"

"Also, we spent a total of 45 million gold coins on this war, and the royal family's money only accounts for a small part, not half!"

"So all the spoils of this war should belong to us."

said a noble with a loud voice.

It immediately attracted a lot of approval.

"Yes, your Majesty is the king, and you must never go back on your promise or break your promise!"

"Although we won 18 counties, we also suffered huge losses. The royal family only spent a little money."

"We conquered these territories based on our ability, why should the royal family take one third of them?"

"No, absolutely not!"

Speaking of the trap that contained the agreement, King Jaime was both regretful and angry.

He even patted his head with his hand and denied it flatly: "What agreement? I am old and dizzy, and I can't remember the agreement."

"Your Majesty, your name is written in black and white on a piece of paper."

Immediately, a nobleman took out the agreement from his sleeve, handed it to King James, and asked him to recognize the writing in the lower right corner.

The self-proclaimed "old man" King James is quick-sighted and ready to seize the agreement, tear it into pieces, and destroy all traces of the agreement.

But the noble reacted faster and immediately took back the agreement, raised his eyebrows and said: "Your Majesty, you are the king, do you want to cheat?"

"Your Majesty, what if you tear up the agreement? There were still more than 30 nobles serving as notaries at that time. Your memory is not very good, but our memories are very good."

"Your Majesty, don't waste your efforts anymore. You have no share in the spoils of this war! Hahaha~"

Amid the proud laughter of the nobles, King James' face became increasingly ugly.

Old Fox Roberts also said coldly:

"You secretly formulate military plans without His Majesty's knowledge, and use the King's troops to seek your own interests... This is an unforgivable crime of deceiving the King!"

"Even if you have 18 extra earl lands in your hands, if His Majesty does not recognize it and grant you a title, you will still not be able to legally own these lands."

"The only way for His Majesty to forgive you now is to give part of the loot to the royal family."

"This is best for everyone."

Roberts said in a threatening tone.

The nobles immediately became silent, as if they had been hit in their weak spots.

It is true that the king signed the "Spoils of War Distribution Agreement", but he signed it under the premise of being deceived. If King James knew that this battle could reap so many benefits, he would not have signed the agreement!

Secondly, the 18 newly added earl territories are enough to entrust 18 actual earls, or even two or three dukes... There are even more viscounts and barons waiting to be entrusted.

If the king does not agree to the enfeoffment, everyone will get the land, but it will not be real, which will bring a lot of inconvenience.

Even without the protection of the kingdom, they may be attacked by the Soliu Kingdom.

No spoils will be distributed to the royal family. The royal family's counterattack will make everyone uncomfortable.

Even from a win-win situation to a mutual loss situation.

But the royal family wanted to swallow up 6 counties and take away one-third of the land, and the nobles could not agree.

The scene fell into an extremely rigid state.

At this time, Zhou Ming had to stand up.

resolve this impasse.

How to resolve it?

Use a small portion of the profits to settle the royal family.

After three days of discussion and reaching an agreement, Zhou Ming, as the representative of the nobles, stood in front of King James and showed his "sincerity."

"The 10 million gold coins that the royal family paid out before are now all returned to His Majesty, every penny is a lot."

"Not only that, we will also use 5 million gold coins as the royal family's war dividend... This is not a small amount."

"In addition, 5 viscounts and 12 barons agreed to give their territories adjacent to the royal territory to the royal family in exchange for another territory in the new territory."

"Although these 17 pieces of land are not large in total, they are equivalent to the area of ​​half the earldom, and they are right next to the royal territory."

"Your Majesty, this is the best condition we can offer. If they cannot agree to this, the nobles will decide to elect a duke as the leader and establish a principality between the Soliu Kingdom and the Yadud Kingdom. I am loyal to Your Majesty... This is a situation that Your Majesty must not want to see, right?"

Zhou Ming said that the three conditions he gave, "return of all invested funds", "five million dividends" and "replacement of 17 territories", were for the nobles the final offer to the royal family that could no longer compromise. Excellent conditions.

In exchange for the king's recognition of their new land ownership.

"this……"

King Jaime was caught in a trade-off.

15 million gold coins is still a large number for the current royal family.

He was a little moved.

The 17 pieces of land close to the royal territory exude an extremely attractive flavor to King James... Although they are not very big, the royal territory has still been expanded.

Moreover, those daring nobles actually dared to threaten the king, saying that if the king did not recognize their possession of the new land, they would establish a principality themselves!

This is simply treason!

King James was furious.

but……

Now this group of nobles has much more power in terms of land and army than the royal family. If they are really annoyed...

Shaked his head.

That scene can be called "earthquake and mountain shaking".

Moreover, Leylin promised that if there is a similar war opportunity next time, he will definitely involve the royal family.

"Okay, I agree to your terms."

"But next time there is such an opportunity, the royal family must get a share of the pie!"

King Jaime nodded, and both parties finally reached an agreement.

The nobles breathed a big sigh of relief and held a grand celebration banquet. Everyone smiled and celebrated with their crowns.

It can be said that they all made a fortune in this war.

Putting aside the 18 earldoms, in terms of gold and silver treasures alone, a total of more than 35 million was seized... This item basically paid back the money.

They also captured 400,000 able-bodied men and soldiers.

If all these 400,000 captives were put into factories or mines, a lot of benefits could be created.

In addition, there is a population of 5 million in the Soliu Kingdom. If all these people are digested, a large number of them will be transformed into factory workers, farmers who grow medicinal materials, or herdsmen who raise sheep... The industrialization progress of the Yadud Kingdom will be greatly accelerated. .

The benefits created are naturally countless.

In short, after this war, the group of nobles led by Zhou Ming made huge profits of more than 500 million gold coins.

It can be said that everyone makes a lot of money.

only……

Zhou Ming's father, Count Cohen, a middle-aged man who was loyal to the king, had some objections to Zhou Ming's approach.

Even stern questioning.

"Why don't you help the king? Instead, you seek benefits for those nobles. Now that their power has increased, will they still obey the king's orders in the future?"

It was very difficult for his father, Cohen, to understand that Zhou Ming, as a member of the Leilin family, did not bring the royal family to participate in such a huge profit pie?

Doesn't this bring shame to the Leylin family?

Which king will continue to trust and reuse the Leylin family in the future?

Zhou Ming explained to him the difference between "family world" and "public world", and talked about the destructiveness and limitations of the king's centralization of power, as well as the superiority of the nobles and the king "ruling the world together".

He even told his father Cohen some bold designs and ideas, which made him think deeply.

And at the end he said:

"Dad, I believe you have heard of some of the ridiculous things that Crown Prince Luther has done in the capital recently, right? He robbed beautiful women in broad daylight, trampled them on horses in the downtown area, squandered money like water, and lost 10 million gold coins in gambling establishments. ...If such a person sits on the throne, I believe you can guess what kind of damage he will bring to the kingdom, right?"

"Will you still be loyal to such a king?"

"The old king's health has been getting worse and worse recently. After Crown Prince Luther came to the throne, were you able to stop his ridiculous behavior and teach him to become a wise king?"

"Have you changed a person who is stupid, ignorant, violent and perverse by nature?"

"Do you believe that the kingdom will be better in his hands?"

this……

Faced with Zhou Ming's heart-wrenching questions, Earl Cohen stopped talking and fell silent immediately.

In my heart, I slowly accepted the proposition called "constitutional monarchy" proposed by Zhou Ming.

…

It’s time to enter October.

The mercenaries, numbering more than 100,000, who came to the Kingdom of Yadud one after another, happily left the Kingdom of Yadud after receiving their rewards.

But there are also a small number of mercenaries who stay in the Yadud Kingdom.

There was even a group of mercenaries, numbering around 500 people, who became the nobles of the Yadud Kingdom because they had received more than 10,000 merit points.

They have a territory that belongs to them.

What impressed Zhou Ming the most was a mercenary organization called the "Fire Mercenary Group". They resisted the first line of defense for a full month, repelling hundreds of attacks and killing countless enemies. .

In the end, there were 118 people in the entire mercenary group, 108 died in the battle, and only 10 survived.

Among these ten people, except for a man named Hodet who suffered minor injuries, the other nine were all seriously injured.

In other words, this masonry fortress, under siege by countless enemies, can be understood as "annihilated".

Their leader, Klein, died in the battle.

Old man Arnold also died in the battle.

Many team members died in the battle.

But the fortress they defended never fell.

There were 1,200 enemy heads they cut off and stored in the granary...including the head of the enemy count...Klein died with him.

When Zhou Ming heard the stories of the defenders of this fortress, he was deeply shocked.

In order to seize an opportunity to change their destiny, this mercenary group actually fought to this extent.

After the war, when the merit points were counted, Zhou Ming personally tallied up their merits. Instead of counting their heads, he directly calculated the number of enemies they killed. In the final calculation, their merit points were 38,410 points... that is to say They killed more than three thousand enemy troops.

This much meritorious service is enough to grant three field barons to this mercenary group.

But Zhou Ming thought about it, and in order to set an example, he directly gave the ten surviving people the title of nobility.

One viscount and nine barons were created.

The land they entrusted was right near the fortress where they fought... The 50-mile radius of the land all belonged to Hodet, who was entrusted as a viscount, and the other nine seriously injured people.

This viscounty's name is Klein's Territory... in memory of a man named Klein.

At the grand and solemn funeral, standing in front of the tombstone of leader Klein, Hodet tore off his aristocratic clothes, took off the aristocratic badge on his chest, threw away the viscount sword on his waist, and knelt down on the tombstone. In front of me, I cried my heart out.

"What's the point of me wanting this noble title? I'm just an old man who's about to die. What's the point of me becoming a noble?!"

"These should be yours! Klein, everything should be yours!"

"It should be me lying in this tomb! It should be you who survive!"

"Woooooo~"

Hodet beat his chest hard, looking very sad.

Zhou Ming saw this scene.

Walked over, patted his shoulder, sighed and said:

"If you want to blame his death, blame me."

"I gave him hope he shouldn't have."

"Don't be too sad. Since you said Klein has an illegitimate son, then go find him. This land should be well inherited."

Hodet wiped his tears and nodded.