Chapter 606: The Troubled Center
In the conference room of a building in Belloberg, a group of imperial ministers were gathering together, discussing with serious expressions how to deal with the current troubles.
Although it is not a formal meeting, except for Perfectcott and some other marginal ministers, almost all the important ministers who are qualified to participate in the imperial meeting have arrived. This is not much different from a formal meeting. .
Because everyone was worried and had the habit of smoking, the conference room was almost filled with smoke.
"The current situation can be said to be entirely caused by the Northern Lord. I think we must understand the attitude of this eldest lady, at least why her attitude towards the empire center has changed." The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the ugliest of all, spoke his opinion while smoking his pipe.
Although the empire's material supply has encountered huge problems, and tobacco has become an out-and-out luxury item, they can still maintain their daily needs.
It’s just that at the moment, no matter how much cigarettes you smoke, it can’t relieve the finance minister’s depression at the moment, and it even makes him want to flip the table.
The northern development plan in the past three years has almost emptied out all the empire's wealth, and the treasury has long been drained dry.
If the Queen hadn't used part of the royal family's assets to support the national finances, I'm afraid the empire would have gone bankrupt.
Of course, the more important point is that Perficott won the Seven-Day War at that time, allowing the empire to squeeze the defeated three countries to its heart's content and plunder a large amount of wealth and resources from them. able to support the completion of the entire plan.
But now, with the coming of the apocalyptic winter, the imperial center that has moved to the north has almost cut off all communication with the empire itself. How can it still have the energy to plunder resources and wealth from the old world?
Moreover, those three countries have already been blown away by the empire in the past three years, and their people's livelihood has been ruined. After experiencing the baptism of the doomsday winter, I am afraid that they will no longer be able to squeeze out any oil or water.
But this also brought about a very serious problem, that is, the empire's finances were missing a large source of revenue.
The empire's finances, which were originally barely able to support themselves, became in danger.
At this time, the North takes the lead in cutting taxes. This is no longer an ordinary problem, but a literal stab in the lungs of the empire.
"I'm afraid we can no longer influence the countess at the moment. Princess Anne only went to see her once before, and the two broke up on bad terms. This is probably enough to show her attitude." The Minister of War at the Ministry of Military Affairs at this time Although he is equally frowning, at least he is not without strategies: "We cannot fall out with the North, and the Empire cannot afford the price of falling out with the North, but this does not mean that we can't do anything."
"Is there anything the Army can do?" The Duke of Gloucester, who was presiding over the meeting, looked over with a hint of hope in his eyes.
For him, the Speaker of the Noble Parliament, the work pressure in the past few years has been too great, and he has already reached the point of being overwhelmed.
The Duke of Gloucester is really unable to deal with this situation that is getting worse. He is still sitting here, and he just hopes to support the empire from falling and find a solution to the problem so that the empire can continue. Continue.
"We cannot fall out with the North, and it is not suitable to put pressure on that eldest lady, but this does not mean that the empire cannot put pressure in other directions!" The eyes of the Minister of War gradually became sharp, He tapped the armrest of the sofa with his fingers and said: "We need to kill a chicken to scare the monkey, and a chicken that can be used to scare other people can still be suppressed at this time!" Although the Secretary of War did not explain his specific plan, he said This is not difficult to understand for the imperial ministers present.
They understood what the Minister of War meant as soon as they heard it, so someone soon asked: "Then which chicken should we choose? We can't choose the northern border, and we don't have many options!"
"The New World colonies are now divided into two, and the Dominion has been submissive to the Empire. They can be this chicken!" Someone immediately put forward their own suggestions.
But then someone vetoed: "It's inappropriate. The Dominion achieved its current status by relying on force to compete with the New World colonies. The last time it was also because of the suppression of the Northern Lords that they were temporarily suppressed. They were willing to fight with the Empire. Compromise.
If we choose them to be this chicken, it will only make them resist the rule of the empire again, and then we will not have to bear the cost of killing the chicken, but the cost of a war. "
In response, the finance minister immediately nodded in agreement and emphasized that the empire's finances were now stretched thin and could not afford to fight a war at all.
“Since the Dominion cannot be selected, what about the Empire’s mainland? That is the hinterland where the Empire has been operating for many years. Although we have taken away the essence of Langton, it does not mean that the Empire’s mainland is no longer viable, right? "At this time, someone proposed an idea that sounded slightly whimsical: "If we send people back to the empire to try to regain this land and restore the control of the empire's center, it might not be a good choice to fight against the northern lords. .
We can't do anything about the Northern Lords now. The biggest problem is that the empire's center has moved to the North. We lack the foundation to fight against the Northern Lords.
If we can run the empire locally, We can reverse the current situation!”
This suggestion quickly gained support from some people, including some conspiracy theorists who felt that Purficott proposed to build the northern border and bring the empire to the north. The center's move to the north was a long-planned conspiracy.
After all, the current Empire Center is in a state of being dependent on others in the North, and it is inferior to the North in everything. This has led to the fact that the North is now defiant to the Empire Center, and at the same time, the Empire Center has nothing to do with them.
"This suggestion..." The Duke of Gloucester pondered for a moment, and just as he was about to say something, the door of the conference room was roughly pushed open.
Princess Anne, wearing a military uniform, broke in. She frowned and fanned the smoke in front of her. She went directly to a window with dissatisfaction and opened the window with force.
In an instant, a gust of cold wind blew in, quickly blowing away the smoke in the room, and at the same time blowing away the lively atmosphere of the discussion just now.
"Your Royal Highness, what are you doing?" The Duke of Gloucester looked at Princess Anne with a slight dissatisfaction and asked her.
"I heard what you just discussed. Finding a chicken to kill is indeed a good choice, but you are discussing the wrong person! For the current empire, even if we can restore the northern border to tax on the empire's center It is difficult to improve the current situation even if we pay! So we need to open up new sources of income!" Princess Anne said loudly, and then someone hung up a map of the empire's territory. Under the cold wind outside the window, Princess Anne said The princess stood in front of the map and tapped her hand on a place: "We should recover the empire's other overseas colonies!"
(End of this chapter)