Kingdom’s Bloodline Chapter 217: 28 hours

Chapter 713 twenty-eight hours

"So we failed."

Jenard, who was holding Jenny, suddenly made a sound, which made many people look sideways.

"In the year of blood, our Starlight Legion came to the rescue of the Blade Leader," Gennard raised his head and looked up at the sky, full of emotion, "but he was beaten to pieces, and his helmet and armor were thrown away all the way."

Morgan touched the handle of his knife and frowned.

"Duke John doesn't understand why every time the nine-pointed star flag is raised, the morale of the enemy on the opposite side is boosted, they are furious, and they are brave and fearless, comparable to the people of the Northland-now I understand, those of us who think we can go The guy who liberates the Blade Leader and goes to 'resist the enemy' is the real foreign force."

As soon as these words came out, everyone in the Xinghu Guard fell silent.

Thales sat in the carriage, silent, with an ugly expression.

Under the strange gazes of the surrounding people, they walked along the strange streets of Emerald City, their spirits languishing and the atmosphere depressed.

However, Thales soon realized that the incident on Ruhsan Street had a far-reaching impact, and the challenges he had to face during his administration were far more than that.

"It's really not a coincidence."

A few hours later, Glover and Miranda came back from the outside and brought Thales the first-hand, most direct truth that was not concealed by any official power:

"It is inevitable."

It turns out that the two groups of people who clashed were not punks, on the contrary, they were all ordinary people. On one side were the coachmen from the Chariot and Horse Guild, most of whom were locals from the South Bank, driving horses and carts on the streets of Emerald City, delivering goods. Soliciting customers, the other side is mainly immigrants from other places. Many of them are porters and handymen in docks and warehouses, and even sweepers and excrement pickers. They sell pure labor to make a living.

The two groups of people are of different classes and come from different sources, but because of their business activities, they intersected and created rifts. Tripper, never dared to cross the bottom line, let alone fight in the busiest market, until...

"In the past when they had conflicts, their respective leaders sat down to negotiate," Miranda said in a deep voice, "but it is said that the leader of the group pulling the cart has recently disappeared. As for the other group of porters, They are all temporary livelihoods, they come and go and come again, there is no leader, only to give face to a manure digger, and only he can speak among those people."

Golover nodded, with a heavy voice:

"That guy's name is Roger, nicknamed 'dung egg'..."

"One of the leaders of the Blood Bottle Gang," Thales frowned, "The one who died in the internal strife?"

Glorver nodded slightly.

"As for today's incident, we have no concrete evidence to prove whether the two sides really expanded the conflict because of an accident, or whether there were unknown forces behind it to instigate it, but..." Miranda added.

"There's no difference," Glover shook his head, "I know this group of people. After the incident with the Blood Bottle Gang, there were no leaders and people on both sides to talk to, let alone a coordinator. It's only a matter of time before I wake up, but I didn't expect such a big trouble..."

Thales fell silent.

He suddenly understood:

The internal strife between the blood bottle gang witnessed by Glover and Rolf, which brought down the boss Catherine, meant more than seizing power or taking revenge.

"So it doesn't matter if it's a coincidence or intentional, this incident happened because of me—since the blood bottle gang was in chaos, it was doomed."

Glorver and Miranda looked at each other, hesitated to speak.

Thales took a deep breath and smiled at them, so that they don't have to worry.

In the following time, His Royal Highness went back and forth non-stop between the study, meeting hall, reception room and several major official offices in the Kongming Palace, inspecting condolences, meeting with officials, soothing people's hearts, and issuing orders. And whenever he finally sat down and thought he could take a rest for a while, there would always be a lot of documents and letters on the desk, which required him to read them non-stop, write replies, sign and draw notes, write and reply letters, so that he could not stop writing. There is not enough time to have a quiet lunch.

In this way, there are always new accidents—such as the tragedy on Luhsan Street just now—that suddenly popped up and were forced into his schedule that didn't have much space:

The exhausted Thales couldn't help but gritted his teeth and thought:

As the city lord and duke, was Zhan En also so busy before?

However, misfortunes never come singly. Only a few hours before the prince returned to the palace, several officials rushed to report again:

Prices in the Emerald City are different, and the market has changed.

The matter was first discovered by a tax collector when he was collecting vendor fees. The objects of his charges were merchants, whether they were small traveling merchants who came from surrounding towns or further afield to bring their goods to be sold at the festival. Jia is still a big store and a small street vendor who stock up on goods locally and intends to make a small profit from tourists, and they have started a vicious competition among each other to cut prices:

It is also selling fabrics, if you drop two coppers, I will lower three coppers, if you sell two pieces together at a discount, I will put three pieces...

At first this happened only sporadically, confined to the circle of four or five competitors in the same market, but after the Ruhsan Avenue tragedy, similar situations occurred in several suburban markets.

Thales, who had been busy for most of the day, had to endure fatigue, and listened to the report of the marketing officer, his expression became more and more dignified:

Soon, no matter merchants or workshops, or even many large business groups, everyone followed suit and began to sell goods in batches, from grain, meat and vegetables to spices and powders, from local specialties to ocean-going seafood. The prices of almost all commodities, textiles, handicrafts, luxury goods, and necessities are falling all the way...

It wasn't until several market surveillance officials found out that something was wrong, and followed up and asked all the way, only to find out that something was wrong:

I don't know when, rumors started to spread in the city, saying that the change in Luhsan Street was just a precursor, and with the Duke of Xinghu not even drinking alcohol, the political turmoil in Emerald City might soon spread to the market...

As a result, many merchants are scrambling to sell goods to clear their inventory. For this reason, they do not hesitate to cut prices, and would rather sell at a loss in exchange for cash. There was even a merchant ship full of luxury goods coming to Emerald City by sea. The owner of the ship was very anxious after hearing about the changes in Emerald City. In case of unsalable loss after port call.

"I heard that at the wharf, some merchants even throw unsalable goods on the street for free, let people pick them up, and even throw them directly into the water." .

"These are panic selling. They are worried about political turmoil and pessimistic about the future market, so they can first ensure that they have sufficient cash in their hands."

A few quarters of an hour later, the chief financial officer, Melahovic, who arrived after receiving the news, was calculating the accounts in the chamber, frowning:

"But Your Highness, if this continues, the reputation and reputation of Emerald City on the commercial road will get worse and worse, and the market will only get worse and worse. The income that Emerald City relies on for its prosperity--transaction tax , property taxes, and tariffs, I’m afraid they will all have to be cut in half.”

"If Emerald City's revenue declines, it cannot be guaranteed that next quarter's revenue will exceed, or at least be equal to this quarter..." the tax officer gritted his teeth, "Damn it, we are still counting on it to pay off our debts!"

Thales' head felt like a bucket.

"Everyone, this is just the lightest consequence," another experienced marketing officer was sweating profusely, "Listen to me, after a few more days like this, the news spread that the merchants are not profitable, I will lose the motivation to come to Emerald City to do business. When the goods in the city are almost sold out and there is no more flow of goods, the market will start to slump, followed by a shortage of supplies..."

"Then what should we do?" Huai Ya asked with a headache.

"Allocate funds, first take action to stabilize prices and maintain market stability," Manager Melahovich gritted his teeth, "Money problems can only be solved with money."

"What about our debt..."

"Don't think about repaying the debt, let's talk about it after the present!"

"If it doesn't work, just borrow it again, and pay off the old debt with a new one..."

"The debt will get bigger and bigger..."

"First ensure that the annual income is stable, as long as the Emerald City's rule is stable, there will always be a way to solve the debt..."

"His Royal Highness, I don't know if His Majesty has come to order, do you have any instructions on how to deal with it?"

"Can Eternal Star City support our finances?"

"It's really not possible, can I get rid of some of the taxes that have to be handed over to the kingdom..."

There was a lot of noise back and forth in the chamber, and Thales, who was overwhelmed by countless problems, became more and more unbearable. He became angry rarely and asked Mallos to throw all these officials out.

"From finance to taxation, from market to law and order, I can see that they have not tried their best, and they are all doing their best, procrastinating, and perfunctory." Paul closed the door of the meeting room with a serious expression, "even waiting Watch our jokes."

"After all, the original Duke stepped down yesterday, and the way he did it was not very pretty," Miranda sighed, "It's understandable."

"They are ineffective, so can we make an example of them and punish them?" Morgan snorted coldly.

"They didn't openly disobey orders, and they didn't speak disrespectfully," D.D shook his head. "At most, they were perfunctory and sloppy, which is far from being a crime."

"Of course not for ordinary people," Morgan made a fierce gesture, "but for these officials...huh."

"Be careful, everyone," said Wyatt, holding a notebook, "when encountering setbacks and disasters, it is often easiest to blame others, especially those who are under us and have no power to resist. .”

He gave everyone a warning look:

"There is a saying in "The Strategies of the Virtuous Monarch": It is often the origin of tyranny."

"Ah, wouldn't it be another reference book for the Royal Guard's entry test?" D.D dug his ears.

"Well, no, this is my own extracurricular reading."

"Return tm extracurricular readings?"

Sitting on the main seat, Thales rubbed his forehead, lamenting how little energy he had left, and hearing their conversation, he rarely smiled.

But before Huaiya finished speaking, he was interrupted again.

This time, the person who came was the commander of the Emerald Legion, a Seychelles knight and captain.

The Xinghu guards immediately tensed up and stood ready.

Fortunately, the Seychelles knight who entered the hall just glanced contemptuously at everyone, then followed the rules and unloaded his weapon and handed it to Old Gennard, then saluted in a dignified manner, and reported to the Duke of Thales:

The Emerald Legion found that travelers, guests, and businessmen participating in the Emerald Celebration were packing bags one after another at this moment. The main roads and land routes are crowded with people and blocked.

Thales let out a long sigh.

Another bad news.

Everyone has eyes, and this kind of behavior spreads widely, and the people rushing to leave the city quickly spread rumors in the city, saying that Duke Jann's imprisonment and the tragedy on Luhsan Street were just a precursor Soon, the Kongming Palace will issue more measures to strictly investigate the whole story of the murder of the young duke and the murder of the old duke. At that time, the entire Emerald City will be in a state of turmoil, and the anger of Prince Thales is bound to burn.

Thales frowned the more he listened.

Under such circumstances, more and more people are scrambling to leave the city. Owners of boats and carriages have become popular. Cheating, taking advantage of the opportunity to raise prices and other incidents happened frequently, which made the Emerald City face more and more pressure on public security, and the Police Department and the Emerald Legion complained endlessly.

It's not good, Thales thought, if this continues, the depression and decline of the Emerald City - in his hands - will only get faster and faster, and it is inevitable.

Damn it!

"It's not just travelers and guests from outside. I heard that many locals and even nobles are packing up and planning to leave the Emerald City for a while to avoid disaster." Kongmuto added in a low voice.

"Disaster? What disaster? Disaster?" Thales said helplessly.

"People are worried, lest the Emerald City will be unstable in the coming days," the Seychelles knight stared at him, "especially after the coup."

Yeah, as if I'm not worried.

"But that wasn't a coup, it was just..." Thales explained palely.

"I know, it's just a temporary personnel change in the administrative leadership of Emerald City, right?" Seychelles said coldly.

Thales sighed.

Why didn't he become a political officer?

"Okay, the people panicked and rushed to leave the city, how can we solve this matter..."

Seychelles nodded:

"We can restrict the flow of people, such as setting up cards at the entrances and exits, preventing them from leaving the city..."

"No!" Thales and Mallos stopped him in unison.

The prince and the watchman exchanged glances.

"But it really can't go on like this, panic will spread." Mallos said calmly.

Thales nodded:

"We have to do something to stabilize people's hearts and dispel their doubts."

The prince sighed, feeling more and more headache:

"Huiya, take my warrant to the city hall and urge them to post a notice and release the news: From tomorrow, the Emerald Festival will continue, and everything will continue as usual. What is the next link?"

"There is no night banquet," Huai Ya opened the notebook, "the main activities will be at night, and the Emerald City will light up corridors all over the city. Meet under the moon."

"Fuck, it's all in chaos, and we met under the tm moon," Thales, who was full of troubles, cursed indecently, "I'm so romantic."

No one dared to answer.

"Also, call the important vassals who are currently in the Emerald City, as well as the leaders of the guilds and business groups. Their influence is all over the south bank. I have to hold a fifth meeting with them to stabilize the market. It is best Can you get the promise... Seychelles Knight, are you still here?"

Thales looked up in doubt.

In the eyes of everyone, the Seychelles knight nodded slightly, his eyes like a sword:

"I heard, Your Highness, are you planning to disband the Jade Legion?"

Thales was taken aback.

"Where did the news come from? How is it possible..."

"Then why did the Financial Secretary embezzle our expenses, and even promised overtime rewards during the celebration?" The Seychelles Knight raised his voice.

The guards in the chamber tense up.

Thales froze when he heard the words.

"I assure you, Seychelles Knight, I don't know about this matter," Thales took a deep breath, "but I think..."

"It seems that the news is true," Seychelles interrupted him, and snorted coldly, "After Duke Zhann lost power, Your Highness, you will embezzle the money from Emerald City to support Eternal Star City."

Thales frowned.

Oops.

"And those of us who hold swords, write, and do business...is the price?" The Seychelles knight stepped forward slowly.

Mallos took a step forward, understating:

"Captain Seychelles, what are you going to do?"

The Xinghu guards around looked unhappy, and they put their hands on their weapons and stood in formation.

Seychelles glanced at Mallos and narrowed his eyes.

"Seychelles Knight, I swear to you, I have no such intentions," Thales tried his best to speak out sincerely, easing the tense atmosphere, "After all, the long-term stability of the Emerald City and even the South Coast Territory depends on the Emerald Legion protection."

Seychelles was silent for a moment.

"In that case, Your Highness, please show your sincerity and pay us last month's salary to ensure that my sergeants will not listen to rumors and think that they are about to lose their jobs," Seychelles said coldly, "and my men We worked extra hard during the Emerald Festival, and it would be even better if we could advance this month's salary as an incentive."

"Hey! How are you talking—" Nehsi said angrily, but was held down by Paul.

"Brothers in my regiment, although they all bleed and work hard, they all deserve a better life," Seychelles ignored him, but turned around, walked to the gate, and walked from Genard "Otherwise, Your Highness, you can find other people to maintain law and order."

After saying that, he walked out of the conference hall without any politeness or nostalgia, leaving behind the door which was slammed shut.

"Thor, please bring my letter again, and go to the financial secretary in the outer palace in person," Thales rubbed his brows painfully, "In addition to the previous question, tell them that no matter how you dismantle it, The east wall pays the west wall, and the expenses for the Emerald Legion cannot be reduced."

Mallos nodded slightly.

People in the chamber looked at each other, D.D complained when he heard the words:

"Your Highness, don't be afraid of him. Besides, those **** officials in the Financial Secretary can't even calculate the accounts, and they are still having a headache on how to raise funds to stabilize prices..."

"The root cause doesn't lie in the price." Thales shook his head wearily, only feeling that everything that happened so far was against him, "It's useless to spend money to calm down."

"Whether we believe it or not, from finance to taxation, to the market, to the security issue just now," Mallos nodded, "If there is another change in the Emerald Legion, such as no longer obeying orders, or dealing with security issues Open your eyes and close your eyes when you have a question..."

Everyone is stunned.

"Now I understand these officials and why they are perfunctory and inefficient," Thales sighed helplessly, and had to write the letter again, "If you feel that your future is uncertain and your job is not guaranteed, who the **** is thinking about it? Work?"

Seeing His Highness's appearance, Huai Ya was very worried, but he had no choice but to slap his thigh hard:

"Damn it, why did everything go wrong today?"

"Because we are big and attract the wind?" D.D shrugged.

"Because they did it on purpose." Paul said with deep eyes.

"Because here," Miranda said suddenly, "we are all Exeters."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, and Thales' pen tip also paused slightly.

"Genard," Thales asked softly, remembering something, "How did you win?"

Jenard, who was at the entrance of the conference hall, was reprimanding Willow, he was startled when he heard the words, and leaned forward:

"Prince Thales?"

"You said today that the Starlight Legion had just arrived at Blade's Edge and was defeated," Thales put down the pen and paper, "Then how did John turn defeat into victory?"

Jenard hesitated.

"Run."

Everyone looked sideways.

Jenard took a deep breath:

"We retreated, Your Highness, and we fled all the way, leading the rebels to chase us: we withdrew from the Blades to the Central, and then to the South Bank. After a few months, we have developed the ability to run and hide. One moment I was still cooking soup, and the next moment I was able to pick up the pot and run all the way, haha, I can still cook soup while running..."

"The enemy, the enemy is spreading like wildfire, the momentum is getting bigger and bigger, the number is increasing day by day, and the ambition is gradually expanding. The leader even wants to establish a country in Suodala City and become king."

Jenard gradually lost his mind:

"When these rebels leave their hometowns, they are no longer the 'insurgents' whom everyone sympathizes with, but the 'invaders' whom everyone hates, and the real 'foreign forces', it is time for us to fight back .”

Thales' eyes moved.

Jenard lowered his head, the nostalgia in his eyes turned into loneliness:

"So, I won."

The chamber fell silent.

Nesi was confused, but Miranda's eyes lit up:

"Yes, Lady Sonia mentioned to me that she deserves to be the Star God of War."

"Oh, no," Gennard came back to his senses and corrected, "This strategy was not proposed by John at first, but by a great nobleman under him, who came from the South Bank, called Calabi Young."

Thales was startled when he heard this.

"But this method," Huai Ya couldn't help but said, "abandon the land and lure the enemy to go deep... along the way, many people will die."

"Yes, quite a few people."

At that moment, the high spirits in Genard's words disappeared without a trace:

"A lot."

Thales pursed his lips, with unclear emotions in his eyes.

An hour later, under the puzzled eyes of the Xinghu guards, Thales stood in the corridor, watching the heavily guarded guards step aside and open a door for him.

Thales took a deep breath~IndoMTL.com~He waved to his subordinates and stepped into this unusual room solemnly.

The door behind him slams shut.

In the room, a man sat on a luxurious sofa with his back facing him, pouring wine on his own.

"Twenty-eight hours."

Thales was stunned when he heard this:

"What?"

The man smiled softly.

"I mean, you didn't come to me until now..."

I saw Jann Cavendir, the guardian duke of the south bank who was deeply in the vortex, holding up a glass of famous wine and looking back leisurely.

"Yes, you lasted four hours longer than I expected."