Chapter 109: Making Full Use of Technical Advantages
The location of Dole City is delicate.
This city originally belonged to the Frankish Kingdom, located in the north of the Frankish Kingdom, near the border between the Frankish Kingdom and the Maro Empire.
Because the Frankish Kingdom and the northern part of the Maro Empire are also divided by a mountain range, and the city of Dole is stuck at the exit of a valley that can pass through with different numbers of mountains. The throat position of the traffic artery with the Maro Empire.
The Frankish Kingdom and the Maro Empire have always had a good relationship before, which can be regarded as an alliance, so Dole City only serves as a transportation hub.
But now with the demise of the Frankish Kingdom, the area where the city of Dole is located is divided under the name of the Principality of Drake, and the city of Dole has changed suddenly, and its strategic position is extremely prominent.
If the Maro Empire wants to invade again, Dole City is a point that cannot be ignored.
So Xu Yi cooperated with the Principality of Drake this time, preparing to build a complete city defense system for the Principality of Drake. With this defense against the invasion of the Maro Empire, Dole City became the first choice.
As Xu Yi said, the purpose of developing this system is to provide the entire city with a complete magic protection system based on military magic machinery, which can easily resist the attack of the Maro Empire's army.
The ultimate goal is to be able to complete the defense task even when the opponent even dispatches a magister, so that Dole City will become solid.
But this system has a very serious problem, that is, the cost is too high.
If Dor City alone, a small city, wants to fully deploy such a system, according to the budget made by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, it needs to invest a minimum of more than eight million gold coins.
Therefore, even if the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce makes a move, there is no way to install such a system for all the cities currently controlled by the Duchy of Drake in one go, and can only select the few cities that will eventually be arranged.
The city of Dole is just one of them. After that, this system will be deployed in several cities near the northern border of the Maro Empire in the Duchy of Drake, completely blocking the invasion of the Duchy of Drake from the south by the Empire of Maro. route.
For this reason, the Principality of Drake's estimated total investment amount is as high as 70 million gold coins.
Although the Principality of Draco has guaranteed financial revenue by vigorously developing the magic industry in recent years, it has no way to spend such a huge investment.
So in accordance with the agreement of both parties. The Duchy of Drake will sell one-third of the various mineral resources on the 170,000 square kilometers of the newly acquired Frankish Kingdom to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, and share the remaining mineral resources with the new The flying chamber of commerce will jointly develop it, which can be regarded as payment.
Because the mineral resources involved in this agreement are too large, there are even some discordant voices in the Principality of Delal. Claiming that Grand Duke Caroline is simply using the hard-earned mineral resources to please the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, it can even be said to be traitorous!
But from a practical point of view, with the current capabilities of the Principality of Drake, there is no way to effectively develop and utilize these mineral resources. Instead, they are handed over to the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce for cooperation and development. It can be fully utilized.
And the most important thing is that the Duchy of Drake cannot do without the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce.
Without the support of the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, it would be impossible for the Duchy of Drake to develop to this point, and it would be impossible for it to fight against a behemoth like the Maro Empire.
Therefore, compared with the voices of doubt and opposition, the voices supporting Grand Duke Caroline are still the most in the Duke of Drake.
This time, the Duchy of Drake directly annexed the huge land of the Frankish Kingdom as much as 170,000 square kilometers, which expanded the territory of the Duchy of Drake by nearly 20 times. It can be said that the Duchy of Drake has been completed for more than 300 years. It is the greatest feat to come, even the feats that the former Grand Dukes of Drake could not even imagine.
With the support of such achievements, the prestige of Grand Duke Caroline is naturally beyond doubt.
Because of this, many nobles in the Duchy of Drake have already spoken out. It was hoped that Grand Duke Caroline would be directly crowned as king, but was vetoed by Grand Duke Caroline.
"How can I not understand what these guys are thinking." A disdainful smile appeared on Grand Duke Caroline's still beautiful face. "They are nothing more than expecting me to be crowned as the queen, and then re-entrust. Huh, these guys are all staring at this newly acquired land. These guys who have no experience must be full of heads now. I want to get a bigger territory."
"This is normal, after all, you are an aristocrat. Obtaining more territories is originally a tradition of nobility, and it also represents the glory of nobility." Xu Yi laughed.
"Tch, even if I give them a large piece of territory, do they have the ability to defend it?" The mockery on Grand Duke Caroline's face deepened. "It's just like you. Xu Yi, you seem to still have the title of earl in the Principality of Standing, right? How much territory is under your name? Does it have any influence on you? Does anyone still look down on you because your territory is not big enough? No?"
"I have been emphasizing that my identity is a businessman, whether it is a nobleman or a magician. It's just incidental." Xu Yi shrugged and said with a relaxed face: "It's meaningless to compare the size of the territory with me, it's better Come compete with me who earns more money every year."
"The money you earn every year?" Grand Duke Caroline glanced at Xu Yi up and down, narrowing her eyes slightly. "Xu Yi, can you tell me how much money your Xinfei Chamber of Commerce makes in a year?"
Xu Yi suddenly laughed: "It's not some shady secret, you don't need to ask in this tone. Let me tell you the truth. Last year, our Chamber of Commerce made about 150 million gold coins a year."
"150 million gold coins!" Grand Duke Caroline gasped suddenly. "My god! I always knew that your chamber of commerce made a lot of money, but I never expected to make so much money! Our principality's annual financial revenue is only less than 20 million gold coins!"
"That was when you were just a small principality. Now that you have obtained this large territory, as long as you operate well, I think that in a few years, your annual financial revenue can easily exceed ours." Xu Yi smiled. "In addition, I need to tell you the fact that the income statement of our chamber of commerce at the end of this year may be ugly."
"It's not surprising. After all, this year your Xinfei Chamber of Commerce guards also directly participated in the war. Fighting a war is a very expensive thing. If the military magic machines you produce have an absolute advantage in combat power, the war will continue for a long time, no matter whether it is our Principality It’s still your Chamber of Commerce, and it will definitely be dragged down by the two huge empires of the Maro Empire and the Candela Empire in the end.”
"You're right, so we can't delay, we must end this war in the shortest possible time." Xu Yi said seriously.
"How to do it?" Grand Duke Caroline frowned. "The Maro Empire and the Candela Empire have too deep foundations, and they both have so many magisters sitting in their command. When we face them, we can only be completely passive. When to end the war is entirely up to them."
"That's not necessarily the case. As long as you hurt them and let them know that continuing the state of war will only hurt them more, they will take the initiative to choose to end this war." Xu Yi showed a dangerous smile. "First of all, what I need to tell them is that the magister is not so safe."
Grand Duke Caroline looked at Xu Yi suspiciously.
In the past few years of getting along, Xu Yi showed indifference to the magister more than once, and even dismissed it, which made her very strange.
It stands to reason that Xu Yi himself is already a magister, so he should be more aware of how terrifying the magister's ability is than anyone else.
Although the military magic machinery developed by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce is equally powerful, the most terrifying thing about the Magister is that he is far more flexible than the military magic machinery, and it is difficult to really limit it.
Moreover, a magister is not as laborious as a great magician in using forbidden spells. Once a magister is allowed to use it with all his strength, the destructive power will be extremely terrifying.
If it's just defense, maybe you can think of a way. But if you want to counterattack, it will be a headache for the powerful destructive power caused by the magister.
This is why Grand Duke Caroline believes that although they easily defeated the regular armies of the Candela Empire, the Maro Empire and other countries on the frontal battlefield, they still occupy an absolute disadvantage in the overall situation.
With the military magic machinery produced by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce, they can easily resist the attacks of the two empire camps, but it is basically useless to counterattack.
Not to mention the magister, but judging from the background of both parties, it is too far behind.
"Our best choice now should be to consolidate the current results, absorb them well, and then improve our own strength, so that we can have the capital to truly compete with the two empires. If we act rashly, I don't think it is a good choice... …" Hearing the hint of madness revealed in Xu Yi's words, Grand Duke Caroline couldn't help persuading.
"This is your choice as the lord of a country. It's true. But..." Xu Yi smiled and patted her on the shoulder. "Have you ever thought about a question, what is the reason why our side can easily defeat the two empires on the battlefield?"
"Of course it depends on the military magic machinery provided by your chamber of commerce, what else?" Grand Duke Caroline asked in confusion.
"That's true, but it's not entirely accurate." Xu Yi shook his head lightly. "Actually, in the many battles with the two empires this time, we can find that the two empires have actually done some research on military magic machines, and many military magic machines have been put into actual use. And we Being able to easily defeat them relies on the current technical advantages of our chamber of commerce in military magic machinery. Have you ever thought about what will happen if our chamber of commerce loses its technical advantages in this area after a long time?"
Grand Duke Caroline's face changed slightly: "No way...the military magic machinery of your chamber of commerce is obviously so much stronger than them, how could it be possible for them to catch up."
"There is nothing impossible in this world. So we have to take advantage of the fact that their technology in this area is still at an absolute disadvantage, so as to gain enough benefits for ourselves."
"Are you planning to..." Caroline looked at Xu Yi suspiciously.
Xu Yi smiled and patted her shoulder again: "Wait for my good news." (~^~)