Chapter 149 Poor City and Rich City

The city of Durekton is slightly to the south than the city of Serwell, but the wind and snow that invaded from the north still covered the entire city of Durekton this morning, dyeing the entire city white.

Count Michel put down the letter in his hand and looked up out of the window.

Outside the window was shrouded in auspicious snow, and icicles were hanging on the branches, which looked extraordinarily beautiful, and it also indicated that the city of Durekton was likely to usher in a bumper harvest next year.

But Earl Michel didn't feel any joy in his heart at this moment, but fell into a trace of worry.

His Royal Highness Prince Eric was obviously dissatisfied with Earl Longley's contact with Xu Yi in private, and even invited the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce to invest in Basalu City, and even angrily denounced Earl Longley as a A traitor, not only betrayed His Royal Highness Prince Eric, but also betrayed his dead father.

Perhaps because of the anger caused by Earl Longley, His Royal Highness Prince Eric was also very dissatisfied with Earl Michel's previous letter of whether he should cooperate with the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce. To question, the only difference is not to directly ask Count Michel if he also wants to be a traitor.

Earl Michel was not surprised by Prince Eric's reaction, but was very disappointed that Prince Eric only knew how to express his anger in this situation.

Before he really understood why Earl Longley contacted Xu Yi, he directly judged Earl Longley as a traitor. In the eyes of Earl Michelle, it was really a very stingy approach.

Earl Longley even had contact with Xu Yi. It is true that the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce was invited to invest in Batrou City, but this is not the same as his betrayal of His Royal Highness Prince Eric, and it does not mean that Batrou City and the Longli family will switch to Her Royal Highness Seweni's side from now on.

at this time. The correct approach for His Royal Highness Prince Eric should be to investigate the situation clearly and make a judgment and decision after clearly understanding Earl Longley's thoughts, instead of directly pushing Earl Longley out from the beginning.

He identified Earl Longley as a traitor, so even if Earl Longley had no real intention of betraying His Royal Highness Prince Eric, in this case, he might be forced to leave.

His Royal Highness Prince Eric did not have many supporters in the Northeast Province, only himself, Earl Longley, and Earl Will of Raimate City.

Now he defined Earl Longley as a traitor. Still questioning myself in my heart, do I intend to abandon the support of the entire Northeast Province?

Although Earl Will's Lamart City is the largest city in the Northeast Province. But relying on Lamart City alone still cannot represent the entire Northeast Province.

What's more, compared to Earl Summer, who is a staunch supporter of Her Royal Highness Princess Seweney in Sewell, Earl Will may not be as strong there.

Moreover, the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce has also entered Sewell City to invest heavily. If the Earl of Summer and the city of Serwell were given a few years to make the city of Serwell develop into the same city as Bangta, then the entire northeastern province would probably have to look at the countenance of the Earl of Summer.

Thinking of this, Count Michel suddenly felt a strong sense of exhaustion.

His Highness Prince Eric's attitude towards him made him a little unhappy, and the way His Highness Prince Eric handled things made him even more disappointed.

He even felt that his original choice was a bit wrong.

"Perhaps... it would be better to choose to support Her Royal Highness Princess Seweney?"

This thought just popped into Earl Michel's mind, and he immediately threw it out with a flick of his head.

As a veteran aristocrat who is almost sixty years old and has experienced several political changes in the kingdom, he even has a reason.

And that's in the heat of contention. There are winners and losers, but the least popular are always the wavers.

Count Michel sighed. Squeezing his forehead to ease his expression, he picked up the calling bell on the table and shook it gently, calling his personal butler in.

"Go and find out what Earl Longley and Xu Yi did during the two days they were together. Even try to find out what they said." Earl Michel first ordered. "Then send a gift to Earl Longley in my name, and tell him a word."

The butler stared intently at Count Michel.

Earl Michel paused. After thinking for a while, he continued: "Just tell him, I hope he can inherit the legacy of old Longli and be the lord of Batru City."

The butler had a weird expression on his face. This was the first time he had received such a vague order from Count Michelle.

But the butler didn't have any intention of asking, and honestly wrote down these two orders.

"By the way, are the supplies ready for His Royal Highness Prince Eric?" Count Michel asked again.

"It's ready, ready to be loaded into the carriage and set off at any time." The butler replied.

"A carriage?" Earl Michelle smiled, with sarcasm in his smile. "Okay, let's arrange loading and departure as soon as possible. Our Prince may not be able to wait any longer."

The housekeeper responded, but stopped talking.

"Say." Earl Michel said in a deep voice.

The butler hurriedly said: "Master Earl, when collecting these supplies, some unruly people tried to resist, but the soldiers of the City Guards didn't notice for a while, and they acted too harshly. As a result..."

Seeing the butler's troubled face, Count Michelle's face darkened: "How many died?"

The housekeeper smiled wryly and replied: "Thirteen people have died and fifty-six people have been seriously injured. Among them, there are probably more than 20 people who can't survive."

"That means close to forty people will die?" Earl Michelle's face was so gloomy that it seemed as if water was about to drip. "I let them collect supplies, not let them kill people!"

The butler looked at the anger hidden in Earl Michelle's eyebrows, and was afraid in his heart, but he still had to explain: "My lord, it is now the end of the year, and there are not many things that the commoners can leave in their homes, and they have been forcibly taken away." , of course I will do my best. The soldiers of the city guards must fight back, and then..."

The housekeeper dared not speak any more. Looking at the expression on Earl Michel's face, he suspected that if he continued to speak, he might be in bad luck.

Count Michel was silent for a while with a gloomy face. Only then did he take a deep breath, waved his hands and said, "Since you've already been killed, forget it. Each of the soldiers who killed someone will be fined one hundred gold coins, and if they can't pay, they will all be sent to prison."

The butler was surprised: "My lord, I'm afraid there will be questions..."

Count Michelle glanced at him, and the butler immediately swallowed the following words back.

"Okay. Go and arrange for those supplies to be loaded into the car and shipped out." Earl Michel waved his hand and signaled the butler to go out.

Seeing Earl Michel's expression full of exhaustion. The butler didn't dare to say anything more, and quietly exited after saluting.

After Count Michel stood there for a while, he suddenly let out a long sigh, and a self-deprecating smile appeared on his face.

"It turns out that our huge city of Durekton is struggling to get the supplies of 300,000 gold coins?"

###

"My lord, this is the account that will be handed over to the kingdom's finances. Please check it." Fumar, the financial affairs officer of the Banta City's lord's mansion, held a book of accounts in both hands respectfully, and handed it over to Seweney on the opposite side.

Sevini took it and just flipped through it, then nodded and put it down.

"I've already cleared up the account, so I don't need to do more checks." Seweini smiled. "This year, our Bangta City was able to pay more than 700,000 gold coins to the kingdom's treasury. It is inseparable from everyone's hard work. You have worked hard, and I am here to express my gratitude to you on behalf of my father."

The officials of the City Lord's Mansion in the room hurriedly got up and saluted Seweini in fear.

"Your Royal Highness. This is our job, but I can't afford your thanks."

Having said that, everyone was all happy. The whole room was filled with joy.

The financial income of Bangta City this year is much higher than last year, and the lives of everyone in Bangta City have been greatly improved, making them, the affairs officers of the City Lord's Mansion, highly respected no matter where they are after they leave the City Lord's Mansion.

"It is precisely because of your excellent work that our Bangta City can have such a good development, and we should thank you." Seweini said. "Okay. Let's all sit down, and now let's discuss the development plan of Banta City next year. Baron Formar. Tell me, after we have handed over to the kingdom's finances and settled all kinds of expenses this year, our Banta How much money is left in the city's finances?"

Baron Formar didn't need to read any records, and replied directly: "There are 1,276,346 gold coins left."

"That's close to 1.28 million gold coins." Seweini nodded. "Do you have any good advice on how to spend the money?"

Everyone looked at each other and hesitated.

"Don't be afraid, express your opinions casually, I just want to ask you for any feasible suggestions." Seweini encouraged.

"Then... my lord, let me make a suggestion first." Baron Formar raised his hand and said.

Seweigny nodded to him with an encouraging smile.

Baron Fumar quickly sat upright and said seriously: "Your Highness, I propose to spend a sum of money to repair the old city of our Bangta City. Now our Bangta City is gradually developing into the most prosperous city in the south of the Kingdom. But The old town is still the same as it used to be, which I think is somewhat inconsistent with the current status of our Bangta City."

"That's right. Compared with the clean, beautiful and tidy new city outside, the old city is simply another world." Another affairs officer also echoed. "Now people in the old town want to move to the new town. If I didn't want to save some money to buy a villa built by the Amley Chamber of Commerce, I would have moved out a long time ago."

"That's right, the old city is small and crowded, and it's inconvenient to do anything. It would be nice if we could repair it and make it more beautiful."

"Well, I thought so too..."

...

Hearing everyone agreeing, Seweney thought for a while and nodded: "This is a good proposal. Then Baron Formar, since you made this proposal, have you ever thought about how much this proposal will cost?"

Baron Formar obviously had thought about it a long time ago, and he replied with a confident look: "My lord, it is obviously impossible for us to really make a radical change to the old city, so my proposal is only for some particularly dilapidated and unusable buildings. Partially repaired. So just build some public facilities, repair some dilapidated parts, and make some improvements in some places. According to my preliminary estimate, about 50,000 gold coins are enough."

"Is it only 50,000 gold coins?" Seweini was a little surprised. "You are really saving. Well then, after removing the fifty thousand gold coins, we still have a financial balance of more than one and two million gold coins. Do you have any better proposals?"

Baron Fumar was a little strange: "My lord, do you want to spend all the more than 1.2 million gold coins?"

"Of course you can't spend it all. But it's useless to keep so much money in your hands, isn't it? The money comes from the taxes paid by the people of Bangta City, so of course it should be spent on improving their lives. Come on, Think about new proposals."

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, but couldn't think of any good ideas for a while.

Seeing everyone's embarrassment, Seweini sighed, thinking that if Xu Yi was here, there would definitely be a lot of novel ideas.

This guy makes a lot of money, and spends it a lot too.

But then Seweney felt a little funny again.

When almost all the cities in the kingdom have a headache for the financial settlement at the end of the year, I am worrying about how to spend the money next year. This is really an extravagant worry. (to be continued)