He's in Love with the Devil.

Chapter 7: No Money

The Minister of Finance always remembered clearly what the king's reaction was when he read the letter sent by the Kingdom of Bolesi a month ago.

At that time, he tore the letter to shreds in front of the messenger, then smiled, and said, "Since John has sworn allegiance to me, it is now time for him to donate his life for the great Rogaland Empire."

The fury and cold intensity underneath that smile called out to people.

Twenty thousand pounds.

Even for the entire Rogaland Empire, it was not easy to come up with such a huge sum of money. During the time of the late King William III, in order to start a war against Bolesi, 100,000 marks (equivalent to about 66,000 pounds) had been raised, and that time it had taken more than seven months in total. [1]

Under normal circumstances, it would take at least two months to raise twenty thousand pounds.

But the Kingdom of Brescia gave only one month to raise the money.

-They then had no inclination to let the prisoners be ransomed.

Adding to all the rumors that were circulating at the time that General John had defected to the enemy, that the Duke of Buckingham had a suspicious attitude, and so on, the king simply gave up on ransoming General John, and only set a time for negotiation with the Kingdom of Bressi.

The king's attitude was so obvious that even Archduke Grice's letter was useless, which only made the king even more angry, and the other officials dared not offend him more and more.

Therefore, more than a month passed, not to mention 20,000 pounds, they did not even raise a penny.

But who would have thought, seeing that only a few days remained before the negotiation and delivery of the prisoners, the king suddenly brought up this matter again. It was as if he had changed his mind and intended to redeem General John.

The Minister of Finance almost wanted to kneel down to his erratic king.

"Two months?"

The king tapped his fingers on the armrest.

"How much is left in the treasury?"

The finance minister's forehead was covered in cold sweat, he carefully observed the king's face and replied politely, "Your Majesty, in order to defend against the invasion of the Bolesi Kingdom, we have already used a large amount of money in April, and even raised a military service tax exemption ...... "

"What about the royal treasury?"

The Minister of Finance looked like he might start shaking at any moment, his voice was even smaller, "Your Majesty, you repaired two royal castles in the west and the north some time ago ...... "

The king remembered.

The Rogaland Empire was having an eventful year, with Newcart in the north and Nodover in the west rioting at the end of last year. After suppressing the revolts, in order to strengthen the rule over these two places, Pourland built a castle belonging to the royal family in each of them. In order to build the castles, the supervision of the royal forest area was even increased.

Excellent.

The king thought with an expressionless face.

Either that, or let General John die for his country.

"What about my private territorial revenues?"

This part was considered the king's own private income. The fact that he asked that clearly meant that the king intended to pay out of his own pocket to ransom General John. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was a little surprised.

He had reported on the revenues of several of the king's territories, and although the sums were considerable, it was clear that the king's lavish lifestyle was also very expensive - only a few thousand pounds could be urgently taken out of the coffers in three days.

The king pressed his forehead.

Perhaps it was a bit of an after-effect of being reborn, now his head was starting to ache faintly.

"What is the approximate income of my uncle's territory?"

He asked casually.

Of course, he didn't expect much from the Duke of Buckingham, who at first glance looked like an ascetic who didn't value pleasure - he even suspected that the Duke would have taken most of his income to fill the big hole of military expenses.

Still, the answer he received stunned the king.

The Duke simply could not make ends meet.

"It is so, Your Majesty."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied.

"It stands to reason that the Lord Duke is one of the Crown's greatest debtors."

When Pourland was still in his infancy, Rogaland was almost stuck in a state of chaos. The king who was still a baby made many of the nobles of the states feel worried - in this day and age, babies take too many risks to grow into adults, especially when this baby was also the co-leader of the thirty-six states.

It was the Duke of Buckingham who repeatedly paid out of his own pocket with huge loans to shore up the royal finances.

Then shortly after the king officially came of age, rumors sprang up that the Duke of Buckingham was unwilling to exchange power. That's when the Duke of Buckingham did something unexpected - he burned all those IOUs.

The king pressed his hand to his forehead with such force that his knuckles turned white.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer stole a glance at the young king, who had his hand pressed on his forehead, blocking his eyes. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had no way of judging the king's mood at that moment.

There was silence in the room for a long time.

"Excellent."

The king steeled himself.

"Prepare for negotiations and start raising money."

Hearing about raising money, the finance minister immediately had a not-so-wonderful premonition in his heart.

"As I recall, the nobles' inheritance is under my control."

The Minister of Finance had begun to stutter a little, "Yes ...... yes ...... yes."

"Then let those heirs pay taxes for their titles."

"Your Majesty ......"

The Minister of Finance's cold sweat "brushed" down. There was indeed nothing wrong with the king saying that. According to the charter signed by the nobles when they swore allegiance to the king at his coronation, the king had the right to rule on the succession - but this was generally used when the two heirs to a title were not on equal terms.

However, listening to the king's meaning at this moment, he was clearly asking all the nobles of all sizes who had the right of succession to all empty their pockets.

In this way, even the legitimate eldest son who was originally securely sitting on the title would have to sit up and take notice.

Obviously, their brothers would be happy to hand over a large sum of money to the royal court, so that they could get a "fair and square" decision - whoever bids the highest inherits - and take the title away from their elder brother. their elder brother.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer could already imagine how many of the country's nobles would be screaming at the rosebuds about the king's insidiousness.

But for Zhu Chi, there was no way around it.

Rogaland's current situation was too bad, with all sorts of complicated factors involved, did he have enough ample time to sort it out. Based on the Finance Minister's answer, it was speculated that Pullan had already exploited the civilians at least three times in the past two years, and if he directly increased the tax burden on the civilians again - then it wasn't far from a people's riot.

He would rather face a rebellion from a portion of the nobility than a riot from the commoners.

Of the two, the latter was the truly devastating blow.

And don't forget, the Duke of Buckingham had not been executed, and as long as the old Duke was around, those nobles who wanted to rebel would have to be cautious.

"Do we really have to do this?"

The Chancellor of the Exchequer asked with little hope.

"You tell them." The king said calmly, "Either pay up or go to the front."

Well, hope was completely gone.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer thought in despair.

--As the conveyor of the king's will, he was afraid that he would have to bear part of the blame.

............

Learning of the King's order to begin raising ransom, the Duke of Buckingham also came to meet the King.

"I know what you are going to say."

Without waiting for the old Duke to speak, the King blocked his words.

"But John is not only your son, my brother, but also the general of the Rogaland Empire and the dignity of the Rosebud family. Above all-"

The king paused.

"I need to know the truth about the Battle of Kevan, who really betrayed me."

Anger swept through his icy blue eyes.

The Duke of Buckingham stopped speaking.

............

Meanwhile, negotiations loom.

They began to prepare to leave for the place of negotiation, the city of Tru, close to the battle line.

The Duke of Buckingham had planned to go along, but Zhu Chi had other concerns.

He was not at ease with the current state of the Rogaland Empire, and did not trust the nobles to be at peace during the time that he traveled to the battlefront. So he entrusted the Duke of Buckingham to return to the palace in the heart of Rogaland and temporarily take charge of the government in his place.

Before he left, Zhu Chi remembered something.

That was the owner of Castle Mourne, Earl Walter.

He was late in coming to pay his respects to the king.

"What, does he think the three days I gave him was too much?"

Zhu Chi asked gently as he sat inside the carriage.

The Chief of Internal Affairs hurriedly and hastily left to look for Count Walter.

After waiting for about an hour, he rushed back with a pale face to report.

"Your Majesty ......"

"Speak."

"The Count has committed suicide in fear of punishment."

The air seemed to be frozen even by the chill of midwinter.

"Suicide?"

Inside the carriage, the king gave a meaningful laugh.

The procession that was about to depart stopped.