Chapter 780 North
One morning two days later, a secret letter from Milan was delivered to Art’s official room on the third floor of the lord’s mansion.
However, the secret message did not come from Dawson, the deputy captain of the task force lurking in Milan, but from the head of the business guild of an autonomous city-state around Milan.
At carefully read the secret letter in his hand twice. In addition to the above-mentioned news that the Lombard Palace had sent an army of 1,500 troops to garrison in the northeast of Tira City, which Art already knew, the other two mentioned contents made Art shudder.
The head of the commercial guild of the autonomous city-state informed Art in a secret letter that Duke Witote had sent envoys to Rome and the Principality of Swabia, intending to use the territory of Lombardy in exchange for military support from each other.
Matt stood up and walked slowly to the window, frowning.
He did not expect that the Lombard court would now have such an extreme idea of exchanging territory for external support in order to preserve Milan.
Seeing that the army was about to march towards Milan in the near future, but now there was news that Milan was asking for help from outside, which made Art have to hesitate a little more. Once Rome and the Principality of Swabia agree to the request of the Lombard court, the game between the three parties will become more complicated.
After thinking about it, Art decided to strike preemptively.
.——.Ron! ” Art shouted towards the door.
"Sir!" Ron pushed open the door and entered.
"Immediately send someone to ask Earl Balian to come to Tira City, and tell him that I have something important to discuss, and he must be here before noon tomorrow."
h "Yes, I will go right away!" After Ron left, Art walked to the official table, picked up the quill pen in his hand, thought about it for a while, and wrote a secret letter to Lord Galvin who was in the palace of Besancon at this time. At this time, the cold winter in the north had passed, and early spring came unknowingly. As the temperature rises, the snow has long melted, the rivers have thawed, and everything has begun to recover~
After more than a month of campaign, the Southern Expedition Army fought from the snowy valley territory to the sunny southern coast.
The Buriang Kingdom also completed the peaceful transition of palace power during this campaign.
At this time, the residents of Besançon had long forgotten the days when rumors were rife, and life once again returned to the state before the war.
With the peaceful transition of the regime, everything here is done step by step.
However, all this is due to the new monarch's family elder, Lord Galvin and his son Phoenix.
Since Flanders' son Glenn Otto succeeded to the throne, Lord Galvin, headed by the Palace Finance Minister, has begun to reform the tax system, agriculture and other major issues related to the national economy and people's livelihood in the princely state as the assistant minister, in order to improve the current unoptimistic financial balance and expenditure situation of the princely state.
In addition, in order to consolidate the border and deter the opposition forces, he ordered Phoenix to recruit an elite border army of more than a thousand people to respond to various emergencies at any time.
In addition to the more than a thousand soldiers trained by Art in advance, plus the newly recruited young men, it was enough for the palace to control everything.
As the war progressed step by step, the Southern Expeditionary Army seized more and more grain, grass, supplies and gold and silver goods from Lombardy. This also meant that the Besancon Palace could obtain a very considerable wartime income in addition to taxes, which greatly reduced the financial pressure on the Palace.
In the official room of the Palace Finance Office, although it was early spring, there was still a bit of chill. After Lord Galvin threw a few pieces of firewood into the fireplace nearby, he walked towards his official desk~
On the table are tax account books compiled by financial officials from various provinces. Galvin opened one of the account books about the commercial tax collection of the Hou Kingdom in the past six months, took a look at the summary figures above, and couldn't help but smile on his face. Compared with the same period last year, there was a full one million pfennigs more, which has been an increasing trend for three consecutive years. This is enough to explain the improvement of the economic situation and commercial and agricultural affairs of the Hou Kingdom in recent years.
Close the account book, Lord Galvin rubbed his tired eyes and breathed a long sigh of relief. In recent days, his busy official duties have kept him running around without ever touching the ground, often dealing with matters at hand until late at night.
· Coupled with the huge trauma caused to him by Flanders' death, his already thin body was even more fragile at this time.
The two deep depressions on his thin cheeks made him look lifeless, and his lean fingers were sore from holding a pen for a long time.
As he grew older, his back became more and more stooped, and he looked as frail as a little old man.
As the elder of the Otto family, he used his weak body to lift up this once shaky regime. But no matter what, he lived up to Flender's trust after all.
Lord Galvin stood up slowly, walked to the wine cabinet on the left side of the fireplace, and poured himself a large glass of wine. Because of his joyful mood, he took a big sip into his mouth. As the delicious wine flowed down his throat and into his stomach, he felt refreshed all over.
However, a sudden knock on the door broke the tranquility of the office room.
"Phoenix!" Galvin was a little excited when he saw his son, whom he had not seen for many days.
Phoenix walked into the official room, took a look around, and after making sure that no one was there, he turned around, closed the door of the official room, and walked towards Lord Galvin.
"What are you~" Galvin put down his wine glass, a little confused by Phoenix's behavior.
Phoenix took out a secret letter from his belt, handed it to Lord Galvin, and whispered: "This is a secret letter from my brother-in-law from the south~"
Lord Galvin took the secret letter and slowly opened it~
As his eyes wandered back and forth in the secret letter, he was still shocked to see this sudden news.
"What? The Principality of Swabia may be invading the country!" Lord Galvin repeated the contents of the secret letter.
“Father, what should we do now?” Phoenix asked hurriedly.
Galvin did not answer. He held the secret letter in his hand and walked back and forth in the office.
Att informed him in a secret letter that the Swabian Principality was very likely to invade the eastern border of Jonah Province driven by the benefits promised by the Duke of Lombardy. Since the Mountain Confederation transferred part of the border guards in the area bordering the Principality of Swabia to the Lombardy front, the Swabian court, which had been worried about being invaded by those barbarians on the border, was relieved. This is likely to make Swabia, which has been coveting the territory of the Principality of Burgundy for many years, eager to try.
In order to avoid a sudden invasion by the Swabian army, Art suggested that the Besançon court immediately deploy troops on the border of Jona Province to form a force against Swabia, forcing the other party not to dare to act rashly. Once the southern army breaks through Milan, the Lombard court's promise to Swabia will become a piece of waste paper, and the border crisis will naturally be relieved.
Suddenly, Sir Galvin stopped, turned around and said to Phoenix: "Quick, follow me to see the king immediately!"
In the palace of Besançon, Glenn Otto, who had just succeeded the king, was learning the main family coats of arms of the surrounding principalities under the supervision of the palace's grand master.
As the new king of the Burgundy Kingdom, Glenn Otto is only eleven years old, and he is at a playful age. But his father's early death forced him to shoulder the important responsibilities of the king. In addition to boring study every day, he also has to learn basic combat skills from the hired sword master. Only in this way can he take up the burden on his shoulders in the future and become a qualified ruler.
The sudden loss of Flanders' protection made it difficult for this boy who was originally full of childhood joy to let go. Even though Flanders was extremely strict with him during his lifetime, he still looked forward to being with his father every day. For him, his father Flanders is his great hero, a truly great knight and a master of swordsmanship.
But with the passing of his father, the young king no longer had the light in his eyes. Flanders took away part of his life like a collapsed beacon.
· Whenever a royal meeting was held, he could always see a group of elderly guys arguing endlessly about one thing, often with no result for several days a year. As the elder of the family, Mr. Galvin would always lean on his seat alone after everyone left, looking at the ceiling and falling into deep thought.
In my impression, this family elder is very kind and deeply trusted by his father. But after his father left, the elder became more and more haggard. His violent coughing could often be heard throughout the conference hall.
Every time we meet, this family elder is always very respectful to himself and his mother, like a palace steward.
But the lame son in the elder's family is not often seen. Based on seniority, he should call the lame knight his uncle.
He had heard his father Flanders mention this uncle often, but always in beautiful words of praise. Even though he has a disabled leg, he can still bring down two fully armored soldiers at the same time, which is unusual. Maybe he is a true knight like his father.
While Glenn was immersed in his own world, the Grand Maester slapped the wooden stick in his hand on the table, bringing him back from his thoughts.
"Which family's coat of arms is this?" The bachelor pointed with a wooden stick at the thick ancient book that contained the coats of arms of many families.
Glenn looked at the blood-eyed howling wolf heraldic flag drawn on the book and blurted out, "This is the flag of the Earl Art Wood Wells family on the southern border of the Burgundy Kingdom!"
The Grand Bachelor then put down the stick and nodded with satisfaction.
At this moment, the guard came to report, "Tell the king that Lord Galvin and his son Sir Phoenix are waiting in the inner court."
Glenn Otto put down the book in his hand and said to the guard: "Go and tell him. They, please wait for a moment, I will be there soon."
"As you command!"
When Lord Galvin and Phoenix were waiting for King Glenn Otto in the inner court, Glenn's mother had already heard the news and came over.