Continental Warriors Yoo Ma

If the Duke of Bedford hadn't always tried his best to collect special taxes and used his personal prestige to collect donations everywhere, the royal family would have been dragged down by the war and declared bankrupt.

It is really unacceptable that the nouveau riche in the East who has risen for less than half a year is much richer than the royal family of gorse with a long history and noble bloodline.

"Recognize the reality, gentlemen," said Bishop Beauvin. "No matter what we do, we must appease the Seris. A written armistice must be signed. It is now time for His Royal Highness to come to Paris and complete the coronation ceremony. top priority.”

He thought that he would be neglected by Charles VII, and Yoof Ma, who was not afraid, suddenly became the biggest threat, and the English nobles present were not happy.

"How can I make peace with Yof Ma?" someone asked.

"How about Mann?" Count Arundel suggested, "from October onwards, Richmond, with the support of Queen Yolande, recruited soldiers in Anjou to attack Mann. Although we survived until the winter, both sides stopped. But after the Bretons have defected, there will be attacks from both directions, and it will be difficult to defend."

"In exchange for a piece of meat that has been eaten by the wolf's mouth, in exchange for a vital respite, this deal can be done."

"I agree."

"Anyway, Madame Anne is also going to Burgundy, so let her drop by and talk to Youf Ma. If we reach an agreement, we can start a formal peace negotiation."

Seeing that his subordinates had reached an agreement, Duke Bedford thought about it and nodded with difficulty.

Bishop Bowen looked at this scene, and his heart was calm.He only wants to promote Henry VI to come to Paris to be crowned, and he doesn't care about other things at all.

Chapter 120 Associations and Companies

After the meeting, the Duke of Bedford returned to his mansion.

He pushed open the false bedroom door and saw his wife sitting by the fireplace, reading a book intently.

Seven years had passed since Anne de Burgundy married in England.This woman of Valois descent has become a qualified wife of the regent.She is 26 years old, mature and elegant, humble and polite, the kind of model wife that all male nobles dream of.But as long as you get along with her for a while, you will find that this beautiful woman with light golden hair, blue eyes, and soft facial features still retains a bit of a cheerful and lively girl, which surprises people from time to time.

Seeing her husband's sudden appearance, Annie's eyes flashed with panic, and she quickly put down the book in her hand.

The Duke of Bedford glanced quickly and saw that the cover of the book had a line of gold swashes: "The Young Lady Angie White."The author's names are "Youf Ma" and "Pedro Hernandez de Billy Winbrales".

Seeing his wife's cheeks crimson and her eyes dodging, the Duke of Bedford thought that the other party was afraid of reproaching him. As the wife of the regent, he actually read the enemy's book.

"Don't worry, Anne, you are free to read any literature. Even if the author is an enemy that gives me a lot of headaches," reassured the Duke of Bedford.

"John, you are so kind to me." The Duchess was grateful and poured a glass of wine for her husband herself.

The Duke of Bedford squeezed Annie's hand gently and said softly, "Annie, how is your body?"

The Duchess is not healthy at all, and after moving to Paris with the Duke of Bedford, she suffers from minor illnesses from time to time.

No way, the sanitation in Paris is really bad. Living in the Louvre, you can often smell the stench from the Seine.

In this environment, even drinking a hundred bowls of Shanxi millet every day would not be able to support people.

The Duke of Bedford fought for many years, and the hard military life caused permanent damage to his health, and the Duchess was not in good health, so the two were married for seven years and still had no children.

Last year, Anne had a serious illness. According to the diagnosed priest, it was the plague god spreading divine power through rats.After magical treatment, Annie finally survived, but she never fully recovered.

For the sake of his wife's health, the Duke of Bedford has not let his wife travel for a long time.But this time, for the sake of the bigger picture, he had to let Anne serve as a messenger to France and Burgundy.

Seeing her husband's guilty expression and hesitating to speak, Annie asked, "John, is there anything you want to say? Now the country is in a difficult time. As long as I can help, I will definitely not refuse."

The Duke of Bedford sighed and told his wife the results of the previous meeting.

Annie smiled slightly and said calmly: "Don't worry, John, I will complete the mission you gave me."

"But traveling in such weather..." Duke Bedford felt a pain in his heart, and clenched his wife's hand even tighter.

"It's alright, John, there's nothing wrong with waiting for the snow to stop. I'm staying in a wagon with thermostat enchanted. How can I get cold? Maybe it's good for my health to go out for a walk."

Thinking of the filthy environment in Paris, the Duke of Bedford nodded: "It's better to get out of this smelly pit. The escort I sent you will try to choose French people, and the team will use the flag of Burgundy, so I think No one will be embarrassed.”

After the couple discussed it, they began to prepare.

Luggage, daily necessities, gifts, and accompanying people all need to be carefully selected.

Annie was quite excited to be able to go back to her parents' house to see her brother.The Duke of Bedford and other nobles hoped that this lady, who was loved by all the citizens of Paris, would bring back the good news of peace.

……

"Lord Marquis, we've made a fortune!" Pedro ran into Yofu Ma's study, blushing with excitement, "The Young Lady Angie White is going to sell like crazy, Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, and those rich The lowland traders of oil are all rushing! There was even a big bookseller in London this morning who ordered a hundred copies in one go!"

In this era, movable type printing had not been invented, and books were expensive.A hundred copies is quite a lot.

"Isn't this book satirizing the English people, why are they so flocking?" Ma Youfu asked curiously.

He entrusted all the publishing affairs to Pedro, and he hadn't paid attention to it for a long time.

"Because it tells the story of the English court, people in London prefer it. This is probably what you call the 'substitution sense'." Pedro frowned.

He put a small box on the table: "Sir, this is the fee you deserve, a total of 316 livres."

"You keep this money for me temporarily."

"Ah, yes. A few hundred livres is a once in a lifetime amount of money for a writer like me. But for someone as noble as you, it's not worth mentioning." Pedro nodded. .

Youfu Ma continued: "I'm going to set up a writers' association to attract writers who have a passion for creation and are willing to learn new things. Let's share our experiences, discuss writing skills, and create more literary works that are popular with the public. My manuscript fee will be It is used to fund and reward members of the association.”

"That's a really good idea, your wisdom and generosity make the angels sing praises..."

Stopping the incessant flattery of the Castilians, the two discussed the plot and ideas again, and Yofu Ma let Pedro leave.

In the book "Young Woman Angie White", Yof Ma only wrote the first chapter, which established the style of the whole book, and most of the rest are Pedro's efforts.

Although by virtue of the "Yofi Ma" signature, this novel can be quickly sold, and no booksellers dare to pirate, but it is not very appropriate to just sit and receive half of the manuscript fee.

It is better to take it out to contribute to the cause of literature, and let the European people in the late Middle Ages feel the charm of the color novels of later generations.Maybe it can also promote the cause of the Renaissance.

This is probably cultural output.

After Pedro left, a servant brought a letter.

The handwriting on the white paper is refreshing and elegant, and there is a faint fragrance of lilies.

"The Marquis of Lamanche and the Count of Rouen, Your Excellency Mayo of Ceres. I am waiting for you at the Palais Tau at the Cathedral of Reims at nine o'clock tonight - Vera de Medici."

After the news spread that Mayouf returned to Reims from Chalons and was named Marquis of La Manche, the first to smell the opportunity and flocked to it were the businessmen from the Champagne region.

They demanded, like their Troyes counterparts, the right to invest in the Nord France Trading Company.

After thinking for a while, Ma Youfu agreed to their request.

In the past, the reason for controlling the size of the company was that the [-] livres raised were enough to capture Paris.

However, after he became the Marquis of Lamanche and got the title of "Commander-in-Chief of the Army of North France", the stall that Ma Youfu spread was several times larger, and there were a lot more places to spend money.

In theory, a large number of arrogant soldiers, such as La Haier, Gilles de Rey, Marshal Boussac, Marshal Richmond, Duke of Alençon, Jean Podon de Santreille, etc., belong to Youf Ma. control.

But it is impossible to make these rebellious nobles obey orders, without the benefits of real money - even Charles VII can't do it.

Although relying on the battle of Chalon, Mayoufu earned nearly one million livres - most of which was the ransom of the Earl of Warwick alone, and the rest was the ransom of the remaining captives and the sale of spoils.But these are personal properties, and the company's existing funds are not enough to support the big battle to retake the entire northern France.

Although the war proceeds of nearly one million livres need to wait for the prisoners to pay the ransom in installments, and they can all be obtained in about two or three years, but countless people are already jealous.

With a lot of wealth in his hand and his promotion to the Marquis of Lamanche like a rocket, he has become the target of many people who want to take refuge in.

If you follow the Marquis to conquer Paris, or even the whole of Normandy, wouldn't you make a fortune?

As a result, North France Trading Co., Ltd. conducted a second round of financing, and the number of shareholders expanded to 30.Then, according to the division of the city, five people are selected as directors to be responsible for the company's decision-making.

And the company's capital, which has soared to 30 livres, will be fully invested in the company's first project - the siege of Paris.

This huge sum of money is equivalent to more than 3000 pounds, which has exceeded the annual income of the British royal family.After deducting court expenses, the young King Henry VI can only have a surplus of [-] pounds a year to spend on war.Coupled with the heavy debt of more than [-] pounds, the Plantagenet family could not compete financially with Ma Youfu.

The siege of Paris has not yet begun, and the result is already doomed.

As the company expands, manpower naturally has to keep up.Youfu Ma didn't have the energy to stare at the company all day long, so after setting up the board of directors, he decided to set up another "general manager" position to be responsible for managing the company's affairs.

Now there are two people competing for this position.One is the younger brother of the head of the Lance Stonemason Guild.The other is one of the directors of the company, the banker of the Medici family and Francesco's daughter, Vera.

When we parted in Troyes last time, this dark elf girl seemed to be in trouble.However, after Ma Youf returned to Lance, she took the initiative to follow her father to visit.

When they met again, the relationship between the two quickly warmed up, and Youfu Ma spent a lot of satisfying and happy time.

However, Vera still adhered to the bottom line and did not let Youfu Ma taste it all.

Looking at the letter sent by Vera, Youfu Ma seemed to think of some charming scene, and his heart warmed: "Could it be that Vera wants to use that warm and moist little mouth for sleeping clothes - no, it should be to persuade me to put Give her the position of general manager?"

In fact, there is no need for Vera to take the initiative to please, Yofu Ma is going to make her the general manager.Aside from the fact that a beautiful girl is more pleasing to the eye than a drunk old man, Vera is indeed very talented in business management.

However, since the beauty invited him, how could he refuse?

Chapter 120 Three Purities

Reims Cathedral is a religious building as famous as Notre Dame de Paris in France. By the time of the Great Revolution, a total of 25 kings had been crowned here.

In the future, in the time of the Great Revolution, this magnificent church will be broken into by men without pants, all the sculptures with royal symbols will be destroyed, the gold and silver will be robbed, and the bronze bells will be melted and cast into cannons.This sacred space where the kings of the past dynasties were crowned has also become a barn.

But now it is still a majestic and sacred religious totem, the pinnacle of Gothic architecture.There are two tall towers on the front of the church, which stand out from the crowd and overlook the surrounding two-story wooden buildings.

Travelers can see this iconic building from a distance before they enter the city of Reims.

In the night when the snow stopped suddenly, Ma Youfu walked with eight guards on the silent streets of Lance.After arriving at the cathedral, he did not enter the main hall.There are more important things today, visit the place where Charles VII was coronated later.

After detouring for a while, Mayoufu came to the Tau Palace on the right side of the cathedral.

This building is the palace where the Archbishop of Reims lives and where the French kings prepare for their coronation and hold coronation feasts.

Under the guidance of the maid, I came to the third floor.The servants and guards stood at a distance, and Yo-O Ma pushed open the door alone.

This is a worship room, a square altar is placed in the middle of the room, and the sculptures of the Seven Saints stand on the east side.

Other walls are adorned with delicate tapestries depicting everything from the advent of the Seven Saints to the lives of the Vikings to the Crusades, filled with a unique aesthetic of religious art.

However, the atmosphere of this worship room was a little wrong.

Hundreds of scented candles exuded an ambiguous smell. The floor was covered with a thick and soft fleece blanket. Vera was barefoot, placing drinks and food on the altar. private reception?

The dark elf girl wore a conservative long black dress, covering all her delicate wheat-colored skin, and dressed like a nun.

Even so, it couldn't hide her graceful curves.

It's so amazing when you're only in your teens, isn't it even more amazing when you grow up?What an incredible woman!

After saying three "incredibles" in his heart, Yoo Ma said, "You can always play some new tricks, my Vera. But why didn't you see a priest at Tau Palace tonight?"

"The bishop has gone to Chalon. I donated two hundred livres to the Diocese of Reims, so the bishop agreed to rent the vacant Tau Palace to me for a few days, so that I can feel the glory of the One God up close. ."

"It's really strange. You dark elves are obviously the same as me, a Seris, and you are pretending to convert your faith in your heart. The little calculus that you regretted every day is not a devout believer of the Seven Saints at all." Yofu Ma said with a smile.

"Wouldn't that be more fun?"

Vera picked up a grape, put it in her mouth, and put it into Yofu Ma's arms with a charming smile...

After a long time, the two parted breathlessly.