Gold is Justice

The mermaid army drove the elemental vehicles made of iron sheets and controlled the Bolide, but directly counterattacked Tianhong Province and Diliao Province, which are the closest marginal provinces!During these three months, they even directly occupied almost two-thirds of the territory of these two provinces, allowing all these areas to carry out the activity of "killing nobles and dividing the territory"!

As for the imperial army that marched along the mountain road in batches and wanted to wipe out Pelican City in one go...

----

"President! Everyone has brought them!"

In mid-November, Ariel was looking at the map in front of her in the guild hall, when someone walked in and shouted with joy.

Ariel turned her head, and saw that Brad and several other mermaid soldiers were holding a rope in their hands, and on the other end of the rope were several ragged, haggard faces, who looked like they were hungry. People who haven't eaten for days.

However, although the clothes are ragged, judging from the original appearance of these clothes, the identities of these people should be either rich or noble.

Ariel nodded slightly. At this moment, she slightly pulled the cloak on her body, stretched out her hand to warm the small stove on the table, and then got up.

She walked slowly to the prisoners who were all kneeling in front of her, tilted her head, smiled sweetly, and said, "Everyone, good afternoon. Have you eaten yet?"

All the prisoners were silent, but obviously, they couldn't all be dumb.

One of the captives, who looked a little old, raised his head. When he saw Ariel's tender and delicate face, and saw her slightly wavy blonde hair falling down, she was surrounded by the firelight of the fireplace next to her. When it was shining brightly, the prisoner couldn't help but exclaimed——

"People call you a charming witch... I didn't believe it before... But today, I believe it... It's an honor to die at the hands of a witch like you..."

Ariel's eyes turned to the captive, her expression didn't change, but she said with a smile: "This uncle's identity is...?"

The prisoner sighed slightly, and said: "My identity is not important now...I just want to know how we lost? Even if we die...I want to die clearly."

Brad on the side pulled the rope very rudely, and said: "President, this guy seems to be a collateral branch of the Blue Bay royal family. I asked Sweet Wine Cheese to recognize him. She is not very familiar with it, but I heard After the name, it seems to be an uncle of her prince, who is also the commander-in-chief of the imperial army in charge of the attack."

Ariel nodded, continued to smile and said, "If I really want to kill you, there's no need to take the trouble of capturing you one by one. Just solve it on the battlefield. But... since you have doubts, then Do you know the answer to this question yourself?"

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All the captives, including the prince, were taken aback for a moment. Their eyes exchanged, as if they vaguely knew something, but they didn't dare to say anything.

After a long time, the prince sighed and said: "I know, I lost to the elemental machine... Those magicians and priests kept saying that your elemental machine is a machine of the devil, and it will bring ominous The curse of the curse... Now it seems that this is indeed a demon-like power! But they did not tell us that these demonic powers can be controlled by humans and can be used by humans..."

"Those who have an affinity for the elements have told us through the ages that we can only light candles. Whenever anyone wishes to gain light other than candles, they will use the harshest There is no way to attack this person. It's just that now...the position has changed."

Ariel nodded again, and said with a smile: "That's a good summary. But the elemental machine can only succeed on a local battlefield. It's like I raided your forward camp. It was indeed a beautiful battle. But in After that, it doesn't mean that all your failures were caused by the element machine. Can you figure out the reason?"

The prince raised his head slightly, but soon, his eyes dimmed again, he sighed softly, and said, "I know...it's because all of our troops started to walk the mountain road, and then we were cut off by you." Food... But I still can't figure it out, I have asked those lords to maintain the food transportation process as much as possible... But why, why are you still running out of food?"

Hearing this question, Ariel smiled slightly, then shook her head lightly.

She sighed, spread her hands, and said, "This is the real reason why you lost this war."

Based on the review of the entire war, Ariel's ability to cut off food is actually not outstanding.What's more, she didn't arrange any food shortage activities at all.

There is only one reason for successfully cutting off the food supply of this imperial army-money.

Before that, Ariel had borrowed from a large number of merchants and farmers in Tianhong Province and Diliao Province, and promised them a profit repayment rate of more than [-]%.

On weekdays, even a profit of more than 30.00% can be called a huge profit, let alone [-]%!

The merchants in these two provinces have dealt with Song of the Mermaid on a daily basis. Even ordinary citizens and peasants can rely on the large amount of goods produced by Song of the Mermaid to live a more comfortable and fulfilling life.

Therefore, at the level of the lords and nobles who were resolutely unwilling to lend money to Mermaid Song, these ordinary citizens and small businessmen did not have much psychological pressure on this.

Especially the merchants who had good business talks with Mermaid Song Chamber of Commerce on weekdays, after hearing such a big profit, they were more willing to go to other places to borrow money and then lend it to Mermaid Song.

What is there to say?

As long as enough profits are given, even if it is the risk of beheading, someone will do it.

Under such circumstances, Song of the Mermaid unknowingly tied interests with almost one-third of the merchants in the two provinces.And Ariel can also use this huge borrowed money to substantially prepare elemental cannons and elemental armored vehicles to enhance the military capabilities of the entire mermaid army.

Then, it is precisely because of the binding that of course these merchants will not watch the imperial army block their way of making money like that.Even though no one from Song of the Mermaid applied or lobbied, these people who lent the money in order for the Mermaid Army to win the war, invariably cut off and obstructed the Imperial Army's armament supply route.

"So, it's as simple as that."

After listening to Ariel's explanation, the prince couldn't believe his ears!

With his mouth half open, he stood there dumbly.And the other generals on both sides are also dumbfounded now. This is probably the first time in their lives that they were not defeated by military deployment and the offensive and defensive of the generals on both sides during the war, but by finance and internal affairs. !

Ariel exhaled slowly, drank a sip of tea, and continued: "To be honest, I am also a little surprised that the imperial army has become so corrupt. You really care too much about the thoughts of nobles and lords, I always thought that as long as those nobles and lords can be controlled well, the entire empire will be safe and sound, and your food supplies will not have any accidents."

"In other words, in your eyes, there is no such thing as the most ordinary ordinary citizen. In your eyes, weak ordinary people are just tools to generate tax money. They don't have the same personality as you, do they?"

The prince swallowed and said nothing.

Ariel waved her hand and said: "Now, the entire Marginal Province, and more than half of Tianhong Province and Diliao Province have been subordinated to the Mermaid Army. And the [-] troops of the Blue Bay Empire, which can be said to be elite, are now almost More than half of them were wiped out. Your Excellency, I will let you go back now, and go back and tell that guy from Tidal Vigorous Waves that your time is running out for the royal family. Enjoy your remaining rights. It won’t be long before those who were killed The anger of the people who have been oppressed for so long will drag you down from your throne!"

After all, the supreme commander of the mermaid army waved his hand again. After Brad and a few soldiers nodded, he immediately escorted these generals and walked towards the outside of the guild. untie.

But at this moment, the prince gritted his teeth and shouted——

"Ariel Garcia! You told me how you won it, didn't you just give money and land to those untouchables! Don't forget, the Blue Bay Empire also owns four complete provinces! Our Blue Bay royal family As long as you think about it, you can use your method to defeat you immediately!"

Brad stopped, still holding the rein, and looked back at Ariel behind him.

Regarding this, Ariel looked very calm, smiled slightly, and said——

"Okay, just do it. If you can really put the happiness of ordinary people on an equal footing with yourself like our mermaid army, then maybe you can really defeat the mermaid army. But the premise is , can you do it?"

At that moment, all the generals, including the prince, were stunned again.

That's right... If it can really treat ordinary people kindly, can the Blue Bay Empire be called an empire?If one could really care about every low-level people, the imperial power itself would no longer exist.

These contents have been repeatedly emphasized many times in "On the Collapse of Empires".Before that, these generals just looked at it as a joke.But now it seems that they may really start to seriously consider the future...

At this point, the confrontation between the mermaid army and the imperial army, this seemingly completely unbalanced war of [-] against [-], came to an end.

The mermaid army was injured no more than a hundred people, but luckily no one was killed.Among the hundreds of injured people, quite a few were injured due to the out-of-control power of the elemental cannon, and some were caused by the sudden unexplained flameout of the elemental armored vehicle in the middle of its operation, causing the people in the vehicle to squeeze each other the damage caused.

As for the imperial army, less than 5 of the 1 troops fled back.Not only that, both Tianhong Province and Diliao Province, which should have belonged to the Blue Bay Empire, had more than half of their territory occupied by the mermaid army because of this defeat.

After occupying these two provinces, Ariel immediately set out to inspect, talked with the local people, and narrowed the distance between the two sides.Every time she went to a place, she would report the size of the land and the property of the local landowners and nobles.Let those nobles who always oppress ordinary people get out of their mansions one by one, confiscate their property, burn all the farmers' IOUs, and leave their hands to redistribute the land.

Part of the property confiscated from the noble lord's house was distributed, and all of it was used to repay the previous debts.After the distribution is over, all the remaining money is classified as military funds, and the accounts are listed for everyone to check anytime, anywhere.

Compared with the previous policy of increasing taxes when the landlords and nobles occupied the land, Ariel demanded the abolition of all exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes, and all taxes were changed to a progressive tax system.Only those with an annual income of more than 5.00 gold need to pay a [-]% tax, and those with an annual income of more than [-] need to pay [-]%.

This kind of tax policy is undoubtedly equivalent to lifting the taxes of most farmers and small businessmen. Naturally, this method can better control the occupied area, so that these citizens who have farmland, jobs, and some small money at home are completely determined If you vote for the mermaid army, you will not be recruited back by the empire.

The reason is simple. Of course, those who have tasted good things will not want to go back to being slaves.In order to protect their own good life, people are more willing to defend it.

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It was precisely because of this that when the Mermaid Army started recruiting soldiers again, local young adults joined the Mermaid Army one after another.These young and middle-aged men do not receive military pay, but three meals a day are all provided by the army. Under the attack of public opinion that the mermaid army publicized the glory of joining the army and protecting their homeland, this army began to expand rapidly in a short period of time!It took less than a month to reach the size of the standing army of 5000 people.

As the army grows larger, management naturally needs to be more refined.

Under Ariel's order, the teachers of Pelican City went to the barracks one after another to teach the soldiers how to read and write, so that they not only knew to fight to protect their homeland, but also to be knowledgeable and combat-minded people.

Someone also once persuaded Ariel, saying that these soldiers are consumables once they go to the battlefield, and teaching them to read and write is of no use, and once they die, they have nothing.

But Ariel still insists that everyone can read the book, and regards "The Collapse of Empires" as a book that must be studied immediately in every reading group, so as to fully grasp the core knowledge of the collapse theory.

After all, she always believed that if she did not study, she would not be able to enter Lao Tengshu Academy.Without studying, it is impossible for him to leave Hanhai City and come here to open a guild.If I don’t study, I’m afraid I will always be a maid, or even a nobleman’s mistress. After spending my youth with a certain nobleman for a few years, I will give birth to a child in a daze, or even have no child at all. Born, died somewhere suddenly on a certain day.

As for the Imperial Army...

Ariel really believed that the current Blue Bay Empire could no longer be successful.Unless they are really crazy and once again do their best to put all their resources into the next war.

But if this is the case... I am afraid that the speed of destruction of this empire will be a little faster than I expected...

----

It's another winter, and this year's winter seems to be a little bit colder than previous years.

This coldness does not come from the weather, but from the heart.

The news of the defeat of the imperial army spread to the capital. As the current emperor, Chao Bilan must of course block the news as soon as possible, so that this matter cannot reach the ears of ordinary people.

But what else to do?After such a defeat, the elite empire of 5 people was almost wiped out!This kind of thing made the emperor, who had just succeeded to the throne for less than a year, suddenly look devastated.

"Get out! Get out of here!"

Accompanied by the sound of porcelain bottles being smashed, the maids retreated from the emperor's office in a panic.

It's just that the two maids who came out at the end still dragged a person by their hands. This person's chest was covered with blood, and a glaring sword wound hole directly penetrated this person's heart. It seemed that he was dead.

The faces of the maids were full of panic and panic, and the soldiers in charge of the guards did not dare to say anything. They could only hold their breath and silently watched the maids drag the still-hot corpse away.But these maids only took two or three steps before they froze on the spot again.

"His Royal Highness the Duchess..."

In front of these maids, Natalie stood silently.Now she is still wearing a black silk gauze, and she still wears a widow's black mask on her face.Although they couldn't fully see the face of the duchess, these maids could vaguely feel the coldness conveyed by it.

"Go down."

"Yes Yes!"

The maids hurriedly dragged the corpse away, while Natalie looked at the beautiful carpet that had been smeared with dirty blood, her face under the veil was vaguely unhappy, but she didn't Outburst immediately.

She walked into the office slowly, looking at the No. 14 emperor of the Blue Bay Empire with disheveled hair and anxiety written all over his face.

"It looks like you're very angry."

Tidal turned his head away. When he saw that Natalie, the wife of the emperor, appeared in front of him, he was slightly taken aback, then put the bloody sword in his hand into the scabbard, and threw the sword and scabbard together. onto the floor aside.

Natalie glanced at the sword that fell on the ground. The scabbard was decorated very gorgeously, inlaid with various gemstones, and the handle was carved out of gold, very much in line with the emperor's flamboyant style.

"If it was a fierce wave, he would never put the sword back into the sheath without wiping off the blood. On the one hand, it would make the blade rust. On the other hand, he would never make such a careless thing. move."

Tidal turned his head away and gave Natalie a vicious look.As soon as he waved his hand, the soldiers outside understood and immediately closed the door, forming a small closed space here.

"But my brother is dead...he's dead!"

Tidal rushed in front of Natalie in two or three steps, clenched his fist, and swung it in front of her, as if he wanted to emphasize his strength!

But Natalie didn't have any reaction to this. Looking at the tide, it was like watching a useless child rolling over there.

"You also know that your brother is dead. And you, the usurper, usurped the throne that should have belonged to his son."

Not only did Natalie not back down from the threat of the tide, but she took a step forward.

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Facing the emperor's wife in front of him, Chao Chao seemed a little nervous while going crazy. He gritted his teeth, watched the woman in front of him walking towards him step by step, gritted his teeth, and said, "This throne will be returned to you." Whirlpool...I will return Whirlpool! It's just that now...the current Blue Bay Empire needs an adult emperor, not a child under three years old to be the emperor! Sister-in-law, you know my...I have always been I don't like being an emperor, I want to be free! I just want a relaxed and happy life, fuck it! I just want to live a quiet and happy life! Why is that woman... that woman even like me? He refuses to meet even the slightest request!"

Natalie still stared at the man in front of her silently. After a moment of silence, she nodded lightly and said, "The [-] troops are almost wiped out, and almost three of the seven provinces of the Blue Bay Empire have gone. The balance that your deceased husband worked so hard to maintain was completely broken by you within a year, and you will lose your army and lose your land... Hehe, how do you want future history books to record you as an emperor? No matter what people will say about you in the future, I believe that at least there will be One thing is for sure. That is, people will never recognize your artistic achievements, but will only evaluate you as a waste, a piece of garbage."