After Becoming The Tyrant

The Chancellor of the Exchequer still clearly remembered the king's reaction to the letter sent by the Kingdom of Bracy a month ago.

At that time, he tore the letter to pieces in front of the messenger, then smiled and said: "Since John has sworn allegiance to me, it is time for him to die for the great Legrand Empire."

The rage and cruelty under the smile make people shudder.

Twenty thousand pounds.

Even for the entire Legrand Empire, it is not easy to spend such a large sum of money.During the period of King William III, in order to launch a war against Blacy, he once raised 1 marks (equivalent to [-] pounds), which took a total of more than seven months. [[-]]

Normally, it would take at least two months to raise [-] pounds.

But Blessie Kingdom only gave one month to raise money.

—they have no will to let the captives be redeemed.

Coupled with the rumors that General John had defected to the enemy and that the Duke of Buckingham had a suspicious attitude, the king directly gave up on redeeming General John, and only set a time for negotiations with the Kingdom of Blacy.

The king's attitude was there, and it was useless even for Grand Duke Grace to write a letter to persuade him. It only made the king even more angry, and other officials were even more afraid to offend him.

Therefore, more than a month passed, let alone twenty thousand pounds, and they did not raise a single penny.

But who would have thought that the king would suddenly bring up this matter when there were only a few days left before the negotiations and delivery of the captives.Judging from what he meant, it seemed that he had changed his mind and planned to redeem General John.

The chancellor almost wanted to kneel to his capricious 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 with cold sweat. He carefully observed the king's face, and replied tactfully: "Your Majesty, in order to resist the invasion of the Kingdom of Bracy, we have spent a lot of money in April, and even raised a Exemption from military service tax..."

"Where's the royal treasury?"

The Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed to be trembling at any moment, and his voice became even softer: "Your Majesty, you have built two royal castles in the west and the north..."

The king remembered.

The Legrand Empire has had an eventful year this year, with riots in Newcastle in the north and Nordover in the west at the end of last year.After suppressing the rebellion, in order to strengthen the rule of these two places, Purland built a castle belonging to the royal family respectively.In order to build the castle, the supervision of the royal forest area was even increased.

great.

The king thought impassively.

Otherwise, let General John die for the country.

"What about my private territorial income?"

This part is regarded as the king's own private income.What he asked obviously meant that the king planned to pay for General John's ransom out of his own pocket.The chancellor was a little surprised.

He reported the income of the king's several territories directly under him. Although the amount was considerable, the king's daily luxury life was obviously also very expensive-in three days, the money that could be urgently withdrawn was only a few thousand pounds.

The king pressed his forehead.

It may be a little sequelae of rebirth, and now his head is starting to ache.

"How much is the income of my uncle's territory?"

he asked casually.

Of course, he didn't expect the Duke of Buckingham, who looked like an ascetic monk, to have much wealth—he even suspected that the Duke would use most of his income to fill the big pit of military expenses.

However, the answer he got still surprised the king.

The duke was simply making ends meet.

"That's right, Your Majesty."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied.

"It stands to reason that the Duke is one of the biggest creditors of the royal family."

While Purlin was still in his infancy, Legrand was almost in turmoil.The king who was still a baby worried the nobles of many states-in this era, it is too much risk for a baby to grow into an adult, especially if this baby is the co-lord of 36 states.

It is the Duke of Buckingham who has repeatedly paid out of his own pocket and used huge loans to support the royal family's finances.

Then soon after the king came of age, rumors arose that the Duke of Buckingham was unwilling to exchange power.At this time, the Duke of Buckingham did something unexpected—he burned all the IOUs.

The king pressed his forehead so hard that his knuckles turned white.

The chancellor stole a glance at the young king, who shielded his eyes with his hand on his forehead.The chancellor had no way of judging the king's mood at this time.

There was a long silence in the room.

"great."

The king braced himself.

"Get ready to negotiate and start raising money."

Hearing about raising money, the Chancellor of the Exchequer immediately had a bad premonition in his heart.

"I remember that the inheritance of the nobility is under my control."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has begun to stutter: "Yes... yes... yes."

"Then let the heirs pay taxes on their titles."

"His Majesty……"

The chancellor of the exchequer was sweating coldly.There was indeed nothing wrong with the king in saying so.According to the charter signed by the nobles who swore allegiance to the king when the king was coronated, the king has the right to rule on succession-but this is generally used when the succession conditions of the two heirs to the title are similar.

However, judging from what the king wanted at this moment, he clearly wanted all the nobles who had the right to inherit to take out all the money in their pockets.

As a result, even the legal eldest son, who was originally sitting firmly on the title, would feel restless.

Apparently, their brothers were more than happy to hand over a large sum of money to the Crown Court to obtain a "business-as-usual" - whoever bids the highest - ruling to wrest the title from their elder brother.

The Minister of Finance can already imagine how many nobles in the country will scold the king for treachery at the rose flower.

But for Zhu Chi, there was no other way.

Legrand's current situation is too bad, and various complicated factors are involved. Does he have enough time to sort it out.According to the Chancellor's answer, Purland has exploited the common people at least three times in the past two years. If he directly increases the tax burden on the common people-then it is not far from the people's riots.

He would rather face a rebellion from some nobles than a riot from the common people.

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

And don't forget, the Duke of Buckingham was not executed. As long as the old Duke is alive, those nobles who want to rebel must carefully weigh it.

"Do you really want to do this?"

asked the chancellor, with little hope.

"Tell them," said the king calmly, "pay the money or go to the front."

Well, hope is all gone.

The chancellor thought desperately.

——As the messenger of the king's will, he is afraid that he will also bear part of the infamy.

…………

Knowing that the king ordered to start raising ransom, the Duke of Buckingham also came to see the king.

"I know what you're going to say."

Before the old prince could speak, the king stopped him.

"However, John is not only your son, my brother, but also the general of the Legrand Empire, the dignity of the Qiangwei family. The most important thing is—"

The king paused.

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

His ice blue eyes were filled with anger.

The Duke of Buckingham fell silent.

…………

Meanwhile, negotiations loom.

They began to prepare to set off for the negotiation site, the city of Tru, which was close to the front line.

The Duke of Buckingham originally planned to go with him, but Zhu Chi had other concerns.

He was not at ease with the status quo of the Legrand Empire, and he didn't trust those nobles to be able to settle down while he was on the front line.So he entrusted the Duke of Buckingham to return to the royal palace in the heart of Legrand to temporarily replace him in charge of government affairs.

Before leaving, Zhu Chi remembered something.

That is the owner of Morne Castle, Earl Walter.

He did not come to see the king for a long time.

"Why, he thinks I gave too much time for three days?"

Zhu Chi sat in the carriage and asked softly.

The steward hurried off to look for Count Walter.

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

"His Majesty……"

"Say."

"The count committed suicide in fear of crime."

The air also seemed to be frozen with the midwinter chill.

"suicide?"

Inside the carriage, the king laughed inexplicably.

The team that was about to start stopped.