The Sun King's Evidence

Five days until Maslenitsa, Kislev, Bokahar Palace, Kislev State Duma.

Representative of the Kislev Boye nobility, Kislev Grand Marshal Dimitri Zaev.

Kislev Marshal Konev, Kislev Hussars Marshal and Griffon Legion Commander Romanov, Kislev Bear Cavalry Marshal Rokossovsky, Kislev Northern Front Commander Zaka- Fedosov.

Petrov, the chief minister of Kislev's palace, and Demilov, the minister of finance of Kislev, were both present.

The military leaders and landowners of Kislev gathered together to discuss the recent difficulties faced by the kingdom.

What is quite interesting for Kislev is that it is a very, very empty country with sparse settlements separated by vast ice sheets and large tracts of land. Even within the country, except for the three cities of Kislev Except for , Erengrad and Prague, news from other settlements is intermittent, and direct rule is difficult to achieve. Therefore, each settlement has become highly independent, with a Boye noble completely controlling the military and political power. There is no doubt that everyone recognizes the authority of the Tsarina, but if Her Majesty Katalin really crosses the State Duma and issues any mandatory orders to them, these Boye nobles will be very surprised and show their faces: "You are kidding me." " expression.

This is the reason. In theory, the Boye nobility must be appointed by the Tsarina, but in fact it is a hereditary title.

Therefore, Kislev's army mainly consisted of three forces, namely the city army directly loyal to the tsarina, the local army controlled by the Boye nobles, and the imperial garrison supported by various empires.

In this case, the boyars in various places were highly independent and eventually formed the State Duma.

Now, in the conference room of the Bocaha Palace, which is luxuriously decorated and covered with all kinds of bearskin tapestries and ice sculptures, with brightly colored murals and colorful ceilings, everyone in the State Duma is discussing what to do next. .

"The supplies for the troops on the northern frontline, the relief for the refugees, and the supplies for the troops at the Jakova Fortress in the south have all been arranged. We try to maintain 70%-80% of the rations. As for the army's unpaid wages, we give priority to ensuring the Bear Cavalry. , Griffin Legion and Krim Guard’s military salary can be mostly distributed. As for the military salary of the Ksar Legion, Shooting Army and City Defense Battalion, we will deal with it first and wait for this festival to pass before making any plans." Marshal Dimitri Zaev nodded, and he slowly said to everyone: "Prioritize ensuring the combat effectiveness of the frontline troops."

"What? There is no room left for the repair costs of the Osdrask Fortress and the reconstruction costs of the Slaghov Fortress further north?" Marshal Zaka Fedosov, the representative of the Northern Front, said dissatisfied: "Then what do you think? If we can’t guarantee the repair of the two fortresses in the north, how can we ensure the smooth flow of trade routes with Dulong City?!”

"Then what do you mean?" Marshal Kislev, Konev, the controller of Kislev's Central Army, spoke. This is a soldier with a resolute look and a big bald head. He is wearing brand new clothes. wearing a marshal's military uniform, tasting vodka, looking directly at Marshal Fedosov with very sharp eyes: "What do you want to do? Fedosov, you might as well say it straight, I have no interest in playing riddles with you."

"What I want to say is that the military expenditures and supplies you allocate to the Northern Front are too little!" Marshal Fedosov said loudly: "Many soldiers on the front line lack food and clothing, and they don't even have medicine when they are sick! Forget it, I understand the current difficulties in the kingdom, but what about the fortresses? Since the end of the Winter War more than two years ago, two fortresses have been built, but they have not been completed yet. The soldiers are hiding in the semi-open fortresses. We will spend the winter inside, and if you don’t allocate enough funds and recruit manpower, we won’t be able to finish repairing these two fortresses next year!”

"For this Norse expedition, the treasury received almost 120,000 ducats (Kislev gold coins). In the end, you only allocated 40,000 to us. This is really too little. We have to pay military pay again. , you have to ensure supplies, and you also have to build a fortress. Building a fortress in a harsh and freezing environment is already very expensive, but you have to make the horses run away and not eat grass!"

"I said, what do you think?" Marshal Konev repeated: "I don't want to hear your complaints, I want you to come up with solutions!"

"At least we must allocate another 40,000 ducats." Marshal Fedosov emphasized: "I know that after reaching the trade agreement with the dwarves of Dulong City, customs duties and mineral taxes have formed new inputs, which is not a huge sum of money. The small income is how we ensure the smooth flow of trade routes, so why can’t we extract part of the customs duties and mining taxes as our military expenditure?”

"Trade tariffs and mining taxes are directly recruited by Her Majesty Katalin's tax officer and sent to the Ice Palace. They have nothing to do with us." Grand Marshal Dimitri, the representative of the Boye nobles, said in a deep voice: "Katarin Her Majesty Taryn is going to conduct a very important ice magic experiment and needs money urgently. As for our application..."

"Your Majesty does not agree. The treasury and internal funds of the Ice Palace have been rescued many times. You also know this." Tsarist Finance Minister Demilov said slowly: "The internal treasury cannot only have expenditures but no income. ah."

"Very good." Marshal Dimitri nodded helplessly. He turned to Marshal Bear Cavalry and asked: "Constantine, what can you do?"

"I don't know." Marshal Rokossovsky's attention was obviously not focused on the meeting. He just said casually: "Maybe we can re-audit and see which part of the expenditure can be re-economical? Save a little. A little?"

"How to audit?! How can it be cost-effective!!" Marshal Konev slammed the cup in his hand on the ground. He blushed and roared: "This is the money, one hundred and twenty-four thousand five hundred and sixty-six." Dukat! How can we make a new plan and let the Northern Front go hungry to fight the barbarians? Or stop providing relief to the refugees? Or simply stop paying arrears?!"

The cup fell to the ground and broke into several pieces. The crisp sound could be clearly heard in the conference room.

"As Marshal Kislev and Commander-in-Chief of Kislev's Central Army, I know best that many of the soldiers of the Ksar Army and the Shooting Army, and the soldiers of the city defense battalion are already in bakeries, merchants, and even temples. There have been debts for several months! Many soldiers came to my house to ask me for help. What can I do!" Marshal Konev roared: "Don't I know that there is no money in the treasury, and we are constantly fighting with barbarians in the north? , and the Jiakova Fortress in the south is also facing a full-scale invasion by the green-skinned Akame tribe!"

"If this continues, the thousand-year celebration of Kislev's founding of the country will soon be the day of our country's subjugation!" Marshal Konev's loud voice echoed in the conference hall, and he didn't care at all that the words spread.

"Marshal Romanov." At this moment, an attendant rushed into the conference hall, and he shouted anxiously: "It's urgent."

"What's going on?" Marshal of the Hussars raised his head, and the attendant whispered in his ear: "It's not good, the Kesa Army and the Shooting Army mutinied in the army because they were paid too little, and they started fighting with the guards! An General Andre committed suicide with a musket, which settled the resentment, but the officers gathered together and headed towards the palace, and they must give us an explanation!"

"What?!" The whole conference room was shaken.

"Konev, hurry up and stop them. You are the commander-in-chief of the Central Army and the commander of Kislev City Defense. You have enough prestige to calm the grievances." Generalissimo Dimitri immediately turned his attention to Konev.

"Huh! Are you thinking of me now? It's too late!" Konev said impatiently and helplessly: "What do you want me to do?"

"Please explain the principles and laws clearly to them!" Dimitri advised: "You have always had a high prestige in the army, and the soldiers will understand."

"We have always been able to cook beetroot soup and fry minced meat pancakes on site. How can we talk about reason and law on site?" Konev spread his hands: "Give me a time limit. When can the payment issue be resolved?"

"this……"

.........I am the dividing line between beetroot soup and meat pancakes......

Not far from the armory, Ugor General Beria and his deputy Shelepin were looking at the scene in the armory with complex expressions.

The mutiny died down, for now.

When the scene was at its most chaotic, General Andrei, who was in charge of logistics, suddenly stood up. He stood on the table and shouted with his loudest voice: "I didn't do a good job. I can't help you with your unpaid wages. It's me." Incompetent, I’m sorry to Her Majesty Katalin, and I’m sorry to you, I declare that I am responsible for this!”

After saying that, General Andre suddenly took out a short blunderbuss and pointed the muzzle at his chin.

A gunshot woke up the mutinous soldiers who were fighting and the armory soldiers and Krim guards who were suppressing them. Seeing General Andrei die for this, the Ksar soldiers and shooting troops felt really uncomfortable, and they finally gave up. laid siege to the armory.

Then, the officers turned to prepare to go to the Bocaha Palace. The Ksar soldiers did not believe that they could not pay the money. Many General Kislev and the Boye nobles participated in the Norsca expedition, and they pulled them back. Ships and carts of booty once filled the streets! They have money, go to them to ask for it!

Thousands of soldiers selected dozens of officers to go to the Bocaha Palace to collect back pay. The rest would line up to collect military pay for the time being and go back to the military camp to wait for news.

Deep in an alley on the street, Beria led more than 20 fully armed Ugor horse archers. Looking at the scene in front of him, his expression was complicated, but he still held back his anger: " It seems that the problem is much more serious than I thought.”

"We are in arrears and the streets are full of hungry refugees." Lieutenant General Xie Leping also said angrily: "I just went to ask, General, for ten kilograms of large leba, two large bags of potatoes, a piece of butter and fifteen tenga ( Kislev silver coins), that is the treatment of company commanders and battalion commanders! Ordinary Ksar warriors and shooting troops only have five kilograms of big Leba, two large bags of potatoes and nine tenga (Kislev silver coins). "

Only nine! Beria always remained calm. His heart suddenly moved and he asked: "What about the market price? Have you investigated it clearly?"

"The matter was urgent, and I didn't have time to investigate the market price." Shelepin shook his head repeatedly: "But I just asked a few passers-by, general, how much do you think an ordinary roast chicken costs on the Kislev black market now? "

"How much?" Beria was not interested in playing a guessing game. General Ugor was obviously planning something.

"Three silver coins! Oh my god, three silver coins!" Shelepin said quickly: "I can't believe it. The best roasted capon in Britannia only sells twenty-five to twenty-eight. Copper coins, what I like most is half a roast chicken and a bottle of vodka after patrol, but here, the price has increased more than ten times!"

"Let's go, let's follow." Beria did not answer Shelepin's words. General Ugor immediately got on his horse and led more than twenty horse archers to follow him. It was not until he was on the horse that he slowly said: "Hol Jin Na, do you know her?"

"Of course... General, your new maid." Shelepin didn't understand what Beria meant. He also accepted a young and beautiful girl as his maid.

Has the general changed his mind?

"She is the daughter of a little Boye! The daughter of a little Boye who owns an entire village with wooden fences and wooden gates outside the city!" Beria said sharply: "Little Boye! The lord of a village of three hundred people! She has drunk three Months of porridge! Do you know what this means? Boyer has started to eat porridge, where are the citizens? Where are the farmers? And where are the refugees?!"

Xie Lieping understood, and the deputy general suddenly felt a chill all over his body: "Why is it like this?"

"So I said before, our Czarina may be an excellent wizard, but she is definitely not an excellent king or commander-in-chief. Since she came to the throne, the kingdom has been in a mess. She has rarely led the army in person. , she appoints generals or dispatches supervisory troops for everything, and never visits the people like His Majesty Ryan. She only has her research, her research, her research in her heart!" Before Beria could say anything else, Shelepin immediately lowered his voice. He said in a loud voice: "Be careful, General, don't forget that you were once a member of the Internal Affairs Committee. You should know that this city is full of Cheka secret police."

"This is a very bad sign. We all know that if for a country, the citizen class and the small lords and small nobles have begun to decline comprehensively, then the entire kingdom is already facing multiple crises." Beria ignored it. After listening to Shelepin's words, General Ugor knew that if he was still an officer of Kislev, he would have "disappeared" long ago, but because he was the special envoy of Knight King Lane, the Cheka people did not dare to do anything to him. Kind of.

In this world, strength matters after all.

In fact, both Beria and Shelepin knew why there was a recent food shortage in Kislev that caused prices to skyrocket.

There are only two main reasons. One is that the war ahead has continued and large-scale grain requisitions have been carried out for a long time. The second is that the empire has been in internal strife recently, which has caused the empire's food aid to Kislev to drop significantly. But the two I didn’t say anything because there was no need.

As they talked, Bocaha Palace arrived. Beria motioned for everyone to stop, and they stayed and observed from a distance.

Crime Marshal Alexei looked at the large group of middle and low-level officers who appeared in front of the palace, and his face turned red with anger: "What do you want to do? After damaging the armory, do you still want to come to the palace to rob your military pay? ?Soldiers, take up arms!”

"Wait! We are not here to be robbers, we are all Mrs. Kiesler! We want to see Her Majesty Katalin today!" Alyosha, the leading Ksar warrior, shouted loudly: "The State Duma What are the people doing? They are in arrears with our military pay! Every household in our family is not owed more than half a year's military pay. Many of us have been eating big legba for five months, and we have even sold our sons and daughters! I just ask, when will you be able to pay off our dues!"

"Didn't we ask General Andrei to pay you unpaid wages?" Marshal Konev came from behind with several marshals. This man has a powerful figure, a big bald head, and is quite prestigious in the army. The marshal hurriedly stopped at the entrance of the palace: "It may be a bit short, but there is nothing I can do about it. This is my responsibility. I apologize. Let the past be forgotten. Please go back first and have a good time. Let's think about it later. This is a good way, okay? I, Konev, guarantee it in the name of the bear god Esun, and I won’t receive any salary this year!”

Marshal Konev is the guard commander of Kislev City and the commander-in-chief of the Central Army. He has high prestige in the army, but today he made a miscalculation.

"You? Are you counting on that salary to spend the holidays?" A Ksar officer immediately came out and said: "Many of you participated in the Norsca Expedition. Many of us saw it with our own eyes. You plundered from Norsca. A lot of wealth, all kinds of armor, furs, paintings, velvets, gold and silks plundered by the barbarians! Those iron and copper ores, all kinds of livestock, and even many high-quality goods from the high elves, one cart and one cart The carts and land were transported to your mansion, but there is no trace. They are all yours. The victory of the war is yours, the casualties are ours, the seizures are yours, the disabilities are ours, and now even the military pay is not ours. Got it!"

"That's right! Her Majesty Katalin handed over Kislev to you guys in the State Duma, but what are you doing?! Hand over the money! Give out the military pay that belongs to us!"

"Get out! You bunch of hungry wolves, spit out your military pay!"

"State Duma, man-eating jackals, we must let Her Majesty Katalin know your true colors!"

What the officers said left Marshal Konev speechless. He had a clear conscience about the distribution of the spoils, because he really didn't take anything.

But he could not swear to Esun that no one had taken it. In fact, many of the great nobles, generals, and boyars who participated in the Norse expedition did frantically collect a large amount of loot and continuously transported it back to the country and their own At home, they not only misappropriated countless gold and silver treasures for themselves, but also refused to hand over even a little bit according to Kislev's "glorious tradition".

Konev sharply accused a colleague of his that he had transported more than twenty carriages of wealth back from Norsca alone, and his home was almost turned into a "Norsca Museum"!

Even though everyone was so noisy during the State Duma meeting, in fact they all made a fortune! But none of this windfall will fall on the treasury or the soldiers, it will all belong to them.

Seeing that the marshal was unable to answer, the scene gradually became chaotic. The excited officers moved forward and tried to break through the defense line, while the Krim guards raised their weapons and aimed them at their colleagues, brothers and lords.

In front of the palace, there was a strong smell of gunpowder, and it looked like another mutiny was about to break out.

Beria was standing in the distance on his horse. When he saw this scene, he sneered.

You must be watching from somewhere in the palace, right? My Tsarina?

Also, Konev's trick obviously doesn't work anymore. Yezhov, it's your turn to play.

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