I will be crowned king

That's what he said, but Ludwig is not the Ring of Order, and can conjure mountains of food or fuel out of thin air; if you want to get butter and butter that can satisfy the entire Clovis City, there are only two ways: order Procurement and munitions depot.

First of all, there is no need to think about the munitions warehouse. The Ministry of War is now completely controlled by Sophia. He has no confidence that he can extract such a large sum of money from his lovely sister.

What's more, the purpose of agreeing to the conditions of the War Department is to launch a war later. Now that the military supplies have been squandered, what will happen to the logistics after the war starts?

So he could only find a way to force... After understanding this, Ludwig suddenly understood - could it be that the people on his side took advantage of the opportunity of the mutiny to hoard goods, and were caught by Sophia and the others? !

When he thought about how he had to find a way to persuade the nobles on the committee and force them to lower the prices of butter and coal, Ludwig felt his head hurt and itchy, and his whole body seemed to be eaten by moths.

Regardless of this, Anson left the Prime Minister's Office and went straight to the Shotgun Club, preparing to launch the "Red Heart" organization to give public speeches to promote the concept of "loyalty to the interests of the kingdom."

Now the whole Kingdom of Clovis is full of new forces and new groups that have emerged due to chaos. This is the best opportunity for "Bare Heart" to expand its influence; whether it is military doctrine or the atmosphere within the army, it is Determined by size.

The reason is also very simple: if you want me to accept your ideas, at least I have to get to know you first and know your position before I talk, right?

The skirmisher officers in the past were constrained by this: the number of people was too small, so the doctrine could not become a climate. Because it could not become a climate, most officers did not understand this brand-new military concept at all. Naturally, only Anson Bach saw everything fresh. Only "outsiders" can come into contact.

At the same time, due to the strength of the "Continental Army Doctrine", any officer who is not from this discipline, except for the more special artillery, will almost without exception be excluded. Therefore, any officer who is still interested in an official career hopes to receive the subsidy after retirement. At least any officer who has enough to live with will know what to do wisely.

But now that the former Army Department is finished, the brand-new Army Department has its own existence, and it is no longer possible to suppress the officers of the Skirmisher Section. The only question left is how to publicize it.

Copying the past style of the Continental Army School? That obviously doesn't work.

After all, they are just the former War Department, and officers of the Continental Army school are still the absolute mainstream in Clovis; so "Bare Heart", which is listed on the market in a "Shotgun Club" coat, must of course completely surpass the former in terms of style.

"Everything is for the benefit of Clovis!", "Every soldier should be loyal to the kingdom, and members of 'Red Heart' should be even more loyal to the kingdom!", "Always put the interests of the kingdom first!"...

As for the "equality" part of the core concept of the organization, at least at this stage, it is not the focus of publicity, especially for those who have just arrived and have not yet figured out what is going on, so they are impatient to "join in the grand event" To the representatives of the kingdom, the topics of "unity" and "loyalty" are obviously more attractive to them.

After all, no one wants to be a loyal minister, but everyone expresses loyalty in different ways.

On the other hand, Sophia, who was also not idle, also began to use her expertise to promote the "industrial economy" to representatives from other provinces who had been completely shocked by the development of Clovis City.

Although compared to other corners of the world, Clovis is already very prosperous in terms of economy and industry, but the girl inside it knows very well that it is really only a small part of Clovis city and its surroundings; it took her father ten years to Only after the "Iron Cross Plan" was completed, the steam train tracks were still unable to penetrate the entire kingdom, which is the best evidence.

After reading Christian Bach's notes, the Minister of War began to have a new understanding in his mind: the contradiction between Clovis City lies in the uneven distribution of resources, and the contradiction between Clovis City and other provinces lies in uneven development.

Of course, this is due to the rejection of new technologies and industries by other provinces - otherwise the "Iron Cross Plan" would not have been so difficult to progress, and the "Grand Cross Plan" has always remained on paper.

But as Anson Bach said, since we are preparing to seize the highest power, we cannot look at the problem within the scope of our immediate eyes, but must stand from a higher perspective.

From what Sophia can see, the best way to unite the entire Kingdom of Clovis is to make each province rich through the industrial economy, equaling or just reducing the wealth of Clovis City. difference.

“The prosperity of an industry depends first on scale, and the key to scale is density.”

In the Walnut Café on Friedrichstrasse, War Minister Sophia Franz was surrounded by representatives like a mentor in the center of the hall, vividly promoting her economic ideas to the attentive audience.

The representatives who can sit here are all presidents of provincial chambers of commerce, dignitaries of the Governor's Palace, or owners of large estates. Otherwise, it would be impossible to obtain an "official status" such as a representative invitation letter from the army.

After taking a steam train and seeing the bustling city of Clovis with their own eyes, even though they were originally suspicious of "smoking steel monsters" and "machines that don't need livestock", they absolutely did not dare to stand up and say anything at this time. .

“In the past, if a nobleman with extra money wanted to increase his income, he would consider buying more land, recruiting skilled blacksmiths, mobilizing women from tenant farmer families to weave, raise some livestock, and then contract local fish ponds , forest farms, mines..." Sophia said:

"Yes, he has to do a little bit of everything, because eggs cannot be put in the same basket, because only by contracting out all the industries in the village and town can he guarantee that he will not suffer losses anyway - because the mines may The wheat fields may dry up, the wheat fields may fail to harvest, and the livestock may be infected with the plague... Then I have done everything, and it is impossible to lose everything at once, right?”

"But the nobleman soon discovered that the tools brought by merchants from the provinces were better and cheaper than those made by his blacksmiths, and that the fine linen bought by farmers was no longer woven by their wives and daughters; in the mines The low-quality ore cannot be sold at all.”

"Even the wheat produced in the wheat fields is despised by the businessman, who uses all kinds of rhetoric to drive down the price to a point that is unbearable for him."

"Why? It's very simple, because as long as the 'noble' in a region abandons this traditional concept of 'zero risk' and turns to large-scale cultivation of flax or cotton, he can tolerate the merchants being extremely low during the acquisition. price, and gain profits with absolute scale advantages!”

Sophia suddenly emphasized her tone: "Let's assume that a certain area needs two thousand pounds of cotton a year. When you can only produce one hundred pounds, you have nothing; when you can only produce five hundred pounds, you will lose all your money. No return.”

"But when you can produce one thousand pounds, or even more than two thousand pounds, no one in this area will dare to produce cotton except you; and you are the only one who produces cotton, which means that only you can determine the price of cotton. .”

"This is the advantage of scale; whether cotton or wool, wheat or iron ore, only by establishing scale can we obtain profits that were previously unobtainable by reducing costs." The girl began to conclude:

"The annual production of cloth by a tenant's wife plus his daughter is less than one-tenth of that of a female worker who can skillfully operate a spinning machine; the former is fragmented and inefficient; the latter is not only highly efficient, but also centralized and easy to manage. , and I can work hard for you for the salary you can expect.”

"In Clovis, a female worker's monthly income is ten times that of an ordinary rural sharecropper's wife! By herself, she can go to a clothing store to buy the clothes she likes, and enjoy beer, bread, butter and bacon!"

In order to convince these representatives, Sophia also had to use fake news boasted in some newspapers to deceive these provincial representatives: "I know that many provincial nobles are disgusted with businessmen and think that they are stingy and greedy. , a social scum without morals and conscience.”

"As the daughter of Archbishop Clovis, I completely agree with this view; but please think about it, even this kind of person is willing to pay ten times the salary of a tenant farmer for a female worker, so how much money can he make from these female workers? What an astonishing amount of wealth?"

As soon as the words fell, the representatives immediately started talking - of course they would not unilaterally believe a woman, even if she was a cabinet minister; but whether it was what they had seen with their own eyes recently or what they had collected from newspapers, They all seemed to be verifying that what the girl in front of them said was true.

That's for sure. After all, the entire media industry in Clovis City is almost monopolized by the Minister of War. Now it can be said that whatever she wants to read will be written in tomorrow's newspaper; there are not many people living in the whole province. In a newspaper environment where a piece of news can be told over and over again for half a month, how have the representatives ever seen the power of information monopoly?

From the authoritative "Kingdom Loyalist" and "Morning Post" to street tabloids like "Clovis Truth", they are just part of the media dynasty of Chancellor Sophia Franz.

Do you want to collect multiple newspapers to corroborate each other? Even if it doesn't prove the worldly truths such as "the sun does come out in the west" and "white is black".

"But your Excellency, although the factory can indeed be profitable and can earn unimaginable profits, the costs required are also staggering."

A different voice suddenly rang out from the noisy crowd: "Factory space requires money, workers need wages, special warehouses are needed to store goods, and caravans are needed for sales... These are all costs."

"Before the goods are successfully sold and turned into real money, these costs need to be paid whether you make a profit or a loss; if the investment fails in the end, the price you have to pay may be enough to make a manor that has been in business for a hundred years go bankrupt in an instant. How can this be solved? ?”

"Good question!"

Sophia's eyes lit up and she glanced at the crowd: "Excuse me, your Excellency..."

"William Cecil, the current chairman of the North Port Patriots and North Port representative." The young naval colonel stood up in full view:

"What you just said is indeed inspiring, but we in Beigang are definitely not short of businessmen who put all their money on the line and lose everything in the end. It is true that doing business can accumulate wealth far beyond that of ordinary manors, but I am afraid it is still not as safe as farming. Bar?"

These remarks immediately resonated with many people present - no matter how lucrative the profits of operating an industry are, it cannot be compared with land and manor in terms of stability.

"Yes, if it were a hundred years ago... no, even just ten years ago, what you just said was completely correct; but just like the example I gave at the beginning, in this era, more and more 'nobles' who are dedicated to industry have become The more." Sophia smiled slightly and raised the coffee cup in her hand:

"The coffee beans in my hand are produced in Jinshi City, the cup is made by porcelain craftsmen in Port Adlan using high-quality soil from the Principality of Snapdragon, the sugar is sold from the south of the empire, and the milk is supplied by the central province... Finally, under the operation of a skilled half-elf barista from Iser, it appeared in my hands."

"This cup of coffee...if it were in Xiaolong City, I'm afraid not only the royal palace and the manor of the great nobles could enjoy it; but in Clovis City, any rich man worth more than 20,000 gold coins would use it to wash his face every day. You won’t feel any pain if you soak your feet.”

"Why? Could it be that the Clovis people have mastered magic that goes against the will of the gods and are able to squander luxuries that even the emperor may not always be able to enjoy?" The corners of the Minister of War's mouth raised:

"Yes, we have mastered magic, a magic made of fire, steel and coal - Clovis' Iron Cross!"

"It prevents transportation costs from remaining high forever. Like ships, it closely connects originally isolated villages and towns. It shortens the scale of time and space and breaks geographical barriers." Sophia stood up:

"The most important thing is that it makes the circulation of money and wealth faster than in the past; it makes it more and more difficult to sit back and enjoy the fruits of the land accumulated by our ancestors for generations."

"I know that there are many nobles among you here. The history of many families may be traced back to before Clovis ruled your hometown; there, you are a symbol of nobility, the embodiment of morality and law, and the hope of ordinary people. The unattainable peak; because even if they spend their whole life's hard work and gamble all their belongings, they may not be able to earn one percent of the wealth you have."

"But today's world has changed. You don't dare to gamble, but some people do; they dare to risk everything, borrow ten times the cost of start-up capital from the church bank, open a factory, set up a chamber of commerce, and rent a warehouse... for ten years, or even five years, Their wealth can exceed yours, and they can even buy your poorly managed manors and forest lands and turn them into more profitable farms, fruit and vegetable plantations."

"Your wealth will not shrink by then, but it will only be a drop in the ocean compared to the entire society; your industry will still be stable, and the money you can earn will not even be enough to maintain the necessary ostentation."

"I would like to ask, is this the stable future that you all hope for?"