I will be crowned king

North of the Turbulent Sea... a new world?

Anson, who looked as usual, suddenly felt a little uneasy. He had heard the inquisitor of the Clovis Truth-Seeking Order mention that the name of the Adlan Inquisition was the "Storm Order".

This organization is extremely full of regional characteristics: because it mainly operates at sea, it hunts down pirates of the Old Gods, fallen geniuses, and handles various abnormal situations that normal people cannot understand; they not only own several warships, but their headquarters is located in a place close to the coastline. On the small island.

Unlike the more restrained Inquisitors of Clovis, the Inquisitors of the Empire have great authority and have judicial power without interference from anyone. They also communicate with the Holy See and even the Knights of Judgment much more frequently than the Order of Truth; when enforcing the law, Not only can you mobilize your subordinate judges and "outsourced" mercenaries, you can even ask the local lord's private soldiers to cooperate; if that's not enough, you can even directly ask the Judgment Knights to intervene.

Because of this, the Roland family, which did not have a very good relationship with the church, was extremely wary of their actions, fearing that the "Crecy family massacre" would happen again.

"In order to ensure that the information is correct, I specially used the intelligence network of the Northern Chamber of Commerce to confirm the authenticity, and finally found a very crucial piece of information." Reinhard put down the wine glass in his hand, his expression becoming more serious:

"One month before Inquisitor Adlan's operation, he received an inquisitor from Clovis; because of their special attire and the fact that they happened to be traveling on a ship owned by the Northern Chamber of Commerce, , which left a very deep impression on the second officer on board.”

"If there is some connection between these two things, it is likely to involve a quite large old god sect organization, or a powerful family of spellcasters. The scale will never be smaller than the Thirteen Council of the Iser Elf last year!"

Wait, the caster family?

Anson, who had been nervous just now, looked startled, as if he remembered something.

"Of course, from your perspective, you may think that all this is just my imagination; but even if it is unfounded speculation, we have to guard against it."

Reinhard took a sip of wine and continued his analysis: "According to my observations and the church's action logic in recent years, there are roughly two possibilities."

"First of all, of course, the situation is true. There is an extremely dangerous spellcaster or organization. They are preparing to leave the Clovis country and go to the new world. The Clovis judge is aware of their whereabouts. However, due to issues such as the scope of work, we have to Share the intelligence with the inquisitors of Adlan and entrust them with the following tracking mission.”

"Similar situations are not uncommon. What's more, the two countries are currently at war. Inquisitors born in Clovis are indeed relatively restricted in their activities in the areas controlled by the empire. Leaving the area under their jurisdiction for a long time to pursue the target will definitely cause problems. Lots of questions.”

"If this is the case, then I am afraid that the strength of this spellcaster or organization is so extraordinary that even the trial court dares not act rashly and can only continue to monitor and collect intelligence!"

"Ahem..."

Anson coughed slightly and silently moved his strange-looking face toward the other party's line of sight.

"As for the other situation, it is more dangerous." Reinhard said solemnly: "The whole incident is just a cover from beginning to end. The church intends to use this as an excuse to officially intervene in colonial affairs!"

This is what Reinhard and the Roland family behind him are really worried about... Assuming that the church intervenes in the new world, with the financial and resources that the other party can mobilize, plus its absolutely unquestionable influence, it is simply not something that it can match.

Of course, the Empire and the Kingdom of Clovis are also very strong competitors; but right now, their attention is all involved in the war, and they have no time to worry too much about the new world; especially the Empire, with the complete fall of the base camp of Sailing City , has completely lost the last opportunity to control the financial industry in the new world.

As for Clovis, the Roland family doesn't care, and even welcomes them to join in the pie; after all, coal and iron ore, the two major colonial products, currently only Clovis has the most abundant market, both upstream and downstream. Only by working together can we ensure maximum profits.

"In short, we must strictly guard against the greedy claws of the church extending into the new world, and we must not let them find any suitable excuse to interfere and affect our interests - this is the bottom line!"

Reinhard took a deep breath and continued to emphasize: "This time, in order to show the Roland family's determination to invest, a total of eight hundred thousand worth of gold, silver and diamonds were brought, as well as silk, sugar, spirits and other New World hard goods. Currency, plus a whole ship's worth of munitions, all of which are brand-new infantry equipment, including six eight-pound cannons and two hundred rounds of high-explosive bombs, as capital for our investment in the New World Company!"

"In exchange, please also appoint a member of the Roland family as the president of the bank, and reserve at least one-tenth of the position for us, and cannot be replaced or dismissed within five years."

He narrowed his eyes slightly and lowered his head with a very humble expression: "I have also argued with my family about job matters, but they still think it is safer this way. Please forgive me."

"But to be honest, if you want to run a bank normally, you certainly need enough professional manpower. It just so happens that the Roland family can provide a lot of help - basically among the members of the mission on this mission, I trust them and have cooperated with them. You can send people to select experienced subordinates at will.”

An Sen smiled understandingly and began to make calculations in his mind.

Although Reinhard's attitude was low, he also made his position clear - he was not allowed to serve as president and the Roland family members were stuffed into the bank, so that the investment matter could be put to rest.

But the attitude of the local side is obviously quite determined, and it seems that they have made up their mind to put the bank under the name of the royal family; neither the Reinhard nor the Roland family will definitely accept it, and it is completely inconsistent with the requirements of the Storm Master and the Rune family. Benefit.

If there is a head-on confrontation or even against the wishes of the local people, it will obviously have many unexpected negative effects. Moreover, Beluga Port relies heavily on trade with the Old Continent, so it cannot take the initiative to seek death, and it must not easily stalemate relations with the local people.

Therefore, the best result is for the Roland family to get the benefits they want, and for Reinhard to become the president of his bank as he wished. At the same time, the local people will realize that the best way is to govern by doing nothing - not to interfere. the best choice.

To achieve this, a perfect plan is necessary, and more importantly, the person who executes the plan.

Thinking of this, an all-too-familiar face immediately appeared in Anson's mind, and he sighed to himself slightly nervously.

Carl Bain, please don’t let me down...

……………………

At the same time, at the inner city gate of the northern city of Beluga Harbor, the Chief of Staff of the Storm Division, who was surrounded by a group of governor's envoys, still spoke in a hoarse voice to the people around him. Special Lecture.

Because Baron Aix himself had no interest in the countryside, especially the icy countryside, someone's conspiracy to use "visiting the mines" to stall for time was forced to declare bankruptcy before it even started.

But when the Ring of Order closed its door, it left a window: It is said that Baron Aix, whose ancestor was a master of city building, was very interested in the factories of the New World and was also quite accomplished in architectural landscape and history; he claimed to have If he had to inherit the title of nobility and parliamentarian, he should have been able to restore the glory of his ancestors and become an excellent architect.

So Karl immediately followed suit and took the entire delegation to visit the steel mills, textile mills, salt mills, and military factories in the city... He took this group of local nobles to take a good look at the industrial upgrading of the colony, and strive to achieve modernization as soon as possible. achievements.

It is obvious that whether he is Karl, who was born into the poor, or he is a clerk who graduated from a church monastery, he has basically no understanding of architecture, large industry, urban landscape and other aspects, let alone a superficial understanding.

But it doesn’t matter, they don’t understand the art of concrete and steel, but they understand what the art of language is.

With the smooth and flawless cooperation between the two, the visit of the Governor's Mission went very smoothly; most of the members expressed unexpected surprises, and Baron Aix was even more happy. Just visit all the factories.

As a rare economic talent in the Privy Council, he was shocked by the achievements of the Storm Division and the Luen family in just one year, and it was because he knew very well how important these large and small factories were to the future coal mine bank.

As the core of a financial institution, although a bank has many functions, its core profit-making projects are always lending and saving, so it is born to serve rich people (or organizations) - nonsense.

This leads to another question, who has the money?

More precisely, who will need large borrowings to turn around and potentially generate large-scale savings activities?

Beluga Port is a colony that is vassal to the mainland, and merchants engaged in ocean-going trade seem to be good quality customers; but the problem is that they have a better choice, called the Church Bank - which will most likely look down on rural credit unions like Coal Bank.

As for resource-oriented industries like mines, there is indeed demand for investment, but it is mainly for savings; industrial owners who own mines at home generally cannot think of any industrial upgrades and have no need for loans at all, so the "savings fee" for saving money is If you can't support a bank, it must be able to find customers who can lend money.

Therefore, fishermen, small workshop owners, farmers, and ranchers are excluded. These people are self-sufficient and have extremely low demand for economic activities. The financial services provided to them have a certain charity and public welfare nature.

The military is a good investment target, but the bad debt rate is usually not low, and it is easy to lose money. Plus the cost of buying off officers and logistics departments - it is an absolutely high-risk venture capital project and cannot be treated as a general project.

The factory is completely different.

Replacement and repair of equipment, wages of workers, promotion of market expansion, improvement of production capacity and output... As long as a factory is in good operating condition, it is dealing with banks all the time and relies heavily on banks to maintain its capital turnover.

If a farm is like a lake in the middle of a stream, then a factory is like an extremely turbulent waterfall; the water volume fluctuates high and low, and the huge difference between up and down requires a good regulating valve to maintain the balance.

Therefore, the better the industrial development of the colony, the higher the future prospects of the bank to be established. Baron Aix...the future bank president - as he himself thought - would be more important and more popular among the locals. Respect and native dependence.

In comparison, a certain chief of staff was not so happy.

After consuming his little inventory, he went into some kind of weird flattery mode, facing Baron Akers and other members of the mission who were always able to talk a lot of professional terms. , I can only repeat over and over again: "Your Excellency, you have considered everything", "Your Excellency has far-sightedness", "Your Excellency has great views"...

This process lasted for nearly an hour, and he found that his vocabulary reserve was completely lacking; so the group went around again and returned to the "development zone" in Beicheng, continuing to point out the country and talk to the shanties and mud fields everywhere. , trying to delay a little more time.

Carl Bain felt his teeth itching when he thought of someone enjoying fine wine and food in the Parliament. He wanted to rush into the banquet and strangle some bastard to death, then revive him and let him praise himself, and also experience how to praise others. What it feels like to want to die.

Just when he felt that he was about to die, Baron Akers, who was also thirsty, suddenly turned around and said seriously:

"Major Carl Bain, I think we have almost visited the factory and bank locations, and it would just be a waste of time to continue."

"oh?"

Karl's eyes widened, and he immediately felt at least three pairs of eyes staring at him from behind - the half-smiling Thalia, the thoughtful William Cecil, and the nervous little clerk.

Under the expectation of countless people, he kept smiling as much as possible and said in a voice that was completely mute: "Then if there are any other activities you want to participate in, we can arrange them for you."

"Activity...Oh, forget it." Baron Akers sighed, showing an expression that all older people would understand:

"Ten years ago, I might have asked to visit the shipyards at the port, but another day seems fine; everyone is very tired, and I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to hold on even if we wanted to - let's take a rest and relax .”

Relax?

Karl's heart skipped a beat, feeling nervous and excited at the same time. At the same time, the gaze behind him also became noticeably warmer: "What do you mean..."

"I plan to go to the headquarters with the envoy, and then I will ask you to arrange accommodation for us."

Baron Akers said in a deep voice: "Of course, please also introduce to me the main military activities of the Storm Division in the past few months, as well as related matters of the Free Confederacy."

"I still want...this...of course...of course there's no problem!"

Karl, whose expression instantly changed from despair to enthusiasm, took a deep breath, took the initiative to lead the team with great sincerity, and felt like crying in his heart.

When will this damn hell end...