Lord of Industrialization

The moonlight is like water, with a few light clouds floating on it. People are under the water, and the white smoke from the charcoal fire while roasting the pig melts in the cool evening breeze.

The alluring aroma of roasted pig could not make the Archduke Franken and the Archduke Regens frown for a moment.

Today, newspapers and radio broadcasts in Wessen still write lengthy articles to build momentum for peace negotiations. The Grand Dukes of Mainz and Bain also stated on different occasions that peace and development are the main theme of today's society.

But they know that, beyond public reporting, the gears of the war machine are already turning.

The army of the Principality of Mainz began to move towards the border of the Principality of Franconia. The reconnaissance rangers of the Principality of Bain also appeared across the border of the Regens Alliance. The troops sent by the northern lords of the Rhine Alliance began to gather in the lower reaches of the Elbe River.

The Archduke of Mainz and the Archduke of Bain stated that their troops were only engaged in border defense to prevent bandits from crossing the border and plundering. To show their sincerity, the troops kept a distance of one kilometer from the border.

The coalition of lords of the Rhine League directly stated that they were just catching up with friends they had met while stationed on the west bank of the Elbe River a few years ago, and holding a knightly competition by the way.

The Archduke of Franken looked at the map made of stones and branches on the ground, gritted his teeth and said: "[Local expletive]! They are going to surround us!"

Grand Duke Regens also had a gloomy face.

Now the military deployment of all parties is clear. After the Franconian Principality and the Regens Alliance united, the territory roughly formed a "﹃" shape. The Mainz Army was in the west, the Bain Army was in the southeast, and the Wesson Army was in the south of the center. Confronting their main force, the Rhine League coalition forces more than 200 kilometers away in the north can go upstream through the waterways of the Elbe River and its tributaries, and can enter the Principality of Franconia in just ten days.

At present, the main forces of the Franconian Army and the Regens Army have been firmly attracted by the Wesson Army. They are emboldened by the fortifications that are being reinforced every day. No one dares to have a head-on battle with the Wesson Army in the wild.

As a result, there is no defensive force in the other three directions. As long as the opponent launches an attack, they can only rely on the old, weak, sick and disabled to defend the city.

They didn't dare to divide their troops for defense, because if they were discovered by Weisen's army on the road, it would be over.

"I didn't expect..." Archduke Franken shook his head, "Wesson could come back so soon."

Archduke Regens also sighed. They first decided to take action after repeatedly confirming that Duke Wesson was traveling in the distant inland sea. The best result was to bring the officials left behind in Wesson to the negotiation table and negotiate a time difference.

But no one could have imagined that Duke Wesson would come back early. As soon as he came back, he would release smoke and conduct diplomatic activities, and in a short period of time he would mobilize a multi-party coalition.

The situation suddenly took a turn for the worse. The two of them suddenly changed from active to passive. They couldn't come up with any good ideas for a while.

I couldn't come up with an idea, but the meal still had to be eaten. The servants cut off the roasted pork and presented it on a silver plate.

Archduke Franken stabbed a piece of barbecue with his dagger and drank the wine with his mouth full of oil.

Legens didn't want to see his vulgar way of eating. He only stared at the plate. He used his own knife to cut the barbecue strips into small pieces and then ate them slowly with a fork.

The Archduke of Franken felt that the dinner was too boring, so he found a topic: "How many of your people went to Wesson?"

Archduke Legens twitched the corner of his mouth and said angrily: "All the carpenters in my place are almost gone. Including serfs and tenant farmers, there must be more than 30,000 people."

"Where are you, how many are there?"

The Archduke of Franken also said angrily: "Now I can't sell any of the linen there. I can only sell the linen to Wesson, and almost all the weavers have gone there."

"The most hateful thing is the man named Hoffman, who turned out to be a serf on my side. He went to Weissen State and got lucky and got rich. He actually had four wives. This caused many serfs on my side to run over after hearing about it. "

"Those serfs originally came back during the New Year, but now they might as well come back. They are all Wesen people."

"I did some math at the beginning of the year, and I actually ran out 80,000. If I hadn't gone to the farm to take a look, I don't know when I would have finished."

Archduke Legens felt better. One out of ten laborers on his side was gone, and two out of ten on their side were gone.

But this can’t continue like this. The Regens Alliance mainly focuses on wood processing, and the Principality of Franconia is rich in flax and has a linen textile industry. Now Wesson is better than the surrounding places in both wood processing and linen textiles. Not only does it sell things here, If they don’t go out, the workers will run away without any work to do.

Archduke Franken continued to say angrily: "This little Wesson is too ungrateful!"

"When old Wesson was still here, he used to come to me to buy linen, and I sold it to them cheaply."

"Old Wesson is easy to deal with. He has been fishing with me since he was 13 or 14 years old. I didn't collect taxes from him and treated him to drinks every time. Later, I thought it would be a good idea to marry my daughter to little Wesson. .”

"It's good now. This little Wesson doesn't miss the old friendship at all. He destroyed my linen workshop. Those merchants who came to buy linen kept lowering the price."

"If I had known this, when old Wesson came to fish, I would have blown his head off with a hammer."

Archduke Legens also said with resentment: "Yeah, who among us doesn't know that old Wesson is a good man. Before my sister got married, she spent days and nights fishing with him. What did I say?"

"It's good now. My carpentry workshop is finished. I only have a few dollars from selling wood."

"My people here have run away, and when the time comes there will be no one to work with and no tax collected, so I won't be able to eat tree bark."

His words resonated with the Archduke of Franconia.

Archduke Franken said again: "The most hateful thing is that little Wesson set the tariff to be too bullying."

"You said that my linen is not made well. I agree, so sell it cheaper. Even if it is used as rags and wraps, people will buy it."

"This guy actually imposed a 60% tariff on linen imports. After paying the tax, my linen is more expensive than their good cloth. No one will buy it!"

Archduke Legens gritted his teeth and said: "Your linen is only 60%, and our woodware has already received two cups of tariffs, so we can't sell it at all."

"It would be okay if he only had Wesson, but this little bastard actually created a customs union, and the Duchy of Byrne has the same tax rate as him, and he still allows no one to live!"

Archduke Franken nodded in agreement: "That's right, the Principality of Mainz and other Rhine Leagues were bribed by him, and they all have the same tax rate. I have no place to sell linen!"

Archduke Regens continued: "The most irritating thing is that his export tax rate is so low that it is almost non-existent. You used to buy furniture from us, but now, we have to buy their furniture!"

"That's right!" Archduke Franken was so angry when he heard this, "Forget about cotton and wool, the linen this bastard sold me was actually half the price of what we knitted ourselves!"

"The same goes for flour!" Archduke Regens added, "My mills are out of business too!"

Archduke Franken kept nodding.

The two of them became more and more angry as they talked, and they ate meat as if it was Frederick roasting on the charcoal fire.

The reality was different from what Frederick thought. He thought that there was someone lobbying behind the alliance between the two countries. In fact, they all had their interests damaged because of Wesson, so they came together.

The economic base determines the superstructure. The economic contradiction between the two sides has become deeper and deeper in recent years. War is inevitable. The son of the Archduke of Franconia was sentenced to death in Wesson, which was just the fuse.