Realm of Power

After carefully questioning Isa, the head of the Imperial Supervision Branch, he roughly understood Lisbonto's situation. The fat man stopped walking back and forth, and his livid face softened a little. Then Isa continued, "Although Governor Tire is suffering from He was seriously injured, but his life is not serious. It is said that only his right foot is disabled. It can be seen that the person who attacked the Governor of Tire obviously did not want to make the matter a big deal!"

With a hint of weirdness on his face, Aisa looked at the emperor cautiously, and when he saw that the emperor did not say anything, he said, "Lisbonto can almost be said to be one of the strongholds of the empire's commerce. There are as many as 30,000 to 40,000 merchants in it. After encountering Before the attack, Governor Tire had just announced to restrict the privileges of some big businessmen. This should be the reason for the attack. After the assassination, the Imperial Ministry of Internal Affairs responded quickly and took the opportunity to severely rectify the wealthy businessmen in Lisbonto."

"Reorganize? The fat man frowned. He seemed to have thought of something and asked again, "How many people died? "

"My subordinates deserve to die. Although they were under full control, there were still deaths. For the purpose of investigation, torture was used, but it was not fatal. According to the requirements of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, three big businessmen involved in the assassination were detained. At that time, they gathered to monitor Hundreds of businessmen protested outside the ministry , and had to take into account that Lisbonto also represented the face of the empire, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was also specially requested to supervise the Ministry of Supervision, and it was best not to cause a fatal incident, but in the end something like this happened. "Esa can only bite the bullet. , took a deep breath, touched his head to the ground, and replied eagerly "Three people? How did they die?" A slightly angry voice pierced his eardrums. Aisa could feel the emperor's footsteps stopping in front of him. Beads of sweat couldn't help but gurgled all over his forehead, flowing down his face. The thin cheeks touched the ground,

"They committed suicide in the prison of the Ministry of Supervision."

Aisa was so nervous that she could hear the sound of her throat swallowing. Under the emperor's gaze, Aisa felt that her heart was about to jump out of her chest nervously. Everyone knew that the emperor valued Lisbonto, but here was It controls one-third of the empire's financial and tax sources and radiates to the commercial center of the entire inland sea area. For this golden port, the emperor even declared war on the powerful Confederate Empire. Now three big businessmen have died at once. For Lisbon The influence of trust can be imagined

"Three people, that's right, let me tell you, how could something like this suddenly happen in Lisbonto!" The fat man's face turned blue, and his eyes were even more frightening. He kicked Ai who was kneeling in front of him. Sa kicked his head and yelled angrily, "You have ruined the face of the Supervision Department!" "It's my subordinate's fault. It's too late to say anything now. Please punish me!" Aisa turned over from the ground. When he heard the emperor's scolding, he felt even more ashamed. "Do you know where you went wrong?" The fat man has a pair of eyes. red "I shouldn't have let those three people commit suicide. I was too negligent..." Before Aisa could finish speaking, he felt a huge impact hit his back again, and his whole body fell heavily. On the ground, the choking ground dust hit my face. "Is that a head on your neck? When did I say it was related to those three idiots who committed suicide?" The emperor's voice was so angry that it shook the room. "You are the Imperial Supervision Department, when?" , the prison of the Supervision Department has also become a wet market where you can come and go freely! Why are there only three? Instead of thirty, three, three hundred... The Dignified Supervision Department arrested so many people, but only three died in the end. They were neither tortured nor executed. They were suicides, suicides, What kind of world is this? He actually committed suicide in the prison of the Ministry of Supervision. Where do you put the face of the Imperial Ministry of Supervision? "

Fatty's nose was inciting. The Imperial Supervision Department was the authority directly under him. In Fatty's mind, that was the existence of the East and West factories in the Ming Dynasty. They were a murderous knife in the hands of the emperor and a loyal dog that safeguarded the royal power. They only recognized the emperor and did not care about the opponent. Wrong, it will take the blame for the emperor when necessary. When will the notorious Supervision Department also need to take public opinion into consideration?

Is that still the Ministry of Supervision?

The fat man said angrily, "An imperial governor was assassinated, and the Supervisory Department arrested so many people. In the end, only three people died, and they committed suicide. This is no longer a shame. This is in front of the entire Lisbon." A slap in the face of the empire. When Doze was secretly attacked and killed by the Feishan people, he used 300,000 heads of the Feishan army to defeat the entire Feishan kingdom’s top brass. Nobles and generals were buried with him. Since then, there has been no assassination of imperial officials for war purposes. This time Governor Lisbonto was assassinated, the Ministry of Supervision used three suicides to close the case. If it were not for the fact that you shed blood for the empire, For the sake of fighting hard and being extremely loyal to the empire, I will immediately order your execution. People like you are a disgrace to the Imperial Supervision Department!" "Your Majesty, this subordinate is confused!"

Aisa's face, which was still a little aggrieved, was already red with shame.

The emperor was furious. The death of three businessmen was nothing. There were so many businessmen in the empire, and the business resources were so rich. The dead businessmen would soon be replaced by new ones. There were too few people who died. He was the one who let the empire go. The Ministry of Supervision's reputation has been disgraced. Fortunately, Aisa is a soldier and can be considered thick-skinned, so he was not kicked to death. Otherwise, he would have become the first person in charge of a branch of the Imperial Ministry of Supervision to be kicked to death by the emperor.

After more than ten minutes, the fat man finally suppressed the anger in his heart. He glanced at Aisa who was kneeling in front of him and muttered, "Do you know why Lisbonto suddenly broke out in such large-scale imperial ordnance fraud? Your Supervision Department is the biggest The reason is that the nature of businessmen is to maximize profits. In the case of the assassination of Governor Tire, the Ministry of Supervision was still so weak, so it was natural to seize such an opportunity and make a big profit. Besides, it can be regarded as revenge for the empire's arrest of Lisbon merchants. The arms counterfeiting incident broke out, and the price of arms will inevitably be suppressed. They only need to buy it at a low price, and then wait until the limelight passes, and then sell it at a high price. As long as they add a little By manipulating it, they can easily earn a huge price difference. Anyway, Eero is in urgent need of a large number of ordnance supplies due to the defeat, and they will not worry about selling the weapons they have hoarded! "

"Your Majesty, what should we do now?" After hearing the emperor's words, Aisa was stunned. He did not expect that ordnance counterfeiting was directly related to his Supervision Department.

The fat man looked at the starry sky outside the window. "Lisbonto is the base camp of the imperial merchants and the headquarters of the Imperial Business Alliance. One can imagine the power of the merchants among them. Based on his understanding of the imperial merchants, he can basically confirm that this matter is The Lisbon merchants took revenge on the empire. At the top of the empire, Not many people know the identity of Tiernalant. Although this Lisbon political officer first landed in Lisbon and attracted the attention of all parties, the value of a regional political officer's attention is limited after all. As time goes by, , after roughly understanding that the Governor of Tire may only have a background in the Ministry of Internal Affairs

After Tirnalant touched the interests of some big businessmen, these big businessmen took the risk of assassination to force Tilnalant to leave. The intervention of the Imperial Supervision Department may have made the big businessmen in Lisbonto nervous, but The subsequent anticlimax of the Ministry of Supervision made the big businessmen think that they were weak and could be bullied. Eero insisted that the inferior weapons came from the empire, which was not completely impossible! Such a big deal, the arms trade of hundreds of thousands of troops, even for Lisbon, is a year's total trade. In the face of such huge interests, there are many people who take risks, especially when the Governor's Palace is unable to control it and the Supervision Department is weak. In a situation that can be bullied”

"According to the Imperial Arms Trade Act, any arms transaction must be reviewed by the Supervision Department. From now on, except for this seal, all other arms transactions will not be issued. Also, you need to go to the Navy Ministry and recruit ten people from them. A battleship, I will go to Huacheng Port early tomorrow morning." The fat man walked to the desk, opened the drawer, took out a seal and handed it to Isa, as well as a recruitment order for the Navy Department.

Aisa lowered his head, took the seal with both hands, and took a look. His pupils couldn't help but tighten. He was in admiration for the emperor's careful arrangement. This turned out to be Duke Putao's personal seal. This way, he could explain to the outside world why. Other arms trade All were rejected, but only the Duke of Putau was allowed to go. After all, the nominal monarch of Lisbon was the Grand Duke of Putau. The empire was only in charge of the suzerainty. The Duke of Putau bought and sold weapons in its own territory. Even the Ministry of Supervision cannot interfere "Go and do it immediately"

The fat man waved his hand slightly tiredly. This seal was given to the Empire by Duke Putao as a sign of sincerity. The fat man gave the seal to the Imperial Bank for safekeeping, and this is actually an property of the Imperial Bank. Isa He turned around and left the office and went directly to the Imperial Navy's Lisbon port overnight. "Lord Aisa, why do you have time to come here?"

Chekov, the commander of the squadron stationed in the fleet, was called out in the middle of the night and looked unhappy. However, facing the bad reputation of the Ministry of Supervision, he could only put on a shy face and sneer on his face. He was also drumming in his heart. He did not Is it something that violates the law? After learning that Aisa was here to recruit naval warships, he looked embarrassed and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Aisa should know that the deployment of more than ten naval warships requires an order from the Navy Ministry. Even if I am the squadron commander, I have not mobilized." The power of a fleet of such a size. "There is no order from the Admiralty, only this." Isa took out the levy order given by the emperor from his pocket. "Without an order from the Admiralty, I really can't make the decision without permission. Please forgive me, Lord Aisa!" Chekov originally wanted to see Aisa's frustrated expression, which would make the officials of the Supervision Department frustrated. This would definitely make him After blowing for several years, he took the order from Aisa with a sneer on his face, glanced over it, and almost jumped up in shock. "Is this okay?" Aisa's face was cold, and there was still a patch on his face where he was beaten by the emperor. bruises "Of course, no problem!"

Chekov returned the order book with both hands, his face extremely serious. Although he didn't know what the Ministry of Supervision wanted these ten warships to do, it was definitely not an easy task to produce the emperor's transfer order. After checking the transfer order, Very wise, Chekov did not ask any questions and directly handed over the command of the ten Dragon Teeth battleships to Isa.

Facing the early morning sun, the triangular front end of the Dragon Tooth Battleship split open the white mist-shrouded sea like a sharp knife. The agitated water dispersed and then rolled back. Ten imperial Dragon Tooth battleships appeared in the shape of a Chinese character at the Huacheng Port. Off the coast, Fatty stood at the bow of the Dragon Tooth battleship wearing a black Imperial Army uniform.

The climate in Lisbon in October is dry and pleasant, and the breeze blowing in front of you already has a hint of chill. There is no sign of the cold winter coming from the north. The southern part of Congo has always been milder than other areas, which is why it is so mild. The temperature environment has created an overly lazy folk custom in this land. The ships in the port ahead are all ships of the Putao Sea Squadron. They are essentially the old navy of Putao. At the request of the Duke of Putao, the fat man chartered the Putao Navy. set of dukes Request to rebuild the Puntau naval fleet and use Huacheng Port as the headquarters of the squadron. At this moment, more than 30 old-style sail warships are parked in the port, floating up and down with the impact of the waves, and the sea water is like waves. Rushing onto the beach of Huacheng Port, they looked like golden threads under the sunlight. The white seagulls made a clear sound and landed on the mast of the Longya battleship. They saw ten imperial Longya battleships coming through the waves. , there was a clanging sound coming from the direction of the port. "I said that even if I give you three sons, you can't beat me, so according to the agreement, your squadron must accept 600 Strand sailors to work for you, and they must pay the wages equally."

In an exquisite and beautiful villa in Huacheng Port, in a huge domed room built entirely of white marble, an old man put down the chess pieces in his hand with a calm face. Opposite him, a man wearing a patterned thick toga. The Duke's face turned red from suppressing it. After more than ten seconds, Duke Putao looked at the old man opposite and couldn't help but said, "Your Excellency Bapra, after all, you are also a well-known military god-level figure. In order to recommend it to the local fleets Isn’t it too shameful for Sailor Strand to do this?”

"Is it embarrassing? For the sake of one's own country, even lying on the ground and letting people step on it is still a kind of pride. I don't know who said this at first." The corners of Bapra's old mouth curled up slightly in disdain.

"My situation is completely different from yours." Duke Pu Tao looked embarrassed. In that situation, what hope could he have? Who would have thought that the empire would help him get Pu Tao back and also destroy the powerful enemy in one fell swoop. Just not an empire,

"If there is even a chance, I don't want to do this." Bapra smiled bitterly. "The Strand sea country was annexed by the empire. The Strant people who have been accustomed to living on the sea seemed quite embarrassed. At first When the Strand Sea Kingdom was strong, it regarded the entire inland sea as its own back garden and basically offended all the countries in the inland sea area. Now that it is disbanded, the livelihood of tens of thousands of sailors is a problem. The original navy sailors are still Can be adapted by the Imperial Navy, while civilian sailors was rejected by the fleets of various countries. Now the entire inland sea area is refusing to hire Strand people. If they can't find jobs, I am afraid that many Strand people will freeze to death and starve to death this winter. The Strand sea country was annexed by the empire, but the Strand people still need to continue to live, right? Because there is no land territory, they have no other way to live except by the sea. Seeing that Putao was occupied by Gangfei, there was only Sri Lanka. For the sake of sending people to rescue Strand, please ask the Duke to help the Strand people."

"Sir, the Imperial Navy has just docked at the port!" A Duke's attendant opened the door and came in. "The Imperial Navy is here. Why don't I know any news?" Duke Putao looked surprised. The main force of the Imperial Navy is in the inland sea. Now There is only one squadron stationed in Lisbon, and the squadron commander is not familiar with him either. "The other party didn't get off the boat, he just asked someone to bring this." The attendant handed over a letter. Duke Putao took it and took a look at it. He almost said, "Oh my God, isn't he still in Central Asia? Why?" Arriving at Huacheng Port and being contacted by the imperial arms counterfeiting farce that was going on in Lisbon at the moment, Duke Putao's hand holding the letter couldn't help but tremble. This was the rhythm of the bloody storm!

2219