The Rise of the European Emperor

At the moment of food and wine, William IV, who is a gourmet, is eating as expected. Portman quickly ordered someone to deliver lemon honey water to help him digest his food. Marin had long expected that someone would eat it, so he prepared a lot of lemons and honey. Lemonade has a good effect on digestion, but the taste is not flattering. Europeans were not used to the taste of lemons in this era, so Marin had people add honey to lemonade to balance the taste.

In fact, Marin had intended to use hawthorn water. Unfortunately, hawthorn is a Chinese specialty. In desperation, he had to use lemonade instead. Also, lemonade works well. It's just that this taste...it would be unpleasant to drink without honey...

Even with the addition of honey, William IV was not used to the sour taste. But Portman pointed out that lemon water aids digestion, and William IV insisted on drinking it.

"It's delicious! By the way, Mr. Portman, where did you get all this food? Why haven't I heard of it?"

Portman was naturally prepared, and he replied:

"It was learned by our Grand Duke's teacher, Einstein Daxian, when he traveled far to the East China Empire."

"Oh, it turned out to be from that mysterious country in the east..." William IV suddenly realized.

"According to our grand duke, many delicacies in Italy were brought back from the East by Marco Polo. For example, pasta and pizza..."

"So powerful?" William IV was shocked.

"Well, Marco Polo was not proficient in cooking, so he only brought back a few cooking methods such as pasta and pizza. But our grand duke's teacher was different, he gave us a complete cooking recipe. Currently, this recipe is Beihai One of the top secrets of the Grand Duchy..." Portman said sternly.

Marin originally wanted to use Chinese food to fool William IV, and Chinese food was the only bargaining chip in his hand. That being the case, Portman naturally wanted to exaggerate this only chip according to Marin's instructions. Moreover, there must be a sense of mystery... Only in this way can we really impress William IV...

"Can the recipe also be kept secret?" William IV was a little stunned - do you want to be so nonsense?

Portman nodded solemnly, and then asked back:

"The Duke has also tasted all kinds of food, and has a lot of knowledge in food. But, has the Duke eaten such delicious food before?"

William IV shook his head blankly. He couldn't deny this...

"Isn't that right? Can't we keep the recipes of the delicacies so well-informed as the Duke a secret?"

William IV smiled and said:

"It's really like this..." It's really not easy to make an old gourmet eat food, and it's not uncommon for the secret recipe to be kept secret.

Thinking of this, William IV sighed and said:

"What if I still want to eat in the future?"

Portman smiled and said:

"It's simple, we can let a few royal chefs stay and teach your royal chefs in the palace."

"What conditions?" William IV was also a politician, but he didn't think the other party would give it away in vain.

"If you could sell Mülheim to..."

"No, it's impossible..." William IV shook his head again and again.

"We Beihai will come up with a price that will satisfy you!" Portman said quickly.

"It's not about money. Although I'm not a wise man, I also know that the inheritance left by my ancestors cannot be destroyed at will. Especially the land, which cannot be sold at will. At least, during my reign, the territory of Jülich and Berg Can't shrink."

"But..." Portman opened his mouth, not knowing how to answer.

In fact, William IV was really envious of those fine wines and delicacies. Now, he refuses to sell Muelheim, which means saying goodbye to those fine wines and delicacies. Although those cooks are now in Lich City, he can also tie those cooks to force them to hand over the secret cooking recipe. However, the consequences of offending Marin...

Portman took on the role for the first time,

Don't want to fail. Because he understands that if he fails this time, he may not have such a good opportunity in the future. After all, he is not Marin's cronies or relatives...

Taking advantage of the opportunity that William IV could not move, Portman desperately thought of a way. Finally, before William IV left, Portman thought of a way:

"Lord Duke, why don't we trade Muelheim in another way? For example, territorial exchange..." Portman recalled that Marin's request was to obtain the land between the Ruhr and the Lippe. In other words, can the land south of the Ruhr be exchanged? He decided to give it a try...

"Territory swap?"

"Well, can our country take out the land of the same area in the junction of the Counties of Mark and the Principality of Berg, and exchange it with Mülheim? What you are worried about is only the shrinking of the territory. If you exchange the same area, there will be no Concerns about this..."

"This is a way..." William IV's eyes suddenly lit up. But after hesitating for a while, he said:

"If the area is exchanged, our country is at a disadvantage! You know, Mülheim is a tax collection station on the Ruhr River, and it receives a lot of toll taxes every year..."

Portman rolled his eyes immediately - if it wasn't for the sake of not being extorted by you to collect toll taxes in the future, who would buy your land?

Of course, this is the rhetoric when Marin and Portman explained. After all, Marin can't talk about the coal problem in the Ruhr area, nor about his ambitions for Essen. Therefore, when explaining things to Portman, I used this reason. Of course, this reason is not false. After all, it would be really unpleasant if coal transportation on the Ruhr River in the future would be imposed on every ship by the river tariff card set up in Mülheim by the Duchy of Berg. Especially after the start of the industrial age, the number of ships will definitely increase greatly. If every ship is taxed, it will be very troublesome.

After thinking about it, Portman said:

"Well, regarding the issue of tax collection on the river, I will ask our Grand Duke to see if he has any compensation methods."

"Alright!" William IV went back contentedly. Before leaving, he packed and took away the unfinished pot of sausage and egg fried rice.

...

After receiving Portman's quick-witted request, Marin responded quickly - agreeing to the territorial replacement plan. At the same time, Marin is willing to pay 20,000 gold coins worth of food at one time while exchanging the territory of the same area between the southwestern part of the Counties of Mark and the Principality of Berg. , may be a little tight on hand. If he deliberately pays for food, his ability to pay will become super strong...

After getting Marin's reply, Portman quickly asked William IV to tell him the reply. After thinking about it carefully, William IV added another condition - that is, the area that Marin used to exchange territory with him must have a market town similar in size to Mülheim... After all, the European lords of this era, In addition to its own manor, it mainly relies on the city and market town to collect commercial tax.

In addition, William IV required that the grain used for payment must be the new grain harvested this autumn, and cannot be offset with old grain. After all, new food can be stored longer. If it is Chen Liang, who knows how many years it has been stored? If it deteriorates soon after being pulled back, it will be a big loss...

To this, Marin's reply is - it can be...

As a result, William IV, the "tough bone", was finally successfully won. Afterwards, the two sides will formally sign an agreement on the exchange of the Mülheim area.

Of course, this is not the end, but only the beginning. Because, there are more "tough bones" behind - the large area of ​​the Principality of Clifford to the east of the Rhine, north of the Ruhr River, and south of the Lippe River to negotiate... (Tianjin Novel Network)