Black Iron Crown

Earl Redmara couldn't help frowning when he heard the queen's accusation, and said angrily: "What we have to do now is to guard against those people in the north. I'm worried that they will do something rebellious!"

The queen couldn't help but change her face when she heard the words. It doesn't take much to say what the big rebellion refers to, everyone can understand it.

"Should... probably not..."

The queen covered her mouth and murmured.

But even though she said so, everyone has their own judgment in their hearts. The Ridka Empire was established by the people of the Moreland family. In fact, each of the royal lords has the qualification to become the emperor. .

Because of the respect for the old emperor and the strength of the royal family, no one dared to covet the throne.

Now the queen and the upstarts are constantly suppressing the royal lords, which has greatly aroused the conflict between the two parties, and they are also very dissatisfied with the queen. Now the situation is critical, so the queen and others can't help but think about it.

Before the queen could continue, Earl Redmara said, "No matter whether they will do such a thing or not, we must be vigilant enough to avoid any mistakes!"

"Now I propose to recruit veterans and farmers to serve in the army again, and at the same time hire wandering knights to join the heavy cavalry regiment. We must ensure that the empire has enough defense force!"

Earl Redmara was speaking, but a courtier stood up and said with a sad face: "You are right, but the current situation in the imperial capital may not meet your requirements!"

"When the new army was formed, all the steel reserves in our warehouse had already been used to arm these troops. Now there is not even a little steel left in the warehouse, and even a spear can't be made. Roots, not to mention the many swords and armor!"

What the courtier said was miserable, and the upstarts frowned uncommonly. In the eyes of the upstarts, the lack of iron is purely an excuse. Even if such a large empire does not have a large supply of steel, they melted kitchen knives or iron farm tools. After that, after all, a lot of steel was gathered together.

Just as Count Redmara was about to reprimand and order that the steel must be collected, another courtier stood up again.

The status of this courtier is much higher than that of the previous one, because he is the finance minister of the empire and is mainly responsible for the expenditure and income of the treasury.

Although these courtiers have been greatly weakened because of the great power held by the nobles, he is still a powerful courtier who cannot be underestimated.

"Before this South and West revolted,

The royal family's finances have been hit hard. Both the annuity and commercial income of the nobles have decreased a lot. Coupled with the increase in the number of soldiers, our military expenditure has to increase accordingly. In order to equip the soldiers with armor , We still need to buy a large amount of steel from the northern border, and now the royal family's treasury is no longer enough to support such a huge military expansion! "

As soon as his words fell, there was an instant commotion among the upstarts. They thought that the royal family's treasury was almost inexhaustible, but they didn't expect that there would be a financial crisis now.

Earl Redmara's face froze at this moment, he did not expect such a huge and wealthy empire to be so out of money.

In the past, he never thought that there would be a day when he would be short of money, because the territory of the empire was too large, and the income was so large that Earl Redmara had almost no idea.

The income of the empire in one year is almost equal to the income of his territory for 50 years. He doesn't understand why such a terrible income will be used up one day.

Earl Redmara looked at the courtier with scrutiny, and the eyes of the rest of the upstarts were also full of suspicion after being shocked.

However, the courtier seemed unafraid.

As the Minister of Finance, he was one of the big figures in the empire when the old emperor was in power. It took many years for the follower of the old emperor to gain such a status. How can the pride in his heart be compared to those who were once conquered? of?

He looked at the upstarts without fear, especially Earl Redmara, and said: "If you don't believe me, you can go to the treasury and have a look, and I can also provide you with the accounts. Of course, the premise is that you can understand it!"

There was a lot of sarcasm in the words of the Minister of Finance. In this era, the cultural literacy of the nobles is really not very good. Although literacy is their standard, they don't know anything about advanced knowledge.

On the contrary, they are fighting for power and profit or eating, drinking and having fun. They are all masters.

Earl Redmara shook his head with an ugly face, and said, "I believe you, but can we just catch it now?"

The Chancellor of the Exchequer sighed. Speaking of which, he really didn't want to watch this group of upstarts ruin this huge empire anymore.

Although the royal lords are arrogant, they at least know how to cherish this empire and the great country created by the Moland family.

It's not like these upstarts who just squander the money in the treasury.

Thinking of this, the Minister of Finance couldn't help but look even more ugly, and said coldly: "The treasury of the empire is indeed short of money, but I'm afraid you are not short of money, are you?"

What the Minister of Finance said was correct. After hearing what he said, the upstarts couldn't help but bow their heads in shame, but they recovered quickly. It's no wonder that they really feel ashamed because of this.

Before Earl Redmara could speak, one of them said, "Respect is the Minister of Finance. You are right, but it is our private property. Why should I use it to defend the imperial capital belonging to the royal family?"

After hearing his words, the Chancellor of the Exchequer was so angry that he almost fainted.

At this time they said so, why didn't they say that the empire was the empire of the royal family when they changed the imperial policy at will for their own benefit.

For the sake of making money for themselves, the laws enacted by the old emperor are now almost empty shells, and every law has existed in name only.

In contrast, this group of upstarts are all earning a lot of money, and the one who has made the least money in two years has earned at least 8,000 gold coins, and he is only a baron.

Compared with the annual income of his territory, it has doubled by four hundred times!

Hearing what they said, the Minister of Finance couldn't help feeling disheartened, and didn't want to say anything more. In his opinion at this moment, it would be better for the royal lords to return to the imperial capital to take power again.

He sighed and said, "Then I have nothing else to do. If there is no money, no one is willing to sacrifice their lives!"

In this way, all the way down, the time gradually passed, the upstarts either proposed to raise funds, or opposed the fund-raising, in short, more than a month has not yet come to an argument.

At the same time, the mouths of these upstarts are as loose as the old lady's cotton trousers, there is no money in the treasury, and the news that the royal lords may call at any time has spread throughout the entire imperial capital.