After leaving Ailin's house, Liu Bei refused Mi Zhu's offer to prepare a residence for him in Hanren Street. Instead, he used one hundred bolts of silk to buy a luxurious manor in the noble district of the city.

After purchasing the estate, Liu Bei moved in with Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and their 2,000 sailors.

Soon, news that Liu Bei had asked Mi Zhu to act as matchmaker and go to Ai Lin's house to propose marriage spread throughout the city's aristocratic circles, causing quite a stir.

Originally, being able to establish a connection with Liu Bei would have been enough for the Ailin family to secure their position as the most powerful noble family in Egypt. Unexpectedly, they were also able to forge a relationship with the Royal Merchant Guild.

If this continues, it won't be long before the House of Arryn holds a pivotal position, not only in the province of Egypt, but also throughout Rome.

Many nobles in the city, while envying the Erin family for having such a fine daughter, also brought gifts and came to offer their congratulations.

Meanwhile, Elingclos took the opportunity to tell the nobles about Liu Bei's proposal to form an alliance of interests and to use debt to invest in the commercial trade of other provinces.

The main purpose of this alliance is to integrate all noble resources, gather the strength of everyone, share all channels, jointly develop production, processing, trade and other activities, and jointly bear all risks and benefits.

In the past, these nobles mainly relied on their status and power to collect taxes from merchants and to hoard goods for profit.

However, it was only after the arrival of the Han merchants that they discovered the enormous profits in commercial trade.

Their main source of profit came from purchasing various goods from Han Dynasty merchants and then reselling them to other regions.

Therefore, how much money they can make depends entirely on how much the Han merchants want them to make.

Both Liu Bei and Mi Zhu, who were able to control all of this, had close ties with the Ailin family.

Therefore, the so-called alliance of interests proposed by Elingclo was simply to get these nobles to follow Liu Bei and make money together.

The nobles readily agreed to this good thing, not only signing an alliance agreement on the spot but also directly electing Elingclo as the leader of the alliance, granting him the right to organize and allocate all noble resources.

"Gentlemen, according to my son-in-law's plan, the first step we need to take is to have our own armed force to protect the interests of our alliance."

Therefore, what we need to do now is to help my son-in-law's two brothers build up their influence so that they can marry the governor's two daughters, which will make it easier for us to form our forces!

After the alliance was concluded, Elinclos briefly explained Liu Bei's plan to everyone.

"No problem. We might not be good at other things, but we can definitely use money to promote people!"

"That's right, if your son-in-law takes control of Egypt's military and political affairs, it will also benefit us!"

Upon hearing Elinclos's suggestion, everyone present expressed their agreement.

In places where national and ethnic concepts have not yet been formed, as long as Liu Bei can bring them benefits, they will support him even if he wants to go to Rome and become emperor, let alone interfere in local military and political affairs.

The statement, "Give me enough money and I can buy all of Rome," is not just a casual remark.

Subsequently, after discussions between Elingcrown and the nobles, they decided to set up a fighting arena together, in accordance with Liu Bei's plan, with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei guarding the arena. At the same time, they would build momentum and select members for the formation of the alliance's guard team.

Soon, all members of the alliance sprang into action.

Some were responsible for relaying messages and spreading the word about the high price paid for guards; some were responsible for compiling and summarizing the assets and circumstances of various families; and some were responsible for sending people around to spread the various deeds of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei and to start setting up a fighting arena.

Under Elingcrow's command and coordination, all the nobles had clear divisions of labor, and things were handled in an orderly manner.

Of course, all of this was also due to Liu Bei's behind-the-scenes guidance.

...

While the nobles were busy with their own affairs, Pekhni, the governor of Egypt, was deeply troubled by the matter of conquering Parthia.

As Elingcrown had said before, although Rome was the victor in this campaign against Parthia, the Egyptian province did not gain much benefit.

After all, as both were enemies of Augustus and the Senate, the Egyptian province, representing all the provinces, had to contribute a large amount of money and grain to support its brother provinces during the war.

However, this not only strained the finances of the governor's office, but also made it impossible to pay the pensions of the soldiers who died in battle and to award them their rewards.

Although he was appointed by Augustus, he was able to maintain his position as governor only with the support of his soldiers.

Now that the soldiers are about to return from their campaign, if he cannot resolve the money issue quickly, his own soldiers might overthrow him at any time.

Just as Peckney was pacing anxiously, the governor's steward rushed over and told Peckney about the events that had taken place in the city over the past few days.

"Oh? You mean, that Liu Bei not only has some background with the Han imperial family, but also has connections with the Han Royal Merchant Guild?"

Upon hearing the butler's report, Peckney's expression shifted slightly.

The butler nodded: "Yes, sir. Moreover, the Erin family has even brought together all the nobles to form an alliance, with Erincro serving as their leader."

"Is that so?"

Upon hearing this, Peckney's expression shifted. He hadn't expected Liu Bei to have such influence, actually elevating the Erin family to the position of leader of the alliance.

The steward suggested, "My lord, in two days it will be the wedding day of Liu Bei and the daughter of the Ai Lin family. In my humble opinion, you might as well get closer to Liu Bei. Perhaps he can help you solve these current difficulties!"

Peckney nodded upon hearing this: "That's the only way. Go and help me prepare, pick out a few decent gifts, and I'll go and congratulate him later!"

"Yes, sir!"

The butler agreed and then bowed and left.

After the butler left, Peckney also began to ponder.

He gleaned several important pieces of information from what the butler hadn't said earlier.

He knew those nobles better than anyone; the fact that they could gather together and even acknowledge the Ailin family as their leader showed Liu Bei's value.

The main reason for this was simply because Elinclos had a good daughter.

"Sigh, what a pity, the Erin family beat us to it!"

Thinking of her two daughters, who were just as good as Elena's, Peckney couldn't help but sigh.