Meeting

Holding a meeting seemed to be a real chore, because after Ansel's three senior brothers took turns holding a few meetings, they actually came over and dragged Elena to a meeting.

"It's not appropriate for me to go. I'm just a small earl, and I'm only 16 years old." Although Elena was curious about what meetings in this world were like, she was also a little stage fright. In front of a group of upper-class nobles, she was just a rookie.

It feels like I just became a team leader and had to attend a high-level meeting of the group. The cross-level pressure is so great.

Ansiel pushed her from behind. "It's okay, it's okay. Although you're only an earl, you're a high-level wizard. Although you're only 16, you have your teacher and Leonard behind you. With two demigods backing you up, what are you afraid of? They should be afraid of you."

Sidney and DeWitt were also cheering her on.

So Elena was forced to go to the temporary council hall.

Well, the temporary council hall, because the capital has not yet been officially established and the country has not been officially established, so all institutions are "temporary".

Walking into the temporary council hall, Elena greeted everyone present with a little nervousness, and was surprised to find that there were people she knew here.

The Marquis of Truro, whom they met while traveling on the ship before, was poisoned by a demon snake, and Leonard rescued him. Later, Elena bought an island from the illegitimate son of the Marquis of Truro.

The Marquis of Truro took the initiative to greet Elena.

Elena remembered something she had heard before. The Marquis of Truro seemed to support the former eldest prince. He was also thinking of asking for grace for his illegitimate son to inherit the title of marquis after the eldest prince ascended the throne.

Now the eldest prince has been demoted to a commoner and exiled to a deserted island. All the efforts and money of the Marquis of Truro have gone down the drain. Tsk, how miserable.

In addition to the Marquis of Truro, Elena also met her immediate superior, the Marquis Adolf.

Elena had never had any contact with Marquis Adolf. She used to be a viscount, and her superior lord was the Earl of Barnett, so it was impossible for her to meet the Marquis Adolf, who was even more superior.

Later she was promoted to earl, but because she was promoted directly by the dean, the title was not conferred through Marquis Adolf. Also, due to the wartime situation, Elena did not hold a ceremony to confer the title, so she and Marquis Adolf never met.

Today is the first time they meet.

Elena saluted Marquis Adolf, but Marquis Adolf quickly moved aside and did not dare to accept her salute.

"No, no, no. You are attending the meeting today on behalf of the dean. How can I accept your gift? Absolutely not." Marquis Adolf said with a smile.

Hearing this, Elena inexplicably felt like she was on top of the world. No, it was the feeling of presiding over the meeting for the chairman.

It feels a bit cool, hahaha.

Today's topic is how to quickly restore the business environment.

The business environment is a big problem, which is related to the survival of the vast majority of urban residents. Due to the wartime state, commercial operations in Caropetto have fallen into a bad state. Large commercial banks have raised prices, large factories have laid off employees, small workshops have closed down, and small shops are half-dead. If the normal business environment is not restored, a large number of urban residents will surely starve to death.

Those who attended the meeting were all nobles, upper-class nobles. They did not care about the life and death of the common people, but they were very concerned about the business environment. The bulk of their family businesses were in factories and businesses. Factories needed workers, and the goods produced needed to be sold. Without the labor and consumption power of urban residents, the income of these nobles would be greatly reduced.

Regarding how to quickly restore the business environment, the nobles put forward several suggestions, such as tax reductions and exemptions, reducing the number of procedures, and providing subsidies to businesses.

Elena listened and wrote quietly, never speaking a word.

Until someone called her and asked if she had any good suggestions?

Elena finally spoke up: "I think tax cuts and exemptions are fine, and reducing the number of procedures is fine, but the subsidies should be given directly to urban residents."

This last sentence triggered a series of buzzing noises, and the great nobles present all had something to say.

Elena wanted to continue expressing her opinions, but they came one after another, and each of them had a bunch of "counter-questions" to throw at her, not giving her a chance to speak at all. She had no choice but to cast a silencing spell.

It’s nice that the world is quiet.

This move calmed down the nobles present, and they remembered that Countess Field was a high-level wizard.

Whoever is stronger is right. Okay, they just listen to her.

The nobles straightened their clothes and waited for Elena to speak.

Elena took a sip of water to moisten her throat and said, "Merchants receive subsidies, so they can continue to rent shops and pay employees, but will anyone come to buy things? Ordinary residents still don't have money to buy things. So, will merchants lower their prices?"

It is impossible to lower the price. It would be good if the price is not raised. Now everything has increased in price, including raw materials and food. If they do not raise prices, won’t they lose money every day they open?

Elena could see what everyone was thinking, so she continued, "Merchants won't be able to lower prices. So, people without jobs and savings won't be able to afford food? Then, to survive, these people will resort to cheating and robbing. Those who are moral or courageous enough to refrain from cheating and robbing will simply starve to death or die of disease."

"So I think giving money to businesses as subsidies is not very useful. Giving them tax breaks is enough. Instead, the money should be given to urban residents, distributed based on the number of people and age. It doesn't need to be too much, just enough for basic survival, enough to buy beans and potatoes to fill their stomachs and get through this difficult time."

Elena looked at everyone and said, "Let people survive first. Only if they survive can there be hope."

The whole audience was silent.

No one raised any objections. Elena felt a little proud, thinking that she had stimulated her talent for public speaking and successfully persuaded these nobles.

"What do you think?" Elena asked with a smile.

But after waiting for a long time and no one spoke, Elena realized her mistake and forgot to lift the silencing spell.

Elena blushed and lifted the gag spell: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's my fault."

The two most difficult things in the world are to put other people's money into your own pocket and to put your own thoughts into other people's heads.

The first thing was not a problem for Elena at all. There were so many people asking her to sell things to them that Elena had to limit the shipment.

The second thing is that Elena finally realized the difficulties and pain points.

She had just given a long speech, but these nobles didn't listen to a word they said. In order to prevent her from "making trouble", they even skipped the discussion and went straight to voting.

The vote resulted in a landslide approval of the proposal to "provide subsidies to businesses."

Elena left the temporary council hall feeling frustrated.

She doesn't want to attend meetings anymore. Damn, they are all idiots and dictators!

If the common people starve to death, who will work in their factories? Who will buy their goods? Will they rely solely on internal circulation among the nobles?

They are all short-sighted rats.

Elena, full of anger, returned to the Mage Tower. The moment she saw the dean and Leonard, she burst into tears without saying a word.

She really feels wronged.

After crying for a long time and complaining at the same time, Elena finally explained the grievances she had suffered today.

With a pair of red and swollen eyes, she said, "Dean, you are right. Those people are stupid and hopeless idiots."

The dean stroked his long white beard and smiled kindly: "Yes, they are all idiots."

So he didn't want to hold another meeting at all. Instead of meeting with those nobles, he would rather fight with List, which he did.

Leonard saw Elena’s red and swollen eyes and felt very distressed: "I will avenge you and beat them up." After saying that, he was about to leave.

Elena quickly grabbed him and said, "Forget it, forget it. Now is not the time for internal fighting. If you beat them up, what if they run away to join the Church of the Lord of Light?"

She no longer counted on this generation of dukes and marquises. Judging from their performance today, they were probably choosing the lesser of two evils and temporarily siding with the dean. Their stance was very unstable, so they could not be attacked.

Leonard was pulled back and pressed into a chair.

Elena took a few sips of tea to replenish her water, then sighed deeply: "Dean, I can now understand your feelings. No wonder you don't want to go to the meeting. You are all a bunch of disobedient guys and have no unity at all."

The dean smiled and said, "What you experienced today was just a small part of the situation. The meeting we held a while ago to select their official positions was really something that made people not even want to enter the door."

As for selecting officials, Elena felt a headache just thinking about it. She was the kind of person who didn't even want to participate in the voting for class cadre selection, let alone this level of power struggle.

That's the trouble with capitalization.

The dean seemed to be in a good mood and selectively told her the contents of several previous meetings, such as whether to distribute rations to the lower-class people, how to ensure the logistical supply of the army, whether to temporarily open checkpoints in various places to exempt customs duties, and whether to encourage promotion through donations.

These are all major issues that need to be decided urgently, but in the end no consensus was reached and there is a lot of controversy, so further meetings are needed to discuss them.

Alas, politics is really annoying, especially politics where you have no say in it.

Elena originally thought that today's meeting was just a temporary replacement, but unexpectedly it became a long-term replacement. After all kinds of persuasion from Ansel, Elena gritted her teeth and attended several more meetings.

In the end she quit, no matter how Ansiel promised her it would be the "last time".

Damn, they are all idiots!

Forget about building a country with these idiots, just go to hell.

Elena ran into the Mage Tower angrily.

"Dean, I think we should stop having the minority obey the majority rule. When idiots are in the majority, truth becomes bullshit." Elena no longer cared about ladylike manners and blurted out indecent words.

"A broken jar is still a broken jar no matter how much you mend it. It's better to just smash it and make a new one. We should just break the existing aristocratic circle and reshape a new kingdom." Elena's ambition burst out with her anger.

She couldn't stand this stupid political system anymore.

If you can't bear it, break it.

The dean looked at her and asked, "How do you want to change it? How do you break the circle of nobles? Take away their titles, disband their armies, and take away their territories?"

Elena held her head high and said, "Let's create a United Kingdom."

"United Kingdom?" The dean didn't understand how the words "union" and "kingdom" were connected, so he could only ask based on his own understanding, "You want them to each establish their own kingdom?"

Elena nodded. "That's about right. Since they each have their own ideas and will never reach a consensus, then we should just separate them. However, they should still implement unified basic laws internally and fly the same flag. They should be united externally, and a unified political body should exercise diplomatic, military, and financial powers. In short, they should be given greater autonomy internally, but unified externally."

Elena reviewed the political questions she had memorized before. Of course, since it was only high school knowledge, the specific content was still relatively rough. Elena added some specific examples she knew to further illustrate how the United Kingdom operated.

The dean stroked his white beard and fell into deep thought.

After a while, the dean raised a new question.

"What level of title do you think should be used as the basis for dividing the country? A dukedom, a marquisate, or even a smaller earldom?"