Woolley finally found out about the Citizens Academy during lunch—a meal not eaten at home but at the home of one of his “subordinates,” accompanied by seven other “subordinates.”

After the eight subordinates talked a lot, Wu Lai understood that after the children of nobles entered the Assyrian Citizens' College to study for two years and successfully passed the examination, they would be qualified as reserve officials. Once there was an official vacancy in a city or town in the Assyrian territory, they could fill it legitimately. Of course, legitimate is legitimate, as for where and what kind of official position to fill, that depends on personal ability.

It turned out to be an official organization. Wu Lai thought about it and saw that several "downstream customers" were all looking at him with smiles. He knew that everyone was waiting for his statement. After a moment's hesitation, he smiled bitterly and said, "I think you guys are too cruel. You actually want to use carriages to pay for all the collection money. How can I get so many carriages at once?"

"I learned it from you." A "downstream customer" said with a smile, "Wu Lai, the worst that can happen is that you just ask your slaves to work harder. You only have 4,500 gold coins, and there are three of us who have 8,000 gold coins. Adding together, it's almost 50,000 gold coins."

"Alright, alright. I'm afraid of you." Wu Lai sighed and shook his head. "I'll reduce the price of each set of vehicle equipment by 15 gold coins. This is already the limit."

The eight "next customers" smiled at each other and raised their glasses with satisfaction: "Wu Lai, good job, cheers for friendship!"

"For friendship!" Wu Lai raised his glass and thought to himself that you guys brought this to our doorstep, that's great! Once Anthony has disposed of those carriages in other cities, there will surely be another wave of orders. It will be hard not to make money.

At the same time, in Glendo Manor, Madam Leah called Tina into the room: "Tina, you should hurry up. You don't know how powerful Wu Lai was at the noble meeting today. Moreover, he has been nominated to the Assyrian Citizens Academy, and more than half of the nobles support him..."

In the consul's residence, Anthony looked at Doggie standing in front of him with a dark face.

"Tell me, what made you do this stupid thing? Was it to thank Wu Lai for voting for you?" Anthony asked in a deep voice.

"No, of course not." Doggie shook his head and moved closer to Anthony. "Mr. Archon, as far as I know, Wu Lai is very close to the Fourth Legion, and you also said that General Shuman of the Second Legion pays extra attention to him. Now the Third Legion is about to station troops in Seneca. With Wu Lai's ability, I'm afraid it will be easy to please the new deputy general. Now he has all kinds of tricks and many vassals. If his power is greater, he might even disperse the hearts of the Seneca nobles. Think about it, this is not a good thing for us."

"Would it be a good thing to send him to Citizens College?" Anthony asked.

"For us, it is really like this, Lord Archon. It has been almost thirty years, and Seneca has recommended no less than forty noble children to the Citizens' Academy. But in the end, except Aesop, who else can rank among the top three in the city-state?" Doji replied.

Anthony frowned. As a consul, he didn't like his subordinates to be too cunning. But Doggie was undoubtedly right. In the past thirty years, the Seneca city-state had indeed not produced any decent officials.

"I heard that Buni has been lobbying other citizens these days, apparently trying to gain support for sending his son and nephew to the Citizens' College." Doji added after a little thought.

After a slight pause, Anthony relaxed his brows.

In the evening, Wu Lai entered the temple.

After listening to Wu Lai's narration, Mikoyan pondered for a long time and slowly shook his head: "Wu Lai, this may not be a good thing."

"Why?" Wu Lai asked, his heart moved.

"As far as I know, every two years, hundreds of noble children from various Assyrian city-states go to the Assyrian Citizens Academy to study, but only a few of them pass the examination. In addition to the difficulty of the examination, the atmosphere in the Citizens Academy is also problematic. It is common for noble children to be brave and fierce, and jealousy is common. The academy generally does not interfere. Those who are weak in confidence may not even last two years." Mikoyan said.

"Can that still be considered an academy?" Wu Lai frowned.

"Of course it counts. The more such an environment is, the more it can train people. It's not easy to be an official in the Assyrian territory. Whether it's balancing relationships or fighting for power, it requires skill and courage. If you can't even survive two years in the academy, it's better not to be this official." Mikoyan said with a smile.

"That's true, but it seems to contradict your previous assertion." Wu Lai nodded and said.

"It's not contradictory. Entering the academy is not necessarily a bad thing, but entering at this time is a bit problematic." Mikoyan paused and his expression became serious. "As for what the problem is, I don't know. I just feel this way in my heart."

"Is the relationship between the Third Legion and the Second Legion good?" Wu Lai suddenly asked.

"How can it be good? The generals have been undermining each other for a long time. I heard that the purpose of withdrawing the Red Valley Bay Fortress is to lure the Hurlits into fighting. In that way, the Third Army and its supporters behind it can offset the influence of the Second Army's successive small victories in the raid on the Hurlit territory." Mikoyan replied.

"Raid? When did it happen?" Wu Lai asked curiously.

"About half a month ago, a thousand light-armored cavalrymen from the Second Legion crossed the canyon, broke through a Hurrian checkpoint, and took advantage of the chaos to break into the Hurrian territory. They attacked two small towns in a row within one day and gained a lot. Then they returned along the same route and destroyed half of the checkpoint that had not been repaired yet, and escaped unscathed..." Mikoyan talked eloquently, and at the end, he looked at Wu Lai meaningfully, "It has everything to do with you. The thousand light-armored cavalrymen were riding on the war horses you sold. Of course, this once again proves the magic of the God-given horse gear."

"Then can I raise the price?" Wu Lai joked.

Mikoyan shook his head and said, "Don't be too happy too soon. The Third Army withdrew its troops to invite the battle because it didn't want General Shuman's light cavalry to be too prominent. The three city-states of Seneca, Menia, and Nankin are facing each other from a distance, forming a pincer attack on Red Valley Bay. It's easy for the Hurlites to get in, but once they are surrounded, they can't run away. Besides, the three cities are all hilly areas, and the advantages of cavalry warfare cannot be brought into play. How can they rush and march freely like they did on the Hurlit Plains?"

"What you said, I still don't hear any harm in it for me. As long as the Hurrians don't win, I won't suffer any loss. As long as there are still legions that want to form cavalry to attack the Hurrians, I won't have to worry about not being able to sell my God-given horse harness." Wu Lai said with a frown.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I have to remind you that what ultimately determines a citizen's status is not the amount of wealth he has, but his connections. Among these, the support of the military is very important. Almost all nobles will pay attention to making friends with military personnel." Mikoyan patted Wu Lei on the shoulder. "Even we clergymen sometimes have to deal with military personnel."

"You mean to say that maybe some people don't want me to have the opportunity to get too close to military personnel?" Woolley asked.

"Perhaps this is a factor, but I'm not sure. The Third Army is powerful, and being stationed in Seneca is equivalent to providing the citizens here with an excellent opportunity to get close. Whoever establishes a relationship first will gain the greatest benefit. Time will prove this." Mikoyan shook his head. "It's not a good time for you to leave now."

"It's not a big deal. There are more military personnel in Assyria. If you really want to make friends with the military, wouldn't it be better to go to Assyria?" Wu Lai said disapprovingly.

"You'll know when the time comes." Mikoyan smiled slightly, turned around and took out something from the cabinet, "Let me show you something new. This is the spoils captured by the Second Army in Hulit's territory. It's very precious."

Wu Lai took it and took a look at it, and almost laughed out loud. It was not a precious thing at all, it was just a rough glass plate, full of bubbles inside the glass. The craftsmanship was obviously still at the elementary level.

"Don't tell me you spent a lot of money to buy this." Wu Lai said, trying to hold back his laughter.

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"Of course not, I only spent two gold coins to buy it." Mikoyan said proudly.

"Two gold coins? Just this?" Wu Lai rolled his eyes. Although he didn't know anything about glass making, he knew that the raw materials for making glass were very common and worthless, and the process was not complicated. Two gold coins were used to buy this palm-sized glass plate. Mikoyan was clearly a prodigal son.

"Isn't it valuable?" Mikoyan frowned.

"Well..." Wu Lai scratched his head, "It depends on how you look at it."

Mikoyan was stunned for a moment and took the glass plate from Wu Lai.

"Your Excellency the High Priest, this thing reminds me of something. By the way, do you have a way to find a craftsman who can make it?" Wu Lai asked, with an idea in his mind.

"This... may be a bit difficult, but if you tell me its benefits first, I might be able to find a way." Mikoyan said with an embarrassed look.

"Your Excellency the High Priest, please stop pretending. You even spent two gold coins to buy this thing, which means it has never appeared in the Assyrian territory before. In other words, the people who made it are Hurlites. I believe you have a way to get slaves captured from Hurlites, and I believe you can pick out people who know how to make this." Wu Lai said with a smile, "I can give you two options. First, get two slaves who are sure to know how to make this. I will offer fifty gold coins for each. Second, find a slave to invest one thousand gold coins to partner with me, and by the way, help protect my interests while I am away from Seneca City to study. After producing this kind of thing, I will give you 25% of the profit."

Mikoyan rolled his eyes and said, "If you give me 35%, I will choose the second one. If you want me to choose the first one, I want 200 gold coins for each slave."

"Okay, then 35%." Wu Lai smiled and stretched out his hand.

"Wu Lai, it seems that every time I cooperate with you, you will first escape some money from me. To be honest, I don't like this very much." Mikoyan said half-jokingly and half-seriously.

"Please believe that even if Wu Lailindo is penniless now, he can still find a group of people who are willing to pay me and chase me crying and shouting, vying to give me money." Wu Lai held Mikoyan's hand.

"I believe it." Mikoyan nodded slightly.

In the following half month, Wu Lai was a little busy. He allocated vehicles to eight "next clients", concentrated the unselected child slaves in a newly built area in the White Stone Building for classes, and visited the Greendo Manor. Finally, he entrusted Mikoyan to find a new first butler for him - he had no objection to this Gauguin. First of all, he didn't dare to, and secondly, Wu Lai also said that the new first butler would only be responsible for entertaining nobles and officials in external affairs, and did not divide Gauguin's existing powers and responsibilities. What's more, Wu Lai had just entrusted him with a very important matter, and even raised his salary to one gold coin per month for this purpose.

Of course, Gauguin was not the only one whose salary had been raised. The monthly salary of Nelton, Klee, Fox, Monica, and Hippo had all reached fifty silver coins. In addition, the butlers could get a bonus of two gold coins every three months. With such a heavy reward, the butlers worked even harder.

For some reasons, Wu Lai had no plan to grant freedom to Ma Long and others for the time being, but the treatment was much higher than before, and naturally, the work of the slave guards also satisfied Wu Lai. However, Wu Lai was somewhat worried about Vulture and Puya, because Vulture seemed to be eager for success, so in addition to the basic training courses arranged by Wu Lai, he took the initiative to increase the intensity of training for these child slaves. During this period, more than 20 child slaves fell ill and were sent down the mountain, but Wu Lai had nothing to say about this, because he had entrusted the training to Vulture.