He became a spectator for no reason. Instead of looking for his opponent, the performer beat up Maple Leaf, the spectator.
Although this spectator managed to defend his own territory with his geographical advantage and strong will, no one would accept being beaten for no reason.
Post-war reconstruction is a very important matter. However, Maple Leaf Territory spent a lot of money to build these ten watchtower cities in the past. Although it still costs money now, the personnel problem is easier to solve. The imperial soldiers cannot be taken as prisoners, but they cannot eat and drink for free.
They will be responsible for the manpower required to clean up the destroyed city walls and rebuild them. As for the magic circle set up under the city walls, they will have to wait for Lin Xingchen to come back and set it up personally.
After the victory of the war, a large amount of pensions were paid out, for which Maple Leaf Territory paid nearly 500,000 gold coins. Although the gold coins were a bit much, for the owner of Maple Leaf Territory, nothing that could be solved with gold coins was a big problem.
What really seemed to them to be a big problem were the captives. Regarding these issues, Green and his granddaughters-in-law, including Anna, had some conflicts.
The old man meant that according to past practice, the empire should use gold coins to redeem the captives and this time the matter would be over, but Anna and Eve disagreed.
What they meant was very simple. Before redeeming the captives, some negotiations on compensation from Maple Leaf Territory were needed. After all, you came to my house and smashed things up, and I beat you down. It wasn't that simple for you to apologize and just walk away.
Green felt that his two granddaughters-in-law were a little too excited, but it was difficult to refute their enthusiasm, so he left the matter entirely to them.
Things in the territory have returned to normal, except that many merchants have been punished. These guys ran away in the beginning in order to avoid conscription, but now they heard that Maple Leaf had won and they have come back one by one.
However, there are only two choices waiting for them. One is to leave the territory and never be allowed to do business with the territory again. The second is to pay a punitive commercial tax, which is twice as high as usual and lasts for ten years.
This back and forth made those who had avoided conscription regret it terribly, but the matter had already been settled and there was no point in regretting. They could only grit their teeth and persevere for the next ten years.
The people sent by the Empire to negotiate arrived very quickly. Clark was captured at the end of September and the group arrived at the Maple Leaf Territory in early November. Crown Prince William was also among the negotiating team.
The reason why he was asked to participate in the negotiation was because his father Gustav hoped that he could watch the entire negotiation process, which would be very helpful for him to make decisions in the future.
In November, heavy snow had begun to fall in Maple Leaf Territory, and the negotiation matters had been properly arranged. The main person in charge of the negotiations was a vice-prime minister of the empire, and William was an accompanying member of the royal family.
The negotiators on Maple Leaf Territory's side were mainly Anna, with Avril as a secondary person, and Arnold was behind them to deal with some unnecessary troubles for them.
After three days of rest, during which time the two sides checked on the imperial soldiers and Clark and others, the two sides formally sat down at the negotiation table.
"First of all, let me introduce myself. I am Victor Carter, the current Vice Prime Minister of the Empire, and the main person in charge of the negotiations regarding the prisoners." The Vice Prime Minister of the Empire came up and introduced himself gracefully.
Charles from Maple Leaf was a very good waiter at the venue. After seeing the other party introduce himself, he quickly introduced his two boss ladies to them.
"This is our territory's young lady, Madam Anna, and Madam Avril. The two ladies will be in charge of this negotiation."
"You Maple Leaf Territory must be running out of people! You actually sent two women to participate in such an important negotiation?" A high-ranking imperial official said sarcastically.
"Your Excellency, that's not right... It was the two women you mentioned that caused our Maple Leaf Territory to capture 80,000 soldiers of the Empire.
Moreover, there are many talented people in our Maple Leaf Territory, but the talents of the two ladies are really too good for us, so they have to come forward." Charles's answer made the imperial official very uncomfortable, and just when he was about to lose his temper, Victor waved his hand to signal him not to say more.
"I have long heard that the young lord of Maple Leaf Territory is a man of great vision. He can see talents that others don't know about. After seeing the two ladies and Mr. Charles, I finally understand that this statement is not just exaggeration."
"Madams, please forgive my subordinate for the offense he caused. He is just an ignorant person and it will probably be like this for the rest of his life. I hope you don't mind it." He then performed a chest-touching salute.
"Vice Prime Minister Victor is worrying too much. Just like you said, how could I care about his offense? So I wonder how Vice Prime Minister Victor plans to handle this negotiation between us?" Anna calmly ignored the matter and turned the subject to the main topic.
"According to past practice, our empire will pay a ransom to redeem all the imperial soldiers. Before I came, His Majesty Gustav mentioned that we must not let you think that we are insincere. After all, it was our actions that hurt you.
Therefore, our Empire will redeem all the soldiers at the price of 100,000 gold coins. I wonder what the two ladies think. "Victor said shockingly and directly called out the ultra-low price of 100,000 gold coins.
Reaching out to hold down the angry Avril, Anna smiled at Victor and said, "Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, I think 100,000 gold coins is too much. In fact, you only need to pay one copper coin to redeem all the captives in your country, because they are worthless in your country or in your eyes."
"Madam, you are joking. The highest title among them is the Duke of the Empire, and the lowest is a commoner of the Empire. Each of them is the wealth of the Empire. How can they be worthless? I was just joking with you just now to liven up this solemn atmosphere. Please forgive me."
"Your Excellency is really funny. If my husband were here, he would definitely be able to talk to you. He is also a very humorous person."
"But please be a little more serious in this situation, otherwise I might think that you are bullying me, a pregnant woman." Victor felt uncomfortable with Anna's soft response.
"Haha... How could you bully a pregnant lady? If this gets back to the empire, I think I'll be the target of condemnation by the women of the empire." Victor cleverly resolved the situation and changed the subject to Anna.
"I wonder how much ransom Madam plans to ask for in order to release those imperial soldiers?"
"Mr. Deputy Prime Minister, before discussing the ransom, I would like to talk to you about compensation." Anna naturally would not miss this opportunity.
"Oh... compensation... This is the first time I've heard of this. Please tell me in detail, ma'am." Although Victor's expression did not change, he had become more alert in his heart.
“It’s your fault that you started a war with my territory. We in Maple Leaf Territory have always maintained a neutral stance and have had close business dealings with your country for many years. This time, your commander David Clark attacked us without any reason and caused unimaginable damage to our territory.
As a powerful empire, do you think your country is going to cheat like those hooligans?"
"In response to your invasion, our territory has lost tens of thousands of people, and tens of thousands of people have been injured. These people are in such a tragic situation because of your rude invasion. Don't you need to compensate us victims for our losses?"
"Countless families have lost their lives or been injured because of your country's harm. These are all mistakes that your country needs to make up for. According to our preliminary statistics, your country needs to pay us Maple Leaf Territory at least one million gold coins to compensate these innocent victims of death and injury."
"One million gold coins... You may not be awake yet!" The imperial official who had just appeared and mocked Anna screamed loudly.
"Of course I'm awake. I'm telling you that this million is only compensation for the innocent people you've hurt. You also need to compensate for the losses caused to our Maple Leaf Territory by this invasion. We've calculated that the orders we lost because of your shameful invasion amount to more than two million gold coins. All of this will be charged to your country."
"Shut up! I'm the person in charge of this negotiation. If you can't control your mouth, get out." Just before the official who liked to talk too much could speak, Victor scolded him coldly, forcing him to swallow the dirty words that were about to come out of his mouth.
"Madam, please forgive me. If he offends me or speaks without reason, I will punish him. As for the two things you just mentioned, I think we still need to have a good talk." Although Victor was scolding his men, he was also reminding Anna not to ask for too much. They could just leave without further negotiations.
"It would be best if the Deputy Prime Minister could manage this gentleman. As for the negotiation and consultation issues, I believe we can talk slowly. After all, we have a long time to talk slowly because the mountains are blocked by heavy snow. I just don't know if your army stationed on the grassland can hold on." Anna couldn't help but cover her mouth with the fluff on her hand and giggled.
“Thank you for your concern, ma’am. They will definitely like this kind of snowy day. After all, in the empire, they like to go out hunting and play in the snow.
Madam, what you said is actually a bit rude. Clark attacked you because you provided intelligence to the grassland, which led to his attack failure. Moreover, we sent troops to the grassland to make our commercial trade more smooth, but you wasted a lot of manpower and material resources for your own selfish harm. How do you explain this, Madam?"