Crescent Castle.

The meeting hall of the lord's longhouse.

Rosen and the puppet that looked like Selena sat side by side on the bench.

Why a puppet?

Because Selena was due to give birth in a month, her pregnancy was very obvious and could not be concealed.

On the left and right of the two men are soldiers from the Island Guards, and further down, on the left are generals from the Navy Department, and on the right are generals from the Army Department.

In this naval battle, the navy was naturally the main force, but the army artillery regiment also made contributions.

Further down, there stood a group of soldiers with ragged clothes and faces covered in black dust and scars.

They are the senior officers of the Dawn City Storm Fleet.

There weren't many, just over 30. There were originally nearly 200, but they all died in the sea.

Leading the team was the fleet's supreme commander, Marshal Tewold Adrian, one of the three marshals of the Storm Fleet.

He looked like a man in his early fifties, with short gray hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and a pair of emerald eyes unique to the Adrian family.

Of course, his eyes were already a little cloudy, and at this moment they were filled with a strong sense of frustration.

Selena looked at the old man and asked with a cold face: "Uncle, why are you here?!"

Tewold took a deep breath and said, "I was ordered by the Duke to come here to fight against the pearl scammers on the White Sturgeon Island."

Selena sneered: "Pearl fraud? What? Are the pearls we sell fake?"

Tewold spread his hands and said, "I am a soldier. I don't care whether it is true or not. I only obey the Duke's orders."

"Hmph~~"

Selena sneered and suddenly asked, "If Ryder tells you to eat shit, will you go too?"

Tewold frowned and said, "Your Highness, please be careful with your words and do not tarnish the noble honor of the Adrian family with rude words."

Selena wanted to laugh when she heard this: "What is noble?"

"Is it noble to convict people at will? Is it noble to rob people? Or is it noble to be a dog for Aaron?!"

Tew felt that he could not withstand such sharp words.

He felt that Selena had changed. She used to be much more reserved than she is now.

Serena chuckled: "I know what Reid is thinking. It's just that too much gold has flowed to the White Sturgeon Island due to legal transactions, and he is unhappy."

"But I want to say that this gold does not belong to him, but to the Adrian family! As a duke, he only has partial control over the gold."

"But I, Princess Serena of the Dawn, do not recognize his dukedom!"

"I believe he has failed in his duties as the Duke of Dawn. I believe he is unworthy of being the High Lord protecting Veran!"

"And now, Marshal Tewold, I ask you seriously in the name of Princess Dawn, and I hope you will answer seriously."

"Do you think Ryder is competent?!"

After saying this, Selena looked down at Tewod.

This was a very tricky question. Tewdt didn't want to express his opinion publicly. He wanted to lower his eyes and avoid it, but he heard Selena's shout again.

"Uncle, don't hide from me, answer my question!"

Tewold was forced to raise his head again: "I'm just a warrior."

"Are you still a member of the Adrian family, or do you plan to give up the glorious surname of Adrian?"

Tewold was forced into a corner with no way to retreat.

He gritted his teeth and said, "Well, Reid didn't do a very good job."

He did have some beef with Ryder, especially with his attitude toward Aaron.

Selena nodded in satisfaction: "He is indeed incompetent. He controls so many resources of the giant island of Veran, but he can't even build a decent fleet."

"If my husband and I take charge of Weilan, within three years, our Weilan Navy will crisscross the oceans and be invincible!"

This statement was indeed arrogant, but after experiencing such a huge victory, no one could say anything, and some even felt it made sense.

The princess and the baron built such a terrifying warship in less than a year with only the resources of a small island.

If the power of the twenty-five counties of Weilan were combined, hundreds of warships would be built in a year. Then Weilan would be the lord of the ocean! Everyone present was a warrior.

Warriors are very straightforward and will only fight whoever can do it.

Whoever can beat him is the boss.

Of course, Tewold is also a warrior. Although he has some habits of aristocratic lord, his military qualities are still very good.

He had been completely defeated.

Seeing that his niece publicly said that she wanted to deprive Reid of his dukehood, the underlying meaning was naturally that he wanted to be the duke.

He thought about it and felt that this was actually a good idea. After all, they were all members of the Adrian family, so who cares? And over the years, as the Admiral of the Weilan Navy, he was intimidated and even controlled by the Aaron Navy everywhere, and he always felt angry in his heart.

In daily life, he also disliked Reid a little.

As a duke, his wife spent tens of thousands of ounces on pearls and dressed herself up in jewels.

Looking at my niece and her husband, they have obviously earned millions of dollars, but their clothes are still simple, and the castle they live in is even more rudimentary.

In contrast, one side is incompetent and extravagant, and has no ambition to make progress, while the other side lives a simple life but is eager to make progress.

The gap is so huge, it's simply two extremes.

The frustration of failure and the sense of honor of the Adrian family made Marshal Tewolde excited and throw away worldly concerns.

He said bluntly: "Your Highness, I personally think that the charges against Reid were too hasty. I have seen the pearl jewelry, and they are indeed very exquisite. The price they were sold at is also fair and reasonable."

"But I am just a soldier. As long as he is the Duke, I must obey his orders. This is my highest honor as a soldier!"

The subconscious thought is, whoever is the Duke he will work for.

The marshal changed his tone. What else did the other officers have to say?

They all changed their tone and said that they felt the order was unreliable, but they had to obey it because of their duty.

Selena nodded with satisfaction: "Come here, take my uncle and the other officers to the prisoner-of-war camp temporarily and treat them well."

"Storm Fleet sailors, treat the wounded and compile a complete list of the dead."

Immediately, a guard came up to carry out the order.

Tewold and the officers also cooperated very well and followed the guards to the prisoner-of-war camp.

"Uncle, you should have a good rest first. I will talk to you in detail in a few days."

Tewold turned and saluted Serena, "Yes, Your Highness."

Rosen spoke only after the surrendering officers left.

"In this battle, the soldiers of each unit performed very well. Once the statistics of military merits are completed, the medal awarding ceremony will begin."

Naturally everyone is happy.

But the two groups of warriors had different degrees of joy.

The Admiralty was delighted, even elated.

With such powerful warships, they will be able to dominate the oceans in the future, and the islands will have to rely heavily on the navy, so they have huge room for development.

The Army Department was somewhat worried.

Because even a blind person can know that the Baron attaches great importance to the navy and has invested countless real money in it.

I'm afraid the army will soon become a stepmother's child.

For a moment, I couldn't laugh.

Rosen saw all these subtle emotions and decided to appease the Army Department. He could not really forget about the Army.

Because to truly conquer a piece of land, relying on the navy is far from enough, and the army is also needed.

In addition, it is not a good thing for the naval soldiers to be too complacent.

He spoke again, his voice solemnly reminding.

"Island warriors, this battle is just a small and insignificant victory in the process of rising. Our opponent is just an incompetent duke from the old times."

"Please remember, warriors, today's battle is just the beginning!"

"In the near future, we will face more battles, both at sea and on land."

"Our opponent is not only the Duke, but also Aaron who is behind the Duke!"

As soon as the word Aaron came out, the high morale of the generals and officers froze.

These two words represent the most powerful royal power in the Natural Alliance and the shadow behind the scenes that has shrouded Weilan for hundreds of years.

Countless people in Weilan rose up in rebellion, and even several dukes tried to break free from Aaron's control, but they all failed in the end and ended up in a tragic end.

Even the Duke is not immune!

Therefore, the weight of these two words was too heavy, making all the warriors, even Princess Selena, feel heavy, and the joy after winning the battle disappeared by more than half.

Seeing that it worked, Rosen looked around at all the generals, from Chief of the Army, Caudrin, to Chief of the Navy, Yopp, and then said: "Now, I ask you, when the lion roars at us, what should we do?"

Yop was speechless. Coming from the Shire, he knew how terrible Aaron was.

After a moment's pause, Kaudrin shouted, "Fire at him!"

Rosen nodded to Kaudrin with satisfaction: "Warriors, remember these four words from Chief Kaudrin."

"I ask you to remember that it is not glorious to swing a knife at the weak. It is true heroism to fire at the strong!"

After these words, the naval officers' pride vanished and turned into a deeper fighting spirit.

The lord is right, this is only the first step in a long journey.

Seeing that he had said it, Rosen waved his hand and said, "Go for it, Warriors."

After the officers left, Rosen still had a lot of things to arrange.

The warrior only needs to swing the sword, but the lord has to prepare everything.

Although victory is refreshing and the people on the island are still celebrating, the lord must see the deeper problems.

The biggest problem on the White Sturgeon Island at present is that there are not enough people.

Without people, no matter how many resources there are, it will be useless.

From another perspective, the combat effectiveness demonstrated in this battle is almost reaching the power limit of the White Sturgeon Island.

It's a small island and has basically no war potential.

Not to mention Aaron, even compared to Weilan, Hongbai Island is just a little guy who performs extreme operations.

If you perform well, you will win applause; if you perform too well, you will die suddenly.

You must take advantage of the situation and move on to the next step immediately.

After returning to the government study, I immediately found the chief administrative officer, Kruber.

"Kruber, you immediately draft three official documents."

"The first victory document sends the news of the victory in the naval battle to the Earl of the Northern County."

"Yes, lord."

"Second, discuss official documents. Set a time with the northern earls and convene a telegram conference to discuss the release of a joint statement."

What joint statement? Of course, it was a joint statement calling for a general meeting of all the lords of the island to re-elect the Duke.

According to the tradition of Vilan, as long as more than one-third of the earls on the island make a declaration, the Duke must convene a meeting of lords of the island within one year to re-elect the Duke.

Otherwise the title of Duke is illegal.

This was not only an ultimatum to the Duke, but also a way to completely pull the Northern County onto the war chariot! As long as the Northern County was completely on the chariot, he would use a series of combos to integrate the northern part of Weilan into a whole, greatly enhancing the war potential.

Kruber didn't think so much, but he was quite excited.

He is doing quite well so far, and if the princess really becomes a duchess, he might become the minister of parliament of Dawn City.

He was just a civilian mercenary and never thought he would get to this point.

Trying hard to suppress the excitement in his heart, he nodded calmly: "Yes, Lord."

Rosen added: "Third, issue a document to recruit high-level talents and recruit various high-level talents from the All Natural Alliance with high salaries."

"Mages, craftsmen, etc., we want them all. It doesn't matter if they are nobles or commoners. The only thing we value is talent!"

The factory's production capacity is expected to be further increased, and the shipyard will also need to be expanded.

In particular, new weapons must be developed more quickly to maintain the generational advantage.

What to do? Of course, take advantage of this great victory and the money earned from selling pearls to aggressively recruit talents from outside the island.

"Yes, lord."

Kruber once again loudly obeyed the order.

After he left, Rosen found the director of the Intelligence Bureau, Master Stonard.

"The first thing is to collect the post-war reactions of the counties in the north and south, keep an eye on the movements of the armies in each county, and keep an eye on the deployment of the Duke's Dawn Legion."

"Finally, pay more attention to Aaron's reaction. If Aaron's army shows signs of heading north, report to me immediately."

"Yes, lord."

After a pause, Stonard asked, "Lord, will Aaron's interference be severe?"

Rosen narrowed his eyes and smiled: "Whether it's big or not depends on how much free hands Aaron can spare."

He had already moved Kao's pawn, and believed that Aaron would soon feel the pressure from his old enemy next door.

Rosen continued: “Second, the Southern Civil Propaganda Program can begin.”

“There are three main points of publicity.”

"First, the news of the victory in the naval battle,"

"Second, the evil deeds of the lords of the southern counties, and vigorously publicize the generosity, kindness and enlightenment of the lords of the islands."

The second one made Stonard's eyes light up: "Lord, you don't plan to keep the Earl of Southern County?"

Rosen was not surprised by this question. Growing up together, the two of them had a very high level of spiritual understanding.

He smiled and said: "Keep it to continue sucking blood? Or keep it for Aaron to rebel?"

The northern counties were poor and backward, and the earls were powerful, while the southern counties had already seen the emergence of a new bourgeoisie and working class, and the earls were all compradors of Aaron.

The emerging bourgeoisie is confused, and the large number of working people who emerged along with the bourgeoisie are in pain.

Rosen only needs to guide them a little bit, and he can use their power to uproot the Earl of Southern County! Another deeper consideration is that if he wants to go against tradition and ascend to the supreme lord position, he must not only convince the top leaders to accept it, but also cultivate a new consensus among the people.

The consensus among the people is cultivated through public opinion.

Stonard chuckled: "Then I know how to promote it."

Rosen raised his hand to signal the other party not to rush. He said in a serious tone: "The third one is to publicize the news of the new route."

Stonard was startled: "Lord, shouldn't the new route be hidden first?"

Rosen grinned: "Whatever you hide, you should show it openly."

"Not only will we not hide it, we will also vigorously publicize our relationship with Levender."

"The key is to make Southern County, and even Aaron, believe that our victory was not due to us, but entirely due to Levender's support. Even the new warships were provided by Levender, so as to cause them to make a strategic misjudgment."

Stonard was stunned: "Will Aaron believe this?"

"Of course I won't believe it without evidence, but don't we have evidence?"

Stonard's eyes lit up: "Sir Maxim!"

Seeing that he understood everything, Rosen gave a final reminder: "The intelligence team is growing bigger and bigger, and the interests involved are becoming more and more huge. Don't fall behind in ensuring the purity of the team."

Not only must the team be kept pure, but the Intelligence Bureau must also be split up according to the different functions of the main departments to prevent one company from dominating the market.

Master Stonard was stunned and vaguely understood Rosen's intention.

I felt a little sad and felt that there was a gap between me and the lord, so I couldn't muster up any enthusiasm.

Rosen could naturally see it, so he spoke directly.

"Stonard, you and I grew up together. No matter what, you are the intelligence chief I rely on the most. But we are creating a brand new kingdom. Our descendants will not have our deep friendship, and most likely they will not have our courage. Therefore, we must establish a stable intelligence agency for them to emulate. Do you understand?"

Stonard was very smart. He understood what he said immediately and his grudges were gone. "Lord, I will still call you Master from now on, okay?"

He always felt weird and uncomfortable being called lord.

"As you wish."

Then he pointed to the door and said, "Go, young man, and frighten the Duke into a nightmare."

Stonard saluted Rosen and left happily.

After he left, Rosen called the butler again: "Afu, bring Sir Maxim over."

Soon, Sir Maxim arrived.

Compared to last time, his expression had changed significantly. There was obvious humility on his handsome face, and his demeanor seemed much more restrained.

Obviously, he was shocked by the new style of naval warfare.

Rosen stood up and poured him a glass of wine, and the latter hurriedly took it with both hands, looking a little flattered.

After sitting down again, Rosen smiled and said, "I heard that the lord has won the favor of the Queen Mother?"

Maxim's heart trembled slightly, and he immediately realized that the baron in front of him had also planted spies in Levender.

Of course, this shouldn’t be a well-known secret, because it was no secret that he was favored by the Queen Mother.

He nodded gently: "It was thanks to the Baron's constant sharpshooting skills that I was able to conquer the Queen Mother."

He was still a little puzzled. After all, Levender and the White Sturgeon Island were separated by an ocean. Why did the baron care about the situation in Levender? Rosen seemed to be able to see his thoughts and laughed: "Sir, you must want to know why I care about Levender, right?"

"Uh~yeah."

Rosen smiled gently, lifted the curtain behind the desk, revealing a nautical chart, and pointed to a line on the chart.

“Because we are not far away.”

"It's not far, but it's separated by the deep sea."

"But I found a way to cross the deep sea."

Rosen pointed to the specially marked new route.

"ah!"

Sir Maxim was so startled that he almost jumped up. The wine in his glass swayed violently, soaking the front of his clothes.

"At present, the Sir is the only one in the whole of Levender who knows about this. Doesn't the Sir intend to make good use of this good news?"

This simple sentence made Maxim's heart beat like a drum! He certainly knew the huge value of this news.

He also knew that there is no free lunch in the world, and immediately asked: "How can I repay the Baron?"

Rosen had thought about it long ago, but of course he couldn't say it directly because it would hurt Maxim's sensitive heart.

"Nothing in return, just a small token of appreciation for an old friend's generous gesture."

Maxim was indeed very happy and couldn't help smiling.

Rosen continued, "We in the Northern Alliance need secondary magic materials that have been processed initially, as well as various low-, medium-, and high-end magic instruments and equipment."

"I will draw up a purchase list for you later, and I can guarantee that we will buy them at a price significantly higher than the market price in Levender."

After all, the island has only been developed for a short time, and although some aspects are outstanding, there are still many shortcomings.

If we rely entirely on our own development, not only will it cost a lot of manpower and material resources, it will also consume a lot of time, resulting in the loss of many strategic opportunities.

Trade with Levender can perfectly make up for this.

Levinder would certainly agree, because this is a delicious new cake that everyone would devour in one gulp.

Sure enough, his words made Maxim's heart beat faster because he sensed a huge opportunity.

But he still has worries: "How to solve the problem of lost new routes and deep-sea monsters?"

“We will provide a dedicated navigator.”

The navigator is naturally not a banshee, because the appearance of a banshee will cause the frost messenger Lafeng to cause trouble.

Therefore, we use human mages trained by banshees.

"How long will a sailing freighter take?"

"It's not easy for a sailing cargo ship to sail. After all, the wind direction is uncertain, and the route is unstable, so the time is unstable. The fastest is eight days, and the slowest is twelve days."

Maxim was overjoyed when he heard this: "This is fast enough, more than twice as fast as the old route!"

Born into the famous Nobundo family of Levinder, the resources he can mobilize are enormous.

Now that he has this advantage, he has countless ways to use this month's information advantage to earn an extremely lucrative income.

So, he was really very grateful to Rosen.

Seeing that it was almost time, Rosen threw out his most important idea: "Sir, I have a wonderful idea, do you want to hear it?"

"Of course!" Maxim immediately sat up straight.

Rosen said: "I intend to open a dock on the White Sturgeon Island to build civilian Black Stone cargo ships, but I am currently short of money and people."

Maxim understood immediately: "I'll invest in this shipyard, one million ounces!"

He didn't have that much money, but once he returned to Levender and told the news of the new route, he would be able to raise the money immediately.

He also believed in Rosen's credibility and ability. This dock would definitely make a lot of money! Rosen laughed. One million was enough for him to build a big dock. Hehe.

He also made a promise: "In half a year at most, the shipyard will produce brand new Black Stone cargo ships. This first batch of Black Stone cargo ships will be used exclusively for the new routes."

This new dock was built on the White Sturgeon Island, and the relevant technology is naturally kept strictly confidential.

Usually, you make a lot of money by selling cargo ships.

At critical moments, he could also requisition shipyards to produce warships.

This dock also confirmed the fake news that Levinder was the big backer of the White Sturgeon Island.

It can be said to kill three birds with one stone.

After the matter was finalized, Rosen leaned back slightly in his chair and squinted at Sir Maxim, who looked excited.

"Have you brought the Queen Mother's measurements and personal preferences?"

"certainly."

"Oh~ very good, I will carry out targeted transformation on you right away."

"Also, let's have a good chat about the new route and see how it can benefit both of us."

"Of course, of course, we need to talk about it in detail."

Maxim felt that this baron was a great benefactor in his life.

His personal happiness for the rest of his life, his personal future, and even whether the glory of his family can continue to be maintained or even developed, all depends on this respected, powerful and mysterious Baron.

As for Rosen.

But he was full of emotion.

"The lord's affairs are really complicated."

"Fortunately, fortunately, Lai Fu helped me."

Otherwise this is really not something a human would do.

(End of this chapter)