Successful peace talks
The two countries went to war. A month later, both sides had their victories and defeats. Logistical supplies were continuously delivered to the front line, and domestic prices continued to rise.
Elena forcefully intervened in the planting and management of all farmlands in the territory. Every village planted grain uniformly and suspended the planting of other cash crops. In order to speed up grain production, Elena even cast life spells on each piece of farmland and prepared magic potions to replenish soil fertility. By her own efforts, she increased grain production tenfold.
This powerful magic potion for replenishing soil fertility immediately attracted attention from many parties as soon as it was launched. All 10 lords of the Ronglian branch sent orders, which gave Elena another long-term revenue point.
Two months after the war began, the front line was in a stalemate and domestic prices began to stabilize. Because there was a price but no goods, there was no point in raising prices. Prices remained the same as last month, neither rising nor falling.
Elena took in many refugees. She asked them to build workshops, reclaim wasteland, and make various goods. In short, they exchanged their labor for daily food.
This move stabilized the public security in the Field Territory, but it also attracted more refugees. Every day, a large number of refugees rushed to the Field Territory. Elena had no choice but to send people to intercept the refugees at various intersections and let them follow the leaders to repair the roads.
The road network in the Field Territory has been completed, so there is no need to build more roads. The roads that Elena asked the refugees to build are roads to several surrounding territories. In other words, she provided money and manpower to help build roads in several surrounding territories for free.
The lords of several territories were very happy and accepted Elena's kindness. They wrote to her, saying that after the new road was built, no tolls would be charged for pedestrians and caravans coming from the Field territory.
In the fourth month of the war, the two countries suspended the fighting and sat down to negotiate. After several rounds of long table battles, the talks collapsed and the war continued.
Elena's territory has increased a little. The war has been going on for four months, high prices have been going on for four months, and business operations have been suspended for four months. Even the great nobles are short of money, not to mention that many nobles were short of money before the war.
Elena exchanged food, magic potions and magic scrolls for a lot of land. These items were hard currency in troubled times, and their prices rose a lot. On the contrary, the price of land fell a lot. Elena's exchange of goods for land was much cheaper than buying land with money before the war.
Since the territory of Ronglian continues to increase, the "smuggling business" in the Carlopetto Empire is also continuing. Elena is now a major customer of those lords. In this time of war, she can only rely on smuggling to make a living.
Every lord always has one or two lords with whom he has a close relationship. The lords who engage in smuggling transactions with Elena are of course no exception. They first sold land to Elena, and later engaged in smuggling with her. After four months, they had already trusted Elena's virtue of "keeping her mouth shut and doing business with integrity", so they secretly revealed the matter to the lords with whom they had a good relationship.
When several lords heard that they could exchange their worthless land for food, their eyes almost popped out of their heads. How could such a good thing happen at this time?
Okay, that’s great. If she dares to buy, they dare to sell.
Three months passed, and Elena had bought several enclaves one after another. The total area of the territory under her name had reached the basic requirements for a marquis.
But Elena did not apply for promotion.
Are you kidding? Applying at this time would be like proactively disclosing her land transactions with the enemy lords.
Can such things be made public during such a sensitive period of war?
Of course I have to keep it a secret and wait for the right opportunity to tell you later.
With more land, there is more farmland available for growing crops, so Elena adjusted the crop planting schedule.
The territories within the Ronglian still grow grain, while the enclaves on the Karupetto Empire grow vegetables to be on the safe side.
Vegetables are not valuable and do not attract people's attention. Unlike grain, they will not attract competition. Moreover, vegetables have a short growing period and can be harvested quickly. They can also provide necessary supplements to the ingredients on the table. After eating staple food for four months, people will get tired of it. If a large amount of fresh vegetables are on the market, I believe there will be a big market for them.
The war situation on the front line is sometimes tense and sometimes loose, and the two sides will restart peace talks every once in a while. However, due to the huge differences, no one can say whether the talks will be successful or when the war will end.
The situation at the front was at a stalemate, but Elena didn't think about going to the front to help. Just kidding, she was not a technical player who relied on krypton gold to upgrade. After coming to this world, although she relied on her own efforts to become a high-level mage, in essence, she still relied on plug-ins. If she went to the front line, she would definitely be a drag.
So Elena focused on logistics in the rear, taking care of farmland planting, meat farming, and making magic potions and magic scrolls to ensure that supplies to the front line were not interrupted. She would take some losses on the price and settle the accounts based on the price before the war. This was also a contribution to the country.
But Elena didn't expect that one day, Zironglian would not even have money to buy groceries.
???
Elena looked at the Minister of Finance of the Zirong Federation sitting in front of her, and a big question mark appeared in her head.
The minister smiled and said sincerely, "Elena, it's not that our Ministry of Finance is unwilling to pay, but we are truly short of money. I hope you can understand and allow us to postpone the payment."
Elena frowned and summarized what the minister had just said in her own words: "Minister, do you mean that the delivery will be made first and the payment will be made later, and the payment time is not yet determined?"
The minister's expression remained gentle and sincere, without a trace of embarrassment: "Yes."
Elena didn't know what to say for a moment and could only fall into silence.
The minister continued to persuade Elena, "Elena, you know, our federal kingdom has only been established for a few months. The treasury has no savings, and the initial capital relies entirely on contributions from the ten sub-states. As for taxes, due to the current special circumstances, agricultural taxes are exempted, and commercial taxes have also been significantly reduced. With no savings and no taxes, and the front line burning through money every day, the treasury is truly running out of money. Not only will your payment be delayed, but other payments will be delayed as well."
The minister was telling the truth and did not lie to Elena. The truth was that the Zirong League was split from the Carlopetto Empire. Compared with the Carlopetto Empire, which had accumulated wealth for more than two hundred years, the Zirong League was indeed very poor.
Moreover, the political system of this world is a feudal system. There is no such thing as free supply from local areas to the central government. The central government has no right to arbitrarily mobilize money and grain from local areas. The newly established Self-Prosperity League has further weakened the centralization of power of the central government and given the lords of the divided states greater autonomy. The supplies needed for the front line are all purchased by the central government from the local areas.
Someone like Elena, who supplies large quantities of supplies to the front line at pre-war prices, has become a model lord.
However, this would require the Chinese Ronglian to spend a large amount of cash, which would put a great pressure on the national treasury.
The sound of a cannon means a fortune in gold. War is the fastest money-burning machine. After holding on for more than four months, the national treasury finally couldn't hold on any longer.
Elena was silent for a long time, and finally spoke.
"I agree to defer payment, but I hope to receive some interest." Seeing the minister about to speak, Elena quickly quickened her pace and spoke firmly. "You know, I sell goods to the Federation at the lowest price, far lower than the current price. My goods are of the best quality, cheap and good quality, so my request is not excessive. Moreover, I only need to charge a small amount of interest. The total price will definitely not be more expensive than other places."
The minister pursed his lips and thought.
The price Elena gave was indeed very good, much lower than other prices, and the goods she supplied were large in quantity and high in quality, making her the best supplier.
The minister agreed to Elena's request in his heart, but he still wanted to talk about it again.
"Elena, how much interest do you want to charge?"
Elena opened her beautiful big green eyes and said, "It depends on how long you plan to delay. If you plan to delay for a month, my interest rate will be very low. If you plan to delay for a year, my interest rate will be higher."
Since payment will definitely be postponed anyway, we can just charge some interest to recover some of the losses. And with the interest as an incentive, I believe the Ministry of Finance will be more timely.
"How much exactly?" the minister asked, staring into Elena's eyes.
Elena asked the minister for a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote a long list of time and interest points on the paper.
The minister took one look at it and thought it was acceptable.
However, to be cautious, the minister still took a pen to do some calculations. He wanted to know whether the total price would be more expensive than that of other companies.
The result of the calculation is that it is still cheap, which means that the total price after half a year will be more expensive than other brands.
However, other companies will probably also ask for higher interest rates. By comparison, Elena's is still cheaper.
"Okay, I agree." The minister nodded.
The minister and Elena signed an agreement on the spot, stipulating the interest for the six-month extension.
After returning, Elena put the agreement into her private vault and continued to work. Now that the Ministry of Finance could not get the money for the time being, the smuggling business in the enclave had to be stepped up.
I thought the matter was settled and I wouldn't see the minister again for at least half a year, but I didn't expect that only three days later, Elena was summoned by the minister again.
Elena sat back on the same chair as last time, with a dignified demeanor: "Minister, is there anything you want to see me for today?"
The minister smiled, and this time his smile was three points gentler than the last time: "Elena, if the Ministry of Finance is willing to raise the interest rate, are you willing to provide a larger supply?"
? ?
! !
"Is the interest rate they offer much higher than mine?" Elena reacted quickly.
This time, a hint of embarrassment finally appeared on the minister's face. He lowered his head and coughed fakely, "The interest rate is only slightly higher than yours, not much higher. However, the extension period they can accept is only three months, which is not as good as yours."
Elena understood. Putting aside all the modifiers, to sum it up, her interest rate was the lowest, the deferral period was the longest, and her original price was the lowest and her quality was the best.
Elena straightened her back a little more.
Now she has the greatest advantage and she can be more confident.
"The minister wants me to increase shipments while maintaining low prices, high quality, low interest rates and long delays, right?" Elena asked with a smile.
The minister coughed awkwardly again and said, "You can raise the price a little bit."
Elena thought for a moment and said, "I can not mention the price or interest, and I will guarantee to increase the shipment volume."
The minister looked at her, waiting for her to state her conditions.
Elena: "I can even directly reduce half of the debt."
The minister's eyes widened.
Since she is willing to make such a big concession, her conditions must be very high.
Elena smiled and said, "The reduced arrears will be used as my donation to the Federation. When the total reaches 1,000 gold, I hope the Federation will grant me the title of Marquis."
To put it bluntly, it means getting promoted by paying money.
The minister's throat moved. He was very tempted by this condition.
The minister took a sip of water from the table, suppressed his surging emotions, and said calmly, "I will submit this condition to the cabinet on your behalf. If there is a result, I will inform you."
Elena said goodbye and left with satisfaction.
Seven days later, Elena received a reply from the cabinet forwarded by the Ministry of Finance, in which the cabinet approved her application.
Elena was very happy. Besides being happy, she sent people to deliver a large amount of supplies to the Federation.
Since the Ronglian's finances were tight and the treasury was empty, the finances of the Carlopetto Empire were also very tight.
Although it seemed as if there were 200 years of tax savings, in fact the treasury had been empty for a long time and there were still many foreign debts. In order to ensure the basic operation of business, the Caropetto Empire also learned from the practice of the Zirong League, exempted all agricultural taxes, and greatly reduced commercial taxes. Therefore, there was almost no tax revenue this year, and the country was seriously short of money.
Both sides were short of money, but the peace terms were not agreed upon, so they had no choice but to continue fighting. However, the number of actual battles became much less and the scale was much smaller. This was all to reduce the consumption of food, medicine, weapons, chariots, horses, and pensions.
They held on like this for another four months, but the number of battles between the two sides became less and less, and later on, only perfunctory verbal exchanges were left.
When both sides were about to go bankrupt, the peace talks between the Zirong League and the Carlopetto Empire were finally declared a success.
The Carlopetto Empire recognized the Zironglian as an independent country.
Since the Ronglian no longer interferes in the "internal affairs of other countries", it will no longer interfere in the religious beliefs of the Carlopetto Empire.
Both sides took a step back and shook hands in peace in the face of the harsh reality of having no money.
The war was over, and Elena received the Marquisate's letter of ennobling with the cabinet's seal. Now she was the Marquis of Field, the 11th lord of a federal state.
After personally mixing a beautiful cocktail, Elena stood on the balcony with the best view in the castle, overlooking the territory below.
As the wind blew, the golden, plump ears of wheat rolled up into undulating waves.
Elena took a sip of wine and said, "The wind blowing the wheat waves, what a beautiful painting."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
