Don’t raise unruly people in extreme cold weather

Chapter 540: Center and Places (Part )
The imperial treasury has run out of money. This is something that goes against common sense, but on second thought it is very reasonable.

With the coming of the doomsday disaster, the empire will need to spend money on more and more places, and spend more and more money, but the empire's fiscal revenue is decreasing inversely proportional to the speed at which the empire's central government spends money.

The reason is simple. One of the main sources of income for the empire's finances is colonial trade.

Not only are there various benefits brought by direct trade, but also the entire industrial system of the empire is heavily dependent on the colonies to provide it with raw materials for production.

A considerable portion of the industrial products produced by these factories were dumped back to the colonies.

After all this, it is easy to imagine how much profit the empire could earn from its colonies.

Therefore, when the climate gradually cooled and the oceans froze, seriously affecting trade between the empire and its colonies, the reduction in the empire's fiscal revenue was understandable.

It can be said that up to now, the empire's finances have not gone bankrupt, and can even support the relocation of the imperial center from the mainland to the north, as well as the construction of a new city district to house the various departments of the imperial center. This is the result of the hard work of the Duke of Gloucester and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Under such circumstances, it was impossible to expect the Empire to spend a large sum of money to mobilize six Steam Knights to fight against the Steam Knights under Perfectcott. Not only was there no guarantee of victory, but there would also be a huge military expenditure after the battle...

What do you think would have happened to the fool who had dared to raise this idea with the Chancellor?
So for the Empire, going to war with the North? Not possible.

This is why, even though Perfectcot's military expansion has become an established fact, Princess Anne came to Perfectcot and advised her not to overstaff the White Bear Knights.

That's right, Princess Anne came to see Perfectcot not because Perfectcot had added sixty steam knights to his command, making its strength even stronger, but simply because after the White Bear Knights accepted these sixty knights, its scale seriously exceeded the scale of the knights in the conventional sense of the empire.

This was a very bad sign because Perfecto had broken the rules.

When dealing with a rule-abiding person, you can restrain him within the scope of the rules. At least you know that he will not do anything and he will not really act recklessly.

But when a rule-abiding person starts to break the rules, especially when the other party is a strong man who seems to be decisive and has a large number of troops under his command, who wouldn't be panicked?

Therefore, a trivial matter weighing less than 100 kilograms was suddenly put in the spotlight and became a major event that could not be weighed even on the scale of 1,000 kilograms.

But those guys were really afraid of death. They were afraid that Perfect might not intend to make a big deal out of it, and if they really pursued the matter, Perfect would just give up and send the Steam Knights to kill them all, so they were trying every way to prevent the incident from being escalated.

To put it bluntly, they are trying to fight a wolf with a stick and are afraid of both ends.

I am afraid that Perfect will really break the rules, but I am also afraid that Perfect will continue to abide by the rules.

All in all, after they racked their brains and almost scratched their heads, they still chose to let Princess Anne come to talk to Perfectcot, a candidate who, in their opinion, would at least not intensify the conflict.

But Perfect's stubborn attitude greatly disappointed Princess Anne. She had originally thought that she could persuade Perfect not to expand the White Bear Knights, even if it meant adding another Knight Order under Perfect. This matter actually didn't matter to Perfect himself.

She can choose to expand the size of the White Bear Knights, or she can choose to establish another order outside of the White Bear Knights.

With her power and status, as long as she can afford to support them, it would be no problem for her to set up two more knight orders.

But Perfect chose a very strange attitude that seemed very strange to others, and demanded the expansion of the White Bear Knights in a very firm attitude.

There is certainly a reason behind this, as Perfectcot said, "The White Bear Knight is the symbol of the North", but for Perfectcot, this reason is actually very far-fetched.

She is the first Earl of the North, the current head of the Brandelis family, and the true guardian of the North.

If she really wanted to send her knights to handle certain matters on her behalf, Perfect didn't actually need to let the knights use the White Bear Knight as a symbol of their identity.

Although the White Bear Knight symbolizes military power and status in the North, this does not mean that the envoys sent by Perfect cannot prove their identity and status.

Any knight can explain the matter clearly in a few words, so why do they need to use the identity symbol of the White Bear Knight?

At worst, setting up an additional knight order and calling them the White Bear Knights or the Knights of the North is also a way to directly overcome the problem.

However, up to now, Perfect has fully demonstrated her determination and preparation on this issue, and even set a trap for it, waiting for someone to step into the trap because of this incident.

"As to whether what I did was inappropriate and how this matter should end, I think it should be a very easy thing to do." The answer sounded a bit confusing, and it made Perfect feel nostalgic, but she never changed her decision.

But no one except herself really understood what Perfectoct was going to do or why she was doing it.

"I don't understand, what are you thinking about?" Faced with Perfectcot's stubborn attitude, even Princess Anne showed deep confusion.

Her attitude was far from being tough, nor was it intimidation or oppression towards Perfectot. After all, the goal of all parties in the empire was only to solve this problem, not to really piss off Perfectot and have a complete breakup.

But now Perfecto's behavior was as if she had suffered great injustice and pressure, and was an act of resistance she had to make under the heavy pressure of imperial rule.

"Perfect, the Empire has no intention against you. You don't need to be so wary. Is there anything we can't sit down and talk about? Even if you have any requests, you should tell me your requests first!" Princess Anne spoke to Perfect earnestly and tried to persuade Perfect all the time.

But Perfecto's attitude was determined, which surprised everyone.

(End of this chapter)