Lord of Industrialization

The first thing the new king does after he ascends the throne is to check the palace's accounts.

You wouldn't know if you didn't check, but when you check, you'll be shocked. At first, Rudolf just thought that the luxury goods in the palace were too expensive. Who knows, the more questions he asked, the more problems he found.

Rumor has it that even Antonia received two slaps from Rudolf.

The Grand Duke of Nassau personally investigated this case. He had never handled corruption cases before, but this time Frederick asked him to go to the Ministry of Finance to search the account books. He was shocked when he saw the final result. Some of the problems involved can be traced back to Decades ago, or even eleven years ago, a lot of the military rations that old Count Wesson protected with his life were moldy and mixed with sand.

He did not dare to make a judgment easily and left all the files to His Majesty the King.

According to another rumor, this time Antonia was kicked three meters away by Rudolf.

The people who work in the palace are the children of various noble families, and most of them still have the right to inherit. They mainly work to impress the king.

Now this case involves too many people, including Count Rank, Count Shakespeare, the Grand Duke of Mainz and others. The Grand Duke of Nassau personally broke his grandson's legs in front of Rudolf. The only one who stayed out of the matter was Only Frederick.

So Rudolf urgently summoned Frederick to the palace and asked him to think of ways to solve this problem.

Frederick read the files carefully for a day, with a gloomy face, and made a list of people who must be hung on the wall.

These people were all involved in reselling military rations as substandard goods 11 years ago. When Frederick thought that the food his father and the others had sacrificed their lives to protect were harmed by these people, he was so angry that he almost dropped his pen.

The corruption in this case has no technical content. It is just a layer-by-layer increase in prices, and everyone can make a profit, just like how many taels of silver an egg cost Guangxu.

Rudolf was angry, and now he felt very calm. He laughed at himself: "The price of the air I breathe is normal."

Frederick did not answer the question and said to him: "To solve this matter without trouble, we must first select some people to hang on the wall."

"Other people, no matter how much they swallowed before, will pay five times the fine within this year and forget about it."

"You don't publish the list and the amount, and you don't criticize by name from time to time some people who are lucky enough to not pay the fine or pay less. It's best to catch one or two typical people hanging on the wall, and the rest will know what to do."

Rudolf's eyes lit up when he heard this. This is a good idea. The royal family has been embezzled a lot of money over the years. Now if it is recovered five times, it will be a huge profit.

Frederick made some calculations in his mind and realized that the money was more than enough to repair the palace.

But if this money is really used to build the palace, it is not in line with his principle of absorbing nutrients and strengthening himself from the Rhine League.

Frederick said: "With this money, we can use it to generate new money."

Rudolf's eyes brightened even more. Who in the world didn't know that Frederick would make money? He was still thinking about how to persuade him to help, so he said: "I will leave this money to you to invest, and we will split the profit half and half."

Frederick didn't expect him to say that, so he thought about it seriously.

Rudolf did not dare to disturb him and drank tea quietly. After drinking most of the pot of tea, Frederick said to him: "This money can be used to build the railway."

"Building a railway?" Rudolf was a little surprised. At first he thought he was building a factory.

"That's right." Frederick nodded. "The revenue from the railway is actually not very large after deducting the cost, but it is like a spring that can steadily generate gold coins. It is a high-quality property left to future generations."

Rudolf thought that this was the truth. Now everyone knows that the railways of Wesson, Mainz and Bayern have people riding and pulling goods every day, which means there is continuous income, even after a hundred or two hundred years. You can still make money.

Frederick continued to think and said: "This money will be used to build a popular main road first. After making money, it will be used to build new railways and eventually connect the major cities in the country."

“So I didn’t make much money at the beginning, and I had to wait to collect the money later.”

Rudolf nodded, he understood the logic and could accept it.

Frederick finally said: "Building the railway will be beneficial to the local lords. Many people were fined because of this case, and they must be unhappy. They would feel better if the money was used to build the railway."

Rudolf thought about it, it would be nice to ease the conflict.

Then Frederick said: "I have a suggestion regarding the royal family's expenses."

"In fact, the royal family's clothing and food expenses can be paid for free. Manufacturers are allowed to bid once a year, and the selected merchants supply goods for free, and at the same time they are allowed to use the royal certification mark on their goods."

Rudolf was completely convinced by Frederick and decided to obey him in the field of making money in the future, so when Frederick proposed the establishment of a postal system while the iron was hot, he approved it without even thinking.

Frederick was snickering as he left the palace. Rudolf asked nothing about the postal system, leaving himself solely responsible for doing whatever he wanted.

The nobles in Cologne breathed a sigh of relief. The embezzlement of royal money was indeed unreasonable. Now, under the persuasion of Archduke Wesson, His Majesty Rudolf just hanged a few insignificant nobles. Some of them tampered with military rations and angered Wei. The unlucky Duke Sen and half of the attendants brought by the queen from Gaul were fined. There was no political reshuffle. This was the best outcome.

Not to mention that His Highness Rudolf decided to use some of the money from these fines to build railways, which is also good news among bad news.

But some nobles didn't have much cash and came to Frederick to borrow money.

Frederick asked them to bring some antiques to sell, and planned to take these things to the Ghazi Empire and sell them to make a fortune.

When the killer sent by the "Garden" pretended to be a down-and-out noble lady and arrived in Cologne in a carriage, he saw a row of corpses hanging on the wall, swaying in the cold wind.

"Cornflower" didn't know yet, but the little Gaul nobleman who was scheduled to meet him was the one with the biggest show on the wall.

Today there was a long queue outside the city gate, and everyone had to wait in the wind and snow for inspection and registration.

The only people passing through "Cornflower" were a coachman and an old maid, both of whom were her colleagues.

She bit her lip tightly in the car, feeling very nervous.

Anyone who faced the big devil as soon as they left the novice village would be like this, but before she set off, she learned that her brother was killed by Duke Wesson in June, which gave her the motivation to complete the mission at all costs.

However, this is the city of Cologne. The local nobles have taken root here for hundreds of years, and Frederick has just done everyone a favor.

So based on his words, as soon as the killer entered the city gate and got off the car to be examined, he received a solid blow on the back of his head, knocked him unconscious, tied him and gagged him, and delivered it to his door.