I Will Be The Crowned King

"Let me be responsible, Mrs. Wang...I mean, is that what His Majesty really said?"

Sitting behind a desk full of documents, Ludwig with a tired face looked at Roman who walked in front of him in disbelief: "I thought everything was settled!"

"Obviously, no." Roman said expressionlessly: "To be more precise, the most basic work should have been completed, but the follow-up handover work will be entrusted to the Privy Council, that is, to you."

"In the words of His Majesty Nicholas I, this will be the first and most important task at the beginning of the establishment of the Prime Minister's Office. Whether it can be successfully completed will involve the friendship between Clovis and the Free Confederation, as well as His Majesty himself. face."

As he spoke, the adjutant glanced intentionally or unintentionally at the pile of documents on the desktop, which was specially placed in the most prominent position, and it was also the most gorgeous one:

"By my Majesty's order—

Appointment of Major General Ludwig Franz to set up the Prime Minister's Office and assume the post of executive, with full powers to take charge of the affairs under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council, in order to deal with the current critical situation of Clovis and solve problems for the kingdom and His Majesty;

This appointment takes effect immediately on the second day after the order is issued - the Privy Council of the Kingdom of Clovis. "

In the end, Ludwig still accepted the invitation of the Privy Council, and took the initiative to accept the title of "ruling" without informing Sophia.

Of course he understands that this is an overt conspiracy by the Privy Council, a means of buying himself and splitting the power of the Franz family. In place of the previous Ministry of War, a military government belonging to the Franz family was established.

The question is, what is the purpose of establishing a military government?

For Ludwig, the answer is very simple. Of course, it is to elevate the Privy Council and become the ruler of Clovis in the actual sense, and win the biggest cake in this chaos of mutiny and rebellion.

So now the Privy Council has given another solution: If Ludwig has the opportunity to obtain the greatest real power of Clovis without overriding the Privy Council, will there be no need to establish a military government?

The answer Ludwig gave was...you are absolutely right.

It's not because he was greedy for the bargaining chips given by the other party, but Ludwig really found that he had no way out—now that Anson's military rank has surpassed his own, and he has also obtained the important position of chief of the royal guard, plus Sophia, who is justifiable Minister of War, it really doesn't make much sense for him to stay in the Ministry of War.

Even in order to avoid conflicts with his sister, he had to temporarily leave the Ministry of War; in comparison, the position of "ruling" was really a very good choice.

Moreover, the prices offered by the Privy Council and Queen Anne are indeed attractive: nominally, his ruling power is limited to receiving proposals submitted by the Privy Council, and then he will personally forward them to the cabinet and the king for approval, and then promulgate and implement them after obtaining permission— Seems like the job of a postman and herald.

In fact, this is not the case at all: which proposal to pass on, when to pass it on, whether to implement the approved proposal, and how to implement these...all are decided by him as the "ruler".

Not only that, in addition to being the largest organ of power in Clovis, the Privy Council also has a large number of committees under its jurisdiction, as well as large and small officials responsible for orders; Decisions of birth—for example, the railway committee is basically under the control of the reformers, and departments such as customs and taxation have always been the territory of conservatives.

And today, the administrative machine of the Clovis Kingdom finally has a real leader in name—the Prime Minister's Office.

Two hundred people from personnel affairs, taxation, intelligence, courts, foreign affairs... middle and low-ranking officials of various departments of the Privy Council, and forty-eight representatives of the Privy Council committees, were recruited by Ludwig as "secretary officers" and became him. The first batch of directly subordinate officials in power.

Not only that, but Ludwig first applied for allowances for the two hundred officials as a "consul".

Yes, except for the officials of the Ministry of War who can regularly receive military pay, more than 70% of the officials in the Kingdom of Clovis do not have such things as "salary" and "stipend".

The Privy Council is the largest authority in Clovis. Every time the king wants to do something, he needs to promulgate a bill, and each bill must set up a special committee; Yes, so it is necessary to hire some people to work; and the cost of employment, of course, must be determined by the appropriation budget of the bill.

The direct result of this is that the officials under the committee with a large budget can live well, while those with a small budget cannot make ends meet; at the same time, the income is also unstable. After all, no one knows how long a certain bill will last, and whether the committee may be disbanded; At that time, of course, the MPs don't have to worry about anything. Officials like them will lose their jobs on the spot.

And Ludwig solved this problem for them—applied for the allowance approved by the Privy Council, which means that regardless of whether the Prime Minister's Office still exists, they can use this credential to receive the most basic income every month.

Not only that, but in accordance with the rule that the Army required extra subsidies for attendance during the camp, Ludwig designed a maximum monthly working hours limit for the Chancellor's Office. If the limit was exceeded in that month, he could get twice the salary for the excess, which he would pay out of his own pocket.

The money was not much, but it allowed Ludwig to gain the unconditional loyalty of more than two hundred of the most professional officials in the Clovis Kingdom; The government is willing to give them a minimum of respect.

That's right, this method is exactly the same as Anson's method of attracting the officers of the Storm Legion; it's just that Ludwig is much richer than a certain commander-in-chief, and there is no need to engage in a spoils distribution system, and he directly spends money.

It should be said that Anson's wooing of the Shotgun Club and the establishment of the "Red Heart" gave Ludwig a lot of inspiration; instead of completely counting on those guys with real power to be willing to cooperate, it is better to form a force that is completely loyal to him and gradually control it from the middle and lower levels global.

"...That is to say, Queen Anne does not want the Free Confederation Mission to have too many public contacts with her and His Majesty Nicholas, but she does not want to cause any losses." Holding the document handed by Adjutant Roman, Ludwig muttered to himself:,

"Indeed...Although the Free Confederation is very important, the Empire will definitely not be happy to see this kind of result. If everything is made clear, it will definitely be obstructed by them."

After a moment of silence, he suddenly looked up at Roman: "What is the main point of dispute between the two sides now?"

"Under the auspices of the Queen Mother, most of the negotiations have been completed, and those handed over to the Prime Minister's Office are follow-up work, but..." The adjutant bowed and pointed to the document:

"There is still some conflict between the two sides on whether the New World Company enjoys the same rights as all chambers of commerce and private banks in Clovis. under the name."

"These shares account for about 20%, and they are already the second largest shareholder of the bank; but due to the independence of the Free Confederation, the New World Company also broke away from the control of Clovis along with Moby Whale Port, and the shares naturally ceased to exist. ; Now that the two sides have re-established diplomatic relations, the shares and rights of Newland Bank have also been placed on the table again."

"I see..." Ludwig nodded: "I remember Anson once mentioned that the New World Bank controls almost all taxation and raw material acquisition and sales operations of the Free Confederation."

"Not only that, but he also owns a lot of real estate - mainly factories, manors, mines and forests." Roman added:

"Twenty percent of the shares, it is not an exaggeration to say that the annual profit is probably at least equivalent to one-tenth of the tax revenue of the Free Confederation."

"It's no wonder they refused to promise to return it, and it's no wonder Queen Mother Anne cares so much about it!"

Ludwig immediately understood: Obviously, the respected Queen Mother wanted to get back the shares, of course not to return to Sophia, who is still nominally the governor of the colony, but to herself!

It is equivalent to the dividends of the Free Confederation's annual tax revenue... This is definitely a huge sum of money, and the Free Confederation that has already swallowed the money will definitely not be able to return it easily, so the negotiation side will be stuck with the other party in terms of the rights of the New Continent Company Neck: It is necessary to make the other party uncomfortable, but not cause the negotiation to break down, and make the atmosphere that is still friendly too stiff.

Since the Queen Mother didn't want to destroy her friendship with Little Baekeland, the job of offending people would of course be handed over to Ludwig, the ruler.

After figuring out the cause of the matter, the next step is of course the solution: how to make the Free Confederation willingly hand over the shares without causing the relationship between the two parties to break down on the spot?

The most direct way is, of course, open negotiations between the two parties, using the 20% of the shares as a bargaining chip to bargain with each other; after all, the Freedom Confederation is currently the weaker party in the bilateral alliance, and it certainly does not dare to directly refuse; in the end, it may not be possible to completely Fight for it, but you can get some of it, at least it can be used for business.

】

However, this approach is completely inconsistent with Ludwig's style—either not to do it, or to do the best. Through this negotiation, everyone will see the courage and strength of the Chancellor's ruling office.

That being the case, there is no question of any percentages. These shares should nominally belong to the Governor of Clovis Colony, and he will...

…Wait, Colonial Governor?

Ludwig suddenly realized something, and he was stunned for more than ten seconds before regaining his senses: "Roman, if I remember correctly, Ansen Bach...does he also have some shares in Newland Corporation?"

"You remember correctly." The adjutant nodded slightly:

"And it's not a part of it. Our Anson Bach quasi... is now a lieutenant general. He is one of the manipulators behind the scenes of the New World Company. During the colonial rebellion and jihad, this so-called New World Bank was the logistics department of his Storm Legion , there is no such thing as equity.”

"Of course, our Lieutenant General is impeccable in terms of accounting. He just 'acquired' some shares by reselling the booty before leaving. Moreover, it is the kind of non-core shares that can only pay dividends and cannot participate in actual management."

"The reason why his Storm Legion is so loyal to him is because he used these dividends to set up a special fund. From himself to ordinary soldiers, they can all receive allowances in different proportions and amounts from the fund."

"I see…"

Of course Ludwig understood what he meant: "You mean, if I investigate the income of the Colonial Garrison Commander by means of an audit, it is very likely that there will be no results?"

"In the end, it is very likely that you will be backlashed, my lord." Roman nodded: "I have dealt with Ansen's deputy commander Fabian twice, and I probably know that the person in charge of the accounts of the Storm Legion is Karl Bain. The school and Anson's clerk Alan Dawn, unless we can bribe these two people, it will never be possible to get the real core accounts of the Storm Legion."

"Without the accounts, it is impossible to determine how much wealth the Storm Legion actually plundered in the New World. Even if their monthly income per lieutenant is more than five times the normal allowance, it is impossible for you to find any loopholes in the shares of the New World Company."

"But he knows about the 20% stake."

The corner of Ludwig's mouth suddenly turned up: "As the actual operator of the colony, Ansen Bach...he can't deny that this belongs to the 20% stake of the colonial governor."

"Since it exists, it is necessary to clarify what these shares are used for, and where are the dividends that should belong to the Kingdom of Clovis now—if he doesn't know, it is a serious malfeasance!"

"Indeed..." Roman nodded slightly: "But what if he can tell ~www.readwn.com~ and let the Free Confederation take out this dividend?"

"Then... it depends on how close the relationship between the Free Confederation and his commander-in-chief of the Storm Legion is." Ludwig sneered:

"Because of him, the Free Confederation lost one-tenth of its tax revenue that year... If you are another shareholder of the New Continent Company, or the leader of the Free Confederation, you would be willing to see this happen and not take any action ?"

Roman was silent for a moment, but did not speak.

But Ludwig doesn't care, he has already found a way to deal with Ansen Bach - this guy is too tightly bound to the Free Confederation, and an alliance with him will obviously further strengthen his power, so he must find a way to destroy The friendship between him and the new world even turned the two sides into enemies.

And as long as this important financial support is lost, the Storm Legion, the Shotgun Club, the "Red Heart"...

How long can their loyalty to Ansen Bach last?