() "Damn it, if only Rome hadn't exposed its weakness of food shortage!" Alexander whispered through gritted teeth.

I comforted him and said: "There are too many causes and effects, which we cannot change in a short time, but we will not just sit still and wait for death."

The constant sound of quill recording in my ears stopped, and the meeting fell into silence. I sat quietly on the chair, thinking, thinking about how to respond to the counterattack from France.

Only by knowing yourself and the enemy can you be victorious in every battle.

Does the empire have no land to grow food?

On the contrary, the empire sits on the lower and middle plains of the Danube River. Romania, Serbia, and Hungary, which were built on this land in the past world, are all major grain-producing countries, and more than 10% of the national economy is supported by agriculture!

But why does this dilemma arise?

It’s human self-interest!

Since the invention of perfume by my predecessor, because making perfume requires a large amount of raw materials, the lower Danube plain has been full of roses since it was developed. Why? Compared with cheap food, it is of course better to grow roses and provide them to perfume processing factories in exchange for wealth.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. The empire's perfume has occupied the entire Western European market and brought a huge amount of wealth to the empire. No one can deny this. Therefore, perfume and food have always been a difficult choice. Although

Rulers of all generations have had mandatory orders, but under the impact of Poland's cheap food exports, the ban was lifted due to pressure! A small part of the huge wealth gained from exporting perfume was used to purchase food from Poland, and the land vacated

It is to plant more raw materials and increase the production of perfume!

What about the middle Danube plain?

There is a lot of land there too!

The natural dangers of the Katlacta Gorge and the existence of the Southern Carpathian Mountains blocked the food produced in the fertile soil of the plains of the middle reaches of the Danube, making it impossible for the empire to use the river there.

The key is obvious. The empire is not without food, but cannot transport it!

What about Colbert? If there really is a force in this world with many characters in the game whose ability value exceeds 90, France is obviously it. And Colbert, to be exaggerated, this guy’s political value is at least over 90

One hundred and twenty. The effect is just like Uesugi in Nobunaga's Ambition. He can easily kill you with 50,000 or 60,000 yuan in a matter of minutes.

I'm not kidding. Since Colbert came to power, the empire has had to deal with this guy every year. The last finance minister who left his post heard that he would have nightmares even when he was sleeping at home, screaming his name.

I racked my brains to recall such a strong man, and I roughly knew that there was such a person in French history. In the past, Colbert was Louis XIV's finance minister and part-time minister of the navy, and he devoted his life to serving France.

The Southern and Northern Wars and the Sun King’s unparalleled feats protected him.

In this world, Colbert also excelled in fulfilling his destiny, or the task given by God, to make France strong! This Frenchman who was recommended by the Sun King's cronies defeated the French financial controller as soon as he appeared.

A French aristocrat who occupied an important position and lived without food. After being appointed as the Auditor General of Finance by Louis XIV, he spent three years rebuilding the French financial system. Then the Frenchman held high the banner of mercantilism and frequently used tariff barriers.

The iron fist and a series of measures were used to attack the enemy's economy and then restrict the income of other countries. Although some of these methods would be a bit naive three hundred years later, don't forget that in this era, Colbert was a wise man who was more than one step ahead of others. Many of them

The trap laid is not yet clear to others.

And our finance minister cannot be considered wrong in handling French export tariffs. Faced with such malicious policy changes, the empire can only force the other party to surrender by adopting the same policy to retaliate. That's all.

As a result, both parties may fall into a prisoner's dilemma.

The Prisoner's Dilemma is an economic definition of being trapped in a cocoon and being clever but being misled by cleverness. To analyze the current problem, because one country raises tariffs alone, the other country will respond in the same way, which triggers a tariff war between the two countries.

The goods lose the other party's market, which in turn causes damage to its own economy.

But the problem is that the goods manufactured by France, a new power, are available in the empire. The French market is not large within the empire, so the import tax, the most effective weapon, is useless to the French, but Rome, as the boss,

The brand empire is different in France, where all kinds of luxury goods have a large market share! More importantly, even if export tariffs can be temporarily used to fill the vacancy in buying grain, the empire will always be restricted without new places to buy grain.

France, the enemy that replaced Poland as the largest food importer in the empire!

What a tough question!

"The French thought that they had gained enough advantage over the Habsburgs, so they did not accommodate us on the tariff. Colbert happily fulfilled his long-cherished wish after receiving the king's decree. Erics." Cheap.

The father called the imperial finance minister by name, "This is not the first time to stabilize food prices. Everyone knows what to do. I don't want to see the Romans starving on their own land! Your proposal is very good. Give it to me."

It inspired me a lot... Well, it can be adopted to ask the French to purchase goods equivalent to the currency they hold before leaving the port after selling food at the port. Reveal the news that we have been raised by the French to Austria.

Habs. I think they will be happy to hear this news. Erics, you and your people will do a survey of various trade goods in the German region and submit it. I will use this to the Foreign Secretary later.

Talk to the Austrians about the German regional tariff agreement. As for retaliating against France..."

When I saw the table of so-called noble people sitting here, they all became excited in an instant, and their eyebrows were dancing. I almost thought that I was not sitting in the center of power of the entire empire, but standing on the street and encountering a group of people.

A group of hooligans who came to raise their sleeves after hearing the boss's greeting and saying that they wanted to steal the guy to cause trouble in the next block...

Okay, can this be considered a prelude to the struggle between the Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France for hegemony in Western Europe? And Alexander and I happened to quietly watch as Caesar of the Roman Empire blew the trumpet to declare war on this day?

"I have some things that I need to think about carefully. Remember, after today's adjournment, immediately come up with a bill to reduce the financial budget of various departments of the empire! Submit it in two days!"

that's all?

That's it. If an empire wants to launch an offensive, many details must be studied carefully! Because then it will no longer be a military offensive, but an all-round, overwhelming attack. Military invasion is just the most direct and simplest way.

, but in addition to this, there is also diplomacy and economy!

After talking about France, next it is the turn of the Muslims in the east. The Muslims in the south are making small moves in Syria.

Speaking of Muslims, in the past, my impression was that these guys could only marry four wives. They didn’t eat pork and Uncle Bin Laden.

Take a look at Midea's Empire State Building.

But in this world, because my predecessor withstood the two Western Expeditions, the Muslims suffered a lot. They are our fellow sufferers of the Roman Empire. But they also pushed back against the Persian Empire, which made many Byzantine emperors sad.

He is not a strongman with hair and a frontal attack that beat the Crusaders to pieces.

He bowed his head and professed himself, and sent a lot of money and beautiful women. This soft knife stabbed the Mongolians on the eastern front to drastically reduce their combat effectiveness. Otherwise, beauty is a national strategic reserve like gold! There are beauties in Arabia, and we are here

The Millennium Empire is not bad either. As the saying goes, the priests are holding back, the veterans are standing on the city walls, the generals are rebelling to death, the educated youth sing about the past and visit flower houses, the emperor is worried outside the city, the prince is worried, lolita, and socialite

, a house girl marries a barbarian prince...

Anyway, basically, the offensive of beauties from both sides against the tribes and leaders on their respective borders had been going on in harmony. Until one day in the last century, the Muslims in the south welcomed a woman who had a sense of sacred mission rippling about her body.

savior, and then the Muslims rebelled. We also intervened, and after doing so, we completely drove the Mongols out of the Arabian Peninsula. During that period, the Muslims were very prosperous, defeating the Roman Empire twice and winning a small victory.

There are countless more. Even the old guy’s teeth were polished by that guy. However, that guy who had the aura of a sacred mission all over his body was short-lived. He died when he was only in his forties. He had dozens of wives.

Sons who don't know if they are biological sons are fighting over the division of family property.

The people in our empire are not good people. They can bully a bunch of naughty kids while someone else is dead. Like my great-grandfather, he gave away a hundred thousand cows and tens of thousands of horses according to the legend before he was born.

The son of the Muslim savior who was pregnant, laid countless hens, and produced tens of thousands of pounds per acre, was chopped into three pieces. My grandfather destroyed two sultanates and captured one of his grandsons and hundreds of granddaughter-in-laws and their great-grandsons.

When it came to Cheap Father, he was relatively inferior, so he captured Damascus and happily ran back to Constantinople to be named Caesar.

It has been more than ten years since the cheap daddy was named Caesar. Either the southern Muslims are itchy or they want to take advantage of our shifting strategic layout to try to unify several Islamic countries that are divided in half of the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt.

I’m not sure why Cheap Daddy let go of those Muslim countries. Maybe he also realizes that although Muslims are easy to fight, it’s unrealistic to want the entire empire to benefit from them. So today’s bill against Muslims is just a taste of it.

Handing it over to the ministers of the Ministry of Military Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not as grand as dealing with France.

"Long live Rome!!"

The cheap dad turned his back to the imperial map and suddenly raised his hand. All the senior officials in the hall, including me, had no choice but to immediately raise their right hands in response.

"For the Empire!!!"

Cheap Daddy kept us all at the end of the meeting. He announced a news to us. He was going to amend the terms of the military academy. From now on, we don’t have to go back to the military academy. We will have some things to do in the future. After saying this
Chapter completed!