This task of acting as Grand Duke is really deceiving.

Ladislaus and Caligula had been on bad terms since childhood, let alone their recent relationship.

Moreover, if I go to express my condolences to Anna who has lost all her brothers at this time, I really don’t know how she will be treated. Is it possible that the hatred she should have received on behalf of the Grand Duke will be brought onto me.

Finally, Ladislaus decided to hand over this deceptive task to Machiavelli and let the old diplomat do this unlucky job.

Ladislaus decided to avoid Anna for a few days for the time being. Although he was not the mastermind, he could not be said to have not participated in the tormenting of the Sibo family. Although the acting Grand Duke only meant it briefly and later explained that he had not thought about it.

Go to death.

But how could Ladislaus be sure that this was not some unlucky loyalty test on the part of the acting Grand Duke, to see if a branch of the Ligurian-born family could be of great use and obsessed with a woman who had lost her status?

Bypassing the former eldest daughter of the Sibo family can also be explained as the final rescue and win over of the Ligurian consul family, although Ladislao occasionally reflected and felt that he had not thought so much at the time.

At least this can be explained to the emperor and acting grand duke.

In any case, no matter how soft-hearted you are now, you really can't explain it.

I really shouldn't be trying to get close to the Xibo family recently, so it's better to wait and see for the time being.

In the next few days, Treasurer Fugger began to organize the people in the city who had lost their livelihoods to clean up the ruins of the city and restore the economic order of Milan.

Of course, the remaining rebels of the Church of the Unlucky Girls must also be eliminated.

If the city of Novara was not captured, the acting Grand Duke's elite would have to be put on guard, and some minor tasks would be left to Ladislaus's men to maintain.

For example, guarding a food transport convoy.

It was a difficult job to maintain a newly occupied city, especially since there was almost no transportation between the mainland and the newly occupied areas. It was obviously impossible to transport supplies from Austria over the snowy mountains.

The help from the allies was better than nothing. Although the Church of Rome and the Republic of Florence both promised to provide a batch of supplies, these supplies were not only small in quantity, but also had to go through layers of kickbacks and were lost several times before they could be obtained.

Fortunately, in addition to these damn inefficient bureaucrats, there are also efficient merchant organizations in the world, and the caravans from the Republic of Venice can continue to provide various supplies to the city of Milan.

That's right, they are Venetian merchants. The acting Grand Duke robbed the Venetian army's treasury. Now he is not short of money. He has established relationships with several Venetian merchants in the name of negotiating for ransoms for captives. Those merchants have no idea that they are guilty of betraying their motherland.

Concept, in their view, the only crime in the world is probably having money but not making it.

Ladislaus's task was to provide protection for these caravans as much as possible, so that they could safely deliver food, weapons, spellcasting materials and other materials urgently needed by the acting Grand Duke to the city of Milan.

At the same time, we must also be alert to these caravans, because along the trade route, the Prime Minister of Sazastan, the Marquis of Pescara, and the old Colonna were each commanding a force to attack the fortress controlled by the Venetians. The acting Grand Duke asked Ladislaus

Beware of the possibility that these caravans are disguised as Venetian reinforcements. Of course, if there are particularly brave merchants who want to be heroes, you must also beware.

However, for a few days, everything was ordinary. Venetian merchants were busy making money, and no one even expressed sympathy and concern for the foreign defenders who were struggling in the fortress, let alone went to rescue them.

With Yin Taler, who cares whether he is a hero or not?

After losing its consul, the Venetian government also fell into a state of extreme chaos. The parliament is currently in a mess, fighting each other for the vacant power position, and there is no way to implement such a difficult plan of "dressing up as a caravan and sending reinforcements".

The only thing Ladislaus needs to be on guard against is that these merchants are selling off their goods this time and missing out on what they have.

For example, when a batch of goats were being inspected, the owner of these lambs, a Venetian merchant named Shylock, wanted to pay Sirica, the boss in charge of the inspection, thirty thalers for the hard work so that Sirica could process the batch of five goats.

A pregnant ewe among a hundred goats counts as two.

Sirica, who had recently gained a fortune and only wanted to seek a noble status, naturally cut his face severely in front of him and reported it to Ladislaus.

After hearing this, Ladislaus was not in the mood to punish Shylock severely.

Recently, Old John has reported many similar incidents. Machiavellian, who had the most authority, once received a kickback of 5,000 talers, asking him to change the age of a group of military horses from twelve to two years old.

Ladislaus had no hope for the merchant's character, and this meat supplier was still very useful.

Let Sirica boss reprimand her again and impose a fine of fifty thalers, and forget it. Sirica was satisfied with half of the fine as a bonus.

Although Shylock suffered a lot of losses, he still made a profit from this business. The military horse supplier named Antonio was fined and confiscated all the horses according to the contract.

There still has to be a bottom line. If those pack horses go into battle, it will be a disaster.

You must be kind but also powerful, otherwise all kinds of unscrupulous things will happen one after another, and limited punishment will not scare other businessmen away.

The acting Grand Duke did not withhold payment for the goods, and the regular kickbacks from the officials at all levels were relatively small. Venetian merchants were able to make a lot of money. This severe punishment would only deter other profiteers, but would not cut off military supplies.

After sending the goat to the city of Milan, Shylock came to pay the fine. Although he was scolded repeatedly by Sirica, the profiteer did not feel embarrassed at all and immediately offered it to Ladislaus.

fine, and then confess and declare oneself

I was deceived by the housekeeper, thinking that there were 800 goats. As for the boss Sirica, it was not a bribe, but a small thank you to the soldiers for liberating Milan and providing business opportunities as an enthusiastic person. I hope Ladislaus will give him millions.

Don't misunderstand his sincerity.

This Sherlock was a short, fat man. He was sweating profusely as he spoke, and he looked really frightened.

But Ladislaus was still very convinced that it was all lies.

Of course, in this world, many times, everyone is bound to tell some lies.

"I trust you completely, Mr. Sherlock."

The reason why Ladislaus had the patience to let him finish his lies and "believe" him was because he told Boss Sirica that in addition to the fine, he also wanted to send a precious bottle of potion to express his sincerity.

Boss Sirica said that although he could not tell what the potion was, it should be valuable and worth Ladislaus seeing him.

After Sherlock finished telling the lies, he handed over a container. This was a magic flask made of precious glass. Ladislaus had several in his laboratory in Liguria, but none of them seemed to be as good as this one.

.

There is about half a blue-black liquid in the bottle, and the other half is filled with blue-black mist.

Ladislaus was sure that the bottle was worth about a hundred talers, but he could not identify what was inside.

He handed the bottle to Machiavelli.

After studying the bottle for a moment, Machiavelli nodded to Ladislaus, "It is indeed a good product. The death ice beetle potion can provide a little extra resistance to death and cold for twenty-four hours.

Let’s say it’s worth between seven hundred and a thousand thalers.”

Ladislaus said to the pudgy businessman who had remained humble and silent during Machiavelli's appraisal: "Thirty talers, you want to exchange for two hundred sheep, seven hundred talers, what do you want to exchange?"

?”

Shylock listened to Ladislaus's heart-wrenching question, but instead of acting like a clown, he stated his request without being humble or condescending.

"A pound of meat, Your Excellency the Archbishop."
Chapter completed!