"Praise the great goddess of wealth Wojin, praise the wise and wise Emperor, and may the empire continue to be strong and prosperous forever."
The businessman lowered his head and prayed devoutly.
Because all the subjects of the West Coast Empire know that their emperor is actually no different from a god and can hear his own prayers.
Although he almost never responds, he rarely grants divine spells to certain potential believers.
Especially the businessmen, whenever they mention Woking, the goddess of wealth, they will mention that the Emperor is here to express their respect and gratitude.
After all, the West Coast Empire is one of the few places where merchants can guarantee their property and personal safety. They don’t have to worry about their hard-earned money being forcibly taken by dragons, monsters, bandits, cults, etc.
Under the protection of magic locks and barriers in major cities, any crime will be uncovered if you want to investigate it.
While this group of businessmen were patrolling the once prosperous city of Ser, a bald red-robed mage came over with his men.
He first glanced at the fully loaded airship with very complicated eyes, then took a deep breath and forced out a smile and said: "Everyone, please allow me to welcome you to Serre on behalf of the parliament. The chiefs are ready.
I will entertain you with a sumptuous banquet, please come with me."
"What is your name?"
The slightly fat businessman was obviously the representative of this business group, and had dealt with the red-robed mage more than once. He took a step forward and stuffed a small bag into the opponent's wide sleeve with very subtle movements.
The red-robed mage subconsciously pinched it and found that it was a piece of hard stuff. He quickly opened it and took a look, and found that they were all gems worth hundreds of gold coins, more than twenty of them. A flash of surprise suddenly flashed in his eyes. Originally,
The very forced smile suddenly became natural.
"Haha, you can just call me Wenceras.
Incidentally, the chief executives took this transaction very seriously.
Because some very troublesome undead and construct creatures appeared in Sazhastan's army.
Not long ago, they captured two cities under the control of the parliament and a large mining area, resulting in heavy losses.
Chiefs hope to find something to control in your products.
No matter who can come up with a solution, they can obtain the purchase rights for a total of five thousand young and middle-aged slaves."
As the group with the least moral integrity and bottom line in the entire Faerûn continent, this red-robed mage demonstrated with practical actions what "having breasts is a mother" means.
Without any hesitation, he disclosed to these businessmen the ideas of the chief of the parliamentary faction.
Anyone who knows anything about business negotiations knows that when a businessman knows you urgently need something, he will do something about it.
The starting price for sitting on the ground is very low.
It wouldn't be surprising if the price could be increased by more than ten times, dozens of times, or even hundreds of times.
Because this is the profit-seeking nature of capital and businessmen.
What's more, behind this group of merchants are two behemoths, the West Coast Empire and the Trade Alliance. Even the red-robed mages don't dare to offend them easily now.
Without the support of the first two, Sazastan and the parliamentary faction that opposed him would not even be able to fight a decent war, let alone maintain the current scale of the war.
So after getting the information he wanted, the fat businessman immediately turned his head and exchanged glances with several colleagues, and then quietly completed the communication through magic items without speaking.
After doing all this, he smiled and nodded at the red-robed mage, and followed him straight towards the only bright building in the city that was still intact and had not suffered from war.
It was the red-robed mage council that symbolized the highest power in Sere back then. It was a huge building that was a bit like a combination of a castle and a mage tower.
Although the surrounding houses have been destroyed by amazingly powerful magic and turned into piles of rubble during the raids, this place protected by powerful magic has remained unscathed, and a large number of green plants and fragrant flowers can be seen.
Smell of flowers.
When entering the interior, the first thing that catches the eye is a large number of slaves, alien creatures and elite guards.
Even though the people outside are in dire straits and countless civilians are rushing to flee the country, the quality of life of the red-robed mage as the supreme ruler has not been reduced in any way.
They still have endless amounts of delicious food, a wide variety of wine and other beverages, and wear enchanted robes of silk or velvet.
As soon as you sit down, a slave will immediately come forward to massage you, pour tea and water, and even provide special services in public.
Facts have proved that no matter how dilapidated a country is, its upper ruling class will never suffer as much as ordinary people. It may even become a luxury to ensure that they and their families can barely survive.
Of course, the reason for this situation is entirely because the undead and construct creatures from the West Coast Empire replaced the original inefficient slaves.
The red-robed mages were surprised to find that after there were no living people in Sel, the consumption of various resources, including food, was reduced. All the food, wood, minerals, and herbs produced could be exchanged for money, and then purchased.
Magic, war related things.
In other words, the money in their hands has not become less, but has actually increased.
Because Searle has changed from the original coexistence of production and consumption to a pure agricultural and mineral producer.
Even if there is consumption, it is only to satisfy the desires of a small group of people, rather than to fill the bellies of more than five million citizens and an unknown number of slaves as before, and to meet their needs for daily necessities.
In other words, today's Serre is a typical resource-exporting country with a sparse population and a strongly dependent economic structure.
Operations can only be maintained if the severe surplus of grain and minerals produced can be sold.
Otherwise, once the market is lost, the entire deformed country will collapse in minutes.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! This is why both Sazastan and the Parliamentary Faction know that the West Coast Empire is selling weapons and equipment to each other at the same time, but no one dares to fall out.
They were well aware that they had become economically dependent on the West Coast Empire and the Trade Alliance.
Plus, if you can’t beat me again and again, what else can you do besides holding your nose and admitting it?
In contrast, they are more afraid that the West Coast Empire will suddenly cut off trade ties with Cyre, leaving mountains of food and mineral resources unable to be sold at all, let alone undead and constructs that can produce and fight.
.
Obviously, the red-robed mages made a very fatal mistake in this civil war, that is, they did not understand the importance of the market in the economic structure.
Without a market, there would be no consumption, and without consuming all the output, there would be no one to buy it, and naturally there would be no value.
As for inter-dimensional transactions, although it is not difficult with the magical power controlled by the red-robed mage, this kind of transaction is usually based on magic items and valuable items that are easy to carry. I have never heard of any inter-dimensional merchants.
Play with bulk items trading.
One is that it is difficult to transport and preserve, and the other is that the profit is too low and it is too complicated to sell.
Therefore, the trade alliance led by the West Coast Empire is the only option for the red-robed mage.
When the business group arrived at the banquet, the chief of the Change Department, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately stood up, opened his arms and said with a big smile: "Ah! I finally have you here again. Please sit down and have a taste first.
Let’s eat Serre’s traditional food, and then we’ll talk about the deal.”
"Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet us. Please rest assured, I swear this new shipment will never disappoint you."
The fat businessman vowed to give his guarantee.
"Oh? Can you tell me what new gadgets you have brought?"
An expression of interest appeared on the face of the chief of the Department of Change.
Although the current situation is that seven factions within the red robe mage join forces to fight against the Necron faction led by Sazastan who wants to achieve centralization and dictatorship, in theory, the party with the upper hand should be the dominant one in terms of military strength and number of mages.
But the reality is exactly the opposite. The parliamentary faction is always suppressed by Sazastan, which is only supported by the Necronomicon faction.
Although the situation remains evenly matched, a chief like him knows very well that the situation in the parliament is not optimistic.
Because through complete control of those lichs and vampires, Sazastan has successfully built a powerful military organization with strong execution capabilities and no internal intrigues.
He doesn't need to worry at all that the people below him will betray his teammates, or suddenly betray his teammates for their own benefit.
And as more and more graves are dug, the number of undead armies under his command continues to grow.
Even though Kranvor, the god of death, and many other gods made it clear that Sazhastan's behavior was completely blasphemous to the dead, no god or electorate stood up to punish him.
The most important thing is that the undead faction is far more proficient and good at controlling the undead army than other factions.
If equal numbers of undead legions fight, the winner will definitely be the undead faction under Sazhastan.
On the other hand, the parliamentary faction has almost perfectly inherited all the "glorious traditions" of the red-robed mage.
Whether they are holding each other back, fighting among themselves, or engaging in corruption, smuggling, and accepting bribes, there are endless situations.
Therefore, the Parliamentary Party's reliance on trade with the West Coast Empire was actually even greater than that of Sazastan.
The reason is also very simple!
The latter has almost completely become undead, so it has no other superfluous desires except ambition, and no need for a luxurious life. The reason why it needs to maintain trade is because the parliamentary faction is constantly buying those constructs and undead creatures.
But the former has a large number of living red-robed mages and apprentices. They eat, drink, have sex, have fun, and have servants and bodyguards who need to spend money to support them.
This expenditure is not a small figure, but accounts for more than 30 to 40 percent of the funding.
To be continued...