Petrov, the chief minister of Kislev's palace, and Demilov, the minister of finance of Kislev, were both present.
The military leaders and landowners of Kislev gathered together to discuss the recent difficulties facing the kingdom.
What is quite interesting for Kislev is that it is a very, very empty country with sparse settlements separated by vast ice sheets and large tracts of land. Even within the country, except for the three cities of Kislev
, except for Erengrad and Prague, news from other settlements is intermittent, and direct rule is difficult to achieve, so
Each settlement became highly independent, with a Boye noble completely controlling the military and political power. There was no doubt that everyone recognized the authority of the Czarina, but what if Her Majesty Katalin really went beyond the State Duma and issued something to them?
Forced order, these Boyer nobles will be very surprised and have a "you are kidding me" expression on their faces.
The reason is this. In theory, the Boye nobility must be appointed by the Tsarina, but in fact it is a hereditary title.
Therefore, Kislev's army mainly consisted of three forces, namely the city army directly loyal to the tsarina, the local army controlled by the Boye nobles, and the imperial garrison supported by various empires.
Under this circumstance, the boyars in various places were highly independent and eventually formed the State Duma.
Now, in the conference room of the Bocaha Palace, which is luxuriously decorated and covered with all kinds of bearskin tapestries and ice sculptures, with brightly colored murals and colorful ceilings, everyone in the State Duma is discussing what to do next.
.
"The supplies for the troops on the northern frontline, the relief for the refugees, and the supplies for the troops at the Jakova Fortress in the south have all been arranged. We try to maintain 70%-80% of the rations. As for the army's unpaid wages, we give priority to ensuring the Bear Cavalry.
, the pay of the Griffin Legion and the Krim Guard can
Most of them will be distributed. As for the salaries of the Ksar army, shooting army and city defense battalion, we will deal with it first and wait for this holiday to pass before making any plans." Generalissimo Dimitri Zaev nodded.
He slowly said to everyone: "Prioritize ensuring the combat effectiveness of the frontline troops."
"What? There is no room left for the repair costs of the Osdrask Fortress and the reconstruction costs of the Slaghov Fortress further north?" Marshal Zaka Fedosov, the representative of the Northern Front, said dissatisfied: "Then what do you think?
If we can’t guarantee the repair of the two northern fortresses, how can we ensure the smooth flow of trade routes with Dulong City?!"
"Then what do you mean?" Marshal Kislev, Konev, the controller of the Kislev Central Army, spoke. This is a soldier with a resolute look and a big bald head. He is wearing brand new clothes.
He was wearing a marshal's military uniform, tasting vodka, and looked directly at Marshal Fedosov with very sharp eyes: "What do you want to do? Fedosov, you might as well say it straight, I have no interest in playing riddles with you."
"What I want to say is that the military expenditures and supplies you allocate to the Northern Front are too little!" Marshal Fedosov said loudly: "Many soldiers on the front line lack food and clothing, and they don't even have medicine when they are sick!
Forget it, I understand the current difficulties in the kingdom, but the city
What? Since the end of the Winter War more than two years ago, two fortresses have been built, but they have not been completed. The soldiers are hiding in the semi-open fortresses for the winter. If you don’t allocate enough money and recruit manpower, next year
We can’t even finish building these two fortresses!”
"For this Great Norse Expedition, the treasury received almost 120,000 ducats (Kislev gold coins). In the end, you only allocated us 40,000. This is really too little. We have to pay military pay again."
, you have to ensure supplies, and you also have to build a fortress. Building a fortress in a harsh and freezing environment is already very expensive, but you have to make the horses run away and not eat grass!"
"I said, what do you think?" Marshal Konev repeated: "I don't want to listen to your complaints, I want you to come up with solutions!"
"At least another 40,000 ducats must be allocated to us." Marshal Fedosov emphasized: "I know that after the trade agreement was reached with the dwarves of Dulong City, customs duties and mining taxes formed a new input, which is also a huge amount of money.
The income is not small because we have ensured the smooth flow of trade routes, so why can’t we extract part of the customs duties and mining taxes as our military expenditure?”
"Trade tariffs and mineral taxes are directly recruited by Her Majesty Katalin's tax officer and sent to the Ice Palace. They have nothing to do with us." The representative of the Boyer nobles, Grand Marshal Dimitri, said in a deep voice: "Katarin
Her Majesty Taryn is going to conduct a very important ice magic experiment and needs money urgently. As for our application..."
"Your Majesty does not agree. The treasury and internal funds of the Ice Palace have been rescued many times. You also know this." Tsarist Finance Minister Demilov said slowly: "The internal treasury cannot only have expenditures but no income.
ah."
"Very good." Marshal Dimitri nodded helplessly. He turned to Marshal Bear Cavalry and asked: "Constantine, what can you do?"
"I don't know." Marshal Rokossovsky's attention was obviously not focused on the meeting. He just said casually: "Maybe we can re-audit and see which part of the expenditure can be re-economical? Save a little.
A little?"
"How to audit?! How can it be cost-effective!!" Marshal Konev slammed the cup in his hand on the ground. He blushed and roared: "This is the money, one hundred and twenty-four thousand five hundred and sixty-six."
Dukat! How can we find a new solution? Let the Northern Front go hungry to fight the barbarians? Or stop providing relief to the refugees? Or simply stop paying the arrears?!"
The cup fell to the ground and broke into several pieces. The crisp sound could be clearly heard in the conference room.
"As Marshal Kislev and Commander-in-Chief of Kislev's Central Army, I know best that many of the soldiers of the Ksar Army and the Shooting Army, and the soldiers of the city defense camp are already in bakeries, merchants, and even temples.
I've been in debt for several months! It's a lot
Soldiers came to my house to ask me for help, what can I do!" Marshal Konev roared: "Don't I know that there is no money in the treasury, we are constantly fighting barbarians in the north, and the Djakova Fortress in the south is also facing a crisis
A full-scale invasion by the green-skinned red-eyed tribe!"
"If this continues, the thousand-year celebration of Kislev's founding of the country will soon be the day of our country's subjugation!" Marshal Konev's loud voice echoed in the conference hall, and he didn't care at all that these words spread.
"Marshal Romanov." At this moment, an attendant rushed into the conference hall, and he shouted anxiously: "It's urgent."
"What's the matter?" Marshal of the Hussars raised his head, and the attendant whispered in his ear: "It's bad, the Kesa Army and the Shooting Army mutinied in the army because they were paid too little, and they started fighting with the guards! An
General Andre committed suicide with a musket, which settled the resentment, but the officers gathered together and headed towards the palace, and they must give us an explanation!"
"What?!" The whole conference room was shaken.
"Konev, hurry up and stop them. You are the commander-in-chief of the Central Army and the commander of the Kislev City Defense. You have enough prestige to quell the complaints." Generalissimo Dimitri immediately turned his attention to Konev.
"Huh! Are you thinking of me now? It's too late!" Konev said impatiently and helplessly: "What do you want me to do?"
"You should explain the principles and laws clearly to them!" Dimitri advised: "You have always had a high prestige in the army, and the soldiers will understand."
"We've always only cooked beetroot soup and fried minced meat pancakes on site. How can we talk about reason and law on site?" Konev spread his hands: "Give me a time limit, when can the problem of unpaid wages be resolved?"
"this……"
.........I am the dividing line between beetroot soup and meat pancakes......
Not far from the armory, Ugor General Beria and his deputy Shelepin were looking at the scene in the armory with complex expressions.
The mutiny died down, for now.
When the scene was at its most chaotic, General Andrei, who was in charge of logistics, suddenly stood up. He stood on the table and shouted with his loudest voice: "I didn't do a good job. I can't help you with your unpaid wages. It's my fault."
Incompetent, I'm sorry to Her Majesty Katalin, and I'm sorry to you, I declare that I am responsible for this!"
After saying that, General Andre suddenly took out a short blunderbuss and pointed the muzzle at his chin.
A gunshot woke up the mutinous soldiers who were fighting and the armory soldiers and Krim guards who were suppressing them. Seeing General Andrei die for this, the Ksar soldiers and shooting troops felt really bad, and they finally gave up.
Besieged the armory.
Then, the officers turned to prepare to head towards the Bocaha Palace. The Ksar soldiers did not believe that they could not pay the money. Many General Kislev and the Boye nobles participated in the Norsca expedition, and they pulled them back.
Ships and carts of booty once filled the streets! If they have money, go and ask for it from them!
Thousands of soldiers selected dozens of officers to go to the Bocaha Palace to collect back pay. The rest would line up to collect military pay for the time being and go back to the military camp to wait for news.
Deep in an alley on the street, Beria led more than 20 fully armed Ugor horse archers. Looking at the scene in front of him, his expression was a little complicated, but he still held back his anger: "
It seems that the problem is much more serious than I thought."
"We owe wages and the streets are full of hungry refugees." Lieutenant General Xie Lieping also said angrily: "I just went to ask, General, for ten kilograms of big leba, two big bags of potatoes, a piece of butter and fifteen tenga.
Kislev silver coins), that is the treatment of company commanders and battalion commanders! Ordinary Ksar warriors and shooting troops only have five kilograms of big Leba, two large bags of potatoes and nine tenga (Kislev silver coins).
"
Only nine coins! Beria remained calm throughout. His heart suddenly moved and he asked: "What about the market price? Have you investigated it clearly?"
"The matter was urgent, and I didn't have time to investigate the market price." Shelepin shook his head repeatedly: "But I just asked a few passers-by, general, how much do you think an ordinary roast chicken costs on the Kislev black market now?
"
"How much?" Beria was not interested in playing a guessing game. General Ugor was obviously planning something.
"Three silver coins! Oh my god, three silver coins!" Shelepin said quickly: "I can't believe it. The best roasted capon in Britannia only sells twenty-five to twenty-eight.
Copper coins, my favorite thing is to get half a roast chicken with a bottle of vodka after patrol, but here, the price is more than ten times higher!"
"Let's go, let's follow." Beria did not answer Shelepin's words. General Ugor immediately got on his horse and led more than twenty horse archers to follow him. It was not until he got on the horse that he slowly said: "Hol
Jin Na, do you know her?"
"Of course... General, your new maid." Shelepin did not understand what Beria meant. He also accepted a young and beautiful girl as his maid.
Has the general changed his mind?
"She is the daughter of a little Boye! The daughter of a little Boye who owns an entire village with wooden fences and wooden gates outside the city!" Beria said sharply: "Little Boye! The lord of a village of three hundred people! She has drunk three times.
Months of porridge! Do you know what this means? Boyer has started to eat porridge, where are the citizens? Where are the farmers? And where are the refugees?!"
Xie Lieping understood, and the deputy general suddenly felt a chill all over his body: "Why is it like this?"
"So I said before, our Czarina may be an excellent wizard, but she is definitely not an excellent king or commander-in-chief. Since she came to the throne, the kingdom has been in a mess. She has rarely led the army in person.
, he always appoints generals or dispatches supervisory troops for everything, never like His Majesty Lane.
She often visits the people, and she only has her research, her research, her research in her heart!" Before Beria could say anything else, Shelepin immediately whispered: "Be careful, General, don't forget, you have also
As a member of the NKVD, you should know that the city is full of Cheka secret police."
"This is a very bad sign. We all know that if for a country, the citizen class and the small lords and small nobles have begun to decline comprehensively, then the entire kingdom is already facing multiple crises." Beria ignored it.
After listening to Shelepin's words, General Ugor knew that if he was still an officer of Kislev, he would have "disappeared" long ago, but because he was the special envoy of Knight King Lane, the Cheka people did not dare to do anything to him.
Kind of.
In this world, strength matters after all.
In fact, both Beria and Shelepin knew why there was a recent food shortage in Kislev, causing prices to skyrocket.
There are only two main reasons. One is that the war ahead has continued and large-scale grain requisitions have been carried out for a long time. The second is that the empire has been in internal strife recently, which has caused the empire's food aid to Kislev to drop significantly. But the two
I didn’t say anything because there was no need.
As they talked, Bocaha Palace arrived, and Beria motioned for everyone to stop, so they stayed and observed from a distance.
Crime Marshal Alexei looked at the large group of middle and low-level officers who appeared in front of the palace, and his face turned red with anger: "What do you want to do? After damaging the armory, do you still want to come to the palace to rob your military pay?
?Soldiers, take up arms!”
"Wait! We are not here to be bandits, we are all Mrs. Keesler! We want to see Her Majesty Katalin today!" Alyosha, the leading Ksar warrior, shouted loudly: "The State Duma
What are the people doing? They owe us
Military pay! Every household in our family is not owed military pay for more than half a year. Many of us have been gnawing on big legba for five months and even sold our sons and daughters! I ask, when will you be able to
Pay off our dues!"
"Didn't we ask General Andrei to pay you unpaid wages?" Marshal Konev came from behind with several marshals. This man has a powerful figure, a big bald head, and is quite prestigious in the army.
The marshal hurriedly stopped at the entrance of the palace: "Maybe it is indeed a bit
Little, but there is nothing I can do about it. This is my responsibility. I apologize. Let bygones be bygones. Please go back first and have a good time. Then we can think of other ways, okay? I, Konev, am the bear god.
In the name of Esun, I won’t receive any salary this year!”
Marshal Konev is the guard commander of Kislev City and the commander-in-chief of the Central Army. He has high prestige in the army, but today he made a miscalculation.
"You? Are you counting on that salary to spend the holidays?" A Ksar officer immediately came out and said: "Many of you participated in the Norsca Expedition. Many of us saw it with our own eyes. You plundered from Norsca.
A lot of wealth, various armors, furs, paintings, velvets, gold and silk plundered by the barbarians
Silk! Those iron and copper ores, various livestock, and even many high-quality goods from the high elves were transported to your mansion one by one, but they are all gone. They are all yours. The victory of the war is
Your casualties are ours, the seizures are yours, the disabilities are ours, and now even the military pay is not ours!"
"That's right! Her Majesty Katalin handed over Kislev to you guys in the State Duma, but what are you doing?! Hand over the money! Give out the military pay that belongs to us!"
"Get out! You bunch of hungry wolves, spit out your military pay!"
"State Duma, man-eating jackals, we must let Her Majesty Katalin know your true colors!"
What the officers said left Marshal Konev speechless. He had a clear conscience about the distribution of the spoils, because he really didn't take anything.
But he couldn't swear to Esun that no one had taken it. In fact, many of the great nobles, generals, and boyars who participated in the Norse expedition did frantically collect a large amount of loot and kept transporting it back to the country and their own.
At home, they not only misappropriated countless gold and silver treasures for themselves, but also refused to hand over even a little bit according to Kislev's "glorious tradition".
Konev sharply accused a colleague of his that he had brought back more than twenty carriages of wealth from Norsca alone, and his home had almost become the "Norsca Museum"!
Although everyone was so noisy during the State Duma meeting, in fact, each of them made a windfall! But none of these windfalls would fall on the treasury or the soldiers, it was all theirs.
Seeing that the marshal was unable to answer, the scene gradually became chaotic. The excited officers moved forward and tried to break through the defense line, while the Krim guards raised their weapons and aimed at their colleagues, brothers and Ze Ze.
In front of the palace, there was a strong smell of gunpowder, and it looked like another mutiny was about to break out.
Beria was riding a horse and standing in the distance. When he saw this scene, he sneered.
You must be watching somewhere in the palace, right? My Majesty the Tsarina?
Also, Konev's trick obviously doesn't work anymore. Yezhov, it's your turn to play.