This time, the kingdom's envoy brought new conditions, which could be said to meet the overseas autonomous region's requirements to a large extent.
The Royal City agreed to allow the autonomous region to maintain a certain degree of independence in terms of administrative measures, personnel promotion, taxation, economy, finance, and military strength. However, the autonomous region had to submit an application to the Royal City for approval and verification before the relevant policies were implemented. Only when the policies were approved could they be officially implemented in the autonomous region.
As for the ocean trade between the two continents, the Royal City only agreed to implement the terms of free trade between the two continents. The Royal City allowed the goods produced by the Overseas Dominion to be sold in the Kingdom, but refused to change the high customs taxes imposed on the goods produced by the Overseas Dominion.
According to the Kingdom's envoy, it was because the kingdom was facing a war and lacked funds. They could only plunder as much as they could to support the war against the invasion.
The overseas region's goods had to pay high taxes when they entered the customs. It was a large portion of the kingdom's revenue, so it could not be changed.
Perhaps they could slowly discuss it after the war …
Apart from the clause that allowed the goods of the autonomous region to be freely traded within the kingdom's territory, the King did not agree to any of the other clauses regarding ocean trade. He only gave an excuse that the conditions did not allow it and that it was not appropriate to discuss the matter at the moment.
The Kingdom's envoy suggested that the overseas region's goods could be cooperated with the kingdom's powerful families and merchants, entrusting the sales to these families and merchants.
This meant that the overseas region would become the producer. After the products were manufactured, they would be shipped to the kingdom and handed over to the old noble families or merchant merchants to sell them in the market.
As long as the kingdom's powerful families had the right to set the price and monopolize the goods, everyone knew who would benefit the most from the cooperation.
The manufacturing councilors of the overseas region were split into two factions, arguing endlessly.
One faction believed that it did not matter who they cooperated with as long as they could earn something. The most important thing was to open up the kingdom's market and find a way to change the situation after they had a firm foothold.
The other faction was unwilling to see the goods produced by their own factories end up being processed by the old noble families and merchants. Most of the profits would be taken away by the nobles, so they requested the kingdom to open up the entry permits for goods in the kingdom's various counties to allow for free competition.
The entry permits referred to the clearance fees for goods during the transportation process and the permit to pay taxes for local sales.
They were all targeted at the trading of bulk commodities and played the role of protecting the local commercial economy.
For example, if a large batch of fine white linen was shipped to the kingdom's mainland from the autonomous region, and after paying a high customs fee, the goods were to be shipped to the royal capital to be sold. They had to pass through ten counties, and the customs fee for each county was one percent of the total value of the goods. Adding up to ten percent of the total cost, and after subtracting the transportation fee, there would be a profit of about twenty percent after the goods were shipped to the royal capital.
In the process of shipping, they discovered that a certain county was in urgent need of fine white linen. If they sold it here, they could earn an extra twenty percent profit.
But it was a pity that the destination of this batch of goods was the King's City. The owner of this batch of fine white linen had no right to sell it there, so he could only ship the goods to the King's City.
If he insisted on selling the goods locally, then the local administrative office could punish him and impose a fine of two to three times the total value of the goods. In the end, the merchant would be making a loss and the loss would outweigh the gain …
That was why the councilors of the autonomous region requested for the kingdom to open up the entry permits. With this permit, the goods produced in the autonomous region could be sold at any time and could be purchased locally.
They wouldn't have to go to the King's City to haggle with the families and merchants who monopolized the county's trade.
However, the King's City wasn't willing to open up the entry permits because he was worried that it would harm the interests of the families and merchants who controlled the county's trade.
Another problem was the right to set prices. The right to determine the purchase and sale price of a certain product was in the hands of the old noble families and business nobles. They used the merchants they controlled and the county's trade monopoly to monopolize the pricing of these products. They also formed a pricing alliance to fight against the merchants and business rivals who violated the rules.
As long as the right to set prices couldn't be opened up, the merchants who bought the goods from the autonomous region would have the final say in the kingdom's mainland. This greatly harmed the interests of the merchants in the autonomous region.
This was also the biggest reason for the prosperity of the smuggling trade. The goods transported by the smuggling ships were sold to the rich and powerful. They would usually hand the goods over to small merchants and sell them in small batches.
They couldn't satisfy the autonomous region's demand for large quantities of goods.
Perhaps feeling that the kingdom had taken a step back, the kingdom's envoy also demanded an exorbitant price from the autonomous region. He requested for the autonomous region to provide the kingdom with three million crowns worth of food and other agricultural products, five million crowns worth of mineral resources that the kingdom urgently needed, and 1.5 million crowns worth of taxes and tribute every year.
Perhaps it was because the envoys from the King's City had witnessed the prosperity of the autonomous region's economy, so they greatly increased the amount of taxes and tribute they had to pay.
This was only part of the request. The kingdom's envoy also requested that the autonomous region provide 200,000 new rifles and corresponding bullets to the Ministry of the Army. He also requested that the autonomous region provide the production blueprints for the new rifles and bullets free of charge, in order to help the kingdom win the war against the eastern region's alliance.
The King's envoy was really demanding an exorbitant price this time. Even General Bolonik was amused by the envoy's request.
What right did the autonomous region have to agree to such conditions?
The so-called concessions made by the King's City were all empty. On the surface, the Royal Capital allowed the overseas autonomous regions to maintain a certain degree of independence in terms of administrative measures, personnel promotions, taxation, economy, finance, and military strength. So what was the deal with the approval and verification rights of the Royal Capital?
The kingdom was so far away from the autonomous region. Everything here had to be approved by the King, and a round trip would take half a year.
If the King didn't agree to it, two to three years would pass in a flash. The autonomous region wouldn't be able to do anything then. What was the point of such independence?
Furthermore, the terms of the ocean trade were akin to agreeing to a deal that allowed goods to enter the kingdom's mainland. In reality, the overseas autonomous region would be delivering the goods to the kingdom's mainland and handing them over to the families and merchants who had backers behind them. What was the use of not having the right to set prices and sell the goods?
Moreover, to have the autonomous region provide three million crowns worth of food and agricultural products, five million crowns worth of mineral resources, and 1.5 million crowns worth of taxes and tribute every year … Was the King treating the autonomous region like a pig to be slaughtered?
Were the nobles in the King's head all muddled? How could they be so confident that the autonomous region would agree to such a ridiculous request?
They also wanted the autonomous region to provide the kingdom with 200,000 new rifles and bullets, as well as the blueprints for the new rifles and bullets unconditionally.
How could the King be so shameless as to make the autonomous region agree to such a request?
Did they know how much the Dominion Territory had to pay for these two hundred thousand new rifles?
They still owed Minsheng Bank a loan of two million crowns, and that was a matter of interest.
Everything else aside, the grenade alone was enough to teach the autonomous region a lesson.
Back then, Claude sold the blueprints and production license for the grenade at a low price to the five royal military factories controlled by the old noble houses of the kingdom. In the end, they fought Prince Hansbach's army and won a great victory. The blueprints for the grenade started to spread like wildfire and almost every country on Freia started producing them.
When the Shiksan corps sent to Nubissia to continue the colonial war used the grenades to attack the defensive lines of the autonomous region, Birkin said that he was completely dumbfounded. He never imagined that the grenade he invented would be modified by the enemy to be even more powerful than the ones he used. It had a longer range and greater explosive power. Quite a number of Shiksan soldiers died to the grenades. He felt as if he had shot himself in the foot.
This was perhaps the thing that the five generals regretted the most. If they hadn't sold the production blueprint to the military industry controlled by the five veteran aristocratic families, perhaps the last colonial war wouldn't have ended so early with such heavy casualties.
That way, Claude's Thundercrash wouldn't have lost more than half of their men when they attacked the enemy's fortifications in the northern mountains.
The new rifles were what the autonomous region's military relied on to lead the armed forces of all nations in this era. Handing them over to the ministry of the army for free and providing the blueprints for the new rifles and bullets unconditionally was truly wishful thinking.
Even without Claude's objections, the other four generals wouldn't agree to such a request. They didn't want their troops to face enemies with the same new rifles when they led them into battle.
Bolonik and the others knew that the most important part of the new rifles were the bullets and the propellant at the bottom of the cartridge. Without the propellant, the bullets would easily misfire.
However, nobody could guarantee that the rune magi of the old noble houses wouldn't be able to create a similar propellant to act as the primer for the bullets.
It was just like how Claude sold the blueprints for his revolver to the military factories controlled by the old noble houses. They treated the revolver as an expensive gift and produced revolvers, hunting rifles, and other exquisite gift weapons.
The primer for the bullets used for those weapons was a type of tiny fire crystal found at the bottom of volcanoes. It had always been used as a fire-type magic material.
Rune magi would cut it into tiny fire crystals in alchemical formations and use them as the primer for the bullets.
Sheerah's fine revolver, which she had taken from Prince Hansbach, had primed its bullets with these crystals.
Fortunately, the fire crystals were expensive and it was troublesome to process them into fire crystals, so they couldn't be used on a large scale.
However, the primer used for the primer for the bullets raised the value of the weapons.
As expected, the region's parliament and military district rejected all of the kingdom's requests. The kingdom's envoy was so angry that he scolded the parliament and the five generals for being heartless and forgetting about the kingdom's kindness in nurturing them. They even threatened the kingdom to agree to the harsh conditions of independence when the kingdom was on the brink of destruction. They had no sense of shame and had forgotten their duty as Aueran to the kingdom.
In the end, the envoy was escorted out of the council hall by Bolonik.
Seeing that he had to return with his tail between his legs, the kingdom's envoy decided to give a speech at the central plaza of Lanu City. On one hand, he talked about the kingdom's dire situation and on the other hand, he criticized the councilors and the five generals of the autonomous region for their lack of patriotism. They watched as the kingdom suffered the calamity of war and the destruction of the country.
It attracted the sympathy of many in the audience who didn't know the truth. They volunteered to donate money to save the kingdom and collected close to a hundred crowns in one afternoon. However, most of them were low-denomination notes. The envoy took them to the Minsheng Bank to exchange them.
Just as the Kingdom's envoy was about to continue discrediting the parliament members and the five generals of the autonomous region's military region, all of the newspapers in the autonomous region published the conditions and demands that the Kingdom's envoy proposed to the autonomous region.
The people of the region were in an uproar. No one could agree to the envoy's demands. It wasn't just drawing blood from the region, it was cutting flesh from its body.
If they agreed to the Kingdom's envoy's request, then there would be a second time. The Kingdom would raise all sorts of unreasonable demands on the Autonomous Region, and these demands would eventually fall on the heads of all the citizens.
When it came to the interests of themselves and their families, no one was willing to give up their hard-earned income for a year for nothing. Everyone wanted to support their families and continue to live.
Currently, the overseas autonomous region was thriving and the people felt that their lives were gradually getting better. No one wanted this beautiful life and hope to be stopped and interrupted …
So, when the envoy went to the plaza to give a speech, he was no longer greeted with cheers from the audience. Instead, he was greeted with rotten eggs and curses from the audience.
A few patrolmen arrived and declared the envoy persona non grata in the region. He and his entourage would be escorted to Port Cobicus and deported in the shortest time possible.
However, while the envoy was being deported, the region's parliament announced that they would provide the kingdom with a million crowns worth of food and farm products to support the kingdom in their war against the eastern alliance. It was their duty as Aueran immigrants to the kingdom.
At the same time, the autonomous military zone also announced that it would provide the kingdom's Ministry of the Army with two hundred thousand Aubass Mark III standard matchlock muskets and one thousand old-fashioned muzzle-loading light infantry field cannons in order to resist the enemy's rearmament.
Those were just replacements and took up space in the warehouse. It wouldn't be appropriate to sell them to other countries.
It was better to send them back to the kingdom since they were still in active service.
Apart from the replacement muskets and cannons, the region also announced that they would be giving the royal army 20,000 medium and heavy grenades and a thousand throwing devices each.
Now that there was a new light infantry field artillery with a maximum range of 1500 meters, the medium and heavy grenades were no longer of use. It was better to give them to the kingdom and let them smash the invading forces of the five countries in the Eastern Alliance …
The kingdom's envoy was dejectedly banished back to the kingdom's mainland. Immediately after that, the food and military supplies donated by the overseas autonomous territory to the kingdom's mainland were also received by the people sent by the royal capital. However, the overseas autonomous territory's official letters to the royal capital never received a reply.
Perhaps it was because the frontlines weren't going well, but the royal capital was already preparing for a large-scale evacuation.
Two months later, the region received news from the west coast that the kingdom's defensive lines in the four border prefectures had been breached. Reddragon and two royal guard divisions were almost completely wiped out.
The eastern alliance's eight armies were on the Ibnister Plains and were about to reach the royal capital.
On the 17th of the 8th month, Year 599 of the Sacred Light Calendar, the royal capital fell.
Fredrey I gave a speech before retreating from the royal capital, swearing that as long as he still had a gun in his hand, the kingdom would resist to the end and never negotiate with the invaders.
On the 25th of August, the five kings of the Eastern Alliance arrived at the royal capital and held a grand military parade in the most famous city on Freia. The five legions of the five kingdoms walked through the famous street of the Royal House of Stellin with a swagger.
It was originally the place where the Aueran military parade was held. Now, it was trampled under the iron hooves and leather boots of the invaders.
The Shiksan king, Majid III, appeared at the parade with the other four kings. Majid III repeated the same old line, claiming that the reason eastern Freia had been embroiled in war for the past century was due to Aueras' ambition to unify the eastern part of the continent. That was why they had fought their neighbours many times.
The eastern alliance had taught Aueras a lesson this time and occupied the royal capital. The current king, Fredrey I, had become a stray dog.
Majid III hoped that the eastern alliance's armies would continue to work together and destroy the remnants of Aueras' army, burying the birthplace of war and annihilating Aueras to gain eternal peace and tranquility in the eastern part of Freia.
In his speech, Majid III made a clear suggestion to destroy Aueras. By then, 15 of Aueras' 27 prefectures had fallen to the alliance. Even the most important part of the kingdom, the Ibnister Plains and the royal capital, were occupied by the invaders.
Fredrey I moved to Whitestag and announced that he would resist until the end.
On the 8th of the 11th month, Maria came to the region as Fredrey I's envoy.