Without him knowing, it wasn't just Archie and Leia who were set in marriage.
In the north of the Lampari Kingdom, in the Muerto Mountains that were over a thousand kilometers away from the Xinfei Farms, Viscount Leslie looked at the letter in his hand and gave a cold laugh. His hands used strength and tore the letter to pieces before throwing it into a mountain stream beside him.
In a split second, countless shredded pieces of paper fell down, as if a light snow had fallen in the mountains.
Seeing the paper disappear into the mountain stream, Viscount Leslie was silent for a bit. He turned around to look at his northern army colleagues and thought that they must be the same as normal people, envious that he was born into a large noble family like the Stagg Family. They didn't know that as the descendant of a large noble family, there were many things that they couldn't do.
For example, in the letter his mother sent, it said that his family had already set a marriage for him and didn't allow him to reject it.
The girl who would become his wife was the youngest daughter of the Aleman Family's head and was twenty three years old this year. According to his mother, she was very beautiful and had a gentle personality, making her very suitable as a wife. After Viscount Leslie finished his two years of service in the northern army, he would immediately return to Anvilmar City to get married.
As for his mother's evaluation of young miss Aleman, Viscount Leslie could only give a cold laugh.
Perhaps this young miss Aleman was indeed beautiful and had a gentle personality, but Viscount Leslie didn't believe that his mother was doing this for her. The reason why she was certain that young miss Aleman would become his wife was only because of the Aleman Family.
It wasn't strange for nobles to marry, Viscount Leslie had already expected that he would meet this day.
He had already resisted this matter for close to ten years and now that he was in his thirties, he couldn't delay it any longer.
Looking at the letter in his hand that was much simpler, Viscount Leslie revealed a bitter smile.
"Compared to this, Xu Yi has more freedom than me, at least he can be with the girl he truly likes."
Viscount Leslie gave a sigh. He opened Xu Yi's letter and seriously looked it over.
The letter Xu Yi sent him naturally didn't have that many small things, rather it simply described the development plans of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce during this time and asked him about the current situation of the northern army.
The main point of the question was the situation of the northern army.
If this question was asked by anyone else, they would be accused of spying on the military, but Xu Yi had an empty position in the military headquarters and New Flyer had a deep cooperation with the military logistics department, so Xu Yi had the qualifications to know about this situation.
Xu Yi could ask these questions to major MacConley, but he could only obtain general statistics from major MacConley. As for the specifics, of course it was people like Viscount Leslie who was in the northern army who knew best.
But after seeing the questions in Xu Yi's letter, Viscount Leslie revealed a bitter smile.
"How should I answer him?"
Viscount Leslie turned to look at his colleague who was boiling water with a Magic Kettle that had been flattened on the ground. He thought that if the logistics department didn't resupply the northern army, the northern army wouldn't be able to keep up with their consumption. It wouldn't be long before the Muerto Mountains fell into the hands of those fellows from the Sack Kingdom again.
In the battle of the Muerto Mountains at the end of last year, although the northern army had relied on the large amount of equipment provided by the army headquarters to take the Muerto Mountains in one fell swoop, suppressing the Sack Kingdom's Hungry Wolf Regiment and Fierce Tiger Regiment in the Sack Kingdom to the north of the Muerto Mountains, in the following half a year, the Hungry Wolf Regiment and the Fierce Tiger Regiment never gave up on the idea of counterattacking.
Even when faced with the powerful equipment of the northern army, the Hungry Wolf Regiment and the Fierce Tiger Regiment didn't obtain any results. The Muerto Mountains were still in the hands of the northern army, but because of the frequent battles, the northern army's equipment was consumed very quickly.
Since the second half of last year, the logistics department's supply to the northern army had been greatly reduced. When winter came, other than a few carts of cotton jackets, there was no other equipment.
The other northern army soldiers could only complain in private, but they didn't know the reason. However, Viscount Leslie knew the specific reason.
It was very simple, the military headquarters had no money.
In the battle of the Muerto Mountains, the military headquarters had provided large amounts of equipment, allowing the northern army to display their might. However, this large amount of equipment consumed a lot of money.
Although the equipment and armour were all made with the production magic machines from the new factory, which greatly reduced the cost and saved a lot of money, the logistics department couldn't support this large consumption.
Xu Yi had mentioned this problem in the letter he sent to Viscount Leslie before. He said in his heart that although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had lowered most of the equipment to cost, the army headquarters still couldn't take out the money to buy them.
Xu Yi was deeply worried about this situation.
If the military headquarters didn't have enough money and it was impossible for the New Flyer to provide for free, there would be a problem with the northern army's equipment.
Once spring came and the Sack Kingdom's army launched a counterattack, the Muerto Mountains would be very dangerous.
In the letter, Xu Yi had hinted to Viscount Leslie that if there was any danger, he had to leave as soon as possible to protect his own life.
Now in this recent letter, Xu Yi had clearly expressed his worries.
The military headquarters hadn't made any orders to the New Flyer in three months, which meant that the military headquarters couldn't support the northern army's equipment consumption at all.
This also meant that the northern army's current situation was very dangerous.
Seeing Xu Yi hinting at the end of the letter that if things were bad, he had to find a chance to leave ahead of time, Viscount Leslie couldn't help giving a sigh and shaking his head.
Of course he knew that Xu Yi had good intentions, but he had already served in the northern army for close to two years. Even if he was mainly responsible for logistics, he had experienced quite a bit of blood with his colleagues, so he had deep feelings for the northern army.
Although he knew that the northern army's current situation wasn't good, Viscount Leslie wasn't planning on leaving by himself.
But he was clear that his power as a single person was limited. With his current abilities, he couldn't solve the northern army's true problem, which was that the military headquarters had no money.
Thinking of not having money, Viscount Leslie felt a deep disgust towards Count Stagg who was far away in Banta City, who was his blood related uncle. He also felt a deep hatred towards the ideals his family had always insisted on.
There was clearly a better way to make the kingdom rich, but these rotten fellows only cared about their own benefits. They deliberately ignored all of this and even tried to suppress it.
In their eyes, the rise and fall of the kingdom, the good and bad lives of the citizens, wasn't it more important than the long term survival of their family?
"Humph!
A group of idiots!
The world is about to change with the appearance of Xu Yi, but you still want to hold onto those old ideas. If you continue like this, you will become the sinners that cause your entire family to be eliminated! "
Viscount Leslie narrowed his eyes and thought for a bit. He took out two pieces of paper and wrote a reply to Xu Yi first. He described the difficulties the northern army was facing in the letter and hoped that Xu Yi could help solve this problem as much as possible.
The second letter was a reply to his mother.
In this letter, Viscount Leslie expressed that he was willing to accept the family's arrangements and return to Anvilmar City to marry young miss Aleman. At the same time, he used a very serious tone to reveal another meaning.
He, Leslie Stagg, would use his greatest efforts to obtain the position of head of the Stagg Family!
###
While Viscount Leslie was seriously writing his reply, Lampuri Thirteenth was in the royal palace looking at the Lampari Kingdom's year end financial report in his hand and his lips curled into a faint smile.
This year's financial report was much better than last year's. Compared to last year's financial income of less than two million gold coins, this year's financial income had broken through three million gold coins. It could be said that it had made a huge leap.
However, as the king of a country, Lampuri Thirteenth's perspective wasn't that simple.
Two years ago, the Lampari Kingdom's annual revenue was only over a million gold coins. But starting last year, it had leaped two years in a row.
The reason for such a large change was that it could be seen from the financial report. Of the increase, over 90% came from business tax.
If one were to focus on the business tax, it could be seen from the additional report of the business department that 40% of the 90% increase in the business tax actually came from the merchant guilds that produced magic machines.
In the report, the New Flyer kept being mentioned.
In a single year last year, the New Flyer had paid over three hundred thousand gold coins in tax to Banta City in the first half of the year and one hundred and ten thousand of them had been turned into the national treasury.
In the second half of the year, because the New Flyer had been moved to Viscount Xu Yi's territory, the tax paid by the Xinfei Chamber of Commerce would belong to Xu Yi. In the end, it would be turned into the national treasury by Xu Yi, totaling two hundred and seventy thousand gold coins.
Other than that, because the New Flyer had obtained free trade rights, when the New Flyer did business with other countries, their taxes wouldn't go through Banta City and would go directly to the national treasury.
Even if the New Flyer's investment in the Black Rice Wasteland, the Principality of Constantine, and the Kingdom of Ruhr had just begun, they still had to pay over one hundred and thirty thousand gold coins in taxes.
So in just a single year, just the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had paid a large sum of over five hundred thousand gold coins to the state treasury.
This didn't include the influence of the New Flyer, which was the taxes of the magic machine companies that appeared in the kingdom.
If this was added together, of the three million gold coins the Lampari Kingdom collected in taxes last year, over one and a half million gold coins had been influenced by the New Flyer.
Moreover, in the tax of the other companies, although it wasn't related to the magic machines, it was still influenced by the New Flyer.
Take the Armani Chamber of Commerce in Banta City that specialized in clothes. Because of the Magic Textile Machine developed by the New Flyer, the Armani Chamber of Commerce's production capacity had greatly increased. Although the price of the clothes they sold had decreased, because of the increase in sales, their profits had increased by leaps and bounds.
According to the statistics, the Armani Chamber of Commerce had paid a total of three hundred and twenty thousand gold coins in taxes last year.
Other than that, the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce that was in charge of laying roads all over the kingdom had also paid two hundred and sixty thousand gold coins in taxes last year.
Or the Renekton Chamber of Commerce … …
… …
After looking at it for a while, Lampuri Thirteenth suddenly found that just the large companies that belonged to Banta City had paid close to one and a half million gold coins in taxes to the national treasury.
As for the taxes Banta City paid this year, it was only a trivial one hundred and ninety thousand gold coins.
Compared to last year, it was without a doubt far worse.
Seeing this clear comparison, Lampuri Thirteenth couldn't help giving a cold laugh.
"I want to see what those fellows still have the face to say."