Volume 4 Chapter 138 - Just become a king
Volume 4 Chapter 138 Just become a king
As soon as the hottest part of summer passed, the battle between Count Wein and Duke Stantine became even more intense.
Duke Stantine had sent someone at the level of Great Magician Runa to assassinate Xu Yi, which made the Frestech Chamber of Commerce support Count Wein even more. Not only did they provide a steady stream of military magic machines to Count Wein, they also bought a large amount of resources from the Lampuri Kingdom, the Rudson Kingdom, and the other countries they were cooperating with to solve Count Wein’s worries, allowing him to fully focus on fighting Duke Stantine.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce even interfered in the fight between lords for the first time. In the battle between Count Wein and Duke Stantine, they sent out the most elite guards of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce to join the battle.
With the powerful firepower of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards that even surpassed Count Wein’s soldiers, Duke Stantine stood no chance.
In just two months, Count Wein had led the invasion into the Stantine Duchy’s capital of Faraday City.
Seeing that there was no hope of resistance, Duke Stantine had burnt the duke manor that had taken several decades to build and he was burnt in the ashes.
After that, the lords of the Stantine Duchy surrendered to Count Wein, electing him as the new Duke Stantine, naming him Duke Wein.
After Duke Wein became a duke, he requested all the other lords in the duchy to give up their arms and accept the appointment of the duke’s manor.
Most of the lords agreed, there were only a few lords who refused.
Among them included Viscount Anklo who was currently famous in the south of the Stantine Duchy.
If it was a normal lord who resisted Duke Wein, they would have been beaten down without any mercy.
Actually, Duke Wein’s soldiers had done this.
One week after he gave the order to disarm, Duke Wein immediately sent out his troops to conquer the lords that had resisted his order. He easily defeated those lords and took all their territory for himself.
However, for Viscount Anklo who had also resisted his order, Duke Wein acted differently and didn’t take any actions against him. Both sides showed great restraint, as if there would be no conflict between them.
Actually, everyone in the Stantine Duchy knew that whether it was Viscount Anklo or Duke Wein, their biggest supporter was the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, or rather Xu Yi.
Don’t think that those two lords could summon storms in the Stantine Duchy. If they wanted to do something, one had to look at how the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, or rather Xu Yi felt.
This was a fact that no one could deny.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s support was important for either side. If the Frestech Chamber of Commerce stopped supporting one side, the fate of that side would be to be defeated by the other side.
To put it more bluntly, only the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, or rather Xu Yi could truly decide the situation of the Stantine Duchy.
What everyone was confused about was that since the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was this strong, why didn’t they send out their troops and conquer all the lords? Why would they choose to support the forces of Viscount Anklo and Duke Wein?
Perhaps he could just choose to support one side and help them rule the entire Stantine Duchy, would he receive more benefits that way?
“Actually I can do this.” Xu Yi looked at Anklo sitting on the left and Duke Wein sitting on the right in front of him with a serious look.
If one didn’t see it, no one in the Stantine Duchy would believe that Viscount Anklo and Duke Wein who were fighting over control of the Stantine Duchy right now would be peacefully sitting across from each other. Both of them had a faint smile on their faces, like they weren’t enemies, but rather friends.
“The reason why I haven’t done this is because I feel that this would cause too much damage to the Stantine Duchy, it wouldn’t benefit our Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s development in the Stantine Duchy.” Xu Yi continued.
Ankolo took a sip of tea before looking at Duke Wein who had a smile, but also had a fierce look in his eyes. He said with a faint smile, “Chairman Xu, let me guess. Your biggest worry is that the Stantine Duchy being in a civil war would affect the population?”
“That’s right.” Xu Yi nodded, “Our company lacks people the most. The Stantine Duchy’s population is very important to me, I don’t want to lose them because of the war.”
Anklo’s face sunk a bit, “Chairman Xu, with all due respect, if it wasn’t for your support of Count Wein, Count Wein wouldn’t have had the guts to attack the other lords. Not to mention challenging Duke Stantine in the end.”
Duke Wein on the opposite side knit his brows and angrily glared at Anklo, “What? Viscount Anko, are you looking down on me? Do you want to see who would be better right now?”
Anklo looked at Duke Wein in disdain and said with a cold snort, “If it wasn’t for chairman Xu stopping me, I would have already beaten your motley crew to tears.”
Duke Wein flew into a rage. He suddenly stood up and pointed at Anklo, “Alright, we’ll start fighting immediately! We’ll see who has the motley crew!”
When Anklo was about to speak, Xu Yi suddenly gave a cold snort and the two stopped as they turned back to Xu Yi.
“I don’t care if you hate each other, but since I’m here, we’ll sit and talk!” Xu Yi coldly looked over and after the two glared at each other, they sat back down.
Seeing the angry appearance of the two, Xu Yi slightly knit his brows.
These two fellows had these attitudes, how could they work together and develop the Stantine Duchy together?
Actually if possible, Xu Yi really wanted to do what most lords in the Stantine Duchy had guessed. He wanted to use the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards and sweep across the Stantine Duchy, taking it all under his control. That way, no matter how he wanted to develop the Stantine Duchy, he could do what he wanted and wouldn’t be as restrained as he was now.
But the manpower issue that he was worried about wasn’t just the workers in the factories, but also the guards of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.
The Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s guards kept expanding, it had already reached three thousand people.
With their military magic machines, as well as their training and high quality, those three thousand troops with large amounts of dwarf and elf soldiers were very terrifying. In a real battle, they could even easily defeat ten thousand enemies.
But because there weren’t enough people, they could defend the main base of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, but they couldn’t occupy the entire Stantine Duchy.
So Xu Yi had to find strong enough lords to act as his representatives in the Stantine Duchy. Through these representatives, he would achieve his reform plans for the Stantine Duchy.
In this regard, choosing Anklo and Duke Wein had their advantages and disadvantages.
Anklo had excellent abilities and could clearly see the situation, there were many thoughts that were the same as Xu Yi. If he worked with him, Xu Yi would be able to easily achieve his plan for the Stantine Duchy.
But Anklo’s shortcoming was something that Xu Yi worried about a lot. It was that his goals were too lofty, or rather he was too ambitious. That kind of person was hard to subdue and he wouldn’t obey Xu Yi’s arrangements in the future.
Count Wein was inferior to Anklo in all aspects, but he was obedient to Xu Yi and was very suited to being a puppet.
Xu yi didn’t have the ability to get rid of these two, so he chose to support them both and create a balance between them.
At least at this stage, because those two had to win the support of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they would make enough concessions to Xu Yi.
Xu Yi could summon the two of them at the same time because of this.
After pausing, Xu Yi said to Anklo, “Anklo, I remember that your dream was to let the people of the Stantine Duchy live good lives, right?”
Anklo nodded, “Yes, that is the ideal that will never change. But chairman Xu, the Stantine Duchy has already been in the flames of war for a year now, that is now what I want.”
Xu Yi nodded, but he didn’t reply. He turned to Duke Wein to ask, “Then what about Duke Wein? What do you want?”
Duke Wein pursed his lips, “I don’t have such lofty ideals, I just want to let myself live a better life.”
“Trash!” Angklo gave a soft snort.
Duke Wein glared at him and was about to rage again.
Xu Yi waved his hand to stop him.
“Good, since you two don’t have high requests, then it is much simpler. Anklo, you have visited Banta City, so I’m sure that you know that with the influence of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, Banta City had greatly changed and the lives of their people were greatly improved.”
Anklo nodded. He turned in the direction of the Lamuri Kingdom and there was a bit of fascination in his eyes.
“The Banta City of that time really was the city with the most energy and vitality I have ever seen. If every city in our Stantine Duchy can become like Banta City, I would have no complaints even if I die.”
“You don’t need to die.” Xu Yi revealed a smile, “As long as you work with our Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Stantine Duchy will become like Banta City. The people of the Stantine Duchy will become full of energy and vigor like the people of Banta City.”
Anklo was silent for a bit before giving a slow nod.
“Chairman Xu, I believe that you have this ability. In my personal territory now, the living conditions of the people are no different from being in heaven. If you can let all the citizens of our Stantine Duchy have this kind of life, no matter what you want me to do, I would be willing. Even if…..even if you were to become Duke Stantine, I would have no objections.”
Duke Wein gave a snort, “Then what do I do? Do I go back to being a count?”
Anklo’s eyes turned cold, “What? Are you qualified to compare to chairman Xu?”
“Of course I’m not qualified, but since I’m already Duke Stantine, how could I let chairman Xu fall down to my position?” Duke Wein said.
Anklo was a bit confused, “What are you saying?”
“It’s very simple.” Duke Wein suddenly became excited, “If it was me, if chairman Xu is willing, he should just become the king!”