Chapter 168: Noxian Empire Envoy
A few days later, Zaun, the headquarters of the Leader Association.
"That's probably the situation..."
"Camille discovered my plan in advance and joined forces with several family elders to exile me, my descendants, and my followers from the Ferros family in one go."
"We are now at our wits' end, so we have no choice but to come to you, Mr. Levi."
Stevan said this slowly while sitting in a wheelchair.
"Hmm..." Levi's expression was very teasing.
He didn't expose her, but only half-jokingly said: "Speaking of which, Piltover has been very unstable recently. All the major families are like this, with the splitting of the family, the internal fighting... I don't know what's going on, haha."
Yes, Philos is not the only smart person.
After the shock brought by Mel at the parliament scene a few days ago, almost all the major families in Piltover experienced "internal strife" and "splits" in just a few days.
Some of them split into two, one continued to play the role of a stubborn conservative, and the other came to the leader with sincerity.
Others simply split into three, four, or even N companies.
One family guarded their family business in Piltover, one family joined the Leader, and the other N families prepared for a rainy day by selling off their fixed assets in Piltover and fled with their capital overnight.
Escape to Noxus mainland, or Noxus' colonies in Shurima, or other places where the business environment is still good and suitable for the parasitic development of capital.
So within just a few days, the stock market and property market in Piltover experienced a brutal plunge. This caused many small citizens who were keen on speculation to lose their money overnight and line up to buy houses.
Fortunately, the gold hexcoins, silver wheels and copper rings used in Piltover are all precious metal currencies that maintain their value, so the money in the hands of ordinary people has not depreciated sharply due to this financial tsunami.
And because of the friendly and cooperative attitude currently shown by the Guild of Leaders, and because many assets are difficult to transfer in a hurry, the Piltover capital ran away but not all of it, and a large part of it remained in Piltover.
So even though the market is in chaos, the overall social environment in Piltover is still relatively stable.
Mel had anticipated this situation. She had made plans to short Piltover in advance, and took advantage of this not-so-small chaos to help the Leaders Association make a lot of money.
"Yeah, things have been pretty chaotic lately." Stevan agreed calmly, not feeling the slightest bit embarrassed by being teased.
Seeing this, Levi stopped joking with him and stood up and shook hands with him seriously:
"Welcome to join us, Mr. Stevan."
"I promise that the organization will do its best to take care of you and your family's life and work in the base in the future."
"Thank you, President Levi." Stevan also expressed his attitude politely.
The two sides are now a family.
Stevan and his family would never be able to return to the Philos family. At least until the Leader Association was destroyed, they would all be members of the Leader camp.
And Levi was also happy to take in these "exiles" of the Philos family because of the artificial Hexgem synthesis technology.
Anyway, with Janna around, if they have impure intentions, they will definitely not be able to become officials or hold power.
Levi was not afraid of them taking over his position or usurping his power. He just needed to make use of the resources and talents of these aristocratic elites without any hesitation.
"I have to tell you one more thing, Mr. Levi," Stevan said again.
"You say." Levi listened attentively.
"In fact, on the day when the Takeda Saito Group was destroyed, Camille and I felt that the situation was not good, so we sent a letter through the Hexgate to inform our 'stakeholders' in the Noxus Empire."
"If I'm not mistaken, the envoy from the Noxian Empire should be arriving soon."
"Special envoy of the Noxian Empire?" Levi became serious.
He didn't rush to ask further, but looked at Stevan curiously: "The Ferros family has already hooked up with Noxus... You're telling me such important information?"
"Why not?" Stevan smiled.
"Camille and I are now two families." He emphasized: "After joining the Leader, I am on your side."
"If the leader loses, it will not do me any good."
"Besides..." Stevan looked at his old body with a calm expression: "I still need Camille's heart."
Levi: “…”
So you are still thinking about this, you cold-blooded...
"Please don't look at me like that." Stevan was quite frank: "So-called family affection and morality are completely meaningless to me."
"That's why we're sitting together, isn't it?"
That's right. Levi nodded.
Although Stevan is an incompetent scumbag, Camille seems like a perfect good person to her family.
But the route is wrong. The more perfect a person is, the more reactionary he is.
So a coward like Stevan can become an "old friend" of the leader.
But Camille stood firmly against the masses and became the most evil enemy.
"Let's continue." Levi no longer criticized Stevan's personal morals.
"You just said that the envoy of the Noxian Empire will arrive in Piltover soon?"
"That's right." Stevan explained: "President Levi, you should be aware of the relationship between Piltover and Noxus."
"Yeah." Levi nodded.
The relationship between Noxus and Piltover is, inappropriately speaking, like the relationship between Piltover and Zaun.
Most of Zaun’s businesses are controlled by Piltover Capital, and the bulk of the profits are seized by Piltover.
But just like the big fish eat the small fish, many companies in Piltover are also controlled by the Noxian Empire, and the bulk of the profits have to be paid as tribute to Noxus.
There are even many Piltover businesses that were originally branches opened by Noxian nobles in Piltover - such as Midalda.
It's just that Piltover occupies a higher ecological niche in the industrial chain, has high added value products, and can earn huge excess profits, which makes it appear to be richer, more civilized, and more advanced than Zaun.
The Guild of Leaders is now only depriving the bourgeoisie in Zaun, and still shows a friendly and cooperative attitude towards Piltover. This is because there are too many Noxian elements in the Piltover seed benzene, and they are far from being able to provoke them.
Unfortunately, Stevan told him: "You have already provoked Noxus, Mr. Levi--"
"Since the day you defeated Takeda Saito."
"Takeda Saito?" Levi seemed thoughtful.
He seemed to understand something.
Although there is no direct involvement of Noxus among the shareholders of Takeda Group. But...
"Takeda Saito is engaged in the arms business, including alchemical potions and biological and chemical weapons."
"You should also know who his big client will be, Mr. Levi, without me telling you."
There’s no need to think about it.
Who needs weapons and ammunition the most in the entire Runeterra right now?
Of course, it is Noxus who is killing everyone.
Of the many weapons produced by Takeda Saito every year, except for a small portion sold to the pirates in Bilgewater, the vast majority of the rest were sold to the Noxian army.
As for the natives of Ionia and Shurima who are being beaten up by Noxus, they also need weapons.
However, the twin cities are surrounded by Noxus’ territories and colonies to the north and south, just like Constantinople surrounded by the Ottoman Empire, which is completely shrouded in the empire’s sphere of influence in terms of geography...
Even if Takeda Saito had the guts to do so, he would not dare to sell weapons to Ionia and Shurima, to the enemies of the Empire...
Well, actually I still dare.
After all, Janna said that when Ziben made a 300% profit, it would dare to commit any crime, even at the risk of being hanged.
In recent years, Takeda Saito's smuggling fleet has frequently sailed to Shurima and Ionia.
But even so, he only smuggled weapons into Ionia in small quantities, and sold them very cautiously and secretly.
Large-scale arms trade is impossible.
Takeda Saito’s only major client is the Noxian military.
"Right now, the Noxian Empire is fighting on the Ionian front, and Takeda Saito is an important arms supplier to the Ionian army."
"You took over Takeda Saito's industry, which caused the arms trade to come to a halt. To be more serious, it may even affect the Empire's war deployment in Ionia."
"So the envoys from the Noxus Empire will definitely come to the Twin Cities to check the situation."
"I understand." Levi also vaguely realized .
He suspected that he might soon have to deal with Noxian officials.
However, unlike Stevan's concerns, Levi was actually looking forward to the arrival of this special envoy:
"To be honest, I just wanted to talk to someone from Noxus—"
"Takeda Saito left behind such a big business, and I want to continue to do this business with Noxus."
"You..." Stevan was a little surprised: "You still want to continue to provide weapons to Noxus?"
If we sell weapons to Noxus, wouldn't that make us an accomplice of the Noxian invading army?
According to the ethical standards of a leader, is it appropriate to do this kind of business?
"No way..." Li Wei said helplessly, "The livelihood of millions of canal workers depends on this business. You can't just stop it if you want to."
Arms are one of the few technologically advantageous industries in Zaun, and are a key export and foreign exchange earning project.
The main business of the Takeda Group is arms, and the number of military industry workers in its territory even reaches tens of thousands.
If Levi stops the arms trade between Zaun and Noxus in one go, what will these more than 10,000 workers do?
Not to mention, he also had to consider the diplomatic and military pressure brought about by cutting off trade with Noxus.
Therefore, facing Stevan's questioning, Levi could only say:
"We have a longer history of developing arms and a richer workforce in the industry."
"So," Stevan said, "we still have to sell weapons to Noxus?"
"Well... we are implementing the trade strategy in order to gradually optimize the industrial structure, improve infrastructure, and promote the development of Zaun's circular economy in the process of adjusting the layout..."
“So, are you going to sell it or not?” This time it was Stevan’s turn to tease.
"Stop talking, stop talking..."
"Haha." Stevan laughed, "I thought you leaders all had moral quirks."
Levi replied helplessly: "Survival and purity, sometimes we can only choose one."
"Until the workers' employment issues can be properly resolved, we have to continue doing business with Noxus."
"From this perspective... the arrival of that special envoy is not a bad thing for us leaders."
"That's hard to say." Stevan reminded: "The leader of the war group that Camille contacted is well-known for his cruelty and bloodthirstiness in the Noxian Empire."
"She will definitely not like you leaders."
"Who is she?" Levi frowned.
"Her name is..." Stevan replied: "Amystan."
