Chapter 254 Accepting Funding
Yang Qiu had nothing to say to Rex, the young man who was always being bossed around. He just said a few perfunctory words to fool the man, put on his cloak, and rushed to the City Hall to find Zhao Zhenzhen.
Zhao Zhenzhen's aura was even stronger than Yang Qiu's. She started to talk without waiting for Yang Qiu to speak: "At least 20% of the currency in Nadeli is in your hands. If you don't release the money, we can't beat the local tyrants now. Do you expect Rex and I to turn stones into gold?"
What she said was well-founded. During the territory war, all the places where money was concentrated, such as the club area, bar area, and casino area, were taken over by Lord Yang alone. The city hall only got a little bit of the spoils at most - recycling the land and buildings used for illegal operations.
The value of the land is based on the fact that the local government provides excellent infrastructure construction services, a stable social structure, and a healthy and orderly internal economic circulation environment. Just because of this shabby place like Nadeli, the land is worth nothing!
Not to mention that this guy watched the vampires slaughter the entire Darcy family and then used the players to ransack the Darcy mansion - after those players used identification skills to scan it, even the servants' private money hidden in the cracks between the floor tiles was taken away, not to mention the coffin book hidden by Viscount Darcy!
That's fine, but the most annoying thing is that Lord Yang has so much currency in his hoard, but he can't even lend it to the City Hall! Are you a Pixiu?
Yang Qiu raised his hand expressionlessly: "Okay, stop making up stories. You just want an electric tiger, okay, I agree."
Zhao Zhenzhen was beaming with joy as she spoke earnestly , "We should have done this a long time ago, Comrade Yang!"
Yang Qiu: “…”
Zhao Zhenzhen said calmly: "Then you see, when will you sign with us, offline?"
"Let's do it today." Yang Qiu looked at the woman with a strange look, "Who will sign, you?"
"I would like to come, but unfortunately the conditions do not allow it." Zhao Zhenzhen sighed for no reason, and continued to speak earnestly, "Comrade Yang, we have been cooperating for such a long time, and you have seen our sincerity, right? The country's position is very clear, and we will definitely respect your wishes. All of our departments hope to cooperate and achieve win-win results within the scope acceptable to both parties-"
Yang Qiu would not be so stupid as to debate with a political worker. He opened a space-time rift on the spot and disappeared.
"Such a temper, tsk." Zhao Zhenzhen saw this and did not delay and immediately fell apart on the spot.
After returning to Earth, Yang Qiu waited patiently for more than ten minutes, and then several ordinary-looking commercial vehicles with ordinary license plates stopped in front of the suburban house he rented...
The cooperation project that Yang Qiu seemed to agree to reluctantly was a complete set of thermal power plant equipment funded by the expert group.
The expert group had long wanted to use this equipment to attack Yang Qiu, but Yang Qiu refused. In the subsequent cooperation, he always maintained a clear transaction method of money and goods, and was determined not to take advantage of the expert group. The reason was very simple...it is not so easy to take advantage of the country.
All gifts from fate come with a price tag. In exchange for receiving benefits from the expert group, Yang Qiu must make equal concessions in cooperation with other worlds.
Yang Qiu trusts the country, but he cannot trust the expert group that is working with him completely - after all, everyone is selfish. If there are one or two selfish people in the expert group who take the opportunity to have their cake and eat it too, can Yang Qiu turn against the country for such one or two people who abuse public power for personal gain?
Besides, he didn't want anyone to interfere with the "strategy of conquering another world" that he had set up.
He would be happy to work with the support of the organization, but the people in the expert group could not possibly know the other world better than him; if the two sides had disagreements on certain plans, he did not have the patience to wait for them to report and instruct him layer by layer. Why would he find himself a few more burdens to shoulder?
Zhao Zhenzhen, a political cadre who had retreated to the second line due to injury and who was likely to have lost the ability to take care of herself like Ji Tang and had to be transferred to the "Alternate World Development" to shine, entered the matrix with a mission. While observing the alternate world and Yang Qiu, Yang Qiu was also using her as a window to observe the expert group and the attitude of the expert group's superiors.
After half a year (in another world) of observation, Yang Qiu was quite satisfied with the attitude and sincerity shown by the expert group.
First, on the principle issue of whether to launch a war against other countries and to what extent the intensity of the war should be limited, the expert group fully respected his ideas and positions. Whether it was fighting the Lieyang Church or Innadeli, Zhao Zhenzhen, a political cadre with a murderous aura and who had once been active on the front line, did not interfere and did not do anything unnecessary.
For example, when it came to contact with the indigenous forces of the alien world, Zhao Zhenzhen handled the situation very appropriately - whether it was when she took over Innade or during her visit to the Odysseus family, Zhao Zhenzhen never had any contact beyond the boundaries with the native nobles of this alien world.
Yang Qiu's desire for power is not so strong that he will not allow anyone to get involved in his "throne", but he will not allow the alien regime he hopes to establish to become an appendage of a certain group or force.
He has lived in the other world for three hundred years. Although his life during these three hundred years was not happy at all and he did not leave many pleasant memories, he never thought that the people from the other world were "low-dimensional life" inferior to those on Earth.
He believed that China had an open and tolerant mind and could treat people from other worlds as human beings, but he did not believe that all Chinese people could inherently understand how to respect people who were different from themselves and understand that the lives of people from other worlds were equally precious.
No one knows the diversity of human beings better than Yang Qiu.
Zhao Zhenzhen's performance fully demonstrated that the expert group attached more importance to the opportunity to explore other worlds than to "interfering with low-dimensional life". Under this premise, deepening cooperation and giving up some power were not something Yang Qiu could not accept.
Zhao Zhenzhen forced the "Innadeli Electricity Self-sufficiency Plan" on the agenda even though she knew that there was insufficient funding, and couldn't wait to push forward the construction of a thermal power plant that had nothing. In fact, this was also a statement - the expert group supports the alien reform initiated by "Lord Yang" and is willing to take on the tool man script and provide corresponding assistance.
But on the other hand, the expert group also hopes that "Lord Yang" can trust them and let the expert group have the power to supervise the new regime in the alien world represented by "Lord Yang" - to hold the electric tiger in hand, "Lord Yang" cannot completely ignore the opinions of the expert group if he wants to develop his territory.
This is the price offered by the expert group.
Yang Qiu, who controls the window to explore other worlds, holds absolute control. The expert group needs chips that can prevent the two sides from being in an absolutely unequal position.
After all, the equipment in the thermal power plant cannot be operated by a person from another world who has only just learned a little bit of knowledge. It also requires technicians to operate the equipment. If Yang Qiu does not want the thermal power plant that has cost the city hall a lot of money to be just a decoration, he cannot unilaterally terminate the cooperation at any time. In other words, this window to explore the other world can exist for a long time...
That's why Yang Qiu asked Zhao Zhenzhen to act out fewer lines so that everyone could save some saliva - there is nothing more boring than two thousand-year-old foxes talking about Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.
Yang Qiu opened the door for the expert group to further intervene in the Innadeli regime. This was definitely a major event for Innadeli. Unfortunately, this matter could never be made public to a third party, so neither the indigenous citizens of Innadeli nor the players who were the main combat force influencing the change of regimes in the alien world knew anything about it.
On the second day of February in the alien world, after sailing for a whole night and half a day, Leo's fleet arrived at its destination: Moses Port.
The Barcelo River, which originates from the mountains in the central part of the Naples continent, never freezes all year round. In early spring, the river is full of ships coming and going, and the dock is bustling with people.
Brother Lowell, who had only left the Principality of Shiga a few times in his life, let alone visited the port city, saw from the window of the VIP room the large and small ships on the river, the port docks, and the people coming and going on the streets in the distance. He remained calm, but was extremely shocked in his heart.
The Principality of Shiga has a land area similar to that of the Kingdom of the Rhine, but its total population is less than half of that of the Kingdom of the Rhine.
In other words ...there are no big cities in the Principality of Shiga, and the population of the largest capital does not exceed 500,000.
Moses Harbor is the second largest city in the Odysseus Territory. It can be ranked in the top five even if it is placed in the Rhine Kingdom. The city area is three times that of Innadri City. The permanent and floating populations add up to over one million. It has a fairly developed shipbuilding and transportation industry, as well as a decent low-end manufacturing industry. In the eyes of a deadbeat priest of the Prosperous Church like Lowell, it is quite an eye-opener...
When the fleet entered the port, the dock was already crowded with Leo's family members, who ran up to greet them in fear and trepidation.
When Simpson Leo's vampire identity was exposed, the family that was hit hardest and most terrified was Leo's family.
Especially this vampire who sneaked into their family disguised as their child, and followed the siblings of the Odysseus family to Inadri and was exposed by the Inadri people - when Phoenix knew about this, he instinctively thought that this was a conspiracy against them, and of course the people of Leo's family would think in this direction as well.
If it hadn't been confirmed that the Phoenix siblings hadn't been attacked, perhaps their family would have hastily sent their outstanding children abroad.
All members of the Leo family came out to solemnly welcome the siblings of the Odysseus family. The dock was packed with people. As soon as he stepped on the ground of Moses Port, Adela III couldn't wait to "tell the secret", but he couldn't squeeze in next to the Phoenix siblings...
Accompanied by a large group of Leo family members and a large entourage, the Phoenix siblings left the dock and took a pneumatic vehicle to the Leo family's home to stay. Brother Lowell, as a distinguished guest, and the Innadri militia who were protecting the "strategic materials" were qualified to go with them. However, Adela III, who only had the title of nobility, was not qualified to be entertained by the Leo family and was left behind.
"How ridiculous!" Adela III was anxious and angry. He had to ask his butler to rent a car and take Horn, the only person who was still willing to follow him, and Gould, his loyal old butler, to the residence bought by his wife who had "escaped" in advance.
Before leaving Innadri, the city hall sent people to "purchase" the last remaining farm of the Bartles family and paid a fairly fair price - of course, they only paid for the land, and the people from the city hall did not mention the hundreds of "servants" employed on the farm.
Adela III did not dare to mention it. Serfdom was illegal after all. When he was thrown into prison, he saw with his own eyes that many unlucky people were sentenced to death by the city hall according to Rhine law. He did not want to cause trouble for himself.
Thanks to the advice given in advance by the old butler Gould, the wife of the third generation took a lot of money and fled ahead of time before the territory war. The new house she bought in Moses Port was also a single-family luxury villa located in a good urban area. The kind that an average middle-class family would have to go without food and drink for more than ten years to be able to afford.
But this luxurious single-family villa, which was less than one-third the size of the City Lord's Mansion and had only more than 20 rooms, was no different from exile for the Third World - the ceiling height of his new bedroom was only a little over three meters! It was too depressing! It almost made him breathless!
The wife of the third generation was also aggrieved by her husband's dissatisfaction: "The base price of housing in Moses Port is three times that of Innadri. After buying the horse farm and the manor, there is not much money left. It is only enough to buy this place."
A viscount who does not have a horse farm of his own is worse than a baron in the social arena. If you buy a horse farm, you must also buy a ranch, manor farm, etc. The former is a place for vacation, leisure and socializing, while as for the latter, as a nobleman, how can he support a group of servants if he does not even have a farm?
When the Third Master thought about the more than 26,000 gold coins that he didn't have time to take away, he felt so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe. He didn't bother to argue with his wife and sent her away, leaving only the old butler Gould and Horn, who had proved his loyalty with his actions.
"The white-haired man who cheated with Nightmare Butcher and got close to the siblings of Odysseus must have a conspiracy!" The Third said viciously, gritting his teeth. "This is the territory of Odysseus. That damn black magician can't reach here. There's no need to be afraid of him! Tell me, how can we secretly send this information to Phoenix?"
Butler Gould and Horn, who used to be the commander of the city defense corps, could understand what the Third Generation meant.
If it was just to expose the scam, all they had to do was spread the news - as long as the Odysseus family knew that the white-haired man had a history of fraud, they would naturally be on high alert.
But doing so would not benefit Adela III in any way.
The third life's goal is to use this incident to curry favor with the Odysseus family and repair the relationship between the two families, which has become so stiff that it can only be maintained on the surface.
Butler Gould sighed quietly. If the III had not written a mocking letter when Count Odysseus's nephew was trapped in Westham, things would not have gotten as troublesome as they are now - Ms. Phoenix would at least remain polite on the surface, and Master Parker would not even bother to look at the III.
Horn also knew that it was the Third Generation himself who had exacerbated the relationship between the two families, and he also felt that there was something wrong with the Third Generation's actions... But after all, the Third Generation was still a noble with the title of Viscount. Now that the city defense army had collapsed and the Horn family was helpless, he only had the Third Generation to rely on.
"Almost all of the Leo family came to the dock to greet us today. It seems that the vampire incident has made them very afraid of losing the trust of the Odysseus family." Horn said with all his strength, "I think the Leo family should hold a grand welcome party tonight to please the siblings of the Odysseus family."
The Third glared at Horn unhappily. How could he not know that the Leo family would go to great lengths to please the Phoenix siblings? The question was whether he could get an invitation to the welcome party!
Butler Gould understood what Horn said, and his eyes lit up: "Horn, do you want to take this opportunity to sneak in?"
"Yes, Mr. Gould," Horn said, "When hosting such a grand event, there may not be enough people... If I can sneak in, I will find a way to pass the news to Ms. Phoenix's entourage."
Leo's family is not aristocratic, so they can only have servants, but they cannot openly keep a large number of private soldiers. If they want to hold a large-scale event, they can either borrow personnel responsible for the security of the venue from the noble families they are on good terms with, or they can only hire famous and reputable mercenary groups.
Horn is a family knight of the Bartles family . If Gould came forward and lent Horn to the Leo family for security, the Leo family would not necessarily refuse - borrowing a viscount's knight as temporary security is not a big deal like sending an invitation to invite a noble whom Master Parker doesn't like to enter. The former is not worth taking seriously at all.
