A Thirty-Seventy Split

That afternoon, Mora, in the name of the Grand Duke, prepared to convene Noble Council. Messengers from all directions set off from the Capital City to notify all independent nobles in every county of the country, and even the Three Counties of the Northern Frontier sent messengers.

At this time, on the Blackwater River, Victor and Alex's fleet had left Milan County and entered Wright County. Victor once again came out of the cabin and onto the deck.

Through his observations, Victor discovered that although the Blackwater Passage had become much busier than during the Civil War, the noble territories along the riverbanks had clearly declined significantly. There were far fewer serfs cultivating the farmland on both sides, and Victor even discovered abandoned farmland, something that would have been impossible before.

The Central Six Commanderies— three noble counties and three directly subordinate counties—have always been the earliest developed territories of the duchy. The vast plains through which the Blackwater River flows are fertile and rich in resources, and have always been known for their wealth.

The Southern Four Counties are excluded, as those were developed before the duchy was established.

Although Victor knew that the Central Region had been greatly affected after the Civil War, he did not expect it to have declined to such an extent that even the best farmland along the Blackwater River was being abandoned.

At this moment, Alex came up. Seeing Victor's puzzled look, he approached and asked, "What's wrong? Is there anything that could possibly stump you?"

When Victor saw Alex coming over, he shook his head. "I just didn't expect the Central Region to suffer such heavy losses. Although my Two Rivers Territory also bought a lot of slaves from the Central Region, I had some idea of how bad the situation was here, but in reality it is several times worse than I imagined."

Alex smiled upon hearing this. "Then, Victor, who do you think is involved in this matter? Is it us Northern Frontier nobles, or the Grand Duke and his supporters?"

Victor was puzzled as to why Alex would ask these questions. As far as he knew, the Northern Frontier nobles had gained considerable territory in the interior through the Civil War, ranging from tens of square kilometers to hundreds of square kilometers, like the Iron Birch Family.

But these were all obtained from Jorah's staunch supporters, with the majority in the east and only a small portion in the Central Region. For example, the territory obtained by the Iron Birch Family was a branch of the Great Oak Family. The one who was stripped of his title after dying in battle was, by seniority, Count Black's cousin.

Moreover, the northern nobles who acquired these territories cherished them and generally managed them diligently. Even if a few individuals were to exploit the resources to the point of exhaustion, it wouldn't have come to this.

Who exactly was it? Victor had an answer in his heart again.

"Grand Duke Mora and his supporters?"

"Yes, it was them who did it."

As you know, Victor, one of the reasons we sent troops was to support Grand Duke Mora to the throne. After all, if we were to rebel, we would definitely have to choose someone who is easy to deal with.

On the other hand, it was for a warmer and safer territory, something we've already obtained after the war. My father got my brother a baronial title, and we're more than satisfied."

Victor nodded. Based on his understanding of the Northern Frontier nobles, although they were rough and direct, they were far less greedy than the nobles of the interior.

At this moment, Baron Rossi also came up to the deck. He saw Victor and Alex talking and curiously came over. When Alex and Victor chased him away, he listened in as well.

Alex continued, "In order to fill the empty treasury caused by the short-lived Jorah, replenish the lost direct legions, and compensate the Western nobles for their losses, Grand Duke Mora imposed huge fines on the nobles in Jorah's camp. It seems better than us directly seizing the territory, but it will cause much more damage to the nobles in the Central Region and Eastern Region."

"Your Golden Sunflower Family must have paid a considerable amount of fines. You know, Mora initially wanted to strip him of his title, but the Noble Council rejected it because his proposed stripping plan was too broad; no noble would agree to it."

Victor also remembered that the Old Baron Wembley had indeed mentioned these things, but the Golden Sunflower Family had always been relatively wealthy and had a lot of cash on hand, so they paid the fine immediately.

"As for why Grand Duke Mora changed the stripping of his title to a huge fine, the council did not continue to obstruct it. To be honest, the fine proposed by Mora was not that outrageous, but problems arose during its implementation."

Because this fine is collected by the Count Lagos, who is also the current Prime Minister, and as you know, the finances of many independent noble territories are very tight. They basically use the money to meet their own consumption and support their armies, and they don't have much capital in reserve, so it's difficult for them to come up with this money all at once.

So our Prime Minister came up with a brilliant idea: he directly dispatched his merchant guilds to the territories of these punished nobles to buy their property and output at low prices—such as minerals, grains, and various local specialties. If they had nothing left, he forced the nobles to sell their serfs. Because of this, the slave market throughout the entire duchy plummeted. Otherwise, the Barbarians slaves we captured during last year's battle would have been worth even more. Speaking of which, Victor, you've bought quite a few slaves from the Central Region, haven't you?"

"That's true. A good portion of the serfs in my territory are from the Central Region. But it's strange. They're buying up the nobles' property at such low prices. They should have made a lot of money for Grand Duke Mora, so why is the replenishment of the Duchy's Direct Legion so slow?"

"Then you underestimate Mora's men. My Northern Frontier Chamber of Commerce also cooperates with them and knows the ins and outs of how they do these things."

They did make a considerable amount of money by buying low and selling high, but they only paid the stipulated fine to Mora. They kept the rest of the profits for themselves; as far as I know, the split was 30/70.

"Mora takes seven, they take three, that's not bad."

"Wrong, completely wrong. Mora got three, and they got seven. If Mora could get seventy percent, the direct legion would probably have already replenished seventy or eighty percent."

Victor was shocked by the greed of Mora's men. The total amount of fines imposed by Mora was no small sum, yet it only accounted for three-tenths of their profits. If this money had gone into the Duchy's treasury and replenished the direct legions, Count Colt might not have dared to raise an army so quickly.