"Wise Emperor, I completely agree with your assessment."
Bai Xiaowen smiled. "Forcing them is merely the inferior approach, but we can tempt them with benefits."
After coughing once, Bai Xiaowen continued, "Those masters basically don't lack money. Ordinary riches hold little appeal to them. However, I do have something else I can offer... titles."
"If the masters in the Imperial Capital are willing to come to White Stone City and pass on the finest techniques of their respective professions, I'm willing to enfeoff them with Northland as their private territories. Every master who successfully trains an apprentice will receive a title starting at viscount... That should be quite appealing, shouldn't it?"
"An ennobled viscount with real power?" Nicholas IV's thick brows lifted slightly.
A noble with real power had to possess their own fief. That was the greatest difference between them and nobles with nothing but an empty title.
However, enfeoffing new nobles with real power meant dividing up one's own lands and weakening one's own strength. Thus, neither the imperial family nor the great nobles were willing to do so.
Bai Xiaowen replied with a smile, "That is my intention, but I need His Majesty's approval."
This also involved the Empire's new political reforms. Old nobles had the authority to divide their fiefs and enfeoff new nobles with real power, but new nobles did not. Many of the new nobles' powers had been reclaimed by the Empire, and the right of the first night was merely one of the more insignificant examples.
The Empire's reforms aimed to transform the original feudal Empire into a centralized one. No wonder the old nobles of West Desert Province had risen up in opposition.
Therefore, for Bai Xiaowen to enfeoff Northland's lands to other people, he needed Nicholas IV's approval before it could