Yes, Madam Prime Minister

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“Four, I’ll sell it to you for four. ‘Jenny’ herself is worth two of those prices,” Luc said. Jenny was at the peak of her milk production and was a very good dairy cow, so she was valuable on her own, not to mention this competition.

"Heh, think it over carefully. I'll send someone over again tomorrow." With that, Maxim left with the Laghman slaves.

As soon as Maxim stepped out, he snatched the apple from the Lag slave's hand and slammed it onto the door of the Luke family's house. "Damn it, this poor bastard won't even let me take advantage of his misfortune. Is there no law anymore?"

Luc covered his face with his hands and fell into deep thought.

To sell or not to sell? That is the question.

Jenny is worth the price of two Golden Eagles, but finding a buyer isn't so easy.

If it weren't for this competition, he would have sold it, but the problem is that now he has the opportunity to get ten Golden Eagles.

“I won’t sell.” Luc decided. Even if he didn’t make it to the finals, he could still sell other cattle to make up the money.

Chapter 320 "Dark Pasture," You Dare to Kill My Cattle? What's Fairness?

Luke is unfortunate because Maxim has a rival, Asos. In Asos's view, when you can't improve your own players, you can only try to make your opponents' players disappear, especially when you have the "second seed" and your opponent has the "first seed".

Cows are not easy to manage. They return to their barns at night, which are usually located right next to the dairy farmers' homes, and there are dogs nearby that will bark at any stranger who approaches.

So, after thinking about it, the other party decided to do the opposite and called on an experienced craftsman to shoot the cow with an arrow from a distance during the day. It might not kill her, but she definitely wouldn't be able to participate in the competition.

In this day and age, archers are indeed highly skilled craftsmen, something most people wouldn't even imagine.

Next, all that's left is to lose money.

Even if you take it to court, you'll only get a little more compensation at most.

The money from one cow is really just a drop in the ocean for a rancher.

Like Maxim, what he cared about wasn't the money, but the certificate personally awarded by the princess.

So, Luc's "Jenny" was shot in the buttocks. Although she didn't die, she was frightened, which would affect her milk production for a short time. In addition, she was basically unable to compete normally.

Luc was also lucky.

Because Maxim wasn't a good person either; he had two plans. On one hand, he bought Luc's cow, which he considered his "number one seed," and on the other hand, he asked someone to get his "number two seed."

So the second seed also suffered.

What Maxim and his old rival Asos didn't expect was that their protection of each other would immediately make the other three ranchers in the vicinity nervous as well.

None of us are good people, so we've all entered a dark forest mode, each feeling like someone is going to mess with us. Since that's the case, we might as well strike first so we won't suffer any losses.

The Luke family also has a decent dairy cow, which is considered to be among the best in the second tier.

Two days later.

The police station received a report that the owners of five ranches came to report almost simultaneously that one of their cows had been attacked. Of the five cows, three were shot with arrows and one died, and two were hit by crossbow bolts and one died.

Agustina immediately guessed the inside story, so she put the matter aside, went to the ranch to investigate, and then reported the matter to Ronan.

After recounting the case, Agustina couldn't help but exclaim, "They can spend some money on this kind of thing, just a little."

Ronan nearly smashed his coffee cup in his hand. Frowning and teeth chattering, he said, "This isn't just arrogant, it's downright arrogant! Damn it, how has the country become like this? Is there no law anymore? Are those their cows? They're my actors for the show! Damn it, they dare to kill my cows!"

Agustina changed Ronan's cup, poured him coffee, and asked, "What should we do?"

Ronan took a deep breath. "Arrest them all. The reason is that it wasn't an attack on cattle, it was an attack on people. They are all victims now and must be protected."

As he spoke, Ronan stood up and gazed out the window at the blue sky, white clouds, and green grass. "You don't want the freedom I'm offering, do you? Then let Dinia come and give them a fair chance."

After three years as mayor and two years as governor, Dinia is no longer the same person who would only rage incompetently and shout, "Go and get Ronan for me!"

She didn't cause trouble for the ranchers or resort to the low-level tactic of robbing the rich, nor did she try to understand the situation from the dairy farmers or say anything to justify the unfair treatment.

She took Alice directly to Parliament, where members submitted proposals to repeal certain laws. She then instructed officials to set up two new feed companies to provide feed to dairy farmers, and two milk processing plants to process milk.

At the same time, he summoned Elena, Ronan's "agricultural expert," to inform all the ranches of one thing: the establishment of agricultural associations. These associations would be responsible for connecting feed companies and processing plants, controlling sales channels, and providing loans to member dairy farmers, while also launching insurance services.

Of course, within the agricultural cooperatives, the original ranchers held the most power.

This competition was also organized by the agricultural cooperative, and the dairy cow beauty pageant was postponed to a week later.

These three moves are what fairness is, fairness is, and it's damn fair!

In a single day, the city of Rennes underwent a dramatic transformation.

The entire upper echelons of Rennes were stunned; the change had come far too suddenly.

at night.

Inside the hotel, the people who came to greet them were also stunned, especially Emil, the deputy director of the security bureau. His impression of Dinia was still that of the time when Dinia beat up the entire security bureau of the capital city without saying a word. He really did not expect that Dinia could pull off such a brilliant move.

What surprised him even more was the competence and efficiency of the three women under Dinia's command.

This is actually normal. Elena and Alice have been working for Ronan since they were young, one handling people and the other handling tasks. Later, in New Sea City and the colony, the two continued to work for Ronan.

Even if they weren't naturally gifted, their competence would have been developed through experience.

Their abilities surpass those of most civil servants in the country, because most civil servants rarely handle complex issues. Their level is only slightly higher than that of stewards in feudal lords, not to mention the many problems brought about by reforms, problems they have never even seen before.

Elena and Alice are both veteran reformers; one is good at mobilizing the masses, and the other is good at fighting corruption.

The deputy director of the security bureau sighed and could only write down these things truthfully and send them back.

Claude, the secretary working in the General Secretariat, saw another aspect.

Dinia's series of actions, seemingly to give the people fairness, were actually forcing the bureaucratic system to run at full speed. Of course, the bureaucrats did not hate it, because their power had expanded.

Ronan's influence seems to be evident in this series of policies, with Parliament playing a significant role in opening doors of convenience for capitalists.

The dairy industry as a whole has not grown in scale, but in this series of events, bureaucrats and members of parliament have all profited without conflict. The same goes for dairy farmers and capitalists. Ranchers have not suffered much loss either. How the hell is this possible?

All I can say is that he doesn't understand what regulation is.

Secretary Claude was equally helpless; all he could do was relay the message back.

Only the squad leader of the mage group remained calm; he didn't care about these things.

At the same time, at the place where Ronan was temporarily staying.

"I'm exhausted." Elena lay sprawled on the bed. "These troublemakers kept asking me questions."

Alice sat on the sofa. "Heh, I'm even more tired here. A bunch of civil servants don't know anything. I have to explain it to them before they know how to do it."

Ronan was still working at his desk. "We've only just begun. We have more tasks tomorrow. Go and send letters to the surrounding cities, inviting mayors, secretaries-general, and speakers to watch the cow beauty pageant."

Elena sat up straight. "They're coming?"

"Yes and no, I won't come in person, but I will send someone, that's enough," Ronan replied. He wanted the surrounding cities to take a good look at this reform pilot program.

Chapter 321 Winning, winning so much, we're numb with winning.

A week later, the cow beauty pageant began.

There were many spectators, including dairy farmers and ranchers, farmers, ordinary citizens living in the city, local officials, councilors, businessmen, landowners, officials from several cities around the capital, nobles who came specifically for the event, wealthy merchants with businesses in the capital, and even retro artists and church members.

Of course, there was also a procession to welcome the princess back to the capital.

However, apart from participating dairy farmers like Luke, as well as farmers and ordinary citizens who were just watching the spectacle, no one else was really interested in the competition itself.

Ranchers like Maxim and Athos, along with other landowners, were all thinking about the agricultural cooperative.

In fact, the things that the agricultural cooperatives can do are no different from what they originally did.

But when the agricultural cooperative came, it directly combined these pastoral areas into one large region, and their original territories became sub-regions. They now had the additional role of sub-region committee member. On the surface, they could still do the same things as before, but now they had to consult with other sub-region committee members and be subject to the supervision of the large regional committee.

This is the same principle as a lord becoming a mayor.

They don't want to accept it, but they can't refuse it.

If they don't accept it, they'll probably have to be protected in a special prison for a while. Although Ronan and Dinia, that scoundrel, won't do anything to them, which of these ranchers doesn't have a son to support? Some families even have more than one.

If this drags on for a few more days, the filial sons will probably be "forced" to temporarily take over the management of affairs in place of their father.

Local officials in Rennes thought it was good, even not enough. They said, "Why the hell are these bastards being appointed as committee members? Why not just let civil servants do it?"

The officials thought to themselves, "Rennes is a miserable place. We're not a big city, but we have a lot of schools. Every year, we can't accommodate all the students. The better ones go to the capital, and the rest can't find good jobs and just keep cursing the government. If we had more government positions, wouldn't that shut these bastards up?"

The councilors especially love the farmers' associations. With the farmers' associations around, getting votes becomes so much easier, right? Forget all that talk, weren't all of them ancestors noblemen and intellectuals? Do you think it's easy for them to be councilors, having to go through the trouble of praising a bunch of poor, unruly people? From now on, they should just communicate properly with the members of the farmers' associations and hold a unified vote.

The other landowners felt that the agricultural cooperative was good. They used to envy the ranchers who could sit back and collect money. Now they also had the opportunity to do something similar. How could they not be happy?

The businessmen felt this thing was good; it would make it easier for them to collude with officials—or rather, to be conscientious businessmen under the guidance of the city hall.

Officials and businessmen from other places also felt that this operation was very worthy of learning.

"Ronan, is it really okay to do this?" Ambrina asked quietly. She felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

“If you were to just grab a knife and kill pigs roaming the hills, you’d be chasing them for days, let alone killing them. So, you have to first create a enclosure, put out bait, and let the pigs come in voluntarily before you can figure out how to kill them.” Ronan used an analogy. “It’s the same with these officials and agricultural capitalists. You have to create a system that they approve of, and then govern them under that system to prevent them from seriously damaging your core base.”

"Base base?" Ambrina really didn't know what her base base was.

"As the ruler, you have two main sources of income. One is magicians, which I won't go into. The other is self-sufficient farmers, workers, and small artisans, who are your main sources of tax revenue. The poorest people are all penniless and you can't squeeze any money out of them. If you try to squeeze them, they might even rebel. It's very difficult to collect taxes from the rich. If you try to collect them by force, they will pass the burden on to others."

"We can deal with the rich later, there's no rush."

"In short, we must not allow agricultural cooperatives to become tools for them to exploit the people at will; we'll just let them have their fun for now."

"The only one who can exploit the people is you, the ruler."

Ronan said.

"Hmm." Ambrina was much relieved now.

During the time that Ronan and Ambrina were talking.

The first round is over. Half of the sixty-four cows have been eliminated, leaving only thirty-two. The next round will see another half eliminated.

However, the champion was already decided internally, and that champion was Luke's bull.

If not Luke, then Pigke, Dogke, whatever the case, the winner must be an ordinary dairy farmer, but slightly better than the average dairy farmer—that's Ronan's idea.

The cow beauty pageant is essentially a public political performance, so the most important thing for the winner is not how good the cow is, but the winner's own identity. Ronan wanted to choose a dairy farmer who was different from the self-sufficient farmers to bring this show to a perfect close.

After the second round, half of them were eliminated, leaving sixteen remaining.

It was already noon, and the outdoor barbecue party at the competition site had begun. What were they grilling? Beef, of course.

To produce milk, dairy cows are mated year-round, resulting in many male calves born to cows on ranches. Most of these male calves are of little use and are naturally killed for meat.

Although only a few nobles, some high-ranking figures in the church, and wealthy merchants from the capital dared to approach Ambrina to say hello and exchange a few words, everyone with a bit of status was thinking about Ambrina now.

Especially those who support Isabelle's retro style and capitalists who are considered part of the post-post-party.

Seeing the current situation in Rennes, the retro faction members were convinced that Ambrina was also a reformer. Moreover, compared to Isabel, Ambrina not only had a plan, but had also implemented it, and the results proved that her plan was excellent.

The capitalists were even more tempted, because the Queen and her three brothers had nothing of substance, whereas what Ambrina was doing in Rennes was a tangible example.

In the afternoon, the barbecue ended, and the third round began, eliminating half of the remaining animals, leaving only eight.

These last eight teams went straight to the finals.

Unlike the previous rounds where the final decision was made entirely by professional judges, the final round was decided by a vote of several judges.

Before voting, there should naturally be a public commentary to make everyone understand that the competition is fair.

The ultimate winner was undoubtedly Luke's "Nina," a well-deserved victory considering she was the sixth seed. While some of the top five had recovered, they did not participate on Ronan's advice.

Although he had expected it, Luke was still stunned with surprise. The prize money was ten Golden Eagles! Ten! The eldest son's tuition was covered, the third son's dowry was covered, and they could buy more cattle, hire another worker, expand the business, and the second son who inherited the family business wouldn't have to work as hard as he had in the past.

Is this all he wanted to do in his life?

Luc was so engrossed in this dreamlike beauty that he completely ignored Ambrina, who was about to hand him the medal.

Finally, it was Ambrina who spoke up, "Sir, your medal."

Luke suddenly woke up, completely terrified. He had just ignored the princess; was he going to be sent to the gallows? The thought made him tremble uncontrollably.

Chapter 322 Secret Meeting, the Situation is Decisive, and Impotent Rage

However, that didn't happen. Ambrina gave him the medal, turned around and left, as did the other spectators of some standing.

Ultimately, in this grand drama, Luc, the award winner, wasn't even a supporting character; he was just a prop that would be illuminated once. Apart from the other dairy farmers and other farmers, nobody cared about him, including those petty city dwellers. Who the hell came to see the cows? They were all there to see the princess.

The milk beauty pageant has come to an end.

Because of the farmers' association, the locals suddenly became very busy.

The outsiders left Rennes early the next morning, intending to take their observations back with them, either to report to their superiors or to inform their friends.

Soon, the events in Rennes City reached the minds of the higher-ups in the capital, as they all had informants. However, initially, the lower and middle classes of the capital, including some lower-ranking officials, were unaware of the matter. But then, news of the Rennes City event spread to various cities surrounding the capital, and small merchants from these areas who did business in the capital directly reported the cow beauty pageant to the capital.

Now, even the lower-class citizens of the capital knew about what was happening in Rein City.

For a time, the entire capital city, from top to bottom, street to street, was abuzz with talk of Rein City, the cow beauty pageant, Princess Ambrina, and the series of reform measures.