Yes, Madam Prime Minister

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Chapter 331 The Imperial Meeting: Things Are Gone Wrong; Land-for-Shares Swap Is Just a Superficial Measure

A small, detached villa in the northeastern part of the palace, covering less than 100 square meters, is where the royal council meetings are held.

In addition to the meeting attendees, there were two recorders responsible for taking brief meeting minutes, and two waiters who did things like moving chairs, pouring tea, and serving small snacks.

It was morning. King Lucien sat in the middle, with Ambrina to his left. The Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief of the Royal Guard, and the Court Master of Ceremonies sat opposite the King.

The other two secretaries in the Prime Minister's Office Secretariat had no seats and had to stand.

The Prime Minister gave his secretary a look, and the secretary immediately placed a document on the table in front of the King.

"Your Majesty, according to the wedding itinerary you have drafted, there will be a parade of floats, requiring a large number of police officers to maintain order. At the same time, some citizens will need to be given out oil and sugar. After that, the wedding will be held in Alcott, followed by a grand banquet with continuous performances. After the banquet, there will be a fireworks display at night. The Ministry of Finance has already calculated the amount, which is already in this document. The expenses are simply too enormous. I suggest that you make some revisions."

Prime Minister Alexander Legris said he was not against marriage, but against a lavish wedding.

The king adjusted his glasses, his tone neither stern nor dismissive, "Legris, is this the wedding plan I devised? It's just according to tradition."

"It is all my fault. I have failed to assist Your Majesty in governing the country well, resulting in insufficient funds." Prime Minister Alexander spoke softly, but his head did not bow even slightly.

Ambrina stood to the side, and she remembered clearly that Ronan had told her to support the Prime Minister, but what could she say?

She was getting a little anxious, and when she saw the Prime Minister's face, she became even more nervous.

At this moment, the Minister of Finance spoke up, “Your Majesty, the Royal Alliance Chamber of Commerce has made a lot of money in recent years.”

Everyone knows that the money of the Royal Chamber of Commerce is the king's private treasury.

What he meant was that Your Majesty could use your own money to paint whatever you wanted, but if you wanted to spend the country's money, you should forget about it.

“So, should I also write a budget report? To be honest, the Wang Family Chamber of Commerce doesn’t have any money either,” Lucien said.

He wasn't lying. The Royal Chamber of Commerce really didn't have any money. All the money was invested in the companies under Ambrina's name: seed company, flour company, sugar company, feed company, soybean oil company, stocking company, post office company, and so on. Ronan had shares in all these companies, which he had directly or indirectly founded.

These companies have complex ownership structures, but they are all controlled by King Lucien and his daughter Ambrina. In the future, they belong to Ambrina and Ronan.

“Then let’s cut some projects,” Prime Minister Alexander said again.

The king didn't speak, but Ambrina agreed first, "Okay." She just wanted to end this charade as soon as possible. She remembered what Ronan had told her to say, but she had forgotten the specific lines. In her haste, she could only organize her thoughts and said, trying to appear calm, "Then write a proposal for the wedding ceremony. If I think it's okay, then it's fine."

Lucien suppressed a laugh. This move must have been taught to him by Ronan, but the phrase "If I think it's okay, then it's okay" definitely wasn't taught to him by Ronan.

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer both showed a hint of surprise in their eyes.

Although they already knew that the princess was not as weak and quiet as rumored, was this statement an display of domineering power or a naive and adorable one?

Suddenly, the Prime Minister was speechless; he was truly stumped by Ambrina.

"No objections now?" Ambrina asked eagerly.

“Arranging the wedding ceremony is not within my jurisdiction,” the Prime Minister replied.

Of course, he couldn't just agree like that. Did he think he wouldn't see through such a little trick? After he wrote his proposal, the princess sent it back and asked him to rewrite it. No matter what he wrote, she wouldn't even look at it and would send it back. As a result, the wedding was delayed for a long time, and then a rumor spread that the wedding process he, the prime minister, suggested was specifically designed to make things difficult for the future queen. In the end, no amount of explanation would be able to help her.

Ambrina was getting annoyed. "I asked you to give suggestions, not to make arrangements. If you won't write it, then you do it."

The finance minister, who had been suddenly chosen by Ambrina, was stunned. He was just there to show his support; what did it have to do with him?

"Anyway, I don't know how to save money. You guys figure it out. I'm leaving." Ambrina hadn't finished speaking when she started walking away. Her words were barely out of her mouth before she was gone.

Once outside, Ambrina took two deep breaths of fresh air and pressed her hand to her chest. She didn't know why, but she felt like she was about to suffocate.

After thinking for a moment, Ambrina turned her head without looking back and headed straight for the east gate of the palace.

After she left, King Lucien casually rested his chin on his hand and said, "My dear prime minister, heir to the kingdom, how is it?"

"Your Highness is intelligent and quick-witted, beyond my comprehension," the Prime Minister replied.

“She’s just a little nervous, don’t worry about it too much,” Lucien comforted her, then changed the subject, “I’m not going to get involved in the wedding, you can talk to her about it.”

After saying this, Lucien got up and left.

Soon after, Ambrina hurriedly returned to the princess's residence and summoned Ronan, and the two began to review the events.

"Hahahaha." Ronan burst out laughing after hearing that.

Ambrina was a little angry, and kicked Ronan's calf twice with her white-stockinged feet. "I'm not allowed to laugh."

Ronan pinched his mouth, forcibly stopping his laughter, and after a moment he spoke, "Actually, it's nothing. You've completed your mission perfectly, and I bet you also left our Prime Minister completely bewildered."

"Are you sure it's okay?" Ambrina asked nervously.

“It’s alright,” Ronan reassured Ambrina. “However, given His Majesty’s habits, he’ll probably pass this on to you. But it’s unlikely that the Prime Minister will come to you directly to discuss it.”

Meanwhile, in the capital, inside a small villa.

Carl was relaying Ronan's words to his father, Marcus.

After listening, Marcus simply nodded and then asked, "Did he say whether the land-for-shares swap involves dividing one company's land into multiple shares, or whether it's possible to invest in only one company?"

"They didn't say, but I think they probably won't allow it to be all converted into shares of a single company," Karl guessed.

“That’s troublesome,” Marcus sighed.

"Is this just to prevent too many shares from being used to collude with officials and control state-owned enterprises? Is it that serious?" Karl asked.

A state-owned enterprise might be owned by several, or even a dozen, nobles with roughly equal shares, and the relevant officials might not be a single entity. This would greatly increase the difficulty of colluding with them, as their interests would be unbalanced. This would ensure that the nobles and bureaucrats form a check and balance. Of course, as Ronan said, it is impossible to completely eliminate this.

"Foolish! If that's the case, wouldn't each family have to send multiple people to different companies as supervisors to ensure their normal dividends? Over time, the family members will naturally split up. That's his real purpose, do you understand?"

"That's what Carl's father, Marcus, said."

He was indeed a clever nobleman; he saw through Ronan's intentions. Following Ronan's land-for-shares exchange, he immediately issued a decree of favor.

Chapter 332 Favor, Coincidence, the Real Battle is Yet to Come

"Then, not going to exchange?" Karl asked casually, though he didn't really care about these things.

“If you don’t trade, will your brother be content?” Marcus retorted.

Carl thought about it carefully before he understood what his father meant.

Land is not easy to distribute, as it is linked to titles; titles are distributed before land is allocated.

Therefore, if Ronan were to expand the succession of titles and then reduce them to divide the land, it would inevitably mean that the next generation would have to continue dividing the land, and it would never end.

But nowadays land is not as valuable, and a small amount of land cannot make one an agricultural capitalist, and in the end, future generations will become poor.

Therefore, if titles were divided, the sons of high-ranking nobles would not be the first to step forward and support such a policy.

Rather than supporting this thing, they'd be better off not inheriting the title and land, lying around living off their brother, or going to the New World to try their luck.

Without a son rebelling against his father, this thing cannot be implemented.

However, if Ronan were to receive shares, and those shares in state-owned enterprises that generate easy profits, such as steel mills, mines, salt fields, or gunpowder factories.

In essence, it means that the shares are divided only once, because the shares are pure wealth. This generation divides them into several shares, which belong to different companies. Then, the sons who receive a share can give their share to only one son, without needing to divide it again.

So for this generation of sons, if their biological father is unwilling to exchange land for shares and distribute the shares to different companies, then they can only pretend that they don't have a father, and Ronan is their father.

Having figured everything out, Karl asked, "Are you going to object?"

Marcus sneered, "What's the use of objecting? A hundred years ago, His Majesty Lawrence enfeoffed many people, but he also took away their military power. Are nobles still nobles without military power? Do you really think nobles rely on bloodlines? Nobles rely on money and force. The problem now is to find a way to secure a place in the market and try to exchange it for shares in a better company. If we're too late, we'll only have scraps left."

“This policy will probably take at least another year or two,” Karl said.

“You’re really not cut out for politics,” Marcus sighed. “By the time the policy is out, the spoils have already been distributed. Don’t you understand that? Go, now, immediately, to the princess’s residence and tell her that I, a mere earl, am willing to donate money to Her Highness the Princess and Ronan’s wedding.”

Carl was taken aback. Was his father's thinking so unpredictable? In the blink of an eye, he had jumped to the topic of the wedding.

Marcus sighed, "You're only fit to sit back and count your money while holding onto some shares, you piece of trash, get out!"

After kicking his son out, Marcus slumped dejectedly in his chair. Karl was useless, but at least he could still think and was still a fairly skilled magician. He had married a good wife, and more importantly, he had made Ronan as a friend. His other sons were even more useless, brainless, and all they knew was how to spend money, and they spent it in the wrong places.

I really want to go back decades and shoot all those good-for-nothing sons onto the wall.

"Wait, come back." Marcus hurriedly called his son back. He had been so angry that he had forgotten the most important thing.

When Carl returned, he heard his father Marcus say again, "Call all the sons of those families and go together."

"Understood," Carl replied.

He understood his father's intentions. It was right to be proactive in this situation, but one should not hoard food. A person who hoards food is not fit to be a leader and only deserves to be attacked by the masses.

When Karl arrived at the princess's residence with the sons of several other noble families, Ronan rushed over with a beaming smile and dragged him away as soon as he was led inside by a servant. The other young noblemen could only follow in silence.

Carl had no idea that even if he didn't come today, he would have to come tomorrow, because Ronan had originally planned to visit him tomorrow and also pay a visit to his father.

Upon entering a large room, Ronan pointed to two men in their thirties and introduced them to Carl in a loud voice, "These two are secretaries from the General Secretariat. They've come to discuss the wedding arrangements with us. We just talked about how to reduce wedding expenses."

Ronan then introduced Karl to the two men, "This is Karl, my friend, the son of the Earl of Mace."

Before anyone else could speak, Ronan asked Carl, "Carl, what brings you here? Just say it."

At that moment, a thread flashed through Karl's mind, connecting many things: Was it all a coincidence? Or was it too much of a coincidence?

“On behalf of my father, I would like to express my hope that we can do our part to help with the Princess’s wedding,” Karl said.

Ronan smiled; he had guessed correctly. At the same time, he couldn't help but marvel at how formidable Carl's father was.

Upon hearing this, the two secretaries' expressions changed.

The two secretaries exchanged a glance, then stood up, bowed, and said goodbye, "Your Highness, Your Excellency, it's getting late, we won't disturb you any longer."

After saying that, the two left.

After watching the two secretaries leave, Carl turned to Ronan and asked, "Should I go too?"

“You can leave, or you can have a drink before you go,” Ronan said.

“Then we’ll take our leave too,” Karl replied, then called to the others to leave together.

The other noble youths looked at each other, bewildered. They had come for no reason, and now they were leaving for no reason. What was going on?

But they didn't say much and just left.

In the blink of an eye, only Ronan and Ambrina remained in the room.

Ronan sighed, "Well, sort of."

"How so?" Ambrina asked.

Ronan plopped down on the sofa and began to explain, “This farce has nothing to do with the wedding itself. It was just a little exchange between the King, you as the future Queen, and that Prime Minister. Actually, it wasn’t even an exchange, just a little game. The Prime Minister’s behavior was simple: he was testing him. The King’s response was that he would continue to be the ‘bad guy,’ while the ‘good guy’ role would be left to you. He shouldn’t expect to cause any trouble during this transition period. As for Anri, you naturally need to make it clear to the Prime Minister that you are willing to listen to advice, but you can also choose not to.”

Ambrina was overwhelmed. "Why is it so complicated?"

"The main reason is that your father and the Prime Minister don't get along, so by not making things too explicit, there's still room for maneuver," Ronan explained.

“That’s true.” Ambrina agreed.

Alexander is Lucien's third prime minister. The first prime minister was the late king, which goes without saying. The saying "a new emperor, a new court" applies even to a local gang. The second prime minister was "popular choice" and served for nine years. As everyone knows, kings hate popular choice people the most. The third, the current one, was someone Lucien thought would be obedient, but he was not so obedient.

The real reason behind the Prime Minister's actions was not his personal relationship with the King, but the issue of centralization of power. As the head of the bureaucracy, centralization of power is something the Prime Minister is happy to see, but several generations of kings have been trying to weaken the Prime Minister's power. Lucien's marriage of Ambrina to Ronan, a bureaucrat, was a very bad sign for him, and he worried that the reduction of power would come even more drastically.

That's why they used the wedding as an opportunity to test the future Queen's attitude.

"In short, the wedding is now over."

The next step is the establishment of the Ministry of the Interior, which is the real first battle, the toughest battle.

Chapter 333 Conferring a Marquisate, Getting Married—I'm Not the One They're Waiting For

Three days later, the wedding was set.

Ultimately, the only thing removed from the entire wedding plan was the absurd fireworks display.

In Seris, fireworks and firecrackers might be normal, but in the Western Continent today, playing with them is tantamount to wearing the label of a tyrant on one's face, because natural saltpeter is not entirely absent in the Western Continent, but it is practically nonexistent.

Ronan and Ambrina's expenses consisted of three parts. One-third came from government funding. About one-tenth came from donations from several prominent noble families, represented by Karl's father. They were originally prepared to contribute, but Ronan declined. The remaining majority came from various companies belonging to the Grain and Oil Consortium, meaning Ronan and Ambrina essentially paid for this themselves.

A week later, Ronan was knighted again, this time from Baron Wright to Marquis of Rhine, and from then on everyone had to call him Marquis.

Marquises are extremely rare in the Kingdom of Fas; there are only seven, including Ronan.

Here we must point out that the dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons of the Western Continent are not the same as those of Seris.

The titles of nobility in the Western Continent all originated from the old empire.

The title of Duke means "leader". In Seris, this is a true lord. In the feudal era of the Western Continent, many dukes were nominally appointed by the king, but in reality, they were the leaders of a semi-independent country, merely showing their submission.

The word "earl" means "partner," and as the name suggests, this is the vassal of the king or duke, the real number one henchman.

The marquis, sandwiched between the duke and the earl, meant "frontier leader." In the past, marquisates were usually located in the buffer zone between the kingdom and the duchy.

Therefore, in the present kingdom, only those who have served as governors of border provinces can be granted this title, and even then, it cannot be passed down to the next generation.

Ronan was able to be made a marquess because of his achievements in quelling rebellions in the New World colonies and fighting against the two foreign powers, Weyland and Villa.

With this title, he was barely worthy of Ambrina's status as crown princess.