Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Page 208

Chapter 474 Too Thin-Skinned, A tacit Agreement, The Pre-Ordered Crown

Jealousy? No.

In fact, Dinya herself found it strange. Everyone said that orphans both yearn for and fear family affection, but she was not like that at all.

One or two friends, and Ronan, a lover you both love and hate, are more than enough.

“I’m not your toy,” Astrid protested.

“Yes, yes.” Elena said like a child, making a face as she spoke, “Lily is Mommy’s little toy.”

“Your godmother will help you beat her up.” Agustina pretended to punch Elena twice, then started laughing at herself, “Hahahaha.”

Astrid stamped her foot in frustration, "Ugh, you guys are so annoying! Don't treat me like a child!"

Dinia was already laughing in exasperation. Astrid was usually a little adult; she had read many books and understood a lot of knowledge and principles. In a way, she wasn't just pretending to be mature.

Compared to real adults, she is too thin-skinned and can't stand being teased; she gets angry as soon as she is teased.

Elena and Agustina, even though they're in high positions, sometimes they still don't act properly.

“Let’s go inside and talk business,” Dinia said again.

“Wait, I want to hear too,” Astrid exclaimed.

Elena's eyes instantly turned serious. "Stop joking, Lily. You don't even know what's going on."

Astrid pouted, "Then tell me."

“You wouldn’t understand even if I told you, go play, okay?” Elena said.

Astrid remained motionless. She was an extremely vain child who felt it was shameful to throw a tantrum when things didn't go her way, just like other children. She usually protested in this silent way.

"Look how upset you've made the child; she's about to cry," Agustina complained to Elena.

Elena suddenly burst into laughter, "Cry, quick, make her cry! I've never seen her cry before!"

Astrid was so angry she wanted to hit someone, but if she made a move now, wouldn't that mean she lost?

"Alright, let me explain." Dinia couldn't stand it anymore. "To put it simply, your father and I had a small argument over the selection of the six ministers. Do you know who these ministers are?"

“Of course I know that. Aunt Dinya, weren’t you the minister before?” Astrid said, then suddenly exclaimed in surprise, “I understand. You should take advantage of the old man’s absence and select the minister according to your own wishes.”

Dinia shook her head, while Elena and Agustina laughed.

"No?" Astrid asked, surprised that she had guessed wrong.

Of course she was wrong. If Dinia were to do that, it would mean she was truly going against Ronan. She had never considered doing that, nor could she.

"Then what are you going to do?" Astrid asked.

“Publicly questioning his suitability to be chief secretary,” Elena replied.

“That way, someone will naturally report him,” Agustina added. “If no one does, we’ll find a way to arrange for a few people to start the fire ourselves.”

Elena immediately added, "Then we'll launch an investigation into him, but the purpose isn't to investigate Ronan, but rather to take the opportunity to purge some people."

"Finally, they forced your father to make some compromises on the ministerial candidate," Agustina continued. "Of course, this was actually a tacit agreement between your father and the head of the delegation."

Dinia concluded, "Let's also see who will stand firmly to protect Ronan when we 'attack' him and His Majesty is not around, and who will be eager to kick him while he's down. Consider it a small test of our stance, that's about it."

Astrid's little brain was overloaded; she felt like she understood a little, but also like she didn't understand anything at all.

Although the general direction had been set, the specific steps still needed to be discussed. Dinia and the other two went into the room and began to discuss.

This time, Astrid didn't press the matter, because she realized she didn't yet have the ability or knowledge to participate in such a discussion.

In a small town in the southeastern part of the kingdom, thousands of miles away, at the foot of a snow-capped mountain, lies a hot spring.

Ronan and Ambrina, who had just finished a fierce battle in the snow, were taking a bath and enjoying some wonderful time together.

“If only I weren’t the king, I could live this carefree life forever,” Ambrina said, then changed the subject, “But if I hadn’t been a princess, I certainly wouldn’t have had the chance to meet you, Ronan. And if I hadn’t had the chance to ascend the throne, I probably wouldn’t have been able to marry you.”

"Marrying a lovely girl like you, Anri, is the greatest luck of my life," Ronan said.

As a wife, she only occasionally indulged in minor whims, never acted out, and even allowed Ronan to have affairs.

As king, he was not extravagant, completely trusted Ronan, entrusted him with political affairs, and never interfered in his own affairs, making things difficult for Ronan by giving unsolicited advice.

Meeting such a person was undoubtedly Ronan's good fortune.

“I’m thirty years old, and I’m still cute.” Ambrina smiled, pursing her lips.

Ronan put his arm around Ambrina and said, "Even when Ina turns thirty, Anri, you'll still be adorable."

Ambrina gently patted Ronan. "By the way, is she really alright in the capital?" Ambrina knew, of course, that Ronan was deliberately giving Dinya an opportunity to cause trouble. She was somewhat worried about Dinya, and at the same time, she was still a little angry and hoped that Dinya would stumble. Dinya had really gone too far that day, daring to lecture her.

Ronan was perfectly aware of Ambrina's thoughts. "Wouldn't it be better if something went wrong? Let our King go back and give this ungrateful prime minister a good scolding."

Ambrina shook her head. "Never mind, she's always been like that, always annoying. It's best if nothing goes wrong."

"Your Majesty is truly the most benevolent ruler of all time," Ronan quickly flattered his wife.

"Tch, more like a tyrant." Ambrina denied it, but she was secretly pleased.

With the country's rapid development in recent years, it's impossible for her not to feel a little proud.

Her ancestor Oranje founded the enterprise, Lawrence revived it, so wouldn't you say she revived it three times over? In terms of achievements, she should at least be ranked third, if not second.

Thinking of this, Ambrina couldn't help but ask, "By the way, Ronan, when do you think the Empires will start fighting?"

"How would I know?" Ronan genuinely didn't know.

The entire Western Continent knows that the Protestant princes of the Will Empire are about to fight the Old Church Emperor, but no one knows exactly when.

Maybe it will be tomorrow, or maybe it will be another ten or eight years.

"What, you can't wait to put on the crown?" Ronan asked.

Ambrina asked, "If we win by a large margin, will we be able to wear the crown?"

“Yes, if the empire collapses completely, it will mean that the old church will never have a chance to rise again. The pope, who is hiding in Vena, will probably have to make a move.” Ronan said, “If the pope makes a move, the final result will be either that he sends over the crown, or he loses his right to it and we make one ourselves.”

"Sigh, I hope it doesn't come to that." Ambrina didn't want the war to spread throughout the entire Western Continent.

"This is not something we can control."

Chapter 475 Officially Taking Office, Fortunately, Every Time the Market Opens, a Promise Was Made

In mid-January of 1594, the royal family returned to the capital.

This was immediately followed by a major reshuffle of personnel at the central level.

Prime Minister Alexander retired directly and no longer holds any public office. Former Secretary Austin also left the central government and went to work for a consulting firm.

Digna became prime minister, and Ronan Rhein-Ronan became his first secretary.

Regarding the two previous prime ministerial candidates, Pierre was transferred to the position of governor of the New World colonies, the position of Minister of Commerce was taken over by the former deputy minister, and William resigned as Minister of Agriculture, which was succeeded by the young Adrian. This was not too surprising.

Next up is the Ministry of the Interior, which is of utmost concern to everyone.

Cheney took over the Interior Ministry. Former National Security Director Agustina and Commercial Secretary Elena of the Bureau of Workers, Peasants and Merchants Security left the bureaucracy to join the General Labor Union and the General Farmers' Union, respectively. The position of Director of the National Security Bureau was vacant again, while the position of Director of the Bureau of Security fell to Abelaad.

This directly weakened Dinia's influence over the Ministry of the Interior.

But the Queen herself has gained even more control over the Home Office.

The most controversial aspect is Alice's appointment as head of the Inspectorate. The controversy doesn't lie in her; as a friend of the Queen and the lover of the "Vice-King," who else would get promoted if not her? The controversy lies in the fact that, at the same time she took office, a large group of people from the Inspectorate went directly to the "education center" for "further studies."

This is not a good sign.

Her Majesty's power has increased further.

Postal and transportation services were separated to become the Ministry of Transportation, and the former director was promoted to minister.

Next up are four new faces.

These four people are quite surprising; none of them were the hot topics everyone was talking about a month ago, and some were even unheard of. Thankfully, there were no betting odds, otherwise someone would have lost everything like in the last election.

First, there's the new Minister of Industry. Everyone thought he would be a reformer, but it turns out he was appointed as the Director of the Social Welfare and Relief Bureau, which was originally under the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The extent to which this person's expertise is mismatched with his job was even a bit excessive for the secretaries; this was definitely not the kind of person the new Prime Minister, Diniya, would prefer.

You guessed right, this was Ronan's choice.

Even the seasoned veterans in the central leadership failed to grasp Ronan's deeper meaning. He was essentially placing a minister with a seal at the top and then planting a bunch of ruthless officials below him, using these ruthless officials to develop industry.

A healthy country is one where farmers are exploited, workers are exploited, and officials are exploited.

Secondly, regarding the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, most people believe that the one who will take the position will be the dean of the law school who previously worked with Ronan to draft the new civil code, especially the property law section. After all, there's a saying in officialdom: "To become an official, you need to look at your face; to get promoted, you need to have connections."

As a result, the vice-principal and dean, who had a good appearance and strong connections, failed to take the position. Instead, the president of a very radical second-rate university took the position.

No need to guess, this was Dinya's choice.

He had two famous propositions. First, he wanted to completely abolish customary law, comprehensively revise the new law, establish a multi-level court system, and ensure that future trials would only be subject to the law.

If this happens, it will be much more difficult for local officials to interfere with the judiciary in the future.

Article 2: All citizens shall have equal civil rights, and all legal privileges of the nobility shall be abolished.

Most of the officials were also nobles.

He's alive today because he's a magician and has a good father; he's also the son of Ussel, one of the three giants.

Third, the Minister of Finance. The Minister of Finance is going to be replaced again.

Since former Finance Minister Bruno was imprisoned for his involvement in a treason, there have been four different finance ministers in recent years, and the previous three all died.

The first one immediately brought up old grievances; a few days later, his son was kidnapped. A few days later, the son was rescued, all the kidnappers were killed, the case was closed, and the dignified minister, after much deliberation, decided to resign. The second one, barely settled in his position, wanted more favors; Ronan could only move him to a much hotter spot—a red-hot iron chair. The third one was too old and died of illness.

The finance minister has become the most risky position at the center of the economy over the past few years.

The new finance minister this time is quite intriguing.

He is a governor.

The state in the east, bordering the mountains to the south, has a population of less than 200,000, less than a densely populated city. Many of these 100,000-plus people are shepherds, and the governor's governing style is also very much in line with local customs, like shepherding sheep.

If we're judging him by his political achievements, it's not that he had none, but there aren't many achievements to count.

This minister was handpicked by Ronan to send a signal that past transgressions would not be punished.

Unbeknownst to the officials, this was the very thing that had sparked the argument between Dinia and Ronan.

Ronan meant to let it go, since the Ministry of Finance issue wasn't just a problem with the Ministry of Finance itself, but rather with various central departments defrauding the government of funding. Many things happened ten or even twenty years ago. Even if you executed every high-ranking official in office or retired in the kingdom, there would still be loopholes.

Why did Isabel say when she first met the country ten years ago that it was a dilapidated house and should be burned down? Because at that time, the country's economy was in ruins, it had experienced a southern rebellion and two failed foreign wars, and the country itself could not collect much money. The little money that was collected was immediately taken away by various departments under various pretexts, and the whereabouts of this money were unknown.

Dinia wanted to get to the bottom of it, but Ronan thought it was pointless.

Because much of that money has been converted into luxurious villas, expensive jewelry, luxury goods from the East, and even beautiful female slaves. These things may seem valuable, but what's the point of recovering them? These things are not means of production, nor can they be used as money.

Finally, there is the Minister of Education.

The Ministry of Education is a new department, but the minister comes from the Ministry of Foreign Trade.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade is the central department that connects with the colonies. The reason it is called that is very simple. The Kingdom of Fas never uses the word "colonialism" and does not admit to having carried out colonial activities. From beginning to end, it is only trade, foreign trade, you understand?

Colonization is something only those barbaric pirates and old-fashioned executioners from Wieland would do. Our Kingdom of Phos has always been a land of farmers, with a perfectly good conscience.

The Ministry of Foreign Trade is mainly composed of three types of people: ruthless, vicious, and vicious.

This person was chosen by Dinia because she wanted to promote compulsory education, and in the current situation, implementing compulsory education would require the use of wolves.

In general, of the six new ministers, apart from the ministers of commerce and agriculture, Ronan and Dinia each got two, so it's a 50/50 split.

"Didi, you're the prime minister now, shouldn't you keep your promise?"

Ronan said to Dinia.

As previously agreed, if Ronan helped her get elected prime minister, Dinya would have to take good care of Ronan in the prime minister's office.

Dinia stepped on Ronan's foot, "I'm practically being sidelined by you as Prime Minister, and you still want to keep your promise?"

"You did select two ministers, so at least pay half of what you owe," Ronan began to bargain.

Dinia let out a sigh of relief. "Just tell me what you really want to do."

Ronan raised an eyebrow and smiled. "We can discuss it later. If you're not willing, there's nothing I can do about it, right?"

Chapter 476 Prime Minister's Office, Madam Prime Minister, how about something special?

In the latter half of January, the weather is approaching its coldest point.

The Prime Minister's office, which is no more than 50 square meters in size, has been renovated and its furnishings have been changed.

This process is repeated every time a new prime minister is appointed.