Yes, Madam Prime Minister

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Lucien had known about this technology for a long time; his brother Louis's talent came from it. However, the technology was not mature enough to be applied on a large scale, and to ensure stability, several people had to work together to complete a single surgery to bestow a talent upon a person.

"Why accelerate the elimination of royal politics? Won't this technology make the status of nobles more secure?" Lucien asked.

Ronan smiled. “My son, you should say that this thing will further develop private ownership and make the nobility powerful. What will you do then? Of course you should try to win over the common people. Besides, most magicians are of commoner origin nowadays. What will they need a king for? A prime minister, or even just a president, will suffice.”

Lucien didn't quite understand why they didn't want a king. What was wrong with a king? He had also witnessed the prime minister election process. "That kind of thing is fundamentally detrimental to stability."

On the contrary, Velma was quite understanding. She was from the Netherlands, where the rulers ruled. But where you stand is where you stand, and she was now the queen. "I still think the monarchy is good."

“Son, do you know that if it weren’t for Lawrence back then, the Golden Eagle Dynasty would have been finished? To put it even more bluntly, if it weren’t for me, the Golden Eagle Dynasty would have been finished too,” Ronan said. “Someone like you is already considered quite good among all the monarchs in history, but a dynasty starts to decline after about a hundred years, and reaches a critical juncture after one hundred and fifty years. At this time, someone with extraordinary talent has to come out and continue the dynasty. Your grandfather was much more capable than you, but he couldn’t do it. I did, but next time, will your descendants be able to do it? I’m not saying this to be mean, but nine times out of ten your descendants will be worse than your brother.”

"That's all. By the way, don't take your mother's words too seriously. She definitely didn't mean to accuse you of harming the old retainers we left behind." As he spoke, Ronan stood up. "Imagine, she probably thinks you haven't done enough and should have killed a few more."

After saying this, Ronan prepared to leave, but at that moment, Velma called him back.

"Father, do they need us in the Far East?" Velma asked.

“That’s not something you need to worry about,” Ronan said. “The kingdom is still on the rise; you just need to focus on steady development.”

Lucien asked again, "Father, should we stay?"

"I made plans with your mother tonight to have a big meal at a restaurant. She's already tired of the royal chef's dishes. Alright, goodbye." With that, Ronan vanished in a flash.

Meanwhile, Dinia is communicating with Camille, the current Secretary of the Inner Court.

Dinya told Camille about her grandfather Rabelais, and then asked about the situation of several state-owned enterprises in the country.

As the inner court secretary, she had no real control over the king's mistress and secretary; her main task was to oversee the state-owned enterprise's accounts.

He's more of a head accountant than a secretary-general.

Camille gave a reply.

"Not bad." Dinia was slightly relieved after hearing this.

“These are essentially businesses that are almost guaranteed to make money. The shareholders, who are essentially aristocrats, have the right to dividends but no real say. The actual managers are also highly paid, and there are third-party institutions to audit and supervise them. These state-owned enterprises themselves are basically fine. The problem lies with the downstream private enterprises. When a state-owned enterprise undertakes a large project, the downstream private enterprises also take on some related small projects. In this process, local officials, banks, state-owned enterprises, and private enterprises collude to make money,” Camille said.

State-owned enterprises themselves are not a big problem, but once they start a large project, it becomes a feast.

"Sigh, it seems the Security Bureau still needs to be re-established." Dinia sighed. Before leaving, in order to avoid a change of throne, Little Lucien lost control and allowed the Security Bureau to expand like a runaway horse. They had severely suppressed the Security Bureau.

It seems that the National Security Bureau will have to deal with these people.

Meanwhile, inside the Security Bureau, Isabel's group of old subordinates were complaining.

They were once so powerful, with an "education institute" in one hand and a "mental hospital" in the other. Who wouldn't they be afraid of?

Now, they've lost their right to interrogate, they only have the power to arrest people, what good is that?

"Director, it's not that we can't let go of power, it's that we can't bear to see the country become like this."

"That's right, those corrupt officials are too arrogant, we have to crack down on them."

"Furthermore, there are spies everywhere in the civilian population. Without us, how can the country prosper?"

"Director, since you're no longer here, why don't we let Princess come and lead us? We watched her grow up; she's one of our own."

The princess was referring to Ina, Ronan and Ambrina's daughter. The Security Bureau's officers felt that the Security Bureau had been powerful in the past because its leader, Isabel, was the king's sister and Ronan's lover, so they felt at ease. Now, however, they no longer had a leader whom the king could trust, and thus they had been marginalized.

To reverse the decline, we must bring in Ina.

The position of Director of the Security Bureau is one that offends people, so she is definitely out of the running for the throne, but she is also the King's sister, so she can be trusted.

“If she’s willing, I can do it; if she’s not, I’ll try to arrange a secretary,” Isabelle replied.

"secretary?"

"That fool is His Majesty the King's mistress."

"Oh, that's okay too."

"That's all for now, I'm leaving." Isabel said goodbye and left without giving any further instructions.

While Isabelle was still contemplating state affairs, Ambrina was listening to her youngest son play the piano. Since she was no longer the queen, she naturally didn't care about such matters at all.

She truly believes that children and grandchildren have their own blessings to offer.

Anyway, things are pretty good now, aren't they?

As for the future, what does it have to do with her? The most important thing in life is to be happy.

"You played well, Louis, but there's still a small problem."

Chapter 937 The New Governor Rents a House First; The Pawnbrokers Are Having a Hard Time

While Ronan and his group of four were catching up, thousands of miles away, at Meiguan Pass, where Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces meet, a group of five were preparing to cross the border.

A coachman was driving a carriage carrying two people along the valley road, preparing to cross the pass. A woman dressed as a man rode behind them on horseback. Both of them were extraordinary beings.

The coachman, Dong Liu, was a man with a bronze-colored, muscular physique, who looked to be in his thirties but had some graying temples. He was not a regular or respectable figure.

Inside the carriage were an old man and a young man. The old man looked to be around fifty years old, but was actually seventy-six. The man dressed as a scholar and with three long tufts of beard was named Guo Mingli. He was a fourth-level expert and the newly appointed governor of Guangdong. Although he dressed as a scholar, he was actually a warrior.

Guo Mingli's ancestors were not Seres, but Beliales, but by his generation, they were no longer recognizable by appearance.

He wasn't originally surnamed Guo; Guo was the imperial surname bestowed upon his ancestors by the previous dynasty's emperor.

Beside him stood a handsome, fair-skinned young man, who looked to be in his early twenties but was actually not yet thirty. He was a scholar with a second-level cultivation level. His name was Bai Yang, and he was Guo Mingli's close friend despite their age difference. Although he was surnamed Bai and had fair skin, he was a native of Guangdong. He had come to the capital with his father when he was twenty years old.

The female knight outside is named Guo Hanlu, after the day she was born. She is Guo Mingli's youngest daughter. Now twenty-six years old, she already has a third-level cultivation level, which can be considered as exceptional talent. Guo Mingli only has this one daughter, and among his children, only Guo Hanlu is a transcendent being, so he values ​​her immensely.

Guo Hanlu is tall and slender, just over 1.7 meters tall. She is beautiful and elegant, with fair skin and red lips. Her features have a mixed-race look, and her eyes are especially bright and captivating. However, there is a touch of heroism between her brows. Her face is a combination of heroism and charm.

With a flat chest, he was dressed in a martial arts outfit and had a men's hairstyle, making him a handsome young man who could definitely attract women's attention.

She has canine teeth when she smiles, which makes her look a little sweet. However, she is not sweet at all. She and the husband chosen by her father were incompatible from the beginning. They had cold wars and quarrels. In the end, she punched her husband three times and divorced him.

Although her father-in-law's official rank wasn't as high as her father's, it wasn't a minor official either, and they weren't even in the same system. Guo Mingli had to put in a lot of effort to keep the matter under control. Both parties claimed incompatibility and smoothly divorced, even gaining custody of the child. The price was that Guo Mingli had to become the Governor of Guangdong. Nowadays, apart from a few provinces in the Central Plains, every governor in the province is a swindler, because you never know when the people under your command might rebel.

Guo Hanlu insisted on coming along, and Guo Mingli had no choice but to let her. After all, she was his precious daughter.

Wait, five people, where's the last one? There's another person in the sky, the white crow, she's Guo Hanlu's five-year-old daughter, who just awakened.

Inside the carriage at this moment.

"Did you really go to Guangdong alone, without even going to the government offices?" Bai Yang asked. Guo Mingli was known as Mr. Wangshan.

Bai Yang had asked this countless times. Although Guo Mingli brought his daughter, himself, and the driver, with such a small group, it was no exaggeration to say that he had entered Guangdong alone.

Guo Mingli stroked his beard calmly. "We've already investigated. In Guangdong these days, they're not exactly rebelling, but they are. If we go directly there, will we just be treated like royalty? We need to go deep into the countryside and do a thorough investigation. Maybe we can find a turning point. It just so happens that your childhood friend is now a minor official, so he can help out."

“Wangshan Gong used to be an honest and righteous man, but he’s been in officialdom for years now, so things might not be the same anymore. He might just betray us,” Bai Yang said with some worry.

“You’re just overthinking things. Are we supposed to reveal our identities to him? We don’t even know the way without a local,” Guo Mingli said.

Bai Yang was still worried, "He's quite shrewd."

"Actually, it doesn't matter if they find out. Are those people in Guangdong going to surround us and force me to become the governor? I'll just wander around Guangdong. If they find out, they'll be happy. As long as I don't go to the government to hand over the reins, I'm not the governor, just an ordinary citizen. As long as I don't do anything big, they won't make things difficult for us."

Guo Mingli is very insightful.

We can't afford to be completely observant; we've stumbled into a den of thieves. What else can we do? Let's see what the situation is first.

“Sir, we are now in Guangdong territory,” said Dong Liu, the coachman outside.

“Alright, we’ll sell the cart and horses in the market town ahead, and then walk all the way to Guangdong,” Guo Mingli said.

The horses had to stop frequently, and in terms of speed, they were no match for these superhumans. Plus, the horses needed to be taken care of, which was troublesome.

Three days later, Guo Mingli and his group of four arrived in Guangzhou.

The first thing they needed to do was find a place to stay. They pretended to be merchants, but they weren't, so it wasn't convenient for them to go to the hometown association. Instead, they went directly to the brokerage firm to find an agency to rent a place to live.

In addition to introducing transactions, providing warehousing, food and lodging, and handling various business matters, real estate brokerage firms also offer a variety of other services, including real estate brokerage.

Guo Mingli, having served as a local official, naturally knew the true nature of brokerage firms. He was indeed a superhuman, but anyone running a brokerage firm in such a place must also be a superhuman. At most, he wouldn't rip him off.

To Guo Mingli's surprise, the dental services here were exceptionally attentive and the prices were very reasonable, and this reasonableness wasn't just for him.

"I never imagined that the people of Guangdong would be so simple and honest," Guo Mingli said deliberately, knowing that this situation was definitely not normal.

"You jest, esteemed guest. The higher-ups have said that all brokerage firms must undergo rectification, and the previous official permits are invalid." The broker serving Guo Mingli said with a wry smile. The so-called official permits were the certificates of official authorization to operate brokerage firms. "Although they certainly won't be abolished, new rules will definitely be established. With new rules, wouldn't it be necessary to kill a few to establish authority?"

Guo Mingli became curious. "Oh, what new rules?"

"How could a lowly person like me know this? Speaking of Guangdong, we have many chambers of commerce and guild halls. Unlike your brokers in the north, who can control prices and logistics, merchants from other places can't do business without brokers. Our brokers in Guangdong have long been squeezed out to earn a meager living from workers and farmers. Even then, they're almost not making any money." Ya Ji said with a sigh, quite envious of his counterparts in the north.

The more commercially developed a place is, and the more powerful the businessmen are, the more likely their gray industries will have to sink to lower levels.

"How so?" Guo Mingli asked again.

"The trade union and the farmers' association, huh? In the future, when it comes to job introductions, the trade union will come; when it comes to microloans, the trade union will come. The trade union is one thing, but there's also the farmers' association. The farmers' association is the real bastard. From now on, agricultural products will be directly purchased by the farmers' association and sold to merchants. The merchants' cotton cloth and farm tools will be directly sold to farmers by the farmers' association." Ya Ji started swearing as he spoke. The biggest business of the brokerage firm is actually the wholesale logistics of bulk agricultural products and daily necessities. The trade union won't kill them; the farmers' association is what will really kill them.

"Are the fees charged by the labor union and the farmers' association high?" Guo Mingli asked again.

Ya Ji smiled and said, "They're such a big company, of course they can completely crush us with their low profit margins and high sales volume."

Chapter 938 It's all the farmers' association's fault; if you can't beat them, join them. (The foreign woman in the teahouse)

"Then what does this have to do with your current good attitude?" Guo Mingli continued to ask.

Ya Ji didn't answer immediately. Instead, he pulled Guo Mingli aside to a secluded spot and said, "Distinguished guest, haven't you heard the saying, 'If you can't beat them, join them'? What union or farmers' association? They can't just conjure people out of thin air, can they? In the end, the big boss will be dragged out and slaughtered as a sacrifice. After all, the big boss's heart is black to the core, beyond redemption. Only killing him will appease public anger. Someone like me, with my own client base and a group of skilled errand runners under my command, is of course the best candidate to switch jobs and start anew."

"If you don't perform well now, what will you do if you can't get in later?" Ya Ji retorted.

Guo Mingli nodded. "That makes sense."

Just then, Ya Ji suddenly chuckled, "However, if you want to get ashore, you'll definitely need money. Honored guest, could you lend me one hundred taels? I'll pay you back one hundred and twenty later."

No wonder Ya Ji was willing to tell him so much; it turned out he was waiting for him here. Guo Mingli understood, but he politely declined, saying, "I just came to check if there are any ways to make money here temporarily. I might leave any day now."

"Really? That's a pity." *Bullshit*, Ya Ji thought to himself. *Damn it, he might leave any day now. You rent a place? A two-story house with a small yard in the city, facing the street, and for a long term? Is this the kind of person who'll be leaving in a few days? You damn profiteer.*

Although he was cursing inwardly, Ya Ji still handled the matter amicably, finding two suitable houses for Guo Mingli from the register and telling him to come back tomorrow, when he would take him to meet the two landlords one after the other.

They would collect a service fee of one tael of silver upfront. After the transaction was completed, they would take one-twentieth of the year's rent as a brokerage fee. If any problems arose within the first month, their brokerage firm would come and mediate free of charge. After that, it would be a matter between him and the landlord, and their brokerage firm would no longer be involved.

Guo Mingli left the brokerage firm and reunited with his former part-time rickshaw puller, Dong Liu, and his close friend Bai Yang, despite their age difference.

He briefly recounted to Bai Yang what he had just seen and heard at the brokerage firm.

“It sounds like a good policy, but we don’t know how it will turn out,” Bai Yang said. “Throughout history, there have been many good policies, but few have been ruined. Whether these labor unions and farmers’ associations can be good or not depends on whether the workers and farmers can really unite and generate a counterforce. Otherwise, it won’t be long before it becomes a bad policy.”

"Unfortunately, even Ya Ji doesn't know what kind of system the trade union or farmers' association is, or how it operates."

When not personally involved, Bai Yang has always had a good analytical ability, which is why Guo Mingli hired him as an advisor. His problem is that once it involves himself, he tends to nag like an old nanny.

Guo Mingli didn't really expect this young man to give him any good ideas; he just wanted Bai Yang's perspective to broaden his thinking.

“That’s true.” Guo Mingli confirmed to Bai Yang, then looked at the servant Dong Liu, “Where did Hanlu go?”

The servant Dong Liu replied, "Miss and Miss Sun said they went to find a place to eat and asked us to wait for her at the corner of the street ahead. She will come when she finds a place."

Guo Mingli and his two companions walked forward. Just as they arrived at their destination, Guo Hanlu came with her daughter.

Guo Hanlu immediately told her about the place she had found: a teahouse.

I don't know if the food is good or not, but there are a lot of customers, so it should be pretty good. But that's not the point. The point is that many of the customers are obviously small business owners. They may not have much influence, but it shouldn't be difficult to get some information from them.

“The atmosphere in Guangzhou is really different. I just saw two women sitting at a table in a teahouse. One of them was blonde and blue-eyed, and she was much taller than me,” Guo Hanlu said. At 173 cm tall, she already stood out from the crowd, but the foreign woman was much taller than her.

“Foreigners have different customs than us,” Bai Yang said.

Guo Hanlu glanced sideways and said, "I said one of them is a foreigner, but the other is a little girl, who looks to be only a teenager."

The Central Plains region is conservative in its customs. While it's not to the point that women are forbidden from showing their faces in public, two women dining alone in public would likely be the subject of gossip and pointing fingers. In the Central Plains, even married women are usually accompanied by family members in such situations.

But in Guangzhou, it seems like there's absolutely nothing wrong with two girls eating out.

Of course, what concerned Guo Hanlu the most was that the foreign woman's cultivation level seemed to be much higher than hers.

"Let's go ahead first, and see if we can find a chance to ask around about the farmers' association later," Guo Mingli said.

"A farmers' association?" Guo Hanlu asked, puzzled.

Bai Yang explained it to her as they walked.

Guo Hanlu walked with her arms crossed in front of her chest. After listening to the explanation, she found it very interesting. "Guangzhou is really interesting."

"Hanlu, watch your manners," Guo Mingli said from the side.

"Dad, I'm a woman disguised as a man now, a wandering heroine of the martial world. What do I need to be so formal about?" Guo Hanlu had no intention of listening to her father. She rubbed her daughter's head. "Sixteen, do you think Mom is right?"

The girl, nicknamed Sixteen, didn't respond at all, which made Guo Hanlu feel a surge of anger in her chest. However, she didn't lash out. She felt she had failed her daughter too much.

As the group walked to the entrance of the teahouse, they happened to see the foreign woman and the girl coming out.

The blonde, blue-eyed foreign woman's gaze lingered on Xiao Shiliu for a moment, then, realizing her mistake, she bowed and said, "Excuse me, gentlemen."