"Very good." Earl Raymond gives his son a satisfying look: "Your view on this is very thorough. It's true, the reason I'm still alive is because Prince Son needs to make sure his next move is in place. Once our private armies are disbanded and our territories are reclaimed, he will definitely come and clean us out. It's not like we're going anywhere, executing us a few days later won't make a difference anyways. If anything, he can use this as a way to boost his reputation."
Du Wei frowns: "Do you think he's going to kill you?"
"Hard to say." Earl Raymond laughs bitterly: "This is not left to me to decide..." At this point, he suddenly changed his expression and sternly looked at Du Wei: "You must promise me two things!"
"Go ahead." Du Wei sighed because he can already guess what his father is going to ask.
Sure enough, Earl Raymond turned serious: "Firstly, if some day in the future, Prince Son orders my execution me, you must never try to dissuade him! You must understand, a king is still a King. He may be favoring you now, but there is a line that cannot be crossed between servant and master. If you do, he will not hold back no matter how much he favored you before. So, I ask you now, save yourself at that time. If you do, then that would be akin to saving the Rowling Household!"
Du Wei did not try to rebuke: "And the second?"
"Second..." Earl Raymond reveals a trace of solitude in his eyes: "When I die, take good care of your mother and brother. If you still hold a hint of kindred ship, then in the future, have one of your kids change his sir name to Rowling."
Du Wei kept his silence.
With the downfall of Earl Raymond, the domino effect will definitely implicate Gabri. Though the orders haven't been issued out yet, but when the time comes, it is certain Raymond's blood line will never set foot inside the political arena again.
A single sentence of never being knighted is enough to spiral the family into oblivion, never to recover again.
In other words, Gabri will never be able to make a comeback; this includes Gabri's future bloodline.
In the aftermath of this coup, there is no doubt that Prince Son himself is the final winner. In fact, this coup had an effect of bringing stability to the royal family and solidifying their grasp across the empire even more.
The Roland empire may control the entire continent in name, but since the founding a millennium ago, there has been many annexation of lands to different nobilities. As a hereditary title, these families not only could recruit their own private armies, they can also collect their own taxes. Looking at it from this perspective, it would be the same as having a country within a country. Such a scene is clearly becoming cancerous to the empire.
And now, many of these nobilities lost their land and armies in this coup... If it's like this, you can even say the harvest is rather fruitful. Land, wealth, and people, all of it now belongs to the royal family.
Indeed, Prince Son does have the potential to become an outstanding emperor. In one single sweep, he not only alleviated the already highly stretched finances of the empire with the great influx of wealth. In addition, his follow up works is also extremely thorough. Apparently premeditated, when he mobilized the city garrisons back and forth across the empire, he had special agents closely monitoring the lands belonging to the nobles that participated in the coup. Any movement of trouble, he will know immediately.
Every move he did is not only clear and precise; it is also easy to follow up.
In less than half a month, the once tense atmosphere in the capital was swept away, resuming the hustle and bustle of this great city. If one didn't know better, they could never tell a coup had taken place. Immediately following suit, a group of nobles loyal to the royal family soon circled around the Prince, thus, securing the current state of affairs even more.
Finishing the preliminary works needed, Prince Son finally turned his sight at the mutinous leaders locked inside the jail...
Most of the assets belonging to the Solomon Household are now confiscated. As for the Rowling Plains, it is being cornered from all sides by the local garrison forces from the nearby provinces. Under such conditions, the private armies of the Rowling household finally disbanded under the supervision of a central delegate. Luckily for the empire, these people didn't resist because of Earl Raymond's request. Knowing his time has ended, this old Earl felt it was better to conserve the vitality of his people for a future comeback.
By the end of it all, the Rowling Plains is now under the control of a delegate sent by the capital. As for the troops stationed there, these people were all transferred from other garrison forces across the empire.
However by mercy, mostly due to Du Wei, the Rowling Household still retains the old family castle and 10 square miles of land around it.
Riding high in his luck recently, Prince Son still remains calm and showed no signs of being arrogant. Such a display of leadership and intelligence is already putting him in a very favorable light among the old veterans of the imperial court.
Back when Augustine the 6th was up in the throne, this old arrogant ruler had already tossed the financials of the empire into a giant mess. Numerous financial ministers tried to persuade him, but most of them ended up being kicked out of the capital and sent back to their old homes. As a result, any wise men at the time could clearly see the decline of the empire already in effect. But with the appearance of this new Regent, his overwhelming aura immediately swept away the stale atmosphere in the air and revitalized everything around him.
From word of mouth, it is said that the always gloomy looking financial chancellor Exchequer actually had a change of face. When he went home one day, he actually cried out to everyone under the influence of alcohol: "The Empire has hope! The Empire has hope!"
At this point, it's not hard to guess how popular Prince Son is.
Finally, on this day, both the Regent and the financial chancellor had a look at the financial report and saw how the numbers weren't in the negative. In addition, the report actually shows that there was additional revenue.
The next moment, this newly appointed Regent smiled and said: "Everything is set in stones now."
As for the financial chancellor, he became so moved that he nearly cried out in tears.
For ten years, he took on the position of a financial chancellor. No matter how hard he tried, the budget of the empire always came out in the negative. That's not all. Not only did he have to come up with the funds needed to keep things running all these years, he also had to endure the constant collection letters coming out from the military chiefs from all sides. To see the yearly budget come out in the positive for the first time in his life, how can he not be happy?
As for what came next is a meeting of Prince Son and his most trusted followers. This is also the time when Du Wei had to give his response to the territorial matter.
Back then when Prince Son threw down the map in front of Du Wei and told him to pick, Du Wei already knew the matter was very serious and cannot be made rashly. Because of all the envious and zealous looks he was getting from his colleagues, Du Wei can only smile and say needed time to think it over at home.
In these past few days, Du Wei went to visit the jail 3-5 times. It wasn't all just for his father's sake, he also needed to pass on some spending money to Luobosiji so that he can entertain that General 250.
Finally, in the front of Prince Son and his followers, Du Wei points his finger at the map and said: "Your highness, I've decided."
"Oh?" Prince faces smile: "Well then, I'm guessing you must have chosen quite the place."
Envious eyes gathered around as Du Wei slowly unfolded the map.
From around him, everyone is already certain Du Wei will pick a territory in the Southeast!
On top of being fertile and pleasant, the favorable weather makes it one of the most prosperous regions of the continent. Aside from this, this region is also the core of the maritime trades in the empire.
With Du Wei's title of a Duke, it's not overly ambitious to ask for a coastal province in this situation. If he does, the expected income from trade will be endless for the foreseeable future.!
After Du Wei slowly unfolded the map, he reached out and pointed on the map. With a smile on his face: "This here is my choice."
When everyone saw where he pointed, they were all dumbfounded!
The once warm smile on Prince Son's face also faded away at this moment. Giving Du Wei a deep glance, Prince Son spoke his next words with a hint of dryness in his voice: "You … … Really thought it through? This is your final decision? "
With a stern face, Du Wei turns to face the Regent: "I've thought it through, this is what I want."
Now, everyone nearby is showing a face of disbelief and thinking this newly appointed Duke has gone crazy.
"You will not regret it?" Prince Son stood up and stared at Du Wei.
"No regrets." Du Wei shook his head. With a smile, he gently bowed down: "I implore Lord Regent to grant me this!"
This time around, any trace of Prince Son's iconic gentleness is gone from his face. With no emotion, he curled his lips and stared at Du Wei for a long time before exhausting a long breath. Then without a single word, he turned away from everyone and headed for the exiting gate.
"Granted"
Year 960 of the Roland Empire, summer, June 10. On this special day, it marked the ending of the matters pertaining to the coup made by the Crown Prince. In one single move, all highly influential nobles participating in this coup were swept away. All assets confiscated and any family members involved were removed from the capital and left to find their own path to survival.
Later, a series of murderous commands were passed down!
Any family members from the Solomon family are to be executed.
Only exception to this is Earl Raymond of the Rowling Household: "All titles removed and never to be knighted."
Just this small amount of words is enough to waive the death sentence on Earl Raymond. It's just that all assets they owned in the capital were confiscated and the only option left for him is to retreat back to the Rowling castle in the plains for the rest of his retired life.
In addition to all this, there was one mind blowing episode. In the past 100 years, the empire has never titled another Duke. Yet, this newly appointed Duke not only didn't pick any of the treasured territories across the empire, the land he actually picked was stunningly shocking…..
Northwest, "Desa Province" of the Kilimanjaro Mountain side.
A poor, ignorant, and even savage area. If looking at it from a revenue perspective, the annual income of the entire territory cannot even match up to a median sized rich city in the Southeast.
And even more unknown to everyone because this little episode will never be recorded by anyone.
After Du Wei finished picking out his territory, Prince Son returned to his room and threw a raging fit. In minutes, this usually calm and kind looking prince destroyed every piece of furniture inside his chamber. Seeing such a strange and unbelievable scene, the guards outside the door became stunned.
"He still won't swear his loyalty to me! He is still refusing me!!" Prince Son destroyed a cupboard with a single kick: "I gave him everything the Rowling Household could give him, and more!! Yet he forfeited everything just to exchange it for Earl Raymond's life! Why! Why won't he lean towards me? Is family that important to him? All of them! Every single one of them puts their family before me! Oh Du Wei, you've let me down! I'm so disappointed in you!!!!!!"
Du Wei: Father, what you said is correct. If I want to protect my own skin, the right thing to do is not to save your life…..
However, I am Du Wei!
If I don't do this... Then am I still me?
As Du Wei walked out of the palace, he was genuinely smiling.
I will go the way I choose!