Volume 5 Chapter 38 Nation’s strength
As the breeze of fall blew, there was a slight chill in it. It entered the window of the small building in the back gardens of the Lampuri Kingdom’s royal palace.
Seveni was feeling a little tired, but when the cold breeze hit her, she shuddered a bit and came back to her senses.
If this was before, she would think the breeze came at just the right time and she could focus on work again.
But this time she looked out the window, staring at the leaves that were falling outside in a daze for a bit. After being in thought for a bit, she closed the window.
She came back to the desk and picked up the document she had put down. Looking over, there was a heartfelt faint smile that appeared on her face.
This was the Lampuri Kingdom’s financial report from last month.
According to this report, it was clear that the current Lampuri Kingdom’s financial revenue was already greatly growing.
Just from last month alone, the Lampuri Kingdom’s total revenue had already surpassed five hundred thousand gold coins.
It had to be known, when Seveni’s father Lampuri Thirteenth and big brother Eric ruled the throne, the Lampuri Kingdom’s yearly revenue was only a million gold coins. As an average for the months, it would be less than a hundred thousand gold coins.
Seveni had taken the throne for less than two years and the kingdom’s financial revenue had increased by several times.
Based on the current trend, by the end of the year, the yearly revenue might even break five million gold coins.
Seveni knew that this five million to many of the large companies and nobles wasn’t not a large number.
But for a poor kingdom like the Lampuri Kingdom, this was an incredible achievement.
If the yearly revenue could break five million, this would mean the Lampuri Kingdom would be much richer and Seveni could do many things with this money.
The most obvious demonstration of this was military expenses.
Before Seveni took the throne, the yearly military expense was only three hundred thousand gold coins. And in order to deal with the threat of the Sack Kingdom, they kept drawing from the pitiful kingdom finances.
But now that the Lampuri Kingdom’s finances had increased, Seveni could invest more into the military.
Last year, the Lampuri Kingdom had invested over eight hundred thousand gold coins in military expenses.
Before it was even October of this year, the Lampuri Kingdom had already invested over one and half million in military expenses.
When the end of the year came, this might even surpass two million.
This number even surpassed the previous Lampuri Kingdom’s yearly revenue!
With this ample military expenses, the Lampuri Kingdom’s army was able to quickly change.
Take the northern army that was the most important to Seveni. Not only did each soldier have a complete set of weapons, they also had a large number of military magic machines which had greatly increased their battle strength.
Starting from the second half of the year, the northern army had started fighting back against the Sack Kingdom on Seveni’s orders.
And from the first engagement, during this year, the northern army had attacked the border many times. They had fought with the Hungry Wolf Regiment that guarded the border many times, winning each time.
The Sack Kingdom’s Hungry Wolf Regiment had fifty thousand elite troops, but there had been over ten thousand of those that had been killed by the northern army during these engagements. They even completely destroyed one of the elite units under the Hungry Wolf Regiment.
Since the founding of the Lampuri Kingdom, the Sack Kingdom had always had an overwhelming advantage. A situation like this had never occurred where they couldn’t even fight back against the Lampuri Kingdom.
Because of the northern army’s victory, the Lampuri Kingdom’s newspapers had been propagandizing this the entire year.
The people of the Lampuri Kingdom were filled with morale. There were even people who shouted for marching directly into the Sack Kingdom and attacking them, occupying their land.
But Seveni was clear that the Lampuri Kingdom could obtain these continuous victories because of the massive investments that had been made. At the same time, there was another important reason which was that they had large amounts of military magic machines, allowing the northern army to have an absolute advantage in terms of equipment.
Although this allowed the northern army to sweep across the battlefield, war was not only limited to the battlefield and was affected by many other factors.
The most important thing that decided the final victory of the war between the two countries was the national strength of both sides.
Even if the Lampuri Kingdom had gained many benefits from investing in the magic machine industry after Seveni took the throne, causing their national strength to increase by quite a bit.
The Lampuri Kingdom had been weak for too long, it was impossible for them to crush the Sack Kingdom in just two years.
Seveni never thought that they would defeat the Sack Kingdom this easily. She was very clear that to the Lampuri Kingdom, the most important thing was to maintain their fast development, quickly improving their national strength.
When the Lampuri Kingdom truly became strong, it was a natural thing for them to defeat the Sack Kingdom.
But to achieve this, there was another important premise, which was to earn the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s full support the entire time.
As the queen, she had a deep relationship with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce. It could even be said that she was the person who understood the Frestech Chamber of Commerce the best in the entire kingdom. Seveni knew better than anyone how much power the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, or rather Xu Yi had hidden.
As long as they had the full support of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, the Lampuri Kingdom could keep developing their magic machine industry, improving the economy of their kingdom and their national strength.
But to obtain the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s, or to be more accurate, to obtain Xu Yi’s support wasn’t that easy.
What Seveni was grateful about was that if Xu Yi cared purely about the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there would be no difference to him when it came to the Sack Kingdom or the Lampuri Kingdom. He could work with anyone since the Frestech Brand magic machines would be popular wherever they went.
But Xu YI had always firmly supported Seveni, never considering cooperating with the Sack Kingdom.
So to Seveni, other than considering Xu Yi her close personal friend, she considered him the most important ally of the Lampuri Kingdom.
Thinking of this, Seveni touched her stomach and her expression became a bit strange.
After being in a daze for a bit, she slowly shook her head and gave a sigh. When she wanted to continue going through the documents, there was suddenly a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
Seveni replied and soon there was a maid who came in.
“Your majesty, Lord Duke Festalin and Lord Count Sean are here.”
Seeing the unfamiliar face of the maid, Seveni couldn’t help thinking of Betty and Carol that she gave to Xu Yi, falling into a daze.
After a pause, she revealed a bitter smile and gave an order to the maid, “Let them in.”
The maid left to follow this order.
Very soon, there were heavy footsteps with different tones that came from outside the door.
When the door opened, Duke Festalin who had a high prestige in the royal army and was known as the “Lampuri Falcon” as well as Count Sean who had just come to Anvilmar City on Seveni’s orders yesterday came in.
The two gave a respectful bow to Seveni before Duke Festalin asked, “Your majesty, may I ask what you summoned us for?”
Duke Festalin was already sixty seven this year, but his body was strong and filled with vigor. Whether it was his mind or his body, they were all at peak condition.
If it wasn’t for his dazzling silver hair, one would think that he was still in his forties.
Seveni stood up from the chair and moved around the table, inviting Duke Festalin and Count Sean to a couch before sitting in front of them. She looked like she wanted to chat as she asked, “Duke Festalin, you should be the person who understands the Sack Kingdom the most in our Lampuri Kingdom. Can you tell me, with our Lampuri Kingdom’s current strength, is there a chance to defeat the Sack Kingdom?”
“Impossible.” Duke Festalin shook his head without any hesitation, “Your majesty, although we have an advantage on the battlefield, that is only the advantage created by the military magic machines. If we lose the advantage of this equipment, our kingdom’s army would only be able to barely defend the borders.”
“Then if we were to keep this advantage?” Seveni asked.
Count Sean on the side looked at Seveni before quickly looking away, as if he didn’t care about this question.
“If we keep this advantage?” Duke Festalin knit his brows to think for a bit before shaking his head, “It’s still impossible. Your majesty, the war between two kingdoms can’t be decided by one or two or even ten battles. There are many times that only after several hundred or thousand battles can the war be decided. But to guarantee the most important logistics problem for these hundreds or even over a thousand battles, our Lampuri Kingdom can’t compare to the Sack Kingdom.”
After pausing, Duke Festalin added, “Your majesty, you’ve already done very well in the two years you’ve taken the throne. I think that as long as we continue like this, it won’t take many years before we no longer need to worry about the Sack Kingdom.”
Seeing the sincere look on Duke Festalin’s face, Seveni revealed a faint smile. Then she said with a nod, “Great. Duke Festalin, since even you think this way, then I can be assured. I hope that you can express this view to the public, do you think that’s alright?”
Duke Festalin was stunned and after a period of thought, he understood Seveni’s meaning. He said with a loud laugh, “Alright! I will always use these old bones for the kingdom. As long as it is for the kingdom, I can do anything!”
Seveni revealed a sweet smile to Duke Festalin before turning to Count Sean.
“Count Sean, you’ve been smuggling various types of magic machines to the Sack Kingdom from Sowell City over these years, do you have an accurate number for this?”
Count Sean knit his brows, not understanding why Seveni suddenly asked this question.
Actually, when Lampuri Thirteenth was still alive, there were large amounts of magic machines smuggled into the Sack Kingdom from Sowell City. It was even considered “official smuggling” through Xu Yi’s suggestion to Lampuri Thirteenth.
During the years that Eric and Seveni had taken the throne, this never changed like there was a tacit approval for this.
After all, through this smuggling, the Lampuri Kingdom had earned large profits from the Sack Kingdom, so no one would ban it for no reason.
Seveni was aware of this and even suggested privately to Count Sean that he could increase the scale.
But why did she suddenly ask this question?
Count Sean was silent for a bit before replying, “It’s hard to get an accurate count, but according to the estimates in secret, just this year, we’ve earned over two million gold coins from the smuggling alone.”
“Two million gold coins?” Seveni knit her brows and shook her head, “That isn’t much.”
Count Sean and Duke Festalin were both stunned.
This was just smuggling, for it to reach two million gold coins, that still wasn’t enough?
Her majesty…..what did she plan on doing?