Roland looked at Pero with great interest, and suddenly laughed. "You are the first person to ask me that," he picked up his cup, took a sip of water, and said in a relaxed tone, "Longsong Stronghold is undoubtedly mine, even if I am not here. However, I do need a person or a family to manage the stronghold for me. So, you shouldn't be asking about ransom, but rather agency fees."
Agency... Pero was no stranger to this term. Some shrewd merchants would always target nobles in the territory who had significant output but no time or inclination to trade, selling their goods for them. To obtain this right, they had to pay a sum in advance as a deposit.
"How many gold dragons do you want?" he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.
"This is a long-term process, so there's no need to pay it all at once," Roland paused, "Thirty percent of the stronghold's tax revenue each month, and one thousand units of supplies, the rest is yours."
Not outrageous, Pero thought, as long as he could completely occupy Longsong Stronghold, such a price could even be considered fair. The other party wasn't joking, he confirmed that point, His Royal Highness the Prince really intended to do so.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Pero told himself. He and the Prince were not enemies, the Duke had completely failed, and his children would be stripped of their inheritance rights. If the Six Families' allied forces could not defeat the Prince, who else could stop him from actually owning the Western Region? Siding with a powerful force was the basic rule for the continuation of a noble family. If he could obtain the Prince's approval before the other four families, the Honeysuckle family would become the most powerful noble family in the Western Region.
"Your Highness, why don't you stay here? This castle is much bigger than Border Town."
"You actually want to ask, why don't I manage the stronghold myself?" Roland looked at the slightly embarrassed Pero and smiled, "There are many reasons, for example, the forces here are too complicated. Sorting out the relationships between them would take me a long time, let alone profiting from it. Supporting a local noble, I believe he knows how to govern this place better than I do. This is a win-win deal. Besides, there are many other reasons, you can slowly think about them when you go back." The Prince played with the silver cup, "By the way, if I choose you as my agent, you wouldn't possibly seek revenge against me for the Duke, would you?"
"Of course not, Your Highness!" Although the last sentence was a bit abrupt, Pero immediately replied.
The Duke was gone, the first thing the Five Families thought of was naturally how to divide his territory. Revenge? Who cared?
However, Pero also knew that the reasons the Prince stated were not the real reasons. The forces were too complicated and difficult to sort out? In the face of overwhelming power, he could completely uproot the leading opposing forces, at most it would only take one to two years, and all the nobles would forget the loser Laine, just like Laine had done in the past. But two years was definitely not enough time to build Border Town into a big city like Longsong Stronghold.
His Royal Highness Roland must have deeper plans.
"That's good, then this city..."
"I am willing to be your agent, Your Highness!" Pero blurted out, but soon his expression became hesitant again, "But, the King, no, I mean your brother, may not necessarily agree with this result. If he assigns a new duke to the Western Region, I will not be able to resist the royal capital."
"You don't need to resist," Roland threw two letters in front of him. "Take a look at this, and also the document I found in Duke Laine's room."
Pero quickly scanned the contents of the letters and couldn't help but gasp.
The first one looked like a secret letter. The new King Tifeike had fought the Queen of Azure Water in Eagle City and suffered a major defeat? The content of the second letter was even more shocking. The document was only half-written, but Duke Laine's desire to annex the Northern Region and rebel as king had already been revealed on paper. Since there was no ending, it was unknown to whom this document was intended to be sent.
He immediately understood what His Royal Highness the Prince meant. There was no need to resist because the new King was already overwhelmed. Otherwise, the Duke would never want to raise the flag of rebellion. His elite knights were enough to dominate the Western Region, but they were still far behind the Royal Capital Knights.
The secret letter might be forged, but this document was indeed in Osmon Laine's handwriting, unless the Prince found a witch who could simulate other people's handwriting... He thought about it, and then denied this guess.
The other party simply had no need to go to great lengths to deceive him. Acting as an agent for Longsong Stronghold was not a one-sided deal. If he could not gain a foothold in the stronghold, His Royal Highness the Prince would not be able to profit either. Moreover, the duke appointed by Tifeike would definitely be the Fourth Prince's enemy.
If the Honeysuckle family wanted to be above the other four families, they had to rely on the Prince's support. Conversely, in order to ensure that his own terms of the treaty were not abolished, the Prince also had to make the Hermon family sit in this position more firmly.
Thinking of this, Pero slowly stood up and bowed to Roland, "The Hermon family is willing to serve you."
"Very good," the latter nodded, "But it cannot be decided yet that you will be the agent. Let me ask you a few questions first."
"Please ask, Your Highness."
"How do you plan to deal with those who oppose you?"
"What is your estimate of the monthly tax revenue? How will you guarantee the one thousand units of supplies?"
"If I ask you to vigorously develop trade, what measures do you have?"
"..."
Pero originally thought that His Highness just wanted to take this opportunity to learn about the intelligence of the various nobles in the Western Region, but he did not expect that the other party would ask such strange questions, which was simply like assessing his governance methods and trade common sense.
After a series of questions, Pero racked his brains to answer them one by one, and His Highness's expression became more and more satisfied. Finally, he clapped his hands and said, "Not bad, that's it for today. When you have determined the ransom of three thousand units, you can come and redeem Earl. Don't worry, I will entertain him well these days."
"Your Highness, what about the agency?"
"It will also be revealed that day." Roland signaled the knight to see him off.
Pero walked out of the hall with a complicated mood, and then saw Carter put the God's Punishment Stone that had been taken away back into his hand - it was still the clear blue one, worth fifty gold dragons.
*******************
"How was it?" Roland looked at Nightingale, who revealed her figure from the side.
"Well, he basically told the truth," she shrugged, "He's much more sincere than the previous few. By the way, is it really okay for you to repeat the same thing to everyone? And those letters, they contain confidential content."
"Not everyone," the Prince looked through the list in his hand, "They are all from the Five Families, and only these great nobles are suitable to manage the stronghold for me. If their abilities are not strong enough, even if they sit in this position, they will not be able to run the stronghold, and will only cause the various forces to fall into endless infighting. As for the news that Tifeike. Wimbledon was defeated in Eagle City, it's not a secret. This matter will spread throughout Graycastle sooner or later. What I have to do is to make it spread faster."
Moreover, these two pieces of news came at just the right time, he thought. If the Second Prince had not suffered such a crushing defeat, he would probably have had to spend a lot of effort to recruit an agent. If he had used coercive means, the result might not have been so beautiful.
"So... you've chosen him?"
"If there are no accidents." Roland said with a smile, "He was the first person to take the initiative to ask me about this matter, and subjective initiative has always been the most important quality of an employee. And I didn't expect that there would be such a person proficient in administration and trade among the Five Families. I thought they would only ride on horses and kill."
He found the name Pero.Hermon on the list and lightly circled it with a quill pen. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian to vote and support, your support is my biggest motivation.
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