Pyotr Arkadyvich Stolypin put his hand on his waist again, his anger growing little by little, the Interior Minister's finger was already on his wand, and in a second, the attack would shatter the nasty creature in front of him. However, as on the previous four occasions, the tense muscles touched the ivory and gold handle pinned to the wand, and the right hand once again swung helplessly back into place.

It's not that magic skills have regressed, according to human standards, the Minister of the Interior is a six-level magician, and it is impossible to make such a basic mistake. Nor is it because the negotiator has a loaded PPK pistol hidden in his sleeve, two grenades pinned to his waist, and the fuse ring and the ring finger of his left hand are connected - he has no idea about it. It was only on the basis of the simple fact that "if the other party was killed, the principality would not be able to borrow even a single cape", he had to endure and even condescend to personally go to the St. Petersburg branch of the V.E company, a tasteless building called the "Pentagon" because of its unique regular pentagon structure, to negotiate with a small consortium special representative.

"Impulsiveness is the devil. ”

After repeating this sentence for the eighth time, after readjusting the situation, Storey looked at his negotiator indifferently, and unhappiness began to accumulate little by little again.

As an important minister of the principality, and one of the few talented and conscientious elites, Stolypin has always had a good self-cultivation, can control his emotions well in the negotiation process, and always maintain a polite posture in front of outsiders. Many people who deal with him will even inadvertently forget that the Minister of the Interior once spread the gallows throughout the duchy during the suppression of the rebellion, earning the noose the nickname "Stolypin's Tie".

But now he has been on the verge of losing control many times. Almost pulled out the white gloves and threw them out, and then solved the problem in the traditional way of the principality.

Walter Friedrich Schlenburg was the most direct cause of this gaffe, and the negotiator of the V.E company was a typical playboy and a cunning fox, who constantly talked about him for more than ten days of negotiations, or else prepared banquet salons, teased the ladies and ladies, touched the buttocks of the cat or rabbit maids, and discharged electricity from time to time...... Nothing is said about important loan negotiations.

Hell, is there nothing serious about this bastard except a pretty woman? Why didn't a woman show a hatchet? Chop him into pieces?!

If it is in normal times. Stolypin didn't care about such a ridiculous act, but now he kept cursing it.

It was a waste of his and the principality's precious time!

Although the defensive battle of the Riga fortress was well fought, and the entire front was temporarily calming down at this stage, everyone knew that this was only temporary. Based on past experience. Humanity will soon organize more armies to retaliate. With a strong fortress system and the effective actions of the defenders. The fortress could continue to hold out, the stored food and ammunition were still sufficient, and reinforcements and supplies were constantly being drawn to the fortress. But what is clear to anyone. There is no city in this world that will never fall, and there is no inexhaustible source of soldiers.

It may sound strange that the Principality should be the least troubled country to deal with the problem of military resources. The sight of endless gray cattle shouting "Ulla", and charging bravely without fear of swords, guns and arrows is a haunting nightmare for every human warrior who fights the principality army.

They shouldn't and can't worry about the source of soldiers.

However, the group of important ministers, including the Grand Elder Count Sergei Yuryevich Witte, knew very well that the problem of the supply of troops would soon begin to afflict the country.

As we all know, siege has always been a long and bloody process, in the past history, the attacker besieged a city for 16 years without taking it, and the final decision of the siege battle must be the ability of the belligerents to replenish personnel and materials - the side without backup will inevitably be defeated. At a time when muskets and artillery are being put into the battlefield, this principle is still in force, and even more strongly affects the balance of victory and defeat than in the past.

Unfortunately, the Principality has a seemingly endless pool of human resources. But he could neither produce his own guns, nor was his ability to replenish lost soldiers weaker than ever.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon, both objective and institutional, and generally speaking, there are more institutional problems.

As we all know, the United Principality of Rus is a country made up of many orc races, and the bears are the majority, but not the absolute majority. They were always suspicious of other ethnic groups, suspecting that they were intent on separatism and independence - and this was not for nothing, for the early principalities were only a tribal ensemble, and rebellion and treachery were the things that everyone had done. For the sake of potential threats, the bears tried various means, at first it was a direct genocide, and then it was abandoned due to inefficiency and excessive intensification of internal contradictions, and then it was changed to use the conscription system, using wine and meat, faith, preferential treatment and other rhetoric to coax, or "using ropes to recruit soldiers" to drive other members of the race to become soldiers, and then give them second-rate or even third-rate weapons to fight the human army, so as to achieve the goal of stabilizing the internal and external situation.

Based on this traditional mentality, when the new army was formed, the soldiers recruited were all bears. The implication of guarding against other ethnic groups is self-evident.

Politically speaking, there is nothing wrong with this approach, but it is an out-and-out military disaster for the current war.

Due to the lag in the creation of all-firearms troops, the new army could not be compared with their counterparts in the human camp in terms of numbers and suzhì, relying on the fortress system they could gain a certain advantage, but attrition was inevitable, and losses would continue to rise with the arrival of more hairless monkeys and cannon muskets. In order to make up for the losses, the principality must send more gray animals who can operate muskets to the front line to fill the holes, but these recruits have received much less training time than the dead ones, their combat effectiveness is definitely worse, and the survival time on the battlefield is shorter, so more rookies with worse combat effectiveness are pulled up to fill new holes, and the young bears continue to disappear into this bottomless pit, and the strength gap between other races and the bears is gradually narrowing......

A vicious circle, not only for the principality, but also for the entire bear clan.

Worse still, even shrewd people like Witte and Stolypin saw the problem, they lacked the means to solve it effectively – enough money.

It is not difficult to relax the restrictions on who can recruit the new army, and even if there is a zài, tradition must make way for military needs when the survival of the country is at stake. Once restricted, in a very short period of time, the Principality could have an army large enough to overwhelm the qualitative superiority of the human army and send all the hairless monkeys to the Mother Goddess.

Restricting the ban and the number of soldiers are not a problem, but where can we get so many guns and cannons to equip this army?

Of course, it was bought from the V.E company with real money, who else but that group of profiteers?

The dwarven craftsmen of Seres used to imitate muskets, but the quality, performance, and parts of the common process were worse than those of V.E., and they took more time, materials, money, and less production. As long as it's not cornered, no army will load these expensive knockoffs. Moreover, due to the grudges with the orcs, the dwarves will not export weapons to the principality, let alone the human state.

It is not that the principality itself did not want to establish its own military production system, but first, time was rushed, and second, unlike human states, which could accumulate the original capital to start industrialization by plundering overseas colonies. In the end, all the technology is in the hands of V.E.

For merchants, there is nothing that cannot be sold, provided that the price is sufficient, and it is obviously impossible for the current principality to provide an attractive offer for the company to hand over the cash cow......

As a result, the Principality's armaments were still supplied only by V.E., which was willing to export weapons, but the problem returned to the dot - lack of money.

Muskets and artillery can burn more money than cold weapons, and the ammunition consumed in the defensive battle of the Riga fortress alone made Stolypin sweat profusely, the funds needed for the expansion of the army and the long-term war of attrition, the expenditure on the recruitment of young laborers during the spring ploughing season, and the expenditure on sending personnel and materials to the front...... The Duchy's bureaucrats are driven crazy by the numbers, because there are people who have fallen from heart disease, suicide, and insanity have not yet appeared, but it is estimated that if it continues like this, it will not be far off.

If this development continues, it will take a year at most, and the principality will spend every copper plate in its pocket. If the fight continues, the principality will be completely bankrupt and the whole country will collapse.

The only way to solve the problem was to borrow money from the V.E company to tide over the crisis, but Li Lin's money was so easy to borrow? That profiteer knew very well the economic situation of the principality, and he would definitely take advantage of the fire to rob and put forward very harsh conditions, but the principality could not refuse. Eventually, even if the principality wins, it will become a slave to its debts.

For several days, Schulenburg's cousin proved that this fear was not unfounded. Over the past week, the Special Representative has deliberately avoided loans or credits, making it clear that he intends to wait for the price to be sold and wait for the Principality to take the initiative to ask for a loan, so as to seize the initiative in negotiations and slash the knife.

Damn profiteers!

Condemning each other in his stomach again, Stolypin was about to say something to break the suffocating impasse in front of him, and at that moment, Schulenburg laughed.

"Your Excellency, our company has been sparing no effort to support the cause of the Duchy. We cherish our fraternal friendship with the Principality......"

Schulenburg gushed about history, looking back at "friendship made of blood", and he said it so brilliantly that it could almost be used as propaganda material. Stolypin just looked at each other silently and said nothing until Schulenburg said that.

“...... Therefore, in view of the change in form, the president wants to develop a deeper cooperation with the principality. ”

The Home Secretary's eyes lit up. (To be continued......)