Published at 9th of August 2022 11:56 am

Book 8: Chapter 74: Reconciliation?

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Half an hour later, after all the ministers that had been called left, there was only Duke Rostov who was still with Emperor Candra.

The hall had been silent for a while before Emperor Candra finally spoke.

“Rostov, if three times the waste from the northeast province attacked the royal guards, what would be the casualties?”

Duke Rostov was silent for a bit before shaking his head and replying, “Your majesty, the battle situation is different, so it’s hard to estimate. But in the previous exercises, the royal guards brought out three brigades and easily routed the two regiments with very few losses.”

Emperor Candra gave a slight nod.

The royal guards had five thousand troops in one brigade and three times that would be fifteen thousand troops.

As for the regiments, they weren’t fixed. The bigger ones had forty to fifty thousand soldiers and the smaller ones only had around twenty thousand.

But Emperor Candra knew about the military exercise. The royal guards had only brought out three brigades and had defeated two regiments, which had a total of over eighty thousand troops.

So the royal guards had actually defeated enemies that had five times their numbers.

With this reference, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards defeating the northeast army with three times their numbers became less dazzling.

But Emperor Candra knew that there were many things that couldn’t be compared between the two examples.

First, there was a large difference in numbers.

In the military exercise the Candra Empire arranged before, the royal guards and the two regiments added up to over a hundred thousand people.

In the Baimon Mine matter this time, there were two hundred to two hundred fifty troops from the northeast garrison and there were only around fifty Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards stationed at the mine. In total, that was less than three hundred people.

With such a large difference in scale, there naturally wasn’t any meaning in comparing them.

But through a rough comparison, one could roughly see that although the battle power of the royal guards couldn’t compare to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards, at least they weren’t that much worse compared to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards at the Baimon Mines.

At least……it wouldn’t be like twelve years ago. When facing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards, they wouldn’t be able to resist at all.

“How many troops does the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards currently have?” Emperor Candra suddenly asked.

This question was sudden, but Duke Rostov understood what the emperor meant, so of course he wasn’t surprised. After thinking about it, he replied, “According to the data they’ve announced, it should be only eighteen thousand people. If we count in the hidden portion, I estimate it at around twenty five thousand, but no more than thirty thousand.”

“Less than thirty thousand?” Emperor Candra knitted his brows to think for a long time before asking, “What kind of price would we have to pay if we wanted to get rid of those thirty thousand troops?”

Duke Rostov shook his head with a bitter smile, “Your majesty, I can’t answer your question. Although the empire has been investigating the Frestech Chamber of Commerce in secret, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce strictly guards the information on their military magic machines, so we haven’t been able to learn much. You should know that in current warfare, it doesn’t matter how many people there are, it all depends on how strong your military magic machines are……”

“I know this.” Emperor Candra nodded to show he understood, “But I want to know, how big is the current gap between the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the empire? Can we deal large casualties to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards?”

“This……we should have that opportunity……” Duke Rostov’s tone wasn’t too certain, “After all, the empire has invested quite a bit into military magic machines over the years and has had shocking results. I think……that at least we wouldn’t be at a level where we couldn’t resist like before.”

“That’s good.” Emperor Candra finally revealed a faint smile, “As long as we can resist, that’s fine. Although the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards are strong, they have too few people.”

Duke Rostov nodded in agreement.

All the countries on the Sines Continent, although they were worried about the power of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards, everyone knew that they had too little people in the end.

Compared to the countries with over a hundred thousand soldiers or the empire with hundreds of thousands of troops, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s less than thirty thousand guards were stronger than other companies, but they were far lacking compared to a country’s army.

Even if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards had powerful military magic machines, giving them battle strength that far surpassed any countries.

They were limited by their numbers. It allowed the other countries to resist them.

Moreover, the current Sines Continent was different from how it was twelve years ago.

The Sines Continent of twelve years ago only had the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the two empires that could face each other, the other countries could only watch and help from the sidelines.

But if the Frestech Chamber of Commerce did the same thing now, even if the other countries still helped, they would show far less support for the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

Because compared to twelve years ago, the power balance between the Frestech Chamber of Commerce and the other countries were much smaller, so the other countries could resist them now.

“Speaking of this, what is the northeast province doing?” Emperor Candra knitted his brows.

Although the Baimon Mines matter had already been designated as a rebellion by the soldiers, Emperor Candra was still wary of the truth of this matter.

If it really was as Duke Tim said that the soldiers were unhappy with the treatment in the army and wanted to rob something, they wouldn’t target the Baimon Mines in the end.

Everyone knew that the Baimon Mines was under the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so there were Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards stationed there.

Even if these soldiers were dumb, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to challenge the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards.

“We have to wait for Duke Tim’s next report.” Duke Rostov said, “As for the most important thing right now……it’s how to deal with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.”

After his voice fell, the messenger from before suddenly ran in.

“Your majesty, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s representative, is asking for an audience.”

Emperor Candra exchanged looks with Duke Rostov before both of them gave a nod.

“Let them come in.”

###

A week later, the Candra Empire’s official channel held a joint press conference with the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, making an announcement about the Baimon Mines incident.

The announcement was that in the Baimon Mines incident, the squad from the northeast province’s army had decided to rebel because they were unhappy with the treatment of the army, so they tried robbing the Baimon Mines. They tried stealing money and military supplies from the Baimon Mines, but they were repelled by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards stationed there.

The Candra Empire government stated that the soldiers that attacked the Baimon Mines were designated as traitors by the empire parliament.

Under the empire’s laws where treason was a first grade offense, they were all given the death sentence.

But since they had already died in the hands of the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, there was no need to further pursue this matter.

The Frestech Chamber of Commerce side also stated that the Frestech Chamber of Commerce had already reached an understanding with the Candra Empire government. When it came to the heavily injured workers or the workers that died, the Candra Empire side would give them sincere compensation.

The Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards’ losses were almost nothing, so the Frestech Chamber of Commerce also agreed not to pursue this matter.

After the Candra Empire and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce made this joint announcement, this matter seemed like it had passed and wouldn’t have that much influence.

But for everyone who read this announcement, their first reaction was that this was “impossible”.

Whether it was the Candra Empire or the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, they all had strong attitudes and would rarely let things go that easily.

But this time, both sides had reached an agreement quickly and deescalated this matter. If it was said that there wasn’t a trick, no one would have believed it.

So many people started having strange analyses about the truth of this matter.

Out of all the possibilities, the one that everyone agreed one was that the Candra Empire had suffered a loss in this matter.

Look, the Candra Empire had lost a squad from their army and had to offer large compensations in this matter. But what about the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s side? Other than two Frestech Chamber of Commerce guards suffering minor injuries and the Baimon Mines being shut down for some time because of injured workers, they didn’t suffer any losses.

Not to mention that the Candra Empire was clearly making concessions. Then in secret, the Candra Empire must have paid a large compensation to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

For example, at the press conference, the two sides had also announced a new project. The Candra Empire and the Frestech Chamber of Commerce would work to set up a research facility outside of Zidanru Town, studying the strange phenomenon that had happened in the town.

In the Candra Empire’s description of this project, they didn’t say the same thing as before that the Zidanru Town matter was related to the Magic Air Conditioners, but clearly a different phenomenon.

This stance told everyone that they had made some clear concessions.

But not many people were surprised and confused by the Candra Empire’s concessions.

In the past ten years, all the countries of the Sines Continent, including the two empires, couldn’t have a strong stance when facing the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

Just the Candra Empire had made many concessions to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce, so it wasn’t anything surprising.

People were already used to this and they could understand why the Candra Empire had made concessions.

In the end, the Frestech Chamber of Commerce was too strong and the other countries couldn’t resist. Then adding in the fact that they couldn’t avoid the Frestech Chamber of Commerce when developing their magic machine industries, it was normal to make concessions to the Frestech Chamber of Commerce.

This guess had turned into everyone’s final judgement towards these two matters.

But in the minds of people who knew certain things, the truth was completely different.

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