Volume 6 Chapter 97 - Meaning of the empire’s navy (1/2)

The Candra Empire’s royal palace was located to the north of the capital Wimbledon City, standing taller than some of the hills on the plains.

This hill was the only tall spot in the nearby plains and the royal palace was so big that it covered the entire Wimbledon City. As long as the citizens looked up, they would be able to see the giant and magnificent royal palace in the distance.

The great emperor of the Candra Empire would hold court meetings in the most conspicuous building of the royal palace, which was also the core of the Candra Empire’s government, listening to the reports of the various ministers.

Normally speaking, this court meeting was only a formality and they would only make some short reports to the emperor. As for the rest, it would be discussed in a meeting after the court meeting.

So most of the time, the emperor just sat on the throne looking down at the various ministers, listening to them.

However, today, the emperor of the Candra Empire, Deboir Seventeenth stood up from his high throne and was angrily pointing at the middle aged man who was wearing the uniform of a Candra Empire general.

“The powerful empire’s navy can’t even take care of a single company’s fleet, instead they lost over 70% of their fleet just from being beaten by them! Duke Warner, this is the empire’s navy that you command? This is the navy that the empire spends tens of millions of gold coins on each year?”

The middle aged man had lowered his head and didn’t respond.

Seeing that he didn’t say a thing, Deboir Seventeenth was even more angry.

“Very good, since the empire is spending tens of millions of gold coins on a useless thing each year, what’s the use in keeping you? From this day forth, the empire’s navy will be abolished! I don’t want to spend money on you trash any longer!”

Hearing Deboir Seventeenth’s words, Duke Warner suddenly looked up with a trace of shock in his eyes.

Although the empire had debated whether there was a need for a navy and the army headquarters kept decreasing their budget each year, the emperor had never taken a stance, so there was nothing fatal about these.

But now that the emperor had flown into a rage about the former navy’s defeat by the Frestech Chamber of Commerce’s fleet and even said that he would abolish the navy, if someone seized this chance, it really would have devastating effects on the navy.

“Your majesty, you mustn’t!” The one who shouted out wasn’t Duke Warner, but rather the Candra Empire’s minister of finance, Marquis Hastri who was standing to his right.

Seeing him come forward, not only the other ministers, even Deboir Seventeenth was surprised.

Because the navy took up large amounts of funds and didn’t do anything to contribute, so the department of finance that suffered much of this burden each year should be the one with the most complaints about them.

Now that the emperor had angrily said that he wanted to abolish the navy, the one that should be the happiest should be the department of finance.

So why did Marquis Hastri have such a reaction?

Deboir Seventeenth looked at him with a confused look, “Marquis Hastri, why mustn’t I? If you can’t give me a convincing reason, don’t blame me for not being polite.”

Hearing the dark tone in Deboir Seventeenth’s voice, the ministers all felt a chill in their hearts.

It seemed like his majesty truly was angry this time.

If anyone made him unhappy during this time, it really was a disaster for them.

Marquis Hastri wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, it was clear that there was a lot of pressure on him.

But after calming himself down, he said in a forced calm voice, “Your majesty, I don’t know anything about war, so I can’t offer an evaluation in this aspect, but as the minister of finance, I do care about the financial significance of the royal navy.”

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

Financial significance of the royal fleet? Could it be that other than spending tens of millions of gold coins a year, they had some other meaning?

“Oh? Tell me about it.” Deboir Seventeenth was also hooked by his curiosity.

“Your majesty, it is true that the empire’s navy does take tens of millions of gold coins a year and in the past few years, at least during the years I have been in office, they haven’t made any contributions so there is no need for them to exist.”

Hearing this, all the surrounding ministers couldn’t help nodding.

This was what everyone had thought of the navy.

“But……” Marquis Hastri suddenly changed the topic and his voice became louder, “This situation has become better in the past two years. Although I can’t give a concrete number, the pirates in the southern seas have gone into hiding from the attacks of the navy, so it has greatly increased the marine transportation industry on the southern seas. Just with the three harbours protected by the navy in the south, the tax revenue from them just this year alone will be over seven million gold coins.”

“Seven million gold coins?”

All the surrounding ministers revealed shocked looks.