When was a country most short of money?
During natural disasters or man-made calamities.
Osnabrock had not suffered any major natural disasters recently. The plague had indeed reduced the population and workforce, but compared to neighboring countries, Osnabrock—which had been the first to control the plague—had actually been the least affected by it.
Last autumn, Osnabrock’s grain harvest had been bountiful. There was no widespread famine in the country, nor any serious riots. Since the Sailan Principality had become Osnabrock’s sister nation, Osnabrock had gained an absolute advantage in import-export trade through the principality.
Merchants made more money, and commerce flourished rapidly. The boom in commerce drove the development of manufacturing, and the growth in both sectors created more jobs. Commoners gained more work opportunities and higher wages, leading to a leap in their quality of life.
By all accounts, there was no reason for Osnabrock’s national treasury to be short of funds at present.
Yet just moments ago, Frederick V had turned his sons’ marriages into bait for investment.
All three princes had arrived, including the Third Prince, who was only thirteen or fourteen. Even if noble and merchant families currently lacked marriageable young ladies, considering the Third Prince’s age, many would still be willing to gamble on the possibility.
The Crown Prince and Second Prince had been even more blatant. By targeting Claudia, Gloria, and Charlotte, they were essentially telling the nobles: Unless you offer more money than the upstarts, we’ll marry the daughters of these nouveau riche commoners!
Of course, if Ye Tang were truly a foolish upstart, she would have been overjoyed by the Crown Prince and Second Prince’s favor toward her daughters and willingly emptied her coffers to send one or even both daughters to become imperial consorts.
Other upstarts, seeing that the Hedelin and Clement families had a chance, would likely harbor the illusion that if their own families showed even more “sincerity” than the Hedelins or Clements, their daughters could marry into the royal family.
In essence, the Crown Prince and Second Prince aimed to use the Hedelin and Clement families to stoke the competitive spirit of the nobles and other merchants, inciting the wealthiest people in the nation to compete fiercely for these slots.
Such actions would inevitably have a profoundly negative impact on both noble and commoner society. Yet even so, Frederick V still used his sons to raise funds. This showed he had no leeway left to consider the aftermath; the immediate crisis was far more dangerous than any backlash from the nobility.
Thus, Ye Tang could think of only one reason—
War. And not just any war, but a large-scale one. Osnabrock was about to become a hellscape of endless conflict, with the situation so dire that the treasury’s current reserves offered the king no confidence in winning.
Once war broke out, whether the princes would survive to the end was uncertain, let alone their fiancée candidates.
Moreover, since these candidates were not even official fiancées, their deaths would hardly matter. This gave the princes the confidence to claim indifference to their future partners’ backgrounds or appearances—they could use any number of wartime methods to ensure undesired candidates met untimely ends.
The ladies’ demise could only be blamed on the war, their frail health, their insufficient resilience, or their lack of fortune. No noble or merchant would dare demand the royals return the money. After all, it was nominally given to the state.
Furthermore, with national peril at hand, who would dare press the royals to prioritize the princes’ marriages over the greater good? Even if the royals wanted to proceed, the nobles would hardly agree.
Who knew if a prince might die in the war? What if a family invested everything and finally secured a prince’s fiancée or consort title for their daughter, only for the prince to perish? Would that family’s investment not go down the drain?
“—Do you understand now, Daisy? Frederick V never intended to let commoner girls become consorts or queens from the start. He just plans to squeeze us dry—to squeeze the nobles dry.”
The two pigeons crouched in the coachman’s blind spot atop the carriage, jostling with its bumps, found Ye Tang’s conclusion unbelievable. At first, they simply could not fathom where she had gotten such an outlandish idea, but after her methodical unraveling of the analysis, they were convinced.
Ye Tang’s words made Daisy feel cold. She pulled her cloak tighter but still shivered uncontrollably.
“So you’re going to see Duke Wilson… You want to confirm from His Grace whether Osnabrock is truly about to go to war with another country.”
Ye Tang nodded. “Exactly.”
The carriage pressed forward through the dark night, hooves splashing through the soft, muddy spring roads. Duke Wilson’s residence lay ahead.
Ye Tang and Daisy had no appointment, but upon seeing them, the butler hurried to inform the duke, who promptly summoned the pair.
“Your Highness, I’ll get straight to the point. Is our country about to go to war with another?”
Duke Wilson’s pupils contracted. In that moment, she even suspected that the lady before her had planted ears in her residence, or that one of her subordinates had succumbed to the lady’s temptations and leaked the information.
But she quickly regained her composure. Even she herself had only learned of it a few quarters of an hour ago. Few of her subordinates knew that Osnabrock was about to go to war with another country.
“…I can tell you. But Mrs. Hedelin, I need to know where you learned about the war.”
From the moment they disembarked, Daisy had been praying in her heart that Ye Tang was wrong—that her friend had overthought or misunderstood. But Duke Wilson’s words shattered her hopes.
“It’s Tartafu. Tartafu, along with neighboring states, has declared war on Osnabrock. The reason is that Osnabrock seized the Sailan Principality and used it to control trade with surrounding nations, thereby monopolizing the international trade market. Moreover, Tartafu suspects the Spanish Flu was deliberately spread by Osnabrock. Otherwise, they cannot explain why the Spanish Flu spread so rapidly and fiercely in neighboring countries while we in Osnabrock contained its effects immediately.”
“—!”
Daisy clamped her hand over her mouth. Only this kept her from crying out.
Ye Tang’s eyelashes trembled.
“The claim of spreading the Spanish Flu is just a fabricated excuse. But it’s effective for rallying neighboring countries against Osnabrock.”
What was more, Osnabrock’s coercion of the Sailan Principality and use of it to control trade—monopolizing the market—was a fact. Blocking someone’s wealth is like killing their parents; how could Tartafu not itch with hatred toward Osnabrock?
Claiming Osnabrock spread the Spanish Flu was merely a pretext to justify Tartafu’s war.
People need face, just as trees need bark; nations too must maintain appearances on the international stage. Declaring war for money was far less justifiable than doing so for humanitarian reasons.
“Now it’s your turn, Mrs. Hedelin.”
Duke Wilson crossed her fingers, waiting for Ye Tang’s explanation.
“I understand, Your Grace. …”
Duke Wilson had never imagined Ye Tang could deduce this much from just a few words spoken by the king and princes at the ball. This made her regret once more that Ye Tang was a woman.
Had Ye Tang not been female, she would surely have recruited her as an advisor. And if that advisor stood by her side, she was confident she would claim the throne.
“Mrs. Hedelin, I want to know what you plan to do next.”
Ye Tang frowned with a smile. She could sense the ambition in Duke Wilson that had been absent two years ago.
“…If possible, I want to stop the war.”
“But I know this war cannot be stopped.”
Frederick V had no intention of compromising with Tartafu. Tartafu’s national strength had already been severely depleted by the Spanish Flu. Osnabrock had choked off Tartafu’s economic lifeline via the Sailan Principality; left unchecked, Tartafu would only decline further. At this point, Tartafu could not back down either.
Neighboring states had likewise seen their strength plummet due to the Spanish Flu. Osnabrock had become the only fat piece of meat on the barren icy plains. Even a share of it would greatly improve those nations’ situations.
“So I must do the only thing I can.”
Duke Wilson narrowed her eyes slightly. “The only thing you can do?”
“Contain the spread of the Spanish Flu.”
The plague had not truly passed; it had merely lessened in severity, yet humanity had already forgotten the pain after the scars healed. How could the Plague Knight resist riding roughshod over such humans amid war?
Once war began, troop movements would spread the plague. Army assemblies would turn soldiers into massive mobile petri dishes.
To protect rural farmers, major cities would open their gates to all peasants and vagrants. This influx would bring parasites en masse into the cities.
Street population density would rise, human waste and sewage would spread everywhere. Polluted water, air, and environment would accelerate disease.
Under wartime conditions, cities would seal themselves. Whether from starvation, disease, or cold, the dead would pile up, unable to be carted out for burial promptly. Corpses would cause greater pollution, and diseased ones would infect more healthy people.
Dying in cannon fire was tragic enough. But was dying from plague after surviving the shells any less tragic?
Soldiers wielded weapons for charging into battle, but against the Plague Knight, what did ordinary people have?
Nothing.