landbeastnovel Chapter 378 Putting on an act, fighting for funding
Chapter 378 Putting on an act, fighting for funding
Chapter 378 Putting on an act, fighting for funding
When Prime Minister Aguhid and his entourage entered the council hall, they unsurprisingly saw the Crown Prince feigning unconsciousness at the Fussac Embassy, Robert Horn pretending to take the Crown Prince to the hospital, and a teacup smashed to pieces on the floor.
By this time, George III had regained his composure, and there was no angry expression on his face. Even so, the political leaders who had just braved the freezing cold to arrive still felt a chill creep into their collars and couldn't help but shiver.
The ministers who had rushed over stood silently in two lines, bowed to the king who sat on the throne, and then waited for George III to make his statement.
Since His Highness the First Prince and Earl Robert had arrived long ago, it meant that they had already informed George III of the situation in advance.
On his way to the palace, Prime Minister Agushid had already dispatched his personal servant to report the situation to the palace.
Therefore, His Majesty the King should already know all the information, and now it is only a matter of how George III decides to proceed.
"Govington, as the eldest prince, you have not bravely taken on your responsibilities when you should have, but instead chose to cowardly evade them. You have disappointed me greatly."
After glancing at the ministers standing before his throne, George III began by questioning his son.
Upon hearing this, Prince Winton was terrified and quickly stepped forward to explain, but was stopped by King George III.
"Enough said. I'm confining you to your estate outside the city for three months. You are not to leave without orders. Go now!"
Isn't that the same treatment Edsack received before?
Prince Winton wanted to argue further, but when he looked up and saw his father's cold gaze, he swallowed his words and left the council hall under the guidance of a court attendant.
Those present were not surprised by this, and Robert even sneered inwardly.
George III will inevitably punish his eldest son, Winton, to give Prime Minister Agushid, who took the blame, an explanation; otherwise, it would be too disheartening. However, the punishment is perhaps too lenient.
From this perspective alone, George III's punishment of the eldest prince was merely a way to appease Prime Minister Agushid.
In fact, he secretly admired the eldest prince's decision at the time. After all, from the royal family's perspective, the eldest prince's feigning unconsciousness was the best choice to deal with the sudden and difficult situation.
If the eldest prince were to truly bear the responsibility for turning against the Fussac Empire, it would be a major blow to the royal family's image.
Now, not only has he escaped the awkward situation of making a decision on the spot, but he has also extricated the royal family from the matter. Every time George III thinks about it, he feels a sense of relief.
"I've heard about what happened at the Fussack embassy. The Prime Minister has really had a tough time!"
After dealing with the eldest prince, King George III quickly expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Agushid, who had taken the biggest blame.
"Prime Minister, please don't worry. Even if something terrible happens, the Royal Family will stand with you and will not leave you alone!"
Prime Minister Agoshid didn't believe a word of what George III said. If George III really wanted to help him share the burden, he should have made the eldest prince share the blame, instead of confining the eldest prince. It looked like he was punishing the eldest prince, but in reality, he was completely extricating him from this incident.
Although he had long known what kind of person George III was, when the time actually came, Agusid could not bear the sorrow in his heart and decided to find an opportunity to resign.
However, thinking of his descendants, he repeatedly expressed his gratitude to George III.
After the two put on a show of harmonious relations between ruler and subject, they stopped there and returned to the main topic.
"Now everything is clear. The Fusak Empire saw through our financial problems. Their previous secret negotiations with us were all to set a trap for us, and we foolishly jumped into it!"
Now tell me, how should we handle the aftermath?
No sooner had George III finished speaking than Charles Negan, who had little experience with the Imperial Council and was eager to prove himself, spoke first:
"We should have the press censorship authorities keep a close eye on all newspapers, big and small, and strictly prohibit them from reporting on today's events."
It's still early; we should be able to stop tonight's evening paper from reporting on this. Before Charles Negan could finish speaking, Earl Hall, standing in front of him, shook his head and said:
"That's impossible. Putting aside whether we can prevent the spread of such news, even the Fussac Empire wouldn't just stand by and watch us block the news."
They must have devised a very meticulous plan to scheme against the kingdom. They held this press conference to spread the news and must have been prepared for us to cut off and block the information.
Moreover, even if we manage to block official information, we can't stop so many mouths from spreading the word. Who knows how the news will end up?
The reason there are so many conspiracy theories and palace secrets is because there are no accurate and convincing explanations.
Sometimes ignoring major negative news can lead to even greater losses.
Just as Charles Negan was about to refute Earl Hall's words, Robert spoke first:
"Some time ago, I received a summary of intelligence from various sources, all of which mentioned that the Fussac Empire's infiltrative organizations have been very active recently."
We all thought it was because of the negotiations on Ayoun Island, but now we realize it was because of their operation this time.
Robert's statement corroborated Earl Hall's viewpoint and expressed his support.
Charles Negan paused, held his breath for a moment, and then said directly:
"Since the news can't be contained, what do you suggest we do? Just let the Fussac Empire's conspiracy proceed so smoothly?"
The entire council hall fell silent; no one dared to speak first.
In fact, after the Fusak Empire's conspiracy succeeded, the Kingdom of Rune had very few options left, but these options were indeed difficult to talk about.
Finally, it was Prime Minister Agushid, whose political career had come to an end, who spoke:
"In fact, no matter how we deal with it, the plan to solve the Kingdom's government's financial problems by using the pandemic has already failed."
So what we can do now is to sell off all the medicines we've gathered at a low price before the Fusak Empire makes a big fuss about this, that is, before tonight, so that at least we can't let the Fusak Empire play the good guy at this time.
As for the news, it still needs to be controlled. We can't avoid reporting on the matter of the Fussack Embassy, but we should report selectively.
The report focused on Ayoun Island, saying that the Fussac Empire had deceived us, so we could not sign a peace treaty with them.
Our journalists have a wealth of experience in reporting on the Fussac Empire, so I won't go into details.
If the reaction is still too strong after this incident, I can step forward, take full responsibility, and submit my resignation to His Majesty!
Prime Minister Aguhid has essentially taken the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of making up for the government's financial failures.
This also brought a sigh of relief to Earl Hall, Robert, Charles Negan, and others.
If Prime Minister Aghushid doesn't take the blame for making up for the fiscal failure, then someone among them will inevitably have to bear the responsibility.
Although His Majesty the King approved the plan, we can't really let George III bear the blame, can we?
Prime Minister Aguhid had already taken the blame for not taking back Ayoun Island, and unless he himself spoke up, no one could really pin the blame on him.
Count Hall had ridden in the same carriage with Prime Minister Agushid before coming here, intending to discuss this matter, but in the end he was too embarrassed to speak up.
So you can only say that experience counts. Prime Minister Agushid didn't suffer any loss by taking on another scapegoat, since it was all going to result in him leaving politics anyway. But it did make everyone present owe him a huge favor.
Those present were all people who had participated in the discussions about how to make up for the financial shortfall, and now they all looked at Prime Minister Agushid with grateful eyes.
Even George III secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and seeing how tactful Agushid was, he was reluctant to let him leave politics.
Because Prime Minister Aghhid took the blame for everything and spoke frankly, those present no longer held back and began discussing another thorny issue—how to solve the government's financial problems.
Because of the Fusak Empire's meddling, plundering money through the plague is no longer an option, but the practical problem remains unsolved: where to find the money.
This time, Robert, who rarely answers first, spoke up first:
"This year, intelligence agencies have been streamlining their organizations and cutting corners, which has saved a lot of money."
Furthermore, given that MI9 has just been split up and morale is low, it is not advisable to further cut funding in this area.
As for military spending, it cannot be cut either. On the one hand, judging from the actions of the Fusak Empire today, they will not let go of the opportunity to give us a chance to breathe while the Kingdom of Rune is experiencing financial problems.
Therefore, they are very likely to not only hinder us in trade, but also exert military pressure on us.
Especially today, with our refusal to sign a peace agreement with them, giving them a pretext.
Therefore, I believe that the navy's military spending should not only not be reduced, but should be increased.
However, because the Lanius case exposed corruption at the Pritzker shipyard, the construction cost of the ironclads could be reduced somewhat, so I stopped asking for additional funding for the navy.
In addition, by His Majesty's order, the Strategic Support Force is about to be completed, and the Secret Air Force is also a huge money-devouring force. However, these two forces are related to the future strategic position of the Kingdom of Rune, so they cannot be reduced either.
As for the army, it was the main force fighting against the Fusak Empire in the southern continent in the first half of the year, and the casualties were also very heavy. The related compensation cannot be reduced, otherwise no one will be willing to be loyal to His Majesty in the future.
Therefore, in conclusion, there is no room for reduction in military spending next year!
Once the kingdom's finances run into trouble, all that can be done is to increase revenue and cut costs.
Using the plague to plunder the people's wealth was their original plan to increase revenue. Now that it has failed due to the unexpected factor of the Fusak Empire, the option of "cost-cutting" will naturally be put on the table.
As chairman of the Military Intelligence Committee, Robert had a responsibility to secure available funding for subordinate agencies, which affected not only the expenditures of intelligence agencies and the military, but also the weight of his own words.
If Robert can secure sufficient funding for next year, he'll be the father of the military and intelligence agencies. If he can't, then whether Robert's words carry weight in the future will depend on how much respect his subordinates give him.
"Earl Robert is right. Intelligence agencies and military spending cannot be cut, especially at this time."
As soon as Robert finished speaking, George III nodded in agreement, giving no one else a chance to object. This was also one of the advantages of Robert arriving at the palace early by taking advantage of his eldest son Winton's fainting spell—to communicate with George III in advance.
He realized while he was at the Fussack embassy that the plan to plunder the people's wealth was no longer feasible, but he did not want to lose the funding he had worked so hard to secure for next year, so he could only take the opportunity to leave everyone else behind and have a small meeting with George III.
George III also realized that once the Fussac Empire saw through the true nature of the Kingdom of Rune, it would never stop. In addition, both the strategic support force and the construction of the new air force were part of his military reforms and involved his deification ceremony. Therefore, he was happy to see Robert come forward to fight for funding.
Seeing that George III and Robert were speaking in perfect harmony, Earl Hall immediately realized that they had already reached an agreement beforehand.
Robert said he was just informing them about the matter and wasn't actually seeking their opinions, so I could only curse him inwardly as a "little fox" before quickly saying:
"The government employee examination is coming to an end, and the first batch of employees who pass the examination will soon enter government departments. The relevant benefits have already been publicized."
If they suddenly back out at this point, it could trigger a strong backlash, and it's even possible that the admitted students will lose confidence and ultimately give up.
If this were to happen, it would be a severe blow to the Kingdom's government's credibility, and all our efforts over the past six months could be in vain.
The Government Employee Recruitment Act is a policy promoted by all parties in the Rune political arena. If this policy goes wrong, the Kingdom of Rune will become a complete laughing stock.
Moreover, this matter was also related to George III's deification ceremony, so after hearing it, George III immediately nodded and indicated that this expense should not be reduced.
When Robert and Earl Hall successively stated that their respective areas of responsibility could not have their budgets reduced, the other ministers present became somewhat flustered.
If these two major expenditures cannot be reduced, then where should the reductions come from?
So they disregarded propriety and social status, and began to emphasize the importance of their subordinate organizations, hoping not to cut the funding they could receive.