At the Holy Order's headquarters in Paris, Art received warm hospitality.

Not to mention old Sir Henry, who helped Art borrow huge sums of money from the Holy Order's treasury, even the Inspector General in charge of the entire Holy Order's treasury personally met with Art.

For the Holy Order's treasury, Art, who has now been promoted to count of a country's province, is a friend worth making friends with.

Since Art, who was the frontier baron of Burgundy, borrowed 500,000 pfennigs from the Holy Order's treasury four years ago, the Holy Order's treasury has not only been able to receive the loan principal and 15,000 pfennigs on time every year.

As a result, those treasury managers at all levels who help Art borrow money can also receive an additional valuable "thank you gift" every year.

However, in recent years, although Art has been promoted to nobility and his fiefdom has gradually expanded, he has not borrowed many large sums of money from the Holy Order's treasury.

It's not that Art doesn't want to borrow money, it's just that the interest rate in the holy group's treasury is too high, and he doesn't dare to be a "laogui" in front of the powerful holy group. In addition, he has been fighting wars and robbing money every year, so he really doesn't need it.

Make money for the Holy Order's treasury.

However, today is different from the past. If history can really get on the right track, why not take a big gamble. Even if the outcome of the holy group is different from its original history, there will be no loss. It can be regarded as a loan shark.

After briefly greeting each other for a while in the distinguished guests' side hall of the Holy Group's headquarters, the two sides got closer to each other and got down to business.

Art took out fifteen thousand pfennigs from the money he carried and gave it to the Holy Group. According to the agreement four years ago, the principal of the annual loan repayment was handed over to the city of Besancon by the Continental Commercial Bank before the last day of summer.

The treasury of the Holy Order is divided, and the annual interest of fifteen thousand pfennigs is paid at Christmas at the end of the year.

Of course, the "gifts" given to the stewards of the Holy Order this year must have been doubled, and they were presented by Art himself.

As everyone received favors every year, their favorable impression of the young earl naturally doubled.

The preliminary preparations had been made, and Art got down to business.

"...Inspector General, ladies and gentlemen, in addition to going to the palace to meet with friends of the Holy Order, I also have a purpose for going to Paris this time." Art went straight to the point.

A count from a vassal country went to the headquarters of the Holy Order and met with the inspector general and several treasury managers to repay and send money. The purpose was of course obvious.

"How much more does Earl Art plan to borrow this time?" The Holy Order's Inspector-General was stroking the exquisite ivory and gold cross that Art presented to him under the table while looking at Art.

Art glanced at Robert beside him, and then the Inspector General of the Pilgrim Mission held out five fingers.

"Five hundred thousand? No problem!" The Holy Group's Inspector General immediately agreed.

Art laughed and shook his head, "Lord Inspector General, half a million is really not a lot of money for a newly prosperous count province. For this little money, there is no need for me to come to the Holy Order to see you in person."

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"Five million pfennig, I hope the Holy Order's treasury can lend me five million pfennig."

The movements in the hands of the Holy Group's Inspector General suddenly stopped. He looked at several treasury stewards, then turned to Art and said: "Earl Art, five million pfennigs? How dare you tell such a big number?"

Another treasury steward interjected, "My Lord Count, do you know how much tax revenue your Burgundy Kingdom has received from the treasury in recent years? Less than two million pfennigs! In the past two years, Burgundy has been in turmoil. This tax revenue

It may not even be possible. How dare you ask for such a huge loan~"

Art waved his hand, "Inspector General, fellow stewards, you are only talking about the tax revenue of the treasury during the period of Burgundy. But now that the country's national strength has recovered, people's livelihood is getting better, commerce and trade are prosperous, and the treasury tax revenue is very high."

It’s comparable to the past.”

"Besides, my province, Wells, is different from other places. I have an increasingly powerful continental trading house, which can bring me millions of pfennigs in revenue every year, and this number is constantly rising."

Art waved to Ron behind him, and Ron took out a piece of parchment and handed it to Art.

"And just today, I obtained trading privileges from the King of France. From now on, my European trading house will occupy the entire southern trade route from the southern seaport to Paris and even to the North Sea~"

"Everyone, I believe you have seen the commercial power of the Hanseatic League. In less than ten years, the European Continental Commercial Bank will rival the Hanseatic and become another commercial giant in the southern tip of the European continent."

Art returned the privileged certificate that only authorized the free trade of southern goods in Paris to Ron, and then looked at several senior officials of the Holy Order opposite him with an extremely "arrogant" look, "How about these five?

One million, do I dare to mention it?"

Before the other party could calm down, Art put on another mysterious expression and lowered his voice, "However, the reason why I borrowed money from the Holy Group this time is not to develop the territory. The profits of my European trading company are completely enough to cover the needs of my territory.

Construction.”

"I borrowed money from the Holy Order this time just to fulfill a long-cherished wish."

A few people on the opposite side were in a fog.

"Everyone must know that I use force to gain power, and you may have heard old Sir Henry tell me about my life experience."

"I am the son of a baron in the North of the Principality of Lombardy. When my father returned home with the Holy Order from the Eastern Expedition against the pagans, he was persecuted by his political enemies. His family was destroyed, and his honors and land were taken away from him."

"Over the years, I have been fighting constantly, training troops, and building momentum, all in order to lead my troops back to Lombardy, kill the enemy with my own hands, and regain the honor that belongs to my family."

"In fact, I have already started taking action. This summer I have occupied a pass in northern Lombardy that belongs to the legal territory of my Burgundy kingdom and stationed troops here."

"Now I already have three infantry legions and one cavalry legion with nearly three thousand elite professional soldiers, and there are five thousand peasant soldiers in the territory who can be called upon. Next summer, or late autumn at the latest, I will send troops to the north of Lombardy."

Art stopped here and brought the topic back to the center, "You are all elites in the holy group. You know that the most expensive thing is war, and the most profitable thing is war."

"To be honest, I borrowed money from the Holy Group this time to prepare for next year's battle."

"Lombardy is one of the richest lands in Europe. I believe you can estimate how much I will gain in the battle next year."

"Of course, you should doubt whether I can win. But you also know that I have a provincial territory and a growing trading company under my name. Even if I lose, I am not afraid of not paying back the Holy Order's loan."

Several senior officials of the Holy Order opposite were stunned for a moment, and then began to whisper among themselves.

Art added to the fire, "Friends, I have already inquired about it. The maximum interest rate for borrowing from the Holy Group's treasury is one-tenth of the annual principal. The maximum interest rate for the loans you privately issue to merchants is only

One-eighth. If the Holy Order can lend me five million pfennigs, I will pay one-fifth of the interest, and the loan period is only one year."

"In other words, in just one year, I will bring millions of fenni to the Holy Order. Of course, my friends will also get an additional spoil from my campaign to restore honor."

Several senior officials of the Holy Order could not sit still, and they began to discuss loudly.

While several people across from him were having a heated discussion, Art patted the hem of his armor and skirt, stood up and said: "Everyone, the five million loan is definitely not something you can decide on. You will ask the Grand Master and the Priest in a moment."

Sir, please report. I will wait for two days in Paris. If that fails, I will go northeast and ask for a loan from the Hanseatic League. People from the Hanseatic League have contacted me. Those businessmen are more courageous than you~"

After that, Art said goodbye to his servants and left the Holy Order headquarters with Robert and Ron.

After walking out of the temple gate, Robert couldn't help but raise his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, turned his head slightly and glanced behind him, and whispered to Art: "My lord, do you really dare to say, when will we have three thousand elites and five thousand?"

When did the Peasants, Soldiers and Hanseatic League contact us~"

Art laughed and said, "My Lord Bishop, it is useless not to speak louder when dealing with this group of people. If I were not too worried, I would even want to involve the Emperor of the Shinra Empire."

Robert glanced at Art, "Sir, you are so shameless~"

"This face is not cheap." Art said with a smile and got on the horse...

.........

Two days later, the Holy Group invited Art to the temple.

He agreed to a huge loan of five million pfennigs, but asked Art to use the taxes of the Province of Wales and the ownership of the Continental Commercial Bank as collateral, and asked Robert to use the tithes of the parish of Wales as security on behalf of the church.

At the same time, the Holy Order proposed to allow the Holy Order to send inspectors to follow when the Welsh Army goes to Lombardy next year, so that the loans and interest can be recovered from the spoils of war in a timely manner.

After a moment of hesitation at the negotiation table, Art fully agreed to the Holy Order's treasury's request, but he proposed to cash the loan in gold immediately from the Holy Order's treasury in Paris. His reason was to save the expensive tax on withdrawals from other places, and

Eager to use this money to purchase weapons and armor from the French Kingdom's arsenal.

With such a lucrative transaction, the holy group's treasury didn't care about the taxes, so both parties made a decision.

When Ron led six guards to take out more than 1,600 pounds of gold from the Holy Order's treasury in Paris, he immediately sent it to a excrement cleaning carriage to transport it out of Paris and hid it in a fisherman's hut near the southern port of Paris.

An ordinary courtyard-style warehouse in the south of Paris was recently rented to a group of businessmen from the south.

Since it was leased to a trading company, few people have come in or out of this warehouse, and there are some strange homeless and beggars outside the closed door.

In a clean attic in the warehouse, several guys dressed in merchant clothes gathered around a man who was staring at the map of Paris on the wall and studying it carefully.

"...Sir, Secret Letter has sent people to the headquarters of the Holy Group. The Holy Group's treasury has added more surveillance personnel today. As long as they transfer their property, our people will keep following them."

"Sir, I have another thing to report. At noon today, a group of suspicious guys appeared near the Holy Group's treasury. They stayed in a hotel near the Holy Group's treasury. Our people found that those guys were also monitoring the Holy Group's treasury."

"It seems that we are not the only ones eyeing the Holy Order's treasury, but I guess those guys are probably people sent by the King of France~"

"Stanley, from today onwards, we will change the group of surveillance people every half day. Don't let anyone discover you."
Chapter completed!