Pirate Kingship.

Chapter 671: The Financial Holy Sword is Unsheathed: The Kingdom of the Netherlands is invited to die first!

Woo woo woo.
The cold wind mixed with fine snowflakes whistled in, and the North Sea area at a higher latitude welcomed winter earlier than other places on the mainland.

The North Sea Empire's major fleets, including the miscellaneous security fleets, had already begun to assemble.

The commerce-breaking fleet that had been deployed in advance seemed to have been mobilized by the Orthodox Alliance's strategy and had to give up blocking the ocean routes and rush back to the mainland for support.

The Iris Kingdom, which had just joined the empire, also responded positively.

They were first massacred by the Orthodox Alliance under the pretext of the "Red Wedding", and almost all the Protestant leaders were killed.

By chance, they became a member of the British Empire and received huge benefits on the spot. They even had seats in the Demonic Banquet Parliament waiting for them. The sharp contrast caused their mentality to fluctuate greatly.

The naval officers and soldiers all held their breath, determined to prove their loyalty to the emperor of the empire!

Although the two countries have loved and hated each other for thousands of years, at this moment, even if they were driven out of the empire, they would never do it.

The anxious atmosphere spread through the collective subconscious, from nobles, ministers, generals, soldiers to businessmen and civilians. The entire east coast of the Silver Continent was filled with a solemn atmosphere.

It is different from what many people outside imagine.

His Majesty Saint Byron, who never passively took a beating, actively exerted his subjective initiative, and arranged everything in advance, was not as nervous as his ministers and generals. Instead, he was very relaxed.

Sitting in a garden full of red roses and tulips, drinking exquisite afternoon tea with the two queens.

Although winter is approaching outside, it is still warm and pleasant spring in Ganquan Palace.

There are three pseudo-gods who are only one step away from becoming demigods and have been living here for a long time. There is no need for active transformation. The divine aura on them can subtly turn this land into the most top-notch secret place in the Silver Continent.

Byron took a sip of the black tea that his sister had brewed, and then took a bite of the scone that Violet pinched and brought to his mouth.

He flipped through the "Key of Omniscience" bound with bagasse paper and analyzed the latest battlefield intelligence for his two queens:

"The elite scouts of the Orthodox Alliance have dispersed into the snowy land of the Evernight Peninsula, carrying a lot of explosives. Their targets are large cities, preparing to carry out terrorist attacks.

This is the main business of the Jinquan Restoration Party, and it can be said to be the originator of terrorist attacks. They never treat other nationalities as human beings and specialize in killing civilians. No one knows how many saviors have been assassinated by them.

I don't know where this inexplicable sense of superiority comes from.

Previously, I had canonized the gods along the geomancy nodes and human cities, and with the help of the iron law of royal authority that had been rooted in the north for thousands of years, I was able to locate their positions in the first place.

Gus and his Stormcloaks, Amita and her Assassins, have joined forces with the local Bayland Berserkers and Frostwolf Riders, and promised to bury them all in the northern taiga."

Catherine and Violet have both met Amita, the "ugliest princess", in Ganquan Palace, who was also only one step away from becoming a demigod through the promotion ceremony.

Knowing that she was more suited to this kind of mission than Gus, it wasn't a surprise to hear her name.

"As for the three expeditionary fleets at sea.

The fleet of the Kingdom of the Netherlands assembled the fastest. The port of Amstel is right at the doorstep of our North Sea, but they were not the first to rush out.

They probably want to join up with the other two expeditionary fleets before taking action."

“Warnemunde Wilhelmshaven, the largest military port in the northern part of the Holy Silver Empire, is still under the control of the Habsburg family, but it needs to bypass the Kattegat Strait to enter the North Sea.

We will meet up with Netherlands in about three days.

However, we cannot rule out the possibility that the ancient legendary warship [Immaculate Conception], which is as famous as [Dragon Head Ship Valhalla], will accelerate the fleet in advance if an emergency occurs. "

“The last route is the main force. The invincible fleet of the Pyrenees Empire departs from the port of Seville in the south of the peninsula. Normally, the journey takes a week.

But they have the holy relic [Sextant of Longitude and Latitude].

As long as you hold a sextant and a nautical chart for positioning, you can use the power of the sun and the moon to move instantly within sixty degrees of longitude and latitude on the surface of the planet.

Although there is a drawback, after using it, you have to "keep your feet on the ground" and walk a route of equal length within three months. If someone dies on the battlefield and fails to keep his feet on the ground, his soul and body will be destined to rest forever on the moon or the sun after three months.

If the fleet commander takes the risk and burns his boats, he might be the first to reach the North Sea."

Byron holds the [Full-time Key], which not only provides accurate intelligence on the current Orthodox Alliance, but also all paperwork, military deployments, and personnel relationships are clearly visible.

In fact, he might even know his punitive fleet better than King Ferdinand II of Aragon, the Orthodox Christian, who served as the commander-in-chief.

Bagasse paper plays an important role in this.

Over such a long period of time, many organizations have re-copied their short-lived parchment collections into paper books that can be preserved for a longer period of time.

Many technologies, cultures, and arts have also been further inherited and developed because of bagasse paper.

It can be said without exaggeration that the significance of papermaking and printing is no less than that of photolithography machines in modern society.

Without them, there would be no efficient knowledge accumulation, inheritance and civilization explosion, and there would be no leap from backward agriculture to advanced industrial country.

The proportion of extraordinary people is increasing, and the power of the collective subconscious and the legal network is becoming stronger and stronger.

Byron made great contributions to the world. The entire material world and the ocean of human subconsciousness began to rapidly turn towards him.

Compared to the Creator who caused a thousand years of darkness and brought human civilization to a near stagnation, Alaya is obviously closer to Byron.

The sugarcane bagasse paper book in his hand glowed brighter and brighter, and silently resonated with the [Sunstone Calendar] in his left eye and the [Ship's Log] in his right eye.

Byron had a hunch that his quasi-level-0 holy relic [Key of Omniscience] was not far from transforming into a true level-0 holy relic.

“And the several level-0 or quasi-level-0 books I have are obviously complementary in ability.

[The Key to Omniscience] is about to completely replicate all the knowledge accumulated by mankind throughout history, and bring everything that has settled in the collective subconscious of mankind into reality.

The [Book of History] can be used to modify all historical records in reality and the collective subconscious.

It represents the past.”

“[Ship logs] can provide insight into history and various secrets.

[Echoes of History] You can see the past history from people and various things, peek into the hidden secrets, and then correct it to the correct timeline with your own hands.

It represents the present.”

“There is also the book [History of the Silver Continent] that is temporarily kept in the hands of the traitor. It records every key historical node since the Silver Age of the continent. It can influence the future historical process of the entire continent by influencing the key protagonists and supporting roles.

It represents the future.”

“These three books represent the past, present and future respectively.

Finally, there is the [Sunstone Calendar] hidden in my left eye. It is the first calendar born in this world, and it is the first time that we have a concept of time.

It can be said that it is the concrete river of history itself, which can run through the past, present and future, and divide the time branches to allow me to make the most appropriate choice.

It represents a choice!"

Byron did not hesitate. Since the Key of Omniscience began to resonate actively, he gave it a push.

Om-!
A circle of divine light bloomed behind his head, connecting the three books that were currently beside him.

Only the book "History of the Silver Continent" which was temporarily in the hands of the traitor remained untouched.

This book will naturally transform into a level-0 holy relic when the Silver Age ends, and Byron will get it in his hands sooner or later.

As the resonance deepened, he himself could not help but reveal a mythical form.

One side was black and the other side was red, like an Ouroboros formed by tangled paper tapes in the shape of the letter "∞", with countless vertical pupils on its body opening wide and piercing through the void.

The sun crown in the middle projects three suns, morning, noon and evening, which circulate back and forth constantly.

The authority of the sun inexplicably enhanced his control over these books.

All kinds of information gathered into a waterfall, pouring down line by line in his eyes, and randomly weaving into countless futures of this war.

This means that if Byron had chosen different ways of dealing with the situation at different times, he would have had completely different endings.

"My All Things Return to One state has just reached 13%.

By using the long river of history to run through the past, present, and further influence the future, we have already touched upon a little bit of the limited 'omniscience' of the Creator.

In the future, it may be possible to use this knowledge to plan and devour the authority and priesthood of the gods bit by bit, and achieve "limited omnipotence".

At the sixth level, it was combined into the limited 'omniscient and omnipotent' [One of All Things]. This should be my real name of God.

The prerequisite is to be able to win this battle.”

Byron's dreadnought fleet was perhaps the pinnacle of industrial warfare, and it once defeated many Old God Church forces.

But the Orthodox Alliance on the other side ruled the Silver Continent and the Age of Discovery, the extraordinary peak.

It is the direct lineage of the ultimate victor of Ragnarok [The Creator] that has spread over a thousand years, and is by no means a mere handful of chickens and pottery dogs.

Even if he had the upper hand and was adequately prepared, he could still suffer an unexpected defeat if he was careless and underestimated the coalition forces.

"in addition."

The countless pairs of eyes on his body that were spying on this world frowned together.

Byron discovered that no matter which timeline he was in, accidents would happen on October 10, Night of the Dead, and November 31, All Saints' Day.

If victory cannot be achieved before this time point, the "chain accident spell" of the old god will definitely lead things to some kind of tragedy.

It is definitely not a good thing for him, his family, his country or the human race.

This means that when he and the Orthodox Alliance fight each other, it is 100% certain that a demigod-level "fisherman" will appear.

Not those split incarnations of divine office, but real demigods!
As soon as the thought came to his mind, the solution density of [Secret: The Corruption of the Pope and the Council before God, Historical Influence 69] jumped from 38% to 42% on the spot.

Byron's heart skipped a beat.

Now that the hypothesis has been confirmed, there is no time to delay any further.

"Originally, I wanted to win the victory while retaining the manpower of the human nations to the greatest extent possible.

Don't let them bleed too much in internal strife.

It now seems that the most correct option is to destroy all the enemy's manpower.

I would rather have other people bleed than have myself bleed.” Byron was still that “good man” after all.

There is mercy, but not much.

He changed back into human form, handed the [Key of Omniscience] to Catherine, and said:
"Sister, it's time to take action. Let's kill the Kingdom of the Netherlands first!"

In order to prevent an accidental rollover after dragging on for too long, Byron's current tactic is "I only go one way, no matter how many ways they come from."

Concentrate your forces to attack along one route and destroy the enemy's effective forces.

The fleet of the Kingdom of the Netherlands does not need to be dealt with using the [Demon Killing Order], nor does it need to be killed physically.

Because there was a bigger bomb behind the Dutch fleet.

This "financial bomb" can not only destroy the expeditionary fleet spiritually, but also destroy the entire country economically!
Catherine, who was wearing a red dress and looked like a ball of fire, had been waiting for this sentence for a long time. She jumped up and waved her fist excitedly:
"Look at me."

[Finance] The priesthood was activated, projecting a bustling scene of the Kingdom of the Netherlands into the garden.

As early as a few months ago, driven by Catherine herself, the elegant and noble new variety of tulips quickly became popular among the upper class of the Old Continent.

A noble lady would wear a precious tulip on her evening gown as a symbol of status and identity; the more precious the variety, the more sought after it was.

Royal aristocrats and wealthy people flocked to buy the rarest varieties of tulips.

Demand exceeds supply, demand is rising steadily, but supply has not increased, so prices naturally rise steadily.

In the royal capital of Kingston, a stem of the best tulip was once sold for the equivalent of 110 ounces of gold, which is approximately 3118 grams, driving countless people crazy.

All the wealthy people in the Netherlands, led by the Remites, joined in the carnival.

However, no one noticed that as October approached, the real flower lovers and court purchasing staff had already quietly withdrawn.

The rest are all speculators who want to get rich overnight.

At this stage, people no longer bought tulips for their intrinsic value or ornamental purposes, but in the hope that their price would rise indefinitely and thus make a profit.

The bubbles blown up by Catherine finally got completely out of control.

Everyone in the Netherlands was convinced that the "tulip mania" would last forever.

Rich people from all over the world will place orders to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and someone will pay no matter what the price. The Dutch citizens who receive such dividends will also bid farewell to poverty completely.

Everyone will be rich.

In the Remit worldview where everyone is a slave, it is perfectly reasonable for other ethnic groups to provide for them.

As a result, nobles, merchants, citizens, farmers, craftsmen, boatmen, attendants, men, and even chimney sweeps and old ladies in second-hand clothing shops all joined the tulip speculation craze.

Military officers, who had relatively high incomes but found it difficult to save money, were no exception. Even when war was approaching, they took the opportunity to make a fortune.

In short, no matter what class people are in, they convert their wealth into cash and invest in this kind of flowers.

The price of tulips gradually rose to an alarming level, with a total increase of 5900% compared to the previous year!
A black tulip named "Queen of the Night" costs as much as 500 gold pounds.

This sum of money was enough to buy a mansion on the Amstel Canal in the royal capital, and the average annual income of the Dutch was not much better than that of the original Hastings, at most 12 pounds.

But this is no longer the auction price that Catherine set for show, but the normal market price! Everyone agrees!
At this point, the collective subconscious was driven by the "invisible hand" of Byron and Catherine, and even the major banking groups and investment institutions at the top of the Remit people could no longer sit still.

Relying on his relationship with Lord Protector Cromwell, he joined forces with the Tulip Guild and almost monopolized the business from the source.

Carrying large amounts of money, they bought standard futures contracts for payment in September next year from those estates at high prices, as well as bulbs that some ocean-going merchants said to have obtained from their origin on the west coast.

By the way, all the bullish expectations and falling risks of futures are transferred to one's own hands.

By mid-October, many banks and large institutions had withdrawn most of their liquidity and exchanged the money for "bulbs imported from the West Coast" and futures contracts for next year.

The busiest winter tulip trading day slowly began at this time.

Catherine contacted her capable financial officers and took this opportunity to teach them a lesson. Her voice was pleasant but cold:
“Finance cannot create wealth, it can only transfer wealth.

The more developed the financial system is, the more wealth will be concentrated in the hands of a few people.

You must remember that in the financial markets, as long as there is enough money, any asset can be driven up to sky-high prices, causing the bubble to expand rapidly.

Wait until they have sucked in a lot of money from the poor and then reap the benefits.

This is undoubtedly a game mechanism that prevents the poor from accumulating wealth. Except for a few geniuses, it is a fantasy for most poor people to get rich by this.

I hold the sickle in my hand, and no one wants to be hit by it, but the smell of leeks coming from you never lies.

The poor have no original capital accumulation, and it seems that they can acquire wealth through finance, but if nothing unexpected happens at this time, something unexpected will happen.

When the Matthew effect is superimposed, the wealth of countless people can be easily transferred to become the wealth of others.

Everyone, start releasing the water."

The term Matthew Effect comes from the chapter "Matthew" in the "Gospel of Creation", which describes a common social psychological phenomenon: "Advantages tend to produce more advantages."

This is what the great Eastern countries often say: "The way of man is to take from those who are deficient in order to serve those who are in excess."

Far away on the other side of the strait, [Banker] Black responded respectfully and passed on the order to his subordinates:

“The most fundamental factor in the formation of bubbles is that as prices rise, producers are unable to expand supply in a timely manner.

What we need to do now is to open the floodgates and release water at the right time.

Come on, some yellow-pee guys, wake up these guys who are daydreaming about getting rich overnight! It’s time for them to get going!”

"Haha, yes sir."

"We have been waiting anxiously."

With the Black family as a high-level traitor in the Free Masons, it is extremely easy to plant a group of people without anyone noticing.

Catherine's Knights of Fortune and the skinned men of the Flayed Church have long filled the tulip trading market.

They were involved in the cashing out at high prices before, and at least half of the "West Coast specialties" in the spot market are sold by them.

Just like the "bathing crab", after Catherine cultivated it, she released it into the fields on the west coast and even the [Prophet] could not find any problems.

This time they finally opened fire.

Soon, a large number of sellers appeared in various taverns, selling large quantities of the very "rare" tulip bulbs.

"Oh my god, it's Augustus Forever! It's the Queen of the Night! It's the Flaming Broken Gold!"

"Sell it to me, sell it to me!"

There was a frenzy in the tavern.

Compared with futures contracts, which require an additional year of time cost and various uncertainties in the middle, buyers are of course more willing to accept tangible spot transactions based on the mentality of securing profits.

The big banks and institutions under Remitt were also planning to make a fortune during the winter trading days, but they did not expect that tulip futures would collapse so quickly.

In just one day, the massive amount of bulbs grown from Catherine's garden flooded the major cities in the Netherlands!

I have as much as you want!
So many that you can eat the bulbs like onions.

They easily seized from this country and ethnic group the wealth accumulated over hundreds of years by several generations.

When the first person realizes that something is wrong and follows the trend to sell.

A big collapse has finally begun!

Then, an unprecedented financial tsunami submerged the entire country.

The tulip market in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was flourishing with flowers and booming oil a few days ago, suddenly turned into a hell of misery, rain, debt collection and debt evasion.

The priceless contract in my hand is given away for free but no one wants it. It's so painful to even wipe its bottom.

Millions of people went bankrupt overnight.

Many speculators who had gone bankrupt, borrowed money to buy tulips, or used bank leverage to buy tulips, even jumped into the sea like dumplings.

Even those wealthy Remitian bankers and large institutions suffered heavy losses due to the large amount of bulbs and futures contracts they hoarded.

The successive collapse of banks triggered a series of chain reactions.

The world's first financial crisis came unexpectedly.

By the third day, the financial tsunami had completely fermented, and many naval captains, generals, and even junior officers and lieutenants who stayed in the Amstel committed suicide one by one without waiting for others to kill them.

The reason why we recruit soldiers is because those who have stable property have stable perseverance.

At this time, not only did they lose all their property, but they also owed a lot of debts. How could they still have the mood to fight for their country?

Even if they win, the spoils will belong to the guys in the bank and won't have a penny to them.

However, they don’t know that the “financial war” is only halfway through, and the highlight is yet to come.

When the North Sea Empire's cruising fleet could already see the Holy Silver Empire's fleet entering the North Sea from afar.

Catherine took off the "Queen of the Night" pendant pinned on her chest and stomped on it without mercy.

Although she was a stunningly beautiful woman, she had long since departed from the low tastes of ordinary women in loving flowers.

Her favorite decoration was only money, and no matter how beautiful the tulips were, they were just a medium to obtain money, nothing more.

Wow.
Amid the crisp sound of a rushing torrent of gold and silver coins.

The [Queen of Finance] who controls the wealth of the entire empire raised one hand above her head, and her immense financial power burst out and gathered into a brilliant golden sword.

It is Catherine's exclusive magic [Financial Holy Sword]!
As her red skirt fluttered, she pointed her sword at the other side of the strait and shouted softly:
"Divine Domain·Financial Street, open! Summon the Dutch national finance to come, take my [Leek Cutting Sword Technique].

The winner takes all, and the loser eats dust! "

(End of this chapter)