Volume 3: Artifacts Chapter 7: The changing of times
Luke was somewhat surprised by the generosity of the Golden Dragon King Tyran. Although the Fire Crystal was of no use to the dragons, they certainly knew what the Fire Crystal meant to the secular world.
It is the blood of industrialization. Without fire crystals, cities will have no electricity, factories will be unable to produce, trains and ships will stop running, and the entire secular civilization will regress to the age of swords and magic.
Now with the rapid development of industry, the demand for fire crystals in all industrial countries has increased exponentially. And because Longguo has huge reserves of fire crystal mines, many countries have sent people to negotiate.
However, the reclusive dragon clan completely cuts off contact with the outside world and does not accept any form of fire crystal transactions.
Can delicious beef be exchanged for the right to mine fire crystals?
Luke didn't believe it.
The only explanation is that... Dragon Soul Banat is very prestigious, and the dragon clan feels the pressure, and they don't know where the pressure comes from.
Using trade as an excuse to show goodwill to a powerful country in the secular world with fire crystals that are worthless to Dragon Country, it is hard to say who got the biggest advantage in this deal.
Everyone gets what they need and everyone is happy!
After understanding King Terran's intentions, Luke felt even less guilty about digging up the fire crystals.
"Deal! I will notify Raging Waves City as quickly as possible and select the best quality beef to be sent to Dragon Country. The Imperial Palace will send the best chefs to cook delicious food for all the dragons."
The Golden Dragon King Tyron nodded and said, "I roughly know how to deal with you humans. Today's meeting ends here, and we all need to prepare for the next meeting.
By the way... Black Dragon Barle is yours to take away and receive the punishment he deserves."
The words of the Golden Dragon King Tyran once again surprised everyone, including the dragons.
Luke didn't really want to take the black dragon away. Although there was the Demon Tyrant as a lesson, the Demon Tyrant was a lone man, and it was okay to bully him. But the black dragon Bale had the entire dragon clan behind him. Although arresting him and sending him to prison would greatly boost the spirit of Saint Lun City, it would also greatly hurt the face of the dragon clan.
The black dragon, who was resting to recover from his injuries, stuck his head out from under his wings. He asked King Tyran in confusion, "My king, are you really going to let me be insulted by these lowly creatures?"
The Golden Dragon King Tyran said: "If you think this is an insult, then treat this experience as a training. Use your eyes to see this different world outside. Those inferior creatures that we despise make the rules here and have the ability to guard the rules.
Since we can't break the rules, we have to follow them.
Seven years is just a short moment in the life of a dragon, but for you, it may completely change your future destiny.
I believe that the Marquis of Meteorite would not really hold a black dragon as a prisoner."
Luke met the gaze of the Golden Dragon King Tyran and replied, "Of course, it's such a waste to lock up a black dragon!"
Black Dragon Barle was very respectful to the Golden Dragon King Tyron. Even though he was unwilling, he still nodded in agreement: "Black Dragon Barle obeys your orders."
Luke brought Agatha to pay tribute to the Golden Dragon King Tyran: "We have received the kindness of the Dragon Clan, and we will definitely return it with kindness. The Empire will arrange a formal meeting with the Dragon Clan as soon as possible. I hope the friendship between the Dragon Clan and the Golden Shield Empire will be strong and long-lasting."
The golden dragon King Tyron led his dragons to return the greeting to Luke and Agatha, and the black dragon Barel jumped down from the high fortress. The dragon race is indeed strong, and the black dragon, which had just been weakened by the magic bombardment, now seems to be in good condition.
Luke and Agatha lead the team out of the steel mill.
The city garrison received an order to lift the state of combat readiness and all units returned to their bases.
The convoy escorted the walking Black Dragon Bale back to the city of Saint Lun.
In this incident, except for the trusted personnel who followed Luke and Agatha into the steel plant, outsiders did not know what really happened inside.
They can only believe what they see.
Princess Agatha and the Governor of Raging Waves, Marquis Meteor, bravely broke into the steel mill occupied by dragons. Soon, a high-intensity magic confrontation occurred inside the steel mill. The dragons circled in the air and controlled the fire clouds to bomb downwards. A part of the city garrison outside the steel mill pressed forward as a whole. A full-scale war between humans and dragons was about to break out.
However, what no one expected was that Princess Agatha and the Governor of Raging Waves City, Marquis of Meteorite, came out of the Dragon's Nest unscathed.
Although we don't know what kind of confrontation took place inside, it is not difficult to guess the final result from the fact that a black dragon was escorted out.
The dragons, who had been acting arrogantly and domineeringly since they arrived at Saint Lun City, gave up. They handed over the culprit who caused the death and promised not to do anything that would threaten the safety of ordinary citizens again.
This made the citizens, who had been troubled by the dragon, feel proud.
First, Miss Clear Sky defeated the angel in the sky above the palace.
Then the eldest princess and the Governor of Meteorite bravely broke into the dragon's nest and made the dragon surrender.
The country’s prestige is so strong that it has greatly boosted people’s morale.
The city of Saint Lun has regained its former prosperity. Now when citizens see the giant dragon flying over the city, they no longer feel afraid. Instead, they admire the dragon's majestic appearance with full pride.
The meteorite returned to the imperial capital, and immediately dealt with the dragon. All the undercurrents in the imperial court went dormant again.
The current ruling class of the empire, headed by the Queen Regent and with Princess Agatha and the Governor of Raging Waves City, Marquis of Falling Star, as the core, can no longer be easily overthrown by internal factors of the palace.
The officials and nobles whose interests were damaged could only place their hopes on the second prince Fania, the grandson Sinclair, and the ancient civilization that was frequently changing.
The spy of the Imperial Secret Service lurking in the Templar Knights found out that an unknown person donated a large sum of money, and the Templar Knights have officially changed their name to the Templar Knights. At the same time, the angels in the Silver Manor met with several leaders of the Templar Knights and issued some strange tasks.
For example: After the elder of the Golden Man was attacked and killed, what special things happened in Shenglun City? No matter how big or small the matter is, as long as it is an unusual event, all of them will be collected and reported to the Silver Manor.
There is also the World Bank's Saint-Ren City branch. Intelligence shows that a group of Golden People arrived quietly; other intelligence shows that some officials met with Golden People in private, but it is unknown what they talked about.
In the palace, Queen Christina, Princess Agatha and Luke sat together for a small meeting.
"The palace seems to be stable now , but in fact some people are ready to make a last stand. If they don't take action now, they may never have another chance."
Although Queen Christina had never left the palace, she had her own judgment on the potential crises in the court.
Agatha said: “Before the spring war began, many people were waiting for the Snow Legion to be defeated by the Art County Alliance so that they could take the opportunity to launch a coup and welcome Alec or Sinclair back to the imperial capital.
The trend of the war in the north has completely overturned their predictions. The Snow Army has not allowed the At County Alliance to gain any advantage. As the Fury City Fleet gains control of the sea, the war in the north is gradually developing in a direction that is favorable to the empire.
At this time, we must not take the enemies within the palace lightly. We must prevent their retaliatory sabotage. Ventilation-type sabotage often causes greater losses than a real coup.
The World Bank has recently cancelled a lot of cooperation projects, some of which were secret R&D projects that the Empire had carried out through private financing. The World Bank was able to find them accurately, which means someone had informed on them..."
The World Bank suddenly targeted the Empire, obviously because of the meteorite.
Queen Christina and Agatha were waiting for Luke to speak, but Luke's mind was clearly elsewhere. He stared at the pendulum of the clock beside him, his mind wandering to who knows where.
"Meteor..." Agatha called Luke's name softly, and when he still didn't respond, she patted his hand on the armrest of the sofa.
"Oh!" Luke came back to his senses and asked, "What were we talking about?"
"Let's talk about the World Bank canceling the cooperation project..." Agatha said with concern: "There are indeed a lot of things going on recently. If you are tired, go back and rest first."
Luke stretched his body and said, "No, I'm not tired. I'm just thinking about how to make good use of the relationship I have established with the dragons.
Let's continue talking about the World Bank.
First of all, we need to make it clear that although the Shining Gold people have always stated that they do not interfere in politics, the World Bank can influence the direction of many events even if it does nothing, not to mention that they have secretly done many things that violate the principles they have set.
Then, the World Bank is the biggest obstacle for the Empire to implement its future global economic strategic layout. As long as the gold and silver certificates issued by the World Bank are recognized as freely circulated currencies in the world, the World Bank can launch comprehensive economic sanctions against the Empire at any time. Although such economic sanctions will seriously shake the credit of the World Bank, the Golden People dare not launch them easily now, but as long as the interests involved are sufficient, the Golden People will launch them without hesitation. "
After Luke's reminder, Queen Christina and Agatha finally realized the seriousness of the matter.
For a long time, the World Bank, with its good credit and absolute neutrality, has made gold and silver certificates the world's circulating currency. This impression is imprinted in everyone's mind, and they think it is natural and even unquestionable.
But as the turmoil between ancient civilizations resurfaced, the Shining Gold people became less principled.
Terminating part of the cooperation is a bad start, even if the Golden Man gives a legitimate reason.
If the Empire threatens the safety of the Shining Gold People, will they force countries around the world to ban trade with the Empire?
This strategy is like hurting the enemy by 800 and hurting your own 1,000. The credit of the World Bank has collapsed as a whole, and it is unknown whether the empire can survive.
In this situation, you cannot expect the other party to have morals and principles, nor can you bet that the other party will not dare to do it.
So... this is not a personal grudge, but a game of national destiny that concerns the life and death of the empire.
"What should the Empire do?"
Queen Christina has great confidence in Luke.
Luke said: "We should improve the international status of the Reichsmark and encourage merchants to use the Reichsmark for international trade through preferential policies; we should establish a free economic trade zone centered on the empire, where currencies of member countries can be freely exchanged and used.
As long as these two points are done well, the Empire can build an economic barrier. Even if the World Bank launches comprehensive sanctions, the Empire can use this barrier to compete with the World Bank.
If we want to win the war thoroughly, we need to transition the world trade system from the gold standard to the energy standard.”
Queen Christina and Agatha stared at Luke, and from their expressions it was clear that they basically didn't understand.
Luke had to explain: "The reason why gold certificates have become world currency is that one factor is the credit of the World Bank and the Gold Star People, and another factor is that the Gold Star People control the most gold mines with the largest reserves. A gold certificate can be exchanged for one unit of gold at any time at the World Bank. As long as the status of gold as a general equivalent remains unshakable, the status of the World Bank will be difficult to shake.
The only thing that can shake the status of gold in the future is energy. Fire crystal is an energy source that has been discovered to be easy to mine and use. It is now widely used in various fields. In the future, the world's demand for fire crystal will increase.
The important thing is... Fire Crystal is a consumable material! You have to buy more when you run out!
Whoever can dictate what Fire Crystals are purchased with will be qualified to replace the World Bank."
This time Queen Christina and Agatha understood.
In fact, when countries began to abolish metal currencies, the shortcomings of precious metals as currency were no longer acceptable, but the inertia of thinking still makes people like to use gold to measure value.
People are used to using gold coupons, but few people take them to the World Bank to exchange for gold. After all, gold is not consumed much except for luxury goods.
The consumption of energy by industrialization has rapidly raised the status of Fire Crystal, which was originally of little value. Not all countries have Fire Crystal mines, and those that do have them may not have enough, so they have to buy more.
At present, the international market's fire crystal ore transactions are of course all in gold coupons. If at this time, the largest fire crystal ore supplier in the international market said: My fire crystal mine only accepts the currency of the Golden Shield Empire.
Then countries that need fire crystal ore must trade with the empire in exchange for imperial marks, and then buy fire crystal ore.
Fire crystal ore is a rigid demand. The higher the industrialization and the better the economy, the more dependent on fire crystal ore. At that time, the World Bank wanted to impose an economic blockade on the Golden Shield Empire, and the countries that needed fire crystal ore were the first to refuse.
And what’s so good about gold coupons?
The circulation of gold in the international market is so low, it is not as good as fire crystal, which needs to be burned and used every day.
The Shining Gold People do not have the world's largest reserves of Fire Crystals. The place with the most Fire Crystals is Dragon Country. There is no Fire Crystal Mine on Dragon Country's territory yet, but there will be one soon.
Agatha asked Luke, "Has the ship from Raging Waves City to Dragon Country left?"
Luke smiled and said, "They have already left, carrying a ship full of frozen beef and mining equipment. The Golden Dragon King Tyran also sent three giant dragons to guide the fleet to ensure that the fleet can successfully reach the Dragon Kingdom and mine the Fire Crystal Mine in King Tyran's territory."
Queen Christina asked: "When will you meet King Terran again? The Empire needs to deepen its cooperation with the Dragon Kingdom. It would be best if we could reach a comprehensive strategic alliance for the Fire Crystal Mine."
"I'm preparing. I believe the dragons would like to see the Shining Gold Man suffer a setback."
What a turn of events!
