blueteamnovel Chapter 130 Acquisition
Chapter 130 Acquisition
Chapter 130 Acquisition
"Why would it be members of the royal guard going to Tingen? Shouldn't it be MI9, or some bigwig's 'hunting dogs'? Why is the royal family getting involved in this dirty business?"
After reading Ince Zangwell's new script, this question immediately popped into Evan's mind because it was so unusual.
Although Robert's plan to cover up the debt was approved by King George III, the Duke of Negan, and the Earl of Hall, it was still too underhanded. If it were exposed, no one would benefit. Therefore, the person sent to carry out the mission of making Lanius "disappear" should not be someone who could be directly associated with the bigwigs.
King George III should not have gotten involved in this matter, but he sent his own palace guards to carry it out.
This was definitely not an attempt to silence Lanluus; rather, it was a move to seize control of Lanluus.
King Yangchi III is trying to seize control of the vitals of all those involved!
In the entire accounting scheme, Lanius was of paramount importance because he had to take the blame for everything and bear all the guilt that was not his.
Therefore, he cannot be arrested and brought to justice, nor can he be given a chance to speak in public, because the charges against him were already made against him and there must be loopholes in them.
He cannot die suddenly, otherwise everyone will suspect the inside story and suspect that someone is plotting something behind the scenes.
So Lanius could only disappear quietly, and the rest was left to the Department of Defense's "investigators" to fabricate.
Whether they say Lanius is an Intis spy or a once-in-a-century conman, it's up to the investigators to say.
George III's move is quite interesting. He approved of the write-off plan, yet he wanted to keep Lannault under his control. Did the other military leaders know? Did the Duke of Negan know? Did the Earl of Hall know? Did his own brother Robert know?
Lanius can be considered the mysterious world version of "The Records of Officials' Conduct," someone who can be used to expose the crimes of a large number of people through public means. Did George III want to obtain Lanius and discuss it with others?
Even if George III was full of a sense of justice and prepared to use Lanius to launch a major case, so many people were his own foundation of rule. If they all fell, could he bear it? Not to mention the counterattack they might launch together. It was not impossible for him to replace the king. There were precedents for this.
Moreover, no matter how you look at it from the original work, George III doesn't seem like a good king who upholds justice. Instead, he seems more like a peerless villain who colludes with a witch and brews a shocking conspiracy.
If his desire to obtain Lanius wasn't for upholding justice, then it could only be to achieve some ulterior motive.
Considering the potential for a major smog event in Backlund to erupt in a few months, and the fact that he was forced to compromise by the three major churches afterward, Evan seemed to have a vague grasp of something, but he found it unbelievable because it couldn't bring him any real benefit.
In the end, Evan could only keep this matter to himself.
When there was a knock on Evan's door, he got out of bed and opened the door to find that it was Mr. Hope.
"Lord Robert needs to speak with you!"
Evan guessed what had happened, and without changing his clothes, he followed Mr. Hope to Robert's study in his pajamas.
When Evan entered Robert's study, he saw Robert also wearing pajamas, a pipe in his mouth, reading a telegram. Upon seeing Evan, Robert handed him the telegram and said:
"Today, a city-wide strike broke out in Tingen. Clashes broke out between the military and police and the workers, resulting in the deaths of more than 20 people and injuries to more than 200. Tingen is preparing for a curfew tonight. This incident will be reported in the newspapers tomorrow, and in less than two days, the entire North and South continents will know about it."
Evan already knew about Tingen's situation; he glanced at the telegram, put it down, and then said:
"The Tingen situation will be resolved in a day or two. How's the Lanius situation going? Is it under control?"
"After receiving the telegram, I immediately had someone contact the relevant personnel to inquire about the situation in Lanius. We will know soon enough. The relevant case should be exposed in the next couple of days. We should also think about how to deal with the aftermath in Tingen, after all, that is also our base."
"That's easy to handle. The impact of this scam is actually quite simple: the flow of funds in the market has dried up, and capitalists and factory owners have mortgaged their assets to banks."
Once the scam is exposed, the shares held by capitalists and factory owners become worthless. Having lost their assets, they face massive bankruptcies, triggering a credit crisis. Banks may also face runs due to large amounts of bad debt, ultimately becoming unable to pay and leaving behind a mess.
Evan had anticipated these events, so he spoke fluently and confidently.
Robert took a puff of his pipe and then gestured for Evan to continue.
"So the most important thing is confidence. We can't let the public know that factory owners are about to go bankrupt because of loans, and even if they do know, we have to make them believe that someone is there to bail them out."
During this time, you have allowed Mr. Hope to obtain so much evidence, which should be sent to Tingen immediately. Butler Barker should then negotiate with various banks in the name of the Count of Akhova's House, persuading them to agree to sell us the debts of those prime factories and lands at a low price in exchange for the cash we had prepared.
Of course, you can't take it all; you have to leave some for others.
Once we have the debt, we should immediately send people to take over the relevant factories, keep them running normally, and tell the factory owners that if they do not agree to the takeover, we should immediately press them for repayment. If they help us take over the factories smoothly, those who perform well can be retained as senior executives.
After the scam is completely exposed, pay the workers at least two weeks' wages and spread the news that the Earl of Ahova's mansion has acquired the factory. Don't mention anything else. As long as the public doesn't panic, everything will be fine.
Finally, the immediate action is to arrest Mayor Dennis and Councilman Menerson and bring them to court to quell the anger of the middle class.
The essence of all these measures is to use the cash taken from Lanius to exchange for the debt claims held by various banks.
Debt is converted into equity, which is then used to acquire prime factories and land.
Finally, the injection of liquidity from the Earl of Akhova's mansion allowed the entire Tingen factory to recover from its blood loss and return to its previous state.
The only change was that the factory owners changed from factory owners to the Earl of Akhova's mansion and some nobles, and some middle-class people lost everything.
As long as the factories are still operating, the bankruptcy of some middle-class people will not have too much of a consequence, and may even divert their attention to Mayor Dennis and Councilor Menerson.
This time, the Earl of Akhova's mansion will become the largest factory owner in all of Tingen, but it will not lose its reputation, because this is equivalent to the Earl's mansion saving the entire Tingen.
After listening to Irwin's plan, Robert smiled and nodded, then said to Mr. Hope, who was standing to the side:
"Let's do as we discussed before, and at the same time transfer the £200,000 in idle cash in the account to Akhova Bank."
To prevent accidents from happening.
Robert turned around, looked at Evan's dumbfounded expression, and explained with a smile:
"As I told you, after failing to persuade the kingdom not to easily start a war in the Southern Continent, I had someone buy some Fusak Empire bonds in Intis and short-sell some Rune bonds, making a profit. However, I haven't found any good investments yet."
Your plan this time has helped me turn this money into valuable assets.
Evan then realized that Robert had actually already planned how to deal with Tingen's aftermath, and that he was just testing him.
Robert made a fortune from the war, but he wanted to convert that money into tangible assets. However, neither the Constance Coal and Steel nor other large industrial entities would readily grant him a stake, even though he was willing to pay a high price.
They are also very powerful.
But which of those shareholders are powerless and without influence?
Even becoming the sixth largest shareholder of Backlund was only possible because Count Akhova already had shares. His push for the Grain Act caused a number of landed nobles to go bankrupt, banks had bad debts and were in urgent need of cash, which made it possible for him to expand his shareholding.
Even so, Robert still had nowhere to put his cash until Evan mentioned Lancer's scam, at which point Robert saw a good opportunity.
In Robert's eyes, money never mattered; what mattered was factories that could produce weapons, workers that could bring in votes, and increased political influence.
This is the real reason why Robert spared no effort to help the military cover up their debts, expand the Lannüs scam, and ultimately expose the scam. He had long wanted to take over all the factories in Tingen, but he had not found an opportunity to do so because of the reputation of the Earl of Akhova's mansion.
Just as Evan was dumbfounded, the butler rushed over and handed Robert a telegram.
Robert took it, glanced at it, and then said to Evan:
"Lanius has gone missing. The people monitoring Lanius were severely injured by the Aurora Society."
Evan's heart skipped a beat, and then he asked:
"Who sent people to monitor Lanius? Who ordered them? Why did the Aurora Society get involved?"
"I wasn't specifically involved in this matter, and I don't know who was assigned to it, but I heard it was your direct supervisor, my old classmate Jonas, who was handling it."
"Jonas Augustus?"
Evan narrowed his eyes, realizing that it was indeed George III who was interfering in Lannus's affairs, and that Deputy Director Jonas was just a front.
Since Jonas Augustus was a distant relative of the Augustus family and George III's representative in MI9, it was highly illogical that the person sent to monitor him was not selected from MI9 but from the Royal Guard.
"Brother, I heard a rumor that Deputy Director Jonas sent someone on a field mission, but instead of looking for someone from MI9, he selected someone from the Royal Palace Guard."
"Oh? Where did you hear that? Is it accurate?"
Robert instinctively sensed something was wrong, his expression turned serious, and he immediately asked Evan a question.
"MI9 is a large information flow center, with all kinds of complicated information being exchanged every day, making it difficult to distinguish between true and false."
Some say that Deputy Director Jonas distrusts MI9 personnel and does not select field agents from within MI9.
"You just mentioned that Deputy Director Jonas is in charge of handling the surveillance of Lanius, and that reminded me of this rumor."