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Hobert did indeed completely reclaim the governance of Longtail Island at the same time as the light bulb sales.
This began in early June when the deadline for the third round of rubber purchases arrived, but the Longtail Island Lord's Residence claimed it needed to maintain the rubber processing plant's equipment, asking the planters to wait before sending their rubber.
The planters found it strange, as the so-called processing plant only consisted of some furnaces and iron pots. What maintenance could they possibly need?
But they soon found out that it was they who needed 'maintenance,' as Hobert began ordering the pursuit of debts.
The first to be targeted by the Lord's Residence were the speculators.
Several planters, after receiving loans from Hobert, joined forces to buy rubber at low prices from other islands, intending to sell it to the Lord's Residence at 1.5 times the market price.
This was almost an open secret.
Fors, who was stationed on Longtail Island, had always turned a blind eye to this.
It wasn't until these people had transported large quantities of rubber back to Longtail Island that Fors told them the Governor-General's Office would be recovering their 3,000-pound loans early because they had seriously breached the contract.
The contract clearly stated that the loan could only be used for planting rubber!
If there was a breach of contract, the Governor-General's Office had the right to immediately recover the loan.
The planters panicked. Besides using the loan to buy rubber, they had also put in all their savings, leaving them with no money to repay the loan.
So they requested to sell the rubber first and then repay the loan.
Fors's reply was: Deal with your breach of contract first, then we'll talk about buying rubber. I'll give you three days. After three days, we'll start arresting people and using your fixed assets to pay off the debt.
The planters hurriedly tried to borrow money, but everyone was frantically planting rubber trees, so no one had any cash on hand.
Then they quickly contacted rubber buyers, hoping to turn their rubber into cash, but after contacting two rubber buyers by telegraph, they both said they didn't need large rubber transactions at the moment.
Three days later, Freya arrived with the constables to arrest people. The planters had no choice but to use their rubber plantations, villas, slaves, etc., to pay off the debt.
Fixed assets used to pay off debt were generally discounted, and Fors now had the power to decide the discount rate.
After inspecting the assets, Fors gave them discounts ranging from 40% to 80%. The main criterion for this conclusion was how they treated their slaves.
The more brutally they treated their slaves, the harsher the discount Fors gave them.
Those whose fixed assets were still less than 3,000 pounds had to use the rubber they had purchased to pay off the debt.
Longtail Island only had two large rubber plantations worth several thousand pounds. The other rubber plantations were not large, worth only two or three thousand pounds, and after such a discount, there wasn't much left.
But using rubber to pay off the debt was definitely not calculated at 1.5 times the market price, but at 30% of the market price.
If they were unwilling to accept this method of debt repayment, then sorry, but the Governor-General's Office would arrest them because these planters had seriously breached the contract, and all their assets would be confiscated.
At this time, the Governor-General's Office, or rather Hobert, suddenly showed its violent side, and several planters suddenly realized that they were not on the same level as Hobert in terms of power.
Hobert had simply not used such methods before, but now he was starting to use them, and he was using them with justification.
Forced to do so, these planters had to use their assets to pay off the debt.
The Governor-General's Office immediately obtained six rubber plantations and a large amount of rubber.
Having resolved the breach of contract issue, the Governor-General's Office could now purchase the rubber in their hands, but because they had a serious breach of contract record and were on the Governor-General's Office's untrusted list, they could only purchase it at 40% of the market price.
Of course, they were unwilling to sell and went to Bayam to contact other buyers.
After resolving the issue of these speculators, the Governor-General's Office's gaze, or rather Hobert's gaze, turned to other planters.
The Governor-General's Office claimed that it had too much rubber from debt repayment and would temporarily not purchase everyone's rubber, but their loans were also due and needed to be repaid immediately.
The previous loan contract clearly stipulated that as soon as the rubber trees started producing rubber, the Governor-General's Office had the right to recover the loan.
Unlike the previous rubber saplings, the new rubber saplings could produce rubber in half a month, although the amount was very small, but it was producing rubber, and according to the contract, the Lord's Residence had the right to recover the loan.
These planters were not very panicked at this time, because this group of planters had some background, either managing the plantations for officials in Bayam or for wealthy people in Backlund.
They immediately sent telegrams to their respective masters, requesting some funds to repay the loans, and at the same time contacted rubber buyers to sell the rubber in their hands.
These planters first discovered that the rubber in their hands could not be sold.
After learning more, they soon learned that the main reasons why the rubber could not be sold were two: First, Earl Hobert had purchased rubber on a large scale in Backlund some time ago, causing a slight premium on rubber.
At that time, major rubber buyers began to purchase rubber one after another to supplement Backlund's rubber supply.
But Backlund's rubber market was only so big and was quickly filled with rubber, so the buyers had a batch of rubber on hand at this time.
The second reason was that the six planters on Longtail Island with speculative ideas had just purchased a large amount of rubber on other islands, making rubber a relatively popular bulk transaction all of a sudden.
Buyers were afraid that rubber prices would rise, so they purchased another batch of rubber some time ago.
Therefore, the rubber in the hands of the buyers was enough for them to complete their normal transactions for the next half year.
And these buyers generally operate in a variety of bulk commodities and cannot invest all their money in rubber alone, so they basically will not continue to invest in rubber.
The investors in Bayam have the most contact with this type of raw material bulk transaction. They all know that this type of raw material is generally in oversupply.
Although rubber prices are now rising, the entire rubber market is so small that prices will definitely fall soon! So no investors are willing to buy rubber.
As a result, the planters on the other islands of the Rorsted Archipelago, except for Longtail Island, have sold off all their stocks!
Rubber also seemed to have risen in price due to supply exceeding demand, but there have been no large rubber transactions in the past week!
Those planters who had speculative ideas were the first to panic. They waited in Bayam for several days and only got one transaction of 300 pounds, and they had to transport the rubber to Bayam.
They have now become very short of money and cannot even meet their normal living expenses, so they can only sell to the Governor-General's Office at 40% of the previous market price.
After operating on Longtail Island for so many years, they eventually left with only a few hundred to a thousand pounds each.
Some of the former pirates began to recruit troops again, preparing to return to their old ways.
Some wanted criminals from the Loen Kingdom went to other islands to look for opportunities.
Most of them were relatively open-minded. Since they planned to do speculative business, they would either make a big profit or lose everything!
The Rorsted Archipelago has no shortage of stories of getting rich overnight and becoming poor overnight.
In the end, Hobert essentially used 18,000 pounds of loans and about 5,000 pounds of cash to get six rubber plantations and a large amount of rubber at about 35% of the market price.
Overall, it was equivalent to using 23,000 pounds to buy about 28,000 pounds of rubber at market prices, and also getting six rubber plantations.
This batch of rubber is enough for Backlund to use for a while.
Those planters who did not engage in speculative transactions were also a little panicked at this time. The Governor-General's Office only gave them three days, but they received news that the rubber in their hands could not be sold!
The nobles behind them were also hesitant about whether to continue investing.
When they planted rubber trees before, those nobles had already invested once. In the next few months, there may not be many transactions in the rubber market.
The key is that they don't only have one plantation. Now this plantation needs 3,000 pounds to operate normally.
With this money, they could buy another small rubber plantation of this kind.
Just as they were hesitating, the Governor-General's Office came to collect debts. Without saying a word, they took these rubber plantations to pay off the debts.
Some rubber plantations were not the property of the planters, but the Governor-General's Office had the right to take them to pay off the debts and finally sent a notice to the real owners of the plantations.
This made the group of people behind the planters very annoyed. Although the Governor-General's Office had this power, it generally would not use it easily. Who knew which powerful person would be offended by doing so?
But the Governor-General's Office of Longtail Island did so, and the tone of the notice sent out was quite strong.
Most people were annoyed, but they found that there was no way to deal with the Governor-General's Office of Longtail Island. It was Earl Hobert's territory and was not under the jurisdiction of Bayam.
According to the law, Hobert only had one superior, and that was King George III!
But some people were still angry and denounced Hobert's atrocities on Longtail Island in some social occasions in Backlund.
It was at this time that everyone learned that while selling light bulbs, Hobert had also done so many major things on Longtail Island.
Even if they discussed it again, it would be of no avail. In the end, Hobert obtained 18 rubber plantations with that 54,000 pounds of loans.
Unlike the previous 18,000 pounds, this 54,000 pounds was extremely inflated!
First of all, these 18 planters spent 4,000 to 6,000 pounds each on investing in new rubber trees, plus loans from the Governor-General's Office.
But the cost of the potion sold to them for 10 pounds was actually only 5 soli, which is one-fortieth of the selling price.
The cost of a sapling sold to them for 30 pounds was only 1 pound.
They thought they were trading with people from the Earth Mother Church, but in fact, they were all subordinates of Hobert who were selling them.
So most of these people's investments actually flowed into Hobert's pockets.
And when their investments were used to pay off debts, they were all used to pay off debts with immature rubber trees, each worth only 3 pounds.
Hobert was equivalent to using the wealth and manpower of these planters to expand the rubber planting area on Longtail Island by nearly two times! In the end, he made a profit.
This is the main reason why that group of people was annoyed.
Just as Backlund began to discuss Hobert, Hobert's actions on Longtail Island had not ended.
Currently, there are only three rubber plantations on Longtail Island that belong to individuals. One belongs to an adventurer named Anolin. When everyone was crazy because of the discounts given by the Governor-General's Office, he calmly realized that a contract was signed for the loan from the Governor-General's Office, but no contract was signed for how to purchase rubber, so he did not make investments beyond his ability.
The other two are large plantations worth 7,000 pounds and 8,000 pounds respectively. Although they also made a lot of investments in the past month and a half, they did not take out loans from the Governor-General's Office!
Hobert couldn't do anything about them. On June 19, the Governor-General's Office issued a decree on the slaves of Longtail Island.
According to the relevant laws of Loen, Hobert granted all the natives of Longtail Island the status of Longtail Island residents.
To hire residents of Longtail Island, there must be a clear employment relationship, residents must be provided with food and accommodation, and salaries must be paid directly to the residents. Anyone who robs in any form is guilty of robbery!
All day long, those planters and mine owners were stunned, because they had never heard of such an amazing decree in the Rorsted Archipelago!
Of course, the most stunned were the slave traders on Longtail Island. Now that they are all residents, how can they make money?
Then on the next day, June 20, the Governor-General's Office announced the tax law of Longtail Island.
Starting next month, both rubber plantations and iron and copper mines must pay taxes in accordance with the relevant regulations in the Loen Kingdom's Tax Law.
Individual business operators on this island must also pay taxes in accordance with the relevant Individual Income Tax Regulations.
Someone discovered that the income level of the local natives was basically not in these tax regulations.
As soon as this decree came out, everyone seemed to suddenly realize that in terms of law, everything on Longtail Island belonged to Earl Hobert's private property.
That is to say, whether the assets in their hands were bought or they organized people to plant or develop them, the ownership belonged to this count.
The remaining plantations and mines are basically the properties of some nobles. Among them, someone sent a telegram to the Governor-General's Office of Longtail Island: Are you serious?
In fact, they wanted to ask: Are you driving away investment in Longtail Island? Do you know that this will cause Longtail Island to be isolated?
Hobert asked the Governor-General's Office to reply: Very serious!
In other words: Very clear.
So those nobles sold their industries on Longtail Island to the Governor-General's Office at low prices.
The reason they took action was not because of anger, but because the production costs on Longtail Island were too high. You must know that if they start paying salaries to slaves, the long-term costs will probably be two to three times that of similar industries on other islands!
Just based on cost calculations, they have to withdraw.
In the end, the only private industry left on the entire Longtail Island was that planter named Anolin.
He actually said that he was willing to pay the residents of Longtail Island salaries and was also willing to accept the Tax Law promulgated by Hobert.
When talking to Fors about this, Anolin said: On the North Continent, this is just the most basic requirement for human rights, but the planters in the Rorsted Archipelago are so surprised, which is very ridiculous!
After learning that Anolin usually provided slaves with enough food and lodging in wooden sheds, Hobert decided to acquire his plantation for 5,000 pounds.
To this end, Hobert personally spoke with him once: "The price I'm offering is already above the market price. This money is enough for you to buy a medium-sized rubber plantation."
"I need to explain that I must reclaim the governing rights of your plantation for unified management."
He said meaningfully, "You are the only one who has emerged unscathed from this operation."
Anolin, a man in his forties with a mustache on his upper lip, considered for a moment before saying, "Earl, I'm curious about what Longtail Island will become in the future. After selling the rubber plantation, can I continue to stay on this island?"
"Of course, you can," Hobert said with a smile. "You can even join us, but you will need some training and experience in various positions for a while."
"That would be my honor," Anolin said respectfully. "I am willing to sell my rubber plantation."
After the conversation, Hobert personally escorted Anolin out, instructed the finance staff to pay him the money as soon as possible, and asked the human resources department to arrange his training.
After seeing Anolin off, Hobert and Fors began to calculate the total cost of regaining governance rights behind closed doors.
"First, Anolin's 5,000 pounds" Hobert commented. "This is the most worthwhile expenditure in this operation."
Fors sat in the governor's leather chair and began to record the expenses.
"Then there's the 26,000 pounds spent on acquiring those mines and the two large rubber plantations," Hobert added, standing by the desk. "Speaking of which, these nobles really withdrew cleanly. I was originally hoping to squeeze another layer of profit from them."
They sold their assets on Longtail Island at a discount of about 40% to 50%.
After recording the second expense, Fors added, "The reason why the nobles don't take the assets on Longtail Island so seriously is probably because they have too many such assets."
She sighed, "As you said, the difference between nobles and ordinary people is never their clothing and speech, but their accumulated wealth."
Hobert smiled. "Our Lady of the Manor also possesses good political acumen."
Fors smiled slightly, accepting her husband's compliment.
"Let's continue," Hobert said. "The total amount of loans issued is 72,000 pounds, and the cost of acquiring discounted rubber is 5,000 pounds."
"In addition, the cost of acquiring iron ore and copper ore over the past month and a half is about 16,000 pounds."
This was a necessary expense to stabilize the planters and mine owners. Only by continuously and normally purchasing ore, creating the illusion that the Governor's Office had inexhaustible funds, would the planters feel secure enough to fall into the trap Hobert designed for them.
The next step for Hobert was to find a way to get the money back, then devalue the iron and copper mines before acquiring them.
However, because the nobles withdrew so quickly, Hobert didn't have such an opportunity.
So, the last batch of nobles who withdrew didn't actually lose much money.
Hobert said, "The last sum of money is for the potions and saplings purchased from Bishop Jodi. About how much did that cost?"
Fors flipped through the account books. "A total of 2,360 rubber tree saplings and 3,200 doses of potions were sold."
"It cost a total of 3,160 pounds."
Hobert nodded. "Good, that's the total cost. Calculate how much it is."
Fors quickly calculated it: "122,160 pounds."
"120,000!" Hobert smiled as if impressed.
Then he added, "Let's calculate how much money flowed back in from extraordinary potions and rubber tree saplings."
Fors calculated on a piece of scratch paper, "Each sapling flowed back 29 pounds, so 2,360 saplings is 68,440 pounds."
"Each dose of potion flowed back 9 pounds and 15 Soli, so 3,200 doses is 31,200 pounds."
"The total flow back is 99,640 pounds."
Hobert sat at the large desk, glanced at Fors's full chest, and then picked up the scratch paper. "So, it cost a total of more than 20,000 pounds to obtain the governance of Longtail Island. This operation was still very successful."
If his plan could continue, he might be able to control the entire Longtail Island without spending a penny, and Fors was convinced of this.
Then Hobert asked, "About how much money have we invested in the construction of Longtail Island?"
Fors flipped through the relevant documents and found the accounts compiled by the financial staff: "About 32,000 pounds, including the construction of factory buildings, the salaries of civil servants, the wages paid to slave traders, and the food and necessary expenses for workers and civil servants."
"I've contacted Upton," Hobert said. "In the near future, we need to plan to build a batch of factories with a certain level of industrial capacity on Longtail Island, such as foundries, machine factories, and weapon factories."
In the future, he planned to move the production of light bulbs and wires to Longtail Island as well.
In addition, since he had started the electricity-related industry, it was impossible to only produce light bulbs.
Currently, the relevant workers and technicians are unwilling to come to such a remote place as Longtail Island, but next year may be different.
Fors nodded. "I will work with Conrad to make relevant plans."
Hobert went to the wine cabinet and took out a bottle of good wine and two glasses. "The next step is to fully take over Longtail Island."
He smiled. "Conrad has been waiting impatiently for a long time."
As he spoke, he poured two glasses of wine and handed one to Fors.
Fors stared at the wine glass, slightly lost in thought.
Hobert took a sip of wine. "What's wrong?"
Fors looked at Hobert. "I just realized that your frequency of drinking seems to be increasing recently."
Hobert had always been very restrained before.
Hobert spread his hands and smiled helplessly. "I'm the 'Earl of the Fallen.' Drinking more wine is also a form of 'falling,' right?"
Fors was relieved: He was just acting.
She knew that compared to other nobles, Hobert was actually very restrained. As he said, for him, drinking more was a form of "falling."
After finishing their business, the two drank a few glasses of wine, celebrating the success of the operation.
Hobert sat in his chair with Fors in his arms, imagining the future of Longtail Island in the office. Then Hobert returned to Backlund.
Because of everything that had happened on Longtail Island, the public opinion in Backlund was very unfavorable to Hobert, and he had to solve this problem next.
Back in Backlund, Hobert poured himself another glass of wine and celebrated the digestion of his potion from the series of actions he had taken on Longtail Island.
The things he did on Longtail Island were quite immoral for all the nobles, but to Hobert's surprise, this had greatly helped him digest his potion.
It was now about three-quarters digested, far exceeding his expectations.
He originally thought it might take until next year to fully digest the potion, but now it seemed that it might be fully digested this year.
If he took similar actions or similar events occurred, it might be digested even faster.
Arriving in the study, Hobert also briefly calculated the recent expenses in Backlund.
For the early use of electric lights, Hobert did not intend to make money. He hoped to popularize them in Backlund as soon as possible, so that everyone would associate electric lights with Earl Hobert.
So, the expenses in this area were almost unlimited. Not only was the bounty for hunting the Pirate Admiral spent, but also 100,000 pounds was taken from the savings of the "Nation of Disorder," and the result was almost spent.
It wasn't until the light bulbs began to be sold and the deposit for the batteries began to be collected that Hobert's finances in Backlund quickly recovered and he began to plan to invest in the surrounding cities.
Now there was no problem with the funds in Backlund, the problem was how to solve the nobles' jealousy in Backlund.
The key was the nobles who suffered losses on Longtail Island, as well as those nobles and wealthy people who wanted to participate in the light bulb business, who now seemed to have joined forces.
They used what happened on Longtail Island to portray Hobert as a despicable villain who used any means to achieve his goals, creating shocking and coercive actions on Longtail Island! Causing huge losses to the people of Longtail Island.
In a noble social gathering a few days ago, Hobert had already told Princess Alice that he had some preliminary results on the case entrusted to him by the Queen and hoped that the Queen could fulfill her previous promise in advance.
Previously, the Queen had asked Hobert to investigate who had cursed Duke Bowen, but Hobert had not started the investigation, and even the information the Queen had given him was still collecting dust in the office drawer.
Hobert's request was equivalent to asking the Queen to fulfill her promise in advance.
The Queen did not expect that what happened in the Rorsted Archipelago would affect public opinion in Backlund.
This was a rare occurrence, or rather, it was difficult for colonies to affect the home country. The Queen even looked at the nautical chart to find out where Longtail Island was.
Because of Hobert's previous protection of Princess Alice, the Queen had a deeper understanding of Hobert's abilities and was very confident in his "investigation," so the Queen decided to redeem her previous promise in advance.
So, on June 25, the Queen held a small-scale court ball.
The ball not only invited some earls and viscounts, but also barons and baronets who were quite critical of Hobert.
Of course, nobles such as Earl Hall, who had a good relationship with Hobert, and Duke Christian, who was now increasingly powerful in Backlund, were also invited.
This surprised the nobles who were attacking Hobert in public opinion. Obviously, the Queen was personally mediating between the two sides.
On the 25th, at the court ball, Duke Christian gave those nobles a considerable deterrent.
Don't look at many barons and baronets who privately talked about Hobert and even spent money to publish reports criticizing Hobert, but in front of big nobles like Christian or Earl Hall, they didn't dare to fart.
The ball officially began, and the Queen spoke to everyone, saying that Hobert had made some achievements in Longtail Island that were of great value to human rights and the legal construction of the Rorsted Archipelago.
This surprised many nobles somewhat. They did not expect that the Queen was not here to mediate, but to support Hobert unilaterally.
Next, the Queen's speech vaguely warned those nobles that if they felt they had suffered losses on Longtail Island, they could ask Hobert for compensation, but in the Kingdom of Loen, it was not allowed to slander an earl in this way.
This warning had already made many people tremble. They had already prepared the conditions to discuss with Hobert.
However, some nobles continued to watch. Now they were warning the nobles who were slandering Hobert, but after a while, they might warn Hobert.
Until Princess Alice invited Hobert to open the ball with her, all the nobles understood that the Queen and Princess Alice really fully supported Hobert.
In this case, unless the King came forward, it could be considered that the entire royal family supported Hobert.
But how could the King come forward in such a matter?
Even if the King came forward, everyone would have nothing to say when Hobert told everyone about the legal basis for all his property on Longtail Island.
Who made the situation on Longtail Island special?
At this time, in the ballroom, Alice and Hobert danced gracefully. She said, "Tell me about the specific process of what happened on Longtail Island later. It sounds quite exciting."
Hobert smiled. "I'd be happy to."
"I really envy you!" Alice said. "Having your own territory, you can do whatever you want on that island."
Hobert smiled helplessly. "It's not that free. If I could do whatever I wanted, those planters and slave traders would already be doing hard labor on the construction site."
Alice was somewhat puzzled. "You seem to dislike the planters of the Rorsted Archipelago very much?"
"I just don't like the Kingdom of Loen's colonial methods," Hobert replied. "Or rather, I don't like this kind of colonial development."
"But Emperor Roselle used this method to make the Intis Republic stronger."
"This method used to be useful, but in the future, we may suffer the consequences of colonization," Hobert said. "Besides, Emperor Roselle is not necessarily always right."
Princess Alice smiled. "I like your arrogance in this low profile!"
Since they had experienced some things together in Masin last time, their conversations had become more casual.
After finishing the dance, the two took a glass of wine each from the waiter and began to chat about another matter in the corner.
Alice whispered, "According to your previous warning, I haven't done any investigations recently. I can feel that the surveillance on me has become less and less."
Hobert knew that she was talking about the investigation into the cause of Prince Edessak's death, so he smiled and said, "Some things will have unexpected effects if you slow down."
Alice asked again, "Then what should I do next?"
If it were before, Hobert would definitely not express his opinion on this, but now the relationship between the two had become much closer.
At the same time, today the Queen and Alice had indeed helped Hobert. It was understandable for the Queen to help, after all, there had been a promise before, which was only considered an early fulfillment of the promise.
However, the favor that Alice helped with had to be repaid.
Hobert considered for a moment and looked around. Although nobles had been paying attention to this side, they did not dare to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Don't worry," Alice said, "I've reactivated that mystical item that prevents eavesdropping, and among today's guests, only you and your son are demigods."
Alice had a mystical item to prevent others from eavesdropping on conversations, but it could only prevent ordinary people and Beyonders below the demigod level from eavesdropping.
Hobert pondered for a moment before saying, "Has Her Highness ever considered that although the Demoness Sect is highly suspected, the person who actually killed that Prince might not be from the Demoness Sect!"
Alice was slightly surprised, then immediately understood, "Someone from the royal family?"
This princess was very intelligent, but she was too eager for revenge and hadn't thought of this.
Since it was a collaboration between the Demoness Sect and the royal family, after a problem arose with this collaboration, it was highly likely that the Demoness Sect would deal with the witch, and the royal family would deal with the 'problematic' prince!
"It's not impossible." Hobert couldn't remember the specific details, but he vaguely remembered that it seemed like the royal family had forced Prince Edessak to commit suicide.
Alice sighed, "I understand."
She smiled slightly, "I owe you a favor."
Hobert also smiled and said, "No, we're helping each other."
The intimate conversation between the two made many nobles feel uneasy. In their eyes, Princess Alice, who had always been aloof, was so enthusiastic in talking to Hobert, continuing to express her support for Hobert in this matter.
Otherwise? Could it be that the princess had fallen in love with Hobert?
After this court ball, no noble dared to use the Longtail Island incident as an excuse to cause trouble, and no noble dared to go to Hobert's mansion to demand compensation.
However, Hobert knew that this was an excellent opportunity to establish a community of interests! After returning to his earldom, Hobert asked Dophis, who had recovered many of his memories, to prepare a banquet.
The next day, Hobert went to MI9 as usual.
Today, he didn't slack off. Instead, he searched through his drawers for a long time and found the information sent by the Queen.
The Queen had already 'paid' in advance. Regardless of whether this matter was dangerous or not, it had to be investigated.
As the Queen had said before, since Duke Bowen 'fell ill' last year, seven demigods had diagnosed him.
Their diagnoses were consistent, believing that Duke Bowen was cursed.
However, they used various methods to deal with curses, but none of them had any effect.
After a brief look, Hobert deduced many ways to resolve the curse from the fragments of those demigods' 'diagnoses,' but it only enriched his knowledge, and the problem remained unsolved.
At the end of the information, there were introductions to Duke Bowen's political enemies and rivals provided by himself.
After reading them, Hobert shook his head. It didn't seem like these political enemies and rivals were behind it. Take these political enemies, for example, they were all political enemies from years ago, decades ago, some even with grudges passed down from their ancestors.
If they really wanted to use this method to kill someone, they would have done it long ago. The key was that Hobert knew these nobles too well, not to say how noble or upright they were.
But they tried their best not to get themselves into trouble.
Attacking the current Queen's brother would likely bring them enormous trouble, and they wouldn't take that risk.
As for those rivals, there were a few who might have such means.
Hobert noted their information and decided to meet Duke Bowen privately to see if he could find any clues on him.
His first thought was to visit Duke Bowen at night, but he thought that he didn't know if the Duke's house had any anti-theft sealed items? To avoid unnecessary misunderstandings, it was better to notify him in advance.
Because Hobert didn't have any friendship with Duke Bowen, Hobert simply wrote a letter to Princess Alice, asking her to help facilitate this private exchange.
Preferably at night, preferably a private meeting.
After writing the letter and sealing it with a signet, Hobert asked his secretary, Sharlene, to deliver it to Princess Alice's hand in person.
Hobert knew that this secretary was sent by Georgina to watch him, and Georgina was loyal to the royal family, so he could completely trust Sharlene to send a letter to a member of the royal family.
As soon as Sharlene left, Qonas, the director of the Operations Division, came over and chatted with Hobert.
The two first talked about the still-popular light bulb business, and then Qonas mentioned that there would be a reception at the "East Balam Veterans Mess" tonight, hoping that Hobert could attend.
This wasn't the first time the club had extended an invitation. Hobert knew that the military wanted to cooperate with him.
Because of Christian, Hobert had a military label. His first batch of partners would of course prioritize the military.
Hobert had refused to participate before, but now the timing was just right, so he accepted the invitation.
Qonas breathed a sigh of relief: This guy finally agreed.
In the afternoon, Hobert received a reply from Princess Alice. At ten o'clock tonight, Duke Bowen would meet with Hobert alone at the manor where he had visited the Duke last time.
Hobert shook his head and smiled. The evening's schedule was full!
Around six o'clock, Hobert and Qonas arrived at the "East Balam Veterans Mess" together.
After learning that Hobert was attending, the reception was particularly lively today.
Many people came to inquire about how the Longtail Island incident was handled. If it hadn't been handled well, they were willing to provide some help.
In fact, they had been supporting Hobert before. The officers who had stayed in the colonies hated those nobles.
The benefits they had worked so hard to obtain were divided up by these nobles who had done nothing.
Because the ball where the Queen and Princess supported Hobert was only held yesterday, the information hadn't spread yet. Everyone only found out today that the problem had been solved, which disappointed them, losing a channel to cooperate with Hobert.
However, after the reception started, Hobert took the initiative and said, "I know why everyone invited me here today. Many of you are my elders, and I won't say anything insincere.
"Today, I brought 20% of the shares of the 'Earl's Light' light bulb factory. These shares require 600,000 pounds to purchase."
The reception immediately fell silent. 600,000 pounds was not a small amount even in Backlund!
If it had been a year ago, Hobert wouldn't have even dared to dream of such a huge sum of money.
Even seven or eight months ago, he was still worried about the tens of thousands of pounds of funds in Jeffrey's territory. Five or six months ago, Hobert reached a 150,000-pound deal with Sharron, and he was so happy that he dreamed of rolling on piles of money for several days.
But now, Hobert was talking about 600,000 pounds as soon as he opened his mouth, which was quite like a millionaire's boldness.
At this time, Amyrius, who had also come to the banquet and had been promoted to general, asked, "In such a short period of time, is the 'Earl's Light' light bulb factory already worth 3 million pounds?"
Hobert smiled and said, "Everyone may have overlooked a very important thing. Let me take the first day of the light bulb sale as an example.
"There were as many as 36,000 people who made reservations that day, and almost everyone paid a 10-pound deposit."
Everyone suddenly took a deep breath, which meant that on that day alone, 'Earl's Light' had an income of up to 360,000 pounds! No wonder Hobert opened his mouth and said 600,000 pounds!
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