My wife is an immortal black snake.

Page 191

He had no choice but to accept it.

"Ugh..."

Finally, after ten minutes, Her Majesty Catherine had run out of talking and Kosiché had run out of scolding. With the two women taking a temporary break, Yang Hao was finally able to get the month-end meeting down to business.

At his request, the two powerful women finished their work reports even faster than before when they were cursing—Her Majesty the Emperor had nothing to say; recently, due to her pregnancy, Yang Hao had been handling most of her work. Therefore, Her Majesty Catherine described only ordinary matters, such as the fact that the current government of Kazimir had begun sending diplomats to the official government of the Ursus Empire.

“Of course, I have no idea why they’re here,” she chuckled, taking a sip of sweet, warm milk before gently patting her stomach. “But we can’t just let those Kazimirs get away with this so easily—and if I just agree to their request for troops, wouldn’t all our efforts to divide the Kazimir people and their government be wasted?”

"So we have to drag it out for a few more days, until those guys are desperate, and then have another unexpected event... That way, the people of Kazimir will still be angry about everything the Kazimir government has done—saying things like, if Columbia hadn't failed to assassinate the Duke of Ursus, Ursus would never have sent troops to help Kazimir."

"And then you can use this overwhelming public opinion to elevate your little pony to power? Hmm? Well done. Besides being my king and the husband of Duke Kosiché, you'll also be the mistress of the Grand Duchess of Kazimir? I can already imagine how many characters based on you will appear in romance novels in the future."

"...Ahahaha."

After Her Majesty Catherine finished reporting on her work, it was naturally Koschche's turn next.

Kosichrie's report seemed to cover far more work than His Majesty the Emperor's—through her explanation, Yang Hao and His Majesty the Emperor quickly discovered numerous problems...some that were deeply rooted in the Ursus Empire, problems that would still need to be addressed even after the [Chaos and Disorder] were expelled.

"...Some army groups, relying on their high merits and hard work, are already showing signs of becoming independent warlords? I mean—without breaking away from the Ursus Empire, they are trying to become independent warlords?"

"To be precise, it's the Sixth Army Group and the Eighth Army Group. Heh, in a sense, I somewhat approve of those old nobles protecting their own interests, and on the other hand, I'm not entirely satisfied with the policies of the new nobles that Your Majesty has supported regarding their respective territories... but that's not a reason for them to become independent warlords. At least not for now."

"I thought this schemer who has lived for over a thousand years would be happy to see the beginning of warlord rule?"

“If it were before, maybe not. But now I have my husband, and I’m more willing to trust my family.”

So, what are you going to do, my dear?

Kosichello threw all the questions about warlords and the old aristocracy at Yang Hao, but faced with his wife's trust, Yang Hao, after careful consideration, said that they needed to build an army that would "only obey this country" in the future.

Chapter 50

The entangled interests of the old nobility were an extremely difficult problem to resolve, even for Yang Hao. Not to mention that these old nobles also controlled several armies.

Moreover, considering that the Ursus Empire had just ended a civil war, if another civil war broke out during this period, then Yang Hao would no longer need to consider farming. It would be more practical for Ursus to directly transform from an empire into an illegal organization due to two consecutive civil wars. Therefore, even if Yang Hao wanted to deal with those group armies, warlords, and old noble groups, he would need some time, at least about 30 years, until the Ursus Empire had recovered enough and the people of the Ursus Empire had gained more knowledge through basic education before he could carry out plans to eliminate the old nobles and old armies.

However, the fact that this plan can only be implemented 30 years later doesn't mean he can't envision a future "new army" now. After all, some things are better considered sooner rather than later, especially considering that basic education can help people find their direction and acquire some basic skills.

“What we need to build in the future is an army that obeys only the core of the empire—an army with generals, but soldiers who love the empire, not the generals. Generals may have their own will and ideas, but before that, their first priority is to be loyal to our empire. In a sense... if we only need the art of command at the top, we don’t even need humans to be generals and marshals.”

"Doesn't that sound a lot like the current Imperial Army? I mean, every Imperial soldier takes a similar oath before joining the army. Yours later part, however, is quite interesting..."

"So what we need to do is be more absolute. And the latter is just my personal opinion."

"More absolute?"

"And this would seem very radical."

"Go ahead and tell me, what radical things haven't I seen? Do you think your words will scare me?"

Her Majesty Catherine shrugged, while on the other side, Kosichev was also very curious about Yang Hao's bold idea.

Under the watchful eyes of the two powerful women, Yang Hao simply cleared his throat with a cough before beginning to elaborate on his audacious plan—an extremely radical plan that, once completed, would make the Ursus Empire the world's number one military power, a plan that would be unbeatable by anyone combined.

First, we need to understand that modern professional soldiers, in essence, are not truly "professional." This is true even in the current Ursus Empire—a large number of uneducated young people choose to serve in the army rather than go to the city to do manual labor. Many of these young people, who have not received any cultural education, may survive the brutal battlefield, but their experience determines that their highest achievement in life is that of a private first class.

"They can't even read, let alone do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division! Although the officers are alright, the lack of education among these rank-and-file soldiers still pains me. One of the foundations for our future army to be grateful and loving to the country is to provide education for our soldiers."

Education, education. Education not only teaches people addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and helps them understand their native language, but more importantly, it instills in them more concepts—concepts that are far more effective than mere oral transmission.

After completing the soldiers' cultural education, Yang Hao needed to put patriotism education on the agenda. In this patriotism education, he would instill the following three concepts in the soldiers who had just learned to write.

First—you joined the army to protect the emperor and the people, not the old aristocracy and the new capitalists.

Second—Ursus is the mother of all of you. You should cherish this country as you would your own mother, and she will protect every Ursus person as a mother would.

Thirdly, it is not your generals who pay your salaries, but our emperor.

Doesn't this seem quite ordinary? Just like the way rural Ursus fathers educate their children?

The problem is—when those rural people educate their children, they don't write it down. Language dictates that if no one is constantly reminding you, you might easily forget your own teachings.

However, the combination of writing and education is not necessarily the case—Yang Hao might even paint a lot of texts and teachings on the walls of the barracks. Wouldn't those literate soldiers read them?

Yes! They'll definitely get bored watching this for a long time! But what about after a few years of this subtle influence? Apart from the worst scoundrels, most normal soldiers will eventually become good soldiers loyal to the country rather than the old aristocracy and generals under this influence, won't they?

And this is only the first phase. In the second phase, Yang Hao will consider using incentives to make these rank-and-file soldiers more patriotic, almost completely eliminating any possibility of a large-scale rebellion.

There's a saying, a bit crude, but the truth is quite real: not everyone will help you out of ideals. All your talk about a bright future is less convincing than the two loaves of bread and the money in your hand. The vast majority of Ursus soldiers don't join the army to serve their country out of ideals; they're human too, worrying about daily necessities. What they need isn't just the glory of serving their country; what they need most is money.

"Although we will still allow a small number of private soldiers to exist in order to maintain the imperial aristocracy, the existence of those private soldiers will actually better demonstrate the advantages of the future imperial official army."

　"What do you mean?"

"That is the system led by the [Imperial Government], which includes priority employment and guaranteed job placement for retired soldiers, a pension allocation system, compensation for families of those who die in battle during their service, and the [Honor] title, which is not only full of the stench of money but also has real power. In fact, Your Majesty, you can understand it as my plan to make the social class of soldiers higher than that of ordinary people. Although it is like this now, it is not enough."

"I still don't understand. What you're doing will only place a huge economic burden on the Imperial government."

“But believe me, Your Majesty—if we do this, even if the entire civilian population of the Ursus Empire rebels, the soldiers will still remain loyal to us.”

Yang Hao's unhesitating answer brought a satisfied smile to His Majesty's face.

"And besides that, my dear Lord—when you included the old nobles, did you forget that this little cat named Feline here is also a member of the old nobles?"

"what..."

But then, His Majesty the Emperor's reminder made the man who had spoken up immediately realize something.

He let out a scream that was hard to understand, and turned around shakily, only to find his wife staring at him with incredibly dark eyes, seemingly hoping for an explanation from her husband.

Chapter 51

...

Let's set aside the matter of risking his own and his wife's lives for now. After a moment's thought, His Majesty the Emperor realized some key problems with Yang Hao's policy: this kind of preferential treatment for soldiers wasn't just something the imperial government could use; the nobles could use it too.

What if those nobles follow suit and train a large group of loyal private soldiers, eventually declaring themselves kings?

That's a good question. If it were any other ruler, they'd probably only regret their own mistakes later on, right? But the problem is—

Yang Hao has his unbeatable [Puppet Stage]!

This was arguably the first time Yang Hao had truly introduced his abilities to Her Majesty Catherine.

"Simply put, with my abilities, I can instantly transform those nobles' originally loyal private soldiers into an army that loves their country and the royal family. Of course, this requires a lot of... resources. Kosiché and I usually use those resources in more important areas, such as Kazimir or reforms in people's livelihood and economy—but it's not impossible to use them for the military."

"Can you tell me simply what the outcome will be? Although I am very interested in your abilities, if you hurry up and finish this and then explain it to your wife, the Duke of Kosiché's face is getting darker and darker."

"...You can think of it this way: the nobles will be helping us raise the army, and we won't have to spend a single penny on it. Then, when we need them, those soldiers will become ours."

Simply put, Yang Hao's "Puppet Stage" is incredibly powerful in national settings.

In his previous plan, yes! The nobles might indeed follow suit, and in some ways, they could even cultivate private soldiers who were more loyal to them than the national army! But so what?

Yang Hao's [Puppet Stage] can directly [regularize] these nobles' private soldiers by consuming political points, transferring their original allegiance from [nobles] to [the state], without paying any compensation!

The result will be this ridiculous scene: the loyal troops the nobles have cultivated over decades will "betray" them simply because Yang Hao snapped his fingers. And not only will they betray them, but during their long service period, because they are still nominally subordinate to those nobles, those nobles will have to bear their exorbitant expenses, and all the final achievements will be attributed to the Ursus Empire and Her Majesty Catherine...

This is an operation that even the most outrageous comic book creators couldn't imagine! Yang Hao used it directly on those nobles.

Moreover, if those nobles really followed Yang Hao's plan, it would be a huge blow to their livelihood and economy.

“Your Majesty Catherine, you know that my plan will become a heavy economic burden on the Imperial Government in the future—but the problem is, if it is a heavy economic burden for our vast empire, isn’t it the same for those nobles? We still have the resources to develop industry, agriculture, scientific research, and then people’s livelihood while improving the social status and welfare of soldiers—but the problem is, do those old nobles have that much money?”

“I think it’s definitely not, but what if it’s the Duke of Kosiché?”

"...Your Majesty, we are the exception, the most loyal among the old nobles, so please consider us as an exception?"

"Hehe, I was just joking. Continue."

For the vast Ursus Empire, and for its government, raising the social class of soldiers and providing them with welfare is a heavy economic burden, but that does not mean the empire will stagnate because of it.

The most typical example is that you, as an adult, put two bricks in your backpack full of pornographic books—you can definitely carry them, even if they are a bit heavy, but you can still walk normally, right?

But for the old nobles, especially the landed nobles, it's not necessarily the case... To them, it's like making a 3-year-old child carry bricks on a construction site, and do it for decades!

To maintain the loyalty of their private armies, they'll spend all the money they would normally spend elsewhere on this. Their territories will suffer, their economy will lag behind other areas, people will start migrating, and before long they'll probably have no income left... When their own economy collapses, even if Yang Hao is heartbroken, he can only laugh through his tears, "help" them restore their territories, and then conveniently strip them of their noble titles for himself.

Having discussed the unpleasant aspects for the old aristocracy, especially the landed nobles, what about the emerging new aristocracy?

It's not good news either.

As Yang Hao understood it, the new aristocracy was still trying to attract foreign investors to build their industrial cities. They had almost run out of money, so expecting them to squeeze out all the money from their own pockets to invest in the military was more like hoping they would grow two more kidneys.

At least Yang Hao might actually be able to gain two more kidneys through ascension, but the new nobles really don't have the money to cause trouble—especially considering that Yang Hao's plan for the next 50 years is basically a rectification plan targeting both the old and new nobles.

"Therefore, Your Majesty, you don't need to worry about those political issues. Rather, instead of worrying about those things, you should think about how to educate the young heir..."

"Hmm? You're also the Crown Prince's tutor?"

"...No, while it's not that I'm unwilling to teach my own children, I'm so busy. Your Majesty, you could at least fulfill your role as a mother..."

Yang Hao finished speaking. He sensed an extremely dangerous signal coming from a venomous snake watching him...

So he chuckled dryly, and under the deadpan gaze of the head maid behind him, he walked sweating profusely to Koschei's side and sat down. Then, in front of His Majesty the Emperor, he picked up the extremely upset cat, placed it on his lap, and stroked it tenderly for a while before Koschei's mood improved slightly.

Watching Yang Hao's constant attempts to appease his wife, and observing the Duke of Kosiché's expression shift from gloomy to cheerful, His Majesty the Emperor thoughtfully sipped his nearly cooled sweet milk, thinking to himself that this man certainly knew how to charm women.

Chapter 52

After the two women finished asking their questions, it was Yang Hao's turn to address his big questions, his big job, and his big plan.

He began by explaining his work to two people—his wife and the mother of his child. In his explanation, he revealed that he had already outlined a 20-year economic development plan for the Ursus Empire, dividing it into four five-year plans for phased implementation.

Each five-year plan needs to be adjusted according to the actual situation, and the completion of each five-year plan is a qualitative leap for the Ursus Empire.

"So our first five-year plan is about the economy?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. The economy—the economy is a good thing, so we must improve it, at least to get ourselves out of the economic crisis. And fortunately, my plan has already yielded good results."

Holding the adorable Feline cat in his arms, Yang Hao gently licked the tip of his wife's tail with his mouth while his wife blushed, all the while explaining his progress under the direct gaze of His Majesty the Emperor and the even more deadpan stare of Monica, the head maid behind him.

In his previous work, Yang Hao had successfully rectified part of the Ursus Empire's economy. Now, the Ursus Empire no longer had any extra mints, and the excessive printing of banknotes had been largely cleaned up. With the Imperial Ruble gradually regaining its credit, but unable to return to its previous value, Yang Hao needed to print a new currency.

On one hand, his puppet stage only has the highest effect on the new currency. On the other hand, the new currency can indeed improve the environment of the Ursus Empire, laying the foundation for escaping the sea of ​​chaos and disorder in the future. Moreover, he also has his own selfish motives regarding the new currency—he plans to print his and Kosiché's family medals on the back of the largest denomination, while the obverse will naturally feature Her Majesty Empress Catherine's portrait.

He said the new currency would completely improve the economic environment and circulation of the Ursus Empire in the future. And most importantly, as the owners of the new currency, they could then issue foreign exchange and convert that foreign exchange into real value...

"Economic matters are truly my weakness... I can only entrust them entirely to you." Empress Catherine listened attentively, then nodded: "Then, barring any unforeseen circumstances, what should proceed in parallel with economic reforms should be..."

"Reform of the administrative structure. To be honest, Your Majesty—I really don't want to read any more of the erroneous reports submitted to me by officials who can't even do basic arithmetic, really."

"Alright, I'll leave it all to you. Oh, right, there's one more important question... Duke Kosichä? According to the plan, you're supposed to die once, right? But it seems your heir has his own ideas?"

"Ah... well, don't worry, Your Majesty."

Recovering from Yang Hao's caresses, Koschei, his face flushed, merely gave a mysterious smile: "Although Karina won't be acting as my successor afterward—don't worry. I have a plan."

"You said before that Karina was the only heir?"

"What I meant was that Karina was the closest and best heir to me, Your Majesty—but since Karina has already made her own decision, it's not impossible for me to change to someone else. Oh dear, my dear husband? Why do you look so relaxed? So you do have some terrible ideas about my heir, don't you?"

"Ah...this..."

"puff."

When Yang Hao made that embarrassed sound, the head maid behind him couldn't help but laugh a few times.

....... .......

After concluding the discussions at the beginning of the month, His Majesty the Emperor went for a walk in the courtyard to rest and get some fresh air, while Yang Hao and Kosiché returned to their palace with their head maids. They still had things to discuss.

That was about Karina. After all, Yang Hao didn't know what Karina and Koschche had talked about alone, so he felt it would be best for him to find out what had happened.

"In short, Karina gave up the idea of ​​becoming my successor. So I found someone newer, Miss Phidiah."

"Ah this..."

"While Miss Phidia's body doesn't seem strange to me, my dear husband, with your fetish for tails, you must be..."

"—Hey, Lord Kosichek? Could you please stop flirting when we're talking about serious matters? Look, even Lord Yang Hao isn't in the mood for anything serious anymore."

"oops?"

Kosichello turned around and found her husband sweating profusely for some reason, looking rather comical.

Suddenly, she had a mischievous idea. So she ignored the head maid's sigh and said to her husband with a wicked smile:

"Darling, do you prefer the scaly style to the cat tail?"