Yes, Madam Prime Minister

Page 132

Ronan said.

To put it bluntly and perhaps inappropriately, in another timeline of France, by the time of Napoleon, even with a new legal code, it was merely a high-end version of the Qing Dynasty, characterized by its superior ships and cannons.

Here's another joke: After Britain colonized India, it raised import tariffs on cotton cloth because the reason was that the cotton cloth hand-woven by Indians, plus the cost of sea freight, was actually cheaper than the cotton cloth woven on advanced looms. This completely baffled Britain.

Humans are also a means of production.

“Anli, when the church applies this advanced productivity on a large scale, their control over the grassroots in rural areas will be extremely weak. At that time, we can take advantage of the situation and regain control of the grassroots.”

"Of course, they will definitely move to the city workers at that time, but when it comes to fooling, oh no, instructing workers, I think I am quite good at it."

Ronan said with a smile.

For the church, advanced productivity is a poison that can bring enormous benefits.

"It's getting late, you should go to sleep. I need to write for a while longer." After saying that, Ronan turned around, sat back down at his desk, picked up his pen, and began to write.

“Ronan, I want to have a midnight snack,” Ambrina said.

Ronan turned around. "What kind of late-night snack?"

Ambrina lifted her skirt, extending a slender, soft white silk-stockinged foot. Her big toe moved slightly inside the stocking, making a seductive gesture.

“What do you think?” Ambrina countered.

"How about we have some sex?" Ronan suggested.

Ambrina pouted, "No, not there, at least, definitely not."

“No, I meant rubbing against the cleft,” Ronan explained.

Ambrina's expression changed immediately. "Then, shall we give it a try?"

"Your Highness, I obey your command."

Chapter 299 Being Targeted, Reactions from Various Countries, Troublesome

Ambrina had taken off her briefs and was only wearing white stockings.

Ronan held Ambrina's soft waist with one hand, tore a hole in the crotch of her white stockings, squeezed in through the hole, and began to slowly and rhythmically rub along the crotch. He then moved his hand from the stockings to the front, gently rubbing her nipples with one finger.

Before long, the area beneath Ambrina's thick, dark hair was already damp, and the white stockings at the crotch had become transparent, making the slightly curled, glossy black hair even clearer.

Meanwhile, as Ronan continued to rub her buttocks, her pink eyes began to open and close slightly involuntarily.

"Ronan, hand."

"Ok?"

"Fingers come in."

"Oh."

Ronan stuck one finger in.

In an instant, Ambrina tilted her head back slightly in satisfaction, then closed her eyes in blissful intoxication and turned to kiss Ronan.

A moment later, Ambrina groaned softly, "One more, just one more."

Ronan inserted his middle and index fingers simultaneously, and Ambrina's warm flesh walls suddenly contracted.

Just as he sensed that Ambrina was about to ejaculate, Ronan suddenly pulled his hand out, then pressed both hands against the outside of Ambrina's slightly fleshy thighs, making her thighs squeeze together, and then inserted them between her legs. The slippery feel of the stockings and the slight abrasion, combined with the fleshy sensation, quickly got Ronan into the mood and began to speed up.

But Ambrina felt increasingly empty and lacking.

At the same time, thousands of miles away.

In the royal palace of the Kingdom of Faz, in the king's sleeping quarters, King Lucien summoned three of the few ministers in the central government who were relatively close to him.

The kingdom's political system can be described as a Frankenstein's monster, a semi-feudal, semi-civilian system with a touch of imperialism.

The countryside was left to its own devices and was controlled by landlords and the church.

At the municipal level, the city hall and the three branches of government jointly govern the city. The mayor, who is the head of the political administration, is elected by the council, but the political officers are all civil servants.

At the state level, the governor is appointed by the king, but this is only in name. In reality, the decision is made jointly by the central government. The state government does not have a parliament, but the civil servants are mostly locals.

Then there's the central level, with eight very common departments: Foreign Affairs and Defense, Finance, Agriculture, Crafts and Commerce, the Central Supreme Court, Foreign Trade, National Guard, and Civil Affairs.

And less commonly, the Ministry of Magic, the department that regulates and manages mages, but the Royal Magic Order is not under its jurisdiction. The Territory Management Department was established because there are still many nobles with fiefdoms within the country.

The heads of departments are all called ministers.

Next is the Prime Minister Election Committee, which is responsible for selecting the Prime Minister from the candidates nominated by the King, with the King serving as the chairman of the election committee.

These are all state institutions, but not the highest authority.

There is also the Prime Minister's Office, which reports directly to the Prime Minister and is responsible for liaising with and supervising the work of various departments, as well as the General Secretariat, which is responsible for conveying the Prime Minister's instructions.

The king wasn't without resources; he had a mages' corps, a royal guard, and a military staff. In short, the guns were in the king's hands.

However, the current king, Lucien, suffered a defeat that was not considered a loss at the beginning of his reign, and his military prestige was severely lacking.

Of course, he wasn't much better in the central government either. After all, his eldest brother became a monk, and he only got the position after his second brother died. As a result, he has been in power for more than ten years, and he dislikes the current prime minister very much, but he can't get rid of him.

As king, there are three types of daily administrative meetings: ministerial meetings, royal meetings, and governor's report meetings.

The Council of Ministers is attended by all ministers, but it's essentially a formality, not much different from the grand court assembly in Seris. Then comes the Royal Council, where the Prime Minister and a few ministers discuss state affairs with the King; this is the real daily routine. Finally, there's the Governors' Report Meeting, held annually, mainly to hear reports from the governors about the situation in their respective states.

But Lucien preferred private meetings, especially summoning a few close ministers alone at night, because he was at odds with the prime minister.

"Have you finished reading?" Lucien asked the three of them.

The Minister of Agriculture, the Minister of Foreign Trade, and the Minister of Civil Affairs nodded. The document they had just been looking at was a plan for the Ministry of the Interior drafted by Ronan.

Although the three were not the most powerful ministers, they had managed to reach their positions, so they must have had some judgment. The so-called Ministry of the Interior was meant to weaken the Prime Minister's power on the one hand, and strengthen the King's power on the other.

“Your Majesty, we must proceed with caution,” the Minister of Civil Affairs said.

"We should wait until the change of government and consider it based on the selection of the new prime minister," the Minister of Foreign Trade added.

Lucien remained expressionless and silent.

At this moment, the Minister of Agriculture said something that left the other two puzzled: "Mr. Artes, who single-handedly led the grain and oil cooperative, along with Governor Dinia, I think that's enough to keep the Ministry of the Interior in place. It doesn't matter who comes in."

"Hahaha." Lucien burst into laughter.

On the same night, in Weyland, which faces the Kingdom of Phos across the sea.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Wieland looked anxiously at the door. Soon after, a middle-aged secretary walked in, and the Minister of Commerce hurriedly stood up. "How is it?"

“The production of bone china is broken down into dozens of processes, and the core technology is in the hands of a few of Ronan’s confidants who are difficult to bribe. In addition, there is that troublesome woman, Faith Marinette. It’s impossible to steal the technology,” the middle-aged secretary reported.

"Sigh." The Chancellor of the Exchequer sighed. He hadn't cared about the Litchfield incident before, since it was a matter for the military and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and had nothing to do with him, the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

However, the bone china issue infuriated him. In just the last two months, the country had imported a large amount of bone china from the French colonies, which was a huge amount of money, and the country's tax revenue had been severely cut.

Previously, porcelain imported from Venetian, whether genuine Seres export goods or imitations made by those damn Venetian merchants, was merely a luxury item. It was expensive, but its impact was limited. Now, this bone china is "cheap and good quality," and with the added prestige of being "Made in France," it has directly affected many middle-income earners.

With the conflict with Villar escalating at sea, they couldn't afford to be without money.

"Go, contact the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Commerce. We can't just buy; we have to sell. Find someone to contact Ronan as soon as possible. We, Wieland, want to become their agents."

The Chancellor of the Exchequer issued the order.

“Yes, Minister,” the secretary replied.

At almost the same time, King Villa was also meeting with several close advisors, and he handed them letters from the colonies to look at.

The king could be said to admire Ronan's skillful handling of the two counts and the inhabitants of the plains in the colony, but that was all. What truly ignited his desire was Ronan's ability to transform the French colony in a short period of time, with manufacturing taking off in just a year and a half.

As for his country, it's not that its manufacturing sector had absolutely nothing, but it was certainly completely destroyed.

"What do you think of this Ronan? How about inviting him to our Villa?" the king asked. He admired Ronan, and in those days it was quite normal to invite a foreigner to serve as an official in one's country.

"He has already risen to a high position at a young age."

"Moreover, it is said that his relationship with that female governor is unusual."

Chapter 300 Knowing, Not Knowing, the Auction Plan

After Ambrina finished her midnight snack, Ronan lost the energy to continue writing and went to bed.

He was unaware that His Majesty the King, his father-in-law, valued his proposal regarding the Ministry of the Interior so highly that he had even summoned three of his close advisors, whom he had personally promoted, for questioning. However, Ronan believed that the King would definitely be interested.

As the saying goes, action speaks louder than words. In Ronan's prediction, his clever father-in-law would at least have someone spread some rumors about the Ministry of the Interior. If he was bold enough, he would directly find an official of moderate rank and secretly instruct him to propose the establishment of the Ministry of the Interior in order to test the attitudes of different groups, especially the group represented by the Prime Minister who are "neutral" in name but "fence-sitters".

However, this is only the beginning.

When the two books, "A Brief History of Democracy" and "Communitarianism," were published in the Kingdom.

Any conflict or disagreement will inevitably ignite a conflict.

During the conflict, Ronan believed that his father-in-law had enough tacit understanding with him to understand his intentions and continue to cause trouble in the country. He also believed that his father-in-law always trusted him and believed that he could control the situation when the time came.

Therefore, they carried out the agreement made during their previous meeting.

Although it was never explicitly stated, if you had asked Ambrina, who was also present at the time, she would definitely have asked with suspicion, "Did Ronan and his father have an agreement?"

But in fact, there was a silent agreement: that King Lucien, who was getting closer and closer to death, would do all the "bad things," and that Ambrina would do the "good things" after she came to power.

"Father-in-law, you'd better step up your game! Anli's 'goodness' is entirely highlighted by your 'badness.'"

Ronan couldn't help but sigh.

Similarly, Ronan knew that the Weylanders would eventually want to get involved in the bone china business, but he didn't know they had reacted so quickly and already had their eyes on it.

There's no way around it; everyone in Wieland is now working at full speed. Government officials are nothing like Dai Ying from Ronan's original timeline. The current Wieland, from the people to the officials, are all very decisive. After all, those without decisiveness probably wouldn't survive.

However, Ronan planned to sell the state-owned bone china factory in the colony, as well as several other factories.

And it's fast.

The reason is simple: once he and Dinia leave, the so-called "state-run" system simply cannot be maintained. The colony is not like New Sea City, which Ronan has been managing for many years. The civil servants and local forces here are neither Ronan's nor Dinia's people, and the colony's territory is much larger than New Sea City.

It is impossible to accomplish the "two whatevers".

Given this, rather than watching colonial officials and factory managers collude with some businessmen to create chaos in the factories, then let the workers suffer losses, and finally let private individuals take over, it would be better to put them up for auction from the beginning.

Ronan will sell to whoever offers the best terms.

Of course, Ronan will take all the core technical personnel with him. These technicians were originally brought from his homeland, so there won't be any problems. From now on, the bone china factory will only be producing ordinary pottery, not exquisite bone china.

As for the porcelain factory, it will naturally be built to the east of the capital.

In Ronan's original timeline, there was a ceramics factory located east of Paris, France.

The glass factory, leather goods factory, and food factory were sold off intact.

All the technical staff of the textile factory were taken away, as were the machines. However, the textile factory can still use Ronan's machines in the future, but it will have to pay for them.

Although Ronan's actions weakened the colony's power, he still managed to leave behind some factories, enough to prevent the colony from becoming a place that could only export raw materials.

At the same time, Ronan also built a stable pool of resources for the indigenous forces, allowing for sustainable exploitation.

In addition, there were minor adjustments to the governor's bureaucratic system and the "price cartel," a monopoly organization that was slowly becoming tainted with the stench of capitalism.

It can be said that in just one and a half years since Ronan arrived in the colony, he has enabled it to achieve a leap forward. Even if some people reverse course after he leaves, it is still much, much better than before.

"Well, I'm not being modest. How did I, a mayor's secretary, end up in the colony and in charge of operations? If anyone asks, I can only say that I've only done a tiny bit of work."

Ronan thought to himself.

As for the neighboring Kingdom of Villa, Ronan only knew that Sebastian and Olivia had written some letters back home, detailing Ronan's actions in the colony.

Ronan estimated that his actions would probably be considered boasting.

Ronan could never have imagined that the King of the Kingdom of Villa would particularly admire him.

Even if he knew, all he could do was apologize.

Isn't Wang Fu's life of being a kept man appealing?

Isn't Diniya a good boss?

Villa is a stinking place, just a copy of Spain. Its manufacturing industry has collapsed under the excessive impact of silver, the country's financial order is in chaos, and the decline has already begun. Ronan has no intention of being the one stepping on the gas.

If Willand extended an invitation to him, Ronan might give it a second thought.

After all, the country of Wieland is not only on the rise, but it is also very friendly to civil servants like him.

To be honest, when Ronan first transmigrated, he felt like he hadn't done it right. How did he end up in a different world, France? And the revolution was still a long way off. He, this evil dragon, couldn't even pretend to be a dragon-slaying hero and become a revolutionary hero.

But in the end, Ronan still managed to live off his wife thanks to his outstanding abilities.

One bowl is for Ambrina, and the other is for Dinya.

"Sigh, time to sleep. I have to get up early to write tomorrow."