The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Chapter 450: The Kingdom and the Duke

The large cargo terminal of Dorset Port has undergone three transformations. The first large cargo terminal was built in the city, and it is next to the current passenger terminal. However, with a large number of factories built on the edge of Dorset Port, a In the large factory area, the surge in cargo throughput made the repeatedly expanded docks overwhelmed. In the end, the municipal government decided to move most of the large cargo docks out of the urban area, and set aside a large stretch of coast near the factory area for the construction of docks.

After the construction of the large freight wharf is completed, all the export goods produced by the factories and the imported raw materials will be handled through this large freight wharf, while general commodities will go to the freight wharf in the urban area.

The difference between the freight terminals in the same city is that this large terminal not only has a large number of warehouses for hoarding goods, but also has a large terminal that can dock four or five cargo ships, as well as a secret dock terminal specially used to load secret cargo.

On the wharf, there are more than a dozen docks that can load large cargo ships. Each dock is closely connected with rows of private warehouses. When the cargo ship arrives at the port, it will be dragged into the dock by a tugboat. , and then the people in the dock will close the water door at the entrance to completely seal the dock.

Whether it is the goods loaded on the ship or the goods unloaded from the ship, they are transported back and forth from these closed docks, which will not give outsiders any chance to snoop.

Although the reason for building this kind of shipyard at the beginning was to facilitate the handling of goods, but now these piers are almost used by various large chambers of commerce and noble forces to transport smuggled goods. It's an open secret, but no one will tell this secret, because everyone who tells these secrets will eventually become a floating corpse at sea.

After Leo came to the place agreed with Jason, Jason led Leo to one of the docks.

On the way, Jason introduced the situation: "This dock belongs to Earl Ed of Essenburg. He also has a factory here. This dock is dedicated to transporting raw materials and products of the factory." He stopped for a while, He added: "Of course, this is just an external statement. In fact, this is Earl Ed's smuggling point. The tobacco and tea shipped from Mozambique mainland will be unloaded from this pier, and then labeled as raw materials of the factory, and shipped to Domestic sales, avoiding a large amount of taxes that need to be paid.”

"Get to the point." Leo said, looking at Jason who was a little bit wordy.

Jason smiled stupidly, and got to the point: "Earl Ed's recent investments in Mozambique have all lost money. There are problems with funds, and some debts are due, which makes him have to sell some of his property for use. Mortgage debt, this dockyard and warehouse is one of the properties sold, and the person who bought it has something to do with you."

"Something to do with me?" Leo frowned.

"The Duke of Buckingham." Jason didn't hold back, and said the answer directly.

"He." Leo just nodded flatly, without saying anything.

Jason was a little disappointed by Leo's reaction, but he didn't get too entangled in this point, but continued: "Since the Duke of Buckingham has bought the dock and warehouse, the things that were originally placed on the warehouse and dock will naturally be taken away." Come out to transport it away, but a strange thing happened when my men were moving the goods in one of the warehouses, he forgot to move things."

"Forgot to move things?" Leo was taken aback, looking at Jason with some puzzlement.

"How should I say it?" Jason seemed to know that Leo would have such a reaction, so he thought about it carefully and said, "They just forgot, they all forgot to move things! They should have gone to the warehouse and put the things in the warehouse They moved out, but after they went in, they all forgot to carry their things, and they all walked out empty-handed without doing anything. Do you understand this?"

Leo thought for a while and said, "You mean that there is something in the goods in that warehouse that is affecting your men and making them forget what they are going to do, right?"

"Yes, yes, that's what it means!" Jason nodded repeatedly.

After getting a positive response, Leo also became interested in this matter.

The carriage they were riding in soon arrived at the dock that Jason mentioned, but now it is not as deserted as other docks and docks. Instead, a lot of people gathered, and various quarrels came from the crowd. Let the quiet dock become very noisy.

"What's going on here? Are those boys drunk and playing around again?" Jason went down after the carriage stopped, just in time to meet the manager of the wharf who was coming up, so he asked immediately.

"No, not our people." The manager immediately explained: "Not long after you left, two groups of people came to tell us that the ownership of this warehouse belongs to them, and now they are the ones arguing, and we are just standing by. Just watching the fun."

"Two groups? Who are they?" Jason raised his eyebrows and asked displeased.

"One is the butler of the Duke of Buckingham's family, who is here to handle dock affairs, and the other is an office called the Special Bureau. They want to take over the warehouse from the Duke of Buckingham's family, but the Duke of Buckingham does not allow it. There was a commotion at the door."

"Damn it." Jason couldn't help cursing, then turned his head to look at Leo, and said with a wry smile: "It seems that this matter is not up to us to solve, shall we go back now?"

"No need." Leo shook his head and said, "I want to see."

After speaking, Leo walked into the crowd on his own, squeezed to the center of the crowd with his body strength, and saw the two sides facing each other.

I saw three people on the side of the Special Bureau, and these three people happened to be acquainted by Leo, two of them were the two members of the Special Bureau who were seen at the scene of the death of Leo's subordinates, and the other was at the sacrificial ceremony The member of the Special Bureau who appeared on the scene.

At this moment, the three of them were confronting a dozen strong men, who could tell at a glance that they were battle-tested fighters, and each of them had bulging waists. It is equipped with weapons, and one of them exudes a strong family aura, but there are no mutant organs of the family on the surface of the body.

A middle-aged man confronting the three of these more than a dozen well-built people was a middle-aged man. Although his appearance was completely different, Leo saw the figure of his own housekeeper from this middle-aged man, or more accurately speaking , This middle-aged man is imitating the gestures of Sanjies butler, but the middle-aged man does not know that what he is imitating is only a surface, and the inner temperament is not imitated at all, so the overall look looks strange.

"What are you doing?" Jason, who followed closely, walked past Leo, walked up to the two opposing sides, and said loudly, "Your actions have affected our work. Will you compensate for wasted time and reduced income?"

Seeing Jason approaching, those members of the special bureau were overjoyed at first, and those who thought Jason was the special bureau would definitely stand by their side, but when they heard Jason's words, their expressions became very ugly, because They could tell that Jason was obviously not on their side, but they could also tell that Jason was not on the Duke of Buckingham's side.

For ordinary people, the Duke of Buckingham is the first duke of the Kingdom of England and is one with the Kingdom of England, but for the high-level officials of the Kingdom of England, the Duke of Buckingham and the Kingdom of England are completely two individuals.

Although the Buckinghamshire and Buckingham sea area where the Duke of Buckingham is located is the land of the Kingdom of England in name, in fact it is completely the private land of the Duke of Buckingham. Whether it is judicial or taxation, it is not under the management of the Kingdom of England. There is even an independent army formed here, but this army bears the name of the Third Army of the Kingdom of England.

For a long time, the Parliament of the Kingdom of England has tried its best to take the power of Buckinghamshire into the kingdom. Unfortunately, the background of the Duke of Buckingham is too deep, so deep that even if the power of the entire Kingdom of England is gathered, it may not be able to shake The territory of the Duke of Buckingham, unless the Kingdom of England is willing to have a devastating civil war, otherwise, the Kingdom of England can only keep the territory of the Duke of Buckingham in this state of full autonomy.

Although the Parliamentary Government of the Kingdom of England could not deal with the Duke of Buckingham in Buckinghamshire, they were able to restrict the Duke of Buckingham from developing power within the Kingdom of England, and it was also quite effective. All forces have been secretly removed.

But this is only limited to those forces secretly cultivated by the Duke of Buckingham who do not want to be known. When the Duke of Buckingham conducts some business investments openly and invades the power circle of the Kingdom of England from the business aspect, the parliamentary government is a little helpless .

For example, the Duke of Buckingham’s purchase of the docks and docks. Some people in the municipal government who were inclined to Congress originally planned to stop the transaction, but in the end they did nothing. Price bought the pier, which once again strengthened its influence on the Port of Sorset.

However, it was clear that those people were unwilling to just watch the Duke of Buckingham take over the wharf smoothly. When they heard some weird things happened in the warehouse integrated with the wharf, they immediately mobilized the special bureau, using the abnormal incident as an excuse to block Even if the dock warehouse cannot be permanently blocked, it can delay the time for the Duke of Buckingham to take over the dock. This period of time will allow the parliamentary authorities to find out the real purpose of the Duke of Buckingham's purchase of the dock and factory, and prepare countermeasures.

However, just like within the municipality, not everyone is on the side of the Congressional government, and some people are on the side of the Duke of Buckingham. That's why they blocked the news from Jason and let Jason, an important pier, The person in charge received no prior information.

At this time, the person in charge sent by the Duke of Buckingham also frowned. Although he expected to encounter obstacles before coming here, he did not expect that it was the people from the Special Bureau who hindered him, and the dock warehouse he bought There is actually an item in the middle that triggers a situation, which is somewhat beyond his ability.

Although there is no solution for the time being, he still wants to maintain the power of the Duke of Buckingham, so he said: "The warehouse has been bought by the Duke, and everything belongs to the Duke..."

"Wait, you seem to have made a mistake!" Jason interrupted the other party suddenly, and said, "If I remember correctly, the Duke of Buckingham bought only the docks and warehouses, not including the goods in the warehouses and the docks. Tools," he said, turning his head and shouting to the crowd: "Cripple, when the contract was signed that day, you were one of the witnesses, did the contract mention the goods in the warehouse?"

"Head, no." An old man with a limp came out of the crowd with a briefcase in his hand, took out a document from the briefcase as he walked, handed it to Jason, and said, "This is the stub copy of the contract of the day , the transaction content written above is only warehouses and docks, and does not involve the goods inside."

Jason took the document and casually flipped through it without looking at it carefully, so he handed it to the Duke of Buckingham and said, "You should read it yourself!"

The middle-aged man didn't take over the documents, because they knew the content of the contract better than Jason, and the so-called ownership of the goods was just an excuse.

The middle-aged man said coldly: "Even if they don't belong to the Duke, those things still belong to the Earl Ed. Have you obtained the permission of the Earl for the closed warehouse of your special bureau?"

The people from the Special Bureau also argued: "Although we have not obtained the consent of the Earl, the Congress has given us the power of the Special Bureau to block any..."

The middle-aged man interrupted the special bureau and said: "The Congress has indeed given you the power to block abnormal items, but don't forget that your power is limited to ordinary people, and any noble property is not something you can block at will,"

"You..." The people from the special bureau were still about to argue.

"Okay!" Jason interrupted the two parties who were about to quarrel again, then looked at them and said, "I don't care what you guys want to do with the things inside, I just hope that the things inside will be taken as soon as possible Let's go, so my people can clean up the goods inside." He said, he thought for a while, and said: "Let's do this! Both of you will send people in to find out what the items that caused this incident are, and then take them out. Let whoever takes it out keep it."

"How is this possible?" Both parties were dissatisfied with Leo's crude and simple solution.

"That's it. I'm the person in charge here, and I have the final say." Jason yelled at both sides angrily, then looked at both sides with contempt, and said, "If you can't even take out the things, It means that you are not qualified, and you are still arguing!"

After finishing speaking, he signaled the subordinates watching the excitement to open the warehouse door, and then walked aside, apparently waiting for the two parties to decide who to send into the warehouse.

"The three of us came together, so naturally we went in together." The people in the special bureau saw that Jason had made a decision and would not change it, so they demanded.

"It's the same with us." The Duke of Buckingham immediately said the same request.

"Okay, why don't you all go in together." Jason nodded in agreement and suggested.

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