Chapter 315: Christmas at the Manor

Old Sir was very expectant and happy about this Christmas, especially since he had a series of glorious stories of his own vigor to show off to the children. While the servants at Tang Dun were cleaning and decorating the rooms, Sir Crawley took advantage of the rare reunion time to recount his experiences in Albania.

"Albania's previous leader was named Hoxha, a leader with considerable means, wisdom, courage, and great charisma. In fact, the current Ramiz Ramiz Aliya is just following his lead and continuing all his policies," Old Sir revealed a slightly regretful look, "Ramiz Ramiz Aliya is having a hard time holding things together. When I went there, their situation was... how should I put it, still slightly chaotic."

"Ramiz Ramiz Aliya's leadership position is not stable; he lacks the charisma and means that Hoxha had, so he can only seek allies, and the ally he chose was the Ministry of Magic. I must say, Yanayev started this off well." Old Sir now seems to have a full understanding of the Wizarding World, though he views problems more from a purely Muggle standpoint, "After gaining the support of the Ministry of Magic, his thinking has broadened significantly, and he has creatively proposed the idea of using wizards to counter nuclear deterrence."

"What?" Harry didn't expect Albania to be so radical on this matter.

"The establishment of Gilneas has undoubtedly been a great help to him, not only expanding the domestic wizarding power but also helping him completely master the discourse in domestic politics," Old Sir said, "So, he creatively proposed the concept of comprehensive national defense, attempting to use the bunkers left by Hoxha to connect magical energy to achieve nationwide nuclear defense."

"The Greymane Wall was one such attempt," Old Sir stated the original cause of this project in one sentence.

"In other words, if the Greymane Wall can succeed, Alia is preparing to build a giant defensive magic array covering all of Albania? A magic array sufficient to defend against nuclear bombs?" Harry felt this idea was very crazy, but he also admitted that it was very desirable.

"Not at all; this ward can only isolate radiation, and even a significant amount of the shockwave leaks through," Old Sir said, "But it can also greatly alleviate the pressure."

From the perspective of magic, at this time, Gilnis, with the help of the space technology contained in the TARDIS, could already be fearless of nuclear deterrence. Harry couldn't help but sigh. Ollivander had indeed preserved the most precious legacy of the Doctor Project.

"Of course, these are just things he is willing to tell an outsider like me; who knows how many secret plans he has in the dark?" Old Sir smiled and spread his hands, "More importantly, he has loosened up on introducing foreign capital and is willing to let me invest and open factories there."

"Wow." Harry exclaimed.

"I invested a full two hundred million pounds, which is a sum that hurts the bones for Tang Dun, but I believe the Running Wolf brand will become a precious wealth passed down through our generations. Not only because it has decent profitability, but more importantly, it carries a new era of aristocratic spirit: on the issue of money, we must continue to acknowledge the binding of rights and obligations." Old Sir suddenly became serious, "I realized this problem a long time ago. If I were just an old man who studied law, I could only constantly fight for the workers who were wronged; but since I have so much money, I should open my own factories to provide workers with positions where they will never be wronged."

"Unfortunately, the fierce commercial competition in London always leads me into a dilemma: if I want to make a profit, I can only increase working hours; otherwise, I have to lower wages. So I say, Albania is a place that has helped me truly realize my ideals. Thanks to the policy preferences provided by Ramiz Ramiz Aliya, Running Wolf has become a conscientious enterprise. Whether for consumers or for employees, it is a conscientious enterprise in the true sense..."

Listening to Old Sir excitedly and enthusiastically introducing his business, Harry realized in hindsight that those participating in the canning and food processing were not just the werewolf residents of Gilneas. Indeed, if it had relied solely on those werewolves, this brand would likely not have been enough to be sold in Diagon Alley in such a short time.

After Sir Crawley finished telling this story for the first time, whenever he recalled even a few more details, he immediately wanted Harry to know, or rather, he immediately wanted to savor it again in front of Harry.

When Harry was listening to the story, Sirius was watching TV. Having lived in the magic world all his life, he showed great curiosity and addiction to the cable TV newly installed at Tang Dun—while Ivy patiently explained to him the TV and everything Muggle that appeared on the TV—at the same time, she strictly stopped the servants when they were gossiping that the dark godfather was a country bumpkin.

Early Christmas morning, Harry happily started opening gifts. The Wei Wei Silai family sent a sweater and some magic snacks as usual, Neville sent a jar of pickled beans, Hermione sent him a notebook, and Zhang Qiu sent a bronze bell that could make beautiful dreams. It is worth mentioning that Cedric also sent him a gift, a pair of reflective mirrors that could be installed on a broomstick, adjusted to be more suitable for the competition... although the Quidditch League officials seemed to be discussing banning this kind of mirror.

Sirius and Lupin sent him a set of books related to Dark Magic, which was quite helpful for his understanding of Grindelwald's notes, but Harry didn't intend to have deep contact with Dark Magic for a long time. When he was flipping through the little things sent by members of the Order of the Phoenix one by one, he suddenly felt a pain in his finger.

It was a wallet with fangs sent by Hagrid.

Harry felt a bit sad. He once regarded Hagrid as a rare big-guy friend, but now he had classified Hagrid into "those useless guys in the Order of the Phoenix" in his heart. Harry touched his face, took out Hagrid's gift, put it into the pile of gifts from friends, and told himself that when Hagrid came back, he must have afternoon tea with him again.

He didn't have time to finish reading all the gifts when two crisp sounds suddenly rang outside the window. It was Fred and George.

"Harry, look, we have to send you two more big boxes of Wei Wei Silai fireworks separately," they carried two big boxes together. "You deserve this, good brother!"

"How many fireworks have you sent me?" Harry said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "I'm really afraid they'll blow this place up."

"Don't worry, they can't be triggered without inputting magic power..."

As soon as the two put the boxes down, a sharp and piercing sound rang from the pile of gifts. Harry resisted the discomfort and rummaged through it. He found it was the Sneakoscope sent by Krest. This little thing probably identified the fireworks as dangerous goods.

"Uh-oh." The twins looked embarrassed.

"These fireworks of yours must be contraband," Harry sighed. "That's why you hid them at my place."

"This isn't our fault. Who told the Ministry of Magic to issue new regulations?" George said with dissatisfaction. "Now they define Muggle items with lethality exceeding the Stupefy spell as military supplies—"

"But these aren't ordinary Muggle fireworks. We used magic to modify them, making them more beautiful... and more powerful," Fred said guiltily. "But these are magic items after all."

"It seems that the person who made this rule knows Muggle items quite well," Harry suddenly remembered something, "and he knows the Weasleys even better."

The two brothers couldn't help but laugh. After chatting for a few more sentences, they left with two crisp "pop" sounds.

Harry finished tidying up and was about to go downstairs for breakfast when he noticed Lord Crawley had just hung up the phone.

"What's going on?" Harry noticed Lord Crawley had a confused face and seemed to have something to say but stopped. "Who did you just take a call from?"

"It was a friend in the political circle. He told me that the Prime Minister is preparing to change to a new Minister of Defense. It's really strange. Why pick around Christmas?" Lord Crawley shook his head.

"Maybe he's just spreading some inside information first?" Harry guessed. "Just testing everyone's reaction?"

"In case there is a lot of opposition and he gives up? No, the news I got is that people in the party tried to persuade him but failed, and the Prime Minister insisted on doing so."

"Meaning, changing the minister is set in stone, and the difference is just when the new minister intends to take office?"

"Pretty much, and we haven't even heard of this person, Lei Sichuide..." Lord Crawley muttered. "I've only seen this surname in Sherlock Holmes novels."

The sound of the TV suddenly stopped.

"Can you say it again, what is the name of the new Minister of Defense in the Muggle world?"

"It hasn't been officially appointed yet, but according to inside information, it should be a person named Greg Lei Sichuide," Lord Crawley said with dissatisfaction. "Even if he isn't that useless detective, Lei Sichuide should be a French surname. How can we tolerate such a person being the Minister of Defense?"

"Saying he's useless is a bit biased. He was once the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement," Sirius said slowly. "If they are preparing to announce this news after Christmas... but why would Lei Sichuide be transferred to the Muggle world to be the Minister of Defense?"

"Department of Magical Law Enforcement, is that a position in the Ministry of Magic?" Lord Crawley took off his glasses.

"Right, it should be second only to the Minister."

"Is he responsible for managing the wizard army?"

"You could say that. He is the direct superior of the Head of the Auror Office."

Lord Crawley sat slowly at the edge of the table. After a long silence, he looked up and said: "Perhaps, we also have to prepare to incorporate the wizard army into the national defense system, just like Albania."

"Albania is like this. The Minister of Defense is a wizard, so he can command the wizard army and the Muggle army at the same time without violating the Statute of Secrecy," Lord Crawley frowned again. "But isn't our nuclear deterrence system running well?"

"And we don't have enough wizard troops at all. Even if we did, they wouldn't listen to the Ministry of Magic's command," Sirius added. "The magic world is in a cold war: they are divided into two factions, hostile to each other, and the knowledgeable people in both factions are trying their best to avoid fighting."

"Then I don't understand what's going on either," Lord Crawley sighed and stood up. "Anyway, there are already enough things in this country that people can't understand, so one more doesn't matter." ===== CHAPTER 316 =====