chsdbacks #288 - The master is dead! I am going to be the master!
#288 - The master is dead! I am going to be the master!
March 12th, Jeanne d'Arc Castle.
Pale golden sunlight pierced through the fluttering Savior's Flag, framing the silhouette of the church with the golden edge of dawn.
The square, surrounded by the town hall and Jeanne d'Arc Castle Church, was filled with representatives of the people dressed in various linen, wool, and silk garments.
Citizen representatives twirled their mustaches, gathering in a chaotic manner, clamoring to buy butter and toasted wheat cakes from street vendors.
Labor and farmer representatives with knotted beards merely consumed the free black bread and water provided by the inn, shrinking listlessly against the wall.
The town mayor and wealthy merchants gathered together, holding buttered ginger beer early in the morning, and quietly consulted with the mayors of Gray Furnace Town and Mayo Town.
A slightly warm and cold wind blew past, the smell of alcohol hitting the faces of the junior monks leading the way, who sniffed enviously, and continued to guide the representatives of the people to their seats.
At this moment, Victory Square was crowded with representatives of the people who had rushed in from other places.
This city square was originally called Klaus Square, but after a unanimous decision by the Senate, it was renamed Victory Square to commemorate the Battle of Jeanne d'Arc Castle.
This Jeanne d'Arc Castle Believers' Assembly was held in Victory Square.
The number of people's representatives attending the meeting here was as many as 392, and the town hall could not accommodate them, so it could only be arranged in Victory Square.
The execution platform in the center of Victory Square has been removed and replaced with a 5X5 wooden platform to facilitate Horn's speech.
However, despite being washed many times, the bloody smell still permeated the air.
In the past week or so, Horn did not execute hundreds of nobles every day, but he did execute a dozen or twenty in a day.
According to the statistics of the accounting team, Horn has executed 112 feudal nobles and religious nobles for the crime of the devil in the past seven days, and detained 903 monks, servants, and knight stewards with the help of the crime of the devil.
If the local nobles killed in the war and liquidation are included, Jeanne d'Arc Castle's King Horn killed a total of 457 nobles.
These 457 nobles accounted for only 0.4% of the total population, but occupied nearly half of the land in the entire Kush Territory.
The Savior Army's behavior is an uprising, a rebellion, and its essence is violent activity.
Without bloodshed, without violence, and without depriving vested interests of their wealth, it is impossible to continue the survival of the regime.
The essence of Horn's policy is to cut the top, support the middle, and supplement the bottom.
Under the current external environment and internal conditions, supporting the middle is a key step for the Papal State to gain a firm foothold.
Rows of long tables form a circle, surrounding the speech platform, wild cats squatting under the tables, chasing birds and sparrows.
Following the guidance of the waiters and junior monks, Grossien turned around in the crowd like a headless fly until he heard a familiar voice.
"Here, here!"
Grossien saw his cousin at a glance, he arrived at the venue early and took a seat for his cousin.
Grossien's cousin is from a manor near Jeanne d'Arc Castle, and is very familiar with Jeanne d'Arc Castle, so he can arrive early.
Because they arrived early, their seats were relatively forward, at least they could see Horn's face clearly.
According to Grossien's estimation, those whose seats were arranged relatively behind were probably 20 meters away from the wooden platform, and they probably couldn't hear anything.
Other people's representatives who arrived late had to sit in this outermost position.
Some of them complained loudly that they couldn't hear clearly, while others were happy to be idle and even dozed off.
Curiously touching this and that, Grossien was participating in such a meeting for the first time.
Especially the priests in woolen robes on the stage, they stood motionless at the four corners of the wooden platform, wondering what they were doing.
Grossien whispered: "Cousin, what are those priests doing?"
"That's called a Nature Priest, who can use the blessing magic unique to the Saint Father Order. You'll see it later, it's amazing."
Grossien didn't wait long before Horn arrived.
He was wearing a simple half-cape priest's robe, holding a booklet in his hand, and walked onto the wooden platform like a leisurely stroll.
Standing next to the one-person-high sloping writing table, Horn placed the booklet in his hand on the writing table.
"Silence!"
The black hat soldiers present raised their guns and fired stones into the air, and the whistling sound immediately silenced the originally noisy crowd.
After all, many of them had seen the Saint Gun cavalry and knights fighting, and had seen the power of the clockwork guns.
At this time, the four priests raised their arms at the same time, their palms facing each other in a crescent shape, and placed them next to their faces.
"Everyone..."
As soon as Horn spoke, Grossien was stunned, because the voice seemed to be speaking in his ear.
This is too amazing! Grossien's eyes widened, is this the magic of those priests?
On the wooden platform, after a brief opening remark and self-introduction, Horn went straight to the topic.
"I know you must be panicked, wondering why we called you here?
But please don't panic, we have no malice, compared to the nobles and bishops, we are on your side.
Our enemies are the churches and nobles of Thousand River Valley, which has nothing to do with you, unless you have something to do with them."
When Horn finished speaking, it was obvious that most of the people under the stage breathed a sigh of relief, but a small number of people became more nervous.
Ignoring the performance of the people below, Horn began to popularize the origin of the Savior Army to the people present.
The main content is that Horn has been very pious since he was a child, and was selected by the Holy Father and Holy Lord to pay attention silently.
When Knight Barnett committed the crime, he bravely stood up to stop him.
Although his head was cut off, he was selected by the Holy Father and the Holy Lord, and the Holy Father even personally possessed him and resurrected him.
Later, Horn used himself as bait and righteously revealed Barnett's true face, and suddenly realized that the devil had already invaded the world.
Only then did he realize that the Holy Father resurrected him to give him the task of eliminating the devil.
This led to the subsequent battles of Gulag, the Bloody Sweat Road, and the Battle of Jeanne d'Arc Castle.
No matter what, His Holiness the Pope never thought of running away, but stood firmly with the believers.
Therefore, His Holiness the Pope's coup and contacting the secret party to try to escape are pure rumors!
I have to say that Horn's historical book of years has deceived a lot of people, including Grossien, who listened with relish.
But most people are not interested in this, and the representatives in front of Grossien even fell asleep.
After explaining the source of his legitimacy and past deeds, Horn changed the subject and talked about the current situation in Thousand River Valley.
"...Now citizens in Rapid Current City in the west of Thousand River Valley are rebelling, occupying most of Lower River County.
To the north, Duke Hemastone of Cold Spring Castle is rebelling, and the mountain counties are responding.
The Kingdom of Leia is in civil war, and the Grand Dukes of the Kingdom of Nore are willing to help us become independent.
You have been bullied by the Empire people and the Leia people for so many years, haven't you ever thought that one day you can not be bullied?"
In this era of large rural areas, the lack of news is hard to imagine.
Many people's representatives do not even know about the rebellion in Rapid Current City, which is close at hand, let alone the rebellion in Cold Spring Castle further north?
This heavy news quickly exploded among the representatives and spread out in ripples composed of whispers.
The Savior Army is just an isolated army, their confidence is only 10%, and with friendly forces, their confidence is 30%.
If the Nore people support them from behind, their confidence can jump to 70%.
After all, they know that their strength is too weak, and it is difficult to achieve independence without the help of foreign forces.
In that case, maybe following the Savior Army is really a bit possible?
After being said by Horn, the atmosphere on the field gradually changed.
They began to ask about the authenticity of the news and imagined what it would be like after successful independence.
After all, if Thousand River Valley can be independent, their lives will be much better.
The legend of the Thousand River Valley people's chosen Pope is the embodiment of this beautiful wish in their hearts.
Horn struck while the iron was hot: "Have you ever thought about a question.
Our enemies are the nobles and bishops, and now they are all dead, who will govern the territory for us?
In the past, we relied on nobles and bishops to pass on government orders, but now who will help us pass them on?"
The people's representative who was lying in front of Grossien and dozing off suddenly stood up straight, staring at the stage with burning eyes.
Not only him, but many people's representatives' breathing became rapid.
Yes, the knight masters are dead, so whoever the Savior Army says is the master, isn't that who the master is?
Hey! The master is dead, I'm going to become the master!
Some people even left their seats and ran around to collude and verify the news.
It was not until the night watchmen holding T-shaped sticks came forward that they elbowed these people's representatives who were running around back to their seats.
When the wave of sound stopped, facing everyone's focused and expectant eyes, Horn continued with a smile: "In the next period of time, we will carry out the hundred-household district reform.
It is expected that the manor will be changed to a hundred-household district, and each hundred-household district will be equipped with a hundred-household head and a hundred-household monk."
Changing the manor to a hundred-household district, wouldn't the hundred-household head be a knight? The hundred-household monk must be equivalent to a traveling priest!
His Majesty is saying this here, doesn't that mean he is preparing to choose from these people's representatives?
Their hands and feet trembled, both excited and afraid, and those with active minds were secretly stuffing money to the Order-maintaining Army to inquire about the situation.
It's just that they never thought that the source of the knight's power to control the manor is his own extraordinary martial power.
If they, these villagers or citizens, become the head of a hundred households, their power will depend on the Savior Army's extraordinary martial power.
In other words, as long as Horn wants to, when the time is right, he can smoothly deprive them of their status, the difficulty is no simpler than taking a piss.
In the end, they can only choose between becoming Horn's shape and losing their status.
"It's almost noon, and everyone is probably hungry, in fact, I'm also hungry." Horn patted his belly with a smile, and the people's representatives immediately made supportive laughter, whether sincere or false.
"Let's eat first, and talk about the matter of the hundred-household head after lunch.
We have prepared a free lunch for you, and after eating, there will be someone to post and read the first edict of the Papal State.
That's the topic of our meeting this afternoon!"