RPAGF #170 - What happened after the Duke left?
#170 - What happened after the Duke left?
In the city hall, Horn asked someone to bring him a refreshing mint water. While waiting, he smiled at the core group and said:
"Now that we're all family here, everyone can relax and speak freely. I'll take a sip of water and rest for a bit."
These people were the core power base of the old camp, including Sisi, Chirvis, Jeshka, Armand, Rene, Das...
Basically, everyone who wasn't injured was here.
And after the thrilling night they had just experienced, the remaining high-level members began to discuss among themselves.
"Should we change our original four legions?"
"I think we should just plunder a batch of artisans."
"Hang white sails all along the Ibe River..."
Unlike before, after this period of training, these people's knowledge and experience had far surpassed what it once was.
Horn and Boner had been giving them lessons every day, and it wasn't for nothing. After this battle, compared to those peripheral refugees, the mentality of these old camp core members was relatively inclined towards Horn's side.
"Your Majesty, now that we've exposed the Blue Blood Orphans, and this is also a problem with the Church, you went and came back. How are we going to explain this to the brothers in the old camp?"
"Yes, the old brothers haven't said anything, but they're all very confused."
"We'll talk about that later." Taking the mint water from Rene, Horn took a sip and asked Busak, "Before sunset this evening, I asked you to gather as many of the first batch of refugees and their families as possible. How's it going?"
Busak immediately stood up: "The first batch is scheduled for 6,000 people. The list and rations have been confirmed, and they can depart before evening."
"Yes, not bad." Horn nodded. "Don't be too tough, but once they're on the road, they're not allowed to turn back, understand?"
"Understood."
"Armand," Horn called out to Armand, "Have you finished the investigation I asked you to do?"
Armand took out a few pieces of paper and handed them to Horn, along with a briefing: "According to what you said, I took Boner and sampled and questioned 1,000 refugees. About 105 of them have a positive view of us, 411 have a negative view, complaining that you deceived them and caused them to be..."
"What?" Jeanne's face immediately wrinkled. "We worked so hard to help them get revenge, and that's their attitude?"
"They're right," Horn said calmly, sitting at the table.
Looking at the surprised faces in the council hall, Horn rubbed his forehead and stood up. "I happen to be discussing the situation of our Savior Army next, to unify our thinking, let's start with this as an entry point."
Standing in front of the table, Horn handed some collected and sorted materials to Jeshka next to him, asking them to pass them around.
"Let me put it this way, they followed us to kill the Duke, to a certain extent, it was a rush of blood, no different from a crime of passion.
They don't have that awareness, it's just a momentary impulse. If the Duke hadn't died, this energy could have been maintained for a while longer.
Now that the Duke is dead, their anger is gone, and the Church and the Edict are coming soon, they regret it. If you ask them to shout 'The Unjust, Kill the Unjust' again, do you think they would dare?
Of course, the Blue Blood incident was going to explode sooner or later, and they were going to make trouble sooner or later, but it wouldn't be so fierce, and the conflict with the Church wouldn't be so stiff."
After ruthlessly shattering the illusions of these core members, Horn continued to speak to himself:
"If I were Johnny VIII, I would directly cut ties with the Thousand Valley Church, sell Constance, and replace a batch of bishops for the Thousand Valley Church.
While rehabilitating Huanno, I would send troops to suppress the troublemakers, and finally grant a two-year tax exemption.
With a large army pressing the border, replacing the bishops, the Pope retreating, and a tax exemption, it would be impolite to make any more trouble.
At that time, do you think we will be directly betrayed by the farmers like Duke Kush did back then?
Do you remember what you once said? The common people can't see that far, even if this matter is good for them in the long run.
They will never see that without overthrowing the Church, such things will happen endlessly, and then there will be an endless cycle of 'exploitation - riot - concession - forgetting'."
Speaking of this, Horn couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
The extraordinary power represents that the gap between ordinary people and individual knights is much larger than in Horn's hometown, and a small number of knights can suppress a large number of farmers.
Then they will inevitably take more cruel means to prevent the farmers' uprising, and the cleanup of the remaining forces after the farmers' uprising will be more thorough, leaving almost no sparks.
And because of the appearance of transcendence, the priests can show miracles in front of people, and even really summon angels to descend, the authority of God is even greater, and the ideological imprisonment of the people is deeper.
Under the suppression of both sides, the upper limit that farmers can endure is so high that Horn is a little desperate.
"Isn't that too ungrateful?" Sisi couldn't help but say.
"This is not their fault. If you are tripped by a stone, don't blame the person who put the stone there, but blame the stone. Don't you think it's ridiculous?"
Horn lowered his head, but his voice could be heard clearly by everyone in the council hall.
"Why do they show this kind of inferiority? It's because there is a devil in their hearts, an invisible chain locked around their necks.
The military hegemony of the Empire and the ideological hegemony of the Church, under the blessing of extraordinary power, are so powerful that they are almost impossible to add to, making almost every resistance a defeat.
This has built the third hegemony of the Empire and the Church - the extraordinary hegemony.
By monopolizing extraordinary resources through the former two, cutting off the extraordinary path of non-nobles and non-priests, and forcibly binding transcendence and identity from the ideological and social levels."
It is forbidden for farmers to eat meat during Lent, but nobles can eat eggs and fish, and even use the "Frugality Law" to prohibit people other than nobles, monks, gentry, and merchants from eating beef and spices.
Isn't all of this afraid that other new transcendents will emerge outside their transcendent system?
Isn't the endless pursuit of the Secret Party because of this?
Because transcendence is the guarantee of the former two hegemonies!
In the eyes of many common people, it is not because they are transcendent that they are noble knights, but because they are knights that they are noble and transcendent!
A knight who loses the blessing of transcendence will still make them feel fear.
Why do many knights hate mercenaries who can breathe, because mercenaries have extraordinary power, but in terms of identity, they are mortals, which is a counter-evidence to the existence of knights and priests.
"The empire needs the Church to reduce their governance costs and facilitate them to obtain enough resources to maintain transcendence.
The Church needs the empire to maintain their unbreakable golden body in terms of economic and ideological status."
As if thinking and giving a speech at the same time, Horn slowly walked around the table in the council hall.
"In the hearts of all Thousand Valley people, no, we expand to the entire empire system, there are devils in the hearts of all the bottom layers of the empire.
Even if the Empire and the Church oppress and betray them, they will still subconsciously rely on and follow the Church.
Because this is a thousand-year tradition, in their eyes the Empire and the Church represent victory and correctness.
Confronting the Empire and the Church is a taboo for them from a psychological level.
So, most of the time, they don't stand on our side, even if they are forced to join us, they will think about being recruited.
It is easy for us to kill knights, and it is easy for us to destroy churches, but it is difficult to kill the devil in their hearts.
Their uprising is more like a strike and protest than an uprising.
The situation is slightly better in Kashia County with Huanno as a banner, but look at us, the previous group of Thomas, either were forced or wanted to be nobles.
No one has ever said that I joined the uprising to overthrow the Church."
As Horn walked, the expressions on the faces of these Savior Army high-level members became more and more solemn, and they even began to fall into long-term contemplation.
"The Duke's understanding is correct to some extent, they have no cohesion.
When I said to use blue blood to stimulate their cohesion, it was because there was the Duke's banner, and this cohesion could continue.
Now that the Duke has fallen, this banner is gone, but the banner of the Savior Army is not enough to convince them.
So they are both happy and scared and confused, happy that they have finally let out a bad breath, scared of the devil in their hearts and the devil in front of them, and confused about whether the Savior Army can lead them to resist the Church."
After finishing this long passage, Horn let out a breath of stagnation and sat back in his chair:
"They are with us, but their hearts are with the Church. They are different from our old camp. They have no sense of identity with us and do not regard the Church and the Empire as real enemies.
Unless we can break the three hegemonies of the nobles and monks, they will support us.
But the problem is that if we don't break the three hegemonies, they won't support us, and if they don't support us, we won't be able to break the three hegemonies."
Picking up the mint water on the table, Horn took a sip to moisten his dry throat.
After a long silence, Jeanne on the side asked in a deep voice: "Then what should we do? Is there really no way?"