The Sun King's Evidence

After sending away the High King's envoy, everyone in the king's tent began to express their opinions.

Obviously, whether it is the enlightened knights and nobles represented by Francois, the traditional knights and nobles represented by Callard, or the church forces represented by Alfred, and the new knights and nobles represented by Bertrand, the commander of the Old Guards, The Jin military meritorious nobles, and even the Sanctuary witch Veronica, who had taken a break and reluctantly came out to discuss the matter, were all not interested in garrisoning troops in the bad land, but seeing that the Dwarf High King and Belegar were willing to bear the military expenses and After supplies, everyone still thinks that they can give it a try. After all, the dwarves have more money, but they have no population. Since these dwarves are willing to pay to help the Brittanians maintain this army, everything is still easy to say. .

After some discussion, most of the people dispersed, leaving only Ryan, Francois, Callard, Veronica and others. Among them, Veronica immediately signaled Catherine to bring tea and water, and the Witch of Gloria directly Sitting on a comfortable and soft chair with a wide backrest, she said to her apprentice: "Catherine, do you still have the coffee beans?"

"Yes, mentor, I still have a lot left." Although Catherine has been promoted to the legendary witch, she still has to rely on her mentor. At least for now, her realm is unstable and she lacks hard power and financial resources. She is not independent yet. capital, and Veronica is actually pretty good to her personal apprentice. The relationship between master and apprentice is good, and there is no conflict in interests.

"Then make me a cup of Hazelnut Vanilla Almond Garland Extra Large Dessert Caramel Sauce Mocha Sauce mixed with Starbucks Cream Frappuccino." Veronica's face was flushed, she leaned lazily on the chair and waved to Catherine. arrange.

"Okay." Catherine and Kalad looked at each other, and Kalad opened his mouth. Count Garament immediately felt Ryan's teasing eyes, and could only blush. Just as he was about to say something, Catherine immediately gave it. Kalad winked, then bowed respectfully, and went to make Veronica a Hazelnut Vanilla Almond Garland Extra Large Dessert Caramel Sauce Mocha Sauce mixed with Starbucks Cream Frappuccino.

François and Callard were already familiar with Veronica's character. From a certain perspective, the knights and nobles led by Callard on the expedition to the Eight Peaks Mountains even recognized Veronica. It's very high, only one step away from Queen Surya.

Ryan knew very well why this happened. This was a side effect of the Great Crusade. Since Veronica contributed greatly to this Great Crusade and always had a high sense of presence, even the knights were concerned about it. She has changed a lot, especially the knights and nobles of the northern faction who highly recognize Veronica's status.

The King of Knights could feel that there was going to be another disturbance in his backyard, and Ryan would definitely not be able to personally interfere in such a matter. How far the matter would go depends on the follow-up, because Veronica and Orica have already used their own His performance conquered the knights and nobles and established his own prestige.

When he goes back, Ryan can take advantage of the situation and entrust Veronica with important tasks.

"Ryan, how many people do you plan to keep?" Francois was actually not very interested in the so-called garrison at Eight Peaks Mountain. Duke Winford was more concerned about when to withdraw his troops and return home to share the huge wealth of the dwarves.

"Keep Durant and his Britannia Independent Regiment first." Ryan said in a deep voice. The King of Knights also felt a little bit annoyed that the dwarf would offer such generous conditions: "Now it seems that if we don't keep any People can't survive here. It just so happens that the Principality of Bryzka left by Black Heart Rep has more than 3,000 swords. It would be better to just let Durant move all the population to Bafeng Mountain. This place is better than the Green Skin. , beastmen, Chaos cultists, and all kinds of bandits, robbers, and murderers are rampant in the Border Prince territory."

"Yes." Francois nodded slowly.

Is that place in the Border Prince Territory a good place?

Don't be ridiculous, the Border Prince Territory is a place where real monsters and monsters are haunted. All kinds of bandits, robbers, and murderers who were expelled and exiled by the Empire, Britannia, and the Southern Kingdom gathered there, and various chaos sects were rampant. They are always harassed by greenskins and beastmen. In addition, the wars among the border princes have never stopped.

Naturally, Tamu Khan was the one who brought disaster to the border princes recently. To this day, several years have passed, and those Chaos warbands are still hiding in the forests and mountains, coming out to harm the residents here from time to time.

But even so, the intensity of the war faced by the Border Princely Territory was still much smaller than that of the Empire. The vast territory and sparse population and constant harassment from various forces made it impossible for the Border Princely Territory to form a powerful kingdom. The independent group moved to the Eighth Route Army. There shouldn't be too many difficulties in getting here to Fengshan. After all, Bafengshan is actually very easy to defend. You only need to guard the Titan Gate and the Earth Network. The eight dangerous peaks that penetrate the sky are enough to stop all enemies.

"It is an established matter that Durant and the Independent Regiment will stay." At this point, Francois nodded slightly, but Duke Winford soon frowned again: "But if you look at the dwarves' requirements, they Not only do they want us to garrison Bafeng Mountain, the dwarves also hope to build a new defense system with the help of human power."

"Yes." Ryan nodded slowly: "Yes, I hope so too. Just in time, when Bafeng Mountain is recovered, we can rely on Bafeng Mountain and Haimen Pass to build a mature defense system to ensure that there is no danger in the bad land. In case of a huge invasion, it can delay the greenskins and prepare the empire and dwarves."

"But... we don't seem to need to do this." Francois was still full of doubts, and the father-in-law touched his beard: "Ryan, are we going to station troops in a bad place? The environment here is really too bad. The army is here. It will only be gradually exhausted by the harsh climate and severe military pressure, and if we station troops here, it will not be of much benefit to Britannia, right?"

"..." Ryan was silent. The King of Knights thought of something and he was still hesitating.

"Your Majesty, our great expedition has consumed a lot of national power. Although the harvest is extremely rich, new knights need time to obtain their own spurs, new serf infantry also need time to train, and your old guards also need time to replenish. ." Kalad also said: "If we continue to station a large number of troops in the Bad Land, not only will we be unable to bear it, but even the nobles in the country will have many opinions."

"How about recruiting some new troops? We can recruit troops at home, leaving a small number of veterans to lead a large number of new troops, and rotate them every three to five years." Ryan thought for a while and finally revealed his plan: "Garrison troops on the edge of the Northern Badlands , is of great significance to the defense of the greenskin frenzy in the badlands. We can bring the empire in, especially Marius, the Grand Duke of Iverland and the Elector of Tuscany. I think he will be very willing to send troops to assist us. And through this method, we can extend our sphere of influence into the Border Princely Territory, where we can dump our goods and at the same time obtain a large amount of raw materials and cheap labor here."

"The Border Prince's Territory?" Francois nodded repeatedly after hearing this. The father-in-law thought for a while and suddenly laughed: "Ryan, don't you want to tell me that you want to annex the Border Prince's Territory and start a business here?" Expanding territory, right? I want to remind you that the bigger the country, the better!"

"Hahahaha! I know, I know." Ryan couldn't help laughing after hearing Francois's half-joking warning.

Indeed, in many cases, the bigger the country, the better, because a country's ability to conquer and control actually has an upper limit.

Before taking the throne, Ryan had wondered why the empire should adopt an elector system instead of a centralized system. Why should the entire empire be divided into many provinces and almost completely allow electors to be autonomous? Why not deploy them uniformly? It is run by military nobles under the empire.

After Ryan truly became the king, he realized that it wasn't impossible, but that he couldn't.

After the territory became huge, the imperial court had to face three outstanding problems.

First, the border is long and surrounded by enemies on all sides, and many forces cannot be negotiated at all (Chaos, Dark Elves, Greenskins, Beastmen), resulting in great external military pressure. This requires the empire to station heavy troops on the border in order to To defend against possible invasions, it was easy to form a military town system (ie, the border count system).

Second, for this world, the land area is too large. The way of information exchange here determines that the imperial palace cannot remotely control it from a distance. The Kingdom of Nord is more than 1,500 kilometers away from the imperial capital Brunswick. The Kingdom of Slev is more than 2,000 kilometers away from Brunswick, the capital of the empire. Ryan has personally seen that even if a messenger sent from Winterfell, the capital of Nord, travels 600 miles, it will take seven days to reach Brunswick. Seven days If the time comes to wait for the capital's permission to attack, Nord will be destroyed. The mana consumed by long-distance magic communication is extremely staggering.

In this case, the emperor must allow localities to independently form and order armies, so that the electors have independent military power to respond to various emergencies, protect their own territory, facilitate the unification of military orders, and maintain the combat effectiveness of the army. After a long time, the electors naturally went their own way and no longer paid attention to the emperor's orders.

Third, financial issues, this is even simpler. For example, in Ryan's previous life, the First Emperor of China attacked the Huns. One hundred and sixty dans of grain were shipped from the center, and only one dan was left to be delivered to the front line of the battle. The transportation loss was as high as 90%. Nine or more, similarly, if the imperial court does not allow the electors to have financial independence, collect taxes and raise their own troops, let alone the front line of the north against Chaos, even the Blackfire Pass in the Iverland against the greenskins will be Years of food loss will bankrupt the empire's finances.

Brother, local finances and taxes have to be collected from the local government to the central government, and then transferred from the central government to the local governments. Even if there is no corruption or any supply lines, the losses are very staggering. Do you think it is an Alipay transfer? The King of Nord pressed a button, and the desk of Emperor Karl Franz in the capital rang "Ding~The Imperial Treasure has arrived for five~thousand gold marks~".

So why did the Empire allow Kislev to become independent even though it clearly had the ability to conquer it? Why did the Grand Duke of Nord dare to call himself the King of Nord? The Empire could only turn a blind eye. This was the reason.

When a limit threshold is exceeded, the bigger the country becomes, the weaker it becomes. The larger the country, the weaker it becomes. Enemies are everywhere on the border waiting for opportunities, and the imperial defenders can often only watch the destruction happening and are helpless. They have stretched financial resources and insufficient troops. , leaving the great empire without the energy or ability to resist foreign enemies.

So when Ryan thinks back to his past life, many people clamored about drinking the Danube and conquering Madagascar with iron hooves, and he feels speechless. When the empire was first born, it gave people a positive, optimistic, and enterprising emotion, but that does not mean that it will always be the same. In this way, it is difficult to conquer, and it is even more difficult to rule such a huge empire. The Mongol Empire immediately split into the four Khanates and the Yuan Dynasty just a few years after drinking the Danube River?

So, suppose that the emperor wants to centralize power, control the military, control financial power, and be able to remotely micromanage, is it okay?

Yes, there was a dynasty in China that did it. All the elites of the army were concentrated in the central government, leaving only the old, weak, sick and disabled to the localities. All local taxes were collected and only basic maintenance fees were left. The emperor was micro-managing all day long, and the generals were only responsible for obeying orders. Order arrow.

This dynasty is called Dasong.

And even if it is a big send-off, the empire cannot learn from it. The reason is very simple. A certain great man of all ages once said that before fighting against the outside world, you must first make peace at home.

Because even the empire is full of dangers, chaos cultists, beastmen, green-skinned tribes, as well as undead and chaos demons that appear from time to time. Suppose the imperial court takes away the local elite troops and leaves only the security system and militia system. How can this place deal with these enemies that are enough to destroy a civilization?

This is the difference between Lion and Karl-Franz. Lion did it. After his years of conquests in the north and south (actually coupled with the constant patrols of Angron and four Emperor's Custodes), Britannia has achieved this. Very important!), has basically solved the problem of An Nei. Since the king has the ability to ensure the internal peace of the kingdom, the Dukes naturally believe in him and are willing to respond to his call.

But Karl Franz couldn't do it. He couldn't guarantee the security of the entire empire, not even his Reik territory, or even the blood pine forest only a few dozen kilometers away from Brunswick. Under this situation, Kahuang has done his best. The electors obeyed the instructions but did not listen to the announcement. Occasionally coming to the capital for a meeting was enough to give Kahuang face.

After thinking about it in his head, Ryan thought that he also had something to learn from. If a big gift wasn't enough, didn't we still have a big cute one?

"My idea is this. We can properly station troops in Junku Castle and Bafeng Mountain, and set up a military garrison system, allowing the defenders to farm their own crops, supplemented by supply support. The soldiers will be rotated every three to five years. As for the city forts, We can ask the dwarves to assist us in our construction. I think the High King or Belegar will not object." Ryan explained his plan in full: "The main composition of the garrison is a small number of veterans and a large number of recruits. The number should not be large, two to three thousand people per guard. , let the empire also send troops to participate, we are also recruiting troops at home and from the border princes, anyway, there are dwarves who provide money and equipment."

"At the same time, we are looking for a place with mountains and water in front of Junku Castle and Eight Peaks Mountain, and let the dwarves help us build a new fort. In this way, we can build a new defense line and cordon in the Northern Badlands. They The goal is not to eliminate and resist the possible green-skin invasion, but to delay the green-skin army's attack as long as possible, and at the same time report the news to the dwarves and the empire so that they can prepare for defense."

"These three guards are collectively called the 'Three Guards of Bad Land'!"

Updated, the new year is here to wish everyone a Happy New Year!