flstandardbreds Chapter 114 Religious Knights
Chapter 114 Religious Knights
Winter 1446 Windham
"According to the news from the French King's Office, since cultists are rampant now, churches in various countries are allowed to form their own armed forces to eliminate cultists." After the Minister of the Interior said this, he stood back in the team.
"So what are the attitudes of various countries towards this?" King Midlan looked at the Foreign Minister next to him.
After hearing this, the Foreign Minister immediately stepped out of the team and reported to King Mitlan:
"Yuda has not responded to this news. The Kingdom of Barden is currently preparing for the establishment of the Knights, and the southern countries are also discussing this matter. The Grand Duchy of Grant and the Grand Duchy of Isu have not responded."
"So, ministers, what do you think about this matter?" King Midlan looked at his ministers and said.
"Your Majesty, I think this is the infiltration of the French King's Office into our country. If the French King's Office has its own armed forces in our country, then in the future they will no longer report to you, the king, and can directly do some shameful things in our country."
"I think this may be a test by the French King's Office to test the relationship between the countries and the French King's Office. If we don't do this, the French King's Office may cancel all kinds of assistance to us."
"Apart from the French King's Office, is there no other country that our country can cooperate with? I believe that the military and finance of a country are the foundation of the country and cannot be interfered with by outsiders."
"I don't think there's any need to be so angry. No matter how capable his church is in recruiting soldiers, can it suddenly recruit tens of thousands of troops in our country?"
Listening to the quarrel among the ministers below, King Midlan was also in a dilemma, because he didn't know what the attitude of the French King's Office towards Midlan was.
Although on the surface both the Hall of Fame and Midland say that they have good relations with both sides, the actual situation cannot be achieved by just talking. If the relationship is really that good, then why don't they label Yoda a heretic, but instead support the pro-Hall of Fame armed forces in Midland?
Amid the quarrel, a minister stood up and said:
"Your Majesty, I have a plan. I wonder if Your Majesty can accept it."
"Feel free to speak up." King Midlan said with relief when he saw a minister expressing his opinion.
"I think we cannot accept all of the King's Office's requests, but we can accept some of them. According to the Minister of the Interior, the King's Office is currently most concerned about whether we will establish a religious knight order, not how many religious knights we will recruit. So we will follow his advice and establish a religious knight order."
"But this knight order must have restrictions. First, all members of the knight order must be Midlanders, including the commander. Second, there must be a noble to watch over the knight order to prevent them from doing anything out of line. It would be best if the noble has a lot of local soldiers. Finally, whenever the knight order travels, it must report to its local superior."
"We are doing this to show goodwill to the King's Office and to make our attitude clear to it. As for how the King's Office will react, we need to wait until the Knights' Order is established. If you have any other questions, I hope you can give me some more information."
When the minister finished speaking, someone immediately retorted:
"Your Majesty, I think this suggestion is too risky. If we fail to control it well and give the church the power to recruit soldiers, they will secretly recruit soldiers and horses, which will definitely cause trouble in the long run."
"Yeah, I don't want hundreds or even thousands of foreign troops next to my house. I won't be able to sleep well then."
After listening to the ministers' feedback, King Mitlan thought carefully and said:
"How about this? The state will recruit the knights, and the church will only have the power to accept them. No other forces will be allowed to participate in the whole process. After they are established, they will be sent to the border to weaken their influence. Do the ministers have any objections to this proposal?"
When the ministers saw that the king had said so, they could only agree. After all, the money did not come from them and they did not live with the king, so they could do whatever the king wanted.
"Then today's meeting is over. Please leave."
After the ministers left, King Mitlan said to Count Yuris next to him: "Yuris, please go find Archbishop Mitlan. I want to discuss the matter of the religious knights with him."
Count Yuris said nonchalantly: "Do we need to discuss this with him? I would just inform him directly when the time comes. It's already a favor to them that it's done."
"Hey, that's wrong." King Mitlan said to Count Yuris with a smile:
"Asking you to find him is to notify him. Notifying others is also a skill. The higher the skill, the more receptive others will be. Friendly notifications will make people accept them, while forced notifications will make people disgusted. This can also be considered a way to communicate with others."
"Oh, okay, okay, I understand, okay? I'm over 20 years old and you still educate me like this." Count Yuris responded with a headache, then turned around and invited Archbishop Midland.
In order to welcome Archbishop Mitlan, King Mitlan deliberately moved the location of the conversation from the palace to the reception room next to it, which is usually the place where the king invites important guests for private conversations.
As the door of the reception room was pushed open, Archbishop Mitlan walked in and sat in the seat opposite King Mitlan.
Seeing Archbishop Midland's lukewarm attitude, the king chuckled and then said implicitly:
"Archbishop, how have you been lately?"
When Archbishop Midland saw him asking this, he responded coldly:
"Blessing the God of Light, I am doing quite well in Wendam. I can do almost nothing every day except preaching."
It’s not that the archbishop was angry with the king, but the missionary work in Midland was indeed not going well.
The first issue to be addressed was the collection of tithes. The nobles of Midland had no money and their lives were at stake. Except for a few nobles who were pro-French in the Royal Court who paid on time and in full, the rest basically had some of their money withheld.
However, what made him most angry was not this, but the increasingly rampant incidents of cultists.
The power of the Random Church is rooted in various places in Midland. Many bishops have reported to him the attacks of the cultists. Most of them are just robberies of clergy or tithe convoys, but a small number of human sacrifices and group attacks on churches still worry the archbishop. The laissez-faire attitude of the nobles in various places makes him furious. He now urgently needs an armed force of his own to clean up those cultists alone.
But the mercenaries who could be recruited with money were a mixed bunch, many of whom had been engaged in murder and robbery before, and it was unclear whether they were the cultists' accomplices. However, the Midland nobles who had regular armies would not cooperate.
However, there is always a way out. A decree from the French King's Office gave the archbishop the legal power to form his own knightly order to deal with the pagans. So even if Juris did not come to invite him, the archbishop decided to tell the King of Midlan about this matter.
Back to the present, the archbishop has already prepared various words in his mind to deal with the king's rejection.
Just as the archbishop was thinking about it, King Mitlan responded directly:
"I have discussed with the ministers the decree of the French King's Office regarding the establishment of a religious knightly order, and everyone agrees to form a knightly order."
With just one sentence, the Archbishop's words were all disrupted. Just when the Archbishop wanted to say something, King Mitlan continued:
"The people and money for forming the Knights will be provided by the Midland royal family, so the Archbishop doesn't have to worry about anything else."
At this time, Archbishop Midland didn't know what to say after hearing the king's words, and could only stammer:
"I...you..."
At this moment, the archbishop thought of something and said quickly:
"Then who will have the command of the Knights?"
King Mitlan saw that he had failed to get him into an encirclement, so he could only start the negotiation mode. He slowly said:
"Since the money and people are provided by the royal family, then naturally the right of command belongs to the royal family. This will not only fulfill the decree of the French King's Office, but also save you money and time."
The archbishop knew that the king was waiting for him and rejected the proposal immediately:
"Impossible, Your Majesty! Since the French King's Office has given me this power, even if the church spends money to recruit, the command must be in the hands of the Midland Church. Your Majesty, please take the orders issued by the Lord's spokesperson in the world seriously."
Seeing the Archbishop's attitude, the King waved his hand and said, "Archbishop, don't be so anxious. Let me analyze it for you. You said that you have a lot of money. But a real knight has basically been recruited into the army by the lords of various places. If you want to get a large number of knights, you need to train them again. You know how much time it takes."
"By the time your knights attack, the cultists will have already spread everywhere. By then, the mission of the King's Office to eliminate the cultists will have been completed, and the entire Midland will fall into the control of the cultists."
Listening to the king's long speech, the archbishop sneered. What about the rampant cultists and the country being controlled by the cultists? The armies and knight orders of your lords from all over Midland are just decorations, right? They will collapse at the first touch.
But the archbishop thought about it carefully and felt that what the king said made some sense. Now that the decree of the King's Office had been issued and Midlan also supported it, if he set up a knightly order in a short period of time, after a long time, his supporters would be disappointed in him and might even end their religious life prematurely and return to the King's Office to spend the rest of their lives in an idle position.
So, faced with a difficult decision, the archbishop sighed and said, "Then I'll leave it to your Majesty the King."
"But!" the archbishop changed the subject.
"The commander of this knightly order must be someone recognized by the church."
The Archbishop's resolute tone made the King realize that if he was not satisfied with this, all the previous discussions would be in vain. So he also stepped back and said:
"Then look, do you have any generals you can recommend? Let me remind you, this person must be a Midlander."
At this time, the archbishop was screening the people he had known in the past in his mind. After layers of selection, a young figure appeared in the archbishop's mind.
"John Hohenzollern, he must be the commander. Unless he disagrees, I will not change him!"