Chapter 52 is, Your Majesty
The sun has already shone on the animal-faced gargoyle on the eaves of the Papal Palace. According to the custom of the people of Qianhe Valley, it is time to have breakfast.
But for the upper class nobles, this time is around 10 o'clock, which is too late to have breakfast and too early to have lunch.
They had three meals a day, and it was an insult to the nobles to eat at the same time as the peasants.
When he entered the Stag Room for the second royal meeting, Horn still took two bites of dry bread to fill his stomach.
There was no way, the body's biological clock would not change for a while, and he didn't want his stomach to growl in the middle of the meeting.
Pushing open the obtuse-angled square door of the Bucks Room, Horn smiled like a spring breeze: "We are busy with business, so I have kept you waiting for a long time."
The rest of the cardinals immediately stood up and saluted. .
On one side are Grampvin and Chilvis, on the other side are Madeleine with his head covered and Cosset who has returned to his peak weight. Sitting south and facing north are Danji and Jeanne.
As expected, he sat down at the north-south seat of the round table. Without any nonsense, Horn said straight to the point: "There are two topics in this imperial meeting, one is personnel issues and the other is military issues. .
Military issues are relatively heavy, so we will quickly vote on the previous personnel issues according to the church's rules. Does anyone have any opinions? "
All the cardinals shut their mouths and shook their heads.
"The first thing is to reinstate Grampvin and Chilvis as cardinals. "
The cardinals remained motionless, staring closely at Horn. Horn waited for a long time, but when no one expressed his opinion, he had to raise his hand and said: "Agree. "
"I agree. ”
"Then I agree."
Seeing Horn raise his hand in agreement, the other cardinals immediately raised their hands in agreement.
“The second thing is to promote Coser to the chief cardinal and Madeleine to the second cardinal.”
At this time, everyone’s eyes were focused on Coser, Kesei immediately puffed up his chest.
The main reason why Horn promoted Cosset as chief bishop was to install his own people in the College of Cardinals.
Besides, Cosey is the Holy Old Bishop, and when the Holy Father comes, he is the first to step forward and kiss the boots.
In addition, he also has many advantages, such as his strong plasticity, flexibility and easy-going, not firm stance, not outstanding views, and high degree of ideological obedience and mental controllability.
To be specific, it is easy to control and handle. Horn does not want an overly strong chief bishop, such as Townley, who is a negative example.
With several personnel adjustments, the current high-level structure of the Papal State is like this:
Pope Horn, an accounting apprentice, owns the highest cultural papermaking company in the Papal State. After work, he even Still studying for a bachelor's degree in primary school.
Cardinal Cosset, the butcher of the village of Moulin Rouge, bought the priesthood with money, but could not read a single word.
Cardinal Bishop Madeleine, a bakery apprentice, was imprisoned for stealing his master's property, but later escaped, insisting that the judge had killed him.
Cardinal Grampwin is a circus clown. He can write his own name, knows a bunch of medicinal materials, and can even add and subtract within ten. He is not bad at making paper.
Cardinal Chilvis is an alcoholic who sells counterfeit wine and is drunk half of the day.
Dangerhead, the grand leader of the Holy Grail Knights, is a lunatic who was deceived by knight novels. The knight captain Jeanne is even more important and a witch.
Maintaining the papal position is not due to Horn's obsession with power.
He had no choice but to act, and he had to look good.
At least until he escapes from this big prison in Qianhe River Valley, he still has to act like a grandson.
The rest of the people can only accompany Horn in this play.
Except for the confused old Coser, everyone present had some guesses about Horn's identity.
But they didn't have the courage to point it out. After all, Tang Li's lesson was not far away.
"Grampwen has made the situation clear to everyone before I came.
Now we are all grasshoppers on the same rope, one is prosperous and the other is deprived.< br>
So don’t be restrained, attack the heretic Archbishop of High Castle, and speak freely.”
Determining the behavior of Archbishop Barnifus of High Castle, Horn closed the scroll in his hand. He leaned back on the seat, spread his hands, and said with a smile: "Let's discuss it."
But all he got was looks from the cardinals.
These are not the legendary great knights or consecrated bishops. A few of them can sweep away hundreds of people.
The task of truly resisting the incoming church army, Horn estimated, would eventually fall on the villagers. How to motivate the refugees to help them fight against the church's army has become the top priority now.
"I stepped forward to speak..."
"Chilvis!" Before Danji could finish speaking, Horn pointed out Chilvis, "What do you think?" Before a person does anything, he just gives money, women, and land." Chilvis's eyes were red with drunkenness, but his thinking was quite clear.
“If you give money, you don’t necessarily have fighting ability.” Madeleine objected, “Give a farmer ten thousand gold pounds, and he can’t beat a penniless wandering knight.”
“ So what do you think?" Horn crossed his hands and placed them on his chin, looking at Madeleine with encouraging eyes.
Madelan puffed up her chest: "As long as a person lives, money cannot take them to heaven and hell. What they want most is their destination after death and their honor in this world.
Title and honor, only these two things can give them the courage to go into battle. "
"Honor, can honor still be used as food? "Grampwin objected, "Whether it's money or honor, it can only inspire them to have the courage to say, 'I have courage.' "
Standing up, Grampwin said firmly: "Your Majesty, I think the most important thing is weapons, armor and training.
With armor and weapons, I feel confident. I have seen it through daily training, and my courage comes naturally. "
"But even if they have weapons and armor, money and titles, do they really dare to fight against an army of more than two hundred people? ”
After listening to what they said, Horn asked slowly.
Refugees and public peasants are afraid of knights and war, while armed peasants are afraid of the church.
The lower-class villagers have a natural fear of the church and knights.
It is quite difficult to eliminate this natural fear. The long-term oppression of the knights and the church has caused many villagers to tremble when they hear about war and the church.
Everyone present has climbed up from the bottom on a rocket. They are the real people who work in the fields and climb to the Papal Palace in the evening.
They know very well what's going on at the bottom.
Everyone is in trouble, and the others are not people like Horn or Grampwin. They have no choice but to fight against the church.
When the church and the army came, they might simply forget about Horn and choose to surrender directly.
“Alas!” Chilvis’s eyes lit up and he raised a finger, “I have an idea for you.”
“What?”
"According to Saint Sister Dia, this army does not involve knights, only armored sergeants and night guards. Then we don't need to call them a 'church' and call this a 'war'."
As soon as Chilvis said this, the Bucks room fell into silence, while Horn frowned and fell into thought.
Seeing that no one else spoke, Kesai cleared his throat: "Well, let the sinner old Kesai say a few pertinent words. Although these people are stupid, they are all devout believers...< br>
It is really against the teachings and precepts to trick them into going to the battlefield. Old Coser still calls on everyone to follow the right path..."
"This is a good idea." After thinking for a long time. , Horn made up his mind and finally said impatiently.
"... From a righteous perspective, if a white lie can alleviate the sins in the hearts of ordinary people, then it might as well be done."
Old Coser completed his words without changing his expression, He also nodded and smiled at Horn.
"Then what should we call it? If it is called devil, the villagers will still be afraid, and if it is called bandit, they will still be afraid.
No matter what it is called, as long as it has something to do with war, they will be afraid "Yes." Grampwin raised his hand and asked.
This time, the people present were stunned again. They lowered their heads and drew on the paper, but they couldn't think of any good excuses.
"Let's do this." Horn saw that it was getting late and stood up from his seat, "During lunch time, you guys will think about it carefully. When the sun reaches that branch, we will make a schedule together."
< br>“What about the excuse?”
“Let’s call the church army ‘extraterritorial forces’. Although it’s just a circle, it can eliminate a lot of fear. As for fighting, let’s call it ‘special knights’. Let's do competitive action."
The cardinals exchanged glances with each other, stood up at the same time, and all replied: "Yes, Your Majesty."
ps There will be another chapter later< br>
(End of this chapter)