Chapter 427 The Royal Council was reconvened
Although the news of the end of the world still caused turmoil in the entire country, with the support of the church, generally speaking, they were just facing the fear of the unknown, and most of the people were taught by the church The priest assured me that nothing bad happened.
Despite occasional riots, the police and military who are still doing their jobs are still able to control the situation.
It must be said that the role of religion in calming people's hearts is indeed crucial at this time. At the very least, it can make most people pray to God instead of starting to retaliate against society out of despair.
Because of this, the cardinal who was sent by the Patriarch to assist Perfectcott also obtained the qualification to participate in the Royal Council. This was a huge breakthrough for the church.
You must know that in this world, although the crowning of kings still requires the church to confer the divine righteousness and destiny on the king, the struggle between the secular and the church has lasted for nearly a thousand years.
In the ancient times, divine power undoubtedly had the upper hand. The real gods and the divine magic given by the gods made the divine power literally supreme, and the first extraordinary beings were also derived from the gifts given by the gods. Divine magic.
However, with the subsequent mysterious decline and the gods gradually no longer appearing, the status of theocracy naturally began to decline.
It was during this stage that traditional religion declined and was replaced by a church that was closer to the secular world.
However, precisely because of its closeness to the secular world, the early church was still able to abide by the precepts and restrain its desires. However, as the power of the church continued to develop, some careerists used church coronations and other means to gain people's support and ascend to power. The power and ambition of the church also expanded.
They intend to establish a kingdom of God on earth, so that everyone will believe in the church, and that all kings and monarchs will be abolished and established in the hands of the church.
The kings certainly did not want to be controlled by the church, so the nearly thousand-year struggle between the church and the secular world continued.
With the continuous development of the secular world and the continuous decline of the mysterious, the whole world began to gradually move towards the secular side, and the church began to gradually be at a disadvantage.
In particular, the divine arts from ancient gods have become supernatural professions controlled by the secular world, which has further aggravated the decline of the church.
In the era when Victoria transformed from a kingdom into an empire, the church could no longer participate in secular government affairs and became a mere spiritual belief.
But now, facing the bad situation of the empire and the crisis of the end of the world, the empire center has to admit that they really need the church to calm the people.
“Currently, churches across Langton have begun renovations. It is expected that more than 70% of churches will be converted into shelters within five months, and more than 90% of churches will be able to be converted into shelters within seven months. People of the All Father." The cardinal of the church was a little nervous when he spoke at the Royal Council for the first time, but he still reported what he needed to report to the Royal Council.
After listening to the cardinal's report, the Queen turned to look at Perfectcott and asked her: "Sir Brandless, what do you think?"
"Your Majesty, Seven months of renovation time is too long. According to my prediction, the last winter will arrive earlier than we expected. It may snow around September or October." Purficott had no objection to the cardinal. When it came to making any comments in her speech, she just told the current situation truthfully: "And if only 90% of the churches can accommodate people to evacuate, they can probably only shelter 70% of the current population of Langton."
" So how many people do we need to shelter?" asked Purficott, an official who had not joined the crisis response committee before but was now qualified to participate in the Royal Council.
"The empire's native population is 20 million. Langton currently has a population of 1.5 million, and this is the official statistics of the empire. According to the actual situation, the current population of Langton is about 2.2 million." Purfey Kurt just glanced at the Home Secretary, who immediately reported a series of figures.
"Thank you." Purficott said thank you to the Home Secretary, then turned to look at the official who just spoke, using a tone that sounded casual but made people feel heavy. The tone said: "Based on the current construction progress, the Northern Territory can accommodate approximately two million people when winter comes. The empire's previous immigration plan and the laborers who have gone to the Northern Territory add up to approximately 700,000 people.
Taking into account some other circumstances, the empire can currently move 1.5 million people to the north.
Of these 1.5 million, engineers, technicians and scholars will be given priority, and nobles who pass the review can be second. The first batch of people will go to the north together with their relatives, wives, daughters and children. According to the current statistics of the Ministry of the Interior, this group of people is about 160,000.
As for the remaining population, the military department wants it. How many? How about the Noble Council? Let’s talk about it first, how many seats do you want for the army and navy?”
Purficott said and looked at the representative of the military department.
"According to calculations, the Military Ministry needs 100,000 people, 30,000 for the Army, 50,000 for the Navy, and the remaining 20,000 are military-related personnel." More than one representative from the Military Ministry came today, the generals After a brief discussion in a low voice, the Lord Admiralty spoke on behalf of the group.
Of course what they are saying is not that the empire wants to retain so many troops to take to the north, but that these quotas refer to officers.
The military department plans to bring over all the officers who can stay. As for the soldiers, there is no need to pay special attention. Recruitment is still very simple in this era.
Perfect nodded slightly, and then said: "If we cut it off by 10%, they need to stay in Langton."
After hearing what Purficott said, the representatives of the military department obviously didn't look very good. They thought they had reduced the scale enough, but Purficott still ruthlessly only gave them a quota of 90,000 people.
But the representatives of the military department did not argue with Purficott because of this. Instead, they began to discuss who could be cut and whether it could be controlled to 90,000 people after reduction.
The military soon came to a unified opinion and responded to Purficott: "The military can accept this condition."
"Very good, then the next question." Ficott looked at the others, waiting for their questions.
Today's imperial meeting was mainly for Purficott and the heads of various departments to explain how to deal with the doomsday crisis, and at the same time answer questions raised by other departments.
"There is a question about the navy. Do all the warships of the empire need to be discarded?" The Minister of the Navy spoke, seeming to want to retain something more for the navy. After all, the Victoria Empire has relied on its own navy for hundreds of years. Fighting all over the world, it is impossible for the navy to abandon their ships.
Perficott thought for a while and then said: "The Navy can retain new ships that have been built for no more than ten years. I will come up with a transformation plan to transform these ships into land cruisers for use in the future. Traveling from the mainland to the north after the ocean froze. "What is that?" the Navy Minister looked confused.
But Purficott was too lazy to explain. He just took out a drawing and threw it over: "Look at the drawing yourself. This matter has nothing to do with today's topic. If you want to know more about it, look elsewhere." Ask me when it’s time.”
The Navy Minister didn’t say anything more, he just took the drawing and unfolded it to look at it.
And as the Minister of the Navy shuts up, there will be no problems on the side of the military department. After all, many things are not that complicated for them, and the military department's demands are simple enough.
The demands of the military department are simple, but the demands of the nobles are not simple at all.
The Duke of Gloucester, who spoke immediately behind the military department, said to Purficott: "There are still about 20,000 nobles in the empire who are needed..."
"Only nobles who have passed the review can Going to the North, nobles who are not in the previous list of 160,000 people are not allowed to go to the North as nobles." Purficott interrupted the Duke of Gloucester's speech indifferently, and then added: "If they give up the nobility. If you are willing to go to the North as an ordinary person, then I will not stop you.”
Hearing this, the Duke of Gloucester breathed a sigh of relief, but he couldn’t help but defend himself: "They are all imperial nobles, and there are tens of thousands of them. It would be too unkind to ask them to give up their noble status."
"The empire doesn't need so many nobles who are living without food. I've already given them a chance. It's not my responsibility that they fail the test." Purficott hated this so-called rhetoric the most, and his attitude suddenly became very bad: "If There are still people who are struggling, so don’t blame me for just bloodbathing the whole Langton!”
“Sir Brandless, you passed.” The queen said to Perficott in a gentle manner. One sentence.
Although it was nominally a royal meeting, the Queen basically did not speak much at this meeting, and the host of the meeting was somehow changed from the Duke of Gloucester to Perfectcott at the beginning.
But even so, the Queen still has absolute authority in the Royal Council.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I made a mistake." Purficott bowed his head and admitted his mistake to the Queen, but she did not apologize to the Duke of Gloucester, nor did she take back what she had just said.
There is no doubt that this means that the imperial nobles can only compete for the opportunity to retain their noble status and go to the north among the previous list of 160,000 people.
These quotas have already been allocated, and the nobles who can pass the review have basically passed the review. Even those who are not up to standard have passed through various methods during this period.
The rest are either incompetent or irrelevant. These people are usually in the aristocratic circle, that is, the atmosphere group of the middle and lower classes. They cannot represent the aristocratic group, and they have no ability or voice.
But they are still nobles after all, so under normal circumstances they are still needed to be the leader of the noble group and create a warm atmosphere.
However, in the face of the doomsday natural disaster, even the Duke of Gloucester understood that these nobles' going to the north would only be a hindrance and would not play any other role.
So the Duke of Gloucester's speech just now was actually to a large extent a double act with Purfict. After all, the two had already reached an agreement on the issue of aristocratic population before. These words were more for other people. People listen.
This is why the Queen just reminded Purficott that she had gone too far, but did not stop her from doing so.
You must know that the Queen wanted to reduce the number of nobles when she took the throne many years ago. How could she let go of such a good opportunity now?
The empire does need nobles. The rule of the Victoria Empire relies on the support and maintenance of the nobles. However, the large number of nobles who are not engaged in production was not a problem in the past when the entire empire could support them. But now it is facing the end of the world and the North The environment's resources are limited, so these noble gentlemen are somewhat of an eyesore.
As for the argument that Perficott deprived them of their noble status before allowing them to go to the north, it was a stroke of genius. The important ministers present believed that it was impossible for the eliminated nobles to choose to stay in the empire. The natives are waiting to die.
Although there are such reasonably responsible people among the nobles, these people have already obtained tickets to the North during the previous screening process. Even if there are any omissions, they are only a few individual cases and do not affect the overall situation.
Furthermore, for responsible nobles, they are willing to stay and assume the task of maintaining the empire. Isn't this another aspect of fulfilling their duties to the empire and saving themselves?
Perfect printed a self-rescue guide, not for people to donate or use it to wipe their butts. She still hopes that the nobles can take out their castles and manors and transform them into shelters, so that they can be like the past. Like feudal nobles, they protect their own people.
Although Purficott also knew that he was having extravagant hopes, the nobles' awareness of this matter was far inferior to that of the church.
So Purphycott played a damaging trick with the Duke of Gloucester. While abandoning all these nobles, he also gave them a choice, either to give up their noble status and go to the north to become ordinary people. Or stay in the empire and lead the people to save themselves.
As for those who choose neither? It would be better to wait for death. Purficott would not raise idle people whether in the north or in the empire.
"Earl Brandlis, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce needs some quotas, about thirty thousand people." Lord McClintock, the long-lost Minister of Industry and Commerce, suddenly spoke and asked Perfectcott for quotas: " The empire's outstanding merchants and factory owners also need to relocate to the north. They and their families need quotas. "
After all, we have entered the era of the Industrial Revolution, and the bourgeoisie represented by capitalists and factory owners has gradually begun to move. With the rise of power, they already have a considerable degree of voice within the empire.
Faced with Sir McClintock's speech, Purficott just glanced at him and said: "There are only 10,000 places, but I can give you an additional 10,000 places. They can use it." Purchase with money, one hundred thousand gold pounds per person, no two prices, accept asset mortgage."
After speaking, Perficott looked at the others and asked them again: "There are others. What’s the problem?”
"Sir Brandless, what are your arrangements for the royal family?" At this time, the Queen suddenly spoke and raised a question that Purficott had not considered before.
(End of this chapter)