Chapter 790, the Bigger the Country, the Better
After sending off the High King's envoy, everyone in the king's tent began to express their opinions.
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/>Obviously, whether it is the enlightened knight nobles represented by François, the traditional knight nobles represented by Callard, or the church forces represented by Alfred, or the old guard commander Bertrand The newly promoted military aristocratic forces, and even the Sanctuary witch Veronica who reluctantly came out to discuss matters after a short rest, everyone is not interested in stationing troops in the badlands, but it seems that the dwarf High King and Bellegar are willing to bear the burden. After military expenses and supplies, everyone's opinion is still inclined to give it a try. After all, the dwarves have a lot of money, but they have no population. Since these dwarfs are willing to pay to help the Bretons maintain this army, then everything is still easy to say.
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After some discussion, most of the people dispersed, leaving only Ryan, François, Callard, Veronica and others. Among them, Veronica immediately signaled Catherine to bring tea and water. The witch sat directly on the comfortable and soft wide chair, and she said to her apprentice: "Catherine, do you have any more coffee beans?"
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"Yes, mentor, I still have a lot left." Although Catherine has been promoted to a legendary witch, she still has to rely on her mentor. There is no independent capital, and Veronica is actually good to her personal apprentice. The relationship between the master and the apprentice is good, and there is no conflict of interest.
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"Then get me a cup of Hazelnut Vanilla Almond Garland Oversized Dessert Caramel Sauce Mocha Sauce Mixed with Starbucks Cream Frappuccino." Veronica's face was flushed, she leaned lazily on the chair, and waved her hand Catherine to arrange.
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"Okay." Catherine and Callard looked at each other, and Callard opened his mouth. Earl Gallament immediately felt Ryan's playful eyes, and could only blush. Just as he was about to say something, Catherine immediately She gave Callard a wink, then bowed respectfully, and went to make Veronica a Hazelnut Vanilla Almond Garland Super Dessert Caramel Sauce Mocha Sauce Mixed Starbucks Cream Frappuccino.
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/>Francois and Callard are no strangers to Veronica's character, and even from a certain point of view, the knights and nobles who led the expedition to Mount Eight Peaks led by Callard even recognized Veronica's character. The speed is already very high, and it is only one step away from Queen Suria.
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/> Ryan knows why this happened. This is a side effect of the Great Crusade. Since Veronica has contributed a lot to this Great Crusade and has always had a high sense of presence, even the knights They all have greatly improved their views on her, especially the knight nobles of the northern faction highly recognize Veronica's status.
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The King of Knights can feel that there is going to be a storm in his backyard again, and Ryan can't personally interfere with this kind of thing. How far things will go depends on the follow-up, because Veronica and Orika He has conquered the knight nobles with his own performance and established his own prestige.
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When he goes back, Ryan can take advantage of the opportunity to entrust Veronica with important tasks.
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/> "Lane,
How many people do you plan to keep? "Francois is actually not very interested in the so-called garrison at Eight Peaks Mountain, and Duke Winford cares more about when to withdraw his troops back home and share the huge wealth of the dwarves.
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"Leave Durant and his Britannia Independence Group first." Ryan said in a deep voice, and the King of Knights also felt a little distressed that the dwarves would offer such generous conditions: "It seems that we don't It’s impossible to keep some people here. It just so happens that the Principality of Britska left by the black-hearted Rep has more than 3,000 swords. It’s better to let Durant move all the population to Bafeng Mountain. Greenskins, Beastmen, Chaos Shoe Cultists, and border princes who run rampant with bandits, robbers, and murderers are strong."
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"Yes." Francois nodded slowly.
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Is the place where the border prince leads a good place?
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/>Don't be funny, the Prince of the Borderlands is a real place haunted by ghosts and ghosts, where all kinds of bandits, robbers, murderers expelled and exiled by the empire, Britannia, and the southern countries gathered, and all kinds of Chaos sects In addition, the war among the border princes has never stopped.
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/>It is Tamu Khan who brought disaster to the border princes recently. Today, several years have passed, those Chaos war gangs are still hiding in the forests and mountains, and come out from time to time to harm the residents here.
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However, even so, the intensity of war faced by the border princes is still much smaller than that of the empire. The vast land and sparse population and frequent harassment from various forces are destined to make it impossible for the border princes to form a powerful kingdom. It shouldn't be too difficult to come to Bafeng Mountain. After all, Bafeng Mountain is actually very easy to defend. You only need to guard the gate of Titan and the ley line network. The eight dangerous peaks that run through the sky are enough to stop all enemies.
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"It's a definite matter for Durant and the independent group to stay." Regarding this, Francois nodded slightly, but Duke Winford quickly frowned again: "But if we look at it according to the requirements of the dwarves , They not only want us to garrison Eight Peaks Mountain, but the dwarves hope to build a new defense system with the help of human beings."
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"Yeah." Ryan nodded slowly: "Yes, that's what I hoped 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 when the evil If there is a massive invasion of the land, it will be able to delay the pace of the greenskins and prepare the empire and dwarves."
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"But...we don't seem to need to do this." Francois was still full of doubts, and the father-in-law stroked his beard: "Ryan, are we going to station troops in a bad place? The environment here is too bad, the army It will only be gradually exhausted by the harsh climate and severe military pressure here, and our garrison here will not benefit Brittania much, will it?"
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"..." Ryan said nothing, the King of Knights thought of something, and he was still hesitating.
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"Your Majesty, our great expedition has consumed a lot of national power. Although the harvest is extremely rich, new knights need time to get their own spurs, new serf infantry also need time to train, and your old guards also need time. Time to replenish." Callard also said: "If we garrison a large number of troops in the bad land, not only will we not be able to bear it, but even the nobles in the country will have a lot of opinions."
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"How about recruiting some new troops? We can recruit troops in the country, leaving a small number of veterans with a large number of recruits, with a rotation of three to five years." Ryan thought for a while, and finally expressed his plan: "In the northern badlands The border garrison is of great significance to defending against the greenskin frenzy in the Badlands. We can bring the empire in, especially Marius, the Grand Duke of Aviland and Elector of Tuscany. I think he must be willing to send troops to assist We, 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."
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"Prince of the Frontier." Francois nodded repeatedly after hearing this, the old man thought for a while, then suddenly smiled: "Ryan, don't you want to tell me that you want to annex the Prince of the Frontier, in Expand the territory here? I want to remind you that the bigger the country, the better it is!"
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"Hahahahaha! I know I know." Ryan couldn't help laughing after hearing Francois' half-joking warning.
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/>Indeed, in many cases, the bigger the country, the better, because a country's ability to conquer and control actually has an upper limit.
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/>Before taking the throne, Ryan once thought why the empire adopted the system of electors instead of a centralized system, why the entire empire should be divided into several provinces, and the electors should be almost completely autonomous. Get up, and the military nobles under the empire will be in charge.
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After Ryan really became the king, he realized that it was not impossible, but impossible.
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After the land area is huge, the imperial court will face three prominent problems.
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/>First, the border is long, with enemies on all sides, and many forces are impossible to negotiate with. To defend against possible invasions, it is easy to form the military town system, that is, the border earl system.
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Second, for this world, the land area is too large. Based on the way of information exchange here, it is determined that the imperial court cannot remotely command from a distance. The Nord Kingdom is more than 1,500 kilometers away from the imperial capital Brunswick The Kingdom of Kislev is more than 2,000 kilometers away from the capital of the empire, Brunswick. Ryan has personally seen the courier sent from the Nord capital Winter City, even if it is 600 miles, it will take seven days to reach Brunswick. After seven days of waiting for the capital's permission to attack or not, Nord can perish, and the mana consumed by long-distance magic communication is extremely astonishing.
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In this case, the emperor must allow the region to form and command the army independently, so that the electors have independent military power to deal with 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 of course went their own way and ignored the emperor's orders.
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/>Third, financial issues, this is even simpler. For example, when the first emperor of Ryan’s previous life attacked the Xiongnu, 160 shi of grain was shipped from the central government, and only 1 shi of grain was left to be delivered to the front line of the battle. The transportation loss was as high as 100%. More than ninety-nine, similarly, if the imperial court does not allow the electors to be financially independent, collect taxes and raise troops by themselves, then let alone the front line against Chaos in the north, even the Black Fire Pass where Aiweiling resists the greenskins. , A year of food loss will bankrupt the empire's finances.
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/>Brother, the local finances and taxes have to be collected from the local government to the central government, and then distributed from the central government to the local government. Even without corruption and any supply lines, the loss is astonishing. Do you think it is Alipay transfer? The King of Nord pressed a button, and the desk of Emperor Karl Franz in the capital rang "Ding Imperial Treasure Received Five Thousand Gold Mark".
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/>So why the empire was clearly capable of conquering Kislev but allowed it to be independent, why the Grand Duke of Nord dared to call himself the king of Nord, and the empire could only turn a blind eye. This is the reason.
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/>When a limit threshold is exceeded, the bigger the country, the weaker it becomes, and the bigger it becomes, the more powerless it becomes. Enemies are everywhere on the border, and the imperial defenders often can only watch the destruction happen without being able to do anything. The army, so that the great empire has no energy and ability to resist foreign enemies.
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/>So now Ryan recalls what many people in his previous life clamored about drinking the Danube River and conquering Madagascar with iron hoofs, and he feels very speechless. When the empire was first born, people were emotionally positive, optimistic, and aggressive, but it does not mean forever It's all like this, conquering is difficult, and ruling such a huge empire is even more difficult. The Mongolian Empire split into four major Khanates and the Yuan Dynasty after only a few years of drinking the Danube River?
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/>So, assuming that the emperor wants to centralize power, control the army, control financial power, and be able to remotely micro-manage, is it possible?
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/>Yes, there is a dynasty in China that did it. All the elite troops were concentrated in the center, leaving only the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled to the localities. All local taxes were collected and only basic maintenance fees were left. The emperor micromanaged all day long, and the generals were only responsible Command arrows.
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This dynasty is called Dasong.
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And even if it is a big gift, the empire can't learn it. The reason is very simple. A certain great man through the ages said that to fight against the outside world, you must first settle inside.
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/>Because even the territory of the empire is full of dangers, chaotic shoe cultists, beastmen, green skin tribes, and undead and chaotic demons that appear from time to time, assuming that the imperial court took away the local elite troops, leaving only the security system and militia System, what does that place rely on to deal with these enemies who are enough to destroy a civilization?
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/>This is the difference between Ryan and Karl Franz. Ryan did it. After years of fighting in the north and south, Britannia actually needs to add Angron and the four imperial guards to patrol continuously. Very important! , has basically solved the problem in Anne, since the king has the ability to ensure the peace of the kingdom, the dukes naturally trust him and are willing to respond to his call.
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And Karl Franz couldn't do it, let alone guaranteeing the security of the entire empire, he couldn't even guarantee the security of his Rickland, or even the blood pine forest only tens of kilometers away from Brunswick In this case, the King of Cards has already done his best, and the electors do not listen to the announcement. Occasionally, they come to the capital for a meeting, which is enough to give the King of Cards face.
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/>After thinking about it in his head, Ryan thought that he also had something to learn from. If you can't give it away, don't we still have Dameng?
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"My idea is this. We can properly garrison troops in the Arsenal Fort and Bafeng Mountain. We can set up a military system, let the defenders farm by themselves, supplemented by supplies, and the soldiers are rotated every three to five years. As for Fortress, you can ask the dwarves to assist us in the construction, I think the High King or Belegar will definitely not object." Ryan revealed his plan: "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 or three thousand One guard, let the empire also send troops to participate, we also lead the recruitment in the country and the border princes, anyway, there are dwarves who pay for the equipment."
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"At the same time, we are looking for a place with mountains and water before the Arsenal Castle and Eight Peaks Mountain, and let the dwarves help us build a new fortress, so that we can build a new line of defense and cordon in the northern badlands , Their goal is not to eliminate and resist a possible greenskin invasion, but to delay the attack time of the greenskin army as much as possible, and at the same time report the news to the dwarves and the empire, so that they can prepare for defense."
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"These three guards are collectively referred to as the three guards of the evil land!"
Warhammer Throne