Chapter 755: The Wisdom of Horus

"Guilliman, my brother."

"Before we start the discussion, let me ask you a question."

"Do you think the current human empire is a universal empire?"

Even when discussing the most serious political topics, the decent smile still did not fade from the face of the Wolf God: the Warmaster of the Empire stretched his limbs lazily on the cream-white stone chair, as if he was just asking a trivial question.

Compared with most brothers, this almost eternal calmness is undoubtedly one of Horus's greatest advantages: in the eyes of outsiders, the Wolf God is always so calm, and when he speaks, he can easily grasp the dominant power of the topic in his palm.

Even other Primarchs find it difficult to defend their ideas in front of the Warmaster.

This is especially true for Guilliman.

"Universal Empire..."

The Macragge rubbed his chin, which had a soft stubble like grass: no matter what he was thinking just now, Guilliman has now followed Horus's topic.

He really likes this topic.

"Let me be clear, Horus: Universal Empire is not an auspicious term."

"Do you still believe in luck?"

"No, but as an Archon, there are some terms that must be avoided at all costs."

The Primarch smiled.

"But to be honest: Universal Empire is indeed a more appropriate adjective."

"For the current Empire."

"But..."

"But it feels like there is still something missing between the Human Empire and the Universal Empire?"

Just as Guilliman was hesitating, the Wolf God smiled and supplemented him: Horus must have been well prepared this time. Before stepping on Guilliman's flagship, he had already guessed every possible reaction of the Macragge people in this brotherly conversation.

"That's right."

Guilliman nodded, followed by a long list of political terms, which he picked up at will.

"To put it simply, the so-called universal empire is more like a philosophical concept: it believes that there are some values ​​in the world that can be discovered, understood and obeyed by everyone, and with this concept as the core, plus a strong or flexible ruling body, a theoretically boundless empire can be established."

"For a long time, the specific manifestation of the universal empire was a monarchy that ruled multiple nations at the same time, and the universal concept in their eyes was often a unified religion: the imperial people from different nations believed in the same religion and submitted to the same royal family. This was the beginning of the universal empire."

"Typical examples are like the Roman Empires in human history: the ancient Roman Empire is naturally needless to say, and the Holy Roman Empire, which believes in Catholicism, can also be understood as a one-sided universal empire, but the most typical example is the Ottoman Empire."

"And in the later period of development, the universal empire It can even accommodate different religions into its own values, and its concept has become more up-to-date: the monarchs and nobles who were originally rulers can be replaced by democratic regimes or committees, and religion has gradually given way to the same ideology, or some more illusory common concepts. "

"But fundamentally, the basic concept of the universal empire has never changed: it needs a ruling group that can transcend concepts such as region, religion, and race, and it also needs a core value that everyone can agree on, so as to tolerate and suppress the contradictions caused by different cultures and cognitions within the empire. "

"Put it more simply. "

"The concept of governing a country is applicable everywhere. "

"A beautiful summary. "

Horus nodded, stood up and poured himself a second glass of wine: It must be said that Avalon's star product can be sold well in the galaxy, and it has its own unique features. Even the wolf god worships this unique sweetness.

"So do you think that the current human empire is a universal empire?"

"..."

Guilliman thought for a while.

"It's... not really..."

"What do you mean?"

The Wolf God stood, his shadow covering the Macragge man in deep thought.

"First of all, the Universal Empire needs a ruling group that is above everything: the current Empire can satisfy this."

"You mean the High Lords?"

Horus laughed.

"I remember that most of those High Lords are Terrans, right? Is this considered transcendence?"

"That's different, Horus."

The Primarch shook his head and looked at the Warmaster in some disbelief.

"Or, you don't really think that the High Lords are the real rulers of the Empire, do you?"

Horus stopped talking, he silently drank a sip of wine, and motioned his brother to continue.

"Horus, we all know that the High Lords are just servants of the Emperor. They don't have more power of their own. This is the fundamental reason why I don't hate these High Lords because of the Badab crisis, because I know that they are just a group of high-level workers."

"Workers?"

"The word from Avalon: Dawnbreakers always have some strange habits."

"Continue the topic just now: If we look behind the High Lords, we will find that whether it is the Sigillite or the High Lord, their power ultimately comes from our Gene Father, and their rule is limited to the Solar Star Region."

"In other parts of the galaxy..."

"It's our world."

The Wolf Shepherd added with a smile.

"so what?"

"So, the one who actually rules this human empire is the Emperor and his descendants, that is, the [Imperial Family] composed of us Primarchs: This fully meets the first necessary condition for a universal empire."

"It's just a little backward..."

Guilliman muttered quietly.

"What about the second point?"

Horus asked next.

"The second point is the problem."

Guilliman sighed.

"To be honest: If you choose to view all mankind as a whole, then the Human Empire is definitely not a universal empire: judging from the Emperor's strictness on bloodlines, we are more like an extreme nation that pays attention to racial purity. communist country..."

"You're wrong about that."

Horus interrupted.

"Guilliman: The concept of nation disappeared tens of thousands of years ago."

"Human beings are human beings: as long as they are pure, they are a community."

"It's just that humans themselves cannot see themselves as a group: more than 99% of the empire's people in the galaxy will only have a lifelong vision limited to the world they live in or even the interior of the hive city. You If you want him to raise his head and regard the other world in Ginbi Duanzao as his own kind, it is still a bit overestimating."

"Back on Terra, a small continent could be divided into hundreds of completely different and even hostile peoples: how can you expect the one million worlds in the empire to unite into a collective? We are definitely not What a nationalist country, what we are facing is a universal empire.”

"This is reality, Guilliman: it is not something we can change through imagination."

"You have a point."

The Primarch nodded, but he was not entirely sure of Horus' point of view.

"But in this case, it is even more difficult for us to find a common value concept for a million worlds: the previous Great Crusade was just a special situation, a gift left to us by the tragedy of the Age of Strife. This gift It certainly won’t last forever.”

"Tell me more details."

The Warmaster took a step forward involuntarily.

"To put it simply, the empire's universal concept before this was actually [security]."

"Safety?"

The Wolf Shepherd chewed the word.

"Yes, remember how the Emperor described the Great Crusade?"

"When a world is being ravaged by war, there are hundreds of fellow human beings in the world who are waiting for news from their home planet in the chaos of the age of strife: and the pain they endured is exactly what happened during the Great Crusade. The reason why the journey will be so smooth.”

"Compared with the suffering caused by the aliens and pirates in the Age of Strife, surrendering to the Empire is a very attractive option: the military security that the Empire can provide is our greatest universal value during the Great Crusade, and in order to be protected Under the wings of the Empire, different worlds have chosen to surrender to the Emperor."

"This is indeed a universal value: although it seems a bit strange."

"But the problem is that the reason why universal empires have a bad reputation is that what awaits them is often the fate of disintegration or destruction: because universal values ​​will eventually go bankrupt and be replaced by more narrow things. Before, they were Nationalism is hard to say in the future.”

"Why is this?"

The Wolf God asked humbly like an upright student. He realized that Guilliman was indeed qualified to be his teacher when it came to human history: there was no shame in asking his brother for advice.

"How should I say..."

Guilliman scratched his head.

“The universal empire is like a huge fragile glass bowl. At the beginning, it can hold enough cakes to allow different groups to share the benefits in its big bowl, and thereby build a unified society.”

“But with the passage of time, due to many reasons such as the aging of the political structure, internal corruption, invasion of foreign enemies, etc., the profit cake will always become smaller and smaller: when various groups can no longer benefit, the general public will Naturally, worldly ideas no longer have value.”

"That makes sense."

The Wolf Shepherd smiled.

"During the Great Crusade, the universal value of the Empire was to keep them safe, but such a sense of security would be something they would take for granted: when the people of later generations forget the pain brought to them by the era of strife, and take the consequences brought by the Empire Taking peace as a matter of course, they will naturally notice the injustices covered up by the universal value of [security].”

"For example, taxes."

Guilliman added.

"After people have forgotten the chaos of the Age of Strife and the necessity of the Great Crusade, and after safety is no longer their top priority, they will naturally notice how unreasonable the taxes collected by the Empire are. At that time, they will This is the moment when universal values ​​collapse: there will be countless worlds that decide that remaining in the Empire is the worse option for them.”

"It's really troublesome."

The Wolf Shepherd swayed his wine glass.

"After all, there is no way to make these mortals realize the importance of safety: we can't let them go through a war from time to time, and then let the empire's army rescue them, so that they know the universal value of the empire, right? That would be too wasteful resources.”

"Horus!"

Guilliman raised his head sharply: This plan somewhat exceeded his mental bottom line.

"Just kidding, bro."

The Shepherd God nodded.

"However, these things you said are all things I have thought before."

He became serious.

"It's that the sense of belonging to the unity of millions of worlds in the galaxy is gradually disappearing."

"This is the most intimate and greatest problem before us, and the one that my Imperial Federationism most needs to address: I am glad we are on the same page on this, my dear brother Macragge."

"We are all sensible after all."

Guilliman absentmindedly accepted Horus's words of coaxing.

He was more concerned about another issue.

"That being the case, Horus: how does your doctrine intend to solve this problem?"

"Strictly speaking..."

The Wolf Shepherd paused.

"have no idea."

"..."

Guilliman's eyes widened.

"What?"

"I haven't thought it through completely: there are several key points that cannot be solved."

The Warmaster added slowly.

“First of all, a successful universal value has two necessary elements: one is that its applicability is broad enough, and the other is that it can bring benefits to all groups. To some extent, the latter is even more important than the former. , because no group will say [no] to interests.”

“Individuals do, but groups don’t.”

"And this second point is why the Emperor's Imperial Truth is doomed to fail."

The Wolf God shook his glass and casually said words that made Guilliman break out in a cold sweat.

"Advocating reason and progress, not believing that there are gods in the galaxy, not believing that there is anything worthy of worship in the void, thinking that the progress of secularism is the most worthy of pursuit: Frankly speaking, these words are very correct."

“But: Does agreeing with these views do anything good for humanity?”

"If civilians sing the truth of the Empire, will their lives be improved? If the governors and nobles sing the truth of the Empire, will their families continue to grow? If the soldiers on the battlefield pass on the truth of the Empire, they will have a greater chance. Come back alive from the brink of death?”

"If there is no benefit, why would people buy into this rhetoric?"

The Wolf Shepherd looked at his brother.

"What do you think?"

Guilliman didn't reply, but his silence was the best answer.

"So, Guilliman, we cannot make the same mistake as our father on this issue."

The Wolf Shepherd smiled.

"He has many things to do every day. Whether it is the war of unification or the Great Expedition, they are ambitious undertakings that are unimaginable by ordinary people. When dealing with such things, it is inevitable to make some omissions: since we want to fill this gap for it, then we naturally have to do it in this Be cautious on the issue.”

"After all, we have to come up with a [value] that can sustain us for thousands of years."

"It has to be accessible enough, and it has to bring tangible benefits to everyone in the empire."

"..."

Guilliman crossed his hands, frowned into a high brow, lowered his head, and fell into a typical thinking state: This state lasted for three or four minutes, and finally ended with a sigh from the Primarch.

"Horus... Horus..."

Guilliman sighed repeatedly.

"You really raised a difficult question for me."

There is no mistake in every song, one post, one content, one 6 one, one book, one book, take a look!

"Who says it isn't?"

The Shepherd God sat down, showing the intimacy between himself and his brothers.

"Now you know why I haven't been able to make up my mind?"

"determination?"

The Primarch seized on the word.

"you mean……"

"That's right."

Horus nodded seriously and stared at his brother closely.

"It's a hard question: but we happen to see an answer that works."

"You know, Guilliman..."

"You mean...Luo Jia?"

The Macragge paused.

"You want to use Luojia's religion?"

"Perfectly satisfying, isn't it?"

Horus asked rhetorically.

"Existence is reasonable: Why did the earliest universal empires generally choose to use religion as their core values? Even empires as powerful as Rome had to choose to accept Christianity in the end, and their last descendants wanted to defend their own religion. power and would rather choose self-destruction.”

"But...but this is different!"

Guilliman stood up directly, tossing back and forth a little anxiously.

"Besides: it is impossible for the Emperor to allow us to use religion..."

"He doesn't allow it?"

Horus interrupted.

"Has Luo Jia been punished?"

"..."

Guilliman was speechless.

"Guilliman, my brother, religion is one of the trump cards left by our father."

"But this trump card is not safe."

After a moment of panic, the Lord of Macragge quickly recovered his thoughts.

"If nothing else: Do we dare to relax restrictions on religion today? In a few years at most, at least thousands of sects will spring up all over the galaxy, even if they all believe in the unity of the Emperor Gods, they will also fight with each other because of their differences in doctrine, which is exactly contrary to our original intention. "

"It is indeed a problem."

The Wolf God did not deny this.

“So I was wondering: Could we be a little leaner?”

"streamline?"

"What I mean is: we don't have to create a religion out of thin air."

Horus raised a finger.

"Think about it, Guilliman: what is the most attractive thing about religion to mortals?"

"..."

"Asylum?"

"And worship."

The wolf god added.

"Human beings, by their nature, need something to worship, and they need a stronger will to guide them: scientists will worship science, atheists will worship their rejection of gods, and materialists will fanatically believe in their own philosophy: this is actually the same as religion."

"Of course, there will always be some great men who will transcend this magic circle."

"And if mortals can do this, are they still called mortals?"

"In other words, the human spiritual world needs an anchor point to help humans, who are extremely fragile as individuals, to persist in this bizarre world: religion is just the most attractive of all kinds of anchor points."

"In other words, if we can choose an anchor point for them, we don't need to create another religion at all, and this anchor point is naturally there: an object worthy of worship for everyone, a spiritual symbol that we can rely on with confidence."

"...Emperor?"

"That's right."

Horus nodded.

"Besides, don't we have an Imperial Truth on hand?"

"We can make full use of it."

"It is not difficult to stitch the worship of the Emperor into the Imperial Truth: there is no god in the galaxy that deserves to be worshipped, but the Emperor who saved the entire human race, his spirit and will are not worthy of our worship? Aren't the noble ideals that supported him to accomplish these great deeds worthy of our following?"

"Do you think this is a religion?"

"..."

"Of course not."

Horus showed his beautiful teeth and answered his own questions with satisfaction.

"This is just a new generation of the Imperial Truth after reform."

"..."

Guilliman was silent and sighed again.

"This is religion: it can evolve into a new religion at any time."

"You are deceiving yourself, Horus."

"I know."

The Wolf God was very calm.

"But my vision and ideas can only support me to this point, brother."

"For me, a stitched Imperial Truth may not be the best way, but it is indeed the most appropriate way and the one with the lowest probability of failure: my ability limit can only support me to this point, so I did not throw out my ideas immediately, but chose to discuss further with you."

"Not only you, I will go to Morgan and Lorgar next, and maybe Chagatai Khan and Perturabo: the wisdom of all of us should be gathered together. This is not a cause that belongs to only one or two people. Every brother must work hard for this."

The Wolf God stood up and walked to face Guilliman. He patted the Lord of Macragge on the shoulder earnestly and asked his brother to help him with his eyes: for a great ideal that Guilliman could have been obsessed with.

How could the Primarch refuse.

"..."

"You are right."

Guilliman heard his own sigh: Did he sigh too often today?

"But I still don't think the New Imperial Truth is a good idea."

"It doesn't matter."

Horus nodded.

"The glory of the Great Crusade will affect at least two or three generations of mortals. We still have enough time to weigh our plans: I have only put forward the most basic assumptions, and further supplements require the efforts of all of us."

"So now: let's talk about the remaining two questions, brother?"

Horus made an invitation: Guilliman can choose the next topic.

The Macragge thought for a moment.

"First, tell me, how do you plan to deal with the relationship between the Astartes and mortals?"

The Wolf God smiled: he didn't seem surprised by Guilliman's choice.

"Remember the word I just said?"

"Coexistence."

"That's right: coexistence."

"That's too general, Guilliman: please let me be more specific."

The Primarch cleared his throat.

"I personally believe that mutual compromise, mutual concessions, mutual help and support, and on the premise of tolerating differences, finding as many similarities as possible to build a good mutually beneficial model: this is the correct way for the Astartes and mortals to get along, and it is also the way the Empire should go in the future."

"This is called: coexistence."

"A beautiful summary."

Guilliman nodded.

"I think even the high lords of Terra will not deny this statement."

"But the question is: how do you plan to build this mutually beneficial model?"

"You know, on this issue: mortals are more difficult to convince than Astartes."

"It's just a draft."

At this point, even Horus himself was a little embarrassed.

"In general: I have summarized four core slogans."

"Tell me."

Guilliman smiled.

He felt more and more that the Wolf God was a worthy long-term partner.

Maybe: Maybe the two of them can really do something real.

"Then listen carefully."

When Guilliman spoke thoughtfully, the Warmaster's confident voice answered him.

——————

"First."

"As a whole, the Astartes must maintain a sense of mystery."

"But individual Astartes must establish close ties with mortals."

"Second."

"For secular power, those who should be given up to mortals should be given up."

"But for the swords in your hands, you must hold them tightly no matter what."

"Third."

"Maintain political neutrality and position yourself as a large military armed order."

"But ensure the power of restraint: mortals who are loyal to us will become our representatives."

"Fourth."

"Always remember one thing: all Astartes are only loyal to the Emperor."

"When necessary, when those mortals drag the Empire into the abyss."

"The Astartes Legion is the last insurance for the Emperor and the Human Empire."