There is probably nothing in this world that is as irrevocable as "time".
Although every day is precious to the Roland people now, even though Du Wei has tried his best to use all means to prepare as much as possible for all "wars" that will be dealt with in the future.
The nine hundred and sixty-third year of the empire still passed like this.
At the end of this year, the last major event that affected the future of the Roland Empire happened.
At the huge prayer ceremony held in the Temple of Light at the end of the year, Pope Paul XVI finally publicly announced his designated future successor to the Temple, Cardinal Maximos.
This appointment did not cause any surprise. After all, as the chief cardinal, Maximos had already become the future pope in people's minds. It was only a matter of time.
During this year, the Mosaic sect led by Maximos also tried its best to suppress the Yeni sect. During this year, according to the resolution of the internal elders of the temple and the approval of the Pope himself, the replacement of
The archbishops of three dioceses were converted from Yeni to Mossad.
But this Archbishop Maximus did something that surprised and amazed everyone.
The most popular figure in the empire at present, the most appreciated by the regent, has many legendary stories, and has many glorious titles. For example, "genius young magician", "court scholar", "Tulip Duke" and so on... Just when he got close to
After he made a crazy and generous donation that was almost equal to the empire's annual fiscal revenue to support the empire's military expenditure, people gave him a new nickname "the richest man in the mainland".
Duke Tulip, Duweidorf... What is as deeply rooted in the hearts of the people as his resounding name is that almost most people know that this distinguished gentleman is not a devout believer. He has not been baptized. He does not believe in the goddess of light even in his life.
In the territory of the temple, the clergy of the temple were treated unfairly when they preached the doctrine.
According to some gossip, even from the Duke's Palace, it is said that the Duke does not have much respect for the goddess. He has even accidentally used an impolite expression in some private situations.
Words to describe those clergymen as "magical sticks", that's what the Duke said.
It was such a lost lamb, a wild horse, who had been wandering away from the glory of the goddess, but was finally tamed by the great Bishop Maximos.
On January 1st of this year, in the square in front of the Governor's Palace in Loulan City, the capital of Desa Province, Duke Tulip held his own initiation ceremony. In front of tens of thousands of onlookers,
After accepting the baptism ceremony of Bishop Maximus, Bishop Maximus personally completed the acceptance ceremony of the Duke of Tulip into the Church, and also awarded a "Medal of Outstanding Contribution" to this newly minted Christian.
Duke. Generally speaking, this kind of badge will only be awarded to believers who have made outstanding contributions to the church.
And when the Duke received this medal, it was less than five minutes into his career as a believer.
Just after Du Wei officially announced that he had converted to the Light Religion, Du Wei announced in public that the reason why he made such a choice was entirely due to the personal charm of Cardinal Maximus. His high-profile praise
I saw the personality charm of the red archbishop and what a kind old man he was, and admired how pious he was to his faith and how many sincere teachings he gave me. Finally, I was moved and persuaded myself to join the goddess.
embrace.
There is no doubt that this approach made Cardinal Maximus famous.
Then Du Wei announced in a high-profile manner that his territory, the Province of Desa, had officially become a new diocese of the Church. And Bishop Maximos' close friend, the former Vice-Bishop of the North Central Diocese, Rams, would serve as the new parish of Desa.
Archbishop of the provincial diocese.
In addition, Du Wei said that he would fully support the construction of the religious center in the diocese and was willing to provide a good training ground for the Holy Knights of the Diocese of Desa Province. He also generously donated 500 fine horses.
Ground war horse.
Maximus announced a resolution on behalf of the church. In order to express his sincerity to the Duke of Tulip, the church decided to exempt the province of Desa from all religious taxes in the next five years. At the same time, according to Duwei’s decision in the province of Desa
Due to his huge popularity, the church's presbytery made a resolution stating that it would grant Duwe the title of "Honorary Bishop" of the Diocese of Desa Province.
This title of honorary bishop is not just an "honor". Legally speaking, because Du Wei has the status of a church bishop, he will have immunity from any laws in the empire in the future. Although Du Wei is not interested in this "law"
"Immunity" doesn't matter too much, because he already has the status of a magician and also belongs to the legal privileged class.
However, this title of honorary bishop has some more functions than magician:
First of all, any hostile behavior against the honorary bishop will be regarded as hostility against the church! In other words, from the first minute that Du Wei received the title of honorary bishop, Du Wei's enemies are the enemies of the church.
The second point... Du Wei was given the privilege of being able to request an audience with the Pope at any time. And he also had his own seat at the church's internal bishops' conference. Of course, he was just a spectator, and he did not have the right to vote.
The third point is what Du Wei hopes for most. In order to show respect for the honorary bishop, the church made a resolution. Du Wei can deploy a cavalry of 500 people under his command. The church
This cavalry will be granted the status of "Holy Knights"! Moreover, this cavalry will not be dispatched by the diocese, but will only obey the orders of the honorary bishop. Of course, the premise is that this cavalry must ensure that each of them is
Is a believer of the goddess.
Moreover, according to some legal loopholes, a formal knight can have up to four civilian retinues, and these retinues are not counted in the establishment. Therefore, Du Wei can expand the number of people in this "Holy Knights" that belongs entirely to him.
To 2,500 people! Five hundred of them are formal knights, while two thousand exist in the name of "retinues", and all of these are legal.
"Killing a Holy Knight will be regarded as a full-scale declaration of war against the Temple of Light."
According to the law of this canon, Du Wei has his own personal "Holy Knights" team, which will be a very effective weapon when facing the Northwest Legion in the future Northwest War.
No matter how arrogant the Northwest Legion is, declaring war on the mainland's Temple of Light is not an easy task. What's more, there are also many soldiers in the Northwest Legion who are church believers. When the enemy these soldiers face is the Holy Knights, it is very difficult for them to do so.
It’s hard to imagine how much morale these people have left.
After Duwei received these preferential conditions, the price he paid was: he signed an agreement in private, expressing his willingness to make a promise to the future successor to the Pope, Cardinal Archbishop Maximos, that he would
Become a close comrade-in-arms of Bishop Maximus and give him strong support in the face of any difficulties.
It is worth mentioning that Du Wei gave his own "Holy Knights" to Hussein to lead. Hussein was a real holy knight. He was familiar with all the strict methods of holy knight training, and
Learn what it takes to lead such an army of knights.
Subsequently, Du Wei quickly announced his decision to build a military fortress in his territory, which is in the eastern part of the Desa Province, at the junction with the Nulin Province, as a base for the Holy Knights of this parish.
The garrison is a complete military fortress, but it has an additional religious place where the knights can pray.
Later, there were three military fortresses at the junction of the Desa and Nulin provinces.
The first one was the new military camp that Du Wei jointly built with Bohan, the governor of Nulin Province two years ago. After two years, two-thirds of Du Wei's troops were stationed here.
The second building was built last year to station the Tulip family's private army.
Now, there is a third one.
In this way, in terms of layout, Du Wei has piled up more than 70,000 troops on the border between his territory and Nulin Province. Including the 30,000 troops under Governor Bohan, a total of 100,000 troops, against
The Northwest Army's territory showed a state of encirclement.
What makes Du Wei slightly strange is that the Northwest Army seems to have been very quiet over the past year...
What on earth is that guy Lu Gao thinking?
Du Wei is waiting, and now the situation has entered the most critical moment. He is waiting for a signal, a signal from the imperial capital, and the arrival of that signal will announce the end of the peace period in the mainland!!
Is war coming?
No, no, no, it should be said: war is about to break out!
