The midsummer of 1433 came amid the flames of war that had not yet been completely extinguished and the intensifying marches and petitions.
The Housemaster reported to the king that the nobles had dispersed the procession and the bard, and asked him if he wanted to intervene.
"No, no need."
The king answered.
He was looking through the records of the last parliamentary session, reading the speech records of every member.
With the War Emergency Act on the king's table, it is not difficult to understand that most of the nobles refused to sign it. The nobles of Legrand have always regarded the parliament as a powerful tool for them to control the king and compete with the king's power. Outside the military service period, the king must obtain the consent of the parliament if he wants to recruit an army. For a long time, the nobles were used to taking the opportunity to force the royal family to make concessions and hand over more local autonomy and more privileges to them when the king needed an army.
Once the Wartime Emergency Act is passed, they will lose the powerful weapon of Parliament, on the other hand, the constant concentration of power in the royal government over the years has been enough to make the feudal lords feel uneasy. They worry that the War Emergency Act will increase the authority of the royal family ever since.
Because of this, most of the nobles acted extraordinarily tough in this meeting, and they never gave in.
The previous refusal was a means for them to demonstrate.
As the petition intensified, the nobles began to expel the procession.
"What about our tariffs?"
While reading the minutes of the meeting, the king asked the chief of the house.
The answer given by the home secretary was within the expectations of the king - the tariffs should be the worst in nearly three decades.
The impact of the Black Death was too great, and the economic depression was not limited to Legrand.
If you look closely at history, you will often find that behind many continuous wars and conquests, there are hidden shadows of catastrophe. Whether it is floods, droughts or plagues, natural disasters destroy the economic cornerstone of a society and sharpen the contradictions originally covered by prosperity. This sharpness may turn into war at any time. At times like this, if the government of the country does not want to kill itself, it must find a target to pass the hatred on.
In the Holy Court, the targets of this pressure and hatred are those known as "witches" and "wizards".
And in Legrand, after this mutiny, the king pushed the nobles to the guillotine of this dilemma.
"I made Legrand a country of freedom, not so that they can freely point the tip of the knife towards Legrand's own heart."
The king said lightly.
He closed the record and looked out the window at the blooming roses.
…
In front of the king, the nobles who refused to give in, biting the old law, began to find that the situation was getting worse and worse.
Even the germs of the Black Death were not as deadly as the public anger. When they recovered, things seemed bad enough that the king had pushed them to the opposite side of the public anger.
The story of "Knight Slaying the Dragon" has spread more and more widely. Under the influence of subtle influence, people have subconsciously regarded the rebels who drove the "evil black dragon" to conquer as an unjust aggressor and a shameful alliance of rebels. At first, the banner of "persuading the king to make corrections" displayed by the head of the trial bureau was forgotten.
As the refugees left Puttonshire, they also shared the pain and anger of their homes being destroyed. In the process of the town being destroyed, everyone clearly saw that the local nobles, the lords who were obliged to protect the safety of the people in the territory, ignored the rebels and hid in their castles. It was their standstill that saw towns plundered by the notorious Balin mercenaries and villages set on fire by black dragons that flew through the sky.
How glorious and glorious the royal family was in this war, how weak and incompetent the nobles were compared.
The nobles regarded the commoners as untouchable filth, and rejected them like femme fatales. But this time, they had to correct their previous perceptions.
Facing the intensifying procession, the nobles had no choice.
Either pinching his nose and bowing his head to the king, or the sound must be suppressed.
They had always thought that the king was just a young and vigorous lion, but now they discovered that there was a wandering poisonous snake lurking under the skin of the lion. No wonder the king did not make any punishment or persecution when they stood still. He is waiting to burn them on the fire of anger today.
The nobles cursed in private, and the most determined nobles formed a secret alliance. The Holy Court is about to cross the sea, and the chief of the court is occupying Hered County again. The king is more anxious than them. As long as they do not provide the king with soldiers, the king will not be able to summon soldiers for a day.
The nobles thought that if this stalemate continued, the king would bow his head earlier than them.
"He's too arrogant."
An old noble of the Secret Alliance commented this way.
"He will surrender."
However, the retreat of the king he predicted has not yet appeared, and public anger has broken out.
Anger was first vented in pubs and public places.
The first week of June, Wednesday, Yolin County.
The county magistrate led a group of soldiers to kick open a pub called "Bull Sparrow", dragged out a middle-aged man who was chatting with his partner, and stuffed it into the cage.
"I didn't commit a crime!"
The bewildered blacksmith Martin shouted.
"It is a pity, sir, that you have been accused of immorally and viciously slandering your lord, and eagerly colluding with your companions to pose a threat to the personal safety of Mr. lord," said the sheriff, reminding the blacksmith, "Just three days ago, You have committed this horrific crime here."
"...that was just a joke!" Martin's eyes widened in astonishment.
Three days ago, after a big drink in the tavern, Martin the blacksmith slapped the table and began to complain loudly: "... Baron Salford, who hastily joined Plitani's camp when the head of the trial bureau arrived, is a useless wretch who is less promising than a woman. Now that Hereford and several other ports are still under occupation, the baron must take responsibility.… After the Battle of Puerton, any dignified nobleman should immediately take up their sword and go to crusade against the enemies who invaded Legrand, while Not against their king, preventing their king from raising an army to protect his people."
The reason why he was so angry was because his iron shop had been swept away by the mercenaries of Balin. And their lord held a banquet in the castle to entertain the mercenary chief.
"...give me a shovel and I can smash the baron's head with it!"
At the end of the drunkenness, the blacksmith released such a rhetoric, and was answered by everyone in the tavern.
"The Lord's Court has condemned you, sir."
said the sheriff grimly.
He was stuffed into a wooden cage, which was dragged by horses and rumbled along. Every time the cage wobbled, Martin would bang in and out. By the time he was dragged to the crossroads that had always been used for judgment, he was already covered in wounds.
With a wave of Baron Salford, who was behind the prison van, the blacksmith was dragged out of the cage.
The crowd was crowded, everyone was whispering, and many people had unbearable expressions on their faces.
The noose was around the blacksmith's neck.
Seeing that he was about to be hanged and his spine broken, the blacksmith's son pushed the crowd and rushed out. The young, burly boy swung to the rack with an axe, lashing out at the baron for his tyranny and cruelty, while slashing at the sling.
"Chop him down for me too!" The satisfied smile on Baron Salford's face disappeared, he stood up abruptly and pointed at the blacksmith son who was scolding him with trembling fingers, "I want to see his head hang on the road sign. under!"
The knight behind the baron put his hand on the hilt of the sword and did not immediately step forward: "Sir, I think you can confiscate their iron shop, which is more serious than killing them directly. They don't deserve to die so happily."
"Are you disobeying my orders?" The baron turned his head, frowning.
The blacksmith had been let down from the noose by his son, and the soldier who was pulling the rope took two symbolic swings of his sword and stepped aside.
"Capture them, along with those two guys." The baron pointed to the soldier who didn't stop the blacksmith's son at all. "Don't forget who you are loyal to."
"Fuck you swine." The knight pulled out his sword with a bang, and he kicked the baron with a kick, the veins bursting out on his forehead, "I'm fed up with you idiot!"
"What are you doing?!" The baron was shocked and angry, "Are you going to break the knight's oath? You want to do something to your master? The Lord will send you to hell!"
"It's better to go to hell than to enter the kingdom of God with a traitor like you!"
The knight spat in his face and stomped his feet on his stomach.
"I'm Legrand's knight, I know what I have to do! I'm fed up with you pigs!"
He raised the sword in his hand high, turned his head to look at the crowd around him: "Gentlemen! I am Legrand's knight, not a traitor's knight! Are you going to kneel down and lick the boots of this despicable villain? ?"
"No! No! No!"
The crowd erupted into shouts.
"I'm Legrand's knight, not a traitor's knight! I'm loyal to His Majesty the King, not a fool! Go away!" The knight kicked the baron out, "Traitors don't deserve to be in Jolin County!"
"Go away! Traitor! Get out of here!"
The blacksmith snatched the axe from his son and swung it hard.
The anger of the crowd gradually rose.
The sheriff, the baron, and some other guys with heads and faces ran away, chased by the angry crowd, and ran across a long street.
They even stormed the Territorial Court and burned it clean with a fire.
Similar things keep happening all over Legrand.
The first aristocrat couldn't hold on anymore.
After being stormed into the manor by hundreds of angry peasants and burning down the house, he rushed to the palace almost as a bastard, crying bitterly to confess his fault and express his loyalty to the king.
The second, the third, ... The secret alliance between the nobles quickly disintegrates.
… … … …
The King was reading a letter from Legrand's First Pathological Research Department when the Housemaster conveyed his request for an audience with the defecting nobles.
The head of the Department of Pathological Research, the pharmacist Duna wrote a bunch of letters to the king one after another.
-It is worth mentioning that the black dragon that was beheaded by the alchemy knights that day was asked by the madman hospital to study it almost immediately.
For now, that majestic black dragon seems to be very well preserved. Every dragon scale, every piece of flesh, every bone is coded and numbered.
Yes, it was dissected very cleanly and thoroughly.
The witches who have been in the hospital for the mad for some time have been kicked into the sea of madness by their psychic colleagues and seem to be swimming happily. With the help of the witches, they drew an extremely detailed dragon body structure with incredible speed and gave it to the king as a gift.
Normal people don't seem to be able to give the structure diagram of a pile of bones as a gift to their majesty.
However, a king who can make a group of lunatics allegiance does not seem to be a normal person.
He happily accepted the gift, and by the way dismissed the doctors' request to study the alchemy knights.
Another thing, after a period of time, the military heavy industry department of hell finally heard the story of "Knight slaying the Dragon". A group of military designers wrote letter after letter to the king, urging them to study dragon scales and claws as well.
It's good that scientists are so active and industrious, but there is only one dragon.
The king thought for a while, then took up the pen and wrote a reply to each side.
He asked military designers and doctors and witches to join forces to study the principle of black dragons breathing fire. See if you can imitate it and make new weapons.
The author has something to say: Kings: Making the best use of what the dragons have is the tradition of dragonslayers.
Dragonbone Castle, Dragonbone Arrowhead, Black Dragon: Three companies of politeness and quality.