The imperial capital, the royal meeting hall,
Two days have passed since that nightmare-like night, and Luke's men have already taken control of the situation. The officials who were shivering under the covers in the bloody night of the imperial capital are now puffing up their chests and showing pride on their faces. He looked as if he had put down the rebellion with his own hands,
Since the ruler of the empire, Fernando XIII, was in trouble, these officials had to elect another king to succeed the throne. Obviously, this related to the interests of various factions and families, so these officials of the empire were in the royal chamber. I've been arguing for 2 days and still haven't come up with any results.
Among the original three giants of the empire, Chad, the imperial minister of state, rebelled and is now a prisoner, while military commander Orlando went to Thor Fortress. Just two days were not enough to pass on the news. Only the imperial treasurer who had been dismissed Minister Luke sat quietly in the corner of the chamber,
None of the serving imperial officials paid any attention to Luke. In their eyes, Luke was just a has-been guy. Who would care about him? And Luke's real subordinates did not appear here at all. Now everything Everything is waiting to be done. After Chad's influence was completely eradicated, there were too many vacancies left. Everyone under Luke's men was busy. Although there was no personal appointment from His Majesty the Emperor, Luke's men Who cares? The entire imperial capital is already under Luke's control. It's not the same thing to wait until those boring officials select a puppet and then slowly sign the appointment and dismissal order.
On the contrary, Luke himself had nothing to do. He just happened to be sitting there with a glass of top quality Bordeaux, tasting it slowly, and looking at the officials who were arguing indifferently.
More than 100 officials were sitting in the royal meeting hall. The original owner Fernando XIII had only passed away two days ago, and no one had visited him. Even his funeral affairs were handled by Luke. These officials were completely Losing his aristocratic demeanor, he was red-faced and arguing about the choice of the next king. Since the young Fernando XIII had no direct heirs, according to the provisions of the Royal Succession Act, basically all nobles with the blood of Fernando's royal family were in theory. Has the right to succeed the king,
"Everyone, everyone." A white-haired official shouted loudly: "According to the provisions of the Royal Succession Law, Henicos and Fernando should inherit the throne. Although old Henicos is a little older, He is the cousin of His Majesty Fernando XII, the oldest and most prestigious in our royal family."
"Haha, what a joke. Henicos is 79 years old this year. Do you hope that our empire will continue to change kings next year?" An official in his thirties refuted loudly: "I think that the monarch of a huge empire , should have the wisdom of the elderly and the vitality of the youth, as well as a healthy body."
"Yes, yes." Several people about the same age as the official slapped the table and made a fuss.
"So I think." The 30-year-old official shouted to everyone: "Birmingham, Fernando is the most qualified to be our next monarch. He is knowledgeable and proficient in four languages. The most important thing is that he will not be here this year. The age of 43 is when a person is most energetic."
"That's right, we all support Birmingham." Those few officials are still building momentum for their own faction candidates.
"Please don't mess up. Please listen to what I have to say." A young man aged 18 or 19 shouted in a childish voice: "Don't the future of the empire belong to our young people? In this case, why don't you do it?" Why don't we let the youngest Hubble, Fernando, be the king?"
"Go to hell, Hubble is only 7 years old. How can we let a kid who still wets his pants manage us?"
"Damn it, you old man, how dare you say such things? Have you forgotten that insulting His Majesty the King is a grave sin?"
"May the God of Light deprive you of your glory, who said Hubble is the king."
"Everyone, everyone"
"Ah, you dare to touch me, you have insulted the dignity of the nobles."
"So what if I touch you, you fat idiot, why don't you die."
"Everyone, don't make any noise, don't make any noise."
"You dare touch me again, you damn pig, and if my servants were here, I would have them knock your head in the mud."
"Brothers, defend our King of Birmingham to the death."
Luke gently shook the crystal glass in his hand to let the bright red Bordeaux wine slosh in the glass. He looked at the noisy officials in front of him with a mocking look on his face.
A man dressed as a servant walked in quickly. He quickly scanned the royal meeting hall with his eyes and immediately saw where Luke was. Then he quickly handed a piece of information in his hand to Luke. Ke gently opened the document, which listed the gains of his men that night.
At that time, Chad did not have a premeditated rebellion at all. After an assassin appeared to assassinate Fernando XIII, he was forced to raise troops to protect himself. Of course, the insiders of this matter were either Chad's men who had been killed. Once it's empty, either Luke's men will definitely be tight-lipped,
Because that night, Chad urgently mobilized more than 40,000 troops, which was almost one-fifth of the troops left in the imperial capital. In addition, there were more than 2,000 people from the chamber of commerce and mercenary groups under his and his wife's names. At the beginning, At that time, he indeed firmly controlled the situation in the palace and its surroundings.
However, when Catherine persuaded Luke to take action, the situation took a turn. Luke's men were far less numerous than Chad's, but most of Chad's men were reserve legions, which were not as good as an entire elite legion in Luke's hands. Then It was controlled by the generals he supported, not to mention there were thousands of holy knights as the backbone. Chad's men were no match at all and basically collapsed at the first touch. Grand Magister de Silva saw that something was not going well and could not bring him with him. I don’t know where the 20 people fled to.
When the overall situation was decided, Luke deliberately opened a hole in the defense line besieging the palace, allowing Chad's defeated troops to escape into the rich area. Those nobles who were desperately robbing the poor suffered heavy losses that night, and those Chad The defeated soldiers rushed into the house where the nobles were and began to rob them. When they had almost robbed, Luke's troops rushed in to fight. In the chaos, no one knew whose hands those nobles died at. Anyway, almost all the noble houses that had been looted were set alight, and the fire quickly spread, lighting up half of the sky.
Anyway, the common people in the imperial capital all live on the outer edge of the city, and more people live in farms and manors outside the city. Luke has long been dissatisfied with these nobles who don't care about the empire and only value their own lives, so he takes advantage of it. This incident hit them hard,
At dawn, when those anxious citizens walked out of their homes, they could only see the bright red blood flowing in the sewers of the imperial capital. That night full of fear made the residents of Fernando City, who had been away from the war for 200 years, That night I tasted death again,
Luke flipped through the information in his hand. After preliminary sorting, he found that the wealth he gained that night if converted into gold coins exceeded 490 million gold coins. This is almost the total tax revenue of the empire in 7 years, and it is even more important. What's more, those dead nobles controlled at least more than 40% of the land near the imperial capital. As long as he spends some time sorting out the land and distributing it to the civilians, Luke believes that he will definitely win the hearts of the people.
Luke carefully folded the document and put it into his pocket. He put the crystal cup aside and stood up slowly. In the meeting hall, the officials were still arguing loudly. , the scene is getting more and more chaotic, these officials are trying their best to strive for the greatest interests, but they don’t know that the person who can really decide the next king is leisurely drinking wine on the side,
Luke suddenly remembered Catherine. After that night of suppressing the rebellion, Catherine moved into the palace and never came out again, as if the future of the empire had nothing to do with her. No one cared about a woman with a dead husband, only the trainee knight Christie Na still protects her closely,
In Luke's mind, Catherine is actually more qualified to become the king. Based on Catherine's performance that night, these officials who were fighting desperately in front of him were completely like waste. Unfortunately, according to the "Royal Succession Act", Catherine, as Fernando The Thirteenth Queen, her line of succession to the throne is really too far away. If she really wants to inherit the throne, she has to kill at least 57 nobles with Fernando blood living in the imperial capital, and she has to go to Seawind City and other places. , kill the remaining 46 royal descendants whose fiefdoms are not near the imperial capital,
Luke shook his head, put his hands behind his back and walked out slowly. He, Luke, did not have the blood of the royal family, and he had no need to talk too much about the inheritance, otherwise he would be the target of public criticism. No matter who sat on the throne anyway , in the end, it is not necessary to act according to Luke's wishes. If that is the case, then who will be the emperor will make no difference to Luke.
"Wait for you to argue slowly." Luke said in his heart: "Every day you argue, my strength will grow stronger, and my control over this empire will become stronger. It's best if you keep arguing and never have a choice. If you create this king, then I don’t even need to ask that puppet for instructions in name.”
On the Nantalun Prairie, 10 Holy Knights flew desperately towards the north. They were ordered by Queen Catherine to pass on what happened in the imperial capital to General Orlando.
The rapid sound of horse hooves frightened the cattle and sheep grazing nearby. The originally neat cattle and sheep began to become messy. A herdsman riding a horse grazing looked deeply at Juechen. The holy knight who was going suddenly waved his whip and hit his beautiful horse hard. The horse let out a long neigh, spread its hooves, and ran towards the hazy camp in the distance.
Half a day later, more than 20 herdsmen flew out of the camp. They were divided into four groups, ran out in different directions, and soon disappeared into the distance.