Sui Xiong didn't care about the reputation of being the most important weapon of the country, but he agreed with the Rune God's view.
The foundation of a country is nothing more than military and civil affairs. To put it more bluntly, it is money and swords.
The issue of money is another matter. The sword is the country's military construction. The army needs people, weapons, and armor.
Where do weapons and armor come from? Most lords are obtained through procurement. If the conditions are slightly better, buy steel and make your own weapons and armor. Only the most powerful ones can produce one-stop products starting from raw materials.
Arms come from purchases, not to mention how much they cost. Even if you have enough money, you may not be able to buy enough weapons at one time. Even if you buy it, quality is always an issue. Even if the quality is good, weapons will wear out during use, and repairing and replenishing them is always troublesome.
Therefore, only those forces that can produce their own armed forces are qualified to talk about "compete in the world and aspire to dominate the Central Plains". In this world, it's the same.
For example, the Gold Coin Federation back then was not actually a country, but rather large and small fiefdoms established by dozens of merchants and nobles. They attacked each other and fought endlessly for hundreds of years.
In the hundreds of years of war, the several major forces that finally emerged all had their own smelting and forging workshops, and had the ability to stably produce weapons.
It was precisely because of this productivity that they were able to defeat the old opponents who had been competing with them for hundreds of years one by one. It was like fighting for the leader in a herd of animals, and in the end only a few of the strongest were left.
However, under the mediation of the goddess of wealth, Menis, these most powerful forces did not decide the winner through a final battle, but compromised with each other and formed a federation.
This is of course because neither of them is confident that they can defeat the others, but it is also Manis's strategy to have the last laugh.
Royal power and divine power not only cooperate with each other, but also have great conflicts. In countries where royal power was consolidated, divine power was often weakened. In countries with strong theocracy, the situation is reversed.
What the nobles want is for their subjects to obey them honestly, but they don't want someone who often stands on the side of their subjects and restricts their own power. Even if the actual interests are not taken into consideration, the verbosity alone makes the lords who are accustomed to keeping their words irritated.
What the church wants is for the people to be pious to God, and the lords should encourage this piety and promote the construction of the church. An unruly lord will obviously hinder the stable life of the people. Without a stable life, how can we start church building
Not to mention, once people have faith and a church, they have an organization. Once the people are organized, will they easily submit to the rule of their lords and be exploited and oppressed
Therefore, in the long history, the struggle between royal power and divine power has been consistent. Either the east wind overwhelms the west wind, or the west wind overwhelms the east wind. It is rare for the two to truly coexist peacefully.
Over the years, the biggest exception is the Northwest Republic. In the Northwest Republic, noble status is only honor and does not represent actual ruling power. The political activities of the Church of the Mask of the Void are also strictly limited from the perspective of "supervision" and "justice". Sui Xiong never allows them to cross the threshold.
For example, in every town, the Church of the Mask of the Void has a special job, which is to accept people's opinions and suggestions on the government. These opinions and suggestions will be reviewed before God, and if they are confirmed to be correct, they will be summarized and passed on to the government for processing. If the local government cannot handle it, or if the result makes the people very dissatisfied, it will report it to the higher-level church, and eventually it can even go directly to Sui Xiong's altar.
Of course, in the past few years, there has never been such a big incident. On the one hand, when there is supervision, most officials will be more careful and honest in their work. On the other hand, the Northwest Republic is currently on the rise, and everyone is living a good life, and there is not that much resentment.
Therefore, in the Northwest Republic, divine power and royal power—assuming that they really exist, do coexist peacefully, and can even be said to be complementary.
In addition, even in the Mystic Tower Federation, which is in relatively good condition, the conflict between divine power and royal power is extremely serious, with various overt and covert struggles emerging in an endless stream, and even methods such as assassination are frequently used.
The struggle between divine power and royal power naturally hindered the development of the country. It's like a factory. The leaders are divided into several factions, trying to trick each other all day long. The workers don't have enough to eat or wear, and they get into trouble from time to time... If it can develop well, then there is something really wrong!
The Northwest Republic is like the factory in front of them. It is stable, strong, and orderly. Everyone has a good salary and is working hard for a better tomorrow. There is a positive atmosphere.
The Rune God smiled calmly and did not explain in detail to Sui Xiong the meaning of the evaluation "the most important weapon of the country".
In fact, in his opinion, this factory, which can quickly produce a large number of weapons and armors and can quickly expand its scale, is not a real important weapon of the country. The lively atmosphere permeating this factory, the joy, confidence and positive attitude seen on the faces and hearts of the researchers and craftsmen, are the reasons why He really made this exclamation.
(I haven’t seen such a beautiful scenery in how many years!)
The dwarf god with white beard and hair smiled, but secretly sighed in his heart.
Ever since the dwarves were defeated in the great war and had to retreat from the most fertile eastern plains of the main plane and into the Broken Cloud Mountains, the atmosphere among this race was no longer so positive.
It was from then on that the habit of alcoholism spread among the dwarves. Many older dwarves do not so much like the taste of wine as they use alcohol to anesthetize themselves so that they do not have to think of the years of defeat and escape, their former hometown, and no need to sigh.
The God of Runes is also an old dwarf of that generation. Even though he has become an immortal god, many past events are still clearly engraved in his heart.
Not only him, but also the dwarf gods are thinking about what is the future of the dwarves? How can we make our race shine again
In this large factory in the Northwest Republic, the Rune God saw hope.
The biggest problem of the dwarves is insufficient population. People are the most important productive force. If the population is insufficient, productivity will be insufficient. But in this factory, the number of workers is obviously much smaller than in ordinary factories. According to his estimate, if the dwarves wanted to build a factory of the same size, they would need at least three times more manpower!
Being able to save manpower in production means that the same number of people can produce greater productivity.
Perhaps, this is the direction that the dwarf gods have been looking for!