103 – Playing with fire in the name of excommunication
Three months later, the Palace of Marseilles in the Francois Republic.
“Heh heh, Senator Andorra. Don’t worry, the Francois Republic will stand strong.”
“Who doesn’t know that? It’s just that the tricks of the Reich Empire have bothered you.”
“We are the ones who have risen again after expelling the Café royal family that brought our republic into ruin 30 years ago. However, there is no way the Republic will be shaken with just one excommunication.”
They were so relaxed that it was hard to think of them as people who had been informed of the excommunication by the Pope of the Latina Papal States and the diplomatic severance from the ambassadors of all neighboring countries a week before.
So, the butlers and low-ranking officials and officers of the Marseille Palace who watched the scene had expectations that the Republic’s leader, who defeated the evil imperial family and regained prosperity, was different.
When the door to the meeting room of the Republic Council members, called the Mirror Room, was completely closed, the atmosphere between them was completely reversed.
If not too long ago he seemed to have some composure in the face of a crisis, now he is gripped with fear like a prisoner sentenced to death tomorrow.
Members of the Republic, standing at the top of the Republic, pointed at each other and cursed.
“President Robes Pierre, are you insane? Didn’t I tell you that when the Imperials attack the north, we should at least send a declaration of war and rob it because it’s a good opportunity for us?! But what is this? If you have a mouth, speak!”
“Are you done? You agreed then too! It’s all my fault now.”
“No, think about it. If it were not for the sword wielded by the Crown Prince of the Reich Empire named Peter Yeager, the empire would have spent at least four years subjugating Ludvik.”
“There is no point in saying that I tried hard to do well! Look at the results! results!!”
Since the walls and door of the Mirror Room were so thick, all the officers and officials in the castle, from the guards outside the door, could not hear these councilmen scurrying around and passing the blame on.
For the lawmakers, who could be called nobles who ruled the Republic, the most important thing was who to pass the blame on in the worst case scenario.
Even if they didn’t win the war, the nobles and citizens who were angry about the fact that they were excommunicated from the Holy See needed someone to become an arrowhead.
While everyone was passing on each other’s faults, the Angers MP, who served as finance minister, hit the desk with a huge book and said,
“Are you all sane now? If this happens, our republic may perish. It’s a ripple, a ripple! It means that we can no longer do business with foreign countries! Thanks to this, there are merchants who handed over goods to foreign countries immediately but went bankrupt because they could not receive the money because there was no justification for claiming the money, or who handed over the money in advance but the contract to receive the goods became invalid and committed suicide without receiving any goods. I mean, it’s connected!”
Since the members of the parliament were also people who conducted politics with the money sponsored by the representatives of each guild, the downfall of the merchants was like saying that they were only members of the ranks, but they became beggars when they got to know them.
So, in the face of a sense of crisis that all members of the Republic might have to hang themselves to death, everyone silently shut their mouths.
“This is Home Secretary Henri. It’s not only that, honestly, being excommunicated from the Deus cult doesn’t necessarily mean going to hell. There are so many serfs and ignorant citizens who, as soon as they hear of the excommunication, tremble for fear of falling into hell! Are there not one or two impure elements who have rebelled against the republic, which has already caused excommunication?”
To be precise, the remnants of nobles who served the old cafe royal family, who rose up claiming that they could not accept the excommunicated government, gathered close to a thousand people and attempted an uprising.
In about 20 villages where serfs lived, peasant revolts on a not small scale broke out and caused disturbances.
The government of the Republic of Francois took this opportunity to kill all the remnants of the nobility to solve the problem, and the peasant rebellion brutally killed the leader and his family and spread the water around the area to suppress the disobedience movement against the government.
No one knew when the serfs and other subjects, deeply ingrained in their obedience to the Deus cult, would rise up in a massive rebellion as they had in the past.
So, everyone’s thoughts were now that the matter had grown too big to be solved by picking one or two people in charge, blaming them, hanging them on the gallows, and begging forgiveness from the Holy See.
“This is why we, our Francois-chosen deputies, must enlighten the ignorant serfs and ignorant citizens. At most, they trembled, saying that they would fall into hell with a single excommunication card from a secular pope, and they rebelled because they did not believe in us who defeated the vicious Café royal family!”
“That’s right, the senior politicians who caused the revolution will be grieved when they see it.”
“In addition, we already had an honorable track record of overthrowing a corrupt imperial family, but this was a double-edged sword. This means that if they catch on to our mistake and rise up nationwide, they could hang or slit our entire republic!”
As the saying goes, if you are in danger of dying, join hands with your parents’ enemies to survive, the leaders of the Republic, who normally fight with Aung Daung, joined hands to survive.
However, the pro-war faction led by Robespierre, the president of the National Assembly, and the anti-war faction, led by the vice-president Charles, had different ideas.
The first thought of the supporters was this.
‘For now, join forces to defeat the rotten Reich Empire, and to the Holy See, although we have been excommunicated from the world. In Deus-sama’s eyes, it is we who are righteous, so we must strongly insist that we won the war and withdraw the excommunication. Then I have to claim that the Juhwa faction didn’t properly agree to the war, so we couldn’t win bigger.’
On the other hand, those who were in opposition thought so.
‘After we win the war against the Reich Empire, we must sternly judge those who supported the empire without declaring war before and ask the Holy See to revoke the excommunication. Then, secure the national interest by agreeing with the Reich Empire under appropriate conditions.’
However, there were cases where they had only one idea.
‘What if the war is defeated by the Reich Empire? I can’t die, so I’ll hang a member of the opposing faction on the gallows.’
However, it was more profitable to fight politics in a victorious country than to seize power by killing an opponent once defeated.
“Then let’s prepare for war properly. Let’s do the political battle after winning. If we don’t stop the Reich Empire first, we’re done. Do you agree?”
At that, all members nodded their heads.
“Therefore, we have to mobilize 100,000 troops to deal with the Reich Empire army attacking from the east. When they marched hundreds of years ago, they had no choice but to come from Sargminne to Balon because of supply problems, so let’s build a field fort in Riera, an important place, and wait.”
For hundreds of years they have been invading the Republic this way, and no one has disputed that opinion.
They put their heads together to devise the best strategy to survive.
“A wise idea, then how do you persuade a lowly serf and an unlearned citizen?”
At that, one of the members stroked his beard and said.
“It’s very simple. The demons of the Reich have blinded the Pope to the point of excommunicating us, and by winning the war, we can claim that there is divine justice in the Francois Republic. Isn’t it something we can win anyway?”
At that, members of the other republics also nodded and replied.
“That’s right. If you win, it’s over, if you win.”
“The justice of the Deus is with us, the Francois Republic.”
**
Half a year later, I, Peter Yeager, received an order to create a new brigade for the Francois eastern expedition next year.
I officially escaped from the General Staff, where I worked overtime at least four days a week and had more days than I didn’t go to work on Saturdays, and moved to the Eastern Front.
In addition, a large number of soldiers and officers who fought alongside Ludvik during the Northern Army were deployed in our brigade.
Of course, Laura also served under my command.
However, an unexpected person who could help me also joined under me.
“Loyalty! This is Major Anastasia Kergit. As of the present time, it has been assigned to the 12th Brigade.”
Anastasia, who said she wanted to serve under me, and another tribal chief from the north came with 200 cavalry archers from her tribe.
“This is Charlotte, who has been serving Brigadier Jaeger under the command of the Chiefs of Staff. From now on, wherever I go, I will serve as the hands and feet of Brigadier General Yeager. Please do whatever you need.”
…… A beautiful girl with a strong impression of the crown prince has been assigned as my exclusive maid.
I made it clear to Laura last time. I will never touch this girl first, so there is no need to be jealous.
In the first place, Laura’s father, Captain Benner, had an exclusive lady-in-waiting attached to her, and she knew better than anyone else that this was unavoidable.
There was no way he would be unnecessarily jealous of the maid.
In cartoons, maids fall in love with their masters, but in real life, that doesn’t happen very often.
First of all, I have nothing but Laura.
As evidence of this, it can be cited that people of high rank have often refused to go to good shops for drinking.