If you want to control the political power, you must first control the army.
This is the valuable experience and truth summed up by countless regime changes on the earth.
Then gradually control the bureaucracy, win over scholars, manipulate public opinion, endorse your legitimacy and justice, and finally rebuild order to achieve rule over a city or even a country.
However, in the magical world, especially in Faerûn, where high-level mages can easily crush and massacre an army, powerful mages and the towers they build are obviously much more threatening than the army.
In fact, a building like the Mage Tower, which has both a fortress and a large-scale magical destruction weapon, is not something that can be built casually in the city.
Normally, if a mage or warlock wants to build a mage tower in a certain town, the first thing he or she needs to do is to apply to the official spellcasting organization established in the town.
For example, in Amn, this organization is the only authorized masked mage guild, in Waterdeep City it is the famous Anmin Mage Guild, and in Neverwinter it is the Starry Cloak.
Of course, if there is no such organization locally, you need to find the lord or municipal council directly.
Generally speaking, most applications from strangers will be rejected without hesitation.
Only a very small number of mages and warlocks who have earned trust or have lived in the town for a long time and have no bad records will be qualified to build a mage tower.
Moreover, after the construction of the mage tower is completed, the tower owner must also assume some corresponding obligations.
This includes several apprenticeships, selling a certain amount of potions, scrolls and magic items to the official, providing corresponding spell support when the town is invaded by foreign enemies, etc.
Therefore, anyone who can build a mage tower in the city basically has a very close relationship with the local ruler.
However, what is slightly different from most cities in Faerun is that the situation in Calimport is a little more complicated.
As early as the Xian Empire period, a large number of mage towers were built here, and they swore allegiance directly to the emperor himself.
Later, when Ivicola Sagrain destroyed this regime, it also overthrew all the original order and affiliations, resulting in the owners of the Mage Tower being in a position of not being loyal to anyone for a long time to come.
Independent state.
Following the two to three hundred years of mutual competition between the Entangled Talisman and various careerists, nobles, merchants, and thieves guilds, a weak balance was slowly formed.
The nominal emperor living in the palace is essentially a consensus reached through compromise between all parties, so the rights at hand are very limited.
Even the Imperial Guards and the City Defense Forces, who were superficially loyal to the emperor, had already been penetrated into a sieve, and more than half of the officers were directly or indirectly controlled by the entangled talisman.
As the symbol of the highest power of the central government in the feudal dynasty, the emperor lacked actual power, which meant that there was no way to effectively rule.
Not to mention winning the allegiance of the mage tower owner, even the thieves guilds and gangs scattered throughout the streets of Calimport may not necessarily take the government seriously.
The corruption and money-power transactions in the bureaucracy are even more shocking, and they do not shy away from anyone at all, and prices are clearly marked in a semi-public manner.
This means that mages and warlocks can build a mage tower of their own as long as they spend a sum of money to bribe officials and reach an agreement with the thieves guild that controls the area.
In other words, the mage tower in Calimport is actually in a completely unsupervised state and growing wildly at an extremely fast speed.
The only one with the ability to control this situation, the Entangled Talisman, in order to make the game more interesting, had no intention of interfering from the beginning to the end. On the contrary, it secretly added fuel to the flames.
However, this chaotic situation finally came to an end with the return of Shane VII.
More than two-thirds of the Mage Tower owners swore allegiance to him on the spot.
Some of the rest were not at home at all or did not dare to come, and some were subordinates of the Lords of Talisman. Basically, they either died in the fierce spell confrontation just now, or were killed by Zuo Si when they ransacked his house. Even if they slipped through the net,
The fish should have fled by now, not daring to stay and wait for death.
After integrating the arcane magic power of Calimport, Shane VII immediately sent his most trusted subordinate, Shaud Tarowan, to take over the Praetorian Guards and City Defense Forces in an orderly manner, and ordered them to march into the streets to maintain order.
.
As the supreme ruler of a huge empire, his political skills are obviously much better than Ser Lalan El Pisakkar.
Coupled with the strong strength as a backing, anyone who dared to show any signs of resistance would be slaughtered without mercy.
In just a few hours, thirty powerful families were wiped out, and more than a dozen chambers of commerce were uprooted.
As for the thieves guilds and gangs that were originally rampant, large-scale suppression began after a large army entered the streets.
Although at the beginning, many leaders of the Thieves Guild tried to use the original methods of bribery or threats, they soon discovered that the tried and tested methods did not work this time.
The officers unceremoniously issued attack orders to the soldiers, and all gang members wandering the streets were taken to jail. Anyone who showed the slightest tendency to resist would be shot with crossbows.
In desperation, the leaders of the Thieves Guild could only choose to swallow their anger and hide in their lairs to carefully observe the changes in the situation.
After a day and a night, the residents of Calimport were surprised to find that this city, which was originally full of chaos, was so orderly for the first time, as if everything had become orderly under the rule of Shane VII.
There are no longer gang members in the market who collect protection money indiscriminately, corrupt bureaucrats do not dare to openly ask for bribes as before, and there are no nameless corpses in the streets.
Even the slums that have been ignored have been stationed with a patrol team to maintain basic order.
Most importantly, a notice written in red ink was posted everywhere.
The above content is also very easy to understand. Starting from today, the Shane Dynasty, which disappeared in the long river of history, is back.
His Majesty the Great Shane VII announced that slavery will be completely abolished in the empire from now on. Slavery is not only no longer protected by law, but is a serious crime.
It must be said that this decree instantly caused an uproar.
Those who were unwilling to be enslaved were naturally happy, but many people who had been slaves for more than ten or even decades had blank expressions, not knowing what they should do after losing their masters, and what should they do.
How to make a living.
In contrast, a large number of slave-holding nobles, merchants and slave owners began to resist by all means they could think of.
Including but not limited to boasting that slavery is the cornerstone of the country and has been a tradition of Calimshan since ancient times. Once abolished, it will inevitably cause social unrest. Calimport’s current administrative capabilities are simply unable to deal with so many slaves who have regained their freedom.
Placement.
In addition, they also tried to unite to organize strikes and parades, and paid large sums of money to the thieves guild, which was also suppressed, and hired assassins to assassinate law enforcement officers, hoping to put pressure on Shane VII.p>
Obviously, these guys regard Shane VII as the semi-puppet who had no real power at all.
At this moment, the powerful emperor was sitting in his own seat, looking at the information sent by his subordinates with great interest. After a full minute, he couldn't help laughing and joking: "Interesting! It's so interesting.
It’s amazing! I didn’t expect that after the Entangling Talisman and Ivicola Sagram were dealt with, these guys who overestimated their capabilities would still dare to jump out. I started to admire their courage.”
"No, this is not a sign of courage, but a subconscious and fierce resistance after the most fundamental interests are touched.
Believe me, even in Cormyr under the enlightened feudal monarchy, if the royal family with great prestige dares to announce that it will take back all the noble territories, those originally loyal noble lords will immediately launch a rebellion.
After all, no one in this world is willing to give up the power and wealth in their hands.
The most important thing is that your previous methods were not tough enough, bloody enough, and cruel enough.
Even though thirty noble families were wiped out and more than a dozen chambers of commerce were destroyed, it still did not instill fear in the city's original vested interest groups.
You must know that authority is largely based on awe and fear.
What's more, Calimshan has experienced chaos for too long, and many powerful people are using conspiracies and tricks to continuously climb up and gain more power and wealth.
They don't like to be bound by the law, and they don't like to have an emperor above their heads who can kill them at any time.
So in my opinion, the abolition of slavery is just a trigger.
The real contradiction is that the upper-class ruling class that controls Calimport's wealth and social resources want to keep everything they have, and you must take back these to become a real monarch with life and death."
Zuo Si smiled and gave his unique insights.
Because when he promised to abolish slavery to Ilmat, the God of Suffering, he had seriously considered the possible consequences of doing so, he had already anticipated the current seemingly critical situation.
"Oh? Then how do you think we should solve it?" Xia En VII asked with great interest.
Zuo Si touched his chin and thought for a moment before responding immediately: "Actually, it's very simple to deal with. Just kill them all and leave no one behind.
No matter what kind of social change it is, it will inevitably satisfy the demands of another class at the expense of harming the interests of another class.
For the former, no matter what methods are used to win over and appease them, it is impossible to quell their inner resentment, and may even pose a huge threat to their rule.
So my suggestion is, it’s better to clear it completely.
In this way, wealth and resources can be redistributed by confiscating their property.
For example, we will distribute land and housing to the freed slaves, run the confiscated workshops to provide them with stable jobs, and ensure that most slaves can be successfully transformed into free people who can engage in production and labor.
The advantage of this is that it can minimize the short-term financial pressure that the abolition of slavery may bring. After all slaves are converted into freedmen, both market prosperity and tax revenue will increase exponentially.
In addition, clearing out the bugs in these countries will also allow talented people in society to gain access to upward paths, especially special talents among adventurers and mercenaries.
You can also take this opportunity to cultivate more loyal confidants and transform the existing bureaucracy and military system.
The most important thing is that Calimport is one of the few cities in the entire Faerûn continent with a large number of spellcasters, craftsmen and scholars.
With such a huge talent pool, you don’t have to worry about having no one to help manage the country after killing all these guys.”
To be continued...