Chapter 790: The bigger the country is, the better
After sending away the High King's envoy, everyone in the king's tent began to express their opinions.
Obviously, whether it is the enlightened knights and nobles represented by Francois, the traditional knights and nobles represented by Callard, or the church forces represented by Alfred, and the new knights and nobles represented by Bertrand, the commander of the old guard,
The Jin military meritorious aristocrats, and even Veronica, the holy witch who reluctantly came out to discuss the matter after resting for a while, all of them
They all have little interest in garrisoning troops in the Badlands, but seeing that the Dwarf High King and Belegar are willing to bear military expenses and supplies, everyone still tends to give it a try. After all, the dwarves have money, but they have no population. Since these
If the dwarfs are willing to pay to help the Brittanians maintain this army, then everything is easy to talk about.
After some discussion, most of the people dispersed, leaving only Ryan, Francois, Callard, Veronica and others. Among them, Veronica immediately signaled Catherine to bring tea and water, and Witch Gloria directly
Sitting on a comfortable and soft chair with a wide backrest, she said to her apprentice: "Catherine, do you still have the coffee beans?"
"Yes, mentor, I still have a lot left." Although Catherine has been promoted to the legendary witch, she still has to rely on her mentor. At least for now, her realm is unstable and she lacks hard power and financial resources. She is not independent yet.
capital, and Veronica is actually pretty good to her personal apprentice. The relationship between master and apprentice is not bad, and there is no conflict in interests.
"Then make me a cup of Hazelnut Vanilla Almond Garland Extra Large Dessert Caramel Sauce Mocha Sauce mixed with Starbucks Cream Frappuccino." Veronica's face was flushed, she leaned lazily on the chair and waved to Catherine.
arrange.
"Okay." Catherine and Kalad looked at each other, and Kalad opened his mouth. Count Garament immediately felt Ryan's teasing eyes, and could only blush. Just as he was about to say something, Catherine immediately gave it.
Kalad winked, then bowed respectfully, and went to make Veronica a Hazelnut Vanilla Almond Garland Extra Large Dessert Caramel Sauce Mocha Sauce mixed with Starbucks Cream Frappuccino.
François and Callard were already familiar with Veronica's character. From a certain perspective, the knights and nobles led by Callard on the expedition to the Eight Peaks Mountains even recognized Veronica.
It's very high, and it's only one step away from Queen Surya.
Ryan knew very well why this happened. This was a side effect of the Great Crusade. Since Veronica contributed greatly to this Great Crusade and always had a high sense of presence, even the knights were concerned about it.
She has changed a lot, especially the knights and nobles of the northern faction who highly recognize Veronica's status.
The King of Knights could feel that there was going to be another disturbance in his backyard, and Ryan would definitely not be able to personally interfere in such a matter. How far the matter would go depends on the follow-up, because Veronica and Orica have already used
His performance conquered the knights and nobles and established his own prestige.
When he gets back, Ryan can take advantage of the situation and entrust Veronica with important tasks.
"Ryan, how many people do you plan to keep?" Francois is actually not very interested in the so-called garrison on Eight Peaks Mountain. Duke Winford is more concerned about when to withdraw the troops and return home to share the huge wealth of the dwarves.
"Keep Durant and his Brittanian Independent Regiment first." Ryan said in a deep voice. The King of Knights also felt a little bit annoyed that the dwarf would offer such generous conditions: "Now it seems that if we don't keep any
No one can do anything here, just right, black-hearted Repliu
There are more than 3,000 swords in the Principality of Bryzka. It would be better to let Durant move all the population to the Eight Peaks Mountain. There is no way this place is better than the Greenskins, Beastmen, Chaos Cultists, and all kinds of bandits.
The border princely territory is infested with robbers and murderers."
"Yeah." Francois nodded slowly.
Is that place in Border Prince a good place?
Don't be ridiculous, the Border Prince Territory is a real place haunted by monsters and monsters. There are all kinds of bandits, robbers, and murderers who have been expelled and exiled by the Empire, Britannia, and the Southern Kingdom. Various chaos sects are rampant there.
They are always harassed by greenskins and beastmen. In addition, the wars among the border princes have never stopped.
Naturally, Tamu Khan was the one who brought disaster to the border princes recently. To this day, several years have passed, and those Chaos warbands are still hiding in the forests and mountains, coming out from time to time to harm the residents here.
But even so, the intensity of the war faced by the Border Princely Territory was still much smaller than that of the Empire. The vast territory and sparse population and constant harassment from various forces made it impossible for the Border Princely Territory to form a powerful kingdom. The independent group moved to the Eighth Route Army.
There shouldn't be too many difficulties in getting here to Fengshan. After all, Bafengshan is actually very easy to defend. You only need to guard the Titan Gate and the Earth Network. The eight dangerous peaks that penetrate the sky are enough to stop all enemies.
"It is an established matter that Durant and the Independent Group will stay." At this point, Francois nodded slightly, but Duke Winford soon frowned again: "But if you look at the dwarves' requirements, they
Not only do they want us to garrison Bafeng Mountain, the dwarves also hope to build a new defense system with the help of human power."
"Yes." Ryan nodded slowly: "Yes, I hope so too. Just in time, when Bafeng Mountain is recovered, we can rely on Bafeng Mountain and Haimen Pass to build a mature defense system to ensure that there is no danger in the bad land.
In the event of a large-scale invasion, it can delay the greenskins and prepare the empire and dwarves."
"But... we don't seem to need to do this." Francois was still full of doubts, and the father-in-law touched his beard: "Ryan, we want to station troops in a bad place? The environment here is really too bad, the army is here
It will only be gradually exhausted by the harsh climate and severe military pressure, and if we station troops here, it will not be of much benefit to Britannia, right?"
"..." Ryan was silent. The Knight King thought of something and he was still hesitating.
"Your Majesty, our great expedition has consumed a lot of national power. Although the harvest is extremely rich, new knights need time to obtain their own spurs, new serf infantry also need time to train, and your old guards also need time to replenish.
." Kalad also said: "If we continue to station a large number of troops in the bad land, not only will we be unable to bear it, but even the nobles in the country will have many opinions."
"How about recruiting some new troops? We can recruit troops at home, leaving a small number of veterans to lead a large number of new troops, and rotate them every three to five years." Ryan thought for a while and finally revealed his plan: "Garrison troops on the edge of the Northern Badlands.
, it is of great significance to defend the greenskin frenzy in the Badlands. We can bring the Empire in, especially
Marius, the Grand Duke of Ivey and the Elector of Tuscany, I think he will be very willing to send troops to assist us, and through this method, we can extend our sphere of influence into the Border Prince Territory, and we can
Dumping our goods here, we can also get a lot of raw materials and cheap labor here."
"Border Prince's Territory?" Francois nodded repeatedly after hearing this. The father-in-law thought for a while and suddenly laughed: "Ryan, don't you want to tell me that you want to annex the Border Prince's Territory and start a business here?"
Expanding territory, right? I want to remind you that bigger is not always better for a country!"
"Hahahahaha! I know, I know." Ryan couldn't help laughing after hearing Francois's half-joking warning.
Indeed, in many cases, bigger is not better for a country, because a country’s ability to conquer and control actually has an upper limit.
Before taking the throne, Ryan once wondered why the empire should adopt the elector system instead of a centralized system, why the entire empire should be divided into many provinces, and why the electors should be almost completely autonomous. Why not deploy them uniformly?
It is run by military nobles subordinate to the empire.
It wasn't until Ryan truly became king that he realized that it wasn't impossible, but that he couldn't.
With a huge land area, the imperial court had to face three outstanding problems.
First, the border is long and surrounded by enemies on all sides, and many forces are simply non-negotiable objects (Chaos, Dark Elves, Greenskins, Beastmen), resulting in great external military pressure. This requires the empire to station heavy troops on the border in order to
To defend against possible invasions, it was easy to form a military town system (i.e., the border count system).
Second, for this world, the land area is too large. The way of information exchange and transmission here determines that the imperial palace cannot remotely control it from a distance. The Kingdom of Nord is more than 1,500 kilometers away from the imperial capital Brunswick.
The Kingdom of Slev is more than two kilometers away from the imperial capital Braunschweig.
Thousands of kilometers away, Ryan personally saw that the messenger sent from Winterfell, the capital of the Nord Kingdom, would take seven days to reach Brunswick even if he rushed six hundred miles away. Nord would be able to wait for seven days for the capital's permission to issue an order whether to attack.
The country was subjugated, and the amount of mana consumed by long-distance magic communication was extremely staggering.
In this case, the emperor must allow localities to form and order their own armies, allowing the electors to have independent military power to respond to various emergencies, protect their own territory, facilitate the unification of military orders, and maintain the combat effectiveness of the army at all times.
After a long time, the electors naturally went their own way and no longer paid attention to the emperor's orders.
Third, financial issues, this is even simpler. For example, in Lane's previous life, the First Emperor of China attacked the Huns. One hundred and sixty dans of grain were shipped from the center, and only one dan was left to be delivered to the front line of the battle. The transportation loss was as high as 90%.
Nine or more, similarly, if the imperial court does not allow the electors to have financial independence, collect taxes and raise their own troops, let alone the front line of the north against Chaos, even the Blackfire Pass in the Iverland against the greenskins will be destroyed.
Years of food loss would bankrupt the empire's finances.
Brother, local finance and taxes have to be collected from the local government to the central government, and then transferred from the central government to the local governments. Even if there is no corruption or any supply lines, the losses are very staggering. Do you think it is an Alipay transfer? King Nord
While pressing a key, a message sounded on the desk of Emperor Karl Franz in the capital: "Ding~The Imperial Treasure has arrived in the account of five thousand gold marks~".
So why did the Empire allow Kislev to become independent even though it clearly had the ability to conquer it? Why did the Grand Duke of Nord dare to call himself the King of Nord? This is the reason why the Empire could only turn a blind eye.
When a limit threshold is exceeded, the bigger the country is, the weaker it becomes. The bigger the country is, the more powerless it is. Enemies are everywhere on the border waiting for opportunities, and the imperial defenders can often only watch the destruction happening without being able to do anything. They have stretched financial resources and insufficient troops.
, leaving the great empire without the energy or ability to defend itself against foreign enemies.
So when Ryan thinks back to his previous life, many people clamored about drinking the Danube and conquering Madagascar with iron hooves, and he feels speechless. When the empire was first born, it gave people a positive, optimistic, and enterprising emotion, but that doesn't mean it will always be the same.
In this way, it is difficult to conquer, and it is even more difficult to rule such a huge empire. The Mongol Empire immediately split into the four Khanates and the Yuan Dynasty just a few years after drinking the Danube River?
So, suppose that the emperor wants to centralize power, control the military, control financial power, and be able to remotely micromanage, is it possible?
Yes, there was a dynasty in China that did it. All the elites of the army were concentrated in the central government, leaving only the old, weak, sick and disabled to the localities. All local taxes were collected and only basic maintenance fees were left. The emperor made micro-manages all day long, and the generals were only responsible for obeying orders.
Command arrow.
This dynasty was called the Great Sending.
And even if it is a big send-off, the empire cannot learn from it. The reason is very simple. A certain great man of all ages once said that when fighting against foreign forces, you must first make peace at home.
Because even the territory of the empire is full of dangers, such as Chaos cultists, beastmen, green-skinned tribes, and undead and Chaos demons that appear from time to time. Suppose the imperial court takes away the local elite troops and leaves only the security system and militia system.
How can this place deal with enemies that are enough to destroy a civilization?
This is the difference between Lion and Karl-Franz. Ryan has done it. After many years of his conquests in the north and south (actually coupled with the constant patrols of Angron and four Emperor's Custodes), Britannia has achieved this.
Very important!), has basically solved the problem of An Nei. Since the king has the ability to ensure the internal peace of the kingdom, the Dukes naturally believe in him and are willing to respond to his call.
But Karl Franz couldn't do it. He couldn't guarantee the security of the entire empire, not even his Reik territory, or even the blood pine forest only dozens of kilometers away from Brunswick.
Under this situation, the Kaiser had done his best. The electors listened to the instructions but did not listen to the announcement. Occasionally coming to the capital for a meeting was enough to give the Kaiser face.
After thinking about it in his head, Ryan thought to himself that he had something to learn from. If it wasn't enough to give it away, wouldn't we still have a big cute one?
"My idea is this. We can properly station troops in Junku Castle and Bafeng Mountain, and set up a military garrison system, allowing the defenders to farm their own crops, supplemented by supply support. The soldiers will be rotated every three to five years. As for the city forts,
We can ask the dwarves to help us with the construction. I think the High King or Belegar
There will definitely be no objection." Ryan told the truth about his plan: "The main composition of the garrison is a small number of veterans and a large number of recruits. The number should not be large, two to three thousand people per guard. Let the empire also send troops to participate. We are also at home and on the border.
Recruiting soldiers, anyway, there are dwarves who will provide money and equipment."
"At the same time, we are looking for a place with mountains and water in front of Junku Castle and Eight Peaks Mountain, and let the dwarves help us build a new fort. In this way, we can build a new defense line and cordon in the Northern Badlands. They
The goal is not to eliminate and resist the possible green-skin invasion, but to delay the green-skin army's attack as long as possible, and at the same time report the news to the dwarves and the empire so that they can prepare for defense."
"These three guards are collectively called the 'Three Guards of Bad Land'!"