I will be crowned king

Unlike the civilized meeting at the Iris Restaurant, this meeting of community representatives at the Shotgun Club was not a secret at all, and it was even reported in the newspapers that night.

There was no need for Anson and Sophia to go to the meeting in person. The representatives went to various newspapers one after another and stated all the results of the talks and various subjective thoughts.

Facts have proved that even if you have written down many things in clear words, when they are conveyed to a third party through words in other people's minds, they will 100% be out of shape - the citizens' council in Anson's proactive propaganda is a supervisor. The institution, by the time it appeared in the newspapers, had become "Privy Council aside, Parliament will govern for the King his most glorious city."

This blatant act of grabbing territory immediately aroused resistance from the Privy Council. However, the new War Ministry is now controlled by the Sophia Franz-Ansen Bach alliance. The voice of the National Assembly is obviously also launched by them. In terms of force, they only have The Privy Council of the Whitehall Street Police was obviously unable to compete with His Excellency the Lieutenant-General who controlled both the Standing Corps and the Royal Guards.

However, the inability to protest with force does not mean that they are really surrendered; community representatives can publish the National Assembly matters in the newspaper, and the Privy Council can of course also do it, and even have an advantage; after all, the media industry has nothing to do with the number of people, and the right to speak This kind of thing is determined by financial resources and channel ownership.

So soon some sensible citizens took the initiative to accept interviews and published them in newspapers: "It is extremely irresponsible to the kingdom to allow ordinary citizens who have never received training and have no selection criteria to get into politics. To be fair, since we don't They will use elections and voting to recruit doctors, captains and accountants, but they will trust those experienced veterans more, so why do they suddenly have to treat everyone equally in politics?"

Obviously this statement was an accusation against the so-called National Assembly's lack of "professionalism," but soon there was a satirical article in the new edition of "Kingdom Loyalist":

"Some people who are boastful and self-righteous have obviously forgotten that 60% of the 500 members of the Privy Council are hereditary, and the remaining 40% are elected not because of their professionalism, but because of their donations. Sufficient property can be exchanged for a quota; since wealth and bloodline are the key factors in being able to hold power, it is obvious that Clovis’s doctors, captains and accountants don’t care about professionalism at all.”

This is not over yet, Sophia will take the initiative to provoke in the other party's newspaper: "It is unfair to let nobles who have never been on the battlefield and wealthy businessmen who have always evaded taxes come into contact with politics. , we have always used forced recruitment to recruit troops, and violent methods to collect taxes, and we absolutely do not treat everyone equally, so why do we suddenly pretend to compete on an equal footing when it comes to sharing benefits?"

It was so weird that the thing that stabbed the throat obviously detonated the powder keg as soon as it appeared. Ludwig organized an emergency Privy Council meeting that day and denounced some newspapers for their lack of industry ethics. As long as they could sell 20,000 copies of the newspaper, , is willing to publish any rubbish articles, and must be strictly rectified!

At the same time, rumors such as "Franz's residence stayed lit all night, and the quarrels attracted police patrols" and "The Minister of War was at odds with the ruling party, and he walked in on fellow travelers" began to spread in various social circles in the inner city. spread.

Asking himself, Ludwig knew that he would most likely not be able to defeat Sophia in the media field - all he could do was to use the police and the Privy Council Act to censor newspapers across the city, crack down on some unscrupulous tabloids, and arrest a few The gangster who pretended to be a memorizer and the writer who couldn't afford to eat went to jail.

The problem is that these methods have already been used by the Bayonet Club, and the effect is obviously poor; they have not succeeded, and they may not be able to create any miracles.

Of course, you still have to express your stance. No matter how useless it is, you have to find a way to let everyone in the Privy Council vent their anger and gather them together to facilitate the implementation of your next plan.

It's just that even if he doesn't get into trouble, there will still be people who tirelessly join in this melee of public opinion; each pretending to be fair and objective and output their emotionally mixed opinions, but the argument is quite unified: Citizens' Assembly, no, Privy Council, yes.

When the community representatives and "industry moral scum" headed by the Clovis Truth Newspaper saw that they had been characterized, they simply said, "Since you want to see a bad guy so much, then I will become a bad guy": published article There is no position, no point of view, just emotions.

The biggest advantage of doing this is to reduce the cost of submission. After all, swearing and commenting on others are self-taught skills, and the meaner and more extreme you are, the more attractive you are; to state your position, you must also tell facts, reason, and output. Emotions are simple. There may be an upper limit, but there is no lower limit. Whoever has a lower limit will lose first.

The most important thing is that as long as this kind of public opinion war begins, it will never end, let alone produce any useful results; those who participated in the first place may still hope to distinguish right from wrong, and those who come later will It's really just about money, status and having fun.

Sophia, who has rich experience in this matter, knows this very well, so she wants to use this "National Carnival" to excite the idea of ​​​​the Citizens' Assembly and pave the way for the subsequent promotion of the "National Assembly".

After all, Ludwig has taken control of the Privy Council and is still intensively planning to oust the royal family. If she, the Minister of War, who may soon be seized of power, does not want to be trapped, she must recruit enough power to compete with the Privy Council.

In this regard, just one Clovis city is not enough. All the local factions in Clovis must be united in order to compete with the old and new wealthy families headed by the Privy Council.

If you want to do this, you must come up with something that the other side can never provide - the National Assembly.

In the past, the local forces in Clovis did not have much say under the provincial system, and they did not have any bargaining chips in front of the Privy Council. The reason is also very simple: the Privy Council controlled the logistics of the army and relied on the army to maintain absolute control over the local area. Suppression, and each province has an army fortress.

Among them, Beigang is almost the only exception due to historical reasons and the special status of the Wang family naval base; but because of this exception, they are more active in getting closer to the wealthy families in Clovis City, taking the initiative to please in exchange for partial recognition, and they have already A de facto loss of independence.

But once the National Assembly comes true, they will no longer have this need; then all forces will be completely reshuffled, and the "marginal people" who were originally entrenched in the local areas will really have the possibility of taking over the central government.

Of course, not everyone involved is happy to see this change - such as the royal family.

As the various quarrels about the "Citizens' Assembly" became louder and louder, Anne Herred, who had been able to remain calm at first, began to panic; for her who symbolized the pinnacle of nobility and was born in the imperial royal family , this voice of "the mob is trying to overthrow the nobles" is naturally extremely disgusting and disgusting.

…………………………

"Your Majesty, there is no need to worry. The so-called 'Citizens' Assembly' was not an autonomous institution from the beginning. It was just a way to get those militia groups to voluntarily give up their arms, appease the people's emotions, and better manage Clovis City for Your Majesty. "

In the fountain garden of the Osteria Palace, Sophia, who was invited to participate in the shooting game, smiled brightly, took the initiative to kneel down, and looked into the eyes of Nicholas who was sitting on the recliner: "The outside world calls it 'seizing power', 'undermining the authority of the king'" The fallacy of the letter is nothing more than malicious speculation by some people in an attempt to destroy the Ministry of War's efforts to stabilize public security in Clovis City."

"The problem is that the plan you provided did mention 'supervision', didn't it?" The young king was obviously not that easy to fool. He glanced nervously at his mother who was hiding in the crowd and observing secretly in the distance, and then quickly withdrew his gaze. :

"It is undoubtedly the king's power to monitor whether the Privy Council is doing their job, how can it be left to the... I mean, ordinary people?"

"There are...many reasons for this."

The girl with an undiminished smile also glanced at the eyes around her that seemed to be monitoring her, but she didn't care at all: "Your Majesty, do you know how many people there are in the Privy Council?"

"Five hundred people." Nicholas I said without hesitation: "Of course I know, this is the quota set by my father. There were only three hundred members when my grandfather was there. I have learned this."

"Yes and no."

"……no?"

"Yes, the reason is very clear, because the number of members can only be 500, and it can only be less but not more; no, the reason is because this only counts the number of members, but the Privy Council can only have 500 members. It’s functioning normally.”

Sophia picked up a cup of coffee with a smile: "Two thousand four hundred and twenty-five people. This is the total number of middle and lower-level officials, clerks and secretaries directly under the Privy Council - this does not include the employees of each committee and the War Department." If all the officers in various departments and subordinate offices were added up, it would probably be more than five times this number, right?"

"Five...five times?" Nicholas I was stunned at first, and then his eyes suddenly widened: "You mean, more than 10,000 people?!"

"In Clovis alone, there are more than 10,000 people; if the police in Whitehall Street are included, it will be doubled; if the employees of the provincial governor's offices are added, it will be multiplied by at least Five...as well as the logistics personnel of various fortresses, the Wang Family Bank, and the manpower of government-run schools..."

After taking a sip of coffee, the girl's eyes were meaningful: "Your Majesty, at least hundreds of thousands of people have to work for your order."

The young king's face was dull, and he was obviously completely shocked by this number.

But in fact, according to the information Sophia had, she had already said it very conservatively; because Clovis almost always had the habit of setting up a committee whenever something happened, and he would work on a certain bill, which seemed to have some important mission, but in fact There are a lot of committees that have nothing to do.

For example, there is an "Academy Prize Committee" within the conservative party, which can be traced back to when Saint Isaac was still alive. In order to encourage research, Carlos I at that time specially appointed this Privy Council to select thirteen outstanding young scholars every year. A bonus of fifty gold coins.

In those years, wars were frequent, and the church had not yet mastered monetary hegemony. Precious metals were used for war expenses. Fifty gold coins had a high purchasing power among the people, but today it might be a month's salary of a professor, and no one cares. …But the committee still exists and can continue to get the budget.

"With the work of tens of thousands of people, even with His Majesty's intelligence, it is difficult to ensure that he can understand problems and accidents at any time. The Citizens' Council... is just an organization that does the work for His Majesty." Sophia put down the coffee cup: "Even if His Majesty is willing, you can go Meet those representatives in person and let the people of Clovis City feel your dignity and majesty."

"K-in person?!"

Nicholas I seemed to be frightened: "Is it really necessary?"

"Your Majesty, your mother, Her Majesty the Queen Mother relied on her charm and majesty to make the rebel army lay down their weapons. This is an undoubted gift to ordinary people, and they will shed tears of gratitude for you. Yes." The girl smiled and said:

"Of course, you don't have to force it if you don't want to. Everything must follow your ideas. No one can force you to do anything."

"I...it's not that I'm unwilling, I just..." The young king seemed a little unconvinced and said calmly:

"But you also said that this is a gift - since it is a gift, you shouldn't do it often, right?"

"That's right." Sophia nodded slightly: "Just being able to see you is already a great gift for people like them."

"So the Privy Council doesn't agree with the Citizens' Council because they don't want to be supervised. They hate having to be dictated by a group of ordinary people about everything they do..."

Nicholas I rolled his eyes: "But they are originally my ministers, and they should be supervised in their work, just like servants should be supervised by housekeepers. It is completely natural."

"Well! I have decided... the citizens' assembly is an initiative and should be implemented as soon as possible; my mother and I will warn your brother Ludwig to stop dictating this matter."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Sophia said with a smile of success: "I can assure you that those representatives will never let you down. In two weeks, Clovis City will be able to return to its former prosperity. "

"I absolutely believe this." The young king nodded vigorously:

"But in addition to the security of Clovis City, diplomacy must also be advanced as soon as possible - you must urge Anson Bach again and ask him to go to the ambassador of the Free Confederacy to get back our shares of the New World Company. We cannot delay it any longer. Got it!"

In an instant, the expression of the girl who was smiling proudly just now became slightly frozen.