I will be crowned king

Chapter 1156: Reformers are divided, conservatives are also divided

Ludwig's speculation was absolutely correct: after careful consideration, the young king and the queen mother actually compromised again.

Facts have proved that "compromise" also has a slippery slope. As long as you fail to toughen up at the beginning, you will continue to make concessions in exchange for temporary friendship from the other side, making the situation of constant conflicts seem to be still under control.

This false sense of security is somehow very important to today's Clovis City giants. It seems that as long as they can still make do, they can pretend that nothing has changed and that they can still dominate in the past and even continue to enjoy privileged class.

For the regent queen mother and the young king, the problem is more realistic: after such a long period of troubles, the Osteria royal family no longer has military power except for the royal guards!

The War Office now supports the National Assembly, and those parliamentary representatives are all out-and-out rebels; the Whitehall Street police and a small number of legionnaires are in the hands of Ludwig, and the ruling lord is also an unabashed traitor. careerist.

Supporting the Parliament may turn the royal family into a puppet. Supporting Ludwig may still make the royal family appear empty. Doesn't that mean it's the same no matter what you do?

So now the Queen Mother Regent has only one last obsession left, and that is the little King Nicholas; as long as he comes of age, Clovis will be turned upside down, and everyone will surrender to him unconditionally.

As for the reason? She didn't know, wasn't this just and natural?

Therefore, no matter Ludwig or Anson, everyone knows the bottom line of the royal family, that is, as long as the little king is still alive, Queen Mother Anne will not choose to fight to the death.

Once you know the other party's bottom line, the rest becomes much easier and more unscrupulous.

So Anson continued to organize gatherings of representatives of the National Assembly, and mobilized members of the "True Heart" organization to go out and give speeches to promote the still very superficial theory of equality among citizens and the military.

And Ludwig is also stepping up his propaganda of the war. If Clovis does not resist this humiliation, he will be destined to become the laughing stock of the entire Order world and be abandoned by important allies. Of course, he has not forgotten to send the Southern Army to Mobilize and head to Clovis City.

Neither received permission from the royal family, but both did it.

The Queen Mother Regent didn't do this unintentionally, or she didn't dare to have an opinion. By pretending to be deaf and dumb, the two sides could continue to "act" as wise monarchs and wise ministers. After the last layer of disguise was exposed, everyone really wanted to fight against each other. .

As the royal family continued to give in, the two became more and more unscrupulous, and their respective careers gradually prospered.

Both sides who spared no effort knew that this was not a competition for power, but a battle for completely different systems. The winner would not just win the crown, but the qualifications to define the crown.

But contrary to what many people think, sometimes the more you force yourself to create a sense of identity, it will actually expand internal conflicts and create divisions.

The first thing that caused problems was Ludwig himself, or some wealthy Clovis nobles who had planned to follow him, who took the lead in the emergence of splinter factions.

The reason is also very simple. In Ludwig's view, it is important to strengthen the centralization of power and win over the bottom to provide a relatively fair platform, but what is more important is to gather the strongest people from various forces and shape them into an indestructible alliance.

For example, bankers need investment and lending to expand their profits, industrial owners need working capital, cheap raw materials and markets to maintain operations, and large landowners and farmers need abundant commodities to improve their own living standards and have a stable source of income.

Since the relationship between the three is so complementary, then the three should be united. Wouldn't it be possible to concentrate the country's greatest wealth, obtain greater benefits, and generate greater energy?

In the past, due to the restraint of the upper class wealthy families, Ludwig's plan was not progressing smoothly; now with the pressure from the provincial nobles and the National Assembly, the progress is rapid.

Well, then it split.

First, it was some small banks and small factory owners who were engaged in lending. Later, many big business owners soon began to reject this "super group", or their views were contrary to the majority of people, and after leaving, they joined forces with other people in the same situation. Keep warm.

A few days later, even Viscount Bogner, Ludwig's once staunchest supporter, separated from the original noble representative faction and formed his own small group.

Economic master and media master, the distinguished Minister of War Sophia made a brilliant summary of this:

"Ludwig may have understood military affairs, and he may have understood politics, but he certainly did not understand what economics was about."

"The leaders of a certain industry unite to carry out a partial monopoly. From a scale perspective, it is a good thing because it can reduce meaningless losses; but from an overall development perspective, it is an out-and-out bad thing, because it reduces It reduces the possibility of competition and at the same time stifles small and medium-sized economies."

“If all the big banks do business with big companies, and big companies only serve the richest people, then small businesses won’t be able to borrow money, small banks won’t be able to raise funds, and even industry leaders who join forces can still communicate with each other. Work together to kill each other's competitors."

"Of course, these are things that will happen a long time ago. Ludwig's actions may even revitalize the economy in a short period of time, although it only seems to be revitalized."

"But he shouldn't have said this as a matter of course, turning the wealthy group into a terrifying nest of predators of the jungle; without the previous ambiguity, how could those who have clearly seen what this group is about still be there? Will you continue to stay in it?”

Sure enough, Ludwig, who was aware that there was a problem but didn't know where the problem was, could only emphasize his core ideas over and over again.

It's just that the more he publicizes, the clearer his concept is explained, the less blank gray areas there are, the less no one is willing to join him - just like the workers actually know that working on the assembly line is not necessarily easier and more dignified than being a serf. But actually becoming a serf is another matter.

However, Ludwig did not intend to correct it... As people continued to withdraw, the remaining members of the wealthy group became more united and loyal. The reduction in numbers not only did not make them weak, but also became more vocal and capable of action. Stronger.

Those splintered forces either pretend to remain neutral, or they still have to "submit" to the ideas of the ruling adults, even if they are not willing to go back.

As for the National Assembly, they did not celebrate the split of the aristocratic group and opened champagne to celebrate - yes, the National Assembly also split.

And the situation is even more serious!

In Christian's words: "The origin of everything can be traced back to Anson's refusal to serve as the speaker of the National Assembly, but if you think about it carefully, even if he agreed, it probably wouldn't make sense."

Since Anson refuses to serve as speaker, the National Assembly, which originally "advocated equality", will naturally not easily obey the leadership of others. Generally speaking, it can still maintain a state of collective resolution.

Christian's smooth skills and his status as "Brother Anson" also gave him a lot of points in his position as Speaker, and he was willing to cooperate with his work.

However, as long as things exist, they must have meaning. If there is a vacancy, someone will naturally fill it, no matter what his purpose is.

This is reflected in the National Assembly, where more and more representatives are beginning to actively express their views and ideas.

Although many representatives themselves are not highly educated, it does not mean that there are no highly educated talents in Clovis. There are countless scholars who have similar "equality" ideas and have even conducted relevant research.

Representatives either came to the door on their own initiative, or scholars peddled their sociological research theories to the representatives. In short, the two sides quickly reached a harmony in which each got what they needed - the scholars received funding, and the representatives received appropriate qualifications. theories of their ideas.

Even many ancient scholarly documents from the past were unearthed by the representatives, and of course they followed them as if they had found a treasure.

As for a certain trainee priest who smuggled contraband and took the opportunity to make a lot of extra money, and several former members of the Faithless Knights who helped him also made a lot of benefits...that is another story.

Since you are purely proposing your own theories by shooting an arrow first and then drawing a target, conflicts with each other are naturally unavoidable. What's even more troublesome is that it is difficult to find common ground in this kind of thing, and it is even difficult to reconcile between them.

Not to mention that due to the emergence of different theories, the complex problems of class conflicts and regional conflicts within the National Assembly were immediately exposed: small businessmen, poor nobles, wealthy families, big industrial owners, tenant farmers, urban workers...

Even if they are not as close to each other as a family, they still treat each other as enemies.

Different interests make it impossible to easily unite all classes and groups; and after experiencing various previous incidents, various groups have also seen the power of the media, and began to give public speeches to the public and publish articles in newspapers to promote their ideas.

As a result, the "Bare Heart" organization, which was originally considered the most radical group in Clovis City, quickly became a more moderate and conservative group in the competition between various small groups.

This was not a good sign... Teacher Erich and Carl Bain, who had previous experience of fighting against the royal family and the Privy Council, reacted quickly.

If you are regarded as a "moderate" in a protest group that fights for interests, it is almost equivalent to saying that you are a portraitist!

Using his own channels, the "True Heart" article appeared on the headlines of Clovis Real News and several other newspapers the next day.

As for the content...it emphasizes nothing more than the close relationship between the army and the Clovis people. At the same time, it is extremely emphasized that if you have not joined the army or served in the army, you are not worthy of being called a Clovis person.

This extreme statement naturally aroused opposition from many people and also gained a lot of approval. However, as an officer organization, "Bare Heart" had such an idea. It was not incomprehensible, so it did not cause much conflict.

And most importantly...it brought "Bare Heart" back into everyone's sight, and saw that the organization that once won the "Parliament Act" is still fighting at the forefront of the National Assembly, shouldering a leadership-like mission.

Carl Bain and Erich breathed a sigh of relief, finally able to calm down for a while.

Hmm, that's weird.

In just the past two days, newspapers have published even more extreme remarks than "True Heart": Clovis people whose blood is not pure enough are not real Clovis people at all!

At first glance, what sounds like a very upper-class nobility statement was actually made by a tenant farmer representative from a central province. He believed that pure Clovis people should be in power in the Clovis Kingdom, and there were too many high-ranking people among the upper-class Clovis people. There are many foreign nobles, or nobles with foreign relations.

In addition to arousing the approval of many people, these remarks have once again raised a new issue, that is, how to define Clovis people?

Some people think that you are a Clovis if you are born in this land, some think that you must have pure blood, some think that as long as you pay taxes, some think that you must join the army...

More and more preconditions are being put forward, and more and more representatives and citizens of Clovis City are paying attention to this matter; even the official meeting of the National Assembly is used as a constitution-making assembly. important content.

At the same time, the "arms race" representing internal extreme speech continues, and many representatives trying to integrate the Unity Parliament have found that instead of making a fuss about those theories, it is more convenient to create hatred and enemies.

First of all, someone proposed that since the National Assembly has been established, the feudal privileges of the nobles should be completely revoked, and their territories should be confiscated and incorporated into the kingdom's "public property" - apart from His Majesty the King himself, there should not be a second noble in Clovis.

As soon as this was said, someone immediately raised a counter-argument: Since the nobles have lost their privileges and become ordinary people, why does the king continue to maintain the ancient privileges? Shouldn't he also become a member of his people? ?

But this is not enough... The nobles used to enjoy countless benefits based on their privileges. These benefits were exploited from their serfs, the servants they exploited, that is, from all Clovis people, and they should be made to pay At least part of the price must be repaid.

As a result, in less than a day, some people regarded this repayment as a "weak idea of ​​surrender". The nobles who once enjoyed privileges should be regarded as criminals. Repayment alone is not enough, they must also serve their sentences. It is best to It's jail time.

Representatives who were proficient in the law immediately wrote an article in the newspaper to criticize: "All prisons cost money to hold prisoners, and it costs a lot of money to lock up a person without working. Why not put some of the nobles who have committed heinous crimes into prison?" Execute them, and then let the rest do hard labor to pay for their sins?"

One early morning, Sophia Franz, who had just woken up from her sleep, was sitting at the dining table, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, and found that it read:

"Only by shooting hundreds of nobles and executing two thousand traitors who spoke for them can we truly defend Clovis' supreme interests!"

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