I will be crowned king

Just when Fabian was distressed that he was wasting his excitement and energy, he had already listed "Elizabeth Lemon" on the list of missing and dead. He didn't know that the jihadist army headquarters, who didn't know that their trump card was about to be revealed, was still debating what to do after the war. A new round of quarrels broke out over the aftermath and the ensuing campaign against the Free Confederacy.

Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes. This principle also applies to the current Jihadi Army, but it is definitely not in a good direction.

Although the Knights of Judgment made harsh words, saying that the "Victory of Red Hand Bay" was definitely a crucial and decisive battle in this holy war, everyone knew the actual situation - the old god sect in the city left on their own, and lost their troops and generals. The Knights have nothing to do with it.

Grad Manfred, who was originally prepared to bet half of the Knights, the entire Crusaders and Apostle Rune on "one life for another", never expected that a problem would arise at the most unlikely link: Mercy. The Heart was shot down, and the trump card Philus died. After that, there was a series of landslides, and they had to let the Free Federation and Freya go in exchange for an honorable ending.

Even this was only done for the sake of the Hantu Jihad Army, with two middlemen, Leon and Renault, responsible for mediating and negotiating... Very good, now everyone knows that the Hantu Jihad Army is also a real mole.

Even Hantu is "no longer reliable", not to mention Ludwig Franz, who has been recognized as a "good old man" on the other side. Only those who can be trusted are ghosts... Arthur Herred has even been identified as a "good guy". Behind the bribery and instigation of rebellion are the powerful northern families of the empire, headed by the Roland and Bernard families, and the imperial standing army commanded by Fernando Herred. It is even less likely that they will fight a tough battle destined to suffer heavy losses for the holy war of the Holy See...

Therefore, the only thing that the Holy War Command can still trust is that Sir Ferrers has mobilized 30,000 believers from various believers' organizations. Ed Levent's army, which has been basically disabled, has a total strength of just over 40,000, and its combat effectiveness is also very doubtful.

The Jihadi Army, which seems to be strong and can absolutely crush the Free Confederacy, has thrown out these "suspicious and useless allies", but its actual strength is almost the same as that of its enemies; its only advantage is that it is better equipped. , and only has a large fleet at the same time.

But now that the coastal colonies of the Free Confederacy have basically been lost, they can only withdraw to the inland colonies such as Changhu Town and Gray Snow Town, and it is impossible for warships to land... So this last advantage is basically gone.

It is obviously unrealistic to expect 40,000 people to defeat the Free Confederacy; as the nominal commander-in-chief of the Jihad Army, all Fellers can do is to unite as much as possible with these "unreliable" allies in his eyes to ensure that they are at least still willing It's just a pretense, so as not to actually serve as a backdrop on the battlefield without firing a shot.

And as much as you want to get, you must first pay as much as you want... Since you ask others not to resist your orders, you must at least have a sincere attitude.

The bargaining chip given by Fellers was simple - admit his mistakes and remove his boss, Grad Manfred.

……………………

"...In view of the fact that during the Battle of Red Hand Bay, Grad Manfred failed to implement the original plan, made arbitrary decisions, resisted the reasonable suggestions of various legions, and acted recklessly; although he achieved certain results, he paid an extremely high cost. The heavy losses caused great confusion and controversy within the Jihad Army, so the headquarters decided to remove him from his post and replaced him with Sir Philus as the commander-in-chief of the army..."

In the dimly lit camp, a slightly uneasy young voice echoed in everyone's ears; the expressions of everyone participating in the meeting were amusing: they were either looking at the expressionless Philus, or chatting with the "colleagues" beside them. Whisper, or sneer...

Well, no one's attention is on the meeting anyway.

Originally... everyone knew what the high command, or the Holy See, was going to say; the Free Confederacy still existed, the power of the Rune family was still entangled in the New World, the Holy War could not be easily ended, and of course the price that could be offered was only One can imagine.

As the leaders or representatives of all parties, of course everyone understands the thoughts of the Holy See. Originally, because of the strength of the Holy See, they had to give in; but now the situation has reversed, and the Holy See needs the support of the Jihadi Army, so naturally they will not express their stance easily. , not even bothering to pretend.

Philus himself was well aware of this result...but as the adjutant of the grand leader of the Judgment Knights, although the act of seizing power from the leader in public was ordered by the Holy See, it was basically equivalent to a traitor in the eyes of his companions.

This means that Philus needs support from the Crusaders more than Grad.

"...The situation is roughly like this, but I am not an excellent military strategist, nor do I have any actual combat experience." He raised his hand to stop the secretary who was still reporting. Philus glanced at everyone present expressionlessly:

"Therefore, in the next battle, I will rely more on you in this regard; in short, it is to restore the corps commanders' collegial system before the headquarters came."

"Of course, this does not mean to let the generals decide the next military action on their own, but to confirm the deployment and configuration and other details under the general direction." Philus took a deep breath:

"In terms of logistics materials, as long as they are negotiated numbers, the headquarters will never reject them; the military achievements of each legion will be reported by the commander of each legion, and the headquarters will not supervise it; the rewards after the war will also be decided by consensus, this... is This is the biggest concession I can make."

With a solemn expression, he stood up slowly, nodded slightly with deep eyes, and looked around at the leaders of the legions present.

"I have a little question."

Leon suddenly spoke, directly blocking Leno who was still trying to stop him: "Since it is a collegial system, who are qualified to participate in the meeting? It can't be like before, whoever the headquarters wants is who?"

"That's right! His Highness Leon wants to confirm the scope of candidates for the meeting, and that's it. Please don't have any misunderstandings about His Highness's words!" Renault quickly added.

"of course not."

Philus smiled slightly, not only not unhappy but even grateful. After all, if Leon hadn't stood up and silenced the whole audience, he might have had to compromise in the end:

"Since the purpose is to better carry out the Holy War to the end and rely on your strength for this purpose, of course we must respect everyone's ideas to the maximum extent. Therefore, in terms of candidate arrangements, I now have a relatively preliminary suggestion."

"First of all, the commanders of the six legions of the Holy War Army must be present; even if they are unable to appear for some reason, the vacant seats should be filled by people from the corresponding legions." After a slight pause, Philus raised his right hand and raised his hand. Index and ring fingers:

"Then due to some well-known reasons, in addition to the combatants, the Jihadi Army also involves coordination among all parties; therefore, I propose that representatives of each legion should propose another candidate to participate."

"In this way, the meeting will consist of twelve people, but this is only theoretical... At the same time, as the legion commander and commander-in-chief of this legion, I am willing to give up my right to elect, but in exchange, the Grand Master of the Judgment Knights Glad Manfred, he has to be there.”

"Can!"

A loud voice sounded in the camp, and the representative of the Arthur Legion who spoke said: "In other words, including you, this so-called collegial system is still twelve people, right?"

"Except for me, there are eleven people." Philus nodded slightly and chuckled: "I think this is a very reasonable number of people; it can take everyone's opinions into consideration without creating a situation where a decision cannot be made."

As he spoke, there seemed to be an abacus crackling in his mind.

Philus's idea was simple: first of all, since he and the grand leader were on the same camp, he could at least give an explanation to the Judgment Knights and be able to deal with the outside world together; but this was not the case with other legions.

First of all, there are three forces behind Arthur Herrid, the Herrid royal family from which he was born, and the northern giants represented by Roland and Bernard. One quota is fine, but two are not suitable no matter how they are divided;

The same situation applies to the Fernando Corps. I am the emperor's loyal dog, but that does not mean that other generals think so too. In the past, their status was suppressed, but now they are one of the eleven members of the collegial system. Why should they continue to obey his words?

Ed Levent's army is even more scattered, and the two quotas are naturally a means to continue to divide them; Ludwig Franz and William Cecil, Leon Francois and Lenore Ayman Nuer, both families are the leaders of the central and local factions. The extra say will definitely cause the existing conflicts between them to break out.

In other words, it seems to be one against eleven, but the actual result is two against nine against one. I have enough room to divide and collapse among them, win over their interests, or fight head-on, and calmly adjust.

It seems that he is respecting the other party's concession, but in fact it is diluting the voice of the several legion commanders, allowing him to truly negotiate with them and command the legion to fight; and it sounds high-sounding, and he is not afraid of their differences at all...

"I disagree!"

Still ignoring Renault's dissuasion, Leon suddenly stood up and said coldly to Philus: "Such a quota allocation seems fair, but in fact it is impossible to take care of everyone!"

"……I do not understand."

The corners of Philus' mouth twitched, but he still had to restrain himself from smiling: "Then whose interests are not taken care of?"

"Of course it's the jihadists under your command!" Leon said without hesitation: "Because of your magnanimous and humble concession, they no longer have their own representatives in the collegial system and can only comment on the decisions we made together. Follow your advice.”

"What's the point of this? We are all holy warriors who fight for the Ring of Order and do not hesitate to cross the turbulent sea to a strange land. Why can't they speak out and can only be represented and sacrificed?!"

The impassioned words were so deafening and impactful that Philus was stunned and completely frozen in place.

But this is not because he is ashamed of being affected by the other party's words, but purely out of a completely incomprehensible and inexplicable reason - Leon Francois, what is he thinking?

When everyone is talking about how to divide the cake and how to distribute power, if you suddenly jump out and shout slogans, besides going off topic, it will only appear that you are not very smart, okay?

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, Renault, who was unable to stop him, lowered his head and covered his face tightly, as if his shame was exploding and he wished he could just escape from here.

But this was just an appearance, because just now, he suddenly remembered another person who seemed to have used a similar trick...

"I know, you may think that my words are just a high-profile statement. The Hantu Jihad Army has only participated in the Battle of Red Hand Bay from beginning to end. What qualifications do you have to challenge those who have experienced hundreds of battles here? You guys are talking loudly about sacrifice and other topics?"

Little Leon took a deep breath and clenched his fists tightly: "But please think carefully, are we the only participants in this holy war?"

"No! The people who really promoted this holy war are the tens of thousands of holy warriors, the entire world of order, and all the thousands of believers who believe that the ring of order is the only truth in the world!"

"It is their efforts that make us qualified to step on this ice-covered land and fight bloody battles against the godless Old God sect and the heresy-advocating pseudo-believers; if we even give them an explanation and an answer, They have no idea, wouldn’t it chill them?!”

"They will think, ah, yes, the so-called holy war is just a matter for the big shots, a matter for the nobles, and has nothing to do with us!" Leon said triumphantly: "Yeah, what does it matter? Deciding on the Holy War We are not even qualified to select one or two representatives at the fateful meeting!”

The whole place was silent, and Philus was completely stunned.

Renault, who was lying on the table and covering his face, was feeling terrified.

Obviously, Leon had seen through the opponent's trick of the Judgment Knights, so he simply followed the opponent's idea and added more people; but the ones to be elected were not representatives of certain forces, but the purest ones. Holy warriors.

The significance of their existence is the same as that of Philes' collegial system, which evades Philes' control over his Jihadi Army. Moreover, because they have a microphone that can communicate with the bottom of the Jihadi Army, it is also much more difficult for the other party to cause trouble within the meeting. .

Therefore, Philus could not overly split the power of each leader and attack their prestige, because that would make his own legion lose control; on the contrary, he had to stand on the side of the leaders and jointly suppress the bottom to ensure that this The system can still function normally.

Very straightforward, very familiar... This is the trick Anson Bach used to Emmanuel, Francois and even all the Hantu wealthy families when he "founded" the Hantu Kingdom - you all want to exclude me, you If you all want to unite, then I will let you unite, and then you will need me even more.

"So this should not be a consensus of eleven people, but a collegial meeting of thirteen people!" Leon said loudly:

"From today on, all decisions of the Holy War Army should be made by these thirteen people."

"Others...are not allowed to interfere!"