King

The funeral went very smoothly. Everyone was generally satisfied with Caesar IV's performance during his reign, and the major factions tacitly chose not to cause trouble.

The funeral was of the highest standard among all the Alpha monarchs. The royal families of all the continental countries sent their direct descendants to pay their respects, and even the alien alliance sent representatives to attend the funeral.

Regardless of how many grievances there were in the past, everyone gave a very high evaluation of Caesar IV's achievements during his reign.

During the funeral, all banquets were stopped in the country. The entire Alpha Empire was immersed in sadness.

Affected by the general environment, Hudson was not in a good mood. Except for the activities that he had to attend, he stayed at home most of the time.

In contrast, the other two regents were very busy. There were endless things to do every day, and they couldn't eat or sleep peacefully.

The outside world didn't find it strange. Hudson was famous for leading troops to fight, and he was the best in the field of magic potions on the continent. It was understandable that he was not good at handling government affairs.

People's energy is limited. If there are no shortcomings, it would be terrible.

The regent minister is more about coordinating the overall situation, and specific affairs can be assigned to other "loyal ministers".

Hudson, who has achieved success, wants to be lazy, but others need to show their achievements. Everyone takes what they need.

The year 100009 of the Holy Calendar is destined to be recorded in history.

With the succession of the new monarch, the era of Caesar IV ended here, and the Alpha Empire entered the era of Caesar V.

It took half a year to deal with the relevant affairs. Since then, the Alpha Empire has seen the Queen Mother Regent and the three regent ministers coexisting.

The situation soon changed. In name, the three regents assisted the Queen Mother in handling government affairs, but Grand Duke Madeleine was the first to be marginalized.

The people below never report to her. For major domestic and foreign affairs, the six ministers only discussed with Hudson and treated her as if she did not exist.

Not only was she uncomfortable as a regent minister, but even the regent Queen Mother felt the pressure. Many times, when the work report is submitted, the implementation has already begun.

A more euphemistic way to put it is: the government is efficient.

However, the price of this efficiency is that her regency as the queen mother has become dispensable.

She didn't even dare to directly oppose it!

If a resolution is rejected and the people below continue to implement it, it would be a real slap in the face.

Now the power is in the hands of others, at least on the surface it has been approved by her. She, the regent queen mother, theoretically controls the power of the empire.

Once the lid is lifted and the truth is exposed to the outside world, people may not even ask for symbolic instructions.

The two political losers, living in the palace at the same time, soon formed a group.

"My sister, the situation is not good!

All the affairs of the court are not handled by us. If this continues, I'm afraid something big will happen."

The queen mother said worriedly.

At this moment, her dissatisfaction with Hudson and the six ministers directly accumulated to the critical point.

Even though she was prepared and knew that the people below would not obey, she never expected that those guys would play so well.

"Queen Mother, Prime Minister Beckett and Marshal Hudson are both strong people, accustomed to making decisions directly, and the court officials are headed by them.

When my brother was alive, Marshal Hudson was the only one in the army, and military affairs were decided by his own words, and the Military Affairs Department was directly reduced to the Logistics Department.

Prime Minister Beckett is also not simple. The conservative camp has been the only one in the court for many years, and many times they don't even give my brother face.

My brother is not taken seriously by them, how can we two weak women be taken seriously by them!"

Grand Duke Madeleine took the opportunity to put on eye drops.

The current situation in the court is very unfavorable to the royal family. The two powerful factions that should have checked and balanced each other actually merged politically.

Of course, this kind of merger is what they think. In fact, Hudson is just a jerk. In addition to participating in the decision-making of major affairs, he doesn't bother to pay attention to general government affairs.

Even if they did not actively fight for power, officials from the non-conservative camp quickly moved closer to him, forming a Hudson faction in the court.

The conservative camp, which should have reacted violently, showed extraordinary patience at this time. Not only did they not turn against each other at the first time, but they took the initiative to share power with Hudson.

In the eyes of Grand Duke Madeleine and the Queen Mother, this was a joint effort by both parties to deliberately undermine them.

Of course, this understanding cannot be completely wrong.

Although the two factions did not form an alliance, they did cooperate in actual work. Even if this cooperation was only for official business, it still caused the fact of undermining them.

Prime Minister Beckett deliberately delayed the reporting time, and Hudson did not even want to do his current job. It was common for him to be late for daily attendance and leave early, not to mention reporting to the palace every day.

The ideas of the two bosses directly determined the work attitude of the people below. Seeing the approval of the two, they started to implement it directly.

The reporting matters will be sorted out by the end of next month, and the relevant documents of last month will be sent to the palace together.

By the time the Queen Mother saw these official documents, the work might have been done. As a result, she, the Queen Regent, felt no sense of participation at all.

Grand Duchess Madeleine was even more marginalized. The Queen Mother received official documents late, but at least she received them. As the regent minister, no one paid any attention to her.

If she wants to do something, she must first obtain the consent of Beckett and Hudson, otherwise the decree she issued will be a piece of waste paper.

Even if the Queen Mother's seal is attached, no one will buy it when it reaches the lower levels.

Those who give face will symbolically fool around, and those who don't will just throw the edict into the trash can and pretend that they have not received it.

It just so happens that their identities are special, and most of the time they are in the deep palace, so it is not convenient to go deep into the local areas to supervise and implement.

They are all newcomers to the political arena, and they do not have enough prestige in the empire. The civil and military officials below do not cooperate, and they are directly sidelined.

"Do you mean to talk to them?"

The Queen Mother asked uncertainly.

Having grown up in the palace since childhood, they are naturally not political novices. In the current situation, they do not have the confidence to overturn the table.

Not to mention the lack of supporters in the court, even in the royal family, there are many people who do not buy their accounts.

The monopoly of ministers is nothing new in the Alpha Empire. Most of the time during Caesar IV's reign, he was in a semi-sidelined state.

The legitimate emperors are treated this way, not to mention those who are acting as the monarch. As long as they do not touch their own interests and do not play tricks to usurp the throne, the royal family can accept it.

"It's useless!

A person's character is difficult to change. Even if they don't want to monopolize power, their behavior will lead to the fact that they monopolize power.

It's not a big problem in the short term, but if it takes a long time, I'm afraid that the civil and military officials in the court and the local nobles will only know the prime minister and Marshal Hudson.

Little Caesar is only five years old, and he will have to endure at least fifteen years to rule the country. The prime minister is old and it is estimated that he should retire by then, but Marshal Hudson is very young.

If Little Caesar cannot get his approval, let alone ruling the country at the age of 20, I'm afraid it will be difficult for him to rule the country at the age of 30!"

Madeleine said with embarrassment.

These are all practical problems. Even if the two agree to give up some power to them, they will inevitably be sidelined in the specific operation.

It is not possible to expect that Hudson, who is too lazy to even go to the government office, will report to the palace every day.

The government was heavily in debt, and the conservative camp didn't like to make trouble. Hudson also knew how bad the domestic economic situation was. Both sides tacitly chose natural treatment.

"Imperial sister, do you want to establish your authority?

This may be difficult. Your royal brother wanted to catch their handles in the past, but he made no progress after several years of tossing."

The Queen Mother shook her head and said.

If you don't do anything, you won't make mistakes.

The imperial government continued its previous style. Apart from daily work, it has not made any major plans. If you want to find faults, you can't start.

To put it bluntly, even if a group of senior officials in the court take a collective vacation for a year, it will not affect the normal operation of the government.

Including Hudson's current power, it was deliberately created by the conservative camp. In order to pretend to be more like it, Prime Minister Beckett also enjoyed the same treatment. It looks like the two major factions have partnered to divide the right to speak in the court.

"Queen Mother, for the officials in the court, our presence is too low, and it is difficult to confront them politically, but there are people in the royal family.

My brother nominated Grand Duke Efiero and Grand Duke Newfoundland as regents, but they were caught by the conservatives and had to withdraw from the competition.

Now that the curse case has been settled, the threat of the conservative camp has lost its effect.

If you want to form a check and balance on them, the best choice is to persuade the two grand dukes first, and then force them to enter the court!"

After hearing Grand Duke Madeleine's proposal, the Queen Mother was instantly moved. Pushing the two to enter the court can not only increase influence, but also win the support of royal family members.

"Then give it a try!

But before that, it is best to communicate with conservative officials in private. In order to avoid collective opposition from the people below as soon as we propose personnel appointments.

We can also arrange for people to secretly contact the reformist officials who were deposed before."

The Queen Mother said cautiously.

It can be seen that she did not have any hope of placing people in the court. The prestige of Grand Duke Efiero and Grand Duke Newfoundland in the empire is not low, but unfortunately they are not in office.

Moreover, these two royal bigwigs are not easy to deal with. When they were in power, Caesar IV was also sidelined.

During the reign of Caesar IV, there was no capable minister who was easy to deal with. All of them had their own political ideas and were not completely controlled by the monarch.

Those who obeyed the monarch's orders were loyal enough, but their personal abilities were relatively poor. During their reign, they had almost no achievements to show.

They were really unfamiliar with promoting new people. The talent selection system of the Alpha Empire was not perfect. As long as they were of prominent origin, they would automatically appear in the first echelon.

There was a lack of specific assessment standards. It often took a lot of time to verify if they wanted to screen out qualified talents.

...

Hudson didn't care about the ups and downs in the court.

He accepted the goodwill released by the conservative camp directly. As for whether there was a trap, he didn't care at all.

Given his status and position, as long as he does not initiate failed political system reforms during his tenure as regent, his historical evaluation will not be low.

The Alpha Empire, with its vast family and wealth, does have many internal conflicts, but as long as there is no trouble, these conflicts will not erupt for a while.

However, the longer it takes, the more severe the impact will be after the internal conflicts erupt.

For details, you can refer to the Three Kingdoms in the Central Continent. The outside world thought that they were beaten half-paralyzed by foreign races, and they should unite and seek common development after the war.

Facts have proved that this is purely an idealized state. After the end of the continental war, the Three Kingdoms directly entered a state of separatism.

A large amount of land fell, causing a large number of nobles to lose their foundation. They were unable to recover their homes from foreign races, and they were unwilling to become civilians.

Some powerful nobles, relying on the army in their hands, constantly occupied the territories of other small and medium nobles.

This unruly behavior naturally aroused strong dissatisfaction among local nobles. When it comes to core interests, they can only fight if they can't reach an agreement.

At the beginning, everyone was more restrained and limited to the struggle for interests.

However, the swords and guns on the battlefield are blind, and it is inevitable to kill a few nobles accidentally.

One accident, after many accidents, it became the norm.

As the number of nobles killed continued to increase, the princes soon got really angry, and the situation could escalate at any time.

Although the king tried his best to mediate the conflicts between the parties after the outbreak of the civil war, he could not resist the interference of international forces.

Behind all the princes, there are shadows of the human race. Including the Alpha Empire, which supports the representatives of the interests in the three countries.

It is estimated that it will not be long before the monarchs of the three countries will lose their transcendent status and become one of the many princes in the country.

Referring to historical experience, if the three countries want to restore peace, they can only wait until all parties can no longer fight before they can re-establish order at the negotiation table.

The internal contradictions of the Alpha Empire are not so sharp, and the possibility of a large-scale civil war is not high, but local conflicts between noble lords are inevitable.

The best solution is: to carry out internal reforms!

This is what the previous two monarchs have been promoting, and they have achieved considerable results.

Unfortunately, the reformists were too eager for success and underestimated the huge opposition forces. In the end, they were defeated in the political struggle.

Hudson is self-aware and knows very well that without the full support of the monarch, running to challenge the hell copy of the reform is to actively jump into the abyss hell.

Hudson didn't want to stay and clean up the mess for the vested interest groups. He had secretly made up his mind to withdraw before the hidden danger broke out.

He had no intention of deepening his career in the court, so when it came to the operation of factional forces, Hudson was not so concerned.

Even if he was perfunctory, the loose faction headed by him was still growing, and even encroached on the interests of some conservative camps in some local areas.

Reason told him that this was very abnormal. If the conservative camp was so easy to bully, it would not have been able to suppress the major factions for so many years.

...

"Grand Duke, these are invitations from ministers in the court. I hope you and your wife can bring a few sons to participate."

After taking the invitation from Tom and opening it, Hudson was shocked. The invitations were almost all sent by conservative bigwigs.

Generally speaking, sending such a family invitation letter to specify the object also takes into account the meaning of blind date.

If the two parties are attracted to each other and the parents have a good talk, the marriage can be finalized directly.

So many invitations flying in at the same time also means that the conservative camp has a strong desire for marriage, and these guys don't even require that the marriage partner must be the eldest son.

Hudson is sure that if he gives a positive response, there will be an uproar in the court immediately.

"Give the invitation to the lady and let her arrange it!"

Hudson smiled slightly.

Knowing that this is a calculation of the conservative camp, he is not going to refuse. The circle of great nobles is so big, and there are not many options for marriage.

There seem to be dozens of great nobles in the empire. Excluding those who are just for show and have conflicts with their own families, there are actually only about twenty families that can be equal, and even fewer of them have women of marriageable age.

Hudson has many sons. He can be unhurried when his previous sons are young, but the eldest son is now 18 years old, and he must consider it as a father.

It happens that most of these families that are well-matched belong to the conservative camp. They are playing an open conspiracy. If you want to find a suitable partner for your sons, you must contact these families.

These potential fathers-in-law have all taken the initiative to invite him, and it would be foolish to refuse. As for the political impact caused by this, Hudson does not care.