The third group that attended the evening was the cultural elite of the educational and academic circles, represented by Maynard Oliver, a well-known jurist and director of the Far Eastern Bar Association. To everyone's surprise, Denis, the president of the Far Eastern Theological Seminary, who had been very active in the club and disappeared after Philip lost power, also appeared at the banquet, much to Yevgenia's disappointment.

Rudolph did not give this reformist Reverend Perot a face that almost ruined his own affairs, after all, this person is a leading figure in the educational circles of the Far East, and the "reformers" he represents have a lot of influence in the Perot Church, and belong to the part of the conservative forces that can be united.

Dean Denis cheekily came to meet the Koras family because of desperation, Clotz went on a hunt for church reformers in the city, and the suppression of these "heretics" who also belonged to the Pellow church was more cruel than the revolutionaries, and the smoke of the burning, which had not been useful for many years, rose again, and the priest Janis had to be burned at the stake if he didn't run away.

In addition to escaping for his life, Janis also has an important mission - to convince Rudolph to try to rescue Philip who is imprisoned in the temple dungeon.

"Your Excellency, the archbishop has a great appeal in the city, and if you rescue him, the archbishop will surely openly support you in overthrowing the tyrannical rule of Cluz, which will be of great help to your cause."

In response to Reverend Denis's plea, Rudolph and Roland smiled at each other, and then diverted from the subject.

The fourth group can also be regarded as a cultural circle, but their influence is mainly reflected through the press. There are two newspapers in the Far Eastern Province with a circulation of more than 100,000 copies, one is a government newspaper and the other is funded by the Kolas family.

The dinner was attended by a large number of newspaper colleagues, who were in a class of their own, led by Paul Pritt, an old friend of Rudolph and Evgenia, and the number one "drummer" of the Kolas family.

Mr. Pritt is in his early forties, short and unkempt, and he dances passionately when he speaks, interjecting on any topic and taking pleasure in refuting the other person.

The Reverend Boris did not like the little demagogue very much, and complained to Roland in a low voice: "Paul is a typical sensationalist, he has no principles, but is only keen on endless arguments, as if it were a great honor to refute the other by sophistry, and his knowledge is limited to picking thorns in the words of others...... I have to say that this guy is really knowledgeable, which makes him even more annoying! ”

Roland couldn't help but laugh. Listening to Paul Plitt debate with others, there is indeed a bit of Socratic style, no wonder it is not likable. Most of the newspaper editors, reporters, writers, and critics who surrounded Plitt were unabashed, unbridled and uneasy to get along with, but had little political ambition.

Roland was well aware of the importance of the propaganda position, and was very polite to these newspaper people, and took the initiative to go over to toast, and also kept the adventure documentary serialized in the column of the evening newspaper.

"Paul, you've added too many peachy stories to my travel diary, and I'm not the kind of prodigal person in fact, so you'd better make a statement in the newspaper and clear my name."

"That's not going to work, my esteemed prince!" Mr. Editor-in-Chief laughed exaggeratedly, "Your story must meet the expectations of the reader, if a young hero slays a dragon in an adventure, the reader will expect him to rescue the beautiful princess in the dragon's cave, which is human." ”

"I've slaughtered a few dragons, but there aren't any kidnapped princesses at all."

"Really?"

"Absolutely not."

"You see, if the reality doesn't match the reader's expectations, it's up to us, the good men who play with the pen, to make up for this shortcoming, and that's what we can do to earn a piece of bread." Paul Pullett smiled, "You don't have the naivety to think that news reports should be more truthful than reliable, do you?" ”

"Isn't that so?"

"We only report what our readers want to believe, and only then will people be willing to save money on bread to buy our newspapers, and that's it."

"Well, you're right." Roland clinked glasses with Mr. Editor-in-Chief, "Continue to serialize my adventures, and we will have the opportunity to cooperate more deeply in the future." ”

"It is my pleasure to work with you, Your Highness the Prince." Paul raised his glass and laughed, "Looking forward to you bringing big news to our newspaper." ”

On September 5, 1620, representatives of the Imperial Far East provinces, industry, academia, and media, all came to the makeshift barracks at the station outside the city to attend a family dinner hosted by the militia commander Rudolf Kolas. With the exception of a few unruly and unruly literati such as Paul Plitt, most of the attendees had no intention of drinking alcohol and risked being perceived as a traitor by the imperial authorities, of course, in order to forge a strong alliance with Rudolph, who held military power.

Perhaps forced by the situation, the representatives of the "Awakening faction" earnestly expressed their willingness to do everything in their power to help Rudolph retake the Fort of Atonement and support him in the Far East, and at the same time put forward four demands.

The first was to remove Krautz's brutal rule over the Fort of Atonement as soon as possible and restore order to the capital.

The second was to resist the exorbitant taxes imposed on the people of the Far East by the imperial authorities and to release protesters who had been arrested and imprisoned for resisting tithes.

The third is the abolition of the Imperial System of Preferences, and the Far East should not continue to play the sad role of a supplier of cheap raw materials and a dumping place for high-priced goods in the Empire, but trade on a voluntary and mutually beneficial basis.

Finally, it is called for the reform of the Church, to ensure that the people of the Far East are freed from the charge of "heresy", to abolish the monopoly of the Perot Church in the field of religion, and to give the people freedom of belief.

In Roland's view, the first three demands of the Woke fully reflected the position of the emerging industrial and commercial bourgeoisie: only by restoring order could merchants and factory owners operate in peace; The abolition of tithes and imperial preferences would help reduce the cost of goods, increase competitiveness, and allow for greater trade freedom.

As for the abolition of the crime of "heresy", it is mainly the appeal of the cultural and educational elites. Literati and scholars were more concerned with freedom in the spiritual realm than business owners who focused on material interests, and breaking the shackles of religion was of vital significance to them, symbolizing a milestone victory on the battlefield of emancipating the mind.

After communicating with his son, Rudolph basically accepted the first three requirements, but there were relatively large objections to the fourth request. The abolition of the religious monopoly of the Perot Church is the consensus of all here, but what ideology should fill the belief vacuum that arose in the Far East after the abolition of the Perot Church? This is an issue that cannot be ignored.