Chapter Seventy-Six: Two Emperors

Decherim City. ()

When my father looked at the walls again, it felt as if a whole century had passed.

More than a year ago, in the western suburbs of Dehrim, a terrifying battle broke out between the two armies. The plains of the night were lit by bonfires, torn apart by the chaotic roars, and large armies were scattered, with very few soldiers able to sustain them. Coupled with the fact that the Western Army came from afar, they were quickly divided into several pieces.

If it weren't for the fact that the Eastern Army was inferior in numbers and the cavalry units needed to protect the prince at any time, the losses of the Western Army after night battles would definitely not be just more than a thousand soldiers.

By the time the dawn re-illuminated the heights of Deherim, the Eastern soldiers were already regrouping. The scouts reported that the main force of the Western Army had withdrawn from the battlefield and was gathering on a hill to the west. It was only at this time that the prince sent a cavalry regiment that had not been used, and this fresh force rushed to the battlefield to disrupt the plans of the western army, and forced them to retreat to the west again and again. Later, the Western Army had to send cavalry units to deal with the cavalry of the Eastern Army, and the main position slowly retreated.

The soldiers of the Eastern Army were enraged by the betrayal of the Suno's Legion on the first day, and the brutal slaughter of the Western Army at night also made the hearts of the soldiers even colder. The Eastern soldiers tied up the captured Imperial soldiers like barbarians, and led them in a string in the direction of the castle in the northeast. When the Imperial soldiers in the same equipment walked in front of the array of Eastern soldiers, the Eastern legionnaires looked at them with sadness and resentment--- as if these soldiers had plunged the Eastern Army into an abyss.

The Eastern soldiers never imagined that they would go to war with other Imperial soldiers.

When passing by Dehrim, the commander on the tower saw the Eastern soldiers passing by in the distance, and in front of all the soldiers, executed a group of soldiers who had been detained by the Eastern Army. The heads of the soldiers were thrown into the moat outside the city, and some officers were hanged from the towers.

It was a morning that was fresh in the memory of the soldiers of the Eastern Army, and from that day on, Dehrim was no longer home. The sound of bitter crying spread throughout the four fields.

The defenders of the eastern castle soon learned of the battle below, and for those defenders they were in the same mood as the soldiers of the western army--- wanting to follow an emperor. Although Prince Frederick is now at a disadvantage, it is this situation that makes Prince Frederick rely on himself more.

The eastern castle sent an envoy to congratulate "His Majesty Fiderick on his victory." ”

The Eastern Legion was stationed outside of Decherim for a week before running into a supply bottleneck. Food supplies from various provinces have been completely cut off, and to make matters worse, all kinds of Liu Yan have been passed from the peasant households to the soldiers. It is said that with the exception of Dehrim, which is being hit by war, the lords of all the other provinces are celebrating Sir Harauth as His Majesty. His Majesty Haraus became the savior of tradition, and the feared lords, once out of the limelight, were anxious to show their loyalty.

And inside the city of Dehrim, the massacre is believed to have begun. Former Eastern generals and their families were imprisoned, orders kept coming, and a large number of officers and soldiers and those implicated were executed. While Fredri was stationed outside the city, a riot broke out in Dehrim, and more than 300 Eastern officers and soldiers escaped from the surveillance station, and those men, led by an officer named Sdeland, raided a garden where the Eastern officers were imprisoned and rescued most of them. The men stormed the north gate of Dehrim by night, and on the way they were joined by soldiers from some outposts, and by the time they went out of the city, they numbered more than four hundred. The addition of these men was a great help to Fidel, who received a large number of officers of all ranks, and these men had the confidence to move their comrades to the south of Dehrim to come and defect.

With the exception of the situation in Dehrim's somewhat favourable favour for Fiedre, the officers throughout the empire were ambiguous and were in no hurry to show their loyalty to others. This situation affected Fiderick's decision, and he rejected his plan to march quickly into the capital, fearing that he would not be able to provoke a torrent of troops on the way, and he might even be killed alone.

It was only then that Fidel realized how inadequate he had done in the past.

The king had asked Frederick to attend the lords' meetings countless times, but Frederick felt that the kind of boring meetings were just listening to the endless complaints of the lords, settling the disputes of the lords, and praising the lords' self-boasting--- and Fiderick's meetings were very meaningless.

Moreover, the former king had arranged for many heirs of the great lord's family to be Fidel's companions, and they were all enthusiastic and loyal fellows. But whenever Frederick talked to them about change, about new ideas, about literature, the young men would scratch their heads and giggle awkwardly, which made Frederick more and more reluctant to stay with his young companions, and he quickly sent them back to his territory.

It is only now that Fidelik understands the value of those people. Lords do not swear allegiance to an alien, and the heirs of lords do not form a friendship with someone who looks down on them.

Now the power of the lords around Fiderick is very weak, and most of the big lords in the country have remained neutral or leaned towards Haraus. Fiderick was not confident in winning over the neutral lords, because Frederick's political assumption had always been to weaken the rights of the lords first after pro-government, and it seemed unrealistic to let those people help him. And the reason why they remain neutral is definitely not because they remain loyal to the royal family, they are just observing, and once they find out that Federé is not able to return to heaven, they will defect to the victorious side.

There were some big businessmen who came to support Prince Fiderick with gifts, and the prince's arguments about 'fairness' were of great interest to them. If, as the prince had promised, he protected the property of his subjects from extortion and blackmail, let them live freely on their land, and gave them citizenship without discrimination, then these merchants would have done their best to help Fidred. Now, of course, they need time for Fiderick to demonstrate.

The peasants, especially those in the east, were now very puzzled, and their villages often received two groups of recruiters in one day, one in the name of Emperor Haraus and one in the name of Emperor Fiderick. The peasants were no strangers to conscription, and since the Kugit invasion, the peasants in the east have been trained in the military for more or less several tens of days. But when it comes to making them choose who to serve them for, they become at a loss.

Harlaus's recruiters threatened them, while Fidel's recruiters appeased them, and as a result, most of the farmers followed Harlaus's recruiters--- offended the ruthless and could be retaliated; If you offend a gentle person, at most, you just don't want to go in your heart.

When the dust settled, Fredri prepared to retreat to Frost Castle.

A pioneer priest in the Frost Castle wrote a letter to the Prince, informing him that a procession of emissaries from the Pioneers had arrived at the Frost Castle.

The priest assured that if the prince was willing to cooperate with them, the pioneers would use their influence to put an end to the prince's war with the two countries of the North Sea as soon as possible, and, the priest said, "We will fill your coronation with foreign envoys." ”

This proposal made Fidelelli's heart flutter, the influence of the pioneers in various countries may not be known to the people, but for those in power, those people are an extremely powerful force. Although they did not have a land, they had many secret organizations and merchant guilds, and they were sometimes even able to influence the orders of a king. When fighting against the Salanders, the Rhodoks introduced many policies in order to seek the support of the Pioneers, and in return, the Pioneers' intelligence network even allowed the Rhodok commanders to know in advance how the Salanders would be moved dozens of miles away.

Fidrei wrote back to the priest at the fortress of Lundia, "The emperor of Svadia welcomes all friends. ”

It was the end of summer, and the sun was shining brightly in the plains, and Fiderick sent his imperial edict from the front to the kings of every province and country in Svadia, declaring Fiderick to be the only emperor of Svadia, and the coronation ceremony was to be held in the temple of the Frost Castle.

"In autumn, when the earth is golden, I will wear the crown of the Empire. I am the lord of the desert to the sea, I am the ruler of all the city-states, I am your emperor. Lords, please come and pay your allegiance to me, and kings, please come and congratulate me. I will bless you, support you, and protect you. Emperor Fiederi of Svadia. ”

There are some differences in this edict. In the past, the coronation edict of the ruler of Svadia would precede the title of "Emperor of Svadia" with the title of "Ruler of the Continent of Calradia", and Fiedre, whether out of passive compromise or active overture, removed this title in short. The pioneers, on the other hand, took advantage of this change to aggressively lobby the kings and lords of various countries to support Fiedre.

Countries were shocked by the unfolding changes in Swadia, and the shock turned into rejoicing. Kings of all nations entered the temple to thank the gods for their kindness, and a chaotic Svadia was a blessing for all kings.

King Nord immediately declared the end of the war against Svadia, and at the same time, King Nord ambiguously handed out his credentials to the two Svadian emperors at the same time, in which King Nord had ulterior motives to call Haraus the Emperor of Sisvadia and Fiderick the Emperor of Eastern Swadia. Fiderick replied: "There is only one ruler of the empire", and Haraus sent a gift: "Thank you for your care, I wish you good health and prosperity for the country." ”

The Sultan of Saland recognized Haraus as the rightful emperor, and Fiderick immediately recognized the great prince of the old Sultan of Parabon as the rightful sultan, and declared that "the supporters of the orthodox sultan will be given refuge" in every land ruled by Fiderick. Suddenly, many of the exiled Mamluks pledged allegiance to the Frost Castle, and in return, Federi promised to help them regain their country--- even though most of Federik's own territory was now under the control of others.

King Vicchia was troubled by Fiedre's problem, and King Vicchia welcomed a divided and turbulent Svadia and believed that it would bring lasting peace and large trade orders to the region. But what made King Vecchia gloomy was that Fiedre's founding was actually the Zhivading Plain, which he regarded as the granary. In exchange for support, Prince Frederick promised to give Vecchia a large amount of wheat and cloth every year, and the pioneers promised to help Wicchia reclaim new land in the upper reaches of the Blue Ice River, which 'will become Vekia's second granary in a dozen years'. After much thought, King Vecchia recognized Emperor Fiedre. The captives were returned, and when the Swadians asked what the exiled Kugit should do, the emissary of King Vecchia said: "We don't need them. They are free soldiers and farmers if you want, and of course, you can continue to exile them. ”

In the steppes, King Kugit needed a western barrier to separate him from the terrible warriors of Swadia, so he quickly recognized Fidré and presented him with more than 1,000 horses, 2,000 oxen, and 20,000 sheep, but King Kugit had a small request: to execute the leader of the exiled Kugit tribe that was entrenched near the Frost Castle.

Fiderick expressed his gratitude to the Khan for his kindness, but now he could not execute a person who had helped him, as that would chill his allies. But Fidelik finally hinted: "They will die on the battlefield, clean and honorable". King Kugit was satisfied, and wrote back to call Fiderick a "wise Khan".

Fierce conflict broke out in Rhodok's country.

Some people believe that the country under Fiderick will undoubtedly be similar to the Rhodoc regime, so the recognition of Fiderick is not a matter of debate. Others, however, insisted that the similarity in polity was not remarkable, and that most of the trade that Rhodok relied on now was the provinces under the control of Haraus, and that the benefits of deeds could not be lost by something unseemly.

Moreover, the rulers of Rhodok increasingly felt the shadow of the pioneers, and these people hated and even feared the all-pervasive power of the pioneers, so some people in Rhodoc actually had no good feelings about a country that the pioneers fully supported.

In the end, to everyone's surprise, Rhodok resorted to the same tactics as the Nords: mutual recognition.

However, Rhodok's simultaneous admission was not a provocative game played by King Nord of the Grand Duke of Rhodok, but the result of a compromise between the two factions in the country that did not want to give in to each other.

General Garcia supported Fiedre, while Enor supported Haraus, and the two sides did not give in to each other.

Enor accuses Garcia of doing this because his son-in-law is an officer of Fidré, while Garcia accuses Enor of being blind to the changing tide of the world.

In the midst of the disturbances, Frederick was crowned Emperor in a slightly shabby temple in the Frost Castle.

At the same time, Haraus took the crown in the most solemn church in Paravon and placed it on his bald head.

The Svadia Empire was thus split in two.