In this world, I am afraid that there is nothing like "time", which cannot be retained.

Although every day is precious to the Roland people now, Dewey has done his best to prepare for all the "wars" that will be dealt with in the future.

The nine hundred and sixty-third years of the empire have still passed like this.

At the end of the year, the last big event that affected the future of the Roland Empire happened.

At the end of the year, during a huge prayer ceremony in the Temple of Light, Pope Paul XVI finally publicly announced his designated future heir to the Temple, Cardinal Archbishop Maximus.

This designation did not cause any surprises, since as the chief cardinal archbishop, Maximus had already been conceived as the future pope candidate - it was only a matter of time.

And in this year, the Mosa faction led by Maximus was also suppressing the Yenis with all its might. Over the course of the year, by the resolution of the Governing Body within the Temple, and with the consent of the Pope himself, the archbishops of the three dioceses were changed - all from the Yenians to the Mossa.

And this Archbishop Maximus, however, did something that surprised and amazed everyone.

The most popular figure in the empire at the moment, the most appreciated by the regent, has many legendary stories, and many glorious titles. For example, "Genius Young Magician", "Court Scholar", "Duke Tulip" and so on...... Just after his almost insane generosity, which was almost equal to a year's revenue of the empire, was used to support the emperor's expenses, people gave him a new nickname, "the richest man in the mainland".

Duke Tulip, Dewey Dolph...... As resounding as his name is, almost most people know that the Venerable Monsieur was not a devout believer, that he was not baptized, did not believe in the goddess of light—and even preached doctrine to the clergy of the temple in his domain. It was also treated unfairly.

According to some gossip, and even news from the Duke's Palace, it is said that the Duke does not have much respect for the goddess. He had even inadvertently used the impolite term "Divine Stick" to describe the clergy on some private occasions, as the Duke had said.

It is such a lost lamb that has always been outside the glory of the goddess, a wild horse. But he was finally tamed by the great Bishop Maximus. It was January 1 of this year. On the square in front of the Governor's Palace in Loulan City, the capital of the province of Desar, Duke Tulip held his own initiation ceremony and accepted the baptism ceremony of Bishop Maximus in front of tens of thousands of onlookers. Bishop Maximus personally completed the initiation ceremony for the Tulip Duke, and awarded the Duke of the Order of Outstanding Contribution to the Church. Generally speaking, this badge is only awarded to believers who have made outstanding contributions to the church.

And when the Duke received this medal, it was less than five minutes before his life as a believer.

Just after Du Wei officially announced his conversion to the Cult of Light, Du Wei announced in public that the reason why he made such a choice was entirely due to the personal charm of Cardinal Maximus. He praised the cardinal's charisma and what a kind old man he was, and how devout he was to the faith. I gave myself a lot of earnest teachings, and finally I was impressed. convinced myself. Fall into the arms of the goddess.

There is no doubt about such an approach. Makes Cardinal Maximus famous.

Then Du Wei announced in a high-profile manner that his own territory, the province of Dessa, had officially become a new diocese of the Church. In addition, Rams, a close friend of Bishop Maximus and former vicar of the North Central Diocese, was appointed archbishop of the Diocese of Dessa.

In addition, Du Wei expressed his full support for the construction of the religious center in the diocese, and was willing to provide a good training ground for the Holy Knights of the Diocese of Dessa, and he also generously donated 500 fine war horses.

On behalf of the Church, Maximus announced a resolution where, in gratitude to the Duke of Tulip, the Church decided to exempt the province from all religious taxes for the next five years. At the same time, in view of Du Wei's great popularity in the province of Dessa, the presbyterian council of the church made a resolution stating that it would confer on Du Wei the title of "bishop emeritus" of the diocese of the province of Dessa.

The title of Bishop Emeritus is not just an "honorary", legally speaking, Du Wei has the status of bishop of the church, and he can have immunity in the face of any laws of the empire in the future. Although Du Wei didn't care too much about this "legal immunity", because he already had the status of a magician, and he also belonged to the legally privileged class.

However, the title of Honorary Bishop has some more functions than that of a magician:

First of all, any hostile act against an honorary bishop will be regarded as hostility to the Church! That is to say, from the first minute Du Wei receives the title of Honorary Bishop, Du Wei's enemy is the enemy of the Church.

The second point...... Dewey was given the privilege of requesting an audience with the Pope at any time. And he also had a seat of his own in the internal synod of bishops - of course, just as an observer, and he did not have the right to vote.

The third point is what Du Wei hopes for the most. As a sign of respect for the bishop emeritus, the Church made a resolution that Dewey could draw a cavalry of 500 men under his command, and that the Church would grant this cavalry the status of "Holy Order"! Moreover, this cavalry was not at the disposal of the diocese, but was under the orders of the bishop emeritus. The premise, of course, is that each of these cavalrymen must ensure that each of them is a believer in the goddess.

Moreover, according to some legal loopholes, a full knight could have up to four servants, and these servants did not count towards the number of servants. Therefore, Du Wei can expand the number of this "Holy Knights" to 2,500 people, of which 500 are official knights, and 2,000 exist in the name of "subordinates", and all this is legal.

"Killing a Holy Knight is about to be seen as an all-out declaration of war on the Temple of Light. ”

According to the law of this canon, Du Wei has his own personal "Holy Knights" squad, so in the future Northwest War, when facing the Northwest Legion, this will be a very effective weapon.

No matter how arrogant the Northwest Army was, it was not an easy thing to declare war on the Continent's Temple of Light. What's more, there are also many soldiers in the Northwest Army who are church believers themselves. When these soldiers are facing the Holy Knights, it's hard to imagine how much morale these people have left. After receiving these preferential conditions, Du Wei paid the price: he privately signed an agreement expressing his willingness to make a promise to the future heir of the Pope, Cardinal Archbishop Maximus, that he would be a close comrade-in-arms of Bishop Maximus, and that he would give him strong support in the face of any difficulties.

It is worth mentioning that Du Wei handed over this "Holy Knights" of his own to Hussein to command. Hussein was a true Holy Knight by origin, and he was familiar with all the rigorous methods of training for Holy Knight and knew how to lead such a Knightly Order.

Soon afterward, Du Wei announced his decision to build a military fortress in his domain, in the eastern part of the province of Desa, on the border with the province of Nulin, as the headquarters of the Holy Knights of the diocese, which was a complete military fortress - except that there was an additional religious place for the knights to pray.

Later, at the junction of the provinces of Desa and Nurin, there were three military fortresses.

The first was a new barracks built by Du Wei and Bohan, the governor of Nulin Province, two years ago, and after two years, two-thirds of Du Wei's troops were stationed here.

The second one was built last year to house the Tulip family's private army. Now, there is a third one.

In this way, in terms of layout, Du Wei has stacked more than 70,000 troops on the border between his territory and Nulin Province. Coupled with the 30,000 troops under the command of Governor Bohan, a total of 100,000 troops, the territory of the Northwest Army presented a state of encirclement.

What makes Du Wei a little strange is that in the past year, the Northwest Army seems to have been very quiet......

What the hell is that guy Lu Gao thinking?

Du Wei is waiting, and now the situation has entered the most critical moment, he is waiting for a signal, a signal from dìdū, and the coming of that signal will announce the end of the peace period on the mainland!!

Is war coming?

No, no, no, it should be said: war, on the verge of breaking out!