Early the next morning, at the main entrance of the palace.

The officials who were ready to attend the funeral of the fallen were assembled, the military attaché got on his horse, and the civilian officer got into the car, but the highest-ranking Imperial General Staff, Major General Carlos, did not give the order to leave.

Today is the first time that the officials have attended the official ceremony as imperial officials, so the logistics department has already distributed new costumes to the civil and military officials yesterday. The blue tunics of the civil officials did not have too many ornaments, and only showed the specific rank and position with ribbons and chest marks, which looked very simple and spiritual.

In accordance with the tradition of the Dark Province, the uniforms of the officers were simpler, with black as the main color, silver piping and buttons, and a tops with wide shoulders, narrow sleeves, and a corseted waist with trousers. The rank is on both shoulders, and the branch insignia is worn on the upper arms.

From the smallest lieutenant to the current highest-ranking lieutenant general, everyone will wear this in the future, and officers above the brigadier general will be more generous in their clothing and have an extra cape of leadership...... Of course, because the emperor was a soldier, the officers were allowed to wear long swords in the palace.

"Your Excellency the General Staff, the people have arrived. After a while, Karros's adjutant reminded him, "Shouldn't we go?"

"Really?" Major General Carlos raised his head, "Who do you think the carriage is coming towards us?"

"Carriage?" the adjutant looked back, and the emperor's special carriage and guards were driving out of the middle gate of the main palace.

"You stay in this car, I'll meet you. Carlos straightened up his new military uniform: "Ready to go." ”

The main entrance of the palace slowly opened, and the cavalry of the Guards escorted the convoy to the crisp sound of horses' hooves.

"Good morning, His Majesty the Emperor. Good morning, Your Royal Highness. "And in that huge carriage. Carlos was greeting the emperor's father and son: "That's right, Your Majesty." Didn't you say you weren't going?"

"Of course I've said that, but you have to understand that plans never keep up with change. The well-dressed Cohen replied solemnly: "What's more, I am an emperor, and I have to seize every moment to complete my historical mission......"

That's enough to bluff people. Seeing that Cohen was about to make a tirade, Carlos quickly nodded and said, "Your Majesty, you can spare me!"

"I'm glad you understand what I mean. The serious expression on Cohen's face collapsed in an instant: "Actually, it was my actions last night that angered a certain internal affairs superintendent, and she must be waiting at the dinner table to settle accounts with me." ”

The prime minister, who was looking at the official document, raised his head at this time: "What's going on?"

"There are too many rooms in the harem, I found the wrong window last night...... Cohen explained with a smile, "but I didn't find the place I wanted to go after going around and around." ”

"And then?" the Prime Minister looked at the official document in his hand again.

"Then I ran to Kelly in a daze, and then found my way to the study in the morning......"

"As far as I know, Kelly and Philine's room is door-to-door. The Minister of State was relentless in exposing Cohen's lies.

"That's the whole point. Door to door and I went wrong, which has become an inexplicable mistake. Cohen continued his lie: "Philine will never make me look good, and I will at least avoid her most angry breakfast time." ”

"Well, then, I can only wish you the best of luck at dinner. The Minister of State reviewed the official document: "I will eat in the room with your mother, and give Filine a chance to be angry." ”

"My dear father, I'm your son!"

"Fei Lin is my daughter-in-law, and she is the first princess with a special status, the head of the harem, and her appearance has always been very good, why should I help you, a son who will only cause trouble?"

"Understood, don't talk about that now. Cohen nodded, "Carlos." Dad, there's one thing we have to do. ”

"What's the matter?"

"You should remember. We have a plan to gradually move the water tribe inward, right?"

"Yes, but it has been temporarily suspended for financial reasons, and the aquarium has not been able to go ashore so far. Prince Wei Su raised his head: "We expect to achieve this plan next year, and now we can only support their food." ”

"I had a question in mind last night. Cohen frowned, "Didn't you say that both the gods and demons were chasing them? They will even ask us to kill all these people, and then we will be in trouble. ”

"That's true, then what are you going to do?" Prince Wei Su thought for a moment: "Not many people know about this plan, only our people at the highest level know about it, and the materials are all on the account of the internal affairs superintendent, and the officials don't even know that we have dealings with the water tribe. ”

"Stop the internal relocation plan, and after a while, we will continue to support food for them, but it must be more hidden, the military personnel sent to the water tribe do not need to come back, and the port under preparation will all use our people......" Cohen turned to Carlos and said: "I think, there are a few water tribesmen in the empire occasionally, and the gods should not embarrass us, they are only disgusted by a large number of water tribes." ”

"It's true, in the slave markets of other empires, slaves like the Aqua are in high demand. Carlos agreed with Cohen: "Then I'll write to them at once." ”

"Okay. Cohen remembered something again: "By the way, you tell Sùsander again and let Furna come to the Holy Capital." ”

"In what capacity, Miss Forna?"

"What capacity? You ask me what capacity she is here? I am the emperor, and there are tens of thousands of things to worry about, so don't bother me with such a trivial matter?" Cohen couldn't think of a suitable reason for a moment, so he kicked the question to the chief of staff again.

"Understood. And the General Staff Officer could only nod his head, admitting that he was unlucky.

The convoy exited the door and headed out to the outskirts.

Compared with the rebels, the casualties of the Imperial army in this war were very few, but the fierce battle of the Holy Capital still cost more than 6,000 soldiers their lives, or in the eyes of others, the cost was minimal, but from Cohen's point of view, this was a huge loss, he only had a total of 150,000 troops in his hands, and the loss of a soldier would be heartbreaking.

It took the Engineer Corps five days to build a cemetery in a beautiful place on the outskirts. The remains of more than 6,000 soldiers have been buried. More than six thousand white tombstones are arranged in a huge circle. In the center of the circle stands a huge statue of a soldier. The names of the sacrificed soldiers are densely engraved on the pedestal of the statue.

Next to each tombstone stood an officer or non-commissioned officer, who was the best friend of the deceased soldier, holding his friend's weapon and uniform, standing quietly beside his sleeping friend.

The soldiers of the Guards in new clothes stood guard inside and outside the cemetery, all in good spirits and with solemn expressions. Seeing the convoy arrive, the officer presiding over the ceremony nodded, and the military band began to play military music, which was the first appearance of the Royal Military Band.

A long motorcade stopped outside the cemetery. Officials were waiting for the emperor at the door.

The emperor, dressed in a white gown, stepped out of the carriage accompanied by the Minister of State and the General Staff and entered the gate along the passageway. The officials followed, crossing dozens of imperial flags fluttering overhead, to stand in the open space beneath the statue.

After a series of solemn ceremonies, the ceremony came to an end, and the emperor went to the front and addressed his ministers and generals.

"We are here today to remember all the soldiers who died in this war, a total of 6,473 people. Cohen looked at his men. The gaze was peaceful: "I think among us, I am more familiar with them. I can tell when they joined the army, when they finished their training, when they fought, and where they died. ”

This is not a good opening statement, and some ministers even complained in their hearts that the emperor's secretaries were stupid people who ate mixed rice.

"I can remember them, I can even remember some of them talking to me, and I can remember them forever! But it doesn't matter to them anymore, they're buried here. At this, Cohen shook his head, "I didn't have time to tell them my purpose in life, I didn't have time to give them a few comfortable days, I had to give them a resting place after they died - and they! they paid with their lives!"

The Emperor suddenly raised his voice, startling all the ministers present.

"Today, we have recaptured the Empire! Today, there is no war in the Empire! Today, we are here in new uniforms...... We are where we are today because of the dedication and efforts of countless soldiers, but they don't even have a chance to know what the new uniform looks like!" The Emperor finally got to the point: "We have lost these soldiers just because of the mistakes of a few, and I ask you to think about what we should do and how we should do it after we have recaptured the empire from the rebels, and what will we do in return for these soldiers who are willing to sacrifice their lives...... You don't have to rush to answer me, think about it. ”

"These days, I have come into contact with many people and documents, and they have put forward many opinions and opinions on the future development of the empire. Here, I don't want to say who did it right and who didn't, I just ask you to gaze at the tombstones of these soldiers, think about their faces, and then think about your own construction, and write a new official document to me. Cohen's gaze shrouded the ministers, and his expression remained calm: "I sincerely hope that these sacrificed soldiers can rest in peace, but those who are alive should continue to work hard, there is no price to tell." ”

"The majestic military music, the formal ceremony, the funeral with the emperor in attendance, this is really nothing. Cohen raised his head, he was a little excited, and his tone paused: "I feel really guilty in my heart, I don't know what I can come up with to comfort their souls when I think of them in the future, what can we all come up with?"

"They died, they became heroes and martyrs, their names went down in history, and we gave them as much as we could...... But I'd rather let them live! I'd rather let them live as ordinary people and enjoy the pleasures of life. Cohen calmed down: "Find out the family of each of the fallen soldiers and take care of them for me." ”

Before the ministers could learn more from the Emperor's words, Cohen handed over the ceremony to the Prime Minister. While the latter stood in front of the statue to speak, His Majesty the Emperor had already returned to his carriage. Because the emperor's temper had always been like this, no one paid much attention to the ministers, except for a little dissatisfaction.

However, when the ceremony ended, the Prime Minister did not see Cohen in the carriage, and what was waiting for him was Cohen again, and the depressed Abu, the Emperor, slipped away again!

The Prime Minister didn't say anything, but took a few letters directly from Abu's hand, and said to himself: "I'm really going to be looking for trouble! How long will I have to run this time?"

The carriage shook slightly. The convoy is heading back to the city. From the map. The continent of Bis is divided into two pieces of almost equal size by a thin line. And this line doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. But it has an extraordinary significance, everyone knows its importance, it is jointly designated by gods and demons, and ordinary people can never cross the boundary between gods and demons.

For tens of thousands of years, across this dividing line between gods and demons, which is more than 9,000 miles long and more than 500 miles wide on average, the Demon Alliance and the Divine Alliance are far away from each other, like two tigers and leopards that hate each other. Every twenty-year war of gods and demons comes. The dozen or so empires under it, as well as the hundreds of millions of people, will gather for their own beliefs, arm themselves with metal, and pounce on each other to bite each other......

Then, rivers of blood flowed and corpses piled up.

And then, everybody packed up the battlefield, went back to recuperate, and looked forward to the next big war, isn't that gentlemanly? You can definitely hit the other party's lair next time, but this time I didn't succeed just because I didn't work hard enough.

If war aside...... it. Anyway, there is no war now. Then everyone's attention can be completely focused on other things, such as life, just like the people of the Divine Alliance, the people of the Demon Alliance will also live.

In all the empires of the Demon Alliance, all the people believe in the Dark Demons. The Dark Demon Race mentioned here is a special title, specifically referring to a race they believe in and living on Hell Island with a very high status, and the Dark Demon Lord does not refer to a person from the dark province of an empire in the Divine Alliance......

Like the Divine Alliance, religious facilities have also been set up in each city in the Demon Alliance, and countless large and small demon temples have been woven into a tight network to manage and guide the people's thoughts. Although both the Temple and the Demon Temple accuse each other of copying their own management methods, no one actually knows who is learning from whom.

It is no wonder that religious administration is inherently complementary, and as long as it can effectively manage the people, who cares about copying their opponents? Anyway, the priests eat by mouth, and it is easy to find a reason to clear themselves.

Because of the striking similarity in terms of management structure and personnel structure, the priests of the Demon Alliance felt that they should be different from each other, so they began to make a fuss about the color. The supreme administrators of the Demon Temple are the three golden-robed priests who wear golden robes, and below them are the high priests of the secretary's court, who wear black robes with golden shoulders and belts...... The lower errand priests could only sew a few gold threads on the placket.

Black became a noble color and could only be used by people of high status. They were royalty, nobles, military officers, and magicians and samurai under the jurisdiction of the Demon Temple...... Of course, it is common for assassins who have not registered with the Demon Temple to wear black night clothes, but this is clearly illegal.

Except for people with special hobbies, white clothes are almost no one wears, and even if they do, they will avoid pure white, and silver-white clothes are loved by some nobles.

The people under the alliance belong to dozens of races, from the largest number of human races to the extremely rare Warcraft race, but unlike the habits of the Divine Alliance, the Demon Alliance gives preferential treatment to alien races who can fight, many alien races have their own fixed living areas, and also have their own lords and demon temples, which do not often appear in human cities.

The many ethnic groups have many customs, so wars are often staged due to different customs. Later, the Demon Temple simply did not prohibit any foreign living habits, and as long as the people did not make trouble, they could do whatever they wanted, so there were many strange phenomena in various regions of the Demon Alliance, and gradually developed into a very local culture.

There are eleven empires under the Demon Alliance, and there are four empires close to the dividing line between gods and demons, namely the Camp Empire, the Wells Empire, the Trafa Empire, and the Tulan Empire. These four empires form a tight line of defense, defending against the frantic attacks of the Divine Alliance in all wars.

And the war comes at a cost, and there is no good management, so the population of these four empires has always been relatively small and the flow is also very large.

In the most recent Great War of Gods and Demons, none of these four empires had been attacked by the Divine Alliance. Among them, the disaster of the Camp Empire was the most severe, the entire country almost collapsed by half, even the number of royal families was halved, and there were not a few nobles left, if it wasn't for the Demon Temple that exempted them from worship, the emperor of the Camp Empire would have to cry to death on his throne.

The situation in the Welsh Empire was not much better. The first is the sharp decline in the population. Of course, not as powerful as the Camp Empire. But the two legions sent out were completely destroyed. As soon as these 200,000 soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians died, there was a shortage of middle-aged men in the empire, so they had to buy a large number of slaves from other places.

Because the Demon Temple formulated a series of lenient policies for the two empires, the poor and down-and-out nobles of the other empires in the alliance began to pour in in large numbers, and everyone was busy enclosing land, grabbing mines, and grabbing titles, and there was a lot of trouble every day.

In contrast, the Trafa Empire and the Tulan Empire fared much better, although they also had the scars of war. But it didn't hurt its muscles and bones, and it could still hold on.

The Trafa Empire is located in the middle of the dividing line between gods and demons, and there are mountains across the whole territory in the middle of the country to provide military protection, and the climate is relatively hot, with many plains, many rivers, and developed agriculture. The population is moderate but the number of races is large, so the number of demon temples is correspondingly larger. The royal family of this generation is considered competent, and the aristocratic class is relatively stable, and the state affairs are naturally stable.

Several other empires were placed on the back burner. The losses suffered in the war were even smaller, and they were large in population and rich in products. The sacrifice point soldiers are not a big problem, and the shape shì basically remains steady.

After the end of the war, the chaos caused by the war gradually subsided, and it seemed that there was nothing worth mentioning. But some people did not want this stable situation to continue, so in the first year after the end of the war, large-scale assassinations began to spread again......

If you look at the historical records, you will find that in the first year or two after the end of each war between gods and demons, such assassinations abound in the two alliances, and the more countries that retained their strength in the war, the more rampant assassinations became on their lands.

There are three main types of assassins, elite officers, prominent nobles, and those promising members of the royal family, and ordinary ordinary people assassins don't bother to pay attention to them at all.

The assassins seem to have a hobby of treating death as home, and their methods are also very clever, and they rarely have a chance to catch them alive, so naturally they can't find out who instructed them. But scholars everywhere blame this on the redistribution of imperial or family interests in the aftermath of the Great War. This may be true, because this kind of assassin is not something that ordinary people can afford, and even rich people may not be able to do so.

The situation is much more complicated when analyzed specifically, although in an alliance, although in the same empire, or even in the same family, there are quite a few people who hate each other, of course, the enemy did not die in the war, so it is very appropriate to take advantage of this chaotic post-war time.

Rivalries between empires, disputes between aristocratic families, and even the inheritance of property titles between brothers can all be resolved in this way—a convenient and quick solution to his death.

In fact, on this point, it is the underworld that says it thoroughly: since we can't talk to the other party, we can find a way to talk to another person.

Assassination can not only allow the opponent to replace, but also disrupt the opponent's strategic arrangement, stop the opponent's development momentum, and buy time and gain advantages for the opponent, so many people are happy to do it.

The royal family purged their subordinates and officials who were hostile to the state, and the nobles purged their insides, and some even dared to purge their superiors......

If it was only an imperial dispute and a family dispute, the scale of the assassination operation could not be so large, and there should be a larger force involved, but on this Bis continent, how many forces can be greater than the empire?

There are also people who know the inside story, but everyone doesn't say it, and the smarter nobles offer a lot of gold coins to the Demon Palace, and the whole family hides in the Demon Palace to avoid the limelight.

This qiē is as if someone is deliberately manipulating, the dark tide is slowly approaching, and the bad luck is slowly coming. Commoners or nobles, their fate has already been arranged.

※※※ Demon Alliance, Broke Empire, capital Foxburg.

At the end of the War of Gods and Demons, Major General Sveis Hepburn was relieved of his military duties by the Demon Alliance and was placed at home. After the war, several princes gradually began to compete for a certain seat, and as the future important minister of the empire, he was relieved of his official position by the emperor, thus entering the snow period ahead of schedule.

Although the young nobleman of great fame had always liked to be quiet, the sudden absence of anything to do overnight still made him feel unaccustomed, or rather a little worried.

As a member of the royal family, of course he knows that the abilities of several princes are half a catty, and no one can eat the others in one bite, and the henchmen under each of them are not few, but driven by huge interests, they will rack their brains to find a way to push their masters into the fire pit, and no one will persuade the masters to stay calm or withdraw from this competition.

If none of the princes can win in a short period of time, then it is inevitable that more officials will be involved, and the situation will become more and more chaotic.

Although the army does not join this kind of competition under the strict control of the emperor, the personal guards of several princes can also be regarded as the kind that can be tossed, although the prince can announce his withdrawal in advance, but in order to get the favor of the old man, in order to get the identity of the heir, they will definitely do their best.

As long as there are more than two heirs per generation, such a competition will be repeated. Every prince will be expelled from the national capital at a young age, go to his own fiefdom to find a way out, and his staff, mentors, and subordinate officials all have to find their own way, and then return to the capital to take the throne when they become adults.

The victorious side will naturally be prosperous and rich, and the losing side will be purged from top to bottom, leaving no one. In the same way, any high-ranking official of the imperial court must choose one side to add people, and live and die together.

Despite its brutality, this rivalry was tacitly tolerated and was one of the reasons why the Brook Empire remained so strong.

But indispensable talents like Sveys Hepburn would not participate, they were the most valuable asset of the empire, the future pillars, and the emperor ordered them to travel abroad during the succession contest to avoid this whirlpool that swallowed a qiē.

Duke Sveys Hepburn's travel plans had already been arranged, and his belongings were almost packed, and he had to leave in a few days. That morning, as usual, he went to the chapel to pick up his mother.

As a member of the imperial family, in the current situation, he naturally had a lot of worries in his heart, especially when he thought that any damage caused in the battle for the heir to the throne would have to be made up for by himself in the future, and Duke Hepburn's heart was even heavier. (To be continued......)