Game of Thrones: Royal Game

Chapter 332 The Empire of Theocracy

After a night of hard work last night, the fire in Meereen City was finally completely extinguished before dawn. Because the looters' offensives were all concentrated in the Pyramid area of ​​the Holy Lord, most of the civilian areas in the city were not affected. Too much damage.

Order was largely restored to the city as the Unsullied and Iron Legion minions re-entered the city, taking control of the streets and pyramids.

After dawn, the hungry people saw groups of patrolling soldiers on the streets. They were worried that they would be punished for robbing the New Army's grain transport convoy two days ago, so they hid at home and did not dare to go.

It wasn't until the red-robed monk knocked on the door from door to door and told them to go out to get food that they cautiously walked out on the street again.

Soon, the hungry people discovered that the turmoil in this city had ended, and every corner was full of food relief points hosted by the red-robed monk.Those who went out before them had already lined up in front of the relief stalls in an orderly manner, while the red-robed monks around the relief point were preaching energetically.

Most people are not interested in the words of those pagan monks. After all, those words such as 'Ian Darry is the son of the holy flame prophesied, the reincarnation of Azor Ahai, the warrior of light, he will lead us to defeat the long night', 'Light They can't understand the words that the king is the only true god', and because it is contrary to their traditional beliefs, most people also harbor disgust in their hearts.

The only thing that made them insist on listening to the preaching here was the bread distributed by the red-robed monks. They originally thought that the relief they would get at this time would be a bowl of wheat porridge with almost only water, but unexpectedly everyone in line got it a piece of bread.

The generosity of the red-robed monks made the hungry people unbelievable. In addition, they didn't know what the situation in Meereen was like, and when Meereen would run out of food again. Therefore, most of the hungry people went home after getting the bread. Cut it into small pieces and add water to cook porridge, thinking that with such a piece of bread, it can last for two or three days.

What they didn't expect was that the relief stalls of the red-robed monks were filled with food again in the early morning of the next day.

The food was still distributed free to all, but two criteria emerged.One is provided to ordinary civilians, which is still a piece of bread like yesterday, and the other is provided to followers of the Red God, with a large piece of bread, a small amount of salt, a small amount of vegetables, and a small amount of wine.

Seeing those people who did not know when they converted to the Red God received far better food than themselves, many hungry people cast envious eyes on them, but they directly wavered their faith and hurried to the Great Red Temple in Meereen (formerly known as Shengen The temple has changed its brand) but very few converts.

Most of the hungry people waited in line to receive food, and at the same time were forced to listen to the preaching of the red-robed monks outside the relief stall.

Soon, they discovered that what the red-robed monks preached today was not as obscure as yesterday.

Those people no longer talked about the words "the only true god", "long night" and "bringer of light" that everyone didn't understand, but talked more about "victory, Hui coins, bread and salt".

I don't know who revised the lecture copy for the red-robed monks overnight. Today, the content of the lectures by the red-robed monks has become this style of painting:
"The sins of Meereen have been purified in the sacred fire. The Lord of Light will let the emperor of the Ghisians return as promised thousands of years ago. From then on, the people of Meereen will no longer suffer. They will get bread, salt, milk and Honey."

"Horse King Drogo has been slain by Emperor Ghis, the Dothraki have surrendered to the Empire, and a large number of Howling Warriors have camped outside the city, ready to fight for their emperor at any time."

"Now go to the Great Red Temple to convert to the Red God, and you will get a chance to pray for grace, and you can get a reward of up to [-] Jinhui coins. The more pious you are, the greater the chance of getting a high reward. And as long as you convert to the Red God After that, food rations will be obtained every day according to the standards of Red God believers."

Under this wave of preaching by the red-robed monks, many people's beliefs were shaken, and they began to go to the Great Red Temple to convert to the new god.

After arriving at the Red Temple, some merchants who had been to Volantis or other free city-states discovered that the system of followers of the Red God in Meereen was different from that of other city-states.

Here, all converts to the Red God were divided into multiple levels according to nobles, commoners and slaves.

Among them, the level of slaves is the same as the fifth-class slavery implemented by His Majesty the Emperor, and the newly converted slave believers are divided into fourth-class slaves, third-class slaves, second-class slaves, first-class slaves and royal slaves.

Civilians are divided into three classes: freemen, citizens and honorary citizens.

Freemen are the default level for all converted civilians, and there is no difference from before except that they will receive food rations.Citizens need to be acquired through military merit or asset donation. Their status is equivalent to that of nobles such as the former Meereen Moe, and they have the power to hold public office.Honorary citizens require higher military merit or larger asset donations to obtain, and their status will be equivalent to that of the former Meereen minor nobles.

The nobility is also divided into three levels: the last nobility of the Ghisians has been removed, the second-level nobility and high-level nobility have been retained, and a new level has been added—the honored nobility.Honored nobles introduced the title system of Westeros and subdivided it into the third class of male uncle and male (unlike Westeros, they are all called 'lord').

All nobles such as the end of Meereen who convert to the Red God will be directly promoted to the second-class nobles, and the second-class nobles will be promoted to high-ranking nobles, and all the high-ranking nobles will be awarded honors (because almost all the nobles in Meereen who opposed Ian were in this turmoil. After being purged, most of the nobles in Meereen are royalists, and directly giving them a status promotion is considered a reward from Ian).

At the same time, there is also a certain intercommunication between the three different classes.

Among the ranks of slaves, first-class slaves are at the same level as freedmen, and their treatment is better than that of ordinary freedmen.First-class slaves can choose to become freemen at any time, and have the opportunity to continue to rise through civilian channels.

Royal slaves are at the same level as second-class nobles, but their treatment is much better than that of ordinary second-class nobles. If royal slaves give up their slave status, they can directly become second-class nobles and have the opportunity to continue to rise through the noble channel.

In the civilian class, the honorary citizen ranks between the inferior nobles and the high nobles. If an honorary citizen gives up his own power, he can choose to become a minor noble and gain the opportunity to continue to rise through the noble channel.

This cross-class promotion method is an impromptu remedy plan that Ian came up with after defeating the horse king-he and Fermor made too many promises to the slave army before the war, so that after the war, the upper class will suddenly appear. In case the waiting slaves and tens of thousands of second-class slaves come.

Considering that it will take a long time to completely conquer Lazar and turn the millions of Lazarin who have not surrendered before the war into new slaves, Ian cannot fulfill his promise to give these people first-class slave treatment in a short time, So I thought of this way to trick them out of the slave promotion route, and began to continue to struggle towards the 'citizen' class.

The good news is that after Ian announced this decree to the army, more than 80.00% of the first-class slaves chose to convert their status to freemen.After all, for these soldiers of the Iron Slave Legion, their promotion from third-class slaves to first-class slaves was too fast.

Most of them have even only experienced such a battle as the Battle of Kaiser Pass, and because Ian deployed the relationship between the Unsullied and the New Ghis in the most critical position, the most intense combat mission and the heaviest loss They were all accepted by those elites.

When these Iron Legion slaves officially encountered the enemy, the battle had turned into a one-sided massacre. They harvested a lot of heads, but the losses they suffered were not heavy. The smooth promotion road made them unavoidable to become "honorary citizens" 'Even the future of the 'high nobles' is full of expectations.

What's more, perhaps under the flickering of the officers sent by Ian, he had dreamed of awarding the fiefdom.

That's right, the honored nobles under this system will obtain corresponding fiefdoms within the empire's territory.

Although Ian was not willing to enfeoff, if he wanted to forcibly implement the county system, the cognition of people in this world, the intricate power structure and complex terrain in the unprecedentedly expanded territory of the empire would all cause him huge damage. test.

To digest a new Valyrian empire with a county system, Ian needs to spend too much time on talent selection, building the corresponding bureaucracy, and gathering local forces.

Even with the talents of Qin Shihuang and Li Si, it took them a lifetime but they couldn't really understand the system of prefectures and counties.Ian doesn't think he has the ability to promote counties in this land whose terrain and culture are far more complicated than that of the Great Celestial Empire, and with winter approaching, he is even less willing to spend energy on it.

In contrast, Ian tends to adapt Liu Bang's prefecture-state system, dividing counties and counties at the same time.

In Slaver's Bay, Ian only planned to set up counties in the three cities of Meereen, Astapor, and New Ghis. These cities themselves have a bureaucratic system, and there is an established order, which is relatively easy to reform.

Raza District Ian only intends to set up the county in Hesse, although Hesse is not the largest city in Raza District, nor is it the most populous city.But fortunately, Hussey's royal family and the local clan had sworn allegiance to Ian early on, and most of the nearby Lazarin people would be granted the status of free citizens, while other cities and tribes would be enslaved after being conquered.As Ian's capital in the Raza area, it's better for the main population to be mainly free people.

Moreover, after Ian defeated Queen Ma, in order to avoid the spread of the plague, he withdrew the army in batches, and nearly half of them went to Hersey, completely bringing it under control, and setting up a county in that city greatly saved Ian's life. time and energy.

As for Hussey's original royal family and nobles, Ian intends to entrust other Lazarin cities and tribes to them as compensation.

The Guise nobles of Slaver's Bay will also be compensated here.Ian intends to seal off all the Lazarin cities/tribes and the towns in the south of the Dothraki Sea except Hussey to let the newly promoted 'lords' build castles and open up wasteland by themselves.

Ian only needs them to pay taxes and provide soldiers.

Moreover, assigning these royalist nobles to the fiefdoms will also help eliminate their influence in these counties, making it easier for Ian to rule.

Ian also plans to apply the same plan to other Free Trade Cities and Westeros. Ian will only retain direct control over the larger cities, and the others will be given to loyal nobles.

Of course, the people of Meereen who were queuing in front of the Great Red Temple didn't know about Ian's plans at the moment. Most of them came just for the food ration and the rewards in the wishing pool.

I don't know if the Lord of Light has seen their piety. On the second day after the wishing pool was opened, a Meereenian civilian who had just converted actually won a big prize from the wishing pool.

The Supreme Shepherd Celia of the Great Red Temple handed him a box containing ten thousand gold coins in front of everyone, and publicly blessed him.The ruling councilor Grazdan zo Eraz, who attended the event with Celia, granted this person the status of a citizen on the spot on behalf of the emperor. In order to prevent someone from being jealous or even robbing this person, he also gave him a house and four A slave guard.

With the emergence of role models and the slow recovery of food prices in Meereen, everyone can only live on the food distributed by the red robe monks. More and more people walked into the Great Red Temple and began to change themselves faith.

In the next few days, Meereen was still in such a state. The spies under the army and the head of intelligence traveled between the pyramids and ports, counting the prisoners and trophies, and helping to count the losses of the royalist nobles.There are also more and more red-robed monks on the streets. They are preaching together with the people who have converted to the Red God to speed up the spread of the new state religion.

The red-robed monks on the streets completely monopolized the public opinion of the city, and the people gradually learned some important 'facts' from the increasingly popular preaching of the monks.

For example: Under the will of the only true Lord of Light, the great Ghis Emperor Ian Darry successfully conquered the Dothraki and Lazarin, and the new empire territory included Slaver Bay, Raza, and Valerie. Asian peninsula and the entire Dothraki Sea.

The emperor's coronation ceremony will be held in two months. Representatives from all over the empire are rushing to Meereen. At that time, Emperor Ian will personally canonize the first batch of honored nobles of the empire.

Another example: the turmoil in the past few days was a farce created by Meereen's "Holy Lord" Hizdahr and the "Green Maiden" colluding with those sea raiders in order to usurp His Majesty's power.Those great masters of the Holy Lord sent people to attack the grain road from Astapor to Meereen, which caused the food shortage in Meereen. The city guards who attacked the rich area of ​​Meereen also acted under their orders.

However, at that time there was internal strife between the Great Lords of the Holy Lord and the sea raiders, and their three pyramids were captured by the raiders. Those people originally wanted to loot the entire Meereen, but fortunately the emperor led his troops back to Meereen in time to wipe out the The invaders were captured and the surviving traitors captured, who would be brought to public trial shortly thereafter.

(End of this chapter)