In the Name of the Queen

When Roland walked out of the City Hall building, the Val City State was holding a flag-lowering ceremony.

Perhaps it had been too long since the flag was lowered, and the pulley made a squeaking sound when the flag was lowered, which was particularly harsh in the quiet environment.

The Val City flag that had been flying for hundreds of years slowly fell, representing the end of a period of history.

This was not only the end of Val City, but also the collapse of the Continental Convention System.

Val City was the first, but definitely not the last.

In front of the savage Rurik bear, all neighboring countries trembled.

But in addition to the giant bear, other big countries are not vegetarians.

In the foreseeable future, many small countries will not have an easy life.

For the people of Val City, the demise of the country is painful, but at least it is not a bloodbath, but a peaceful handover, which can be regarded as a safe landing.

In various blocks of the city, Val City officials and soldiers are transferring power to various occupying countries and forces.

A young officer suddenly sang the song that best represents Val City, "Val Lakeside".

The city-state of Val has no national anthem, and this song is taken as the national anthem by default.

They were born from the first continental conference, representing the compromise of all countries after they were exhausted.

Of course, the apparent reasons are much more high-sounding.

For peace and friendship, the city-state of Val was established.

For peace and friendship, this song "On the shore of Lake Val" was created.

Although the Continental Convention is the product of the balance of major powers, all countries still basically abide by the convention and maintain a hundred years of general peace.

Conflicts still exist, but there has been no war of annihilation between major powers.

The countries guaranteed by the Continental Convention also survived the Second Continental Conference.

However, times have changed.

Faced with the approaching return day, people no longer care whether they look ugly or not.

There is only one situation in which a contract will be observed, that is, the benefits of abiding by the contract are greater than those of abandoning the contract.

If everyone thinks that abandoning the contract is the best choice, the result cannot be reversed.

The birth of the city-state of Val came from the Continental Convention.

It is normal for them to perish after the Continental Convention ends.

Perhaps the demise is too reasonable, and the officials, soldiers and onlookers present did not even feel too sad.

The tears that should have been shed had already been shed.

They couldn't cry at all, and the tears in the corners of their eyes were only because of the impoliteness of the wind and sand.

More and more people sang the song together, and the singing gathered into undulating waves, echoing over the square.

Sif stopped, looked at them silently, and said faintly:

"Roland, why do we feel like the villains in the novel?"

"Reality is not a novel. National interests cannot be simply labeled as good or bad."

Roland said calmly.

He caught a glimpse of a trace of loss in Sif's eyes, and he comforted her softly: "Sif, I believe that the world in the future will be more civilized, progressive, and harmonious."

"Is it time to believe in the wisdom of future generations again?" Sif laughed at herself.

She had long been accustomed to Roland's way of speaking, and new words came to her mind at will.

Roland said calmly: "Any progress in civilization requires a heavy price. Each of us may become the price itself."

"I know."

Sif was not too sad, and followed Roland away silently.

As she left the square, she heard exclamations and screams and looked back.

The young officer in uniform rushed towards the flag that was about to be rolled up, and the sharp blade pierced his abdomen, blood gushed out, dyeing the white flag red.

Her heart skipped a beat.

If she failed, would it be the same?

Roland looked back and said nothing.

If he had just awakened his memory, he might tremble and be moved, but now he was as cold as a ruthless spectator.

"Let's go."

He took a firm step and walked towards the hotel where he was staying.

There is no eternal country in the world, and any country will go from prosperity to decline.

The same is true for the Sussex Empire.

At some point in the future, it may become a constitutional monarchy, or it may go to a republic in one step. Who knows.

This is not something he should worry about.

His eyes were cast to the distant east. Thousands of kilometers away, in the white winter palace, there were his enemies. They would eventually duel.

Not long after the Val City-State stopped operating, big news came one after another.

The biggest news is that the magic crystal veins have been sealed indefinitely.

After fierce wrangling and quarreling, the countries have never been able to compromise.

The only consensus is that there is no consensus.

Finally, under the advice of the Weimar Federation, the countries decided to put aside the dispute and jointly not develop.

The magic crystal veins were sealed and various detection instruments were arranged to prevent people from stealing.

Representatives of the Magic Association were also called and forced to sign.

They publicly promised that unless they were approved by the rulers of the Val City-State, they would never take even a piece of magic crystal from the White Mountain.

While this international conference attracted everyone's attention, there was another big and small thing.

Tony, the former executive of the Val City-State, publicly joined the Sussex Empire.

Instead of going to the imperial capital, he went to Hansa City and became an official under Governor Roland.

This decision puzzled many people.

Roland may not be the culprit of the demise of the Val City-State, but he is also an accomplice and beneficiary.

People know that Mr. Tony will never surrender to the Vladimir Empire, but they didn't expect him to surrender to the second enemy.

But they knew Tony didn't have many options for next home.

Although the world is big, there are only a few who can stand up to the Vladimir Empire.

The spring of 1792 came earlier than in previous years.

Just after February, the ice and snow in most areas of the central Rodinia continent have melted, and everything has begun to recover.

But the farmers were not happy at all.

Last year was a mild winter, and many pests that could not survive the winter could successfully survive the winter. If spring comes too early, it will disrupt their farming rhythm and affect their harvest.

It is foreseeable that the grain production in 1792 will be reduced, but the taxes of the gentlemen will not be reduced by even one penny.

There are many people who are destined not to survive this year.

It has been more than a month since Roland left Vaal City.

He knew that Sakhalin was gritting his teeth and waiting for him to go to Vaal City and give him a bear hug, so he didn't go at all.

He does not lack the courage to face challenges head-on, nor the wisdom to avoid the enemy's edge.

In the past month or so, Roland has not been idle, he has done a lot of things.

Mr. Tony is indeed capable, but he is a bit underwhelmed in a small place like Val City.

He and Roland discussed for a long time and formulated long-term and short-term development plans for the three overseas provinces.

Roland admired Tony a little more, and he was also Roland's chosen candidate for Interior Minister.

It's a pity that he is too upright and is really not suitable to be the chief minister.

The chief minister must be someone as smooth as William or Alban.

Roland didn't know that his image in Tony's heart was also changing.

Originally, Tony's perception of him was similar to that of other Rodinians, a pretty boy.

The difference in their understanding of Roland is just the prefix modifier of the pretty boy.

Some people think Roland is a sinister pretty boy, some think he is a cunning pretty boy, and some think he is a vicious pretty boy.

After contacting Roland, Tony's impression of him changed greatly.

Tony saw broad prospects from the blueprint drawn by Roland.

Roland's ambition was never to find a foothold on the mainland, but to make Sussex the real world master.

"Let the white rose flag fly in every time zone of the world, and the noonday sun forever shine upon the imperial lands."

Roland said these words calmly, but Tony was excited.

There is no room in the world for two super empires.

The present territory of Sussex spans fifteen time zones, as does Vladimir's Empire.

Compared to Sussex, who eats relatively politely, Tony hates the Rurik people who directly broke the rules and made his motherland disappear.

Mr. Tony holds the title of Deputy Director of the Home Office and performs the work of Home Secretary. He has become one of the Queen's most trusted ministers.

But other officials were not too resistant to him.

After all, Tony was at a lower level than them, with zero initial performance points and a much lower starting point.

As long as they do their job well, they will not fall behind.

Roland had warned them long ago that the Governor-General encouraged healthy competition, but did not allow for mutual displeasure.

If someone engages in malicious competition and excludes colleagues, what awaits him is a substantial deduction of performance points.

Performance points are now simply the lifeblood of this group of people.

In particular, Athos and a few others whose performance points are close to the Baron line take the initiative to work overtime every day for fear of missing out on opportunities to make meritorious deeds.

They were the front runners, so there was no need to be jealous of Tony who was lagging behind.

Although Tony is an upright man, after all, he has worked in Val City for so many years and has no shortage of skills.

He has set his position very correctly, and his performance points are very stuck. He neither lags behind nor considers overtaking anyone.

As long as you follow the right master, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future.

With the delivery of the gold promised by the Magic Guild, the Governor-General minted a new batch of coins.

This gold coin features the founding emperor Sussex the Great as its head. It is well-made and of high quality. It has been well received by everyone since it was first launched.

Many of these gold coins flowed back to the mainland with the trade fleet and were placed on the table of the cabinet meeting.

Looking at this batch of gold coins that could not find any fault, the cabinet ministers were silent.

If Sylph uses her own image to mint gold coins, it means that she is short-sighted, frivolous and impatient, and will never achieve great things.

If Sylph uses her father's image to mint gold coins, although it is reasonable, the pattern will be small.

However Sylph chose to mint coins with the head of Sussex the Great.

The last gold coins to feature Sussex the Great were 135 years ago.

It has been so long that those gold coins have become collectibles.

William held the golden coin in his hand and sighed.

Walder looked at the gold coins and was elated. Of course he understood Sif's intention of doing this.

This is a conspiracy and a declaration of determination.

What she wants to do is not to be an ordinary monarch like her father, but to achieve great things like Sussex the Great.

Alban, who squinted his eyes and stared at the gold coins, was thoughtful.

As a veteran actor, of course he would not reveal his secrets, but he felt relaxed inside.

He could feel Sif's great progress.

Compared to the idiot who knew nothing about politics back then, Sif now looks more and more like a queen.

He was also glad to have secretly connected with the royalists.

Although the cabinet faction holds power now, these powers are all granted by the emperor.

When Sif takes back her power, no matter how high she stands now, she will fall hard when the time comes.

Unless powerful military force is used to force Sif to submit.

Alban squinted his eyes for a long time, turned to the director of military intelligence, and asked softly: "What are your majesty and her little lover busy with recently?"

"They seem to rarely leave the Governor's Palace." The Director of Military Intelligence whispered.

This time, not only Alben was surprised, but even William was stunned.

"Do nothing?"

"Not really, they just rarely leave the Governor's Mansion, but they have promoted many policies."

William frowned and asked again: "Tell me in detail, what else did they do besides minting coins and accepting the subjects of Val City?"

"After the New Year, they mainly did a few things, continuing to recruit talents, building factories, encouraging trade and opening schools."

"Open schools?"

Several ministers were a little confused, staring at each other, and some couldn't figure it out.

Teaching in this era mainly depends on private education and religion. Although there are various schools from elementary school to university in the city, the enrollment is very small.

Education is a long-term investment with huge investment and slow results.

They thought Roland and Sif went out to build a team and wanted to come back to seize power, but they didn't expect them to spend money on this.

William felt a little bad.

He couldn't understand what Roland and Sif wanted to do more and more.

Establishing education is a long-term investment. Do they plan to stay in the three senior officials overseas?

What kind of operation is this? I don't understand it at all.

Just as several ministers looked at each other, the Minister of the Army asked coldly: "Have they expanded the army?"

William nodded, this question hit the point.

If Sif wants to take back power by her own ability, expanding and forming an army is a must.

However, the next sentence of the Director of Military Intelligence made everyone confused.

"Roland announced the dissolution of the original army in the Governor's jurisdiction and recruited new troops."

This time, not only William couldn't understand, but Walder and Alban were also stunned.

"All 90,000 troops in the Governor's jurisdiction will be disbanded?"

"Only less than 5,000 people will be retained, and the rest will be disbanded." The Director of Military Intelligence said calmly.

"Is he crazy?" Walder questioned angrily.

He is an iron royalist in everyone's eyes anyway, so there is no need to pretend.

Seeing Walder's anger, the other ministers breathed a sigh of relief.

Walder may not be an enemy, but he is definitely not a friend. When he is angry, they are all relieved.

The Director of Military Intelligence took out a report and put it on the conference table.

Walder grabbed the special report and almost vomited blood after just a quick glance.

Roland dismissed experienced veterans, used the Knights as the backbone, and recruited a large number of miners, textile workers and farmers to join the army to form a new army.

The previous army in the Governor's District only retained a small number of young officers and soldiers, and a large number of middle-level and grassroots officers were dismissed.

Is this crazy? Is this how the army is built?

Walder's fist slammed heavily on the table, and he couldn't bear it anymore. He left in anger, and he didn't even bother to say polite words.

He is old and doesn't want to do it anymore.

Watching Walder leave, the other ministers present did not keep him, and even silently cursed him to have a cerebral hemorrhage when he returned home.

After Walder left, the atmosphere in the conference hall was obviously much more relaxed.

Although they didn't understand Sif and Roland's operations, they had already determined that these two guys were messing around, so they couldn't understand.

William cast his eyes on the Minister of the Army, motioning him to explain.

The Minister of the Army cleared his throat and said with a smile: "This is a stupid thing done by an outsider who has no idea about military construction."

"The level of military construction is not determined by a few senior officers, but depends largely on middle-level and grassroots officers."

"I have been in the army for more than 30 years, and I have never seen such a thing. Even if you look at the military history of the entire continent and the history of the Magic Empire, there are very few such cases."

"It can be seen that Mr. Roland is not satisfied with the army of the three overseas provinces, so he wants to tear it down and rebuild it. I can only wish him good luck."

The ridicule of the Minister of the Army also made others feel more at ease.

But William still felt something was wrong.

To be fair, he didn't like Roland at all, but he didn't think Roland was an idiot.

When has this kid ever suffered a loss? Those who looked down on him paid the price, even the two highest-ranked officers in the Shadow Temple.

He suddenly shuddered, as if he thought of something, and cast his eyes on the Minister of the Navy.

"Mr. Winston, are they building a navy?"

"Oh, Mr. William, you are really an outsider who doesn't understand the navy."

Winston said with a smile: "The navy is different from the army. There is no quick shortcut. Roland does have the team of the Fourth Fleet, and Bridges is indeed a capable guy, but what about warships?"

"Why is the navy called a century-old navy? In addition to the long-term development of naval traditions, it is also because the oak and other woods used in shipbuilding take a hundred years to mature."

"If Mr. Roland sows the seeds now, he will probably be able to build his own invincible fleet in the distant 1892."

Winston was not polite at all and mocked everyone he caught.

His Sussex-style humorous remarks caused laughter.

He was right. It is very difficult to train the navy. Experienced captains and sailors are second, and the construction of the fleet is the difficulty.

In order to prevent overseas rebellion, Sussex has always prohibited overseas shipbuilding. Planting shipbuilding trees overseas is equivalent to rebellion.

All the trees in the overseas colonies and the three overseas provinces combined can't build a few ships.

William smiled and concluded the farce, "That is to say, unless they can make wood out of thin air or build ships out of steel, they will never have a strong navy, right?"

"Yes."

Winston spread his hands and sarcastically said, "It is well known that things heavier than water cannot float on the sea. Maybe Mr. Roland has some magic that can make the ironclad ship float on the sea."

"Goddess of Plenty, please forgive my ignorance."

Alben, who had never spoken, was a little disgusted with Winston's face and said coldly:

"Don't be so deadly. I heard that there were super ironclad ships hundreds of meters long in the Second Era, and even huge iron birds flying in the sky."

"I have heard of it, but it was a miracle. Is it still there now?"

Winston snorted, "If he can drive the steel giant ship into the Thames River, I will show you how to eat the warship raw."

"That's good, remember to bring the sauce." Alben responded tit for tat.

William raised his hands and stopped their dispute.

"Gentlemen, don't quarrel unnecessarily. Let's hear what other interesting information there is?"

William's face still needs to be given.

Although Alben and Winston disliked each other, they did not continue to argue, but sat upright like gentlemen.

The director of the Military Intelligence Bureau continued to introduce Roland and Sif's new policies since the New Year.

They made large-scale long-term investments in the three overseas provinces, and some investments may take ten years or even longer to bear fruit.

William was speechless. He didn't understand what Roland wanted to do at all.

He frowned and asked, "Don't they have short-term investments to improve their strength?"

"Yes, Roland is now an honorary knight of the Court of Light, with the title of Knight of Light. The Court is very optimistic about him and gave him 5,000 temple warriors and three high-level temples."

William was silent.

After a long time, he chuckled and teased, "Oh my God, that's 5,000 temple warriors. I heard that they have amazing combat effectiveness. How many regular troops can these 5,000 people deal with?"

"If it is the imperial capital garrison, about 10,000. If it is the most elite guards, even if the number is equal, we will win."

The tone of the Minister of the Army was full of confidence.

Sussex's army is not the best in the world, but it is definitely not something that religious armies can challenge.

The temple warriors are indeed elite, but their numbers are too small.

William deliberately asked with a hint of sarcasm: "How many troops do we have?"

The Minister of the Army said in a deep voice: "There are 470,000 regular troops stationed in the mainland, and the troops dispatched from various governors' jurisdictions add up to about 300,000. If the war requires it, the army can be expanded to more than two million at any time."

"We can't expand so much, the treasury has no money!" The deaf and dumb Minister of Finance objected in his real name.

William laughed and waved his hand to stop the argument.

"In short, your majesty and her lover cannot threaten us through force. There is no intention to resolve the dispute by force. Does she want to call on the army to defect?"

"That's even more impossible. The army's salary is paid by the government, not the royal family."

William said lightly and made the final judgment.

But he soon had a headache again.

He couldn't understand Roland and Sif's mysterious operation at all.

"So what do they want?"

"It's very simple. They probably don't want to come back." Alben said coldly.

William was stunned for a moment, frowning in confusion, "What do you mean by not wanting to come back?"

"It means literally."

Alben explained calmly: "Our Queen has been frequently appearing between the three overseas provinces and Val City during this period, and she is having a lot of fun."

"Although you lose power abroad, you can gain freedom. This is probably the best solution."

William was silent.

This really seems to be a bad idea that Roland can come up with.

Since you can't fight for power, just be a local emperor abroad.

Although the Governor-General's District of Northern Rodinia cannot be compared with the mainland, it is larger than an ordinary kingdom.

She would still choose to come back as a puppet emperor or to be a powerful king abroad.

William couldn't help laughing.

Alben's ridicule well explained the reasons for Roland and Sif's actions.

They planned to enjoy life in the three overseas provinces, so they would build for a long time.

Instead of coming back and hating each other, it is better not to meet.

"Is this okay?"

"Why not? When she officially ascends the throne, she can just declare Hansa as the secondary capital." Alban explained from a legal perspective.

William smiled with satisfaction.

"Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps this is the best outcome. If this is what Her Majesty wants, we loyal people have no reason to object."