Chapter 245: The Kingdom without Land and Crown

The first snow in Qianhe Valley came earlier than anyone expected.

In just three or two days, the light snow turned into heavy snow, quickly turning the entire Qianhe Valley into a cold white world.

The horses' hooves leaped in the fluffy snow and sand, and their heavy iron hooves stepped on the frozen ground, shaking off the snow on the bushes beside the road.

On the back of a tall warhorse sat a giant, with two foxes with intact fur hanging around his waist, and behind him were a dozen knights.

Their black breastplates stood out in this snow-white world, but for the extraordinary knights, the cold and heat had almost no effect on them.

In the mountains outside Feiliu Castle, Prince Kongdai carried two foxes and ran towards the country villa where he lived.

The villagers of several nearby villages were driven away to make room for the knights of the six imperial companies.

As for the mercenaries, they are scattered in the surrounding towns.

Riding his horse through the gate of the villa, he threw the prey to the temporary housekeeper beside him and ordered: "Fox meat is not tasty, I only want the fur."

These exquisite fox furs can be made into warm collars, which are widely loved by nobles in the empire and are even a symbol of nobility.

If everyone is wearing fox or bear skins and you are wearing wolf skins, you are not qualified to attend this banquet at all.

A large part of the trade income of Lord Norn of Bearburg Territory comes from the rich fur resources in the vast forests of the northwest region.

After getting off the horse, Prince Kongdai couldn't help shaking his head as he looked at this ordinary mixed-blood superior prairie horse.

He still missed the dragon-blood horse that could bring out his greatest strength.

Thinking of this, the man who had never met him but had caused him trouble time and time again flashed through his mind.

"Alas, the church. Alas, short-haired people." Prince Condé stepped into the villa, and the jumping flames in the fireplace brought waves of heat to the entire room.

He threw the bearskin coat and black leather gloves to the maid beside him and walked towards the nanmu table beside the fireplace.

Wearing an exquisite black silk priest robe, Mizam held a white bone china teacup and blew the water vapor on the cup gracefully.

A knight's page, holding a teapot with red leaf swirls, was standing behind Mizam, trying to peek at the letter in his hand.

"What are you looking at?" Prince Condé slapped the boy on the back of his head and took the letter from Mizam's hand. "Go get me a bigger chair."

After roughly reading the letter in his hand, Prince Condé shook his head and laughed: "Nedbach is coming to the Thousand River Valley? He is determined to attack Jinigis."

"Then how do we respond?"

"Come, let him come, I welcome them."

Looking at Prince Kongdai with an unpredictable expression, Mizam simply skipped the topic: "King Tormund has caused too much trouble by dividing the Knights of the Imperial Order among his younger brother."

"Who said it wasn't?" Sitting on the big cushioned chair laid out by the servant, Prince Kongdai threw the letter on the table and took a sip of a cup of black tea.

"Your Majesty is old. If he were young, he would never take such a risky move." Mizam crossed his fingers on his knees. "Should we not move?"

"of course."

Mizam looked at Prince Kongdai's face and sighed silently in his heart.

You know, John VIII explicitly and implicitly asked Prince Condé to support Genegis in his letters.

But as John VIII grew older, the church's control over Prince Condé gradually weakened.

Although to a certain extent, Prince Kongdai still had to obey the command of the church, such as this time when he came to the Thousand River Valley to quell the rebellion.

But if there is something really important, Prince Conde will pretend to obey but actually disobey, and the church will have no good way to deal with him.

For example, this time, the coup in Changge City clearly had the shadow of the Pope, and King Jinigis represented the church.

But Jinigis could not get the approval of the royal family and the nobles, and the only supporter, the Pope, might die at any time. No matter which side Prince Condé joined, it would be a thankless task, and it might even cost him the Knights of the Imperial Order.

Unlike those great nobles, his status was maintained entirely by imperial decrees.

Over the years, the church factions in the Imperial Company have been almost completely purged, so Prince Conde naturally no longer has to look at the Pope's face for everything as before.

This resulted in Mizam, whose original function was to monitor and convey the Pope's intentions, losing some of his power.

"Then how can we refuse?"

"How can I refuse?" Prince Kongdai stretched lazily. "Isn't it hard to say? You don't really think that the rebellion in Qianhe Valley has been quelled?"

"Except for some petty thieves, there aren't many who dare to resist us."

"Don't play dumb, you still can't see it." Prince Condé chuckled, "Meliyati is one, that Catherine is one, plus the nobles in the Prague Monastery in Cassia, even if they stay, they will have something to do."

"Can that lowly businessman from Qianhe Valley be considered a force?" The page boy was the brother-in-law of Prince Kongdai's mistress and was quite close to him, so he asked directly.

Mizam smiled and explained: "Although she has half Thousand Valley blood, she also has half Aiel blood.

Her teacher Juanno's teacher was an Aiel scholar from the Salin Scholars Society, and her chamber of commerce has several Aiel shareholders.

Legally, Rapid City is an Imperial Free City, governed solely by the Imperial Emperor.

Now that the throne of the emperor of the empire is vacant, the city alliance is basically in charge.

Rapid City belongs to the Azik Alliance, whose leader is the highly respected El Grand Justice Hadius.

See? We can't kill her like any other merchant without a valid reason."

"Are we so afraid of the Aiel people?" the knight's page couldn't help but ask.

Prince Condé and the black-robed monk looked at each other, one turned his head away, and the other smiled bitterly.

This involves the public case when the empire was first established.

In the 166th year of the Imperial Calendar, powerful officials of the Gothic Legion rebelled, overthrew the old Aiur Empire, and established their own Gothic Empire.

Such an empire certainly could not gain recognition from other nobles, so they all declared independence. Coupled with the Norns' recapture movement, the entire empire entered a dark dynasty that lasted for 309 years.

It was not until 470 that the Flesh Court launched an offensive against the warlords in the melee, launching a pincer attack from the northern passage and the Emerald Sea in the south, by land and sea.

Under pressure from the royal court, the legions that had been fighting for three hundred years were forced to reorganize the Holy Aiel Empire and call for a holy war in its name.

But the embarrassing thing is that after three hundred years of massacres and killings, a large number of Aiel people were displaced and even changed their names to become other ethnic groups.

So they could not find a large-scale Aiel group to endorse their regime.

The twelve princes at that time could not find evidence to prove that they were the Holy El Empire, and could not suppress other nobles who refused to obey.

Eventually, under the leadership of the then-Pope Hadius IV, the god of war, they found the extremely conservative group of Salim Scholars.

In order to gain their support, the princes had to grant them a large number of privileges to make these remaining orthodox Aiel people recognize the new Holy Aiel Empire.

However, the "orthodox" here only refers to the culture. In terms of bloodline, there is no more orthodox Aiel than vampires.

The Aiel people who possessed these privileges continued to accumulate wealth as their cities rose. Many nobles had to rely on borrowing from them to survive, and their status was that of the fourth kingdom without land or crown.

"It's too complicated to explain this. Go read a book yourself." Prince Condai snatched the teapot from the boy and drove him away, "Go, go, go."

Putting the teapot next to the vase, Mizam waited until the page disappeared from sight before asking, "Are we going to stay in the Thousand Valley forever?"

Prince Kong Dai rubbed his head and said, "Let's take it one step at a time... maybe if I stay here for a long time, this place will become my fiefdom directly, hahahaha."

(End of this chapter)