Chapter 52 Yes, Your Majesty
The sun was already shining on the animal-faced gargoyles on the eaves of the Papal Palace. According to the custom of the people of the Thousand River Valley, it was time for breakfast.

But for the upper-class aristocrats, this time around 10 o'clock was too late for breakfast and too early for lunch.

They had three meals a day, and for the nobles, it was an insult to eat at the same time as the peasants.

But when he entered the Stag Room for the second royal meeting, Horn still ate two bites of dry bread to fill his stomach.

There was no way. The body's biological clock couldn't be changed in a short time, and he didn't want his stomach to growl in the middle of the meeting.

Pushing open the blunt-angled square door of the Stag Room, Horn smiled as if in spring breeze: "I'm very busy. Sorry to have kept you waiting for a long time."

The other cardinals immediately stood up and saluted.

On one side were Grandpeven and Chilvis, on the other side were Madeleine with her head wrapped and Cosset who had returned to her peak weight, and sitting south and facing north were Dange and Jeanne.

Horn sat down at the north-facing seat of the round table without hesitation. He said straight to the point without saying anything nonsense: "There are two topics for this imperial meeting, one is a personnel issue and the other is a military issue.

The military issues are more complicated, so for the personnel issues ahead, we will quickly vote according to the church's rules. Does anyone have any opinions?"

All the cardinals shut their mouths and shook their heads.

"The first thing is to reinstate Grampven and Chilvis as cardinals."

The cardinals were motionless, staring at Horn. Horn waited for a while, and seeing that no one expressed their opinion, he raised his hand and said, "Agree."

"I agree."

"Then I agree."

Seeing Horn raise his hand in agreement, the other cardinals immediately raised their hands in agreement.

"The second thing is to promote Cosset to be the first cardinal and Madeleine to be the second cardinal."

Now, everyone's eyes were focused on Cosse, who immediately straightened his chest.

The main reason why Horn promoted Cosse to be the chief bishop was to place his own people in the College of Cardinals.

Besides, Cosse was the descendant of the Holy Old Bishop, and when the Holy Father came, he was the first to come forward and kiss his boots.

In addition, he has many advantages, such as his strong plasticity, flexibility and easy-goingness, his unsteady stance, his non-prominent views, and his high degree of ideological obedience and mental controllability.

Specifically speaking, he is easy to control and manipulate. Horn does not want an overly strong chief bishop. For example, Townley is a negative example.

Following several personnel changes, the current top-level structure of the Papal States is as follows:
Pope Horn, an accountant apprentice, holds the highest cultural papermaking degree in the Papal States, and is even studying for a bachelor's degree in elementary school after work.

Cardinal Cosset, a butcher in Moulin Rouge Village, bought his ordination and could not read a single word.

Cardinal Madeleine, who was originally an apprentice in a bakery, was imprisoned for stealing his master's property. He later escaped and insisted that it was the judge who murdered him.

Cardinal Grampven is a clown in a circus. He can write his own name, recognize a bunch of medicinal herbs, and even do addition and subtraction within ten. He has a high level of cultural literacy.

Cardinal Chilvis, a drunkard who sells fake liquor, is drunk half the day.

Danjiherd, the Grand Master of the Holy Grail Knights, is a psychopath who has been fooled by knight novels, while the Knight Commander Jeanne is even more of a heavyweight, a witch.

Maintaining the position of the Pope does not mean Horn is obsessed with power.

He had no choice but to do it; he had to act and do it well.

At least before he escapes from this big cage of Qianhe Valley, he still has to behave himself and act like a grandson.

The rest of the people can only play this play with Horn.

Except for the confused old Kosei, everyone else present had some guesses about Horn's identity.

But they didn't have the courage to point it out, after all, Tang Li's example was not far away.

“Grampven had already explained the situation clearly to everyone before I came.

Now we are all on the same boat. We prosper together and suffer together.

So don’t be restrained, just speak freely about the heretic Archbishop of High Castle who sent troops to attack us.”

After concluding the behavior of Archbishop Barnifors of the High Castle, Horn closed the scroll in his hand, leaned back in his chair, spread his hands, and said with a smile: "Let's discuss it."

But all he got was a look of bewilderment from the cardinals.

These guys are not the legendary great knights or consecrated bishops who can wipe out hundreds of people with just a few of them.

Horn estimated that the real task of resisting the incoming church army would eventually fall on the villagers. So how to motivate the refugees to help them fight against the church army became the top priority at the moment.

"I stepped forward and said something..."

"Chilvis!" Before Danji could finish, Horn pointed out Chilvis, "What do you think?"

"Your Majesty, the Holy Grandson, if you ask me, to get someone to do something, all you have to do is give them money, women, or land." Chilvis' eyes were red from drunkenness, but his mind was quite clear.

"Giving money does not necessarily mean that one will be able to fight," objected Madeleine. "Give a peasant ten thousand gold pounds and he still cannot beat a poor wandering knight."

"So what do you think?" Horn crossed his hands, placed them on his chin, and looked at Madeleine with encouragement.

Madeleine straightened her chest and said, “In this life, money can’t take you to heaven or hell. What they want most is their destination after death and honor in this world.

Titles and honors are the only things that can give them the courage to go to battle."

"Honor, can honor be eaten?" Grampven objected. "Whether it is money or honor, it can only inspire them to say 'I have courage'."

Standing up, Grampven said in a firm voice: "Your Majesty, I think the most important things are weapons, armor and training.

With armor and weapons, I feel more confident. I have been trained and seen this before, so my courage comes naturally."

"But even if they had weapons and armor, money and official titles, would they really dare to fight against an army of more than two hundred people?"

After listening to what they said, Horn asked slowly.

The refugees and public servants feared knights and war, while the armed peasants feared the church.

The lower-class villagers have a natural fear of the church and the knights.

It is quite difficult to eliminate this natural fear. The long-term oppression of the knights and the church has caused many villagers to tremble when they hear about war and the church.

Everyone present here has climbed up from the bottom like a rocket. They are truly farmers in the morning and the Pope's Palace in the evening.

They are very clear about the underlying things.

Everyone was in a dilemma. The others were not like Horn or Grampven, so they had no choice but to fight against the church.

When the church and the army arrived, they might simply forget about Horn and choose to surrender.

"Hey!" Chilvis' eyes lit up and he raised a finger, "I have an idea for you."

"what?"

"According to Saint Sister Dia, there are no knights in this army, only armored soldiers and night watchmen. So we can stop calling them the 'church' and stop calling this a 'war'."

As Chilvis said this, the Bucks room fell into silence, and Horn frowned and fell into deep thought.

Seeing that no one else was talking, Kosai cleared his throat and said, "Well, let me, old Kosai, say a few pertinent words. Although these people are dull, they are all devout believers...

It is really against the doctrine and commandments to trick them into going to the battlefield like this. Old Cosse still calls on everyone to follow the right path..."

"That's a good idea." After thinking for a while, Horn made up his mind and finally said impatiently.

"…From a righteous perspective, if a white lie can alleviate the sins in the hearts of ordinary people, then it's fine to do it."

Old Cosse finished his words without changing his expression and gave Horn a nod of approval and a smile.

"Then what should I call him? If I call him a devil, the villagers will still be afraid. If I call him a bandit, they will still be afraid.

No matter what you say, as long as it has something to do with war, they will be afraid." Grampven raised his hand to ask.

This question stumped everyone present again. They lowered their heads and drew on paper, but they couldn't think of any good excuse.

"How about this." Seeing that it was getting late, Horn stood up from his seat. "Think about it carefully during lunch time. When the sun reaches that branch, we can come up with a set of rules together."

"What about the excuse?"

"Let's call the church's army 'foreign forces'. Even though it's just a roundabout way, it can eliminate a lot of fear. As for the war, let's call it 'Special Knight Competition Operation'."

The cardinals exchanged glances, stood up at the same time, and replied in unison: "Yes, Your Majesty."

　p.s. there will be another chapter later

　　
　
(End of this chapter)