Pioneering

"What? You made me the Pope?" Derek spewed out a mouthful of water and said in surprise.

"Calm down," John said, turning around and passing the sip of tea, "for now, for now."

"Next, we will march into Winkrell, and then divide our troops locally. We will not only guard the more than 7 prisoners of war, but also use Winkrell's supplies to provide logistics for the army.

It would be very difficult to simply use force to coerce and control the Winkrel people.

But if there is a good reason, such as... supporting a new pope, it should be much easier. "

Although Winklell has experienced civil strife several times, he was once a big country that almost dominated the Northern Continent, and it was the only kingdom in the Northern Continent.

From the nobles to the common people in this country, they are much more ambitious than people in other countries. They want them to easily obey the orders of a group of outsiders. Even if they defeat them, they will never surrender for a while.

It is conceivable that if only the sword is used to speak, the continuous stream of enemies in the open and in the dark is enough for the Asshai warriors who have traveled thousands of miles away to drink a pot.

If there is an excuse, even a very bad excuse, it will make the conquered feel lucky, and the resistance will be greatly weakened.

This is why many conquerors like to support puppet regimes.

Derek has worked hard in the Sea God Church for more than three years, and his abilities in all aspects have improved a lot. John understood his plan at a glance: "But..."

But I just want to go home!

Derek had a constipated expression on his face, God is so pitiful, his latent mission has just seen the dawn of completion, why is there such a difficult mission again.

Moreover, is this competition for the patriarch of one church something that a [-]-year-old should do?
This is inappropriate!

"General John, why don't you find Heller or Hayes, their families are quite powerful in Winkrell, and their names are much easier to use than mine." Derek said sincerely.

"No," John shook his head and said, "It is precisely because their family is so powerful that they are not suitable for doing this kind of thing."

Although Heller and Hayes are now under the control of Asshai, after all, they are both native Winkrel people, the Archbishop of the Sea God Church.

Choose one of them to be a puppet, and if you are not careful, you will easily breed tigers and reap the consequences.

After John divided his troops, the 10 people who remained in Winklell had to guard more than 7 prisoners, and there were still many powerful nobles in Winklell.If the puppet had a mind of its own and would bite back, John would cry without hesitation.

He didn't want to face Ya Xia's elders shamelessly, and he didn't want to disappoint His Majesty Zhong Ming's trust.

On the contrary, although Derek has no foundation and is relatively difficult to support, it is easy to use!An undercover agent, and his family members are still in Yaxia, even if he has a small mind under the influence of power, there will be no troubles.

What's more, according to John's vision, a person like Derek who is thinking about going home is not like the kind of ruthless person who abandons his family and wants to achieve great things.

"It's not that you are really the Pope of the Church of the Sea God. Just use this title to appease and control Winkrell for the time being. You can come back anytime you want to go home after the war is over."

"Derek, for the last time, I promise, this is your last mission. After I finish it, I will personally ask His Majesty Zhong Ming to give you credit for the first credit!" John said sincerely.

Derek spoke with difficulty: "That, that's fine."

……

Maybe Dalilu was grateful for Yasha's assistance, or maybe he saw the gradually clear direction of the war, and he was quite interested in John's borrowing of the horse.

With the prestige of defeating Winklell, even if Yaxia is the main force, it is much easier for Grand Duke Dalilu to recruit war horses from the nobles and wealthy businessmen in Majek's country, and finally gathered more than 9 war horses.

According to the mountainous environment of Majek, it can't be said that it is not enough to make up such a number of horses.

If we wait any longer, I'm afraid we won't be able to borrow any more horses. On the contrary, the emergency on the western front has been reported frequently within half a month, and John has no intention of continuing to wait. kingdom.

Several months after losing contact with the Winkrell Expeditionary Force, all forces in the country were already ready to move.

It stands to reason that even if the pope led the conquest, he would regularly send messages to remotely control the country to prevent chaos in the country.

It has been almost three months since the death of Pope Will, and there is not a single letter, which is really abnormal.

Keweier has three artifacts in his body, and his own strength is also high. In addition to being pampered and pampered for many years, his fighting awareness is a bit weak, and he can almost be said to be the top of the mainland.How could it be so easy to have an accident?
Therefore, the various forces in Winkrell just sent spies to Magzek to investigate, but did not take any actual action.

However, intelligence is not easy to inquire during the war. Hayes and others did not send the news back in order to avoid domestic changes. John also deliberately blocked the spread of the news until he marched into Assia.

Therefore, the major families in Winkrell received the news of the death of Pope Will, the disastrous defeat of the expeditionary force, and the capture of high-level church officials, and received the news that Assia supported Archbishop Derek as the new Pope, almost at the same time. .

"Damn, damn it!"

In a luxuriously decorated room, the patriarch of one of the three Winkrell families, Mosan Don Heiner, frantically walked around.

The news these days can be said to be more shocking than the last.

Good news, the old Will is dead, and his nephew Hayes is one of the only three heirs.

The bad news is that the expeditionary army lost all their underwear, Hayes was captured, and Yasha obviously wanted to push that bastard Derek to the top with the intention of supporting the puppet.

The worse news is that the more than 3 knights gathered by each family were easily dispersed by the people of Yasha. resistance.

On the contrary, many small and medium nobles took advantage of the wind and defected to Derek, and in fact they defected to Yasha.

Especially after John imitated Zhong Ming's public opinion war and distributed a lot of leaflets in Winkrell, promoting "Northern Continent Co-prosperity", "Asha Winkrell Family", and "Pope Derek's Reform Plan".

The reform plan includes tax reform, the promulgation of statutory laws, the standardization of military achievements, and even the academic teaching of high-end breathing method inheritance.It cannot be said that it is similar to Yasha's system, it can only be said that it is exactly the same.

These reform measures are fatal policies for the great nobles to shake the foundation of the family and threaten their monopoly position.

However, for small and medium-sized nobles whose inheritance is superficial and leaky and difficult to promote, although there may be some losses, the advantages definitely outweigh the disadvantages.Not to mention ordinary civilians.

The most important thing is that, relying on Asshai's powerful force, they are attacking some of them and wooing some small and medium nobles who kneel fast enough. They are really using Derek's name to gradually implement these measures.

'My lord's faith should spread throughout the northern continent, and this place is destined to be your majesty's possession in the future. It is also good to transform it first to adapt to the rule of Asshai. 'That's what John thought.

Since Derek has no foundation, use the reform slogan of "Make Winkrell Great Again" to artificially create some basics for Derek quickly, enough to last until the end of the war.

Not to mention anything else, after getting the high-end knight breathing method, some middle and small nobles of Winkleur became the diehard loyalists of Derek...His Majesty the Pope on the spot.

Therefore, Archbishop Derek, who was already famous in the previous disaster relief, quickly became the "Pope of Salvation" among the common people, and the "mandate of heaven" among the middle and small nobles.

There is quite a feeling of "sir, this way", "General Yashai, I know there is a small road".

Of course, the great nobles of Winkleil are naturally shattered and terrified.

Mosang Tang Haina thumped the table and successfully scrapped the expensive purple wood furniture. He roared angrily, "Damn Derek, damn Asshai, what are they going to do!"

"What to do, of course what they want to do is to pull out those who are in the way, and bring Winkrell's manpower and material resources to win this war." Huo Sen. Tang Sirui, one of the three major families "Tang Siri," the head of the family said with a sneer.

Rand Don Witt, the patriarch of the "Don Witt" family, one of the three major families, sighed: "We big nobles, I think it's getting in the way."

Huo Sen lay on the chair frivolously, and said, "That's right. The battle on the western front of Yasha is tense, and they attacked Winkrell at this time, making it clear that they wanted to go straight from Winkrell to the old den of the Wized people.

And the logistics naturally had to go to Winkrel.With great nobles like us around, we can cut off other people's logistics and retreat at any time, how can we not get in the way?
That general named John is so bold and thoughtful, really outstanding! "

These great nobles with a long history have excellent education and serious introversion. Not to mention that there will be no idiot patriarchs at all, at least the probability of idiots will be very low, and idiots often don't last long.

Huo Sen obviously had extraordinary eyesight, and he broke through John's general plan with a single word.

The pressure brought by John's methods to the great nobles is really not small. Under the strategy of using force with one hand and passing on knowledge with the other, he has already forced the heads of the three major families who were supposed to compete for the Pope's throne to sit together. .

"Okay, let's talk about what to do, is it war or peace?" Mosang took a deep breath and said.

"War? Are you kidding me? This is not the Western Continent. You and my family still rely on us. What we can pull out now is the power in Winklell. Oh, now we only have the power of our great nobles.

Even if everyone does not hide their secrets, can there be 20 to [-] knights?Can you deal with [-] people in Asana?
As you all have seen, those Asshai elites are physically stronger than the intermediate apprentice knights, but their firearms are powerful, and their well-trained lineup is well-organized.

You want to die, but I don't want to! "

"What do you mean with? We help Yasha win this war in exchange for them giving up Derek?" Rand said.

Huo Sen suddenly laughed, louder and louder.

"Huo Sen, what do you mean? Are you laughing at us?" Rand gritted his teeth with veins on his forehead.

"Sorry, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you, I just laughed at how naive you think." Huo Sen said sarcastically.

"You don't think that Yasha's goal is to win this war, do you? He won a big victory, and he wants to reap the spoils!"

"Ah~"

Huo Sen sighed, and then said: "They put in so much effort to support the puppet, not only to win, but also to obtain benefits after the war... The kingdom is at stake!"

Mosang and Rand were not stupid, they just didn't want to think about the worst and most possible outcome from the bottom of their hearts. When Huo Sen mentioned it a little, he came back to his senses and couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat.

Mo Sang said slowly: "Neither war, nor peace. Huo Sen, you are the smartest among us, tell us what we should do? Now is not the time for internal strife, everyone should unite, the seat of the pope, slowly Slow down."

Huo Sen stroked the beautiful beard on his chin and said, "What should I do? I can't beat it, of course I have to run away, what else can I do?"

"Run?"*2
"Don't worry, don't worry, listen to me," Huo Sen suppressed the doubts of the two, and said, "It's a temporary strategic shift, not a permanent abandonment of the foundation.

According to my observations, Asshai didn't bring enough war horses, one for each person was a little bit reluctant, and he also brought a lot of captives from the expeditionary army.

I guess, they must divide their troops!Divide troops to guard the prisoners of war, divide troops to control Derek to provide logistics for the army, and divide troops to save horses.After all, Wized is really not worth the full effort of Yasha now.

Let's evacuate now, save our strength, and wait for them to divide their troops and fall into Wized, and then fight back and cut off their retreat!

At that time, it will be the best time to turn defeat into victory and set things right. "

"...It makes sense," Mosang said with difficulty, "Huo Sen is right. Temporary losses seem to be inevitable. As long as we still have strength, we can regain what we lose in the future."

Rand was silent for a long time before he asked, "Where are you going?"

"It is the best choice to withdraw from the country of Hiab, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and is less affected by the drought."

"That's how it is, bring the affiliated forces of each family and let's retreat."

……

In the blink of an eye, another half month passed.

With the spread of Yaxia's printing technique, the Northern Continent, which originally had papermaking technology, has also entered a rapid development of the printing industry.

And in Windsor, the capital of King Winkrell, there is a "Sea God Church Newspaper" that imitated Asshai's "Newspaper", which is mainly for the upper class to read.

Since John led his troops into Winkrell, this church-backed newspaper has published a total of six front-page news stories.

The first news headline, "Monsters from Asshai are invading the great kingdom of Ten Thousand Years."

The second news headline, "The Unexplainable Ogre King Approaches Haina Province."

The third news headline, "Despicable and shameless traitor Derek enters the province of Kuta."

The fourth news headline, "Derek Don Sekander and his ally John Tucker occupy the city of Veran."

Fifth headline, "Archbishop Derek Approaches Fontaine."

The sixth news headline, "The Supreme Pope Derek is about to arrive in his faithful Windsor." (End of this chapter)