Alien Knights

Officials of the Muxi Kingdom have recently discovered to their surprise that there is always a strange old man standing beside King Todd, whether it is discussing or reporting.

He was wearing a simple but close-fitting dress, and his mustache was well-groomed. His demeanor and demeanor were impressive.

No matter what the occasion, this old man named Emerson never expressed his opinion on anything from the beginning to the end, and never showed any expressions of approval or disapproval. He just stood there to observe and listen.

After many inquiries, people finally learned the identity of the old man—the former Minister of the Interior of Yinhuan.

However, what King Todd bestowed on the old man was an unheard-of position—chief privy officer of the Privy Council.

In the king's vision, the Privy Council is called the king's advisory body, but it actually acts as the administrative center.

Under the direct control of the king, the Privy Council formulates laws, holds the highest judicial power, and presides over the highest court. The Chief Privy Councilor is the king's first seat aide and acts only on the king's will.

But what puzzled Todd was that after Emerson was appointed chief privy officer, he only participated in meetings and activities, but did not take any substantive actions.

Todd asked the old man more than once what suggestions he had for the future direction of the kingdom.

The other party always replied with this sentence - "Your Majesty, I am untying the knot on the ball of thread, please wait a little longer".

Fortunately, the wait didn't last long.

On the tenth day after Emerson took office, the old man walked into the king's room holding a roll of paper.

Watching Emerson spread one piece of white paper after another on the ground, the curious Todd moved closer to him and looked at it carefully for a while.

The names of countless people are written in densely packed small characters on the white paper, and there is also a long section of remarks below the names. The names of people are connected by horizontal lines, and various relationships are written above the horizontal lines.

Todd read out one of the introductions: "Elijah, a native of the Eastern Holy City, is now a professor of civil architecture, bridge engineering, and painting art at Muxi College. He studied at Taylor Royal College for seven years, and then left the capital for studying abroad..."

Todd looked at Elijah's connection map again, and there were many familiar names connected to him, such as Master Terrence, Ulysses, Dion... and these people were surrounded by a "big circle" called "Jade Society".

Emerson pointed to the content on the paper and said to Todd: "There is a saying that the strongest fortress often collapses from within. As a monarch, the first thing you need to do is to understand your subjects."

"As you can see, these are people with positions or power in Muxi Kingdom." Emerson found a cushion, sat cross-legged on it, pointed to a personal name on the picture and said, "They have different experiences, backgrounds, and have a common alliance in terms of interpersonal relationships and common interests."

Emerson tapped a few names with a pen, namely "Rachel", "Terrence", "Cumberland" and "Mary", and said: "In Muxi City, from the perspective of power balance and faction will, it is roughly divided into the following four factions. For the sake of simple distinction, I use the "Alien Faction", "Scholar Faction", "Military Faction" and "Old Noble Faction" to call them respectively."

"The so-called heterogeneous faction, as the name suggests, is an alliance of heterogeneous people. Due to long-term oppression and persecution, this faction appears to be extremely united. Their number accounts for the smallest proportion in the entire Muxi City, but due to the advantages of their abilities, their influence is also the highest in the kingdom. The leader of the faction is Rachel. For some reason, she has a particularly bad attitude towards the Scholars faction. Perhaps it is because her ethnic group was once subjected to human experiments and supernatural power cultivation by the elders in the name of academics, which caused her disgust today."

"Scholar faction, this may be the fastest-growing force in Muxi Kingdom. Those who joined the "Jade Society", and counting the teachers and students of Muxi College, the total number of this faction is conservatively estimated to have exceeded a thousand! One thousand scholars! Your Majesty, this is really a rare spectacle, and it is no wonder that more and more people call Muxi City the "City of Learning"! The alliance of scholars is relatively loose. No. The leader of the faction is Terrence, the academic leader of Taylor Royal Academy, with students from every country in the continent. Because he has experienced the tragedies created by the church, he is more inclined to fight for the right to academic freedom."

"Military faction, the leader of the faction is Cumberland's loud voice. The largest number of people in Muxi City, as long as it is the army or guards, they all belong to this faction, and even in a sense, I belong here. Under the leadership of that guy Cumberland, the loyalty of the military faction is beyond doubt, but the faction is inevitably interspersed with personnel from other factions."

"Finally... the old aristocratic faction..."

Emerson pointed the pen at Queen Mary's name, froze for a while, and finally said in a low voice: "Mary... As the former queen of the Silver Ring Kingdom, she is very close to the escaped nobles of the Silver Ring Kingdom in terms of connections and social interactions. But, Your Majesty, don't worry, she didn't do anything excessive. On the contrary, she also tried her best to persuade those old nobles to invest gold and silver and other properties in the industries of Muxi City, such as commercial streets, wool workshops, glass factories, ports, etc. Those old nobles After listening to her advice, they all made a lot of money without exception. I heard that she is planning a textile factory recently..."

"The old aristocratic faction may be the faction with the smallest number of people. Their organization is the loosest, and they mostly communicate through receptions and dinners. But they are also the wealthiest of the four factions. Whether it is business, trade, transportation or manufacturing, you can see their footprints."

Listening to Emerson's introduction, Todd opened his mouth in disbelief.

An old man who has just entered Muxi City can actually get a clear picture of the entire kingdom's interpersonal network in just half a month.

Emerson looked at the king's expression and guessed what the other party was thinking. He didn't take the credit or push the blame: "Most of this information came from Huggins and the security bureau. He refused to tell me at first. Later, I asked Cumberland for help, which convinced him."

Todd nodded, acknowledging the statement.

"After talking about the characters and factions in Muxi City, let's talk about the kingdom's political system."

Emerson lay down on the ground, drew a large circle in the center of the white paper with a pencil, then drew several small circles below, and finally drew countless dots under the small circle. He put the paper in front of Todd and said, "The picture I am drawing now represents the power structure of most countries on the mainland. The largest circle represents the king or emperor, the smaller circles represent nobles who have obtained fiefdoms, and the smaller dots represent fiefs attached to noble families, such as barons or knights."

Seeing Todd's thoughtful expression, Emerson continued to explain: "Each lord can divide his territory into several pieces and seal it to his subordinates, thus forming a kind of equilateral triangle ladder. But this kind of power structure causes a problem-the king's power is often limited to the king's city, and once he leaves the capital, although it is still his territory in name, he has no right to govern. request."

"Therefore, every king's dream is to confiscate land and centralize royal power. Your Majesty, by canceling noble fiefdoms and only retaining knight titles, you have completely completed the process of centralization and ended the custom of enfeoffment. In a sense, you have become the first king on this continent to complete the centralization of power!"

Emerson smiled and said: "At first, when I heard that you took the initiative to decentralize power, my first reaction was that you were crazy. How many things that monarchs dream of, you actually gave up after getting it. Of course... After talking with you, I finally understood your painstaking efforts."

"So, combined with the faction structure and power situation of the Muxi Kingdom I mentioned earlier, I'm thinking about two things now: first, how to draw the line between royal power and civil power, that is, which powers can be divided and which powers must be owned by the king? Second, how these divided powers should be balanced among the four factions through positions and appointments, so as to speed up the development of the kingdom without hindering the progress of the kingdom due to factional conflicts."