in the name of the queen.

Chapter 187 No one knows what they want

When Roland walked out of the city hall building, the city-state of Vaal was holding a flag-lowering ceremony.

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

The flag of Vaal City that has been flying for hundreds of years slowly falls, representing the end of a period of history.

This is not only the end of Vaal City, but also represents the disintegration of the continental convention system.

Vaal City is the first, but by no means the last.

All the neighboring countries trembled in front of the Rurik giant bear with its teeth and claws.

But apart from giant bears, other big countries are not vegetarians either.

In the foreseeable future, life will not be easy for many small countries.

For the people of Val City, the death of the country is painful, but at least it is not a river of blood, but a peaceful handover, which can be considered a safe landing.

He stepped forward resolutely and walked to the hotel where he was staying.

There is only one situation in which a contract will be honored, and that is when the benefits of keeping the contract are greater than breaking the contract.

Roland said calmly.

For the sake of peace and friendship, this song "Waal Lake" was created.

They emerged from the First Continental Congress and represented the compromises made by various countries after fighting to the point of exhaustion.

If everyone thinks that abandoning the contract is the best option, the result will be irreversible.

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

Sif didn't feel too sad and silently followed Roland away.

Although the Continental Convention was the product of a balance between great powers, all countries still basically abide by the convention and maintain rough peace for a hundred years.

A young officer suddenly sang "Waal Lake", the song that best represents the city of Vaal.

The tears that should be shed have already been shed.

She had long been accustomed to Roland's way of speaking, and new words came to him casually.

It was normal for them to perish when the Continental Convention ended.

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

The same goes for Sussex Empire.

Facing the approaching Day of Return, people no longer care about what they eat or look like.

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

At some point in the future, it may become a constitutional monarchy, or it may move towards a republic in one step, who knows.

The city-state of Vaal was born from the Continental Convention.

"Is it time to trust the wisdom of future generations again?" Sif smiled self-deprecatingly.

"Let's go."

"I know."

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

Her heart skipped a beat.

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

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

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of disappointment in Xif's eyes, and he softly comforted her: "Xif, I believe that the world in the future will be more civilized, progressive, and harmonious."

But times have changed.

Conflicts still exist, but no patriotic wars have broken out between the major powers.

The young officer in uniform rushed towards the national flag that was about to be rolled up, stabbed his abdomen with a sharp knife, and blood spurted out, turning the white flag red.

Would the same be true if she failed?
Roland looked back and said nothing.

More and more people sang this song, and the songs gathered into an undulating sound wave that echoed over the square.

If he had just awakened his memory, he might have been trembling and moved, but now he was as indifferent as a heartless spectator.

This is not something he should worry about.

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

Perhaps the death was too reasonable, and the officials, soldiers and onlookers present did not even feel much sadness.

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

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

The city-state of Vaal does not have a national anthem, so this song is adopted as the national anthem by default.

In various neighborhoods of the city, Vaal officials and soldiers are handing over power to various occupying powers and forces.

The countries guaranteed to exist by the Continental Convention also survived until the Second Continental Congress.

His eyes were cast to the distant east. Thousands of kilometers away, in the white palace of winter, there are his enemies. They will eventually face off.

Not long after the city-state of Vaal stopped functioning, 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 were still unable to compromise.

The only consensus is that there is no consensus.

Finally, under the advice of the Weimar Federation, the countries decided to shelve the dispute and jointly refrain from development.

The magic crystal veins were sealed and various detection instruments were installed to prevent illegal mining.

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

They publicly promised that they would never take away even a piece of magic crystal from White Mountain unless approved by the ruler of the Vaal City State.

While this international conference attracts everyone's attention, there is another minor event.

Tony, the former executive of the city-state of Vaal, openly joins the Sussex Empire.

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

This decision puzzled many people.

Roland may not be the culprit of the destruction of the Vaal city-state, but he is also an accomplice and beneficiary.

People knew that Mr. Tony would never surrender to the Vladimir Empire, but they did not expect that he would surrender to enemy number two.

But they knew Tony had few options.

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, most parts of the central Rodinia continent had melted ice and snow, and everything began 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 the broad prospects from the blueprint of 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 territory of Sussex now 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 each other to undermine each other.

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 a clear view of his position, and his performance points are very tight. 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 with no faults, 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 only let out a long sigh.

Walder looked at the gold coins and was very happy. 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 Alban was surprised, but even William was stunned.

"Do nothing?"

"Not really. They rarely leave the Governor's Mansion, but they promote a lot of policies."

William frowned and asked again: "Tell me carefully, apart from minting coins and accepting the subjects of Vaal City, what else did they do?"

"After the New Year, they mainly did several things, including continuing to recruit talents, building factories, encouraging commerce and opening schools."

"Opening a school?"

Several ministers were a little confused, staring at each other with big eyes and small eyes, and they were a little confused.

Teaching in this era relied mainly on private education and religion. Although there are various schools in the city ranging from primary school to university, the number of students enrolled is very small.

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

They thought that Roland and Sif were going out to build a team and wanted to come back to seize power, but they didn't expect that they would actually spend money on this.

William felt something was wrong.

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

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

I can't understand what kind of operation this is.

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

William nodded, and this question was on point.

If Hoff wants to use his ability to get back his power, it is necessary to expand the army.

However, the next words of the Director of Military Intelligence left everyone confused.

"Roland announced the disbandment of the original army in the governor-general's jurisdiction and the re-recruitment of the army."

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

"All the 90,000 troops in the governor-general's jurisdiction have been 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 asked angrily.

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

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

Walder may not be an enemy, but he is certainly not a friend. He is anxious and they all feel at ease.

The director of military intelligence took out a report and placed it on the conference table.

Walder grabbed the special report and almost vomited blood after just glancing at it.

Roland dismissed experienced veterans, using 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 former army of the Governor-General retained only a small number of young officers and soldiers, and a large number of middle-level and junior officers were dismissed.

Is this crazy? Is this how the army is built?
Walder slammed his fist on the table. He couldn't bear it anymore and walked away without even bothering to say polite words.

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

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

After Walder left, the atmosphere in the conference room became noticeably more relaxed.

Although they couldn't understand what Sif and Roland were doing, they had already decided that these two guys were messing around, so they couldn't understand.

William turned his attention to the Secretary of War and motioned for him to explain.

The Minister of War cleared his throat and said with a smile: "This is a stupid thing done by an amateur who doesn't understand military construction at all."

"What determines the level of military construction is by no means a few senior officers, but largely depends on mid-level and grassroots officers."

"In my more than thirty years of military experience, I have never seen anything like this. Even if we look at the entire military history of the continent and the history of the Magic Empire, very few have done this."

"It's obvious that Mr. Roland is dissatisfied with the armies in the three overseas provinces, so he wants to tear them down and rebuild them. I can only wish him good luck."

The War Secretary's teasing also reassured others.

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 members of the Shadow Templar.

He suddenly stirred, as if he thought of something, and turned his gaze to the Admiral.

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

"Oh, Mr. William, you are indeed a layman who doesn't understand the navy."

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

"Why the navy is called a century-old navy is not only that naval traditions require long-term development, but also because the oak and other wood used in shipbuilding take hundreds of years to mature."

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

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

His Sussex humor drew roars of laughter.

He is right, navy training is very difficult. Experienced captains and sailors come second, and fleet construction is the difficulty.

In order to prevent overseas rebellion, Sussex has always banned overseas shipbuilding. Planting ships-building trees overseas is tantamount to rebellion.

The trees in all the overseas colonies and the three overseas provinces combined cannot make a few ships.

William smiled and made a concluding statement for this farce, "In other words, unless they can make wood from the air or make ships out of steel, it is impossible to have a powerful navy, is that right?"

"Yes."

Winston spread his hands and mocked mercilessly: "As we all know, things heavier than water cannot float on the sea. Maybe Mr. Roland has some magic that can make the iron-clad ship float on the sea."

"Your Majesty, Goddess of Fertility, please forgive my ignorance."

Alban, who remained silent, couldn't stand Winston's expression, and said coldly:

"Don't be so stupid. I heard that in the second era, there were super armored ships hundreds of meters long, and there were even huge iron birds flying in the sky."

"I've heard of it too, but it was a miracle. Does it still exist now?"

Winston hummed: "If he can drive a giant steel ship into the Tamas River, I will show you how to eat the warship alive."

"Okay, remember to bring the sauce." Alban said tit for tat.

William raised his hands, ending their argument.

"Gentlemen, no needless quarrels. Let us hear any other interesting information?"

William’s face still needs to be given.

Although Albon and Winston disliked each other, they did not continue to quarrel, but sat down like gentlemen.

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

What they have done in the three overseas provinces are large-scale long-term investments, and some investments even take ten years or more to bear fruit.

William was speechless. He couldn't understand what Roland wanted to do.

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

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

William was silent.

After a long time, he teased with a chuckle: "Oh my god, those are five thousand temple warriors. I heard that their fighting power is amazing. How many regular troops can these five thousand people deal with?"

"If it's the imperial garrison, it's about 10,000. If it's the most elite Imperial Guard, we will win even if the numbers are equal."

The War Secretary sounded confident.

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

The temple warriors were indeed elite, but their numbers were too few.

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

The Minister of War said solemnly: "There are 470,000 standing troops stationed in the local area, and the total number of foreign troops sent by each governor-general is about 300,000. If war requires, the army can be expanded to more than 2 million at any time."

"We can't expand this much, and the finances will have no money!" The finance minister pretended to be deaf and objected in real name.

William laughed and waved his hand to stop the argument.

"In short, His Majesty and her lover cannot threaten us through force. They don't even have any intention of resolving the dispute through force. Does she want to call on the army to defect with a wave of her arms?"

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

William said calmly, making the final judgment.

But he soon had a headache again.

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

"Then what do they want?"

"It's very simple, they probably don't want to come back." Alban said coldly.

William was stunned for a moment and frowned in confusion, "What do you mean you don't want to come back?"

"That's what it means."

Alban explained calmly: "Our Majesty the Queen frequently traveled between the three overseas provinces and Vaal City during this period, and she had a great time."

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

William was silent.

This indeed seemed like a bad idea that Roland could come up with.

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

Although the Viceroyalty of Northern Rodinia cannot be compared with the mainland, it is still larger than an ordinary kingdom.

She would still choose between being the puppet emperor when she comes back and being the real king outside.

William couldn't help laughing.

Alban's ridicule well explained the reasons for what Roland and Sif did.

They plan to enjoy life in three overseas provinces, so they build for the long term.

Rather than coming back and hating each other, it would be better not to see each other at all.

"Is this okay?"

"What's wrong? Just wait until she officially ascends the throne to declare Hansa as the capital." Alban explained from a legal perspective.

William smiled with satisfaction.

"Everyone, maybe this is the best result. If this is what His Majesty wants, we loyal people have no reason to object."

(End of this chapter)