The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 597 Entering Rome
Although Richard did not intend to fight the Huns at this time, he was still prepared to pretend to obey the emperor's order. Anyway, Gaul was far away from Rome, so he would gather the army after the messenger arrived.

With the mobilization power of that era, it would take almost two months for him to lead his troops to Italy.

Attila's attack on Rome at that time was unstoppable. He did not attack city by city, but directly surrounded some important cities with his large army, and then the cavalry bypassed these cities and rushed straight to Rome.

Valentinian III didn't have much time to react.

After reading the intelligence about the Hun invasion, Richard did not make any big moves and continued to develop things step by step.

After he got rid of the tribal leaders and nobles of the Franks, he divided the land among these ordinary Franks. In a short time, he gained the loyalty of the Franks.

It must be said that the ancestor's law of equal distribution of land was really a killer. Originally, when Richard was purging the nobles and tribal leaders, these tribal leaders were able to lead many people to rebel.

As a result, after the Equal Field System was implemented, the tribal leaders and nobles could no longer cause any trouble. Some people even tied up the tribal leaders who were in hiding and sent them to Paris to ask for credit and reward.

Richard also gave rewards to these people.

The Gaul province then entered a period of rapid development. Richard encouraged farming and ordered people to make a large number of agricultural tools for rent and sale to farmers. On the other hand, the druids were also working hard to spread their faith.

The Druids had a church in all the cities of Gaul, and they also went to the villages below to preach.

These druids who know how to plant crops are very popular in the countryside. For these common people, it doesn't matter which god they believe in. As long as it can bring them benefits, they are willing to believe in him.

These druids worked very hard to gain their faith. Although Richard prepared a large number of farm tools and plow horses to rent and sell to the farmers, the tools and plow horses he provided were like pouring a cup of water into the sand compared to the millions of farmers in Gaul.

In the blink of an eye, it disappeared, and it was simply unable to meet the huge needs of the farmers. Even in places with better conditions, plow horses and tools had to be lined up for use.

So these druids found another way, buying all kinds of farm tools and plow horses, and then renting them to farmers, or even selling them to farmers at low prices.

This approach immediately gained popularity among a large number of farmers. In order to be the first to rent farm tools and plow horses, many villages converted to druids one by one.

Richard did not stop the druids from preaching in this way. Instead, he secretly encouraged it. After all, he did not have enough resources, and it was great that these druids could give him money to help him improve the level of agriculture.

As for saying that this method or belief is unethical and unfair? Is it fair to force everyone to believe in monotheism through administrative order?

Compared to those forced orders, this method is more effective and good for the development of the territory. At the same time, it can also drive other beliefs to follow suit.

If you believe in druids, you can rent farm tools and plow horses at low prices or even for free. Druids can also teach you various agricultural techniques such as the use of manure. What are the benefits of believing in them?
The common people at the bottom of society won’t tell you any myths or beliefs; they have their own way of survival.

Especially in the province of Gaul, there was no administrative order, and people were not forced to believe in anything. After the Druids first launched the internal circulation, other religions had to follow suit if they did not want to be left behind.

Therefore, in order to gain faith, it is necessary to give benefits to ordinary civilians. Even if monotheism is reluctant, it must do so if it wants to expand faith.

But the current monotheism has no time to care about Gaul.

A large part of the faith in Gaul is Arianism, which is notoriously poor. There is not much money to invest in it. As for asking for help from the headquarters, the Arianism at this time is fighting against the Roman Church and can't care about this poor and remote place in Gaul.

The only reply was to let them figure it out themselves, or find local noble believers and ask them to pay for their help.

However, Richard had almost completely eliminated all of the original aristocratic believers in the province of Gaul, and the remaining ones also declared that they no longer believed in monotheism and began to believe in other religions.

After all, as the boss of the Gaul province, the governor does not believe in monotheism. You don't follow the governor's beliefs. Do you think you have lived too long?
For these upper class people, religious belief is not that important, so-called faith is more of a political issue. The vast majority of people are not devout in their faith.

Therefore, after Richard completely controlled Gaul, the monotheistic faith territory began to shrink rapidly.

Those nobles no longer believed in monotheism, or declared on the surface that they no longer believed in monotheism.

Richard did not say anything about this situation, neither encouraging nor stopping it. In fact, not stopping it already showed his attitude. After all, decades ago, the Empire had declared monotheism as the state religion and prohibited polytheism.

Now there are other religions in Gaul, which is a violation of the laws of the empire. Unfortunately, even if Richard violated the laws of the empire, both the Emperor Valentinian III and the Protector of the Empire Aetius turned a blind eye.

After all, Richard already controlled the province of Gaul and had a large number of troops at his disposal, so they had to win him over.

The Druids used various means to win over the common people. In addition to gaining their faith, the agricultural technology in Gaul was rapidly improving. After seeing this, the monotheistic priests and priests angrily scolded the Druids for buying faith with money, and claimed that the faith bought with money revealed greed and sin in every pore.

But no one paid any attention to him.

Seeing this situation, the monotheistic pastors and priests had to spend money to buy some food or tools in order to win the faith of the common people.

But the monotheistic priests and priests who were used to being high and mighty could not compete with the druids at all.

The doctrines that had been improved after Richard's special training were simpler and easier for ordinary people to accept, and they also had the effect of increasing food production. In the battle for faith, monotheism could not catch up with the druids.

The druids' way of preaching through the masses directly confused the monotheists. Even the monotheists could not match them by using all kinds of materials to win over ordinary people.

After all, the monotheistic priests don’t understand farming techniques or how to increase yields.

On the Roman Road leading to Paris, a team of messengers was urging their horses to gallop, but the road had long been in disrepair. The road was bumpy and uneven, and it was impossible to speed up.

The leading knight looked anxious.

"How far is it to Paris?"

"Sir, we can arrive by tomorrow morning at the latest!" said a servant next to him.

These people were the envoys sent by Valentinian III. They set out from Rome and traveled all the way through the Alps and the Central Highlands to get here.

It had been more than ten days since they set out. The roads were difficult to travel along the way, and they had to be careful of bandits, which was very tiring.

These people traveled quickly all the way and finally arrived in Paris the next morning.

"Governor, His Majesty has sent an urgent order. Attila, the King of the Huns, has once again led an army of 200,000 to attack Italy. Rome is no longer worried. Governor, please gather the army immediately and go to Rome for rescue!"

The disheveled messenger did not even have time to rest and went straight to Richard's office to deliver the message, requesting Richard to send troops.

As he spoke, he handed a parchment scroll to Richard with both hands.

Richard first checked the seal of the parchment scroll, and after making sure that the imperial emperor's seal was intact, he quickly opened the scroll.

As expected, it was a letter from Valentinian III asking for help. After reading the letter, Richard said, "I will order the army to gather as soon as possible and then rush to Gaul as quickly as possible. You have been working hard all the way. Go and take a rest first."

After seeing the herald leave, Aleiya next to him said, "Richard, should we send troops?"

"Of course we have to send troops." Richard said with a smile, "But when and how many troops to send is not up to His Majesty the Emperor to decide."

"Make arrangements, organize the food and fodder, and prepare for the expedition."

Even if Richard did not delay and sent his troops at a normal speed, the distance along the way was nearly three thousand miles. Even if Richard did not delay all the way, it would take at least a month to reach Rome.

Adding in the food and supplies, this journey would take at least a month and a half.

It took three days to prepare everything, and Richard led the army to the battle. This time, Richard left all thirty extraordinary knights in Paris.

He knew very well that there would be no fighting on this rescue mission, and he might not even be able to fight the Whip of God. So all these extraordinary knights were left behind to watch over the house, and to prevent the Germans from taking the opportunity to invade, or the Monotheism from doing anything weird while he was away.

In the military camp.

A burst of hurried horse hoofbeats sounded, and soon after, teams of hundreds of men were seen ready to go. There was almost no noise on the parade ground. When the herald saw the army in front of him, he was stunned.

He could see that the army in front of him was a strong one, no worse than the elite troops of the Protector of the Kingdom that he had seen, and he even felt that this army was stronger. The Governor of Gaul was indeed capable, and he had trained such a strong army in just two or three years.

After the army was ready, they walked out of the camp in order and headed towards Rome along the Roman Road.

(End of this chapter)