Warhammer

He sighed inwardly.

"Tobaro has always shown a dovish stance towards the two countries. They are the closest to each other and can develop smoothly by relying on trade and mining, so they have never had any desire for military expansion."

"And now, even the demands of the Tobaro people, who tend to be more moderate, are so naked that they want to take away our rights..."

It is conceivable what the real hawks and war hawks look like.

The direction of the subsequent conference was exactly as Kael'thas and Ai'er had expected.

The conditions put forward by the Tyrell side were more stringent and radical than the last. Even after repeated exchanges and demarcations, the United Kingdom was willing to make certain concessions, but it was difficult to see the other side's attitude soften. In return, they only intensified their demands.

Aiel's delegation included all aspects of social class, as mentioned before, there were farmers, nobles, clergy, and sailors.

For every request made by Tyrell, Kael'thas would give a tactful explanation of his own. After he gave his own analysis, he would hand it over to the representatives for communication and exchange to see whether the matter was acceptable. If not, then whether to make concessions or firmly refuse... and so on.

In fact, this is a very strange situation in the eyes of outsiders. The king's offspring, who represents the highest status in the team, is taciturn to the outside world, while allowing a group of people who seem to not be in such a scene to show up.

But Kael'thas could understand why his father asked him to do this.

This is a war that is bound to happen and both sides have tacitly agreed to it.

For the newly born United Kingdom, the war disrupted Aiel's rapid development plan, but at the same time, an external war that took the country as a subject would temper the human beings - the tribes - that he had half-forced together.

This time it's not about facing the common enemy of almost all life, the purely savage and warlike greenskins.

Rather, it is an attack from another human kingdom. The beastmen will fight side by side with humans to defend their common interests.

This will be a calcination that seems to be carefully prepared for the kingdom of Aiur. In the end, the test of war will integrate all the materials into one, making them inseparable.

But many people still hold out hope.

One of the main reasons why Aiur created such an identity, a comprehensive delegation from top to bottom, and instructed Kael'thas to give them autonomous support was to unite all aspects of the new kingdom.

Let this war become a full-scale war between the two countries, and let people realize that what the Tyrells are asking for is not "expelling the beastmen" or "assisting in restoration", but something real, and what they want to damage is the interests of Estalia, and the interests of everyone on this land will be exploited.

This is a war they support and a war to safeguard their interests.

......

Watching the two representatives arguing back and forth, Kael'thas silently drew a hexagram symbol on his notebook.

He was very smart. No matter what Al asked his children to do, he never concealed his intentions from them.

In politics and military affairs, he always shows extraordinary abilities and is worthy of everyone's trust, but Kael'thas does not like war by nature. However, this is what his father needs, so he should work hard for it. Aiur needs victory, so he must win.

This war is in Ai'er's favor, so let it come.

When this war begins, everyone must unite under one flag...

Something happened at home, please excuse me for a day.

My friends in the group should have known this. I have to go back to my hometown tomorrow. I am really sorry.

Chapter 47: The Reformed Clergy

The progress of the negotiations was progressing with difficulty. Perhaps not everyone, but the vast majority of the participants had realized that war was probably inevitable.

Some off-field factors:

After the people from Tyrell and the reorganized War Church of the United Kingdom came into contact, violent conflicts broke out. The two sides even engaged in direct fighting, and the involvement of the Church of the Five Seals greatly exacerbated the tension.

Although they were mentally prepared, when the Tyrell Church actually came into contact with their "peers" in the United Kingdom, the other party kept calling them "Goddess Sister Mirmidia and Heavenly Brother Aiur". "Mirmidia has completed her mission and inherited her sister's legacy. Aiur will rule the Southern Kingdom and make it great again"!

Out of respect and to avoid the surprise of friendly nations (fearing the Empire's Great Expedition), the content about "Brother Sigma" was hidden and only circulated in a small range within the reorganized War Church. The most important core doctrines of the new church are:

The celestial sister Mirmidia and the celestial brother Ai'er share the same origin, which represents the rise of the Church of the Five Seals and the legitimacy of Ai'er's unification of the South.

But the Tyrell clergy who attended the meeting still broke down the defense.

You know, the United Kingdom's reformed war church doctrines made even those Tyrell secular people who were not very interested in religion and wanted to get in touch with these "reformed priests" and try to win them over and infiltrate them feel uncomfortable when they learned about it, let alone the real war church owners?

The two sides met, one priest was heartbroken and angrily denounced the "heretics", "misguided" and "bewitched by evil spirits", while the other monk said, "You are right, but 'Sister-Brother Inheritance' is a new, open and people-friendly doctrine developed by the goddess and established by the orthodox church..."

In this case, it is not time to stand on the battlefield seriously, otherwise your brains will be beaten to pieces.

Of course, there is also the reason that the reformist clergy in the United Kingdom are more capable of fighting.

Not only do they now have the Four Mothers' Vanguard standing on their platform, but after the discussion of fetishism, i.e. "worship the idol of Media, but it is hard to say who they believe in in their hearts", the divine grace that seemed to have disappeared overnight has begun to return and descend upon the war priests, but the attributes are probably a little wrong, but that's okay.

It's enough to be able to fight.

So when the two churches met, the orthodox Tyrell priests who had originally wanted to "attack heresy" were surprised and embarrassed to find that they seemed to be no match for the opponent when they started fighting.

They can't even use a few of Myrmidia's magic now, but the reorganized priests can directly use bloodlust, add berserk, and summon a blood-red warhammer that looks wrong in every way to smash the provocateur's dog head - it is euphemistically called the "Hammer of the Goddess".

Or it could be a strange spell that flashes purple-black light and can bring people great pain while adding pleasure. Specifically, after being whipped, one may be in excruciating pain, suffer incontinence, or even reach orgasm and die instantly.

Not to mention that the color doesn't look right at all, when Mirmidia was still active, none of the many divine arts mentioned how to play like this!

heresy!

Blasphemy!

It doesn't matter if you can't win by yourself. After all, the priests are civilized people. If you can't fight, you can debate with the scriptures or ask your subordinates to help you.

Skitarii!

Warrior professions such as the Paladin do not rely on divine magic to fight, but on the warriors' strong physique, armor, war hammer, sword and shield, and the Arbiter's two-handed greatsword!

The Tyrell Church, which had not suffered heavy losses in the Greenskin War, should have had a much higher number and quality of religious guards than the Reformed Priests, but the latter responded:

Please help me, fellow Taoists!

He was wearing heavy armor, and was equipped with spears, halberds, shields, swords, hammers, sickles, axes, and all of them were heavy weapons that could be used as door panels to smash people.

Its size is about the height of one and a half to two adult men, and horizontally it is about the size of a small tank. It is basically a flesh-driven, steel humanoid killing weapon.

It comes with the Protection of the Blood Mother, the Gift of El, the Reverse of Khorne engraved on the chest, and a hexagram painted on the back.

He thrust a long and heavy weapon there, almost hitting the ceiling. Even the most steadfast warriors would swallow their throats when they saw it.

I am a god in the realm of war, so it is normal for the priests under me to be warriors, right?

Just to prevent conflicts, Aiel directly used the Guards Wrathhorn and Wrathhorn Warlords to escort the negotiation team. Together with the accompanying Priests of the Five Seals and Mages of the Council of Scholars, the risk of the Tyrells turning the table over, pulling out knives and killing his delegation was basically eliminated.

In the end, no one was killed directly, but there were still many cases where robed monks and clergymen fought each other during conversations. It was because the Tyrell Church was still hoping for luck and wanted to try to win over these reformist priests, persuading them to "turn back" or not to turn back for the time being and act as an insider.

Of course, the effect of doing this is basically zero.

After all, priests who were minded towards tradition and the past were basically eliminated.

Al is wary of religious figures because these people have great influence. If they are released and become hostile to the local people, the consequences will be more serious. Therefore, most of them are placed under house arrest. In the Inara Mountains, there is an exile monastery specifically for imprisoning these priests. They are almost cut off from the outside world, and only regular supplies are delivered to prevent them from dying of hunger and starvation.

Today, all the clergy of the War Church in the United Kingdom are Reformers who have accepted the new doctrines. In the Middle Ages, faith was considered more important than anything else. Although it has declined slightly in the hundred years after the war, this aspect is still taken very seriously, and it is extremely rare to see people "pretending to convert and then regretting it later."

Those who held on to their imperfections went to the monastery for "retreat", and those who stayed were newcomers.

At least before the jihad army marches all the way to Margarita, don't think that these priests who have changed their ways once can be persuaded to "repent" by words.

There is a cooling time for changing your beliefs!

......

No matter what kind of episode it is, it can only speed up the process but cannot control it.

As the negotiations progressed, the Tyrells became more and more aggressive, while the exiles, who were supposed to be the vanguards of the Tyrells, became low-key instead, watching everything on the scene with cold eyes. They saw with their own eyes how greedy and aggressive the Tyrells were in order to seize the interests of their country. They even disdained to bring them under the banner, and just "openly" demanded this and that, encroaching on the interests of Estalia.

Many people are impressed by what Charlie has repeatedly emphasized:

The Tyrells cannot be trusted. They may be our friends now, but as long as the exiles want to return home with a glorious identity, they are destined to be our enemies in the end!

Have a real understanding.

As the leader of the exiles, Harrington did not participate in this negotiation. Instead, he authorized a veteran figure who also came from the National Salvation Association to act as his agent. But in fact, this agent was a staunch supporter of Charlie and a patriot who was determined to take the third independent path between surrendering to the Beastmen or the Tyrells.

So the leader of the exiles who came to the negotiations between the two countries was actually Charles Aquitaine.

The young man at this time did not show his radical tendencies as before. Under his instruction, the exile behaved quite well except for taking the lead at the beginning, because he knew one thing very well:

The ruler in the Golden Palace did not judge whether the other party's behavior was good or bad or what their purpose was. He had taken the Kingdom of Estalia with great effort, not to give up half of it to the Tyrells for nothing.

Charlie understood that all they had to do next was wait.

War is inevitable.

Chapter 48: The Last Foreplay

"Let's put an end to this boring charade!"

"Opening up colonies to each other and opening up the right for both sides' fleets to be stationed in Hong Kong is the prerequisite for all negotiations. If you cannot even accept this, then we can only assume that you have no sincerity in the negotiations."

Miragliano's envoy issued an ultimatum to the United Kingdom delegation headed by Kael'thas in a threatening tone.

They had been talking for three full days, but in the end, the biggest problem was still the "foundation of everything," namely, opening colonies and allowing fleets to enter ports.

Anyone with a discerning eye knew that this was clearly not a "prerequisite for negotiation," but rather a preliminary exercise by the Tirells in order to seize the interests of the old Estalia colony as smoothly as possible.

The fleet entering the port is even more ridiculous. The combined fleet can't even deal with the pirates now. Even if all the ports of Tyrell are opened to them, what can they do?

How can it be!

After the attack by the envoys of Miragliano, the envoys of the Duchy of Lusigni also stood up and took an aggressive attitude, declaring:

This is not a negotiation, nor a request - it is based on the national security, national interests and strength of the two countries!

If the United Kingdom is unable to protect its people and interferes, affecting the interests of the Tyrells, then the Tyrell fleet has an obligation to do something to protect itself and its people.

No one can restrict their actions!

This was undoubtedly an alternative ultimatum. The Tyrells' already limited patience had been worn away by the confrontations of the past few days. The United Kingdom negotiators, whom they looked down upon and considered to be "a circus filled with clowns, peasants, and low-class people," were unusually firm in their attitude. They followed the principle of obeying the majority if two-thirds of the consensus was unanimous, and with Kael'thas' guidance, every word he said hit the nail on the head and explained the pros and cons to them, so that they would not be intimidated or deceived by the Tyrells.

Apart from the desire to negotiate a peace, they made concessions on some regulations and were willing to give up some interests, but they did not agree to any treaties involving bottom lines and fundamental interests. This was a delegation carefully selected by El, and they were all defenders of the country who actively supported the current national system.

In fact, it is no different from pulling a group of beastmen from the tribe and putting them here, and letting El remotely command them. On the contrary, by doing this, almost all members of the delegation are Estalia people, and they come from all walks of life. It can be said that they directly represent all walks of life, which is more impressive.

Anyway, the final result is that no deal can be reached...

In response to this threatening "ultimatum negotiation", the United Kingdom delegation, whose energy, patience and even the slightest hope for peace had been exhausted in this not-so-long tug-of-war, also responded in the most resolute way:

"Tyrells, you can do whatever you want and what you can do."

"But we will not sit there, looking at the sea, and stand idly by while any behavior infringes upon our interests!"

They came to negotiate for peace, for the benefit of their country and themselves, not to beg for peace from the Tirells.

Before the Great War, when the long-lurking Skaven and Beastmen craze swept the South and almost destroyed it, the Estalias had always lived better than their Tyrell neighbors during the thousands of years when the two twin kingdoms were close to each other!

Their geographical location is relatively more favorable. Apart from Tyrell, their only land neighbor is Bretonnia. The two big troubles in the southern world: "The Rat Wasteland" and "The Pirate Principality of Sartosa" are all on the Tyrell side. On the Estalia side, the competition is not that fierce. The relatively more peaceful environment makes conflicts between their city-states rarely occur.

There is no need to continue the negotiations at this point.

The representatives of the United Kingdom, who had originally had a certain degree of sincerity, had completely lost hope for peace. They unanimously expressed that they could no longer tolerate the aggressive attitude of the Tyrells and requested to end this meaningless negotiation, right at the conference, in front of the Tyrell representatives.

After consulting Aiel and getting the approval of "Okay, come back soon", Kael'thas did not hesitate, regardless of the threatening or slowing attitude of the Tyrell representatives, and said:

"At this point, there is no need to continue negotiations. The future direction of the two countries does not depend on the two countries, but on your country."

"Your country's request is not for friendship, but to open our country's door, plunder our people's property, and occupy our land. I will not allow such things, my people will not allow it, and my father will not allow it."

Then he announced his departure with all our representatives, and no matter how much they were persuaded, they would no longer attend the negotiations. The result was already obvious. No matter how much the Tyrells wanted to put on a show, there was no need for them to continue playing along.

At the same time, he and his entourage quickly packed up their things, announced their withdrawal that day, and started to return on the spot.

After the Tyrells stayed for another day, the representatives of the major duchies announced to the people of the city-states:

Because the Estalia people had no sincerity on the important issues concerning the security and interests of the two countries' countries and people, and made no concessions on the orthodox legal principles of the original kingdom, they withdrew halfway and the negotiations failed to achieve the desired results.

......

This statement was not unexpected by Aiel. The Tyrells wanted everything, both the substance and the appearance, but this nonsense could not even fool their own people.

However, the war against the newly born United Kingdom was driven by the reasons of "holy war against pagan heresy" and the interests of "seizing large colonies while the enemy is weak", as well as an excuse for war "at the invitation of exiles".

Therefore, even though they know that this kind of thing is immoral, the people who are accustomed to war will still not condemn it too much - their opposition may not burst out until the war is disadvantageous to their country, and at that time it may continue to be used and in turn turned into enthusiasm for fighting foreign enemies.

And if the war can be won, then needless to say, the victor will not be condemned, this is the consistent rule of this world.

After the talks broke down, while the representatives gathered in Miragliano, the City of the Shadow King took the opportunity to pull out the exiles and launched a massive petition campaign, using formal diplomatic methods between the two countries to request the Tirells to send troops to restore their country and expel "the beast-man tyrants who usurped the country and their filthy minions of the hoofed tribe."

Although Charlie didn't want to take the lead, it was not something he had the final say in.

The Tyrells wanted to use them, and perhaps offer them benefits, but they certainly wouldn't let the exiles just lie there and do nothing.