Warhammer

Alliance: The Misha Legion heading north has already recaptured Algaris and is marching north as planned. The Vidanos are frantically trying to make overtures to the Alliance, and soon the southern part of the Western Border Prince Territory will fall into the Alliance's sphere of influence. The 30,000 elite troops led by Al who returned victorious from the Eastern Expedition are also stationed in Matoka. The King of the Alliance, who seems to have stopped to rest, is secretly influencing the direction of the disputes in the entire Border Prince Territory.

Greenskins: No one knows where the main force of the warlord is now. Although it has retreated from Matoka, as long as it is not completely eliminated, it will still be a force that can overturn the entire Border Princedom. There are currently 17 city-states of various sizes that are still "loyal" to Gao Maoliang in name, but obviously as long as the news of the warlord's defeat comes and the threat of the greenskins is lifted, they will immediately declare that they are irreconcilable with the greenskins and fight to the death!

As for the native factions in the border territories, those in the west were destined to choose one side in this war. Surrender had deprived them of the qualification to "determine their own destiny."

In addition, the eastern section of the Eastern Border Princedom, that is, the part of the states near the Blackfire Pass and the Dwarf Kingdom are just watching the show. Their strength is too weak, and even if they unite, they cannot be said to be qualified to intervene in this melee, so they are currently in a state of going with the flow, and they may depend on whoever is stronger.

Before the battle between the chief legions and the great warlords is decided, it seems that the Imperials still have the greatest power.

If Chief Augustine can successfully defeat the greenskin army and force the eastern region to surrender to the empire, and use the threat of liquidation and the bait of interests to integrate most of the western territory, then Ai'er must be prepared to only get "a quarter" of the spoils, that is, the area south of Kalundborg, in the battle for the border territory.

Before the Alliance officially sent out troops to "support" the border people in their fight against the greenskins, under the remote command of Aiel in Matoka, a banner had been raised by the Alliance:

"Border Defenders Front".

There are currently two "exile governments" in the Alliance. One is naturally the earliest Algaris. When the greenskins were about to break into the peninsula, Misha led his troops to take over the defense. Later, when they saw that the greenskins were going to fight to the death with Mirmidon, they simply moved all their people back to the country.

The other is the Mirmidon government-in-exile after the great retreat. Although they lost their homes, the Mirmidon people are undoubtedly the most influential and influential people in the entire border princedom in this war.

After all, the real results are there.

All the cities surrendered, only Mirmidon insisted on resisting. Every citizen mobilized as a soldier, and would rather die than live in disgrace. They fought the greenskins to the last moment, causing great obstacles and damage to Gao Maoliang's army.

It can be said that the existence of Mirmidon is the last dignity of the Border Princes in this war.

If the Myrmidons had not put up a resolute resistance, demonstrating that "border people do dare to fight", and they had also chosen to surrender to the greenskins to protect themselves, then both the Empire and the Alliance would probably have been too lazy to bother with face-saving efforts and political tactics, and would have simply sent out as many troops as possible to take over the fat piece of meat in the border territories.

If the border people want to form an alliance themselves, then the leader can undoubtedly only fall on Mirmidon, otherwise it would be "illegal". Neither the Southern Alliance nor the Northern Empire, even the dwarves who are watching will agree that a force that has surrendered to the greenskins can enter the alliance and run parallel to them.

As long as the surrounding "great powers" do not recognize it, even if the border people set up a so-called "border alliance", it would be impossible even if they just want to circle the land and grow their own business.

The "Border Defender Front" is naturally led by the Mirmidens, but because of the alliance, the position of leader is called "the then-chief councilor", which is replaced every eight years. However, it is unlikely that the Mirmidens will serve for the full eight years. This is the pie that Al has painted for them.

He currently needs such a tool to win the hearts and minds of the people on the border.

In Remas, representatives of the heroic exiles, Mirmidon, with the support of the Alliance, announced the establishment of the "Border Defenders Front", calling on all border people to unite their forces, defeat foreign enemies, and safeguard the freedom and independence of the region.

At the same time, a "border army" must be formed to serve as a self-defense force for the border regions, requiring all members to sign a military alliance in the future, not to attack each other but to support each other, to avoid another stupid incident like Mao Zedong invading and having a leader and the rest surrendering.

In name, this defender's front is a local covenant organization led by the Alliance and mainly formed by Mirmidon.

It's not all about being a vassal of the alliance, it's more like a cooperative relationship, of course, this is on the surface...

The slogan they raise is also "protecting the independence, freedom and security of the border", which echoes the current situation where the Empire has entered in large numbers before the greenskins retreat.

It will surely be unanimously accepted by the people on the border.

Chapter 129: Sister Tian, ​​Brother Tian

Ever since the Mirmidonians chose to retreat to the former territory of the Tyrell Kingdom to rest with the help of the dwarves and the Alliance, the Alliance has had a good opportunity to sow discord among them.

Although the Alliance did not directly send troops to help the Myrmidon people defend the city during the Greenskin War, the Alliance still provided a lot of funding to the Myrmidon people. This was completely fulfilled as a "big country" that showed a friendly attitude to the border territories even though there had been no official contact in the past and no friendly agreements had been signed.

This gives the Alliance a huge moral advantage when it comes to exerting influence on Mirmidon.

Exiles like Mirmiden have guns and men in their hands, and have made achievements in battle, so they are more or less confident in what they say and do. They don't just bend their knees and sing praises for the wise king and regent. On the other hand, Algaris has completely become a puppet state of the Alliance. The refugees rely almost entirely on resources provided by the Alliance for food, clothing, housing and transportation. After one or two man-made "conflicts" and reorganizations, this border city-state, which used to be content with its small fortune and peaceful, has completely turned to the Southern Alliance. The supported councilors and agents dominate all affairs of the city-state. When needed, they will perform the "key operations" that Al wants.

Even in Mirmiden, where people still have some vitality and can speak with some confidence, a large number of people have already turned to the Alliance side, either openly or secretly.

The Alliance's bureaucrats and agents are making new progress almost every day in their efforts to infiltrate and win over the exile community. In the Mirmidon Exiles' Power Conference, more than a third, nearly half of the councillors have either secretly or openly sided with their new neighbors to the south, or have openly shown their friendship towards their Alliance "brothers".

There is a key point that plays an important role that cannot be ignored:

faith.

As a city that is devoutly devoted to Myrmidia, almost eight or nine out of every ten people in Myrmidon are believers of the Goddess of War. Although some of them do not completely give their faith to the goddess and do not rule out worshipping other gods such as the "Saint Hammer-wielding God", the influence of the belief in the Goddess of War in this city is undoubtedly the highest compared to other beliefs.

After Estalia and Tirell, the two largest countries that originally believed in the Goddess of War, "fell" one after another, although Aiur did not take extremely brutal religious persecution measures to deal with the old beliefs, and did not directly use force to physically eliminate opponents, it still used various means to continuously suppress the War Church, which occupied the largest share in the spiritual realm of the people, to facilitate the Five Seals Faith to squeeze out the War Church's living space.

Including but not limited to digging up dirty information to attack authority, checking church property, bribing and dividing the church, etc., which made many Myrmidian priests choose to leave and disperse to various places. Many of them came to Myrmidon, the largest border state that believes in the goddess of war.

Their arrival had been welcomed by the people of Mirmidon, but that also made their previous relationship with the Alliance less than harmonious.

After all, hosting opposition parties from other countries has always been a way of losing favor...

But that's not a problem today.

Some of those "stubborn" opponents died in the war with the greenskins, some left for other places, and some, if they cannot learn to shut up in the current situation where they are dependent on others, will move on to the previous situation: being sent to other places with courtesy.

More war priests, including the local faction of Mirmidon, chose to take a new path imperceptibly when their country was destroyed and their families were ruined and they had to rely on other countries for food:

"Sister Celestial Mirmidia"

Just hearing the name tells you it's heretical.

And indeed it is.

As the name suggests, the meaning of "Sister Tian" is naturally to suddenly "elevate" the status of the goddess Myrmidia.

If the goddess has a younger brother who suddenly appears, wouldn't it be natural that she is "taller"?

After all, he had no one around him before, and he was alone and pitiful. Al was kind-hearted and brought warmth to Mirmidia, which had lost the land of faith (he did it), and found a "biological sister" for himself and a goddaughter for his four biological mothers.

This is a "branch" that was born even in the Pina Forest period and is the ultimate heresy for the orthodox war church. If the criticism of scriptures and language is not too inadequate in the face of swords and gold and silver, the supporters of "Sister Tian" would probably not be able to gain entry even if they argued for hundreds of years. They might even be excommunicated by the Southern Eagle as a "heresy".

This branch, which has now replaced the traditional worship of the goddess of war in the Alliance, is called the "Reformation Faction."

In short, it is to downgrade the deity of Myrmidia and relegate an upright and independent great goddess, the "Goddess of the South", to the composition of a pantheon. In this way, the importance of Myrmidia to the south is reasonably reduced, and it is gradually marginalized to make way for the Five Seals. At the same time, the means are relatively gentle, and it does not change customs all at once, which would be difficult for believers who adhere to the old beliefs to accept.

The first tenet of the Reformation is to insist that Myrmidia "ascended to god from human". In the past, there were two views: whether the Goddess of War ascended from human to god, or deified human and then ascended to god again. There was a lot of debate, but there has never been a result that can convince everyone. There was only some quarrel with the Church of Sigmar about the first point, because the believers of the state religion believed that the God-Emperor was the only great one who ascended to god from human. But later, because Sigmar became the "God-Emperor", the image of the Hammer Bearer was shaped more and more great by the believers, and there was less debate on this point. The believers of the state religion began to believe that Sigmar was a natural god, a great one who shaped destiny, and they would no longer argue with the war priests on this point.

Since he was originally a human being, he has a background, a lineage, and a bloodline inheritance.

But at this point, it was too far-fetched to invent some mortal "family" for the goddess, so the priests of the Reform Party "borrowed" the opinions of the friendly sect:

Five-Seal Beast Man thump~thump~boom!

They believe that Myrmidia is the son of the "Mother Goddess" who is "the Greatest of the Great". This Mother Goddess is rather vague in the minds of the Reformers, because they are not in a position to point out directly that we have found four mothers for the goddess?

Therefore, sailors prefer the existence of concepts such as "Mother Earth" and "Mother World".

They gave birth to Myrmidia, or gave birth to all things at the same time, and gave Myrmidia a sacred mission, allowing her to rule and lead the world, teach creatures the wisdom and skills of warfare, and protect the development of civilization;

Over the past thousands of years, the goddess of war has fulfilled this mission well, but she has not done enough to protect the flame of order and civilization in the storm;

From the time of the Greenskin War until today, the loss of contact with Myrmidia marks the decline of the era of the Goddess, and the "Mother Goddess" has given birth to new offspring to "assist" the Goddess in completing her unfinished business.

Defeat the invaders, revive the country, unify the south, and go on a chivalrous expedition...

The Reformist priests regard El as a "future god" who, like Myrmidia in the past, performs great deeds and walks the world as a mortal. This will certainly surprise many people, who think that there is such a group of arrogant lunatics in the south. However, as long as they have a little contact with and understand the transcendent divinity possessed by El, it is easy to be convinced of this.

After all, such appearance and achievements are indeed not something that ordinary people can possess.

Unifying the South is no less important than the goddess's mission to expand and develop the Southern Kingdom when she was still a mortal in ancient times. In addition, the extraordinary performance of El has indeed made the mortals who have seen him feel awe.

After all, in the hundred and fifty years after the holy war, the supernatural elements have somewhat declined in people's lives. Without threats from all aspects, many supernatural things have gradually faded and disappeared from people's hearts.

And Al indeed walks in the world as a demigod.

Therefore, although there are those who reject it, with a little understanding, one will find that the resistance faced by the war believers in jumping from orthodoxy to "heresy" and turning to the reformists is not as great as imagined. After all, apart from the somewhat shocking doctrinal reforms, the new war church, which was instructed by El to carry out drastic reforms of the church, is indeed much better than the original orthodox church in many aspects. Although it cannot be compared with the Five Indian Sect in terms of efficiency alone, but leaving aside the doctrinal level, it is generally much better than the past.

130: Conversion and Judgment of the Centuries

And the Alliance also gave special treatment to converts.

If they are willing, they can unconditionally obtain the "nationality" and permanent residency of the union country and receive preferential treatment in resettlement.

The household registration system is a very important policy that Al has set for the Southern Alliance. In order to deal with possible threats in the future, he must achieve "complete control" over his own country, guard against enemy spies, and guard against possible chaos and heresy (such as Sigmar witch hunters and Nagash vampires) that may be introduced to cause sabotage.

It is imperative to establish a unified and effective household registration management system. In addition to being a great test and improvement in management, it can also effectively prevent "unsafe elements" from running around and making public security inspections ineffective.

This is a world first in this regard. The official classification of people is based on "country" and "place of origin". Of course, for the purpose of attracting immigrants, the alliance's attitude towards "foreigners" is no different from the past when there was free movement. As long as I know you are here, have an identity and an entry record, everything else is the same as usual.

But if you want to settle down permanently, you must choose between "immigration and naturalization" or "regular residence procedures".

This is a very large and ongoing project, but as long as it can be carried out, the governance capabilities within the alliance will be richly rewarded in the future.

In addition to the individual level, the alliance also has corresponding measures and actions at the "collective" level, such as hinting to the Myrmidons that if both sides are willing to reach some small consensus on the issue of "faith", they are willing to send troops to help them restore their country.

No matter how strong a fortress is, there will always be internal divisions. These rumors are often spread by those who have secretly sided with the Alliance or even converted to the Five Seals. At that time, Gao Maoliang had just won the Battle of Myrmidon and his morale was high. The Myrmidon people were defeated and exiled, and they were worried. Many people really had the idea of ​​"borrowing troops" from the Alliance to seek restoration.

After all, although the "Tianjie Reform Faction" is a heresy, it is actually slightly better than the War Church, which has not been reformed for thousands of years, in some other aspects, especially in this era of "vigorous vitality" and "collapse of rituals and music" after the Great War.

Belief in gods, the constraints and sanctity of traditional morality declined rapidly with the development of society and, most importantly, the loss of external threats.

It cannot be said to have collapsed. After all, the church's faith that can truly demonstrate divine power will never be without belief. The fact that gods do exist is enough for mortals to worship them.

But there is no such thing as fanaticism.

What's more, a very crucial point is:

Those Myrmidian priests who were formerly orthodox have truly lost the protection of divine power and the ability to cast spells since the Greenskin War until today.

This cannot but make people suspect that it is indeed the "Goddess of War" who has done something... or as the Reformist doctrine claims:

"Sister Tian has completed her duties and returned to heaven;"

"Now is the age of the new gods. Myrmidia's successor will take over her banner and authority and lead the mortal world forward;"

There is also "existence" that is reasonable:

If you believe in the greatness and holiness of Myrmidia, then she would not sit idly by and watch someone distort her doctrines, tamper with her faith, or watch the evil and barbaric massacre of her believers.

While all this was happening, Myrmidia was not seen, and the Anglican clergy who had been active in the siege of Bilbarri gained many converts;

Myrmidia is not great, something may have happened to Myrmidia, Myrmidia is a cold-blooded god who watched her people being slaughtered, Myrmidia is a silent village woman who watched others persecute her church and tamper with her divine words...

And Mirmidia did entrust her responsibilities to the newcomer, her "brother", and during the handover period, she did not pay attention to choosing between the mortal world. For many believers, the latter is more acceptable.

Because believing in the above not only means "change", but also "denial" and "defilement" of the "idol" in their hearts.

Faced with the "deafening" and "reasonable doubts" of the Reformist priests, many believers had no choice but to choose the "more harmless" one between the two, convincing themselves that Myrmidia did have a brother in the mortal world, which was better than completely denying the divinity of the goddess of war.

The human heart is like a walnut. Once a crack is opened, it is easy to pry the whole walnut open or stuff something into it.

Once they "partially" accepted, even if it was because of the various factors in the scene at that time, that the Goddess of War had a younger brother who was leading her believers, the product of the merger of the two largest countries of faith she left behind was the Southern Alliance.

Then he would have acknowledged El's "divinity". Naturally, as the "heir" of Myrmidia and the "brother in heaven" of the goddess of war, it would be reasonable for him to radiate his influence to places like Myrmidon, which had always been the faithful land of Myrmidia, and protect those places as his "sister's believers".

Plus a very crucial point is:

The war priests of the reformed faction indeed displayed their divine power to cast spells in the newly decorated war temple which was slightly different from the past. The brilliant gold color and the indestructible force seemed to have really regained the blessing of Myrmidia's divine power at this moment when the orthodox faction was still silent.

With multiple blessings, it is not surprising that there is a large wave of conversions among the exile community.

Mirmidon is not as fierce and decisive as Bilbarri. Although they are facing the same opponents, the intensity of the war is not as brutal and decisive as that in the northern city.

However, the Mirmidons also held out until the last moment before withdrawing under the persuasion of many parties. The sacrifices they made and the results they achieved were enough to comfort everyone. However, they did not wait for the protection of the goddess at the end like Bilbarri, and waited for a person holding the holy spear to step forward...

This was also a big blow to the people of Mirmidon.

They will not doubt the "goddess" because of this, but under the inducement from all aspects, it is okay for them to doubt whether the "scripture" they believe in is "outdated".

........

After announcing the establishment of the "Border Defenders Front" with the support of the Alliance, it was also proposed by the Alliance that in order to coordinate the power of the exiles, improve efficiency, and also "guarantee a consistent democratic system", the Defenders Front, which was mainly composed of the Mirmidons, adopted a "Judgment Hundred" system.

One hundred people with outstanding performance and reputation in all walks of life and fields were elected to serve as representatives of all power.

In the future, this group of 100 people will expand with the "Defender Front" - or "recover lost territory" and "absorb allies", that is, incorporate more border city-states into the front alliance and divide seats according to population ratio and contribution to the alliance.

Most of the representatives in the current Hundred Man Group are pursuing a "pro-South" stance. This is not a big deal. Being pro-South to reject the North and at the same time eliminating the greenskins who are causing trouble in the border areas as soon as possible is obviously the consensus of most border city-states.

Chapter 131: Heading North to Recover!

What is unknown is, which one is the "better" choice for the millions of people in the border areas, this "strong support" from the south, or the large army from the north that is heading south, which has transformed from the former patriarch and big brother into a "powerful neighbor" that uses its power to overwhelm others?

......

The alliance's legions advanced by land and water, and soon arrived at Vidanos.

Mao Liang's control over his subordinates exceeded that of ordinary greenskin warlords. It was rare for an army of 100,000 to march, and they would "scatter" as they went, leaving behind many scattered greenskin gangs of varying sizes wherever they passed, causing trouble for the local area.

If Gao Maoliang wants to rule this land, then before he finds a suitable way to manage it, he cannot create too many vendettas and make humans hate the existence of the greenskins. Although the two are naturally hostile to each other, the blood feud has not yet appeared on him.

This is also its strategy to prevent the weakening of its military strength. Blackwater Bay is blocked by the Dwarf fleet, and it is difficult for it to obtain reinforcements from the Badlands. Although Gao Maoliang's warband is huge, the death of each one is one less, so it will naturally have high requirements in terms of "discipline" and always restrain its warbands from dispersing. Although that will cause huge damage to the local area, it is meaningless to Gao Maoliang, who is determined to be a "ruler" rather than just a notorious general.

So the land that has been ravaged by the greenskins is relatively "clean".

Of course, clean here means there are no enemies entrenched.

In the ruins of Mirmidon the greenskins left behind, as usual, large amounts of excrement and their hideous stone idols.