King
Chapter 569 - 569 125 Encircling Land and Building Cities_1

569: Chapter 125, Encircling Land and Building Cities_1 569: Chapter 125, Encircling Land and Building Cities_1 Listening to the discussion among the ministers, Caesar III’s brow soon furrowed deeply.

The most popular candidates were the Four Dukes of the North, with several nominations for Earl Hudson, but there was a distinct lack of voices supporting Marquis James.

Not only did other political factions not support him, but even the Royalists would not back Marquis James.

Only for the sake of the King’s face did they refrain from openly opposing him.

Lack of prestige and military merits was one aspect, but mostly it involved interests.

Even within the same political faction, not everyone’s interests were aligned.

The role Marquis James previously played was mainly to keep Marshal Campbell in check within the military, a role that was not popular.

When even his own side were not supportive, Caesar III quickly realized his plan had been too hasty.

Propelling a general lacking in prestige and military merits to the position of commander clearly touched the bottom line of the Noble Consortium.

After all, wars cost lives.

If the commander fails, the fate of the army is predictable.

The nomination of the Four Dukes of the North received high praise, not only because of their great influence in the court, but mainly because they truly had military achievements.

Despite Earl Hudson’s distinguished military merits, his young age was his greatest shortcoming that blocked him from gaining widespread support.

Overall, the Four Dukes of the North were the most popular choices, but as they were spread among the four of them, Earl Hudson in fact had the most supporters.

If you looked carefully, you would find that political forces supporting Hudson mainly stemmed from the Southwestern Region of the Kingdom.

When suppressing rebellions in the past, Hudson had dealt with the clans behind these people.

Perhaps it was this mutual understanding, plus the need to balance the Northland nobles that enabled him to gain their support.

Seeing the ongoing debate, Caesar III raised a hand to signal, “I have heard everyone’s opinions.

All six candidates are the finest commanders of the kingdom, but a commander-in-chief can only be one person.

Continuing to debate is not a solution, let’s have a vote representing the Noble Parliament right here!

Guards, bring paper and pens, distribute them to the ministers.”

Seemingly impeccable and fair, with a sense of democratic election, in reality, Caesar III had already made his choice, and now it was a mere formality.

People of different statuses in the Noble Parliament have different numbers of votes.

As the king, Caesar III naturally had the most votes.

If all councillors participated, the votes in his hands could not sway the decision of the parliament, but if only a few councillors were present, his votes would have a significant advantage.

Everything was conducted in accordance with political game rules, and no one could find a reason to object.

Almost in an instant, the previously disputing political groups quickly unified their positions at the fasted speed, and identified their supported candidates.

“Duke Cavadia, 3 votes!”

“Earl Hudson, 5 votes!”

“Duke Cavadia, 7 votes!”

“Earl Hudson, 8 votes!”

…

In the blink of an eye, what had been a six-person struggle had become a contest between two strong competitors.

The ministers representing the Northern Noble Interest Group all supported Duke Cavadia, while a bunch of Southern aristocracy groups cast their votes for Hudson.

With no better choice, youth and no one in the court weren’t problems.

As long as one’s personal capability and prestige in the military reached a certain level, everything else was up for negotiation.

It was still better to support an unrelated stranger than to back one’s political enemy.

If Hudson hadn’t come forward, and Caesar III had nominated Marquis James, it’s likely the Southern aristocracy would have had to grit their teeth and support him.

They had no choice.

The king worried about the domestic balance being broken, and the Southern nobility were equally concerned about the Northern nobles growing stronger.

Judging by the soaring votes, both sides were closely contested.

As for the others, if a winner was decided and there were surplus votes, they could be shared out, saving their face.

Looking satisfied at the voting results, Caesar III said expressionlessly, “You’ve all seen the voting results.

Send a message down, assign Earl Hudson as the Commander of the Army, appoint Duke Cavadia and Marquis James as Vice Commanders.”

Upon the king’s words, everyone realized that the unassuming Marquis James, had unexpectedly received the third-highest number of votes.

They were all veterans in politics, and everyone understood in an instant.

After all this fuss, this was Caesar III’s real purpose.

They realized that although Marquis James didn’t meet the requirements to be the commander-in-chief in all aspects, the politically experienced King would never forcefully promote such a person to this position, would he?

If he really did so, it would be better to brazen it out and personally take the position of the army’s commander.

At least the front-line soldiers wouldn’t reject the king as the Commander-in-chief.

In fact, Caesar III had also thought about doing it himself.

But thinking about the orcs who didn’t play by the rules, he backed out at the last minute.

He had no choice, leading the army wasn’t really his strength.

What if he was fooled by his subordinates and accidentally fell into the enemy’s trap?

That would be so awkward.

Little Caesar was a perfect counter-example, his single defeat on the battlefield buried all the prestige he had collected in the past.

If his son caused trouble, he was there as a father to clean up.

But if he got in trouble himself, there would be no one left to clean up the mess.

Cautionary Caesar III, once again played his best suited “Balance Technique”.

The combination of one Commander in Chief and two Vice Commanders perfectly achieved a balance of power.

…

The Purple Gold Pass, the army was victorious again, but the atmosphere in the hall was a bit awkward.

The reinforcements from the Moxi Duchy were acceptable, as they were old friends and very pleasant to talk to.

The situation was a bit complex with the Human Alliance Reinforcements.

There was a glut of messy forces with visible internal strife, giving Earl Hudson a headache.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t even a Commander for the Allied Forces, the problem had to be dealt with one by one.

No sooner was one problem solved, than a new one cropped up.

As a result, Hudson applied to the Department of Foreign Affairs many times, requesting them to send competent staff to coordinate relations.

Unfortunately, the bureaucrats in the Department of Foreign Affairs were not foolish, they directly cited “involvement in military matters” and kicked the ball back to the military.

As the army’s Commander who was bound to face the problem, Hudson, had no choice but to face it head-on.

After several efforts, he had no choice but to abandon his efforts.

Let them go, these areas had just been ravaged by Orcs.

Looking around, it was deserted, so it wouldn’t be a problem if they made a fuss.

Even if they did make a fuss, it would only be a friction between the armies of various nations.

Hudson was only the Commander of the Alpha Kingdom Army, not the commander of the Allied Forces, nor did he need to be responsible for the armies of various countries.

All he could do was take action to mediate when conflicts erupted.

No wonder when he met his old friends from the Duchy of Moxi, they looked at him with sympathy.

They had all experienced these troubles.

If you can’t solve the problem, then try to deal with the person causing the problem.

If the person causing the problem can’t be controlled, then one must separate those causing the issues.

Just right to rebuild the homeland’s defence line, each family stationed in a region, keeping the contradictory teams far apart could reduce many unnecessary conflicts.

…

“Duke, you are the most familiar with the situation in the north.

Now that we are building a new line of defense, the Kingdom wants us to take as much land as possible.

We must consider the actual situation, where we must choose advantageous terrains for construction while also trying to acquire more territories.”

During the conversation, Hudson has passed a map of the northern part of the Kingdom to Duke Cavadia, allowing him to draw circles on it.

The scene seemed very harmonious, it was completely unbelievable that a few days ago, these two were fiercely fighting over the command of the army.

Undoubtedly, the current situation was clearly in Hudson’s favor, otherwise, Duke Cavadia would not be so cooperative.

Nothing to be amazed about.

As the Kingdom’s appointed Commander in Chief and the most powerful on the front line.

If he can’t suppress a Vice Commander, that would be a real problem.

Once the issue of command was clarified, it was time to get to work.

Based on the principle that the more the subordinates do, the less he has to do, Hudson decisively chose task allocation.

Marquis James was thrown to tug at the Allied forces, and the task of building the defence line naturally fell on Duke Cavadia.

Hudson was not worried about this task allocation causing any issues.

The internal conflicts of the Human Alliance were problems amongst the major powers themselves.

No matter how big the commotion, it did not have much to do with mediation.

The biggest beneficiaries of building the new defence line were the Nobles of the North, which could spare their territories from Orc attacks.

Even if Duke Cavadia wanted to cause trouble, his men would strongly dissuade him.

One can’t dig holes for his own descendants no matter how much you stir things up!

“Don’t worry, Earl Hudson.

I am very familiar with the terrain of these areas, there won’t be any problems.”

Duke Cavadia said with a smile.

He had to accept this task.

If Hudson were in charge of building the defence line, it would be his turn to worry.

Experience had told him that he had to supervise the construction of the defence works at his own doorstep.

If he left it to the irrelevant Southern Aristocracy, who knows if the quality could be guaranteed?

“Duke, where do you think we should move the boundary to?

How much territory could be included within the area?”

Hudson asked with concern.

What is in the pot can be served in the bowl.

The larger the cake of the Alpha Kingdom, the more cake can be divided.

Ideally, some of the nobles from the Southeastern Province can be fooled into developing in the north, making room for his own position.

It was difficult to operate this kind of thing, but Hudson still didn’t give up.

Being able to fool one was a gain, there will always be some foolish nobles jumping into the pit.

“Your Excellency, I can’t answer this question.

Although the Northern Lands are vast, considering that we need to build an easily constructible defence line, there are quite a few restrictions.

However, using this opportunity, it should not be hard for the Kingdom to increase one or two provinces.”

…