Chapter 588: Territory, Ascension, and Governance Issues
It's spring.
This year is the spring of the 339th year of the Holy Calendar.
Preparations for Rand's accession to the throne are almost complete.
But Rand's desire to ascend the throne and announce the official birth of the Moon Kingdom was not entirely without resistance.
There is support for Rand within the Frost Moon Kingdom, and many noble children will join Rand's army.
But externally…
The White Kingdom and the Takagi Kingdom are in favor of it, and will have envoys coming to attend the coronation ceremony.
But other countries... the countries in the Northern Alliance are okay. Even if there are some that are not so in favor, they will not really oppose it openly and become enemies with Rand.
After all, the various events of the Northern Alliance and the division of spoils by the Wisteria Kingdom were all related to Rand, and everyone was grateful to Rand for this favor.
Therefore, even if they have a past relationship with the Kingdom of Bollen, or if they suffer losses due to the destruction of the Kingdom of Bollen due to the establishment of the Kingdom by Rand, they will not jump out to become enemies with Rand at this time.
And they also had to consider the influence of Rand's in-laws, the Calant family.
Strictly speaking, there is only one person left in the Calant family now, Bolan, but this person is the White King.
The White King himself is a king in terms of strength.
The only king that exists in the world today.
The White King is also the King of the White Kingdom.
The countries in the Northern United Nations cannot actually confirm the exact relationship between the White King and Rand, but the in-law relationship is there.
If you seriously offend Rand, you probably won't get any good results from the White King.
Therefore, the Northern Alliance will not become an obstacle for Rand to establish a kingdom.
But the Southern Kingdom is the opposite.
The southern kingdoms close to the Frost Moon Kingdom generally have bad relations with the Frost Moon Kingdom, and their relations with Rand are particularly bad.
Only the Lionheart Kingdom further south has a much better relationship with the Frost Moon Kingdom because of its marriage alliance with the royal family.
But then again, the good relationship between the royal families of the Lionheart Kingdom and the Frostmoon Kingdom does not mean a good relationship with Rand.
There is a layer of separation here. Rand used to be the Hand of the King of the Frost Moon Kingdom, but not anymore.
Rand has a good relationship with the Frostmoon Kingdom, and the Lionheart Kingdom has a good relationship with the Frostmoon Kingdom, but that cannot be transformed into Rand and the Lionheart Kingdom having a good relationship.
Rand separated from the family and established his own country.
As for other southern kingdom countries, most of them opposed Rand's establishment of the kingdom.
Some questioned the legitimacy of Rand's establishment of a kingdom, some simply denied Rand's power over the land, and some insulted Rand's evil deeds.
There are even some countries far away from Rand that threaten to send troops to attack Rand.
However, no country close to Rand threatened to send troops to attack.
Rand's military capabilities do constitute a deterrent to a certain extent.
Other countries may not dare to go to war with Rand, but they must carefully consider the risks involved.
The direct breakthrough of the Kingdom of Borun was certainly due to Rand's terrifying military capabilities, but also because the Kingdom of Borun had been gradually weakening over the years.
Other countries would not take Rand's military command ability too seriously.
But no matter how much we analyze, we still need to be vigilant and cautious. Rand's military command ability may not be too mysterious, but it is definitely strong, stronger than the military commanders of most countries, perhaps even much stronger.
The strategies of these countries that opposed Rand's accession to the throne were basically to refuse to recognize the legal existence of the Moon Kingdom and to impose all-round sanctions on the Moon Kingdom.
Sanctions include trade restrictions, transportation restrictions, and political restrictions, etc. These restrictions will have a significant impact on Rand, but...
In short, Rand is not afraid.
…
Today is another meeting with the Torch Church's fledgling faction.
The Torch Church agreed that Rand would serve as the honorary president of the newborn sect of the Torch Church. When the Torch Church was reunited under Rand's leadership, the Torch Church would agree that Rand would officially serve as the president of the Torch Church.
This was already a great sign of trust and concession. It was the result of Karin and Bishop Kahn having a very favorable impression of Rand and having fought hard for him within the Torch Church's Novice Faction.
If it was when the Torch Church and Rand first started working together, this kind of topic would have been completely impossible to achieve.
Now the Torch Church has been greatly influenced by Rand's ideas, as well as the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health.
Therefore, this proposal will not generate much opposition within the Torch Church's fledgling faction.
The Torch Church, as a church organization that originally had little to do with the secular world, is quite different from the Church of the Goddess of Harvest and Health, a church organization derived from Rand politics.
It is very difficult for them to accept that the Pope of the Torch Church has always been the head of Nicholas's family and the King of the Moon Kingdom.
Except for those newly recruited in recent years, the other members of the Torch Church who follow Karin and Archbishop Kahn are all members of the Torch Church who have always remained steadfast in their original aspirations.
And generally speaking, most of them are old things.
In short, there are a lot of stubborn old guys, and it is really not easy to get these old guys to agree to such things.
So there is still a long way to go in these matters.
Agreeing with Rand's status is already a very difficult thing.
And it would be even more difficult for Rand to make the position of the head of the Nicholas family hereditary.
It’s really difficult if you think about it carefully.
Rand is also looking for a solution that is mutually acceptable.
Rand pursued the unity of church and state.
In fact, Rand could fully accept the independence of the newborn members of the Torch Church in their own territory, but this was limited to those Torch Church members with firm beliefs.
It is obvious that even if the Torch Church is reunited, it will not be able to maintain its purity forever.
By then, there may be several factions.
This was something Rand could not accept.
The corrupted Torch Church is obviously a huge hindrance to governance.
Rand could not be sure that his successor would not be a foolish monarch.
Rand could not guarantee the purity of his successor to the kingdom's rule in the future, so he was not qualified to ask the Torch Church to always recognize the King of the Moon Kingdom as the head of the Torch Church.
Fortunately, there is no need to think so far now.
…
The moon in the sky sets and the sun rises, the sun sets and the moon rises again, and this cycle repeats dozens of times.
The coronation ceremony finally began.
Many countries that have good relations with Rand sent envoys to attend and observe.
Rand, wearing a golden crown, holding a scepter and dressed in a brocade robe, was waiting quietly behind the gate.
As the morning prayer bells cleared the mist, the heavy metal door slowly opened.
Accompanied by the slow and low sound of the door rolling over the ground.
The light of morning sun shines on Rand.
Rand's gorgeous robe suddenly lit up!
Rand's boots stepped onto the white marble steps of the square.
This is the square of the royal city of the Kingdom of Borun.
Normally, the coronation ceremony should be held in the country's capital.
But since he established the kingdom and became king as the conqueror Rand, there was no problem for him to declare his name as a conqueror in the royal city of the most extensive land he conquered.
Twelve silver-armored knights stood holding halberds. The purple ribbons hanging from the tips of the halberds were embroidered with scepters and wheat-ear flags representing the Nicholas family.
Due to his great achievements today, Rand modified the family emblem from the original wheat ears, sword and shield flag to the current scepter and wheat ears flag.
The scepter represents church power, and the wheat ear represents secular power.
The flag fluttered in the morning breeze and shone with the starburst embroidery on the hem of the new king's ceremonial robes.
Rand looked at the high-ranking officials of the Sanctuary and the church members present.
If it is a religious country, there may be a Pope to crown the king.
If it is a purely secular country, then different forms of rituals will be performed according to their culture.
For example, the White Kingdom’s ascension to the throne has always involved offering orc heads as sacrifices.
But now that the orcs have perished, it is estimated that the enthronement of the King of the White Kingdom will be changed in the future.
Rand's fingertips brushed across the sword at his waist - this sharp sword that had killed countless enemies was now gilded in its scabbard.
Rand actually fought in battle quite a few times himself.
Therefore, Rand's weapon was stained with a lot of blood. In fact, Rand wanted to use his signature weapon, the greatsword.
But the giant sword is not really suitable for this occasion.
Rand pointed his sword into the distance.
Since Rand established his kingdom as a conqueror, he naturally had to swear an oath with a sharp blade.
"My sharp blade will protect the land I rule." Rand whispered, "Whoever offends my country will be punished, no matter how far away they are!"
Rand's voice was not loud, but everyone attending the ceremony could hear it clearly.
Rand himself thought this sentence was a bit childish.
But all the guests present felt the cold murderous intent.
At this point, the first step of the coronation ceremony is officially completed.
Then came a ceremony to extol Rand's glorious centuries of past, to embellish the king's divine authority.
Rand's past has many commendable deeds.
From the initial unified Crescent Moon Territory, he became the Baron of Crescent Moon Territory, who was only a real but not a famous one.
By now, we have conquered the royal city of the Kingdom of Borun.
There are so many deeds worthy of praise.
The guests present were fascinated by these stories, but Rand himself was not too complacent.
The next step after ascending the throne was to enfeoff the first batch of nobles.
In fact, all the high-ranking officials in the Sanctuary are worthy of being enfeoffed, but they have decided to join the Nicholas family, so only the generals among the high-ranking officials in the Sanctuary can be enfeoffed.
"Tanner! My loyal general! At the very beginning, when the Moon Kingdom was in the most dangerous time, you followed me. We shared the joys and sorrows and defeated the powerful enemies." Rand told a lot of Tanner's deeds. Rand remembered Tanner's great contributions very clearly. Rand was very fortunate to have met Tanner at that time. "You will become the first duke of the Moon Kingdom. I will give you the fertile land on the border with water and grass."
"Fenris..."
"Sers, Serai, Tata..."
“…………”
Rand's voice lasted for a long time in the square.
Rand has always hated cumbersome rituals.
But at this moment of sharing glory with his allies and subordinates who fought for him and for the power of the Sanctuary, Rand did not tire of it.
Rand remembers every member who has made great contributions to the Sanctuary and rewards them at this time.
Rand has not forgotten some of the people who cannot be present now.
Then there are the newly joined nobles.
"Viscount Red Rose! ......"
Then there were some great nobles of the Kingdom of Bolen who saw the situation clearly and surrendered decisively.
…
After the division is completed.
The first problem of the governance of the Sanctuary forces arose.
The land is vast and the population is sparse.
In fact, after receiving a large number of people from the Kingdom of Bolen, Rand's Kingdom was not too short of people.
At least from the perspective of a normal kingdom, there would not be too much shortage of people. After all, there would not be too long of a stalemate on the road to conquest. If there was no stalemate for too long, it would not cause too much population damage.
In Rand's previous history, most of the times when nine out of ten houses were deserted were because the war or famine lasted too long, turning the land into a wasteland.
And if the war ends quickly, the resources in the mountains and fields can prevent the population from decreasing too quickly.
The problem is that there are not enough nobles capable of ruling.
Rand acquired too much land at once.
In fact, RAND's speed in cultivating talents is already very fast. RAND has been cultivating talents from scratch.
Since the establishment of the school, a large number of talents have graduated from church schools and become people with governance capabilities and are loyal to Rand.
Alas, even so it is still limited.
These talents were somewhat stretched to the limit in governing the original Dukedom of the Moon Phase.
Now the territory has expanded countless times.
Of course, it absorbed many nobles.
But it is still far from enough.
In fact, if Rand could liberalize the distribution of land, then the countless nobles who would flock to the Moon Kingdom could fill these governance gaps.
Rand certainly wouldn't do that.
No reward without merit.
It is impossible for Rand to allow people without merit to obtain ownership of the land just because it needs talents and power now.
What would the heroes who had risked their lives for Rand think? If people's hearts were scattered, the newly established Moon Kingdom could be dissolved on the spot.
Rand would not play such a stupid move.
But should we just let the land go to waste like this? Abandoned land will only become a place where bandits are everywhere and cults are prevalent.
Rand decided to discuss this with the high-ranking officials of the Sanctuary after his ascension to the throne.
After the enthronement ceremony was completed, there was only one last step left.
Accept congratulations from other countries and carry out some related matters such as establishing diplomatic relations or trade.
The establishment of new countries will certainly lead to changes in the international trade pattern.
Rand's territory also includes a large number of ports.
This is bound to have a significant impact.
Many countries need to reconsider the trade contracts they had previously signed with the Kingdom of Bolen.
And some northern countries also need to reconsider the issue.
There are many countries in the north, such as the Ice Sea Kingdom, and these Ice Sea pirates make a living by looting.
Their land could not grow enough food to feed themselves, so their only means of survival were hunting and plundering.
But now Rand is not within the scope of the Ice Sea Kingdom's plundering, so they need to consider changes in the location and target of the plundering.
And Rand also had some ideas.
The Ice Sea Pirates' income from looting will inevitably decrease in the future, but for this country with which they have a good relationship.
Rand also did not intend to let the Ice Sea Kingdom suffer losses.
Rand thought that the Ice Sea Kingdom could be allowed to participate in maritime trade and do some transportation-related work.
(End of this chapter)
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