Chapter 375： Council

Just like her name, the Jiaowan League is a political alliance. More than a hundred years ago, in order to protect their own safety and wealth, a dozen relatively weak city-states united and gradually developed into the most powerful in the Jiaowan area. political power.

The alliance was not called the "Jianwan Alliance" at the beginning. This name is too sharp. After all, there are other large and small states and independent territories in the broken area of ​​Jiaowan. However, with the gradual rise of the alliance and its victories over and over again in several wars, the high-level leaders who were full of confidence directly named their alliance the name of Horn Bay, and in the maritime trade outside of Diagon Bay, relying on Backed by national strength, the merchants of the alliance gradually gained a dominant position over merchants from other states, so that many ordinary people outside Jiaowan equated the geographical term Jiaowan with the political term Jiaowan Alliance.

The power center of the alliance is called the Supreme Council. At the beginning, this institution was originally a place where the high-level officials of various city-states wrangled, and did not have substantive power over the entire alliance. Or mediate disputes between members, etc., its influence gradually increased, coupled with the catalytic effect of several wars, power was gradually concentrated in the Supreme Council, and today, it already has such things as diplomacy, The military, taxation, etc. have most of the power of the central government of a country, and people outside have already regarded the Horn Bay Alliance as a country.

The number of members of the council is fixed at 150. They are all descendants of the city-state authorities who first established the alliance. The seats in the council are handed down from generation to generation. Male relatives inherit and also inherit the family name.

The leader of the council is called the speaker, who is elected every five years, and the speaker selects 10 members as his assistants, who are in charge of diplomatic, military, administrative, legal and other affairs, and hold at least two plenary meetings every other month. Discuss the major issues of the recent period.

On this day, the political hall was filled with a tense atmosphere. Members of the council took turns to fight with each other, and there was only one issue - the attitude of the Jiaowan League towards the church.

"Dear members of parliament, I ask you to touch your chest and feel whether you still have the enthusiasm of being a horned nobleman! If your hearts have not turned cold, if your enthusiasm still exists, you can give the church Turn a blind eye to the many crimes committed by Confederate citizens?"

A congressman gave a loud speech with a sad face on the platform.

"Since the church launched the witch hunt, they have plundered much wealth from our citizens under the guise of purging heresy. What is more terrifying than plundering wealth is that they carelessly ignore human life. How many innocent people have been murdered?"

He was crying as he spoke.

"The church is too much!"

"It's time for them to restrain themselves!"

His speech resonated with many people, and they all echoed him.

"That's why we need to take strong and effective measures quickly to protect the citizens of the alliance from the church."

But not everyone agreed with his conclusions. They rose from their seats and boosed.

"Horace, you wicked fellow! Don't think we don't know what you're up to."

A man rushed to the podium and yelled at Horace, who had spoken earlier.

"Hey, Simmons, you have to obey the order of the venue!" Horace was very dissatisfied.

"Go to your venue to order!"

Simmons shouted loudly to the crowd: "Everyone, listen to what vicious language Horace used, what's 'disregarding human life', what's 'torture', can this kind of vocabulary be used to describe the church that serves the Father? ?”

"I admit that there will be some radical measures in the witch hunt, which will cause some misfortunes that no one wants to see, but this is inevitable and has to be paid in order to protect us mortals from a greater evil. price."

Horace on the side shouted loudly: "Have you heard what Senator Simmons said is human?"

His supporters booed Simmons before, and everyone knows that Simmons is a devout church believer.

"Hmph! Horace, don't think you don't know what you're thinking of."

Simmons was unmoved, and continued to shout to everyone: "I think everyone knows that Horace's family is in the slave trade business. A few days ago, his auction house was destroyed by a group of kind believers, but the guards However, few people were caught. Horace suspected that the church hid these believers, so he urgently encouraged us to fight against the church. This is private revenge, and there is still no evidence, just relying on If in doubt, take personal revenge."

"Shut up! Simmons!" Horace said angrily, pointing at Simmons's nose, "I am purely out of public interest, I know you are a devout believer, but don't be blinded by your piety. Moreover, my business is a legal business, so I suffered a huge loss because of a group of people in the name of the Lord of Light. I am also a believer in the Lord of Light. Every time I pay a tithe, a lot, Shouldn’t the church, as the shepherd of the Father, uphold justice? Shouldn’t the evil lambs be allowed to bully the good lambs in the flock?”

Simmons ignored him and shouted to the crowd: "Listen, everyone, isn't this revenge? He admitted it himself."

"Shut up! I didn't admit it at all!"

The two quarreled on the podium, and their respective supporters also joined the quarrel For a while, the whole hall was like a vegetable market, and the noise shook the sky.

"Silence! Silence!"

The current speaker took a hammer and banged on the wooden table vigorously, calming down the meeting place that was about to lose order.

"Now it's Senator Foster's turn to speak!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Joe Foster—that is, the Marquis of Foster—slowly walked towards the podium. Horace and Simmons, who were originally standing on the podium, made eye contact with each other and left from the left and right sides of the podium respectively. .

The Marquis cleared his throat, and said with a serious face: "Everyone, I don't want to say big things, I just want to explain a fact - since the start of the witch hunt movement, the import and export trade volume of the alliance has shrunk year by year, and not only Our alliance, the entire Horn Bay, is experiencing a decline in business activity, and business is the foundation of our country."

His words were like a gust of cold wind, causing everyone present to shiver.

"I believe that each of us has enough devotion to the Heavenly Father, but devotion alone cannot fill our stomachs. Only by solving the basic physical needs first can we fulfill our obligations as believers and serve the Heavenly Father better. So , I am in favor of some restrictions on the conduct of churches within the territory of the League."

Someone in the audience said: "But Lord Marquis, with the strength of the alliance alone, it is impossible to fight against the church. This is another fact!"

The Marquis nodded and said, "So, I would like to invite other countries once again to discuss countermeasures."

Last year, the Horn Bay Alliance had already held a meeting of nations, but under various resistance—mainly the church—no substantial results were achieved.