Proof of the Sun King

The Haimenguan Tavern "Granny's Beard" is a high-level tavern jointly operated by humans and dwarves. Dwarves occupy 51% of the shares, humans occupy 46%, and the remaining 3% are controlled by elves, although very few The elves will patronize the store, but at least the elves won't be turned away for not having a stake.

The dwarves of Haimenguan are already the dwarves who accept the elves the most among all the dwarves in the whole old world, but even so, the relationship between the two parties is still very cold.

Lane and the others were welcomed after entering the tavern. The three Holy Grail Knights had just entered the tavern, and the dwarf bartender headed them put three glasses of vodka on the table: "Welcome, the King of Knights and the two Holy Grail Knights, It is for you. Your brilliant achievements will be remembered by all the dwarves. For at least ten years, we don't have to worry about the greenskins from the badlands. It's cold, drink a glass of Kislev vodka and keep warm body."

"Thank you." Ryan politely thanked him in dwarven language. For some reason, Ryan and the others did not choose to sit in the private room on the second floor, but sat in the lobby on the first floor. The three of them ordered some local specialties from Haimenguan, such as barbecued meat and stuffing. Cakes, skewers and seafood, as well as black tea imported from Aurora.

The three discussed the news about how to attack the Armory Fort in January. From the news that Black Heart Leip sent a large number of scouts to investigate, the Armory Fort was about 6,000 to 10,000 greenskins. The name of the green-skin warlord is called Jit-Sour Stomach, is a goblin shaman who is good at field combat, very cunning.

The terrain of the Armory Fort is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is located in the middle of the corridor within the two hills. If you want to attack, you must attack along the hills. For the knight army, it is very difficult to attack this kind of fortress.

But Ryan also has an advantage, that is, Bellegar's super siege ability. The dwarf king has formulated a detailed siege policy for the terrain of the Arsenal Fort. All Ryan and others have to do is to implement it.

After chatting for a while, a few Aurora people came in. The leader was wearing a ruby ​​top, double-eyed feathers, nine pythons and five-clawed python robes. The clothes were embroidered with golden rooster patterns, and they wore a long string of beads that almost hung down to their stomachs. , wearing a pair of ruyi cloud pattern yellow boots and a jade belt around his waist, he took the Aurora people that Ryan had seen before into the bar, and tried to communicate with the dwarf bartender in a very rough common language, they ordered After having a few glasses of wine and some dishes, we sat down to eat. Among them, the Aurora man named Hong Fuchu clearly noticed Lane. He and the leading Aurora man pointed at Lane and said a few words, but the man in court clothes was shocked. Danren shook his head proudly, indicating no need.

Then several people shouted together "Heavenly Venerable Immeasurable Longevity".

"It's really rare, there are actually Aurora people here." Callard was obviously curious about this new thing: "I remember that the old world only had the Aurora embassy in Tyrell, and the last time the Aurora envoys arrived in the old world was already Seven hundred years ago."

"The Aurora people occasionally come to trade in the old world." Federmond, as the eldest son of Boderick, Duke of Boldero, obviously needs to know more about the outsiders: "We occasionally trade silk with the Aurora people, Gold, tea, porcelain vases and some magical crafts, but the two sides rarely touch."

"Yes, thousands of years ago, the Aurora envoys once arrived in Arabi, and trade with the Nikohara dynasties at that time brought the secret of firearms." Ryan nodded: "As for the last contact between the two sides , Seven hundred years ago, the Aurora envoys arrived in Tyrell and established an embassy in Tyrell. At that time, the Wu Dynasty ruled Aurora. Later, the Wu Dynasty almost never sent envoys to the old world. , On the contrary, they are becoming more and more closed and the frequency of trade is reduced. It is said that the Wu Dynasty has replaced many Dragon Emperors, and the throne was once stolen by a monkey emperor named Monkey King. Later, the Dragon Emperor spent It took a lot of energy to regain the throne, and the Dragon Emperor is just a title, every emperor in Aurora is called the Dragon Emperor, if the ruler changes the family, it means that the Aurora Empire has changed the dynasty."

"That's right, I heard that in the Aurora Empire, there is an old fable called the princes and generals who are kind. They don't seem to have the concept of nobles and commoners." Federmond nodded, he picked up the mug and filled it with drinks. One bite: "This is different from the old world. The commoners seem to like to overthrow the existing Dragon Emperor and elect a new Dragon Emperor."

"Like Tyrell, populism." Ryan said casually, holding a mug in his hand, "populist politics is like that, and we in Britania are elite politics."

"Populism, elite? My king, I don't quite understand, what's the difference?" Callard had been in contact with Ryan for a long time. He really felt that the new king of knights was an infinite treasure house, and he seemed to have an inexhaustible amount of money on him. Knowledge and unfathomable wisdom.

"Elite politics is very simple. As the name suggests, it means that the elites rule the entire country and make decisions on all the policy policies of the entire country." Ryan nodded, he pointed to himself, and then pointed to Callard and Federmond: "Obviously , We are all elites, because we are all knight nobles, and at the same time Holy Grail knights, the Holy Grail knights and knight nobles headed by us dominate the kingdom of knights, is there no problem with that?"

Callard and Federmond nodded at the same time.

"Like us, whether it's an empire, a dwarf, or an elves, they actually practice elite politics." Ryan leaned back on the chair, and he pointed to the dishes on the entire table: "The national policy of the entire kingdom or the leadership In fact, they are all controlled by the knights and nobles, and the few of us control the fate of the majority, which is called meritocracy.”

"Haven't we always been like this?" Callard thought about it carefully, and he tried to ask: "Can we still let those serfs who are specially responsible for farming make decisions about national and military affairs?"

"Yes, this is the superiority of elite politics." Ryan agreed, he said slowly: "Obviously, when marching to fight, we must choose an excellent knight who is proficient in battle to command the war, not Go to ten serfs and ask them to vote and decide how to fight, then we will all perish long ago, and we need to find professionals to fight the war, and the serfs get out of the way.”

Callard and Federmond both laughed when they heard that, and they did.

"But elite politics also has its shortcomings." Ryan did not laugh. On the contrary, the King of Knights' expression was very serious: "That is the following two points, first, the problem of the elite's recognition, and second, the problem of the elite's self-fat."

"As for the elite recognition of the highest authority, that is, the recognition of the Holy Grail Knights, we don't have to worry about this, and half of the problem has been solved because of the lady who guards it. But for ordinary knights and nobles, this problem has a long history. First of all, As long as the descendants of each knight family become adults and obtain spurs from other knight nobles, they will automatically obtain knighthood, that is, to obtain the so-called low-level recognition. In this case, some people will not have the strength and Morality has also become a knight, and moral corruption is a disaster."

"Second, the knight aristocracy is not an authority in all fields. Most knight aristocrats are only good at war and military affairs, but not good at internal affairs, but because they are in the decision-making level, the knight aristocrats have to take over the management of the territory. Responsibilities, many nobles are in a mess."

Having said that, Callard nodded again and again with a wry smile. Isn't that what he is talking about?

"Thirdly, many of the decisions of the knights and nobles are not always based on the interests of the kingdom and the whole people. They often only consider their own interests and deliberately make wrong decisions." Ryan raised his glass again: "This is It is the problem of self-enrichment of the elites. This is the most fatal flaw of elite politics. Because they occupy the decision-making level, they are destined to occupy more social resources and interests, and make decisions that are beneficial to them. This is unavoidable and impossible. To solve the problem completely, parents are always more inclined to distribute benefits to their children, generals always allocate the best resources to their direct line troops, and for their own court, the court of the nobles is always cronyism.”

Lane paused for a while after saying this. He recalled many things from his previous life, including "loyalty, filial piety, honesty, courtesy, integrity, gentleness, respectfulness, thrift" and "chivalry" as well as the so-called "aristocratic spirit". In fact, the elites discovered it. Self-improvement after the problem of self-fatness, although it has certain effects, cannot cure the problem of self-fatness of the elites. People hate this phenomenon, but they very much hope that they are the ones who enjoy the benefits.

Now it's Callard's and Federmond's turn to frown.

Ryan is right. In this regard alone, elitism has the most fatal flaw. Even the Holy Grail system of the Fairy of the Lake has only solved a part of it, but with the supervision and restrictions of the Holy Grail system alone, Bree Tania has stood for millennia.

"...So populism is voting?" Callard thought for a while and asked, "So we should let go of the decision-making level and let the serfs participate in decision-making?"

"Hehe, the relationship between knights and war horses is like the relationship between nobles and serfs. Without war horses, how can you be called knights? Without serfs, how can you support the nobles of the entire country?" Ryan smiled and nodded: "Just from the kingdom's From an angle, the minority should not be allowed to decide the fate of the majority, and populism is like this, such as Tyrell, Prince Miragliano [] is always voted by the citizens, and this procedure is completely legal, because All people are equal~www.wuxiaspot.com~ The recognition of the majority means justice and respect, so that the elected prince will not be overthrown, but only assassinated."

"But the problem with populism is what I said before, marching to fight wars and ruling the kingdom, if the serfs vote together to make decisions, it means that the country is not far away. Those who understand military and political affairs will always be in the minority, serfs. I only know how to look at the immediate interests. For example, I dug the canal to make the kingdom’s trade routes unblocked and to benefit everyone, but the serfs will not understand, what they see is that the canal will destroy their farmland and make them useless. The land can be planted, and the grain from a distance will make it difficult for them to sell grain and make money. Therefore, if the serfs make decisions, the canal will never be dug, and once someone promises a little benefit, the serfs will definitely not even think about using it directly. Vote with your feet."

"Similarly, the Achilles heel of populism is that after the serfs gain decision-making power, it is easy to form mob politics. Say no more."

"However, even with so many problems populist, it is almost the only effective way to limit the self-enrichment of the elite." Lane continued: "Compared to us in Brittany, because of the supervision of the lady and the incentive of the Holy Grail system, the empire has No, the old empire collapsed because of this, and the new empire reformed the electoral system and still can't solve this problem. This is the superiority of our Breton system. All in all, populism and elites have their unavoidable drawbacks and fatalities Flaws, but in the current environment, there is no doubt that Brittany will continue the elite line in the future."

"Then how do we try to avoid our problems?" Callard asked earnestly.

"The question is whether the upward channel is open enough and fair enough, and whether the aristocratic bureaucratic reform has been carried out."