671 The emperors Part 2 (1/2)
In the Holy See's code of laws there had to be churches within all the cities of the Tanggulasi Empire. When the population of a city had reached a certain size, the size of the church had to be expanded correspondingly as well.
”During this campaign a sufficient number of slaves have to be deployed so that the Holy See would have to establish a church with Red Bishops in northern Qin. If this church gets destroyed the Holy See must rebuild it. This means that when I send a few hundred-thousand slaves over the pope must provide a corresponding level of support. This support is bottomless, otherwise, it will be akin to the Holy See refuting their own code of laws.”
This would be a bottomless pit, it would be extremely challenging to defend a church that was established in northern Qin. By then, the pressure on Siyuan City would be drastically reduced as the pope would have to concentrate his efforts on northern Qin. Even the offensive at Loulan's borders would be forced to take on a defensive stance.
”Leave this to the dukes. Vinny, go and get Gerald,” the emperor said in exhilaration.
”As you wish, Your Majesty.” The holy master left the palace to contact the prominent nobles in the city. As long as these nobles joined forces to demand the emperor to invade Metatrin, the Holy See would be helpless. The nobles would have a strong justification for their demand because an entire army, as well as the son of a duke, had died in that faraway land in the north.
A sense of foreboding swept throughout Siyuan City. Bad news seemed to have grown wings, soaring across Myers mainland and towards Sikeqinya as well.
Sikeqinya was built upon mercenaries. Long ago the bloodline of the imperial family had originated from a Sikeqinya Mercenary Group. When the Sikeqinya Mercenary Group was in its heyday it claimed to have three-hundred-thousand knights.
Three-hundred-thousand magic cavalrymen were sufficient to develop a powerful empire. To date, the number of mages had dwindled significantly and many were converged in Qin Empire. As a result, the number of knights in Sikeqinya could only be maintained around fifty-thousand.
These fifty-thousand knights were labeled as the imperial family's fortress, they were the main elites of the Sikeqinya imperial family.
On the empire's square the Sikeqinya emperor was reviewing a parade. The square of the Sikeqinya Empire had an even larger surface area than the Glorious Square found in the Holy City. More than one-hundred mercenary groups participated in this parade. Among those people reviewing this parade, there were ambassadors from the other three empires, other than the nobles of the Sikeqinya Empire.
This day marked a thousand years since the establishing the Sikeqinya Empire. Very early on the emperor had already sent envoys to the other three empires. Even Qin and Tanggulasi, who were in the midst of war, did not reject this invitation.
Both parties were vying for Sikeqinya's support, even though they knew that Sikeqinyans only looked up to money. No matter how good relations were, money still had to be forked over eventually for the Sikeqinya nobles to deploy their troops.
Among the four big empires, the population of Sikeqinyans was the smallest. There were less than two-hundred-million of them. Among the Sikeqinyans, the number of farmers was on the lower end. The craftsmen, mercenaries, merchants, and shepherds made up the bulk of this empire.
This was a mercenary state, but bandits were prolific too. This caused the other three empires to be bewildered.
The emperor of the Sikeqinya Empire, Danny, was seated on a platform while being flanked by envoys from the other three empires. The mercenaries who walked past the reviewing platform were equipped with premium equipment. Their air of ferocity engulfed the entire square.
The envoys from the three empires were conjuring their own ideas as they stared at the Sikeqinyans flexing their muscles.
The first team to walk past the platform was the imperial swordsman's group, this was an army with a heavy duty composition. There were war chariots, heavy cavalrymen, heavy infantrymen, armored swordsmen, long range infantrymen, and even a rarely seen mage's platoon.
Of course, the Sikeqinya emperor would never showcase his most secret forces. Nevertheless, this heavy duty army in front of the platform already made the three envoys understand the power possessed by the Sikeqinyans.
The next team to march was the Dragons and Roses Regiment, this mercenary group had been stationed along the borders and it was also the first mercenary group in Sikeqinya. The group leader was a Golden Grand Swordmaster, while his wife was a grade-9 sorcerer. Such a collocation was the most ideal structure for a mercenary group.
Due to the tense situation in Loulan, the leader of the Dragons and Roses Regiment did not attend this parade personally. Instead, he had sent a mage's squad and a magic beast camp to take part in the parade.
Sikeqinya also had magic beast swordsmen, however, only the Dragons and Roses Regiment contained a full composition of them. In the mage's squad deployed by the regiment, there were two grade-8 sorcerers. That surprised the Qin envoy a little. ”It is simply unbelievable that a mercenary group has so many sorcerers, it seems like it was the right decision for His Majesty to send me here.”
The Sikeqinyans were not as weak as imagined, otherwise the Tanggulasi Empire would not have attacked Qin first. Instead, it would have attacked Sikeqinya, which was nearer.
When the second grade-9 mercenary group walked past the square the envoy from Tanggulasi Empire had also become extremely jittery. This mercenary group had deployed a four-thousand man team and the commander of every emblem group was a Silver Grand Swordmaster.
Even though Sikeqinya only had two grade-9 mercenary groups, the proficiency of these mercenaries was not any less than the imperial cavalrymen of the Tanggulasi Empire.