Pirate Kingship.

Chapter 504: Taking advantage of the situation, the wind and clouds turn into dragons!
"The religious war has begun, and the church has fallen into civil strife! Thanks to the Creator's continuous breaking, the opportunity I have been waiting for has finally come!"

Byron finally got the long-awaited news from August and was overjoyed.

I looked back at the three women who were chatting enthusiastically and did not disturb them to improve the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

In fact, both in appearance and temperament, Hathaway is more innocent and girlish than Violet and Catherine. She is definitely a mermaid princess who walked out of a fairy tale.

Not only because she was very young when she died, according to the mermaid's growth cycle, if it were in modern times, her father, Prince Thornburg, would have to die at least three years ago.

On the other hand, it perfectly avoids the "aging catalysts" that give all old mothers headaches: children not eating, being naughty, lifting girls' skirts, poor academic performance, adolescent rebellion, and failure to get promoted.
When I woke up, I found that my son, who was only a few years old, had grown up into an adult as tenacious as a weed.

Not only is his career successful so she doesn't have to worry about anything, but he also has double the happiness of having two excellent daughters-in-law who are already engaged.

This is a perfect example of "winning without doing anything".

At this time, she had endless things to say to her two daughters-in-law (adopted daughters). She must make up for the lost maternal love for Byron, probably starting with caring for the next generation.

"Forget it, let mom experience happy things for a while longer.

Later, when the [Old Witch's Curse] is lifted, she will probably only hear bad news about the Mermaid Kingdom from Salant.

I just saw the secret spell "Alice's Pillow Book of Fairy Tales", and it seems that there is a black witchcraft called "The Little Match Girl".

Just light a match or some other flammable or explosive material and everyone around will see the little girl's grandmother.

I hope this trick won’t be used in our own home.”

Byron picked up the "frozen frog" on the ground and walked out of the living room.

As soon as he left Hathaway's sight, his expression became serious and he immediately took out the contingency plan he had prepared long ago.

Through the [Golden Law], an order was issued to the Pioneer Pilot Colonial Trade Company and the disguised major commercial consortiums:
"From now on, we will allocate an additional budget in addition to the original 'grain procurement plan' to continue to increase grain procurement efforts.

As long as the premium is within 100%, we can accept it. We are not short of money now."

A series of arms companies and bidding companies represented by Rheinmetall were notified to prepare stocks with all their strength and to send business personnel to actively contact the Protestant princes.

Even small batches of bolt-action rifles are not completely unsaleable.

These grandsons of the church's traditionalists still owed the Lancaster family a blood debt. Without their support, the York family would not be able to make any waves. It would be unforgivable if they didn't stab them in the back at the critical moment.

He also used the Pirate Code of Black Sail Port to inform all the pirate groups, privateers, and big pirates scattered across the sea:

“Although food is of low value and is not the main cargo for ocean transport, we will immediately blockade the ‘First Circulation Belt’ and implement wartime control.

From this day forward not a grain of corn or a potato will be allowed to be brought back to the Old World."

Then, a notice was issued to Westwind Express, major cooperating shipowners, and third-party local chambers of commerce and freight companies:

“The ships returning from the Old World will carry as many immigrants as possible, and the shipping fees of all refugees and indentured servants will be borne by the Pioneer Navigation Colonial Trading Company, and their personal relationships will also be transferred.

In addition, we sincerely invite technicians from all walks of life in the Old Continent to join the Earldom of Stromgarde with generous benefits, and a permanent residence will be given to those who join us.”

Finally, he did not forget to use the behind-the-scenes owner of Financial Street [Mr. Wednesday] to notify the online futures exchange:

“Grain futures are going to surge soon, get ready to make a killing.

If we do a good job, maybe we won’t even have to pay for food ourselves, as there will be kind people who will generously donate to us.”

Arrange Bruch and other members of the Demon Banquet Council to track and check the process of various tasks and report to him at any time.

Byron had already foreseen this unprecedented religious turmoil in the Old World.

After successfully plundering the treasure fleet and having a large cash flow, they have been quietly stockpiling various strategic materials, mainly food.

It is said that "antiques are valuable in prosperous times, and gold is valuable in troubled times." In fact, the hardest currency in wartime is food.

This thing is not an industrial product that can be produced at any time. It needs to follow the seasonal cycle. Once a food shortage occurs, even if you have mountains of gold and silver, you may not be able to buy large amounts. You must prepare early.

Byron stood at the top of the bastion, looking at a row of huge warehouses at the edge of the Torrent Fortress, full of vigor and enthusiasm:

“As long as the most basic food problem is solved.

What is the most important thing next? Of course, talent!

High value-added people with connections will try every possible means to escape from war-torn areas and come to places where they can take refuge and protect the safety of their property.

Raising the price to buy food at this critical juncture is not only to increase food reserves, but also to create widespread panic and prevent other forces from buying food.

They have no way to compete with me for refugees, and can only pour into the colonies in large numbers.

In addition to the indentured servants, beggars, and criminals who always appear, there will also be a large number of impoverished nobles, declining landowners, asset owners, and many free extraordinary people who are not good at fighting.

Their flight will inevitably bring about a huge wave of wealth and asset transfer.

There is no need to follow the example of a certain neutral country and destroy its own brand and arbitrarily confiscate other people's legal assets. As long as they spend money here, it is enough to drive the economy to flourish."

“Moreover, human resources themselves are more valuable than gold.

The production of a large number of high-tower sequences can lead to [craftsmen] and scholars becoming the backbone of various industries in the territory.

Ordinary people who can read and write can also become teachers, financial personnel, and excellent industrial workers.
Even if it is useless, it can be used to adjust the racial ratio of the colony and consolidate rule and ethnic anchoring.

An indentured slave from the Old World, usually costing 35 pounds each.

When the prolonged war destroyed production on a large scale, it could be bought with a loaf of Furl bread worth about a copper coin, and it could even be given as a gift to the whole family, young and old, as long as they had meals.

Religious wars cannot be confined to one city or one place. As the battlefield expands, citizens of all countries in the Dragon King's Court may flee.

Only by absorbing them all into the Holy Golden Empire and integrating them with blood as the bond can we create the most stable catamaran.

The big piece of fat meat that I couldn't even ask for was delivered to my mouth just like that. This deal is really a big profit."

As Byron issued an order.

From the westernmost Yucatan Island to the easternmost Chambord Island, from the Black Sail Harbor in the Bahamas in the north to the Rift Trench in the Centaurus Islands in the south, countless people responded with respectful expressions and beating their chests.

"As you command, my Lord."

"Yes, uncrowned king."

At this time, the Kingdom of Castile, the world's largest maritime power, was mired in a quagmire and had long lost its absolute dominance over the Bantaan Islands and the southern continent.

As we all know, God cannot bleed!
Once he bleeds, everyone knows that he is just a mortal. Once he bleeds once, there will be a second and a third time. The wolves will just swarm around until his blood bar is emptied.

When the "Treasure Fleet" was destroyed by the Sea Hunter and the Wild Hunt, and Castile failed to retaliate immediately, their weakness was exposed to everyone.

Even if you repeatedly emphasize: "Although I was beaten, it doesn't hurt.", "It's no big deal, I can still take three more punches.", it will only backfire.

When God starts to speak nicely and explain the doubts, he must be hiding something.

At this point, their overseas rule inevitably began to shift towards the victor who had stabbed the "God" and remained unscathed.

[Sea Hunter] and [Wild Hunter], the two top figures below level five, have secretly joined forces to mobilize a terrifying amount of human and material resources.

With both the black and white worlds at his disposal, there is almost nothing Byron cannot accomplish within the Bantaan Islands.

After arranging everything, he began to keep an eye on the changes in the situation on the Old Continent through August and the Raven Fujin.

Over the next period of time, things developed pretty much as he expected.

After the "throwing out the window" incident occurred in the Electorate of the Palatinate, the Protestant Elector of the Palatinate, Frederick V, was immediately elected and crowned as the new king.

He immediately assembled an army to eliminate all traditional churches in the country, then turned around and headed for the imperial capital, Vinaya, firing the first shot in resistance against the church's long-term exploitation and enslavement.

After he took the lead in carrying the flag, everyone responded immediately.

The four secular electors: the Electorate of Palatinate, the Electorate of Saxony, the Electorate of Bohemia, and the County of Brandenburg all responded.

At the same time, the County of Brunswick, Lüneburg and a series of surrounding Protestant princes began to expel traditional clergy from their territories and declared independence from the Silver Empire.

For a moment, the momentum was extremely huge.

However, the Habsburg family, the imperial royal family that had been fighting for the church on the surface, was caught in an awkward situation where it was difficult to back down.

Of the seven electors stipulated in the "Silver Edict" of the Holy Silver Empire, all four secular electors stood against them, leaving only three church electors without armies.

This situation is simply irritating both heaven and man.

Although the Habsburg family is one of the most powerful royal families in the Silver Continent with the widest ruling area.

Since the Silver Age 1438, when he seized the Holy Silver Empire Emperor's [Crown], it has not been taken away by the other six electors until now.

But what they rely on is not their physical strength, but their lower body.

Family motto: "Let the continental countries fight, and we will get married happily."

It was also jokingly called by the nobles of the continent: "ruling the world with the lower body."

Others would not shed blood for what they can get through bloodshed, but they would not shed blood for what they can get through marriage.

It is conceivable that such a family motto naturally led to their extremely insufficient martial virtues, which wasted the unique [Crown] among the Church States.

When they discovered that the heretics dared to resist and even that there were more and more of them, they did not send troops to attack them, but immediately asked for help from the church and other traditional states.

However, apart from the three major knightly orders of the Order of Malta, the Poor Knights and the Knights of Notre Dame, the church does not have its own professional army.

Moreover, the three major knight orders were the elite among the elite, and they were the most powerful ones. They could not be used casually to fight a war of attrition. If they wanted to fight, they still had to rely on secular royal power. But before the church could call on the traditional princes to join the war, something they had never expected happened.

Albrecht, the Holy Shield, a paladin of the Hohenzollern family of the Margrave of Brandenburg, was chosen as the Grand Master of the Knights of the Notre Dame. He was a close relative of the Elector of Brandenburg and naturally a supporter of Protestantism.

Under the influence of Cardinal Archbishop Martin, he suddenly announced his conversion to Protestantism and severed ties with the Order's nominal suzerain, St. Peter's Cathedral.

Then he announced to the whole continent that the Order of the Holy Mother would be secularized, the Order's territory would be changed to the Duchy of Prussia, and the Grand Master [Holy Shield] Albrecht would appoint himself Duke of Prussia.

One of the most relied-upon core thugs of the traditional church turned against them at this time and became the first country in the world to fully embrace Protestantism from its founding.

Together they joined the Protestant resistance camp.

This is undoubtedly a heavy blow to traditionalists.

Although the Holy Silver Empire has nothing to do with the former Silver Empire except in name, it has always been the core diocese of the church.

Since the Silver Empire era, the Church of the Creator has been the state religion here, ruling the spiritual world of this land for a full thousand years.

The Holy Silver Empire is definitely a "son" that cannot be abandoned.

But now, there is a civil war in the Holy Silver Empire, a civil war in the Kingdom of Castile, the world's number one maritime power, and a civil war within the York family of the Kingdom of Hastings.

Their left arm, right arm, and pets were all busy taking care of themselves, and they suddenly realized that their advantage over Protestantism was not as great as they had imagined.

The Protestant saint who presided over all this chose this area to detonate the powder keg at this time, which was a stroke of genius.

Moreover, half a month after the conflict, as the fighting between the Protestant princes and the Silver Empire intensified, more and more people died.

The large number of forbidden books "The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven" and the polluted priests and nuns that the traditionalists released at the beginning also got out of control one after another.

Under normal circumstances, weird beings and evil spirits always have some very strange [accidental skills].

If something has the possibility of going bad, no matter how small the possibility is, it will always happen.

Because what is dangerous is not only the dangers themselves, but also the various unexpected situations they bring.

And this time, it seemed as if there was an invisible driving force that pushed the situation towards an even more chaotic direction.

——The Creator is splitting, and your church must split along with it!

The trigger was a Protestant believer who was a scholar of the Tower Sequence. He read about a female angel [Archangel Pallas] in a book.

After achieving the "Holy Descent", although its combat power was mediocre, it began to copy "The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven" at a high speed like a human printing press, and then started a large-scale distribution mode throughout the empire.

The unrest soon spread beyond the territories of the Protestant princes.

With the exponential upgrade of the writing medium of bagasse paper, "The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven" was quickly imported back into traditional parishes.

The traditional clergy who are greedy for power have far less faith than the Protestant ascetics, night watchmen, and paladins. The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven is obviously more lethal to them.

After reading the forbidden book and accepting knowledge from many old gods, many people also called themselves Protestants in order to cover up their heretical identities and all joined the Protestant camp.

Hundreds of small sects suddenly emerged in a short period of time, which caught everyone off guard and caused the forces opposing the church to expand rapidly.

In order to show their break with the traditional church faction, the major branches of Protestantism had a unified name: "Protestantism".

This is just like intentionally releasing a virus, only to find that the opponent is more resistant and you end up suffering the consequences.

The traditional saints who have always been high and mighty wanted to use "The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven" to crack down on dissidents.

He tried to label all the Protestant leaders who emerged as heretics within a controllable range, but he did not expect that he would create a large group of real heretics with his own hands.

Some clergymen were deeply shocked and cried out to the sky:

"O omniscient and omnipotent Creator, please show yourself!"

The reason why the Creator is omniscient and omnipotent to a certain extent is that he has almost reached the state of "all things return to one" 100%.

A considerable number of prophets believe that destiny was written into the first particle of matter that changed when the world was born.

As long as we can establish a material model within a closed system, understand the changing patterns of each particle, and perform simulation calculations, we can directly observe destiny itself!
When one reaches the 100% state of "all things become one", the whole world is His body, and He can freely control the changes of every particle. Of course, He can be omniscient and omnipotent.

But now even this [Creator] at the highest level is cracking apart and losing control of a part of the divinity that he once swallowed.

How can the traditional saints, a group of mere mortals who are not even mythical creatures, control everything?
Once the situation deteriorated, it was out of control.

By December of the Silver Age 1472, after sufficient preparation, even the Council of Gods began to split.

Some conscientious "saints" openly support Protestantism, especially those led by the backbone of the church such as the Night's Watch, the Trappist Order, and the Paladins.

From the secular to the religious, a series of moves almost dismembered the entire church.

But traditionalists won't admit defeat like that.

The Pope issued a decree and began to call himself: Orthodox.

They believe that they are the only orthodox sect, and apart from them, all other sects, whether Protestantism, Remitism or Holy Spiritism, are heresies.

In order to maintain their rule and suppress the unrest in the hearts of the people in the church countries, they even drove the most loyal and bloody Inquisition to once again launch a "witch hunt" within their sphere of influence.

The most famous way to judge who is a heretic is the water test:

"They tie the suspect to a rock, or tie the suspect's right thumb to the big toe of his left foot, and his left thumb to the big toe of his right foot, and throw him face down into the water.

If the suspect floats on the water, it means the devil does not want to see the believer die, and it can prove the suspect is guilty, so he will be burned alive; if he sinks into the water, he is innocent, but there is a high probability that he will drown. "

Anyone with insight knows that no matter how absurd the testing method is, it doesn’t really matter.

Because when you want to test the hardness of a piece of glass, the glass is bound to break. In other words, once the suspicion arises, the crime is established.

As long as the judge wants, a series of verification methods can always expose the true nature of a "heretic" and then take the opportunity to strengthen their own dominance.

Amidst the chaos, the first group of Protestants from the Holy Silver Empire who could not bear the persecution had already set foot on the "First Ring Belt" under Byron's arrangement.

And there will be more and more people following behind.

The Silver Empire is getting closer and closer to its goal of becoming the orthodox Empire in the Golden Empire.

“It was a truly exhilarating dance of demons.

In the end, regardless of whether the war is won or lost, Orthodoxy is 100% the biggest loser, and the development of things may not be in line with the original ideas of Protestantism.

But they can decide when the war starts, but no one can decide when it ends.

It’s our turn now.”

In the wartime command center that had long been established in Torrent Fortress, Byron shared the current intelligence with his direct subordinates.

Although the Holy Silver Empire is still in the civil war stage, it has already absorbed most of the church's attention.

At this time, let alone the fact that Byron only had a claim of being the "Holy Spirit", even if he directly claimed that he was the incarnation of the "Creator", the church would not have the energy to cross the ocean to fight him.

At the same time, this also means that the biggest obstacle to returning to the country of Hastings no longer exists.

He no longer had to worry about the York family bringing in foreign aid that he couldn't deal with.

Next, Byron's Holy Golden Empire only needs to copy homework.

A certain offshore country in the previous life has already set a perfect example.

In the early stages of the war, they took advantage of their position as outsiders and dumped industrial products on both sides of the war zone, making them fight more fiercely, earning a large amount of hard currency and gold, and further realizing the bloody primitive accumulation of capital.
He frantically absorbed all kinds of outstanding talents who fled from his motherland, concentrated the world's wisdom, wealth and the only war-free land to climb the technology tree, allowing his own strength and foundation to expand rapidly like blowing up a balloon.

Wait until the late stages of the war, when both sides are exhausted, and then bet on the side with moral and strength advantages to grab the biggest fruits of victory.

Even more shameless, they declared to the outside world that they were the ones who ended the war, that they were the beacon of civilization, the country on the top of the mountain, and the symbol of justice, and no one dared to say anything.

Because the others only have half their lives left.

By repeating this cycle and relying on the powerful "military-industrial complex", every large-scale war outside the region can rapidly expand the country's national strength.

Perhaps the power Byron currently possesses is not enough in the old continent where countries are the units.

But there will never be only one chip on the scale, nor will there be only one player in the game.

As long as you have the basic qualifications to play cards, you may be able to cast a fatal vote in key games and dynamic balance and become a critical minority.

Many generals in all the wars have said, "Give me another division, even just one." It's the same principle.

This is also the essence of the "offshore balancing hand" theory!
What's even better is that with the help of the "Demon Banquet Council" whose entire members are members of the clan, no matter how powerful the "military-industrial complex" is, it is impossible for it to backfire on Byron.

Interests are not the pursuit of the complex, but the emperor's will is!

This religious war may be the beginning of suffering for countless people.

But for Byron's party, which had already established a solid foundation in the Bantaan Islands and had a reputation and strength, it was clearly a key opportunity for a rapid rise.

A group of direct descendants were all shouting: "Thank you for the gift of nature!"

It was in this context that, at the end of 1472, the traditional and loyal Grand Master of the Order of Malta, the legendary Paladin [Holy Lance] Valette, finally left his base on the island of Malta.

Byron also once again set foot in the Maltese monastery.

Here, he will completely cut off the last chain that binds his hands and feet.

Then take advantage of the situation and turn the wind and clouds into a dragon!
(End of this chapter)