diymy #449 - Frick High School
#449 - Frick High School
When Horn and Catherine entered the conference room, the long table was already full, with several cardinals present.
Horn began by introducing Catherine's identity and her accomplishments, and the cardinals immediately applauded as a subconscious welcome.
However, while Cardinal Madlan, as the chief cardinal, applauded with sincerity, the others regarded Catherine with a scrutinizing attitude.
These cardinals had all come from the Gulag era, and they were certainly not very trusting of Catherine, who had ascended to a high position so quickly.
"Madlan, please read the report on the current situation." Horn knew that there was no way to resolve this issue immediately and that it would take time, so he directly asked Madlan to read the report.
"In terms of townships, the Papal Palace currently controls six.
There are four in Langsand County: Great Marsh Township, Kush Territory, Ibe Township, and Golden River Township.
There are two in Lower River County: Dog Fox Township and Zhuan River Township (where Rapid Stream City is located).
Additionally, Little Pond City is still requesting that we garrison troops there; their Dok Township is currently considered an allied territory."
There are two ways to name townships and counties within the Empire: the first is to use ancient names based on geographical features, such as Dog Fox Township, even though the dog foxes have all been hunted down; it is still called Dog Fox Township.
The second is when a territory has long been the domain of a certain noble family, to the extent that the ancient name has been forgotten, and it is named after the noble family name, such as Kush Territory and Dok Township.
Horn stroked his chin, the Savior Army succeeded in their uprising by killing Duke Kush, and now the core territory still bears the name Kush Territory; it should be renamed.
He would have that group of idle elders take care of it later.
"In terms of population, our main core territories are three: Great Marsh Township, Kush Territory, and Ibe Township, with a combined population of approximately 340,000 people.
Golden River Township further south has approximately 280,000 people, but this number was reported by the old matriarch of the Alco family, so it is not very credible.
As for Dog Fox Township and Zhuan River Township, we have not yet been able to implement the 'Holy Nation Land System' reform, so we cannot determine the exact population; according to paper calculations, there are 250,000 people.
Based on these data, Langsand County has approximately 620,000 people, half of Lower River County has 250,000 people, and the population we nominally control is 870,000, with an actual controlled population of approximately 340,000."
This number seems like a lot, but it is actually quite small compared to the Empire; these 340,000 people have managed to win victory after victory with their outrageous organization and holy muskets, to get to where they are now.
If they were to lose even a single battle, it would be a catastrophe for the entire Papal State.
Remembering the Golden River Township to the south, Horn waited for Madlan to finish this section and then tapped the table: "How is the Black Mountain Fortress Treaty being implemented by that old woman?"
Madlan reached out, and a monk next to him handed him a stack of documents; he flipped through them and said: "In terms of taxation, although we demanded a reduction to 35%, they were quite obedient, even reducing it to 30%... uh, reducing it to 20% for the Kush people, with the remaining amount made up by the Leia immigrants."
"Have the noble children arrived at Jeanne Fort yet?" Jeanne asked.
"Not yet, they are currently gathering near Black Mountain Fortress." Reading this, Madlan's expression changed slightly, "These noble children will be heading to Autumn Dusk Island in the latter half of this month to study at Frick Grammar School on Autumn Dusk Island."
The Frick School Plan was an education plan proposed by Madlan; all schools bearing the name Frick are funded by the Senate and offer tuition-free education to local students.
However, there are limited places available, and enrollment stops once the quota is filled; this is Horn's small-scale pilot program for compulsory education.
Currently, the Papal State has one Frick Elementary School each in Jeanne Fort and Autumn Dusk Island, staffed by nuns who were previously trapped in monasteries.
Most of them are ordinary commoner children who cannot afford proper literacy education but are eager to study.
As for the Frick Grammar School on Autumn Dusk Island, it is also funded by the Papal State, a school built for adolescents aged 12 to 16, similar to the courtier academies or knight schools of this era.
However, they do not study horsemanship or swordsmanship, but rather natural theology, law, mathematics, classical literature, etc., with specialized officer classes in the higher grades.
These officer classes are reserve officers; they can start as squad leaders in combat regiments when they join the army, and then be directly assigned as company commanders, followed by battalion commanders.
Even if they fail to enter the officer class or do not receive a letter of recommendation, they can fall back on seeking opportunities in the Savior Army government.
Having the background of Frick Grammar School makes it quite convenient to become a scribe monk, join the Night Watch, or join the Protectorate Army.
The school currently adopts a recommendation system; Horn has given recommendation slots to elders, legion commanders, some friendly merchants, some centurions, and guild presidents.
The first batch of Frick Grammar School students only enrolls 400 people; Horn has provided them with 200 slots, 50 slots for the orphans of the Children's Army, and 50 slots for the two Frick Elementary Schools.
The remaining 100 slots are given to the Kush petty noble children of Golden River Township; of course, their annual tuition fee is 4 gold pounds, which is roughly enough to cover the learning costs of the others.
"I'll say this first." Jeanne put on a serious expression, "These noble children, from the moment they step onto our land, no longer have noble status and can only be considered children from small landlord families."
"That's for sure, they were already living the lives of small landlords." Busak nodded in agreement while changing the subject, "I guarantee that there will absolutely be no cases of 'noble children' bullying others, but there will also be no cases of us bullying 'noble children'."
"I hope so." Jeanne was not very satisfied with the Black Mountain Fortress Treaty, believing that she had suffered a great loss due to the situation, and sat back in her seat sullenly.
Horn didn't say much, instructing Madlan to continue.
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The signing of this treaty was indeed a bit rushed, after all, war was imminent; before Horn could digest the 340,000 people in his hands, these Kush nobles could only be put on hold for now.
Horn had met many of these Kush nobles; judging from some of the Kush noble youths he knew, they surprisingly did not have many of the vices of nobles.
Due to external oppression, the Kush knights of Ibe had habits similar to those of the Mountain Five Counties; they actually had to stand with their people!
The reduction of territory and judicial injustice forced the Kush knights to participate in labor themselves and consider the opinions of the common people.
The intermarriage of foreign immigrant nobles with local Kush knights required extremely high dowries, forcing the Kush people to intermarry internally, even with the common people within their territory.
A Kush knight in a manor was more like the head of a large family than a lord, because all the farmers in the manor were relatives.
Nobles are nobles because they have privileges.
When a Kush noble killed a farmer and was actually harassed by foreign knights and the church, unable to escape punishment and even sentenced to high compensation, the Kush noble and the Kush farmer were the same sheep in front of the church.
Except that the former had to serve a labor service called war.
The church tried to use this method to slowly bleed the Kush nobles to death, but Horn reaped unexpected rewards.
That is, these Kush people had a strong sense of fear; extreme oppression gave birth to extreme unity and identity among the Kush knights.
Especially after the pure-blooded old Kush Horn defeated the church army at Black Mountain Fortress, a large number of foreign nobles who had oppressed them were executed by Horn or the old matriarch.
The original foreign knights scrambled to change to the Kush surname, and Kush bloodline leaped to become the upper class.
This change caused a great mental shock to the Kush knights, to the extent that they scrambled to pay money to deliver hostages as fools.
The habits of this generation of Kush knights may not change, but by the second and third generations, they may revert to the old ways of nobles.
For this relatively enlightened force, Horn needs to accommodate this reliable source of soldiers while completely reforming the nobles before the enlightenment born of their fear dissipates.
"Let's skip the economic matters for now, I want to hear about the military situation first." Horn raised his head and said to Madlan.