Chapter 647: Chapter 372, State Religion Also Needs Alliance Control
The reforms in Korolya continued to progress.
Although there were numerous difficulties, Gu Hang had never been particularly worried from the start.
With the military, the treasury, and the pen in hand, there wasn’t much that couldn’t be managed.
The military had always been Gu Hang’s top priority, and naturally, this went without saying. Not to mention his own loyal troops, General Hans’s Dragonhawk Legion also seemed obedient for the time being; obtaining control over the Native Defense Army, which was more than a hundred million strong, shouldn’t pose much of a problem.
At this point, the “military” could be considered stable.
There was even less need to worry about the “treasury.” Korolya was as poor as a ghost, but with economic aid from the alliance, industrial reforms, and tax reductions from the Human Empire, all these powers lay in Gu Hang’s hands, and with military backing, the treasury was also secure.
…
With these in place, the progression of the reforms would be difficult, but the likelihood of failure wasn’t high.
The last item, the “pen,” also could not be neglected.
It represents public opinion, the right to speak, ideology…it could be called anything, but in essence, it’s about people’s hearts.
In fact, it is very important, in some ways even more so than the previous two.
Just having guns and money isn’t enough if the people’s hearts aren’t won over. Society would operate in a high-consumption mode, which couldn’t become the norm.
Fortunately, the alliance’s governance system had always been quite good at capturing the hearts of the people.
The development of productivity and the improvement of living standards would directly win over the most basic public support; the alliance’s propaganda and mobilization departments were also doing their work. Most importantly, they were tying these positive changes to the alliance and Mr. Gu, naturally winning over the people’s hearts.
But that alone wasn’t enough.
Especially not in a place like Korolya.
A point Gu Hang had not had the time to care about in the past was becoming increasingly important.
That was the state religion.
The state religion was a force within the empire that was easy to overlook but should never be neglected.
They had a dark history, and under the strict laws of the empire, their power had been greatly diminished; they couldn’t even muster an armed force but had to resort to forming the rather odd Battle Nun Association. Not to mention that one-third of the Battle Nun Association was under the command of the Tribunal, another third directly obeyed the empire, and though the remaining third heeded the state religion, half of them were quite independent.
Still, they should not be underestimated.
The most important aspect was their influence over the hearts of the people.
The entire Human Empire universally worshipped The Emperor. From lowly peddlers to fearless heroes, from the impoverished masses to the upper echelons, from spiritual energy scholars to Tribunal minions, who didn’t utter “The Emperor bless”?
Even the deluded folks of the Mechanical Cult Guild, who wouldn’t dare alter their brains but wished to replace every other part of their body with mechanical components, acknowledged that the “God of All Machines” they chanted about was an avatar of The Emperor.
The influence of The Emperor was ubiquitous.
And Korolya happened to be within the core area of the state religion of the recent star sectors, not for any particular reason other than its population. The state religion needed to expand its influence here, so they established a diocese with a grand cathedral hundreds of years ago and even stationed the Battle Nun Association of St. Mercy Lily here permanently.
Though St. Mercy Lily was small, it was still a legitimate sisterhood.
In Korolya, the state religion’s priests truly went to the lowest levels of society. Some of the ascetic brethren, donning the simplest and shabbiest of robes, went into the lower districts to heal the sick, distribute food, act as mediators to resolve disputes… Of course, these were all secondary; what was most important was preaching and soothing the hearts of the people.
In Gu Hang’s observation, many of the members of the state religion, especially those in the upper ranks, were quite indulgent, which fit his stereotype of a decadent religious force. But objectively speaking, their actions throughout the long years in Korolya had indeed helped stabilize society and had also gained widespread acceptance among the people.
However, Gu Hang had always been disinterested in religion and even felt a subtle aversion to it. Furthermore, within the highly centralized political ecology of the alliance, there had been no place for the power of the state religion from the very design of the system.
In Korolya, it could no longer be like this.
If the issue of religion was not handled properly, the alliance’s reform policies in Korolya would not exactly be impossible to implement, but they would certainly be half as effective at twice the effort.
After several rounds of internal discussions, Gu Hang and his officials had roughly formulated a plan.
But before meeting with Korolya Bishop Zhao Qinghong, Gu Hang actually met with another person first.
Introduced by the old acquaintance Superior Georgette, Gu Hang personally visited the leader of St. Mercy Lily, Superior Mrs. Medici.
This was their second meeting.
Mrs. Medici looked very old; according to her own words, she was one hundred twenty-eight years old this year and had never undergone any life-extending procedures.
This was quite rare, almost reaching the theoretical limit of the average human lifespan.
Gu Hang believed that this might truly be The Emperor’s blessing. After all, he had seen how Georgette, when in battle, would extend ethereal golden wings behind her, cutting down enemies as easily as slicing vegetables, not inferior at all to Battle Group Leader Matins from next door.