When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 573 - 551 Lauren and Damp Dock
Fine spring rain sprinkled onto the verdant land, the sky like a gauzy veil pricked with silver needles, billowing back and forth in the undulating spring breeze.
After March began, the warm currents of the Jade Sea clashed with the cold currents of the Furnace Highlands in the Thousand River Valley.
The cold and majestic water vapor, smoothed by the essence of spring, turned into a fine rain that fell onto the military tents of the war monks.
The Legion Commander, along with ten Brigade Commanders and the Military Chaplains, gathered in a tent to listen to the legion secretary recite the latest Gospel of the Holy Path.
"...War monks are also monks, the Salvation Army is the army of monks, and similarly, the Pope Country is a nation of monks..."
"...What is a monk? Is sitting in a monastery, reading scriptures daily considered being a monk? Without labor, there is no production; without exchange, there is no circulation; this certainly doesn’t count as being a monk..."
"...Monks should know who we are, what our nation is, and why we must defend our nation..."
"...The reason why war monks are called monks is because they engage in warfare, responsible for protecting the output of labor and the exchange of goods, not because they are superior to other monks..."
"Isn’t this what was said before? Why say it again?" a Brigade Commander whispered to another Brigade Commander.
The other Brigade Commander lowered his voice: "I guess it’s because that Brigade Commander from the Black Crown Eighth Army got drunk and slept with the knight’s daughter."
"Really?"
"I saw it with my own eyes yesterday, a few military police were escorting him past our camp."
"Isn’t that the knight’s daughter? Moreover, she’s the daughter of a knight from Hotam County..."
"The Senior Pastor is reading His Majesty’s scriptures, what are you doing? Is this the time for idle chatter?" Lauren, who was already promoted to Legion Commander, shouted at the two.
"No, sir, Legion Commander." The two young men immediately stood at attention.
"Apologize to the Secretary Adol!"
"Yes, Secretary Adol, we were wrong, please forgive us."
"Hahaha," Adol, serving as Military Chaplain General, chuckled, "Sit down, sit down, this is a discussion, no need to be so serious."
What is called a Military Chaplain is essentially not a commissar in this country, nor a Soviet-style commissar.
Under the current productivity conditions and intellectual level, neither type of commissar could be born.
Comparatively, they are more like a combination of military chaplains from the Thirty Years’ War period and commissioners from the French Revolution period.
Their tasks include leading the war monks in prayer, conducting battlefield funerals, boosting morale, supervising officers to execute orders, and promoting the ideology of the Holy Path.
The requirements for them are simple, they don’t necessarily need to receive holy orders, as long as they can read the Gospel, and possess reading, writing, and basic debating skills.
As for the materials read aloud by these military chaplains, most of them are personally determined by Horn and then written by the scribes of the Saint Father’s Association.
These scribes differ from the church clergy’s scribes.
Unlike the church style, with its rhetorical articles prone to bursting with classics, they prefer to adopt a more colloquial, emphatic writing style.
This wasn’t Horn’s decision; it was concluded from a series of wars and daily activities experience in Langsande County.
The monks of the Saint Father’s Association even gradually formed a set of colloquial writing paradigms.
If you were to bring the serious clergy from the church, they might not adapt as well.
Generally speaking, 2-3 Military Chaplains are assigned to each legion.
But administrative work, including the specifics of life and logistics, is managed by the legion secretary.
Of course, since the Salvation Army’s structure is currently not entirely developed, service soldiers are often vacant too.
So many times, the legion secretary also serves as a military chaplain.
This is why the war monks call the legion secretary the "Senior Pastor".
Having read through and explained the materials again, Adol placed the hemp paper onto a writing board and set it aside.
A dozen shoeless big men sat cross-legged together, and given the damp rainy weather, the odor inside the tent was naturally quite sour and foul.
But military life, Adol, who was a civilian by birth, had long adapted to it.
He cleared his throat: "I have relayed what the Holy Grandson warned you about, now let me share my own understanding.
Why does His Majesty want to establish a nation of monks? It is because the current world is murky, demons run rampant, and human hearts are lost.
His Majesty Saint Sun wants to rescue a world headed towards the final judgment, and therefore must first save human hearts; this is why we must revive fundamentalism and Aleic lifestyle.
We must have faith, for we are the chosen people of the Holy Father, and hence we ought to possess good virtues.
We should hold ourselves to standards, including not bullying the weak.
The knight himself is unforgivable, even if his daughter is involved, the law should be the one to sanction it.
That is the role of the adjudicating monks, not our specialty, don’t mix your thread with someone else’s needle.
Our war against the nobility and the church is a holy war, do not taint it, do you understand what I mean?"
The officers naturally responded in unison that they understood, but whether they truly understood is something only they could know.
So later, a few Military Chaplains would need to speak with these officers individually and hold small debates.
Truth is not clear until debated, besides, promoting the concept of "monk" within the army is secretly Horn’s pilot program for establishing a new imagined community.
Once just a little tailor, Lauren now leads the Black Crown Seventh Corps, although currently stationed near Damp Dock.
In contrast to other Black Crown and Imperial Guard legions engaged in the assault on Deer Horn Town, they had much more leisure, hence so many Gospel meetings to attend.
After the officers finished their Gospel meeting, the war monks also needed to conduct meetings one brigade after another.
Besides Gospel meetings, literacy classes were necessary, requiring each soldier to master at least a 500-word vocabulary in reading and writing.
These political tasks, being as crucial as combat missions, were also included in the final military merit assessment.
But just thinking about those old friends achieving merit on the battlefield, while he could only sit idly by the river bend, holding endless meetings day and night, Lauren’s heart filled with bitterness.
Meanwhile, Adol, the legion secretary-cum-military chaplain, took endless delight in it, smiling every day.
In attending Gospel meetings and literacy classes, their contrasting expressions of hardship and joy interestingly complemented each other.
Yet such a busy but peaceful daily life was suddenly interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps.
A sentry, clad in a rain poncho, lifted the tent flap, allowing slanted rain to come in, instantly soaking a Legion Commander’s blanket underneath.
Propping himself up, Lauren shouted at the sentry: "What’s going on?"
"Sir, Legion Commander, there’s an urgent report, it’s from the Saint Sun’s Army." The sentry removed his hood, revealing his wet head.
Lauren, covering three steps in two, rushed to the sentry, tore open the envelope in his hand, and read by the dim oil lamp inside the tent.
Once finished, he took a deep breath, forcibly calming his pounding heart, and handed the urgent dispatch to the legion secretary Adol nearby.
Adol lacked Lauren’s steadiness; with just one glance, his eyes were almost popping out.
"Count Sanboli has risen in rebellion?!"
"Four Counts and three Abbots have responded?!"
"The Saint Sun’s Army disguised as refugees, laid siege to Damp Dock, tricked the gate open with Count’s commands, and by nightfall..."
"Has been breached?!"
