Chapter 3243: All Are Equal Before the Law

At this moment, Laidun also reacted; the Lord waiting for him specifically outside the barracks, didn't that mean this report was related to Ximeng? And there was only one report related to Ximeng recently; he still had a deep impression of its contents.

"My Lord, is there something improper about the contents of this report?" Laidun also asked.

"There is nothing wrong with the report itself; Ximeng did indeed discover the problem of insufficient military construction in the Territory at present." Xia Duo did not mystify things and directly stated his own opinion—

"However, I don't think his idea of recruiting new soldiers from the Territory Development Department is very good. Now is the era of Magic, and the Army should also lean towards Magic. The role that ordinary soldiers can play on future battlefields is extremely limited."

"But my Lord, Magic Training is already being conducted within the Territory Guard, and the new soldiers recruited will also undergo relevant training; only those who are qualified will be kept."

The most elite unit in the Territory at present is the Spellbreaker Guard, with every member standardly equipped with the Defender Set imported from Evereska—

Including armor capable of flight, bracers capable of activating a Force Shield, and short guns capable of firing adjustable lightning attacks.

The Captain is additionally equipped with an Adamantine Jet Gun, which can provide extremely strong attack power.

It is conceivable that being able to be equipped with such luxurious gear, every member of the Spellbreaker Guard is a standout among the Territory Guard, and one of the most special abilities among them is being able to skillfully use Magic Items, with a few even possessing Spellcasting ability.

The Magic soldiers that Ximeng can understand are roughly only at this level, but to Xia Duo, this level of Magic soldier is still far from enough. He believes that the army of a Magic civilization should be the strongest combat force of the entire civilization.

Unlike now, where the strongest combat force of the Territory is instead concentrated on Xia Duo himself; even if he were to hand over the Floating City or the Thought Robe to the Spellbreaker Guard to use, these people would not be able to exert the true effect of these two great super-weapons.

Or to put it another way, Xia Duo does not need a group of ordinary soldiers armed with Magic Items, but rather a group of true Magic soldiers trained by qualified Mages, capable of controlling various magic weapons and dealing with various combat situations.

Analogous to military construction on Earth, it is almost like having an educational requirement for soldiers!

As for the present, Xia Duo also clearly put forward his requirements to Laidun and Ximeng, "From now on, the number of the old army will no longer increase; from now on, only Mages will be recruited as new soldiers! And not only that, but the army must also be built into a specialized military School, allowing Mage soldiers to grow and pursue advanced studies within the army."

"This—"

Hearing these requirements from Xia Duo, Laidun was somewhat mentally prepared, after all, he had chatted with Xia Duo many times about Territory construction before today, and some things regarding military construction had been mentioned among them.

But Ximeng was completely shocked. In his impression, or rather in his cognition, the army had never been the main force of war; Mages were. The army only needed to listen to the Mages' orders and do some miscellaneous work.

But listening to the Lord's meaning now, it seems he wants to develop the army in the direction of an absolute main force. But if that is the case, is the army still an army? Isn't it just an alternative Mage Tower organization?

Laidun voiced his confusion, and to this, Xia Duo's explanation was—

"Do not treat Mages as a special group; you only need to treat Mages as ordinary people to understand."

"Treat Mages as ordinary people?"

Although the Territory had propaganda in this regard very early on, and even now many children of ordinary territory residents have become Mages and often go home to interact with their families and neighbors, and everyone does indeed get along very harmoniously, but—

A Mage is a Mage after all, possessing powerful strength that ordinary people do not have. This gap cannot be bridged by emotion or propaganda.

In the eyes of many, it is taken for granted that Mages are superior; such a view is by no means rare even in Daxia Territory.

At least Laidun, the commander of the Territory Guard who can actually command new Mage soldiers, still holds such thoughts.

Now that Xia Duo has emphasized again that Mages should be treated as ordinary people, although Laidun agreed with his mouth, Xia Duo could guess a thing or two about his true thoughts in his heart, even without using Magic to pry.

Regarding this, Xia Duo could not help but sigh in his heart; in the presence of Magic, moving a mountain in Reality is not difficult, but wanting to move the mountain of hierarchical concepts in people's hearts is exceptionally difficult.

But it must be done even if it is difficult!

Thinking of this, Xia Duo turned to Laidun again and asked, "Are there any Judgments regarding Spellcasters recently?"

"Yes, but not many."

"I will offer one more opinion: from now on, all Judgments related to Spellcasters, whether plaintiff or defendant, must be public trials, and past concluded cases must be reviewed periodically. I know this may be very difficult, but it must be persisted in."

In Xia Duo's view, in the Netheril of the past, the fundamental reason why Mages could possess a special status that ordinary people did not have was indeed that Mages mastered power, but the direct reason was the inequality in various rights.

The most unequal of these was "Mages can use gold to atone for killing," and Mages truly have the ability to easily kill ordinary people.

But in Daxia Territory, Xia Duo is determined to establish a new order that can unite the vast majority of people, and that inevitably requires taking care of the interests and rights of the vast majority of people.

In the Daxia Code, there is no deliberate distinction between Mages and ordinary people, which also means that before the law, Mages do not enjoy privileges that ordinary people do not have.

But in legal practice, how to make Mages and ordinary people believe this is the biggest problem facing the new order.

What Xia Duo thought of was fair Judgment, but fair Judgment alone is far from enough, because ordinary people might suspect that judges could collude with Mages, so it is best to conduct public trials for all cases involving Spellcasters.

Let everyone see the trial process, and even allow territory residents to question on the spot.

Use one fair Judgment case after another to forge the authority of the Daxia Code; as long as everyone firmly believes in the authority of the Code, the spirit represented by the Code will also be believed by everyone.

This naturally includes the concept that everyone is equal.

In this case, even if Mages master power that ordinary people do not have, ordinary people can still believe that everyone is equal before the law, because no matter how great a Mage's power is, it is not greater than the Code, nor greater than the Daxia Order behind the Code that is supported by everyone together.

Not only that, in addition to strict law enforcement, it is also necessary to improve legislation from the source and vigorously popularize the law to the public; only then is it a complete closed loop of rule-of-law construction.

It is also the foundation that Daxia Order insists on the most!

In front of Ximeng, Xia Duo gave Laidun one specific task after another, using practical actions to tell Ximeng that it is time to abandon the old concepts of the old era; being in Daxia Territory, one should actively embrace the new concepts of the new era.

And this is also what the Lord, the Territory, and even everyone hopes for!