Chapter 1026: The Great English Filial Son (Seeking Subscriptions)

"Long live Charlie Cromwell!"

"Make Charlie Cromwell Lord Protector!"

"We want Charlie Cromwell!"

"God bless Charlie Cromwell!"

By the time Li Shaoyou, Huang Jiang, and Colbert, the representative of the King of France, arrived together in London, England, the slogans of the English people gathered outside Hampton Court Palace had already changed to "We want Charlie Cromwell."

How quickly the minds of the English people changed! Not long before, they had still been firmly demanding that the elder Cromwell become king, and in the blink of an eye they wanted the elder Cromwell to retire and let the younger Cromwell take over early as the second-generation Lord Protector.

Huang Jiang, sitting inside a plain Puritan-style four-wheeled carriage, did not understand English, so he asked Li Shaoyou and Colbert for guidance: "What are these English people doing? Weren't we told that Puritans in England are all very busy, with endless work to do every day? How do they still have time to go out into the streets and make a ruckus?"

"No, no, this is not a ruckus," Li Shaoyou hastily explained. "They are doing something important. They are supporting Cromwell to become king!"

Li Shaoyou could speak French but did not understand English, so he did not know that the marching crowd had already changed their lines.

"No, this time they are not supporting Cromwell to be king," said Colbert, who could understand what the English crowd outside the carriage was shouting. "They are supporting Charlie Cromwell. Charlie is the Lord Protector's son. The English people seem to want to support him as Lord Protector."

"What? Has the elder Cromwell already passed away?" Li Shaoyou was taken aback.

"I don't think so," Colbert shook his head. "I haven't heard anything about it. He probably hasn't passed away. If he really had, there wouldn't be so many people supporting Charlie."

At this point, he too was a little confused. The father wasn't even dead yet, so how could people be urging the son to take over? What was the meaning of this?

"Oh," Huang Jiang nodded repeatedly. "I see, I understand now. So the Kingdom of England has also produced a filial son!"

"A filial son?" Colbert only had a rough grasp of Chinese and did not understand what Huang Jiang meant, so he glanced at Li Shaoyou.

Li Shaoyou said in French: "A filial son is a good son who takes over his father's work ahead of time, allowing his father to retire and rest at ease! His Majesty the Emperor of our dynasty is just such a good son!"

Is that so? Colbert thought to himself: Prince Condé did not seem to put it that way. The Prince said that the Great Ming Emperor had launched a coup while he was still Crown Prince, overthrowing his Imperial Father and seizing power. Could it be that the meaning of "filial son" is a prince who comes to power through a coup? That is something Charlie Cromwell could never do.

"No, no," Colbert said. "Charlie is not a filial son. I know his character. He cannot be a filial son. He doesn't have that kind of nerve."

Being a filial son requires nerve? Huang Jiang was a little confused by what he heard. Was this being a filial son or being a bandit?

At that same moment, inside Hampton Court Palace, the great English filial son Charlie Cromwell was already as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, pacing round and round in front of his own father.

"Daddy, I, I, I don't know how to be Lord Protector! I'm still young, I still need to study..."

The elder Cromwell looked at his precious son, his brow furrowed into a knot. Did one need to study to be Lord Protector? This job required no diploma! He himself had attended Cambridge for only one year and hadn't learned much, yet hadn't he still become Lord Protector?

"Charlie!" the elder Cromwell roared. "Being Lord Protector is very easy! There are just two key issues that must not waver.

First, you must be a dictator! Our country is too chaotic. Englishmen, Scotsmen, Irishmen, Welshmen, and then Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Puritans — only a few million people, yet divided into so many factions, all hostile to one another, all looking down on one another, all dragging one another down. The Long Parliament was elected by these factions that have no idea how to work together.

If you let them decide England's fate by majority vote, then you deserve to become a second Charles I! Because they will not solve any problems. They will only turn you into a scapegoat after everything goes wrong!

Second, you must firmly adhere to the Puritan line. It is not that this line is particularly good, but that apart from the Puritans, no one else will support us at all. Moreover, the Puritans are especially capable in battle. Though their numbers are small, all the others combined could not defeat the Puritans!

Furthermore, do not expect to please everyone. Do not expect to use some policy of tolerance to make the Catholics, the Presbyterian Covenanters, and the Catholics who have infiltrated the Anglican Church love you. That is the reason Charles I lost his head. To preserve your power and your life, you must keep the Puritans firmly in your grasp.

But do not give Puritan politicians the chance to control Parliament either. No matter what anyone says, you must firmly remember one point: the Puritans support you as Lord Protector precisely so that you will be a dictator! If they wanted a Parliament, then they should have elected a king."

"But, but I don't have your prestige!" the younger Cromwell said.

"I know," Cromwell said. "Right now there is an opportunity to build prestige! You will lead an expeditionary force to attack Dunkirk together with the French. According to the agreement, Dunkirk will belong to us. This will be the first time in decades that England has possessed territory on the European continent.

After you return in triumph, I will hand over the position of Lord Protector to you, and then I will guide you in dictatorship!"

Just as he said this, one of Cromwell's secretaries knocked on the office door.

"Your Highness the Lord Protector, the French envoy, the Great Ming ambassador, and the chairman of the Divine Europe United Bank have arrived."

"Have them wait in the audience hall!"

"As you command, Your Highness!"

Cromwell glanced at his son and said: "Now, you also need a large sum of money!

Although Puritans are reluctant to spend money, they very much like to save it. So a low-interest, long-term loan is also a necessary condition for you to ascend to the seat of Lord Protector!"

Just as Cromwell and Prince Condé were both scheming to use the Spanish army holding Dunkirk, the English Royalist army, and the remnants of the French Fronde to establish their prestige,

Don Juan José, Governor-General of the Spanish Netherlands, believed that the enemy would not start a war in winter, and so he set off for Spain together with Admiral García.

Of course they could not go by ship. Don Juan José was unwilling to take the risk. So he and García traveled by land, crossing the territory of the Holy Roman Empire to reach Spain. And while passing through Vienna, the capital of Austria, they happened to encounter the Holy Roman Empire's first nationwide imperial examination!

"Imperial examination? Your Highness the Archduke, what does this mean?" Don Juan José asked Leopold, the Archduke of Austria and heir to the Holy Roman Empire, who was hosting him in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.

The Archduke of Austria was a young man not yet twenty years old, with a face as long as Don Juan José's, though his appearance and intelligence were both normal. Hearing this question, the young Leopold smiled bitterly. "This is a good method learned from the Chinese. Actually, from—"

"I have heard of it. Your Highness the Archduke, are you also a student of the Habsburg Royal Academy?" Don Juan José asked.

"Yes," the Archduke of Austria nodded. "Six years ago I was shoved into this inhuman bureaucratic and military academy! Along with me, more than a thousand sons of lords and nobles from all over the Holy Roman Empire entered the school. Most of them were not heirs to territories or titles, which is why their fathers stuffed them into the Royal Academy to receive six years of military and bureaucratic education, so that after graduation they could sit for official and military posts within the Empire and the Habsburg dynasty's domains. The first nationwide imperial examination, about to be held, is meant to select the elite from among the sons of lords and nobles who have completed six years of study.

For this purpose, His Majesty the Emperor has prepared 200 posts that can be obtained by examination!"

"What?" Don Juan José was greatly astonished. "Posts can really be obtained by examination? Then does your position also need to be examined for?"

This had to be asked clearly. If even the heir to the throne could be obtained by examination, then this advanced experience absolutely had to be introduced into Spain!

"Me?" The Archduke of Austria glared at Don Juan José. "Of course I don't need to take an exam. I am the Archduke of Austria. Do I still need an exam? What would I even be examined on? The Emperor of the Empire is elected, not examined."

(End of Chapter)