Since Norton 3,160, the old and new elites, led by the Human Federation Government, have been dissatisfied with the excessive conditions proposed by the opportunists who established the Pale Holy See College of Cardinals. The two sides have begun to wage organized and disciplined wars in an attempt to force the other side to relax its demands.
Indeed, even before the war began, these opportunists who established the Pale Holy See College of Cardinals had secretly contacted the Human Federation Government, proposing various conditions for establishing New Faith, dividing the Church, and obtaining the position of the new Pope.
This includes, but is not limited to: 1. Recognizing the orthodox nature of the Pale Church College of Cardinals, backed by the credibility of the Human Federation Government.
2. The Human Federation Government leads an organization, backed by the Human Federation Government, to split the Church and recognize New Faith orthodoxy.
3. He pressured the Pale Holy See's three remaining elders to relinquish the papacy and publicly acknowledged Marcus as the legitimate new pope.
4. Establish a system of parallel politics and religion, and New Faith should have autonomy in the areas where Church are located.
5...
That very night, treaties were presented to the highest levels of the Human Federation. The message they conveyed was clear: these opportunists wanted to forcibly integrate into upper-class society in order to achieve upward social mobility.
This action did not surprise the Human Federation Government, as it had already planted some spies within the College of Cardinals, and a group of opportunists, hoping to profit from both sides, had already secretly contacted the Human Federation Government, willing to act as inside agents.
Therefore, the ideas of these speculators, what they want, and the materials now presented to these powerful and high-ranking individuals were all anticipated long before the materials were even drafted.
Faced with these conditions, the powerful figures at the top of the Human Federation Government rejected them without even a second thought.
Human society is now bloated, with numerous old and new powerful factions and countless internal struggles. It is simply impossible to accept a group of opportunists parachuted in to become new powerful figures, not to mention their delusions of transcending the Human Federation system to establish a completely new system and lord it over others.
In addition, the conflict between the Human Federation and the Pale Church is bound to escalate. These opportunists may seem to be in control and able to command their extremist followers, but in reality, they are just a group of unwitting opportunists who have been forced out by the prevailing trend.
According to the predictions of the Human Federation Government, if the Human Federation Government were to accept these conditions, then the moment these opportunists told their followers that they would not fight, they would be burned at the stake by those fanatical believers.
Therefore, instead of accepting this useless, empty agreement, it's better to use a calculated strategy, taking advantage of the current power held by these opportunists, to launch a controlled war. This would both erode the goodwill the Pale Church has accumulated over three thousand years, inciting widespread resentment, and allow the war to internally pressure the populace, quelling their anger and resentment, and making them understand the hard-won nature of peace. Simultaneously, it would allow them to be used to choose suitable battlegrounds, thereby eliminating planets and warlords that disobey the Human Federation Government's orders—truly killing three birds with one stone!
Therefore, the Human Federation Government delayed its response, adopted an ambiguous attitude, and kept the opportunists in the College of Cardinals hanging, while hinting at starting a war in some areas.
The secret correspondence between the two sides was extremely ambiguous, with every sentence mentioning the current unstable situation. Even if they wanted to give him the papacy, it would not be recognized by other miscellaneous warlord forces. This was an implication that both sides would use the war situation to eliminate the independent legions.
College of Cardinals Marcus also saw through the Human Federation' intentions, but he also played along.
After all, who says that conquered planets will necessarily be returned to the Human Federation? Can't their College of Cardinals justifiably occupy them completely? By continuously expanding their military power and territory, even if they are not accepted by the Human Federation in the end, they can still establish themselves as kings and truly divide half of the Human Federation's territory!
The war has begun.
Friction Human Federation Government and the College of Cardinals fanatics is escalating. Almost every moment, both sides send small groups of hundreds of thousands of troops to infiltrate key areas of each other's cities in special operations, in order to steal each other's energy, materials, and even technology.
One moment the fanatics, in a powerful display of force, attacked the city's research area in their spaceships, capturing and taking away a large number of scientists, resources, and research results; the next moment, the monasteries in the College of Cardinals' controlled area might be attacked by a fleet, leaving the city riddled with holes and countless dead and wounded.
If this kind of war had happened 10,000 years ago, it would have been a war that was almost annihilation of a nation. After all, the weapons are so powerful now. The attack on the monastery by the Human Federation destroyed not only the area of the monastery, but also millions of high-energy lasers from the fleet that were fired simultaneously and instantly, almost instantly piercing through and destroying 50 percent of the city, leaving only a terrifying ruin.
Based on the population of an alien city, their so-called minor conflict could easily result in casualties of tens of millions of people.
However, in the context of a human society of today, it would be nothing more than a small, insignificant conflict.
Compared to the sheer size of the population, the impact is like that of two ant colonies waging war on Earth in Norton's past life—it has absolutely no effect.
However, the public discourse surrounding it was somewhat overly tragic.
How can this be used to describe the devastation of public opinion?
It's very simple. In just ten years, the casualties from small-scale skirmishes between the Human Federation Government and the Church College of Cardinals reached a terrifying 13 billion.
Norton of Biyang, throughout the past ten thousand years, has probably killed a total of 20 billion people, directly or indirectly.
Isn't that terrifying?
The war dragged on for a long time, and began to spiral out of control.
Because most of the people in charge of the Church College of Cardinals are opportunists who do not respect doctrine and do not understand faith, the tasks they assign are sometimes too insidious, which makes many Church believers resist and disobey. For example, the Church's creed does not allow harm to civilians, so many of the methods used to destroy the Human Federation and the rear areas occupied by some warlords are resisted by believers.
Even though the College of Cardinals and even the false Marcus issued orders with great force, they were still not obeyed.
Even at some point, large numbers of fanatics began to band together to protest, demanding the replacement of the College of Cardinals' leader and the replacement of the false emperor.
In contrast, as the Human Federation Government has become more and more secure in its position, its actions have become increasingly unscrupulous.
In Norton 3K, year 173, the Human Federation Government, citing the excessive scale of casualties from modern technology and the difficulty in achieving precise control, established a range for the proportion of civilian casualties in international wars in a military court: Before launching a high-intensity strike, the relevant population must be notified in advance, with a minimum interval of five hours, before the strike can be carried out. Accidental deaths resulting from high-intensity strikes after prior notification are not recorded in the proportion of civilian casualties in war.
This measure is a relatively well-intentioned move by the Human Federation Government.
However, due to the hierarchical division of power between the old and new elites within the Human Federation Government, policies often become distorted and lose their original intent when implemented downwards due to the excessive number of levels and the transmission of information.
In the latter half of the year, the Human Federation Government launched an attack on a planetary city outside the Garden of Eden Galaxy College of Cardinals, issuing the notification five hours in advance from the Garden of Eden Federation government region.
Five hours later, the fleet stationed in the star system launched an attack.
Because the propagation of light signals takes time, by the time the Garden of Eden Notice was delivered, the city had already been completely destroyed, resulting in countless civilian casualties.
This incident caused an uproar in the public opinion of the Human Federation.
Countless high-ranking Human Federation, whether out of anger, compassion, or a desire to pressure the military and gain power and benefits, issued statements condemning the military's mistakes, attempting to use public opinion to exploit the military's achievements and thus share the profits.
However, the Human Federation military seems to have learned something from this method.
From then on, the Human Federation Government's military began to frequently send small-scale troops carrying poison gas and biological weapons into cities to release poison gas, pollute water sources, or even stuff biological weapons into grain silos in order to create panic, undermine the College of Cardinals's rear, and destroy their production capacity.
They then implanted miniature bombs into scientists to lure a contingent of College of Cardinals, which were then detonated to create massive war casualties.
However, these methods and the overall process are then heavily manipulated and altered by them through the media, transforming them into war achievements of the military.
However, they attributed the specific heinous acts to the Pale Church College of Cardinals, while issuing strong condemnations daily, arousing widespread indignation and hatred among its members.
In this way, the military gained both fame and fortune, and after tasting the benefits, it became even more ruthless.
The fanatics were furious, because their doctrine was to protect their fellow human beings, and such inhuman behavior was truly despicable.
However, they were unable to control public opinion within the Human Federation, so they could only escalate their endless anger into an ever-growing scale of war, destroying the Human Federation's military and research facilities to express their indignation.
As a result, the scale of the war grew larger and larger, and the control of the Cardinal College of Cardinals over the lower levels weakened. On the side of the Human Federation Government, power began to be divided and controlled by the old and new elites, with layers of exploitation. Often, the orders issued from above would be distorted and deformed, and the departments implementing the orders would stop at nothing for the sake of merit and profit.
This has led to a bloated Human Federation Government at all levels, significantly weakening its control over the lower levels. Even higher-ranking officials may not be able to see the true situation on the ground, only a false scene of peace and prosperity created by certain individuals.