Chapter 634 Extended Line of Defense

The chaotic and illusory sky shrouded the earth with monotonous colors, and the scenery that was separated from the color showed a state of lack of hierarchy in the field of vision, and it was indescribably strange. The breeze blew, and the wind rolled up fine black dust, There seem to be countless pairs of peeping eyes hidden in the middle of it - Victoria stood in this world full of black and white, and her always indifferent and alienated face inevitably showed a hint of surprise.

The person who surprised her was right next to her. The half-elf with a somewhat overactive personality was standing there with a smug face, his long black hair fluttering in the air like smoke and dust, and his golden eyes were full of vigour. Smiling, the lower body is condensed with a cloud of shadows that does not disperse. The whole person seems to have turned into an elves of the shadow world, and is subtly integrated with this black and white world.

"...Unbelievable power," Victoria looked at Amber quietly for a few seconds, and sighed softly, "You are the most powerful Shadow Master I have ever seen, no wonder the Dark Raven lost to you twice. Sisi. None of Duke Er's subordinates is simple."

"It's okay to praise me a few more words, it's rare for someone to praise me like that," Amber smiled triumphantly, "I have an impression of the dark crow you mentioned, the one who was kicked out of the shadow world twice by me. Right—you have to persuade him when you have a chance, if it really doesn’t work, you should practice a two-handed sword and a long-handled hammer or something, the way of shadows may not be suitable for him…”

Those who are familiar know that Amber's mouth will quickly stray from the topic once he starts bbing. Basically, few sentences are meaningful, but Victoria is obviously not quite used to the rhythm of this half-elf. How should I continue this topic, but fortunately Amber's bbs are all over the place, and if she doesn't get a response in a short period of time, she will jump in her own thoughts - the half-elf moved her hands and feet, raised her eyes and looked into the distance. The half-collapsed castle, which was in a strange stacking state, said in a tone of criminals preparing to commit a crime: "Don't waste time, start working - there should be the shadow reflection of Tulip Castle."

Victoria raised her head and saw the castle at the end of the road: black and white fragments were stacked on the gray-black ground, and some recognizable castle walls could be seen among the ruins. In this strange and confusing shadow world, The half-destroyed Tulip Castle presents an obvious sense of chaos. Part of its structure seems to have lost its material details, while another part of the structure overlaps and piles up in a way that violates the laws of nature. The entire castle is lost like a failed painting. Coordination, only the still intact mage tower and some subsidiary towers are still clearly erected at the rear of the castle.

This is the first time that Victoria has entered the shadow world - as a frost mage, her achievements in the way of shadow are limited to some theoretical knowledge. This mysterious and strange world opened her eyes and made her sigh at the man named "" Amber's half-elves are powerful in shadowcraft. She followed behind Amber, relying on the blessings of Swiftness, Wind Blessing and other spells to keep up with each other's footsteps, and at the same time couldn't help asking curiously, "Why did you follow Duke Cecil?"

Amber scurried through the shadow world like a fish in water, and the black smoke wrapped around her body flew freely in the air. After she heard Victoria's words, she tilted her head slightly,

With a playful smile on his face: "What? Want to poach?"

Victoria shook her head solemnly: "No, that's not what the nobles did. If I really want to hire you, I'll go directly to negotiate with Duke Cecil, and at the same time seek your opinion in a more formal setting. I'm just curious now. "

"Ah, open and aboveboard...but Lao Zong...Gao Wen is different," Amber laughed, "If he wants to poach talents, and he is poaching talents that obviously cannot be obtained through direct negotiation, then he will definitely It will secretly lobby for money to buy public opinion, build momentum, and win over all kinds of means.”

Victoria felt that the topic could not be continued again, so she could only shake her head: "...Our style of conduct is a little different."

"So I'm more suitable for Gawain's side, not for 'orthodox' nobles like you," Amber said casually, "Didn't you just ask me why I followed Duke Cecil? Actually, it's nothing, I dug it up. His grave was discovered and caught by the client, but I dug the grave just to hide."

Victoria looked at Amber in astonishment, as if to confirm whether the other party was joking.

"I can't believe it, right? But that's what happened," Amber said indifferently, "Actually, I wasn't happy about being detained at first. What I thought was to pretend to agree, and then take advantage of Gawain's attention. I stole his money and ran away, but then I found out one thing: I couldn't beat him, really couldn't beat him, and if I couldn't escape, I had to stay. It turns out that my original decision was right - the second The annual salary has gone up.”

Victoria listened to all this with a blank face, but her slightly flashing eyes showed that she was not as calm and indifferent as she seemed on the surface, she gave Amber a deep look, and said in the most peaceful words possible: "I have never I've heard someone describe their allegiance to a noble in this way, and you're...really...special."

"...Duchess, you have made a mistake," Amber suddenly stopped at this moment and looked at Victoria, "I have never been loyal to any Duke Gawain Cecil, I have never been loyal to any noble and His blood family."

Victoria's indifferent expression was broken, and she looked at Amber in amazement.

"I am not a descendant of aristocrats. Half of my extraordinary power comes from talent, and half of it comes from a thief who was executed by the church and the nobles. Naturally, I am not qualified to swear allegiance to the nobles, because I don't even have a surname, and I don't even have a surname. I need this kind of qualification," Amber said calmly, "At first, Gawain gave me a gold coin a month's wages, so I was responsible for this gold coin, and then the wages went up, so I paid for the increase. He was responsible for the wages, and later he established Cecil City and unified the Kant area. He let the serfs redeem themselves with their work, so that the commoners could walk in the middle of the road, so that the merchants did not have to kowtow to the knights. I like all this, and my job is Sustain it all, so I start taking responsibility for my work.

"Later, he established the Principality of Cecil, where citizens could study and work. From the year before last to last year, no one died of starvation in the winter of Cecil City, so I pledged my allegiance, and in my heart Secretly allegiance to the Principality of Cecil.

"Duchess, I'm not a nobleman, even if Gawain gives me a noble title in the future, I'll probably never become the standard nobleman in your pile of rules and regulations. I'm not loyal to Duke Cecil, the Cecil family, no Allegiance to any so-called noble bloodline and title, although I respect everyone in the current Cecil family, but that is only because they are worthy of respect, but I do not pledge allegiance to them, and they have never asked me to pledge allegiance.

"If we have to say, we have only one common allegiance - what we are allegiance to is what Gawain Cecil built, not him.

"Ma'am, if you can't tell the difference, I'm afraid we'll never be the same."

Victoria quietly looked at the half-elf in front of her. After entering the shadow world, the half-elf lady seemed to have changed not only her temperament, but also a little bit of her character, but the words she said... It's not just her usual what I really wanted.

"I'll try to understand," Victoria said quietly.

"That's your problem. To be honest, I don't really like nobles, most of them don't, but recently there are two exceptions in my eyes, one is you, and the other is Belk who lit the beacon," Amber Turning around, he continued on his way and said, "I used to think that noble virtues in the mouths of nobles were all bragging, but at least from you, I saw something that actually existed - but then again, Duchess, Individuals don't represent the whole, and I still don't like nobility."

Victoria followed in the footsteps of the half-elf again. She remained silent for a short time, neither defending the aristocracy nor explaining the lineage to the half-elf who seemed to have a deep prejudice against the noble group. The meaning of it, although she used to care about these things, but at this moment, she doesn't want to justify these things at all.

After being silent, she just asked a question: "In the past two winters, did anyone in Cecil City really starve to death?"

"Of course, we have a complete demographic and management system, and every death and birth of the population is registered."

"...How did you do it? In the absence of an aristocratic system..."

"You mean food supply or population management?"

"All."

"Oh, let's talk slowly," Amber raised his head and glanced at the collapsed castle that was not too far away, "We should probably start with the relationship between land and people..."

...

On the northern plain of Red Maple City, on the Gorgon River, Gawain stood on an observation deck in the front line camp, watching the busy scene in the direction of the wharf.

Artillery fire and flames dispelled the corruption and pollution on this plain. The Cecil Corps successfully occupied a large pier that once belonged to the local lord. After intensive renovation work, the sappers widened the road on the basis of the old pier and strengthened it. The stone trestle bridge has been turned into a temporary military dock. At this moment, tanks in neat rows are heading for the reinforced trestle bridges, and a square of fully armed soldiers is lining up to board the ship.

On the Gorgon River, three main battleships of Cecil are carrying out vigilance tasks away from the trestle, while a series of escort gunboats converted from civilian ships or light gunboats from the rear shipyard are patrolling on the wide river. , and several sturdy ships with broad decks and stable hulls were attached to the edge of the trestle, carrying soldiers and chariots who were on board.

Those cargo ships that don't look like warships at all are converted military cargo ships deployed from the rear-although they are said to be converted to military use, but due to time constraints, they are actually just added in key parts of the hull. Some steel plates, a set of shield generators welded on the hull, and a set of magic net terminals installed in the cabin that can establish a connection with the "Pioneer", not even the basic weapon system (we need to add weapons The system means a large-scale transformation of the power ridge, and the capacity of the shipyard is not enough), and their safety is completely dependent on the escorting warships.

These "armored convoys" were originally intended to be used to transfer refugees in the northern region. They began to be transformed at the beginning of the ground forces' advance to the north, but when they were finally transformed, Gawain found that there were almost no refugees in the contaminated area. How many refugees were available for transfer, so these ships were used to transport various supplies to the front line, and today, they ushered in a new task: set sail with Cecil's fleet, loaded with chariots and soldiers to Saint Sounie Your defense line, guard that important gate.

This unit, which is only going up the Gorgon River, will arrive at Saint-Sunil a few days before the main force on the ground.

The sound of footsteps came from behind, Philip came to the observation deck, saluted Gawain and said, "The Iron Rangers have sent Duchess Victoria and Amber to the vicinity of Tulip Fort, and the soldiers visually confirmed that the mage tower is indeed still there. Running, if all goes well, the message will be sent to San Sunil today."

"Very good," Gawain nodded. "When they come back, the ship should be almost loaded here, just in time for boarding and departure."

Philip hesitated for a moment, and couldn't help confirming again: "Do you really want to go with us in person?"

Gao Wen laughed: "I'm already here, what's the difference if I go a little further north?"

"But the mission that this vanguard has to perform is arduous and dangerous—in order to support the capital as soon as possible, it has to be separated from the main force on the ground, and after arriving in Saint-Sunil, it has to fight alone for at least five days away from rear support. In the worst case, Saint Sunil will be breached before this vanguard arrives. In this way, the vanguard will be sent directly to the deepest part of the monster's encirclement - even if there are Trailblazers, Aurora and Morningstar. The loss of troops will be extremely heavy if the warships are evacuated under cover."

"So it needs a strong ground commander," Gawain glanced at Philip. "You have to stay behind to command the main army, and the rest is me."

"...It's true."

"I will go to St. Sunil to organize the defense line first. There are three main battleships to support the fire, and there will be no problem in the north." Gawain smiled and patted Philip's shoulder, "You just need to continue to advance according to the plan, and arrange it. Along the coastline, to prevent those monsters from further polluting the West Bank, and finally, we meet at Saint-Sunil - close this blockade."

After he finished speaking, he breathed lightly and said lightly, "As for whether the capital will fall before then... Victoria firmly believes that Baldwin and Wales can keep Saint Sunil, so I will trust her once. "

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