Sword of Dawn

Page 198

This is a fast-growing city, and with the end of the integration war, the development of the entire southern border will also become faster.

But while Cecil is developing, others are also developing. On this road of progress, no one will stop and wait for the footsteps of the latecomers.

Typhon's development is unexpectedly rapid, but Gao Wen believes that Typhon is not the only one that is developing. Even Ansu, who looks obsolete and backward, and the church that looks stubborn and conservative must have their own development process, especially In the event of war, their development would only accelerate.

But Gao Wen is not very worried about the development of Ansu's country and the church, because he knows that these forces are still trapped by their own backward system, and their development speed has an upper limit. Unless they encounter earth-shaking changes, their speed of advancement will be forever Falling behind Cecil is nothing to worry about.

It was Typhon to worry about - Rosetta Augustus was a more dangerous opponent than Gawain had expected.

He started by changing the system, and he has initially succeeded.

His Majesty the emperor spent more than ten years gradually reforming the aristocratic system of the empire, concentrating his own authority, and turning Typhon into a more efficient execution machine. Efficiency has been unprecedentedly improved, so he quickly entered the next stage: promoting education, liberating land shackles, and reallocating production resources.

It is very likely that he has realized the existence and significance of "productivity and production relations", at least he has touched some doors, and is trying to move towards deeper reforms, and as long as his control over the empire does not weaken, these reforms are inevitable. Will go further in the next few years.

And to achieve such great feats, it is impossible for Emperor Rosetta alone—in order to make such a large and ancient empire work, Emperor Rosetta must have a large group of think tanks and assistants around him, perhaps young noble elites , perhaps an enlightened and prestigious veteran aristocratic platform, all in all, Typhon must not only have a talented emperor, but also a group of important ministers with both wisdom and skill.

At the same time, Tifeng also has excellent technical personnel.

Gao Wen has Kamel, Pittman, Rebecca and Jenny under his command. They are all excellent technical talents, but there are so many talents in the world, it is impossible for all talents to be concentrated in Cecil's acre. Three points - don't other people's homes have technical experts?

There must be, the difference is only whether they get the chance to shine.

Typhon's chief alchemist discovered the process of acid hydrolysis of burning rocks, but is there only one chief alchemist in Typhon?Don't they have rune experts?Don't have an organist?Isn't there a magician?What kind of new things will these people... research?

Gao Wen can be sure that there are definitely people in the world who are more talented in mathematics and science than Rebecca, more talented in runes than Jenny, and more talented in theology and natural history than Pittman. According to the distribution of extraordinary people in this era, these people People must be gathered at the top of each country, and they may make amazing achievements in the academic field at any time-but according to the situation of their country, the impact of their achievements will be different.

In some places, a new magical technology may just add a new entertainment item to the nobles, while in other places, an alchemy achievement may be promoted as a huge boost to the national food production.

Typhon's technicians obviously caught up with a good time and a good emperor.

Cecil's only advantage is that Gao Wen can be more tolerant and forward-looking than Rosetta, and he is more aware of the next development law of society, so that he can more efficiently leverage the dividends brought about by technology research and development.

Gawain carefully analyzed the information he received from Daniel, and in the process speculated on Typhon's advancing speed and Emperor Rosetta's next move—in the process, he even produced the "Rosetta Augu Stu was afraid that it wasn't the horrific idea of ​​wearing a surname, but after some analysis, he found that there should be no doubts about Typhon's development.

First of all, Rosetta Augustus’ road to change did not happen overnight. He spent the first half of his life decades sitting on the throne, stabilizing the regime, wooing progressive nobles little by little, dividing opponents, and gradually changing the Typhon aristocratic system , This is a normal and lengthy accumulation process.

Secondly, Typhon’s social change was not smooth. Rosetta Augustus had many obvious characteristics of lack of experience in the process of implementing the New Deal. Some of the lack of experience can even be described as “mistakes”:

He left behind a lot of hidden dangers based on the old aristocratic forces, so he had to make more compromises to maintain the stability of Typhon;

In the process of promoting literacy education, he wasted a lot of energy because he didn't find good incentives, and he didn't establish a perfect education system. Until now, the enthusiasm of Typhon civilians to receive education is not comparable to that of Cecil ;

The degree of emancipation of Typhon’s labor force obviously lags behind that of Cecil. They still maintain the situation of “doing short-term labor in the workshop after farming”, and there are no real professional workers, nor any systematic vocational education and training. management system;

Tifeng's "burning rock acid chemical workshop" is still based on the old "alchemy studio" system, and there are many problems such as small production scale, low efficiency, inconsistent systems, inconsistent standards, and disordered management. Si Du tried to build a large-scale burning rock acidification production facility, but it was just an enlarged workshop, and there was a serious waste of manpower and material resources...

Gao Wen took a deep breath, he knew that Typhon's development was "normal".

Groping, bumping into a wall, improving, groping again, bumping into a wall again, improving again, countless people pay huge time costs, manpower and material costs (sometimes even consume a generation of youth) to gnaw hard at a field, and in the end their only gain is Maybe it's just a verification that "this way doesn't work". Typhon is doing such a thing now, and this is normal.

A large part of the reason why Cecil developed so rapidly was that Gawain directly used his own judgment and experience to avoid these "impossible roads" in advance. He used his previous life knowledge and observation experience as a satellite master to plan the southern border, Therefore, a huge amount of time, manpower and material costs are saved.

At least at this stage, this is Cecil's huge advantage over Typhon, but from another point of view, Typhon also has his own advantages, and this advantage is temporarily irreparable for Cecil:

Typhon is a huge country, its land area, resource reserves, and population are several times that of the Principality of Cecil!

This means that it can withstand the resource consumption in the development process, can have sufficient opportunities for trial and error, and more importantly - it can multiply those development dividends!

Even if its forward efficiency is lower than that of Cecil, it can use its size to crush Ansu and Cecil in a short time.

So what should Cecil do, what can he do...

Gao Wen turned his head and looked at the stack of documents on the desk.

That is the construction and development plan for the four nascent industrial belts in the southern region in the next stage.

At this stage, there is actually not much that Gao Wen can do in the southern border - development is the last word, and only by focusing on development and maximizing Cecil's advantage in "efficiency" can the current good situation be maintained.

And this development process must be smooth and controllable.

His territory has been overexpanded in the past year, and now he has no spare power to expand it again-unless he wants the Principality of Cecil to return to the loose and disorderly feudal lordship system in the past, what he can do in the territory The only thing is to digest and absorb and focus on the technology tree to build infrastructure.

Besides Ansu, he couldn't cause any direct damage to Typhon, all he could do was dig a hole.

The huge imperial machine controlled by Rosetta Augustus is already in operation, and it is impossible to stop it, so it is better to simply push it and let it head towards an abyss that seems to be brilliant, but is actually a deep abyss. moving in the direction of...

Gawain had to do this—for Cecil to survive, Typhon had to be rendered harmless.

But he has to find a way to preserve Typhon's development potential in the process... because the future Typhon is likely to be a force against the demon tide.

What Gao Wen is most grateful for now is that the magic net information he deliberately released has entered the sight of Rosetta Augustus and his think tank in time. With this opportunity, he can infiltrate his influence into Typhon.

But just with Daniel's "Magic Web Technology", is it enough to bury enough poison in the body of Typhon, a giant beast?

Gao Wen thinks it is not enough——Although the magic net is of great significance, Rosetta Augustus will definitely treat this technology from Ansu with caution. He is very likely to limit the application of the magic net, and even if the "magic net" The Internet poisoning plan was successful, and the damage Typhon suffered was not big enough. At most, it would waste a lot of manpower and material resources in the process. As a huge empire, Typhon could afford to lose.

Some bolder and more adventurous ideas were brewing in Gao Wen's mind, and his face became cloudy and uncertain.

Hetty finally woke up from her sleep. She sat up in a jerk, and saw that Gawain had already left the "meditation" and was standing not far away, while she was wearing a coat, so she felt nervous and embarrassed immediately. : "Ancestor... I... I didn't fall asleep on purpose..."

Seeing that Hetty woke up, the expression on Gawain's face quickly returned to gentleness. He smiled faintly, and took the jacket handed over by Hetty: "It's okay, a little sleep will be good, you are indeed too tired recently .”

"Actually, it's been fine recently. After the production and construction plans have been arranged, there are not so many things," Hetty explained with her head down, still blushing, "It's just that the government affairs department is testing the newly installed magic network file transfer system recently. , encountered a lot of unexpected problems, a little... difficult."

"It's normal to encounter problems in the application of new technologies," Gao Wen nodded, "Compared to this, the development and output of various industrial zones in the recent period, as well as private businessmen's willingness to invest in factories, transformation Do you have any information on the attitude of the nobles towards the factory, as well as the operation of the Production Coordination Committee and the Ministry of Labor and Social Security?"

"Yes, I have been tidying it up every day," Hetty nodded, and then she was a little curious, "Do you need it?"

"It is necessary, but there is no rush. You can compile a comprehensive report for me in the last few days."

"I understand."

Gao Wen nodded slightly, and then said softly as if talking to himself: "One's own strength is the last word..."

……

Typhon, the imperial capital of Aldernan, in the living room of the Obsidian Palace.

Grand Duke Ferdinand looked at Emperor Rosetta Augustus sitting on the seat opposite, feeling a little complicated in his heart.

The war between Typhon and Anzu has finally been postponed, but anyone with a discerning eye can see that this has nothing to do with peace.

Ansu fell into a catastrophic civil war almost immediately after the signing of the peace agreement, while the Typhon Empire closed its borders and began to watch from the sidelines. The reform of the army... All of these, one by one, were seen by Ferdinand Wendel.

He knew that His Majesty, the talented emperor, never gave up Ansu's piece of fat, and the current temporary truce was just to make that piece of fat more tender, delicious and easy to swallow.

He rejoiced that Rosetta Augustus had successfully got rid of hereditary madness, and was pleased that the empire had such an emperor with both wisdom and strength. It is a pity that the new type of warfare has come to advance.

There is no doubt that Emperor Rosetta was involved in Ansu's civil war.

But Ferdinand Wendel also understood that such dishonorable means were necessary—the Ansu had to make sacrifices for the good of the Empire.

And the Ansu people not only have to make sacrifices, they also have to become the nourishment for the growth of the empire.

A middle-aged woman in a magician's robe stood respectfully beside Emperor Typhon, pointing to the drawings spread out on the table and explained: "This is the so-called 'Magic Net', but it is the first generation , is an outdated thing. The second-generation magic net is more streamlined, but we have incomplete drawings and no specific processing methods."

Grand Duke Ferdinand looked at the blueprint in front of Emperor Typhon—he could see that there were complex runes and magic lines drawn on it. Although all the runes were primary, the whole array carried a strange coordination. Feeling, although he is not a mage himself, but with his fairly good knowledge of magic, he can also judge that the optimization of this magic circle has been excellent.

This is the key to the rapid rise of Ansu's ancient Cecil family, the "lost technology" brought by the revived ancient hero.

Rosetta Augustus' voice came from across the table: "Mr. Ferdinand, I heard that the second-generation magic net is composed of 'units'."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Duke Ferdinand replied, "Andersa captured some fleeing Anzu mercenaries. Those mercenaries had seen the second generation of the magic net. It is said that the magic net units are hexagonal runes The text array requires extremely high processing precision, and the number is huge, unlike blacksmiths and rune craftsmen knocking out one by one..."

Speaking of this, the Duke couldn't help but frowned and sighed: "It's a pity that we don't have the blueprint... and we didn't get the real thing."

Another royal minister who was in the living room heard the words and said: "The southern border of Ansu has been sealed off, and the Cecil family is strictly ruling it. It is not easy to get information, but it is all temporary——Cecile The Er family did not completely block the spread of the magic net. It is said that in the Holy Spirit Plain area and a small part of the Ansu East border, some local nobles have obtained the magic net blueprints that have been circulated privately. As long as they have enough patience and price, those Ansu nobles are It's easy to buy."

Emperor Rosetta glanced at the minister indifferently: "Mr. Ge Lin, even if you get the blueprints and real objects, do you dare to use them directly?"

The royal minister named Goring froze for a moment, with a thoughtful look on his face.

"According to the information we have, before the outbreak of the war in the southern border of Anzu, the Cecil family actively spread the magic net on a large scale, and then? Then those stupid Anzu nobles spread the magic net everywhere, So much so that no matter where the Cecil family's army goes, it has a sufficient supply of magic power—this lesson is quite profound."

The Anzu Southern War ended very quickly, and the entire southern border was quickly sealed off after the war ended, but there is no airtight wall under the sun. Before the southern border was completely sealed off, some exiled knights and mercenaries still escaped— —They took all kinds of credible and unreliable news with them, and some of them fell into Typhon's hands.

These intelligences made Emperor Rosetta aware of Cecil's rise, and he was even more wary of the "magic net" from Cecil.

However...the Ley is still a good thing.

"We need the technology of the magic net, and more importantly, the technology of applying the magic net, and these technologies must be in our own hands," Rosetta Augustus said in a deep voice, pressing the blueprint on the table, "Typhon, Need your own magic net."

Chapter 0475: Dark Clouds Over Luan City

The light and heat brought by the giant sun are fading day by day, the time of direct sunlight on the earth is shortening every day, and the night is quietly prolonging. After the harvest festival is over, a sudden rain ends the days of heat and cools down On the evening of the [-]th, the white-pointed star gradually moving west reminds scholars and farmers who pay attention to astronomical phenomena: summer is coming to an end.

The Frost Moon is approaching, and although autumn has not yet arrived, as a northern kingdom, most of Ansu will turn cooler in the week before the Frost Moon, even in the south.

In the past, this would be the last "golden time" for the residents of various towns - the grain harvested during the harvest month was stored in the cellars and granaries of every household, and there was no need to worry about food for the time being. As the weather turns colder and decreases, the annoying mosquitoes are gradually disappearing, and it will take some time before the weather turns cold completely. Before the winter foggy moon comes, people don't have to worry about the threat of survival brought by the cold winter, they can take advantage of this last During a period of time suitable for activities, continue to hoard food, or repair houses, store firewood...

Theoretically, this short "Ansu Autumn" is the last bustling and busy day of the year for various towns.

However, in Luan City, the prosperity ended at the beginning of the Harvest Moon.

Today is four days into the lockdown, and the mood in the city is still deteriorating.

There are almost no pedestrians on the street, and the doors and windows of every house are closed. Occasionally, there are hurried figures flashing past the corner of the street. Apart from the patrolling Crusader soldiers, there are only priests or petty officials who come out to inquire about news. It is noon now, but the whole city is lifeless and lifeless like nightfall.

Few people would associate such a city full of depressive tension and lifelessness with the holy land of the Church of the Holy Light in the southern border.

However, such an atmosphere makes sense-the news of the change of ownership in the southern border and the revival of the Principality of Cecil has spread throughout the region. Everyone knows that a new ruler has ruled this land, but what is worse is that the new ruler The relationship between the ruler and the Church of the Holy Light does not seem to be harmonious: in the amazing war more than a month ago, the Church of the Holy Light made a bad choice. An elite crusader led by the southern bishop Stepping into the battlefield, and on the opposite side of Cecil...

The war started with great momentum, but ended so quickly that it was unbelievable. In that short battle, the bishop was defeated, and the most powerful Holy See knights in the southern region were wiped out.

He even caught up with all the high-ranking knights from the Holy Spirit Plain.

Then Luan City was blocked.

Blocking, rather than attacking, puts more pressure on Luan City.

After the war, if the Duke of the Southern Territory came directly to raise his troops to inquire about crimes, or simply sent troops to the city, the priests in Luan City would feel more at ease—at least that proved a clear attitude, and as long as the attitude is clear, it would be much easier to deal with.

Lu'an City can sincerely apologize, agree to a series of compensation conditions, give up some church land and even some religious immunity, in exchange for appeasement of the new lord's anger, in exchange for the opportunity to continue to survive and preach on this land, even if the situation It's really out of control. The Duke of the South is determined to use force to solve the problem, and the defenders of Luan City will not be afraid: the fanatical knights of the Holy See have long been ready for martyrdom, and the priests and priests are not afraid of swords and magic fire. The clergy who preached in this barren land in the southern border have always been the most stubborn and fearless group of challenges in the Church of the Holy Light.

Yet the new ruler of the principality chose the most difficult and unpredictable course of action: a silent blockade.

He didn't send a single soldier into the city of Luan, but just blocked all the checkpoints connecting the entire city to the outside world. The heavily armed Cecil soldiers and their fortifications were blocked outside the city of Luan like a bung on a barrel. On every road in the city, both the movement of people and the dissemination of news are strictly prohibited—the reason the Duke used was to maintain post-war order and investigate intelligence, but anyone with a discerning eye could see that he had put the entire Southern Church under house arrest.

All the priests of the Holy Light preaching in the southern region were driven to the city, and the communication channels with the Holy Spirit Plain were completely blocked. No matter whether it was a caravan, scattered adventurers, or mercenaries, they were forbidden to approach this area.At the beginning, because the blockade of the Cecilians had not been closed, there were still sporadic exiled knights running into the city through the small roads. But soon, all the loopholes were plugged, all channels of information to the outside world were cut off, the city was completely blindfolded, its ears were covered—and its mouth was also gagged.

Residents in the city quickly became uneasy, and the nominal city administrators sent here by the Ansu royal family ran away before the blockade was closed, and it is said that half of them were already dead Take refuge with the Cecilians.

In such an atmosphere, this year’s Harvest Festival was spent in silence—no one organized the celebration, and no one dared to waste food. The priests directed the farmers to harvest the last crops in the farmland close to the city wall. Then these possibly the last foodstuffs were preciously pressed into the granary, and the strictest curfew and rationing system began to be imposed on civilians.

It seems that everything has reached the worst situation, but in fact, in St. Luan Cathedral, the firm belief still supports the last batch of clergymen who stayed here.

Fran Bereng, who was temporarily elected as the "Bishop of Luan", finished his morning prayer. He stood up in silence in front of the icon of the God of Holy Light, and let his attendants step forward to sort out his still bright robes. The expression on his face was calm.

The icon of the God of Holy Light stands quietly in this prayer room, and a layer of clear radiance covers the icon, just like the past hundred years without the slightest dimness. In Fran Bereng's view, this statue will always be The lingering radiant icon represents the Luan Cathedral at this moment: no matter how bad the situation outside is, no matter how rampant the darkness and heresy beliefs are, the great God of Holy Light will always protect this place, and his light will never fade away. It means that all external challenges are temporary.

After letting the attendants back down, the tall black-haired bishop left the prayer room. In the rest room outside, he saw several people wearing clergyman's robes gathered here.

On the round table in the rest room, there are exquisite snacks and fragrant black tea, and some of them have obviously been enjoyed.

Food rations are going on in the city, and civilians can only receive enough food to survive. In order to avoid exhaustion, most civilians now choose to stay at home all day long, but the priests of the cathedral are not under the "ration limit" Within the range - as the messengers of the gods, the priests cannot suffer from hunger like the untouchables. This will not only insult the majesty of the God of Holy Light, but also seriously affect the combat effectiveness of the priests.

It was a reasonable arrangement, so Fran Bereng just glanced at the snacks and tea, and then came among the priests expressionlessly: "How is the situation in the city?"

A priest stood up: "There is no chaos. The crusaders and those exiled knights who have defected to us are on patrol, and the civilians are basically staying at home."

Fran nodded and turned to another priest: "What about Cecil?"

"Nothing has changed, they're still locking down the city, but nothing further."

"That foolish and arrogant 'Duke' who turned to the devil..." A middle-aged priest couldn't help but said angrily, "...his behavior is simply unreasonable! Treating the Holy Light Church like this, he thought that the entire Ansu Is there only one St. Luyn's Cathedral?"

"Perhaps the bishops of the Holy Spirit Plain and the Royal Capital will come to help us, but at least at this stage, we are still under the control of others," Fran Bereng glanced at the middle-aged bishop who was aggrieved, and shook his head slightly, "Gao Wen Se Searle's behavior is indeed tantamount to playing with the devil, but he is a powerful devil."

The priest who was the first to speak had a look of worry on his face: "Bishop, what do you think that Gawain Cecil wants to do?"

Fran Bereng pondered for a while, and then said unhurriedly: "He wants to drive us out completely, it's obvious."

Then he added: "Neither attacking nor retreating, maintaining the blockade and waiting for Luan City to collapse by itself, his purpose is very clear, that is, to hope that we will voluntarily submit-let us, the servants of the Lord, leave this place by ourselves. This city, so that he can take over here logically, and completely expel the belief of the Holy Light without worrying about moral criticism. This is a typical vicious trick, full of cunning, and without honor, just as we judged at first: The seemingly great and glamorous founding hero is actually just an arbitrary and greedy person, all he wants is absolute power, and this was completely exposed when he used tricks to destroy all the nobles in the southern border."

"We are the servants of the Lord, how can we give in to this kind of person!" The grumpy middle-aged priest immediately said loudly, "His efforts are in vain—he doesn't understand the power of piety!"

"Those powerful magical weapons blinded his judgment. He thought that conquering the Luan Cathedral would be as easy as conquering the Rock Fortress," Fran Bereng shook his head, but then his tone was a little dignified, "Not too high Vin Cecil is still a very cunning man... he didn't directly attack the Loane Cathedral, which shows that he at least understands that he is at a moral disadvantage."

An elderly priest who hadn't spoken yet nodded slightly, with a hint of pride and reserve in his tone: "That's right, he realized at least one thing - directly attacking the Luan Cathedral, that will only make us Become a martyred saint, and lose the support of the people himself."

"That's right, his confrontation with the church can only push him into an unrighteous situation, especially at this moment," Fran Bereng said solemnly, his eyes swept over everyone present, although the language was plain , but conveyed an unswerving idea, "Our persistence is the biggest counterattack against him-his blockade of Luan City cannot last forever, and those clumsy excuses he used will soon be unsustainable, and As long as we stick to the cathedral, the people of the Holy Light will gradually overwhelm Gawain Cecil with doubts...

"We may have to make some sacrifices in this process, and this process may be longer and more difficult than we imagined, but I believe that everyone present must be prepared, even ready to be martyred.

"The God of Light will witness our piety and courage. We will use facts to prove that Gawain Cecil's deviant and blasphemous actions are unrighteous. We will never withdraw, and we will never let the God of Light be deceived." Shame, perhaps we shall fall at last, but we shall fall with saints, Gawain Cecil may step here at last - but we swear he will only be an executioner and a blasphemer Set foot here!"