Sword of Dawn

Page 168

"Every one of us knows the strength of the Cecil Territory," Gawain looked around at everyone in the meeting room, from Norris, the director of agriculture, to Hamel, who was in charge of steel smelting, to the senior clerk of the government affairs office And other department heads, these familiar faces are the witnesses and promoters of Cecil's growth, "Then each of us should also know that Cecil's strength is based on the 'magic industrialization' As well as the basis of the advanced social system, it is based on an order different from the traditional aristocratic territories.

"Hosman and the 40 mob he organized have collapsed, and all the land nobles in the southern border, except those who are dependent on Cecil, are left with three types. One has died in the artillery fire of the Crushed Stone Ridge and the White Water River. One kind is being held in the prisoner-of-war camps in the Housman area and on the banks of the Whitewater River, and the last kind is on the way to exile. Unguarded, unruled empty cities, Cecil will take over these lands and restore order to them—in Cecil's way."

Gao Wen wants to establish a new order, and now he is on the key path of unifying the entire southern border. He must extend Cecil's success to the entire southern border, making the southern border a strong, stable, and integrated Principality of Cecil, instead of Let the more than 40 enfeoffed territories continue to operate in the same way as before, otherwise, even if the people in those lands are loyal to him, he will just change a noble team for the entire southern border, and nothing will change.

In any case, the foundation of the traditional aristocratic system in the southern region - land and population - must be fundamentally changed, and this war is an opportunity to change everything.

Gao Wen once considered two options.

The first plan is to move all the population of the entire southern border to the Cecil area, and eventually form a large-scale densely populated area on the Whitewater River-Dark Mountains line, and build a powerful industrial empire on this basis, so as to maximize the Give full play to the power of population in industrial society, and let Cecil's magic industry develop to the next stage in the shortest time, but after roughly estimating the population of the entire southern border, and investigating the distribution of various resources in the southern border, urban geography After the position, he gave up this simple and crude plan.

Because the entire southern border has a population of several million (roughly estimated, it should actually be more), this number exceeded his expectations.This is due to the existence of extraordinary power, which makes the food output of this world relatively abundant, and the physical fitness of ordinary people is relatively high, which also leads to a situation where the population of civilians is still very high even though the lives of ordinary people are difficult, even in the most desolate Ansu In the poor and backward southern border, the number of people is enough to abort Gao Wen's simple and rude first plan.

Although Cecil has a relatively advanced social system and a rapidly developing magic industry, it is impossible to complete the migration, resettlement, and transformation of a million-level population in a short period of time, even if the cycle of this plan is extended to three to five years. Years, the huge resources and social pressure generated during this large-scale population migration process will also wear down Cecil.

Not to mention that this plan is tantamount to giving up more than 80.00% of the land in the southern border in a short period of time—when all the population is concentrated in the Whitewater River-Dark Mountains area, what will happen to the resources and reclaimed farmland in other parts of the southern border?Without those resource output and food production areas, Cecil's current development rate alone cannot support the self-sufficiency of an industrial structure with a population of one million.

Therefore, Gao Wen could only choose the second plan, which is to only relocate the population in the southern region, and let them build a new industrial belt in the northern coast development area of ​​Cecil and the east and west sides, and at the same time concentrate the population in other areas in the southern region. , through the establishment of a second-level government affairs office, to build several second-level new cities in other regions - due to the previous experience in establishing a second-level government affairs office in the Kant area, this plan has a very high feasibility.

And in this way, Gao Wen can still ensure the control of most of the southern border, and the resources distributed in various parts of the southern border will be fully developed and continuously injected into the body of the giant magic industry.

Of course, there is still a lot of pressure to face in this way, but Gao Wen has every reason to do so.

"Population migration, the establishment of a magic industry system similar to Cecil, and the construction will be presided over by experienced Cecil administrators - creating a new order and promoting the development of magic industry is only one of the purposes, and the other purpose is to destroy The foundation upon which the old aristocracy rested."

Hetty followed Gawain's ears and eyes, and immediately understood the meaning of her ancestors: "Is it the land and the population?"

"That's right," Gao Wen nodded, "It's not enough to just ban or kill this group of landed nobles. As long as their land and population system remains, new landed nobles will appear sooner or later, so we must break the law." This system ensures that the old nobles never come back."

The old aristocracy ensured the stability of the authority of the aristocratic system through enfeoffment of land, and the land system that existed with the enfeoffment of land firmly tied the common people to those lands. In any case, when the Ansu Kingdom was not stable, this kind of enfeoffment ensured the basic order of the entire country, but after the advent of the magic industry era, this situation of tying people to the land became a shackle.

With the current agricultural model established by the Cecil Territory relying on large-scale industrial mass production of alchemy potions and concentrated and efficient farming, a considerable number of agricultural populations can be transformed, and it is necessary to transform them into industrial populations.

On the one hand, Gao Wen's population migration is a necessary means to build the magic industry, because a sufficient population with basic freedom of labor is a prerequisite for ensuring productivity, and on the other hand, it is to completely destroy the living soil of the old nobles in the southern border.

Of course, saving management costs is also part of the reason. After all, Cecil’s administrative power is limited, and the southern border has a vast area. What Gao Wen wants to establish in other areas of the southern border is the same advanced management system as Cecil’s, so as to realize this in the entire southern border. To improve the level of management, it is necessary to change the current situation of vast land, sparse population and chaotic structure of settlements.

Reasonable concentration of population, redistribution of land, and setting up a more scientific and standardized urban and rural structure are all effective solutions.

Not everyone can fully understand Gawain's complete theory, but the people here have at least witnessed the process of Cecil's rise, and also witnessed how the new order in the territory takes effect and operates. They understand the population The necessity of relocation turns the focus on the specific difficulties faced by this grand plan.

Norris begins by asking the most practical question: "What if farmers don't want to leave their land?"

In this era, the land is the shackles and tools used by the nobles to restrain the people, but the sad thing is that most common people don't understand and agree with this, on the contrary, they will agree with this kind of restraint - peasants are unwilling to leave their land , This is almost an inevitable situation in any farming society. The liberated are not willing to accept your liberation. This is a problem that Gao Wen must face.

Even if we take a step back, people in this world don't have many specific thoughts about "the homeland is hard to leave", but rashly forcing so many people to move will inevitably face huge resistance, even if according to Gao Wen's second plan, he just let those people When people move to the periphery of the city closest to them, those civilians who will hardly leave the village for a lifetime will also have a lot of resistance.

The traditional aristocrats probably wouldn't care about the resistance of the people, but Cecil's rules couldn't do that—Gao Wen must also consider the social stability of population migration.

"First of all, population migration will be a long-term plan. I initially intend to complete it within three to five years, and this time can be extended," Gao Wen explained, "so we can carry out population migration in batches. It can be used by Sisi The experience when Er was established - first migrate serfs and slaves, more than 80.00% of serfs and slaves are the property of lords and knights, and now they have become ownerless, which is the easiest to migrate;

"Secondly, to ensure land supply, we can ensure that the relocated population has enough arable land to accommodate them through land replacement, reclaiming new land, recovering old noble estates, and redistributing them. Agricultural Production;

"Finally, pay attention to rewards and publicity and guidance. Everyone in the Government Affairs Office and your clerks should have some experience. We are not trying to force civilians to leave their homes, but to prepare them for a better new home. Being city citizens, getting land from lords, new lords redistributing estates and so on to attract them, making them think that population migration is an opportunity rather than a mandate, that also makes things work smoothly."

After Gao Wen finished speaking, Norris nodded again and again. As a farmer himself, he thought that these plans proposed by Gao Wen were enough to deal with most of the migrant population.

In fact, even if there are no such plans, it is possible to enforce the population migration plan-the common people of this era have amazing tolerance for the orders of the lord and various adversities. In many cases, the lord may only rely on the momentary mood You can order that the people of the whole territory are prohibited from entering the mountains or that everyone is not allowed to go fishing in the river. If Gao Wen wants to force the population to move, most of the commoners will think that this is another whim of the new lord, and then bite After all, after this war, the Cecil family has de facto become the absolute authority in the southern border.

It's just... Gao Wen didn't want to do that.

During the establishment of the Principality of Cecil, every stain caused by everything he did would cost ten times or even a hundred times the cost to make up for it in a few years, and it was even impossible to make up for it. understandable.

According to previous experience, with the druid potion produced by the alchemy factory, and the agricultural learning meeting to allow farmers to exchange their high-yield skills, combined with the advanced system, the grain production in various places will be greatly improved. Under such circumstances, a large number of free populations can enter the factory, and an important part of the industrialization of magic will be completed.

Hetty then raised another question: "Ancestor, the establishment of a second-level city hall still requires a lot of manpower. Although the government affairs department has been doing its best to train various administrative personnel, it can barely gather enough staff for various supervisors in the second-level government affairs department. people, but we are afraid that there will be a big gap in the more basic clerk and clerk positions, and we have to solve the problem of appeal... Although Cecil defeated the coalition forces of more than 40 nobles in the southern border, we have enough The strength is to take over the land of those nobles, but the administrative personnel sent there do not have enough appeal in the local area. It is okay to send some soldiers to control order, but to establish a unit like the second-level government affairs office... the locals may not Cooperate."

Then Hetty organized the language, and added one more point: "And we must also consider the problem that there are still remnants of the old lord's loyalists waiting for opportunities to destroy in some areas-although the number may not be large, but the impact of such destruction on social order huge."

"There will definitely be remnants of the rebels, and there will be troops to protect and suppress them," Gao Wen nodded, "The problem of appeal does exist, so I have asked Byron and Philip to take the nobles and knights from the prisoner-of-war camp first. The captives are escorted back first, I will have a good 'talk' with those people, and after they 'cooperate', we can also recruit and train intellectuals from all over the world more conveniently, and the manpower gap can be alleviated."

Gao Wen is destroying the old aristocratic system in the southern border, but as he realized before—whether he wants to admit it or not, most of the intellectuals and upper-class talents in this era are concentrated among the nobles and their vassals. For a new order, especially the establishment of a new order in a short period of time, he still has to find a way to borrow strength from these people.

So he wanted to destroy the old aristocratic system, but he had to keep it—at least some of the nobles and their vassals who were willing to cooperate and accept transformation, so that the resources they possessed could be used.

Chapter 0406 The Great Change

Although Gao Wen shocked everyone at the scene when he proposed his population relocation plan and the southern border remodeling plan, but as the discussion deepened, the feasibility and necessity of this plan gradually became clear. The sense of inconceivability subsided, and everyone's attention began to focus on those implementation details.

"... Ladies and gentlemen, we have to make it clear that population migration is a long-term plan. The same is true for the construction of cities, roads, and government offices. It will take three to five years to complete, so we must make it all go smoothly," said After answering most of the questions from the officials of the Government Affairs Department, Gao Wen looked around at everyone on the scene with a serious expression and said, "The first step, we need to select some pilot sites - the initial population migration will be carried out in the Hosman Territory. The legion of the army is now stationed nearby, the news of the victory and defeat of the war has spread throughout the land, and Count Karlov Hosman has been confirmed dead, and then the 'receiving troops' will enter the Hosman area, and negotiate— —or the cannonballs opened the gates of Hossmann's Castle, followed by the announcement of the change of lord and the new decree.

"In view of the geographical location and development status of the Hosman area, I plan to move half of the serfs and slaves there to the Cecil area, and move all the scattered population of the Hosman area to the city. Foundations to build new cities."

Gawain didn't continue talking after he said this, but Hetty who was next to him could vaguely guess the thinking behind his ancestor's arrangement.

The territory of Earl Karlov Hossman, who has been confirmed dead, was chosen as the pilot of the plan. On the one hand, such a territory has the least resistance and it is easier to implement the plan. On the other hand, this is actually for those nobles who are still alive. A last chance - more than 20 southern nobles and their knight entourages are still imprisoned in prisoner-of-war camps, and their ancestors obviously hope to squeeze the last value of these nobles - their remaining appeal, attached to them intellectual groups, and their symbolic significance among the common people.

These values ​​allow those nobles to survive in the prisoner-of-war camp, but their choice will determine whether they can get out of the prisoner-of-war camp alive, and this "pilot" led by Housman is the countdown to their choice.

Before the countdown ends, the ancestors will not move their land for the time being. This is to maintain the stability of millions of people in the southern border. After all, the land aristocratic system has been implemented here for 700 years. Suddenly, all the lords on this land were killed overnight. Killing them all would scare everyone—even if the ultimate goal of doing so was to make their lives better.

But after the countdown is over, my seemingly peaceful but iron-fisted ancestor may have to turn all the land in the southern border except Cecil's circle of influence into "land without owner".

"Do you have any questions?" Gao Wen asked after seeing that no one was asking any more questions.

"...About the construction of new cities in the process of population migration," said Hetty, with a slightly embarrassed expression on her face, "I'm afraid we don't have any extra magic grid substrates available for the time being, and the supply of basic magic materials is also Here’s a question—this spring’s budget has been allocated to the North Shore Development Zone and the Western New City, and a considerable amount of magic materials have been used in the construction of the Rebellious Fortress…”

The more Hetty spoke, the more confident she became, and she took a peek at Gao Wen's face: she formulated the budget in this area, but it was also handed over to Gao Wen for review. Obviously, no one thought about it when the budget was made. The problem of establishing a magic industry city in an area other than Cecil.

But after hearing Heidi's words, Gawain's expression didn't care: "Don't worry about this."

Hetty froze for a moment: "Ancestor, do you have other arrangements?"

Gao Wen couldn't help laughing: "In the several areas I selected, there are ready-made magic nets - we don't need to build them, just send a few magicians to check the status of the interfaces, and then just connect the equipment directly."

Hetty probably had too much brains during the meeting today, so that she didn't realize it all at once, but when Gao Wen reminded her, she suddenly came to her senses: "Ah——you put the magic net..."

"Thanks for the promotion of friends and neighbors, there are magic nets all over the southern border," Gao Wen said while shaking his head with emotion, "They only know how to use magic nets to illuminate, power mage towers, and mine machines. How do they know about general energy? Ah, when it comes to mining equipment, we can even temporarily use local mining equipment, although they are all old models sold by Cecil, but they are more than enough for the initial stage of construction.”

Gao Wen paused when he said this, and added: "Of course, when those old nobles built the magic net, they only thought about their own manors and castles, and the scope of their magic nets was not too large. It will definitely be expanded in time, but fortunately now we have the magic obelisk technology, which can transmit magic power remotely, and the limitation of the range of the magic net is not so serious-you can place an order with the machinery manufacturing plant after you go back, and give priority to producing a batch The magic obelisk comes out."

Hearing Gawain's arrangement, Hetty was completely relieved, and after thinking of the magic nets in operation across the southern border, she couldn't help showing a weird smile on her face.

Gawain couldn't help smiling when he saw Heidi's smile.

Every government official in the meeting room saw the lord's smile. They thought of the things that the nobles in the southern border, large and small, had spent in the past six months to sell pots and sell iron to build magic nets and purchase mining equipment, and they also smiled.

Knowing, and tacit understanding.

There was a jovial air in the conference room.

However, in the royal capital thousands of miles away, in the splendid and ancient Silver Fort of Saint-Sunil, there is only depression and depression in the air.

Wearing a long white dress, it swept through the long corridors of Silver Castle like a snowstorm. Victoria Wilde, the Duchess of the Northland, and several entourages quickly passed through the corridors. This woman who is always cold and expressionless The Duke looked even colder than usual today, but the fine snowflakes constantly flying up between her hurried steps showed that the Duchess was not calm, and such a hurry did not often appear to her.

She walked into the "Golden Rose Hall" on the top floor of the castle. In this small hall, which was only reserved for the top-level power holders of the kingdom to discuss matters, she saw the elegant and bookish Bai Bai, who was wearing a dark coat. Duke Devon Franklin.

The middle-aged gentleman-like Duke of the Western Territory was standing by the window, looking down at the open space inside the castle's atrium. He turned his head to take a look after hearing Victoria's entry, but quickly turned his head back again.

At the end of his line of sight, on the open space of the inner courtyard of Silver Castle, one could clearly see a trace of being burned, trampled and damaged. The trace was very new, as if it was left a few days ago.

Of course it was left a few days ago - it was the trace left when the rebels in the castle were killed.

A few days ago, a riot suddenly broke out in Silver Castle. Some dead men set fire to Francis II's study and Prince Edmund's bedroom. The counterattack left those glaring marks in the atrium.

Outside the castle, in various parts of the city of Saint-Sunil, there have been more than a dozen sabotage actions of various sizes in the past few days. Needless to say, although the suspects of each sabotage operation were quickly caught and executed, the sabotage itself disturbed Duke Baldwin, and he faintly realized that a huge cloud was gathering over the kingdom.

Now here comes Victoria, in such haste—the duchess may bring worse news.

The rumor that spread to Silver Castle two days ago is probably true.

"It has been confirmed, the news is true," and sure enough, the Duchess of the North said quickly, "Francis II died in Longwind Fortress, and Silas Lauren and Edmund claimed that the king died in the In the hands of the assassins sent by the king's capital, they have encouraged almost all the nobles in the eastern region, and they have already raised troops to attack the Holy Spirit Plain—in the border area between the Holy Spirit Plain and the eastern region, several small-scale probing battles have taken place."

Later, she added: "Originally, the news should have come earlier, but the eyeliner I set up in the East Region has been pulled out, and the magic communication has also been interfered... Silas Lauren and Edmund It seems that we have been preparing for this day for a long time."

Baldwin Franklin closed his eyes, and his body couldn't help shaking slightly.

It was not until 2 minutes later that the Duke of the Western Territory finally opened his eyes. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down: "As we expected, the little disturbance in the capital is just a prelude. The sensational conspiracy happened right under our noses."

"The news will spread soon. Edmund Moen is probably not just preparing those inconspicuous acts of sabotage... I suspect that there are still people from him among the nobles of the royal capital, who will start their activities after the news reaches the royal capital. Inciting and inducing the emotions of the nobles, making them believe in the malicious slander coming from the Eastern Region," Victoria Wilde continued, she was incredibly calm at this moment, "We must take action before that."

"We can't find those people before they start to act, and after the news starts to spread, we will make the situation worse if we do something to those people," Baldwin Franklin frowned, "the only The way is for us to send a message before that..."

The Duchess of the North and the Duke of the West fell silent for a while. After half a minute of silence, Victoria Wilde sighed rarely.

"Announce it," she said, "announce it...Prince Edmund Morn killed his father and king, Silas Lauren rebelled...In the name of maintaining the order of the kingdom and avenging the king, we will fight with the East The border is at war."

Baldwin Franklin nodded silently, and after a few seconds, he let out a long sigh: "Our king said he would bring peace back—he didn't come back, and neither did peace."

This is the last day of the second week of the Fire Moon, Ansu 736.

On this day, Anzu's second civil war officially broke out.

Chapter 0407 Darkness

The transmission of information is not easy.

When a fire broke out in the Changfeng Fortress, the two dukes far away in the capital were still focusing on maintaining order in the capital. When the troops of the Duke of the East and Prince Edmund assembled to attack the border land of the Holy Spirit Plain However, the person in charge of Saint-Sunil City did not get the slightest news, until the Griffin messenger who broke out from the border of the plain flew into the capital, this great change related to the future of the kingdom was truly presented to the person in charge in Silver Castle ——However, until this time, they did not know that a great change was also taking place in the southern border, and this great change would even more affect the future of the kingdom.

But there is not the slightest connection between the distant southern border and the capital—outside the Silver Fort, inside the city of Saint-Sunil, there is an eyeliner from Cecil dormant.

No. [-], Crown Street, in the official residence of the Cecil family, which has become the meeting place for the mage circle and scholar circle in Wangdu, a scholar wearing a soft wool hat stood up politely, saluted the mage apprentice in front of him, and then followed the attendant Guided by her to leave the room, the "witch" Jibril sighed slightly after watching the registered King's Mage get up and leave. She got up and moved her slightly stiff shoulders.

Sitting in such a spacious and bright room, wearing well-cut expensive dresses, meeting the scholars of the royal capital as the Duke's agent, such a decent job was something that "witch" Jibri never imagined, but until she really After sitting in this position, she realized that such a glamorous and decent job is not easy. It is a test in itself to deal with those well-informed and smart people in the capital. Collecting information as an operator and sending it out, the hardships during this period are not at all easier than she used to rely on sweet words on the streets to defraud money from passing adventurers.

The door opened, and "Fast Legs" Pierce, who was wearing a knight's uniform, walked in. After seeing that Jibri was the only one in the room, the young man nodded: "The last person who registered has left?"

"Yes, the last one today," Jibri said while thumping her shoulders, "There are a few more people than yesterday..."

"The situation in the royal capital is becoming tense. Soldiers and knights who came out of the castle are going door-to-door to check for suspicious elements. A few days ago, there was even a fire in the wealthy area, and people's hearts are floating," Pierce said looking for a place by the table. Sitting down, he talked about the recent changes in the city, "Thanks to this, our recruitment has become easier - Duke Cecil's employment certificate allows them to legally leave the city during this period."

"Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, we can gather 100 people, and we can send another batch," Jibril looked at the registration book on the table, then raised her head to look at her companions, "Also, orders from the mainland, Let us stop all public recruitment activities after sending the last batch of people, and only keep in touch with the mage circle in the capital in the dark, collect information and wait for orders."

For a moment, Pierce was curious about how the lord in the far south knew about the changes in the capital city—because this part of the information had not yet been sent out, but the training he received in the Military Intelligence Bureau made him not question the order, but nodded directly: "I understand, tomorrow I will go to various associations to cancel the entrustment."

"It's time to stop public activities..." Jibri sighed softly, "The situation in the city is deteriorating, there are rebels hiding in the capital, and the people in Silver Fort may soon order the entire San Souni to be sealed off." Well, we rely on the duke's protection to move freely all the time, but for a while, it's better not to continue to challenge the sensitive and fragile nerves of Silver Castle..."

"I don't know what will happen in the future," Pierce couldn't help sighing. He was born in a slum, and it was the first time he began to lament this kind of thing that should have had no intersection with his life. "This country is really getting more and more chaotic. ..."

"The chaos in front of us is only temporary. The Duke will eventually bring prosperity and order to this country," Jibril raised her eyelids, looked at Pierce and said, "This kind of prosperity and order is a product of this era, but we are in Maybe you can see it in your lifetime.”

"This seems to be what Mr. Santis sighed," Pierce laughed. "Although it sounds too optimistic, I think it makes sense."

……

If what you see in Cecil is prosperity and order, then what you can see in the place where the noble army has ravaged is only decay and chaos.

In the southwest of Carroll Territory, in the Consco area, a small village was almost razed to the ground. On the edge of the ruins of the village, a small armed team was passing by.

The team was well-disciplined, and a black and red flag was flying above the team, with the emblem of the Cecil family printed on the flag.Half of the team were Cecil combatants in bright armor and combat backpacks, and the other half were non-combatants in light armor and smocks who didn't look much like soldiers. The latter's smock is printed with a red triangle logo, which has always been a mark of occupations such as doctors and pharmacists in the Ansu tradition.

Wright Aviken was walking in the team. He was the only one in the team who was wearing full-body heavy armor but was a doctor—his doctor's mark was printed on the breastplate, and the eye-catching red triangle mark made him stand out in the team. It looks very conspicuous.

Of course, what was more conspicuous than the red logo was his figure, which was a head taller than a strong soldier.

At this moment, the strong and tall priest and field doctor looked at the ruins in front of him, and finally couldn't help letting out a sigh after being silent for a few seconds.

All the buildings in sight have been collapsed and destroyed. The grain warehouses in the village were looted and set on fire, the wells were also buried, and the cattle, sheep and livestock were slaughtered by the hungry noble soldiers. , Houses were burned, and in some places, Wright could still see some unpleasant dark red blood.

The village was destroyed, destroyed by the war, but it was not the Cecils who were the "enemies" who destroyed it, but the nominal patrons of the village, the nominal masters - the knights of the Consco region, and A coalition of nobles allied with Viscount Consco.

The coalition of nobles fleeing from the Stone Ridge front devastated this place - as they did others along the way.

Nobility is synonymous with plunder, especially in war, but Wright would still be shocked by what he saw and heard. He didn't expect that the plunder and destruction of the noble coalition forces when they were defeated would be more shocking than the destruction they caused when they marched. It was so shocking that he couldn't help wondering whether those fleeing noble soldiers were human beings, or a group of skinned and boned termites.

Standing beside Wright was a Cecil veteran. This veteran who served as the squad commander in the team was used to the battlefield and understood the traditional aristocratic army. He shook his head and explained to Wright: "They There will be some order when marching - at least at that time, they still consider themselves the protectors of the land and the people. When they pass through villages and towns, they will collect a lot of food and property, but at least they will not destroy it, but once Fleeing, they become wolves... Unlike Cecil's army, those noble soldiers don't regard 'plundering' as a crime at all, and they will not be hung up and whipped for taking a few bread from the common people , They dare to do anything to fill their stomachs, even to prevent food and houses from falling into the hands of the pursuers, they will burn down a place when they go..."

"Don't they even spare their own land?" Wright couldn't help interrupting the veteran, "Those fleeing nobles...will they really order the destruction of the villages on their territory?"

"Why not?" The veteran sighed, "Anyway, they lost. According to the rules of noble wars, the victors always have to plunder—they feel that even if they don't take all the food in the village and the houses Burn them all, and the chasing soldiers will do the same. Instead of letting the enemy succeed, it is better to do it yourself, and in this way they can get back some food... They don’t think it’s a loss.”

"..."

Wright was silent, the darkness and evil in the war made him not know what to say - he came from the relatively wealthy and stable Holy Spirit Plains, and he had seen some despicable acts of barbaric nobles even in the process of missionary work, but on this scale This is the first time he has seen a real war. What the nobles did in the process of being defeated and fleeing far exceeded his expectations.

But he wasn't a naive man—though many would say he was naive after learning of his behavior following the classical virtues of the Light, he knew he wasn't.He was shocked by the brutal darkness of the war, but he would not naively think that this war should not have happened, let alone that Cecil's victory had caused the tragedies before him.

He knows the greed of human beings, he knows the greed of nobles, after reading the comments and analysis in newspapers, he knows that this war is inevitable, no matter how the war wins or loses, those greedy and brutal nobles and their troops will do Pretty much the same thing - looting and destruction will always happen, the only difference is where it will happen.

And he also knows that Cecil's army has been trying to avoid the spread of these destructions as much as possible-when the large troops are chasing, they have been trying to drive the enemy to places like the wasteland. If they are really close to the town, they will try their best to avoid them Before destroying them, catch up and attack them, and drive them away. After all, protecting those towns and villages is also protecting Cecil's future property.

But no matter how hard you try, the battlefield is always full of variables and uncontrollable.

So Wright could only watch in silence, then lowered his head, silently praying for those who had suffered disasters.