Chapter 304: Night Stalker’s Old Friend
After rejecting the Marshal’s proposal, East quickly gave his reasons.
"There are fifty thousand cavalry troops stationed in Upper Soden, and there are several divisions of heavy cavalry among them." East pointed in the direction of Upper Soden. "With the strength of us and the troops on the eastern front, it is impossible to defeat them. Complete siege."
"I have heard of the Mennonite Marshal of Nilfgaard. He has great military exploits. Anyone who can sit in such a high-level position is definitely not a stubborn person. If he decides to avoid the army in the north and decides to head east Or charge from the west. With his strength, he can easily tear apart our 'defense line'." "
Compared to the west where the Yaruga River lies across the river, we in Sintra will be their first choice for a breakout. Then tens of thousands of cavalry will march straight in. ...Cintra will be at risk of falling again."
After such analysis by the King of Skellige, the strategy proposed by Vissekid does seem to be a bit of a gamble on the fate of the country.
"Then... er, Your Majesty East, what do you mean?" The marshal showed an inquiring look.
East thought for a moment and pointed to several places on the sand table.
"It is true that defense lines can be established in the direction of Lower Soden and Livia, but we must leave a route in Cintra that we can control so that the Nilfgaardians can retreat." "The
entire southern part of Cintra will be very difficult . A good choice."
"After we defeat the Western Army, it will be equivalent to cutting off the retreat of their Central Army. Menno will definitely drive his troops back like crazy. At this time, we will attract them to the south of Sintra, and then Join forces with other groups of troops to defeat the Nilfgaardians and drive them out completely." "
Remember, it's just a 'rout'. The idea of 'annihilating' the Nilfgaardians is very tempting. I also hope that I can give the empire a hard punch and let them taste the pain. But our current strength is actually still weak. We only rely on a lot of 'means' and 'unexpected soldiers' to be able to barely fight, so... ...'It's enough to 'defeat' them."
East, whose hatred of Nilfgaard is no less than that of the people of Cintra, even more so, took a deep breath and put forward the safest plan: "Everything will be restored with restoration. Prioritize Sintra, preserve Sintra, and create a good reconstruction environment for post-war Sintra."
Marshal Visekid was silent. As a military general, he did occasionally get into trouble after fighting too many wars. But this proposal was made by East, and he must take it seriously.
"But if we get to Sintra, it will be mostly plains..."
The marshal frowned and objected. Lan En suddenly waved his hand at this time.
"There are many fortresses east of Sintra. Under the premise that we send heavy troops to guard them, the Nilfgaardians, who have no logistics and mostly cavalry, will not choose to attack the city rashly. They can only walk around the border. We You can block him here—"
Everyone looked in the direction of Lan's finger, and East's eyes suddenly became sad.
That place is the Manada Valley, where the lioness died. Nilfgaard ambushed Cintra there.
"This is also a good place for us to ambush their cavalry regiment."
With the support of the Duke of Lannister and the King of East, even Marshal Visekid could not express his objections to the plan, let alone others. Nothing more to say.
So the brown-haired officer began to smear the finalized marching route on the map, write it down and prepare before going back to arrange the troops.
...
After a long while, the battle plan was basically finalized.
Lann glanced at Duke Darcy, who was still confused, and was about to wave to the attendants to take him down.
East suddenly held Lan's shoulders.
"There is something that I am very concerned about, Lan. I want you to help me ask this guy if he knows about it."
Lan showed a puzzled expression.
East frowned: "When fighting the Nilfgaardians on the front line, I felt that their troops seemed very passive and had no strong desire to attack. Compared with the Nilfgaardians in the past, this was simply a world of difference. Don't."
"Either Joachim de Wit, the commander of their Western Army Group, is a fool, or they have another conspiracy." East analyzed, "I will never place my hope of victory on the enemy's incompetence. , so I would rather believe in the conspiracy theory, I need to know the exact information."
Lann nodded to express his understanding, turned around and immediately released his magic power to ask Duke Darcy.
They soon had a surprise.
Under the influence of the seal, Duke Darcy can be said to know everything and speak everything.
"According to tradition, after His Majesty succeeds to the throne, he should select a young girl of marriageable age from the imperial noble family as the queen to ensure the superiority of the imperial royal bloodline." "But some time ago, we received information from spies in the palace
. It seems that His Majesty has been issuing secret missions to his spies and sorcerers, asking them to find Cirilla - with the purpose of marrying Cirilla as queen." "
Joachim, like me, is a veteran of three dynasties, and we people can't stand it. The emperor is arbitrary in this kind of matter...so we hope to teach the emperor a lesson on the front line in exchange for his compromise."
...
How brave, these palace nobles.
Everyone first admired in their hearts, and sincerely expressed "admiration" for this kind of old nobleman who brought political conflicts to the front lines of the battlefield. As an enemy, they sincerely expressed their "admiration".
If they really hit a pass, a hundred thousand troops might not be able to cause as much damage to Nilfgaard as themselves.
Then everyone had different reactions to the information revealed by Duke Darcy that "the emperor wants to marry Ciri".
There are four main types.
The first type is like the adjutants brought by Marshal Visekid, and the generals from the dwarf side who have less clear information. After thinking about it, they felt that they knew the truth - through marriage, Emperor Emhyr could obtain the legal right to rule Cintra. Cintra has an important strategic position as the gateway to the North, and Princess Cirilla deserves an imperial post.
The second type is East, Mossack, and Kratz, who knew Emhyr’s true identity through Lann. They knew that Emhyr was Cintra's former consort "Prince Doni" and was Ciri's father. Therefore, they thought this was nonsense and believed that Duke Darcy's intelligence personnel within the empire were extremely incompetent.
The third type is Xili. She has not yet been told the truth by Lan, but as the protagonist of this information, she feels disgusted.
The fourth type is Lann.
The lion rubbed his brows, knowing that Emhyr was serious.
At this time, Emhyr really wants to be a strange father!
Regarding the matter of ancient blood, Emhyr can be said to have been deceived by Vilgefortz.
At this stage, he is unwilling to admit that Ciri is his daughter and let others know that he once went by the pseudonym "Doni". He feels that the experience was shameful; but at the same time, he wants to integrate the ancient blood into the Nilfgaard royal family in order to obtain The power to "conquer the world".
Driven by this motivation, he created one of his most famous memes - the kind that would get the book banned if he said it.
...
"Lan."
Lann felt his sleeve being pulled by the little princess. When he lowered his head, he saw her watery eyes.
Considering that there were so many courtiers present, Lann refrained from touching Princess Weiyi's head out of the purpose of protecting her.
"Wait a minute, I want to tell you something, Ciri. You have to be mentally prepared..."
Lann whispered, and then patted his face to regain his senses.
The information revealed by Duke Darcy is more valuable than imagined.
"Ignore Emperor Emhyr's real purpose. But the reactions of the two commanders on the front line are worth making a fuss about. It can be a great help for us to attack the Western Army." "Originally, I planned to squeeze out Darcy's intelligence
. Then it will be used to sacrifice the flag, but in this case, we can let him die a more "deserving" death."
He thought for a moment, then turned around and gave a new order: "Ens, write a letter to Emperor Emhyr. The content is We captured his eastern front commander, who was responsible for his return to the throne. If Duke Darcy is to be safe and sound, then he must pay the ransom in accordance with the rules of the North, and then let the army withdraw from Sintra. You can see the specific wording. Think about it."
"The process of sending the letter should be more grand. Be sure to let the intelligence personnel installed by these old nobles in the palace know." "
After writing the letter to Emhyr, I also sent it to Foltest in Temeria. A letter has passed. The intelligence that Darcy just provided is written down. The enemy has already set them as strategic targets. I don't believe that he can remain indifferent this time." Although the relationship with
Foltest is not very good, but Lann also believed in the orthopedic king's military qualities. If you are lucky, you can still get a support soldier.
Then he turned back to look at Reso: "I need the guerrillas on the front line to spread a message to the Western Army: The people of Cintra followed the rules of war in the north after capturing Duke Darcy and wanted to negotiate with Emperor Emhyr. . But the emperor, who had a explosive personality and was unwilling to compromise, flatly refused and personally sent a killer to sneak into Cintra."
Lann pointed at Duke Darcy who was still under the effect of the seal and had not yet awakened.
"Duke Darcy is a tough guy. After being captured, he showed amazing willpower and did not reveal any information to the people of Cintra. However, he was unfortunately assassinated by his own people. The Nilfgaardians will never Compromise. The lions of Cintra were furious because they lost an important captive... This is what I mean, you can polish it up at the end."
Lei Suo slightly narrowed his amber snake eyes and nodded in agreement. Behind him, Kolgrim couldn't hide the corners of his mouth that started to rise.
After hearing this, everyone turned their attention to Duke Darcy.
Looking at the still dazed commander of the Eastern Group Army, the hatred in their eyes disappeared unconsciously.
"In a sense, we have fulfilled Duke Darcy's last wish. After all, they want to create some 'trouble' for the emperor." Kolgrim shook his head and said.
This time it was not just Kolgrim, everyone could not hold back their lips.
——Just
when everyone in Cintra decided on the final course of action.
In the town of Blochlon, and even on the other side of Brochlon Forest, a "beautiful" hoof crushed a small piece of dry soil.
Not many people would use the word "beautiful" to describe a hoof, but this one deserves it.
Looking up, the black body hair on the hooves gradually disappears, revealing the fair skin covered underneath, with interesting magic lines tattooed on the skin; further up is a pair of small goat horns, and a pair of charming goat horns. , a face with two temperaments: charming and naive.
Nanomi, the female night demon brought back from Skellige after the Lann Contract [Follower]. She liked to stay away from people when she was in the Islands, and she has been living in the Forest of Blochlon since she came to Sintra.
She gets along well with the dryads, and occasionally joins the "festivals" between the dryads and humans to satisfy her own racial needs.
But at this moment, the Night Devil crossed the mountains and passed through the forest.
In front of us is a valley shrouded in smoke. As far as the eye can see, there are thousands of graves and tombstones covered with moss.
Some tombstones are featureless, just a single piece of shapeless rough rock; others are polished and carved into the shape of obelisks and monuments; as for those standing in the center of this rocky forest, they are built into stone sheds. , cairns and stone circles, ruling out the possibility of natural formation.
This is Fin Karn, a large elven cemetery located in Soden.
Although the rule of the elves was overthrown by humans, this cemetery has been preserved because of its "value in historical research and art appreciation", and it can barely be regarded as an attraction in Soden.
However, due to the subsequent Battle of Soden Mountain, this place has been abandoned for a long time. Normal humans don't want to get close to the elves' cemetery, but the refugees caused by the war don't mind spending the night here. The stone sheds and circular stone formations in the middle are the masterpieces of the refugees.
Naomi, who was probably older than the corpses buried in several nearby tombstones put together, walked among the tombstones without any psychological pressure, talking to herself.
"Great, we found the Elf Cemetery, so let's look for any huts nearby...wait!"
Nanomi's nose twitched suddenly, and the air was filled with a strong smell of herbs. That's absinthe, basil, sage, star anise and cinnamon.
"Ha." A smile spread across Naomi's face that was enough to make everyone in Blochlon Town no longer miss the dryad. "Come out, old man, I found you!" Suddenly, a fingernail came from behind a tombstone
. The sound of scratching stones could easily be mistaken for a ghoul in this environment.
But soon an ordinary hand stretched out from behind the tombstone, holding a plant rhizome shaped like a child.
Then, a thin man with dark eyes and gray hair and an aristocratic hooked nose emerged from behind the tombstone.
"Long time no see...Nanomi. Let me tell you first, I'm not hiding from you, it's just that such a complete mandala root is rare, and I can't resist..." The
smile on Nanomie's face became even more rippling. The middle-aged man in front of him looked at the female night demon's smile that was enough to make everyone in Brochlon Town forget about the tree spirit and his wife, and her naked body, but his face was silent.
It seems that the alluring beauty is not as attractive as the herbal roots in my hand.
Fortunately, he quickly pulled his attention back: "I didn't know you would come over today... There is a beautiful flower field nearby. Do you want to go and see it?" "Of course." Nanomi said to the middle-aged
man The suggestion seemed interested, "But not now. I heard that you live in seclusion around here. Are you working as an herbalist?" "
Strictly speaking, it's a 'barber doctor'." The middle-aged man spit out a weird professional name , "The recent war has caused a lot of refugees. I will provide them with some needed medicines and treat some more dangerous injuries." "
Ha, what are they going to pay you? Help you collect medicines, or directly 'pay' with blood ?"
"No, it's free." The middle-aged man said slowly, "I told you a long time ago that our race does not need blood as a necessity for survival." "
Hahahahaha..." The female night devil suddenly He laughed so hard that he couldn't stand up straight, "I really should let those guys who call you vampires see what you do, it's so interesting!"
"Vampire is a more polite way of saying it. Most people would call us 'vampire freaks' or 'monsters.'" The middle-aged man's tone was still unhurried, "But I can understand that human beings are interested in powerful and unknown monsters." Things are always full of fear."
"This doesn't change my view on life. I firmly believe that there is a shining light in human nature." "
Okay, okay, great philosopher. I always like to talk to you, you The serious look is much more interesting than that of your kind." Naomi patted her face, and under her uncovered outfit, every movement she made would cause a ripple.
"So Nanomi, why did you suddenly remember to come to me? How long ago was the last time we met? Decades? Hundreds of years?" The middle-aged man carefully picked off the soil particles on the mandala root in his hand, " I heard that you are having a good time in Skellig, and you should continue to stay. It’s not peaceful here recently, and I even considered changing places..." The
Night Stalker laughed: "You can’t imagine my reasons. "
I have discovered more than one ancient blood. They have not fully grown up yet, but their strength is already amazingly strong." "The
intersection of heaven and earth is about to happen, and the pace of white frost is approaching at all times. We are all those who have experienced it, and we know that What a tragedy it would be. So I joined the team of the Ancient Blood because that was the wisest choice." "
Then I thought of you again, my old friend Regis. The same alien who was the last time the heaven and earth met. Visitor from the world, I believe you will also be interested in the blood of the ancients."
(End of this chapter)