Chapter 500 2 Visits

The first ray of sunlight in the morning shines on the tallest clock tower in Cecil City, gilding the city with the first rays of light from the giant sun, accompanied by the operation of gears and levers, a mechanical clock driven by a magic core. The bell rang loudly—

when - when - when -

With the sound of the mechanical clock, Cecil City lost its sluggish sleep, and the whole city began to quickly come alive under the sun.

Workers in tooling walked out of the brick and tile houses, passed the Cogwheel Plaza and Lever Street in the industrial area, and marched in droves to the Rune Foundry, Machine Shop, and other factory facilities to replace the late shift workers. Colleagues; merchants opened the doors one by one, took off the wooden signs in front of the windows, and banged on the copper rings hanging under the eaves to announce the start of the day’s business; the newsboys and postmen faced the morning mist, sweeping clean Walking between the streets, delivering the latest issue of newspapers and letters to every house.

And in the streets and alleys that are quickly becoming alive, there are still busy breakfast vendors everywhere - they have already gone out before dawn, and the streets near their homes have started the most important business of the day, shouting and greeting people. The voices of the people could be heard everywhere in the blocks, these sounds mixed with the ringing of the mechanical clock, and echoed throughout Cecil City - just like a satisfied and comfortable sigh of this new city in the early morning.

In the dining room of the lord's mansion, Gawain was sitting on his own throne, and Heidi was sitting on his right. The "Big Butler Cecil" was cutting the bread in front of him and talking about the recent situation on the territory: " ...The news reports about Luan City have been released through the magic net radio and newspapers. According to your instructions, in addition to reporting the cause and result of the incident, we also emphasized the unity of the people of all places regardless of their origin, identity, and region. The single-minded situation, it seems to be working well so far, people are so excited, and 'we Cecilians' has become a very popular saying."

Gawain nodded slightly, feeling very satisfied with the work of Godwin Orlando and Hetty.

The liberation of Lu'an City is of extraordinary significance. It not only means the complete collapse of the Holy Light Church in the south, but also means that the new order he has worked hard to promote in the past two years has truly affected the people at the bottom for the first time. It means that another of his plans is going well:

Lay the foundation for national consciousness, and let the southern border truly transform from an ordinary aristocratic territory into a country.

During the operation of Lu'an City, thousands of people from all over the southern border stood together for a common goal. They came from different social classes, regions and families. They used to belong to different lords, old and dead. People who interact with each other never pay attention to each other, and they never identify with each other, but these people are united as a force for that common goal—a goal that overrides their origin, occupation, place of residence, and even personal beliefs. The emergence of this phenomenon means that these originally scattered people have the basis to become "Cecil citizens".

On this basis, relying on continuous guidance and education, Cecilians will wake up as a community sooner or later. They will have similar moral standards, similar living customs, they will use a common script, a similar language, and they will Celebrating common holidays and honoring common heroes who will proudly call their people "We Cecil" and who will take every inch of this land for granted as "our" territory.

According to Gao Wen's experience, this sense of identity will lay the people's psychological cornerstone of "territorial unity", and it will continue to develop along the way. Coupled with the pioneering ancestors of the Cecil family's ancestry, maybe it will lead to the "poor, shelve disputes" , Dazai's path since ancient times"...

Okay, that might be a little overthinking.

But even if you don't consider "Da Ze since ancient times", it is not easy to realize the awakening of national and national consciousness. It will take many years, although people in the streets and alleys will now say "We Cecilians" with excitement and pride. A word, but this is at best a temporary upsurge caused by the current situation. Just two or three years is not enough to establish a firm and lasting national belief, but as long as this upsurge takes the first step, as long as Gawain Don't make big mistakes in the governance of this land, as long as this land continues to develop as a whole, it will only be a matter of time before "Cecilians" become a whole.

"In addition, there was news from the northern rock fortress, and the plains of the Holy Spirit sent a messenger to forward a letter from the royal family to the commander of the Wald Perridge fortress," Hetty continued, "It seems that they finally have time to pay attention to the situation in the south. Now - Archduke of the North, Victoria Wilder, wants to visit in person, and it will be a 'private' visit. The letter is still on the way, and the news is coming directly through lewd communications."

Gawain's hand holding the spoon paused for a moment, and a strange smile appeared on his face: "A northern duke has crossed half of the country to visit another frontier grand duke in person, and it is still at the juncture of the kingdom's civil war... It can only be called private."

"Do you want to agree?" Hetty looked into Gawain's eyes, "Rejecting the Duke of the North may irritate the royal family even more, making them more vigilant and resistant to the South, but if you agree...the Duke of the North will enter the rock fortress. ."

"There is nothing to refuse," Gawain replied casually, "We are just using the rock fortress to block the troubles in the north, and we are not trying to completely seal off the southern border - the girl from the Wilder family has inherited some of the qualities of her ancestors. I'd love to talk to her."

Hearing the words "inherited some qualities of the ancestors", Heidi couldn't help but glance at Rebecca who was sitting on the other side of her - this girl was fighting with a piece of steak with her head down He looked as if he was facing the enemy who killed his father. Seeing this, Heidi could only sigh faintly, and then looked back: "Okay, I will let the commander of Wald Fortress reply to the messenger. But there is one more thing. I'm afraid this matter is more sensitive."

"Um?"

Heidi showed a look of embarrassment: "The living saint of the Church of the Holy Light in the North, Princess Veronica Moen... She also sent a letter, wanting to visit the southern border, in time with Duke Victoria Wilder's meeting. The visit time is almost the same..."

Amber, who was sitting across from the table and studying how to spread the cream evenly, raised her head when she heard this, full of surprise: "Here you come to smash the venue? Because we smashed their venue in Lu'an City? Did you come to the door so quickly? "

If it was in the past, Hetty would have been quite dissatisfied with Amber's sudden interjection when he was talking to his ancestors, and he used rude words. Maybe he would have rubbed a Frostbolt on the spot and hit him somewhere behind him. But since the incident in Luan City, Heidi had some changes in this seemingly unreliable half-elf-she realized the half-elf's ability and function, and began to answer the other party's questions seriously. : "The matter of Lu'an City cannot be spread to Saint Sunil so quickly, which is beyond the limit distance of ordinary communication spells, and there is no high-level powerhouse in Lu'an Church who can send the information back. Veronica Moen is in the The letter stated that this was a normal visit..."

"The detailed information may not be transmitted back, but the headquarters of the Holy Light Church may have some way to find out the general situation of the regional headquarters," Gawain said. "We must try our best to think of our opponents as smart and capable."

Heidi asked Gawain's opinion: "Then... do you want to reject that 'Virgin Princess'?"

"There's no need to refuse, she wants to come to visit, so come," Gawain said indifferently, "I still have the air."

"Aren't you afraid of her coming to smash the place?" Amber blinked, "We really smashed their place..."

"The split between the Protestant Church and the Old Church of the Holy Light is an established fact. The affairs of Lu'an City will eventually reach the headquarters of the church, and the entire southern church has disappeared. Is it possible that we can hide this matter? What's more, from the beginning, I I didn't want to hide it," Gawain said, tapping the table lightly, "I'm more curious about how the Northern Church would react after knowing this fact... If they really organize a wave of Crusaders to attack The rock fortress is just fine, we can save a lot of food and grass on the way."

Gawain was just joking, but Hetty shook his head seriously: "Then they probably don't have that much room for this—according to the news from the north, the Church of the Holy Light has publicly announced that it will stand in the Wang ** camp to participate in this civil war. , the Crusaders are now on the battlefield in the east of the Holy Spirit Plain with Wang **, and they are fighting with the rebels in the east."

Rebecca, who bowed her head and competed with the food in front of her for a long time, finally caught a sentence or two of the conversation. The girl raised her head in surprise, her face full of cuteness: "Hey? They haven't finished fighting yet? The Eastern Army and Are the royal troops still fighting?"

As soon as these words came out, the people at the table looked at her in shock, Gawain looked at Rebecca's simple expression, which was quite easy to understand, and was stunned for more than ten seconds before asking Hetty next to him: " The child hasn't woken up yet?"

Heidi was in a cold sweat: "...she is busy with experimental projects, and may not pay much attention to the situation outside..."

It was only at this time that Rebecca realized that she might have made a mistake. She shrank her neck, but she couldn't help but say: "How long has this been playing... With this skill, we have already taken down the entire southern border. By the way, I drove out the Holy Light Church..."

"You can't measure Ansu's civil war with our form of war..." Gawain glanced at Rebecca helplessly, "But there's nothing you can do, you're still young, and you haven't seen what a traditional noble war is like. …”

The civil war in Ansu is still going on. The rebels and the king continue to see a long-term stalemate and stalemate in the east of the Holy Spirit Plain. Whether it is the chaos caused by Prince Edmund's use of the royal capital's nobles or the changes in the situation after the Church of Holy Light entered the game, Nothing can speed up this war, and if there are no surprises, it is likely to continue, even years later - there is no way to avoid it.

This is the case with the "normal" war in this era. It is cruel and bloody, but it is slow and long. The low killing efficiency of cold weapons and the slow action speed of the army make every battle dragged for a long time, and the gap between battles has also become For a long time, the two cold-weapon armies with no decisive force gap rubbed off each other little by little, and it was possible to fight a battle for many years.

In particular, this is an irreconcilable and unstoppable civil war, a civil war against royal power. It can be said that as long as the food and population can hold up, the warring parties will inevitably be dragged into the vortex, and will continue to fight until this point. Until the nation's strength is exhausted - unless one of the warring parties is willing to voluntarily relinquish its claim to the throne.

The "quick war" in which the Cecil family directly pulls the magic-guided artillery to the field and bombards all the main forces and fortresses of the enemy in one round almost does not exist in this era.

"Then this matter is settled," Gawain said, "The Duchess of the North and the 'Holy Princess' of the Church of the Holy Light... Now that the frosty moon has passed more than half, it should be the foggy moon when they come over-- Cecil City winter will definitely impress them."