Chapter 299 Information and Messenger
The royal capital of Graycastle, a mansion with a garden in the inner city.
Today was the scheduled information exchange day, and Tasa sat on the soft chair in the living room, waiting for the arrival of the members of the "Pigeon and Top Hat" acrobatic troupe. After autumn, the closing time of the inner city gate was advanced to the evening, and the secret meeting had to be held in the afternoon.
Hill Fox was always the first to arrive at the mansion.
He was wearing a blue velvet open collar jacket, light gray leggings and moccasin boots, and a white bow tie around his neck, looking like an aristocrat. After saluting, he handed back the "History of Kingdom Customs" under his arm to Tasa, who took the book and glanced at him with great interest, "Read it?"
"Yes," Hill nodded, then hesitated, "Aren't you going to teach me some sword fighting skills...or assassination skills?"
"Why?"
"When the evil disease broke out, you said that you would train me to be a qualified intelligence officer," he scratched his head, "but so far, you have only given me some weird books to read."
"You mean "History of Customs"?" Tasa poured himself a glass of wine and threw in two ice cubes, "This is not a strange book, it records the origins, traditions, and family emblems of nobles from all over the kingdom , as well as special products of scenic spots. As an intelligence collector, you have to be well-informed first, so that you can roughly judge whether the news from various places is valuable. As for swordsmanship and assassination?" He smiled, "I didn't intend to let you lurk into the It would be dangerous and time-consuming for an organization to go deep into the enemy to find information, and if you have the skill, it’s better to spend more golden dragons to directly bribe the insider.”
"Not everyone can be bought," Hill insisted.
"As for those watertight organizations, it's also difficult to get into the eyes. It doesn't take more than ten or twenty years to sneak into them." Tasa shook his glass and took a sip of ice wine, "Qualified intelligence personnel can only You can do two things well: identify the message and hide yourself. The books I gave you are the basis for identifying the message. As for the second point... As a member of the acrobatic troupe, you should have more experience than me. For example, today you This outfit is very nice."
"..." Just as Hill Fox lowered his head and pondered the meaning of these words, the clown and others rushed to this remote house one after another.
"My lord, everyone is here."
"In this case, let's start," Tasa put down his glass and spread out his notepad, "Who will come first?"
"Let me tell you first, my lord," Yan Shan, the most burly figure, was the first to speak, "The camp on the outskirts of the eastern part of the capital has moved in a group of newcomers."
This news made the guard's brows twitch slightly. He didn't expect that the first information he heard was not good news. Since most of the Knights of the Royal Capital were lost, this barracks set up in the outskirts has become the garrison of the militia. But all the rats, fugitives and criminals recruited by Timothy would be stuffed into the East Camp before going out. And more than a month ago, a team of more than a thousand militiamen was just sent to the west, and now there are new people to replenish it?
"how many?"
"Currently there are only two to three hundred people, and most of them seem to be from the North... Besides, there are some mice from the Bloodsail Society, but compared to the first two times, there are not many mice willing to go."
"Closely monitor their movements, and report to me every time there are more than 200 people added to the camp." Tasa ordered.
"Yes, my lord."
These people have only one purpose, and that is to use them as consumables after taking the pills. Now that the Queen of Clear Water is heading north, there is no resistance in the southern border. Timothy will undoubtedly continue to attack His Royal Highness Roland's territory, and he must pass the news back to Border Town as soon as possible.
"The confidential information that the clown will bring you next, or rather, the chat after drinking," the clown said in an exaggerated tone, "I can't verify the authenticity of this news, but I heard that the group of businessmen said it with a nose and a face. , Let’s take it as true. They said that Garcia Wimbledon’s black sailing fleet appeared in the Kingdom of Eternal Winter and launched an attack on the church. As a result, the siege of Wolfheart City collapsed. They also planned to take advantage of the During the period before winter, bring some scarce goods to sell.”
The queen of clear water actually went to Yongdong? Tasa was a little surprised, but it doesn't matter whether the news is true or not. She chose to go north and leave Graycastle, which means she has given up the right to fight for the throne. "That's all?"
"Well, I know this matter is a bit far from Graycastle," he stuck out his tongue, "Next time I will ask for more useful information."
"Cough cough," Hill coughed twice, "My lord, I have new clues to the task you entrusted to me. Timothy has built a new workshop in the inner city and recruited many masons. They were all shipped there. However, the surrounding area of the workshop is heavily guarded, and my people cannot learn more about the purpose of the saltpeter.”
"Oh?" Thasa cheered up, "Did they really bring the saltpeter into the workshop?"
"Indeed," Hill nodded, "I even watched a carriage carrying goods myself."
This is extremely valuable information. After staying with His Highness Roland for a long time, he naturally knows that the indestructible gunpowder is a kind of alchemy item, and its main ingredient is saltpeter. Ever since the saltpeter in the nitrate factory around the capital was purchased in a big way, he had noticed this, and arranged for Hill Fox to find out the whereabouts and uses of the goods.
Now that the other party has transferred the saltpeter from the Alchemy Association to the workshop, the intention is very obvious - from the alchemy experiment to the workshop production, it means that they have mastered the formula of gunpowder. The priority of this information is even higher than the new soldiers in the Eastern Suburb camp.
"Good job." Thassa applauded.
...
After the close talk, everyone left the mansion in batches.
Before he left, Hill suddenly asked, "My lord, can we really push Timothy down from the throne by what we have done?"
"Of course," the personal guard smiled, "Didn't you see the letter sent by His Highness Roland through the rout? His throne is already in jeopardy."
In the evening, returning to the underground trumpeter tavern, Tasa met an unexpected acquaintance: Sean.
Like himself, he is also the personal guard of His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince.
Walking into the guest room on the second floor, the two exchanged pleasantries for a while before Tasa closed the curtains and asked in a low voice, "How do you know I'm here?"
"His Royal Highness gave me a token and told me to go find Ms. Margery, she knows where you are." Sean took out a crystal clear red gemstone and shook it.
"He has a new task to explain?"
"It's not a task, it's a gift," Xiao En walked to the window with a smile, opened a crack in the curtain, and whistled. Three taupe birds flew into the room, landed on the table and cooed at him. After feeding each bird some grains of wheat, they died down.
It was the first time Tasa saw such a spiritual bird, "This is..."
"A messenger trained by a witch." Sean stroked the gray bird's neck and explained, "Unlike carrier pigeons, they can go back and forth between two places autonomously, without being taken away by humans and then released back home. When the birds say a specific password, they will send the message to His Highness. If all goes well, you only need to wait a day before you can receive His Highness's reply."
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