"Very good." Madam Zi pursed her lips slightly and showed a satisfied smile, "If everyone agrees with this decision, it will be easy to handle. Each major city has its own city defense force. We will use this as a basis, and then Recruiting a large number of mercenaries from various cities, I believe it should not be difficult to pull out an army of more than 5,000 people each.
Once the army of conquerors poses a threat to their respective cities, we must actively urge the respective cities to provide military support and attack the army of conquerors from behind.
If necessary, send our assassins to assassinate them indiscriminately.
Anyone who violates this agreement will be the enemy of our Dark Night Mask and the enemy of the entire Dragon Coast. "
"We, the Light of Boscu, are willing to abide by this covenant."
"We Astorians wish to abide by this covenant."
"We, the Purple Mask Pirates, are willing to abide by this covenant."
The dark forces present expressed their opinions one after another.
These were just the basic terms of this dark meeting. After most of the dark forces recognized it, the dark masks either coerced, induced or combined to reach dozens of cooperation plans.
Only a small part of these cooperation plans are related to the army of conquerors, and most of them are taken by the Dark Mask to expand its influence.
If it were in the past, many dark forces, especially those independent pirate groups, would have thrown away their sleeves long ago and would not agree to the terms of the Dark Mask, which are obviously full of hegemony.
Now, under the pressure of the powerful dragon of the conqueror army, he had to bow his head.
The battle of Yilip taught them that even in Long Lake and on the sea, it is not absolutely safe, especially those idiots of the Basilisk. Not only were they wiped out, but they also lost three three-masted sailing ships to the conqueror's army, so that They have the ability to attack the sea.
Their warships can escape, but their lairs on various sea islands cannot escape. They have to guard against them.
Dark Mask actually used the strong pressure brought by the conqueror's army to easily push its influence out of the west gate and towards the entire Dragon Bay. It has to be said that they are able to become bigger and stronger, not without reason, often Ability to turn disadvantages into advantages.
Major cities, which had always been fragmented, now have the most basic unity.
These dark forces have an advantage that ordinary forces do not have, that is, they focus on efficiency. They make decisions on the front foot and put them into action on the back foot.
Their actions naturally involve all kinds of interest transactions, intimidation and manipulation. It is not uncommon for some who have a tough attitude and refuse to implement their decisions to be secretly assassinated and replaced by those who obey their orders.
Major cities began to actively prepare their own mercenary armies, and those dark forces began to burrow into the darkness, hiding themselves deeper to prevent themselves from becoming new targets of the conqueror's army.
As for Gavin and the others, they had no time to pay attention to the reactions of other cities, but were busy preparing to attack Ivanso.
All the kobolds in their hands were scattered into the warehouse hills. They turned all the warehouses, secret rooms, and caves upside down, looking for the secret underground passage to Ivanso, and prepared to implement decapitation tactics to kill Arms directly. Fansuo will not attack.
The entire war situation changed dramatically because of a secret meeting - Grace, the emissary of Ivanso, wanted to meet Gavin secretly in her own name.
"Lord, we shouldn't take this risk. If she really wants to surrender, she can just come to our army to meet. Why do you want to make an appointment in the warehouse hills not far from Ivanso? And ask you to attend the meeting alone. ? This is most likely a trap set for you." Veranika objected fiercely.
"My opinion is exactly the opposite. It is precisely because the other party is cautious enough that this surrender is true. After all, the other party works under a quasi-legendary mage. Even if he specializes in the necromancy system, he has to guard against prophecy spells, especially A person like her who holds a high position and has mastered many secrets must be a key target of surveillance, and she will not be able to escape easily. The secret passage that leads directly to Ivanso in her hands is very important to us.
Although the kobolds are extremely talented in detecting and digging tunnels and have advantages that humans do not have, their current task is to find the needle in the haystack.
Without the use of flutter bombs, the speed of large-scale excavation will be greatly reduced and it will definitely take a long time.
What we are short of now is time. The cities on the Dragon Coast have been frightened by us. Currently, they are just gathering mercenaries to resist defense. Maybe at some point, they will really unite and launch a full-scale attack on us. "Kellysha's opinion this time is completely opposite to Veranika's.
"The risk is still too great. We have an absolute strength advantage. There is no need to take such risks and find secret passages just to find shortcuts to victory. Even if there are no shortcuts and adopt normal siege tactics, our winning rate will be extremely high." Wei Wei Ravnica still disagrees with this plan of sending her coach into danger easily, especially when she just learned that her opponent is probably an insidious devil, and all kinds of conspiracies and tricks are what the opponent is best at.
"Once we choose to attack by force, no matter whether we win or lose, our casualties will increase significantly." Carissa has a gambling spirit in her heart. "For this, taking a little risk is nothing, and I believe in the strength of the lord, Even if Arms and his Intelligent Bone Dragon take action in person, he should be able to support us until we come to support him."
She has fought side by side with Gavin many times and has a deeper understanding of his strength. Even if she is facing a legendary spellcaster, with his versatile ability, it is not a problem to last three or two rounds.
If you focus on escaping, I believe it will be difficult even for a legendary caster to stop you.
"I still feel that the risks and rewards of this matter are not proportional to the risks. It is not worth taking the risk." How could Veranika not know what Carissa said, but she prefers to control everything in her own hands, and Not for this kind of uncontrollable gamble.
"What's the Lord's opinion?" Carissa did not continue to argue with Veranika, but turned her attention to Gavin. The final decision-making power on this matter rested in his hands.
"You are only considering the danger of this matter, but have not considered why Grace would do this? What is the possibility of her surrender? When we met with us before, she was a staunch supporter of Ivanso. Over the years, she She has contributed a lot to the development of Ivanso. According to Sarold’s identification, the Basilisk Human Slave Trading Group directly interacted with her.” Gavin did not directly answer Carissa’s question, but raised a question. A series of questions.
"There is no loyalty at all between these evil disciples, even if they have a master-disciple relationship. Grace is the person who has dealt with us the most in Ivanso City and knows our strength best. It is very likely that after comparing our strength in her mind, I think it is impossible to defend Ivanso, so I surrendered to us to save my life." Carissa replied without thinking.
Veranika also had a different view on this matter, "Your explanation doesn't make sense. If she just wanted to save her life, she could have used the teleportation spell to escape, and there was no need to intervene in this war. In this situation, secretly By contacting us, she will take an unprecedented risk. Once discovered by Arms, she will face an extremely tragic fate. I really can't think of a reason for her to take such a risk. The greater possibility is that this It’s basically a trap.”
"Even if it's a trap, it still has value." Gavin said with a smile.
"Can traps also be used?" Both Veranika and Carissa were slightly stunned, obviously not understanding what Gavin meant.
Gavin did not explain directly, but asked in a persuasive way: "What is the purpose of finding the secret passage leading to Ivanso?"
"Of course it is to carry out the beheading plan and kill the opponent's necromancer..." Veranika paused and suddenly realized, "If the opponent really uses this as bait to try to kill the Lord, we can completely use it and set up counterattacks. Killing traps. After all, if they set a trap, they will definitely not use ordinary undead soldiers, but elite undead. It is even possible that the necromancer Arms and the intelligent bone dragon will take action personally. As long as they are killed, Ivanso The city will collapse without attack."
Gavin nodded and said: "As long as we arrange it properly, this matter is not more difficult than going deep into Ivanso City to kill the necromancer. We can launch a large-scale feint attack in Ivansuo City and kill all their ordinary undead soldiers." They are all stuck, so we can only use our elite to fight against us."
"If this is the case, this plan does have certain feasibility." Veranika no longer insisted on her opinion, "But when the Lord goes to see Grace, he cannot go to the meeting alone. I will accompany you. There is a mutual understanding between the two. Take care of."
"No." Gavin shook his head and refused, "Although the possibility is very low, we still have to be careful that Grace really wants to surrender and wants to deliver important news to us. Maybe the other party is sure that I can mess up destiny. No Only those whose characteristics are detected by prophecy spells dare to have secret contact with us."
"But..." Veranika still wanted to argue.
Gavin waved his hand and said: "There is nothing wrong with it. This is the risk we must take if we want to win and use our tactics. All you need to do is to arrange our ambush as well as possible to ensure that if it is a trap, Not only can it ensure my safety, but it can also wipe out all the enemy’s elite ambush troops and reduce the pressure on subsequent plans.”
Now that the coach has made a plan, the only thing Veranika can do is to implement it, "Okay, I will prepare the corresponding tactical plan."
"Chief of Staff, there is a team of paladin outside the army asking to see the lord. They say they are friends of the lord and come to support us." A female mage staff officer reported loudly outside the camp.
"Paladin team? Come on, you two come with me!" Gavin couldn't help but smile from the bottom of his heart. He had already guessed who was coming.
He walked non-stop towards the outside of the conqueror's army. Standing at the gate of the chariot, he saw two flags fluttering in the wind from a distance. On one side, there was a balance scale pattern on a war hammer. This was the symbol of Tyr, the god of justice. The other holy symbol is a flaming silver sword embroidered on a blood-red field, symbolizing Tempus, the god of war.
The paladins under Tire's banner were all wearing gleaming silver paladin plate armor and riding brown war horses. Their number exceeded a hundred.
The warriors under the battle flag of Tempus are also all wearing plate armor, but these armors are all scarred, and some places even have blood stains that have not been washed away. This is a symbol of having experienced hundreds of battles. They all ride white. Mares, numbering only a dozen.
A devout believer in the God of War, if they have a choice, they will choose a white mare as their mount, because when their god appears on the battlefield, if he rides the white mare Veros, it symbolizes the army. Victory is certain, and riding the black stallion Dairos foretells defeat.
So don't be surprised when a devotee of the god of war would rather charge his enemies on foot than ride a black stallion.
But most of the time, when the God of War appears on the battlefield, he usually steps on a white mare with his right foot and a black stallion with his left foot. This effectively avoids the situation where the flying dragon can lose even if he rides on the face. He can only fight in the war. When the final result appears, it will appear alone in the image of a certain war horse. Over time, the different connotations represented by the two war horses have emerged. Naturally, Tempus does not bother to distinguish this misunderstanding with anyone, including his believers. .
Gavin was not surprised at all when he saw the paladin of Tire, and at the front of the team, he saw several familiar faces - Darnell, August, Selul, David and Di gram.
It is somewhat surprising that the dedicated sacrificial team of the God of War appears here. Although Tempus is revered as the God of War, on the battlefield, he chooses not to help each other most of the time, because war is not one-sided. But it's two-sided, both sides participating in the war are honoring him.
Or bet on both sides and he will be invincible.
When he can only choose one side to place a bet, he never uses justice, kindness, or evil as a reference for betting, but whoever wins he helps. Therefore, in this world, justice does not always defeat evil. Sometimes, justice does not always defeat evil. Evil will also override justice. The most important thing to see is who is stronger.
It is not difficult to explain why the sentiments of the soldiers and civilians of the Conqueror's Army were so high, because based on this interpretation of the God of War's teachings, they believed that the God of War had given them full affirmation of their war with Ivanso Must win.
But Gavin knew that there was a deeper reason for this. Don’t forget, he still had half of the electorate of the Yin Red Knight, the goddess of strategy, and the entire army of conquerors came from Dalauma. Ms. Strategy is now the largest A place of faith, to put it bluntly, they have the obvious label of the Goddess of Strategy.
The entire migration can be regarded as an unprecedented and huge military strategic layout. Once successful, it will be of unprecedented help to stabilize Ms. Strategy's priesthood and divinity. It can even help her to lift the Kingdom of God, break away from the ranks of demigods, and become a demigod. A true god, this is the deep reason why Zalanda and Veranika spare no effort to help Gavin.
Tempus, the god of war, is said to have a son and a daughter. The son of Tempus is Uthgar. His belief is relatively primitive and is not widely spread among intelligent beings. They are usually barbarians or wild people. Intelligent beings worship him, and his faith is concentrated among the Uthgard barbarians of the North. It is said that all Uthgard barbarians are his people, and these tribes are named after a portion of his power.
The woman known as the daughter of Tempus is the strategist Lady Red Knight. As for her deeds, no further introduction is needed.
Regarding this son and daughter, Tempus's attitude can be said to be completely opposite, which fully reflects what it means to favor girls over boys.
While he was absorbing believers among the Uthgar barbarians, he acquiesced and even encouraged his own believers to convert to the Red Knight, and strictly prohibited his high-ranking priests from launching a heretical crusade against the Red Knight Church.
According to legend, Tempus, who has never spoken in the continent of Faerûn, now mainly spends his daily life eating, drinking and hunting with his daughter Red Knight, teaching by words and deeds. As for Uthgar, he is completely free-range - when he is not causing trouble, he is Not caring at all.
But if Uthgar is really in trouble, this god of war who likes to protect his shortcomings has always helped his relatives but not others. Only he is qualified to educate this stupid son.
Recently, Tempus has even issued an oracle, allowing all Temples of Tempus in Faerûn to add shrines to the Red Knight. This is something that Uthgar, the ancestor god of Uthgar barbarians, has not enjoyed for thousands of years since he became a god. treatment.
From this series of actions, it is not difficult to see how much Tempus attaches importance to his daughter, who has just been promoted to a demigod.
This is just the idea of Tempus measured by ordinary people with worldly eyes. Those who have a deep understanding of the gods and their existence know that this is just an appearance.
What it really represents is a change in Tempus's concept of war. He is gradually abandoning the barbaric and irrational way of war (the priesthood of Uthgar is a prominent representative in this regard), and advocates the kind of war that has enough power. Strategy, strategic layout of war (this is the aspect represented by the strategic lady).
As for why he did not directly change himself, but promoted a new god, there are naturally many reasons.
First, the original image and clerical division of Shen Zhuan have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. It is not easy to change this.
Second, this is also the cunningness of the God of War. This is a typical two-handed preparation.
If successful, the other party is his own god and must be loyal to him. The priesthood to which she belongs will naturally be included in his own priesthood.
If it fails, it is a matter that belongs to God and has nothing to do with itself. Instead, because of the subordinate relationship, it can directly intervene in the relevant war and swallow up everything that belongs to God into its own sphere of influence.
This method is not only used by Tempus, but also by many powerful gods.
The attitude of the gods is also that of their devout believers. All Tempus believers naturally take more care of Ms. Strategy's believers, and appearing here seems to be a matter of course.
(End of chapter)
