Cyrano is a short, lean, middle-aged soldier, even a head shorter than Thiago; coupled with his conspicuous fleshy big nose; wearing a wide-brimmed hat; he looks like a Sea duck walking on land. But after hearing these words, his face fell:
"Christian died in the battle, and he died in my arms; Roxana also entered the monastery because of this, determined to remain chaste for him... However, she still did not escape the harassment of those people, so I had to kill her One of them also suffered revenge from the regiment commander..."
Cyrano, a minor nobleman in the kingdom and an officer, once stood in the hostile camp with Tiago, a mercenary captain. However, after many life-and-death battles, they failed to kill each other; instead, they became enemies. Yiyou sympathizes with each other and feels that this is God's will, so he shakes hands and makes peace.
Later, by accident, they fought side by side for a while, so they became quite familiar with each other. Therefore, Thiago also knew to some extent that Roxana, Cyrano's cousin, was also the object of his crush, a female writer and poet who was well-known in the capital.
But the twist of fate is that Roxana fell in love with another close comrade of Cyrano, the young and handsome Christian, and asked Cyrano to provide corresponding help. This also started a love triangle between the three people full of accidents, misunderstandings and sadness.
Because Christian, who was favored by beautiful women, was actually a poor man of words; so he turned to his elder brother, Cyrano, for help; he asked Cyrano to write beautiful and moving love letters on his behalf; and he also helped them when their family forced them to marry. The wedding took place in secret.
Therefore, when Thiago saw him for the last time, Cyrano had already made up his mind to quit, and was secretly protecting Christian and silently guarding the happiness of the person he loved. But I didn't expect that when they met again, it was like God was playing tricks on them, and everything had a different ending.
"Therefore, in order to protect Roxana's peace, I can only take on the necessary responsibilities, even if I stand in the mud for this." Cyrano sighed with shame on his face: "So I bring a message, They are willing to pay ten thousand crowns in exchange for you to lead your men out of the city or give way."
"Ten thousand euros?" Thiago couldn't help laughing when he heard this: "They really think highly of me, a lowly mercenary leader! Cyrano, do you know that my lieutenant colonel's daily salary is ten thousand euros? The captain's annuity is two thousand crowns, and will there be a large manor for retirement in the future?"
"There are so many?" Cyrano couldn't help being a little shocked when he heard this: "I didn't expect that the Free Army could actually offer such good treatment. No wonder they look down on the conditions that those Milanese people can offer. Since In this case, my trip will be in vain..."
However, it is difficult for Thiago to imagine that such a man with a face full of decadence and vicissitudes of life; his words were once as sharp as his swordsmanship; his mouth was full of venomous teeth that were good at sarcasm and ridicule, like a storm, enough to stun enemies and opponents. A generation figure.
"No, you didn't come in vain." The next moment, Thiago grabbed him and said word by word with burning eyes: "In other words, you came just in time, please tell me something, what you know What is the situation of the Milanese army outside the city? For example, how many people have come..."
"This..." Cyrano showed an embarrassed and angry expression, shrugged his shoulders and sneered: "It's just that you rejected the proposal I brought. Do you want me to break my promise and oath and abandon Luo?" But is Shana in danger?"
"Cyrano, Cyrano!" However, Thiago sighed with sympathy and helplessness: "Don't you think that Rokosana is not dangerous enough at this moment? Or, in other words, is she in a dangerous situation? Place. Is it really as safe as you think..."
"Thiago, what do you mean?" Cyrano couldn't help but twitching his big nose and asked angrily: "Roxana is a hermit in St. Catherine's Monastery, which is also one of the highest sanctuaries of God in the province. One; not even foreign armies dare to offend easily..."
"Is this really the case? Not necessarily..." The sinister-looking Thiago twitched his face and laughed: "Next, are you willing to follow me into the city and see something you have never heard of...?"
Afterwards, Thiago took Cyrano, who was full of hesitation, to the tightly guarded prison in the city. However, most of the prisons have been emptied with the released prisoners; only a few cells located in the inner dark area are still being used by people.
However, the next moment, when Cyrano saw the "person" behind the cell fence, he was so surprised that he opened his mouth and was speechless. Because they were clearly several living corpses covered with maggots, with most of their skeletons and internal organs exposed after decomposition, and they were constantly moving in one direction.
"This is just the most harmless living corpse. It is also the most common in disasters and battlefields. It is a strange creature born accidentally due to unexpected obsessions at the time of death." Thiago, holding the wind lantern, said softly: "Theoretically , even a farmer can defeat several in a row."
"This is an ordinary ghoul that has a low probability of being born in a tomb; therefore, it is especially disgusting and afraid of light." Then Tiago pointed to the other side, where the pale figure suddenly rushed to the corner under the light and said: "Although it is not difficult to deal with, But there is a chance of contracting the disease after being scratched by its minions."
"Usually, ghouls will only squat in the tombs, or dig up the remains of the cemetery for food; but there are also a few ghouls who, after tasting the flesh and blood of intruders, will cause further mutations, and their minions will become even more powerful. Sharp, the skin is tougher, and even creates a simple consciousness.”
"Look, that's a water monster. It's said to be a strange creature that gathers the resentment of the drowned." Then, Tiago pointed to a group of beings whose hair was as matted as waterweed and was nailed to the wall of the cell. "It will be in the river." It stagnates in stagnant areas and sneaks up on relatively weak women and children."
"I suggest you be mentally prepared." After Tiago introduced a group of aliens who were captured and used as display samples, he came to the last stone-walled cell with only an iron door and emphasized again: " See the hidden side of this world..."
Then, as the air vent on the iron door was opened, a young woman huddled in a corner with disheveled hair dressed as a nun was immediately revealed. However, in the midst of Cyrano's confused expression, Thiago suddenly cut open a rabbit he had brought, and blood immediately poured out.
In the faint smell of blood, the young nun in the shadow of the corner suddenly jumped up, with a twisted posture with all four limbs grounded, and suddenly flew and hit the iron door transom, making a loud clang. At the same time, it also scared Cyrano back several steps.
Because at the moment when the opponent raised his head to bite, Cyrano saw a distorted face with flat features, a bloody mouth with a slit mouth and ears, and several rows of sharp teeth like spikes; he bit directly on the iron door. It broke with a creak. "What kind of devil is this..."
"This is not a devil, but a nun who serves the Notre Dame Church." However, Thiago said with disgust on his face: "It is said that he was tortured and killed by some people in the royal party after a special black mass. That’s why he became like this. Those villains even tied him up and had sex with him... They are the real devils in hell."
"I understand. I will go back and find a way to bring Roxana out." At this moment, Cyrano said decisively without hesitation:
During their brief stay in the city of Ales, Jiang Dao or the Free Army also did several things: first, they searched for people related to the Royalist Party/Legitimate Army, and obtained a total of more than 100,000 Ecu. The property, plus the wealth amassed/plundered by the orthodox army, also amounted to 70,000 to 80,000 yuan.
In addition, there are food and other supplies collected from places along the way, enough for the current Free Army to last for a year; as well as the newly elected mayor Wenders, the most prominent mayor in the Mediterranean, from the hands of wealthy households and businessmen in the city. The amount of military support raised and donated also amounted to 70,000 to 80,000 Ecu.
But for this money income, Jiang Tian only took half of it as military expenses. At the same time, he bought pigs, sheep, wine and hired customs on the spot. After rewarding the soldiers who participated in the war, the remaining money was reclassified into one, Go to the small treasury called the Urban Development Fund.
Then, he summoned the remaining industrial and commercial owners and city guild representatives in the city. Using this money as start-up capital and expected expenses, they were urged to come up with plans to resume operations in the mines and reopen the textile market, announce the purchase of all their inventory, and place large orders as incentives.
Today, the income of the Free Army mainly comes from six provinces, one crown and one border region; taxes from thirty-one counties, eighty-nine cities and their related towns; and in-kind taxes from more than 2,000 farms/villages; With local peace and production restored, it is still growing slowly.
In addition, there are customs duties and commercial taxes at coastal ports headed by Marseille, and trade proceeds to overseas provinces and the Mediterranean coast; the mines, factories, salt ponds, lumberyards and other special operations of the Free Army have established a multi-level sales system in various places. , resulting in more subsequent income.
This does not include the potential future benefits of increased harvests by numerous coastal fishermen and the extraction of struvite from more islands as the Navy cleans up and expels large organisms swimming offshore. Therefore, the Free Army, which is not short of money, has placed a large number of orders in addition to building public facilities.
After all, only by converting the benefits of various wars into sustained and stable productivity bonuses can the long-term prospects be sustained. Otherwise, no matter how much money is stored in the warehouse, it will be dead at best.
Immediately afterwards, the Free Army recruited more than a thousand unemployed miners locally with food and money, thus forming four engineering companies; in the modern war model, the role of miners is huge. Once there, you can dig tunnels and blast with simple training.
You know, during the Taiping Rebellion in another time and space, Nanjing, known as one of the largest and most fortified cities in the south, was captured; it was because members of the Guangdong and Guangxi miners recruited from the Taiping Army dug tunnels under the city wall, and then used a coffin of gunpowder to To be sent to the sky by airplane.
In addition, the series of propaganda carried out by Father Laca in the city of Ales was also quite effective; in a short period of time, more than 2,000 people came to join the Free Army; in addition to ordinary citizens, there were even some bankrupt knights /Sir, or even a family member of a minor noble.
The reason is also very simple. Under the perverse actions of the orthodox army, not to mention ordinary citizens or civilians, even their families are not immune. Therefore, driven by a lot of hatred and the examples of their own experience, they would rather defect to the Free Army to get a chance to take revenge.
Therefore, the Free Army was also selective and accepted some of them. The main reason is not to count on the combat power they provide, but rather that these bankrupt knights/jazzes, and even minor nobles, have varying degrees of potential appeal and influence in the rural areas where they were born.
Therefore, as long as through their family and social network, the news that the orthodox army/royalist party drives and supports many aliens and has sold their souls to the demons of hell is spread; compared to the unilateral propaganda of the Free Army, an external force, it is also Much more effective and credible.
Sometimes the method of war is not to eliminate the enemy physically, but also to occupy the moral high ground and universal humanitarian position through public opinion war; to expose and amplify the criminal history of the other party, and finally to defeat the enemy from the perspective of human moral ethics and basic social attributes. Erase it completely.
Perhaps this method cannot directly confront the armed and violent means in the hands of the opponent; but it can infinitely amplify the hostile forces. Once encountering a downturn or disadvantage, or after flaws/weaknesses are exposed, it will accelerate the outbreak of internal conflicts, or even The speed of falling apart.
On the other hand, it is also a potential role model and demonstration; it is used to show that the targets of the Free Army's consistent attacks are the conservatives/royalists headed by the middle and upper-class nobles, and their closely related accomplices/high-level church leaders; but they treat them with tolerance and absorption, the lower classes of knights and minor aristocrats.
This is also something that can't be helped. As the leader of an emerging force, after having a solid territory and a standing army, it is necessary to unite and support a relatively stable group as the basic foundation for the operation of the regime and the long-term potential vested interest class.
So, as opposed to the royalists behind. Those middle- and upper-class dignitaries/big nobles who control most of the land, wealth and other resource output within the kingdom, and even the promotion channels within the bureaucracy, are still greedy and want to seek more benefits several times;
Before the vast majority of poor civilians and farmers have received sufficient enlightenment and awakening. Only the emerging urban industrial and commercial owners, as well as the knights and small noble groups whose families have declined or gone bankrupt in the ongoing turmoil in the kingdom, can be the objects that the Free Army currently strives for and unites with.
They are generally small nobles with small land holdings and often need to work in the fields themselves; or they have sold their ancestral property and moved to the city to switch to industry and commerce. Although the Free Army liquidated most of the old nobles in its territory, a small number were chartered to remain;
They are members of aristocratic families with special expertise in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, geography, poetry, painting, etc.; the skills they have mastered are taught in designated places, and family members and relatives who are under forced supervision and labor are given slight preferential treatment, and even regular pardons price and conditions.
