At the meeting at the rebel headquarters, the representatives were deadlocked on whether to fight or to withdraw. Some hall masters and captains believed that if they did not withdraw from the siege and collide head-on with the huge state and county troops under the city, disaster would be catastrophic for the rebels. The rest believe that they have already suffered such heavy casualties and are just one step away from liberating the entire Heishan County. If we give up here, wouldn't the countless soldiers and civilians who died in the battle have been sacrificed in vain?
After several hours of debate, the final vote was that most of the representatives agreed to continue to implement the siege strategy and at the same time separate two columns to the south, preparing to block the state army.
After the meeting, as usual, Skar approached Auster to ask for his opinion. Oster was more inclined to the rejected proposal and still felt that storming the town was not a good idea.
Just like the history he knew in his previous life, once the war reaches a stalemate, the higher the price and the higher the sunk cost, the harder it will be to give up. Some sober-minded people try to get out of the war with a truce, but their opinions will be drowned out by the public opinion of revenge. The final result was that all human, financial and material resources were exhausted on the battlefield and suffered the most painful defeat.
But Auster did not speak out because he knew that his views could be completely wrong and harmful.
Now on the ground in Heishan County, there is actually a three-party melee situation. The county government, the state government and the rebels are enemies of each other, and they are all afraid of each other. Although under normal circumstances, scandals such as rebellion by subordinates would be suppressed by the state government and resolved internally. But now, the people's riot has overturned the entire wilderness northeast region, and has even reached Tianting, alarming Stormwind City, and its nature has begun to be different;
The Great Lord of the West, Grian Stroman, faced two choices. One was to work with the county to quickly suppress the people's uprising, claim that the rebellion was false, and then settle accounts with these restless men; the other was to fight with the civilian army. Join forces to completely eliminate the rebels, and then plead guilty to the Storm Royal Family.
Either way, there are huge hidden dangers and uncontrollable risks. Coupled with the blight plague that has been raging for a year, if you are not careful, the political situation in the Western Frontier will be completely rewritten. The biggest variable affecting the choice Stallman makes is the final result of the Black Mountain siege. Whether the rebels can capture this resource-rich town and completely eliminate the remaining forces of the county will determine the outcome of the entire uprising and the fate of hundreds of thousands of people in the northeastern wilderness. At this time, whatever price you pay is worth it.
Oster thought about it, but he didn't know which opinion was correct, and he couldn't even convince himself. Politics is never simple and superficial, but contains extremely complex undercurrents and games. Less than a year ago, he was a social otaku who had never seen much of the world. Now he was suddenly placed in the position of a leader. He knew nothing about these things. He was not even a key official. He took everything for granted;
He thought that he could just be a cheat pendant, killing elite monsters and doing scientific research. He should not have the ability to express opinions in situations where he was not good at it.
Auster thought for a while and said to Skar, "The matter has reached this point. I have no right to dictate everyone's decision. However, there is only one way to break the situation, and that is to find the person who jointly rebelled with the county and the regiment fortress as soon as possible." Definitive evidence.”
Skaar agreed with him. As long as he got this and threatened Stowman to hand it over to Stormwind City, the latter would definitely immediately stand in line, abandon the traitors in Black Mesa and crusade against them. At that time, the threats facing the rebels will be easily resolved, and even their status will change from rebels to true rebels.
But the problem is that the time left for them is now very limited. Even if the big lord secretly works hard to gather the Yuexi Corps with flying ships, it will take at most three to five days. And now, let alone the evidence, we don’t even know the identity of the mastermind behind the scenes.
After repeated thinking, neither of them had a good idea. Skar asked Oster to adjust the flight coordinates of the magic messenger and send a secret letter to Pullman and others, hoping that these warriors lurking in the city could find some clues.
Another half day passed, in the slum inn in Black Mountain Town. The escorts were all gearing up and excited as they listened to the bombardment from the outside world. Pullman planned to carry out operations behind enemy lines, and several comrades had already set off.
They planned to raid armories and granaries everywhere, harass and contain enemy forces, and cooperate with large forces in frontal attacks. Everyone thinks that in a short time, or even as soon as they wake up, Black Mountain Town will be liberated.
At this time, there was a regular knocking sound on the edge of the window. Pullman opened the curtain a crack, looked around, opened the window, and took home a homing pigeon. As the camouflage magic was lifted, the homing pigeon transformed back into a round magic messenger. Pullman took out the letterhead hidden in its huge belly, opened it and used the transcoding crystal to decipher it, and the gang leader's autographed letter emerged.
Pullman, the only one who could read, read the letter to the soldiers. As he read, the smiles on everyone's faces gradually disappeared.
From the letter, they learned that after a full day and night of fierce fighting, the main force's frontal attack suffered a failure. Countless brave soldiers fell in a pool of blood, but they failed to shake the ferocious enemies hiding behind the fortresses and trenches. What's even more critical is that the government reinforcements from Sentinel Ridge in the South have arrived at the border, and the rebels are about to face a desperate situation of being attacked from two sides;
The gang leader urgently needs them to search for some key information and evidence in the city, proving that in the past year, the Montenegro County Government, together with the Crossroads Corps and the Northern Knights, falsely spread the imperial edict, exploited the people, secretly expanded the army, and conspired to treason. Only by finding this can the rebel army's urgent need be solved.
The soldiers all saw the seriousness of the situation, and they were all as restless as ants on a hot pot. Pullman was also very anxious, planning to find the evidence quickly. If he delayed it any longer, the consequences would be disastrous.
But the problem is that they have just arrived and they don't even know what the so-called evidence is, and the escort is not a full-time espionage team. It's easy to destroy enemies and raid warehouses. Let them find things they haven't seen before in the huge town. Where should they start?
The soldiers were all frowning and thinking hard about various plans, but they were all difficult to implement. Just when everyone was at a loss what to do, the bedroom door was pushed open, and a pale Marissa walked out holding on to the wall.
She had already heard the conversation of the soldiers, and said with a weak "hum", "Don't worry, I have found that thing a long time ago. It was because of it that I was beaten like this by that stinky woman."
Seeing Marissa regain consciousness, the soldiers were very surprised and gathered around her. Marissa smiled and greeted everyone one by one, and said with a proud face, "Boys, it's better to live without your hall master. You guys, you guys, can still fight, but let you go get intelligence, a hundred I can’t find it even in years!”
The soldiers burst into laughter, not only laughing at Marissa for still looking like a stinky fart, but also happy that the young hall master had survived this disaster. After laughing, Marissa said seriously;
"Listen, the biggest villain is the knight lord in the north. What's his name? Wei... I can't remember. Anyway, the fake-faced monster is his adopted daughter. They use illusions and machine puppets to control the entire city hall, everything. It was all arranged behind this person's back.
The evidence is in the basement of the church, which has now been blown down. And with such a big movement, the rest must have been moved away. However, I walked through a small part of the room in advance and took photos of various parts of the room with a crystal ball. Before I could send them out, I was discovered trying to save those stupid kids who were caught. Then I had a fight with the fake-face monster, but I didn’t fight..."
Marissa might just feel embarrassed about losing a fight, so her voice became softer and her mouth pursed higher. However, the room was quiet. Everyone held their breath to listen to her story. Some soldiers clenched their fists tightly.
Behind these childish and understated words are extremely dangerous and almost fatal experiences. The thin girl in front of me is shouldering a burden that is not commensurate with her age, and she is using her young life to protect the people and justice. It is really touching!
