"There are no more timely helpers, and there are still fewer people adding fuel to the fire. For the Ian family at this time, there will never be many people who can stand with you, whether it is the imperial nobles or the church. You should not be confident that you can fight against the nobles and priests of the entire Nanling with the current strength of the New Model Army, right?" Vaccilu shook his head, and was not angry, but just persuaded him further.
"You don't have to worry about this." Seeing that Vaccilu did not take the bait, Yiwen Ian took back his sneer in disappointment.
For the famous Duke of God, Yiwen Ian was not at ease to reach the extent of his alliance with him without doubt. In fact, as Vaccilu said, his strength was just revealed as the tip of the iceberg. When other unknown people were eager to escape as far as possible, only Katerina not only did not hide, but instead took the initiative to post it...
If it wasn't for other things, this guy would really love the party to Nanling Cliff!
"Cough cough..." The idea suddenly went off. Yiwen Ian couldn't help but cough a little in Vacillus' strange gaze, and cleaned up the strange thoughts in his heart. Yiwen Ian held his cheek and changed his seat: "Are you an enemy of the nobles in Quannanling? I don't think the situation seems to be so serious."
"Now, besides the church and the Nanling nobles, who else intends to be unable to get along with the Ian family?"
Yiwen Ian decided to pretend to be stupid first.
Vaccilu's eyes changed slightly: "In fact, before I came to the Duke's Mansion, I went to Wenning District for some things, and then found some people with strange signs--"
"Your Excellency should not be unaware of who are those who have ulterior motives, right? In the eyes of Grand Duke Katerina, those who have ulterior motives and hold special thoughts may not only have jumped to these people on the surface, right?"
Yiwen Ian nodded without comment. Vaccilu's answer was just right. If he took the initiative to tell Yiwen Ian which enemies he had, he really had to think about it carefully, because if he thinks from the perspective of others, no one wants to have a group of pig teammates who can't even see the enemy. And even though he knows that the preface question still has to put his face on his butt, his heart will definitely be punished.
But after a little tempted Katerina's sincerity, Yiwen Ian hesitated a little.
Because the saying "Don't bother you" is really not a polite word. From the beginning, he had no idea of confronting these people head-on, nor did he cultivate his hands with hard work, and he had lost one new model soldiers who died and one less, and he threw them to fight against those bastards.
So the "timely help" that Katerina imagined was purely wishful delivery of charcoal to the kang - the icing on the cake, not more than him, not less than him, as if it were useless, which made Yiwen Ian embarrassed.
However, when he thinks about the other party’s request, it actually doesn’t make him embarrassed. It’s like making a fuss to make a fuss. If you don’t want to be a waste of money, you will give up so that you will be a helpless idiot.
But after making up his mind, Yiwen Ian showed a completely different attitude on his face.
Yiwen Ian bounced his knee carelessly: "Sorry, Lord Watzruk, as you said, the Silver Rose family is full of enemies nowadays, so I can't believe you so easily after considering your alliance request. However, business is not achieved. Nanling is now a commercial land, and it is business. If you really want to have such a desire for Nanling's technology, then please trade it seriously instead of using such a vague 'full support'."
Vaccislu looked a little severe, but he couldn't help but sigh at Katerina's vision.
For old foxes in the empire like Katerina, things like peace vows are just random excuses that can be bypassed if they want to bypass them. For example, this year the Silver Rose family and the Nanling Kingdom broke the ceasefire agreement and started another battle, it was impossible to tell who took the first move. It is even possible that the first move was not the Nanling people, but some forces outside the Nanling with ulterior motives.
Politics is not a joke. Every politician carries the future and destiny of countless people, so they can't help but make every most cautious choice. Only politicians will love to show and act on the election stage like clowns.
Therefore, the distance between politics and ideals is the closest and always the farthest. In the face of a politician and his ideal, there is usually only one scale, and there are many chips on the scale, and these chips are interests.
Interests are the most heavy bargaining chips in politics. Before the benefits of betrayal are greater than those of alliances, there is no need to worry about the possibility of betrayal. Therefore, compared with the pale words written on the articles, the kidnapping of common interests is always the best covenant in the world. For a little fox, who is only 15 years old, but is already old and so sophisticated that he can knock down all the old foxes in the monetary world one after another, only the clearest interests can truly impress him.
After thinking carefully and feeling that there was no other way, Vaccsru finally reached into his arms and took out a small box.
He opened the small box in front of Yiwen Ian, and what he showed was an ice-blue crystal the size of a thumb.
"Is this?" Yiwen Ian frowned, "Memory Crystal?"
Memory crystals are like otherworldly versions of CD disks. According to different levels, they can burn text or drawings with varying capacity, or even videos. However, because the price is extremely expensive, no one will be bored in general to burn any irrelevant AV movies.
Vaccisru, who carefully pinched this small box, made Yiwen's heart stop jumping-
"This is a complete set of drawings of the church's airship technology ten years ago."
"From the ultra-lightweight armor, anti-prophecy system, supercavitation cavity, and even the super-magic magic engine that the Silver Rose family most wanted, they are all included. However, with the power of Grand Duke Katerina, they can only secretly collect old information from ten years ago. It should be more than enough to exchange for the artillery and golem manufacturing technology of Nanling."
Yiwen Ian was really stunned this time. He pinched his temple hard. What did he hear? Airship? Clamma... It turned out to be an Airship...
You're a flying boat, a bastard!
What is an airship?
In his previous life, the iron-armored giant ships unified the sea power for more than a century. In the era without aircraft carriers, the iron-armored giant ships were the absolute maritime overlords and the absolute guarantee of sea power. In the era of global strategic territory, having sea power was equivalent to having the initiative in war, and having sea power was equivalent to being invincible until the sea power was replaced by air power.
So what about the airship?
In an empire with sea boundaries in the east and all its territory is inland, airships are equivalent to iron-armored giant ships, air gunboats and strategic transport aircraft, which integrate air superiority and sea superiority!
Until today's empire, there is no weapon that can directly shoot down airships over thousands of meters above the ground from the ground with one blow. The only record of airship damage in the history of the emperor was also created by the people of Adeshel's tribe in the Twenty Years' War with Nanling.
After shaking violently to the extent visible to the naked eye, Yiwen Ian suppressed his mood and confirmed to Vaccilu again: "What type of airship is this? Frigate? Destroyer? Cruiser? Or... Battleship?"
When Yiwen Ian talked about the battleship, his voice trembled. If he really gave him the design drawings of the battleship, he would have a big golden opportunity period. He would just "ypa!" and flick the table with the emperor, creating an empty mother and going directly to the empire to play "waaagh!" and then he was stunned?!
However, things proved that things could not be as smooth as he thought.
Vaccilu shook his head: "Sorry, I think you are also very clear that our church only has the technology of cruisers, and the various technical indicators of battleship-class are more than doubled than those of cruisers. Except for the Imperial Academy of Sciences, no other place has relevant manufacturing technology."
"Tsk, second-class product..." Yiwen Ian took the opportunity to calm down the surprise on his face and planned to start the price. "It's just a careless one, but it's just a church cruiser ten years ago, which is worse than the current equipment of the Ninth Air Mass Crusader, right? How high can the civilian technology be compared to the technology of the current one? Isn't it a bit short of what Nanling's unique industrial mother machine technology?"
"Apart from the God-given Duke Katerina, who is blessed by the gods and the empire, no one dares to offend the church and the emperor at the same time and sell the technology of the airship to you." However, Vaccilu's answer was very confident, "And at present we are just interested in the possibility of Nanling technology. In the end, it can reflect the value we expect, and we have to buy it back and study it before we can understand."
"...Hmph, I don't understand what you said. It's obvious that Duke Katerina is also very clear. She will offend the church and the emperor as she does. So where is her confidence in still acting like this?" Yiwen Ian had subconsciously wanted to agree, but his words changed again.
Watzru pointed: "To be honest, there is a requirement. In name, we are messengers sent by the church to redeem Sister Kate Cosner in the name of the alliance. Her existence is necessary for the church."
"...Kate..." When Vaccislu said this, Yiwen Ian understood that Katerina's "betrayal" was actually acquiesced by the church, but the woman was indeed smart and fooled the entire church and blatantly acted as a double-faced spy.
However, double-faced spies are double-faced spies after all. Double-faced spies who have no faith but only interests are born fence-bearers, with two sides. If you really believe Vaccislu's alliance request, it is hard to say whether it is a knife to be inserted into two ribs or a knife to be inserted into two ribs at the moment of crisis.
As for Kate... he doesn't even want truth-level powerhouses like Abel, Alans, and Granse. He wants to release this inconspicuous saint candidate lady out by name. The meaning is worth pondering, and this is probably one of Katerina's intentional reminders.
"Is it important value that even the three truth-level priests cannot match..." Yiwen Ian thought silently in his heart, "The only special thing seems to be her identity as the former saint... I always feel that the church in this world is strange, and things like saints do not seem to be meaningless."
If we consider it from a normal perspective, this requirement should be rejected, even if it is necessary to release Abel, a man who seems more difficult on the surface.
But from another perspective, this may also be Katerina's trick to capture. If he refuses to release Kate at this time, and the other party asks to exchange Abel, the only Katerina's true subordinate will be difficult to refuse - after all, after the exchange of interests, they are also considered allies in the sense of name.
Although it is not harmonious on the surface, it is just a matter of being unfamiliar.
After repeated considerations—
Yiwen Ian looked up and looked at Vaccilu and smiled: "Since your church is looking forward to Miss Kate's return so much, I might as well make a favor and release her."
Looking at Vacsru's surprised expression, Yiwen Ian was so proud. Yes, he didn't know what the church was trying to do, but at least from the way they trained priests like soldiers, what they needed were iron-blooded soldiers and highly brainwashed executors.
But now Kate has been trained by him in a subtle way for more than a month and is no longer the good baby who obeys the rules. It is really hard to say how interesting chemical reactions such a former saint substitute were taken back by the church to do confidential plans that cannot be used for outsiders.
Vaccisru looked at Yiwen Ian with a strange look. He had seen those who were dying, but he had never seen those who were dying so intentionally. However, since the other party intended to do so, he probably had other considerations, so he couldn't continue to persuade him. So after nodding at Yiwen Ian, he also planned to end the talks.
However, after further discussion on some details, Yiwen Ian seemed to suddenly remember it and suddenly asked in a casual tone: "Speaking of it, what is Katerina buying back these golem and artillery technology?"
"Such a dangerous technology doesn't seem like something that children need to use for every family."
Vaccilu stood up, slapped his hat, hesitated for a moment, and said lightly in a low tone-
"Who knows, it's not meant to deal with the demons." (To be continued.)