PS: I wish you all a happy reading of this 5,000-word chapter!
That night, the knightly army camped on the road to Curona.
It's already December, and the climate is already very cold. Even the knights are freezing. The knights' army did not carry much food and logistics supplies when they set off, because the empire has promised to solve all logistics problems.
question.
In fact, Lane had already received the first part of the logistics supplies from the border line, which were handled by Marienburg and delivered by the Imperial Border Guards. Since Schulz gave a very detailed list of items, the imperial bureaucrats only "transported them"
The "loss" was set at 8%, and the remaining 92% was fully delivered to the chivalry army.
This made Veronica, who was under Ryan's command and was familiar with the Empire's style of work, complain that you, the Knight King, had a great reputation, and the money and food were provided by Marienburg. In addition, it was the Empire's initiative to invite, so those Empire bureaucrats did not dare to go to court.
This money is just out of hand.
And Ryan also knew that this kind of transportation of money and food was indeed costly, and the King of Knights did not say anything more. He simply handed over to the imperial bureaucrats who were transporting it, asked if there was any new information, and then let them leave.
After leaving, Ryan had more thoughts about the emperor's layout level.
Did the Emperor foretell that he would become the Knight King? No one knows this, but there is no doubt that the Emperor was very far-sighted in sending Schultz to this world (a certain Tau commander gave a thumbs up)
decision, Schultz played his part at several critical moments.
His own role, including Lion's first arrival at Marienburg, including the futile outcome of the emperor's several attempts to take back Marienburg, including a series of actions after Lion ascended the throne, and including the sudden move at this critical moment to let the demon of Tzeentch and
The plans of the followers of Tzeentch came to nothing.
The King of Knights has always felt that there is an invisible hand that dominates everything. Behind him, the emperor's cold eyes are observing the chessboard, what to do next, and on the opposite side, the Four Gods of Chaos, the Elf God, the Ancient Saint or others
Something like the Endless Trazyn or a creature like the Star God was on the opposite side, and the cold chess game continued.
For the time being, he only needs to concentrate on dealing with this wave of destruction... The King of Knights convinced himself in this way. He inspected the area near the camp and soon discovered a troll who came out to hunt and a golden monster near the camp.
Ryan wanted to find a chance to take action against some goblins in the special mine, but before they even got close, the old guardsmen who were protecting the king immediately rushed forward and lined up to fight.
Speaking of which, this troll was unlucky enough. Bertrand shot an arrow through the heart, causing even the troll with super recovery ability to kneel down on one knee. Then the musket grenadier killed the troll with a volley.
He knocked it down, and then hit the twitching troll with a Molotov cocktail. The troll struggled for a long time and was finally burned to ashes. The goblins were defeated immediately after a brief battle, and were followed by the knight.
They killed them all.
During the whole process, Ryan didn't find a chance to take action. The King of Knights could only smile indifferently. It's okay, too many powerful enemies died in his hands. Now the opponent's level is not enough, and he also feels that his actions are cheap.
Looking at the charred corpse of the troll, Ryan suddenly remembered the legendary hero of the high elves, Eltharion the Grim. He recalled the final ending of this guy and the green-skinned pot-belly king Gulu.
Lys heard it with his own ears - Eltharion threw the body of the Pot-Belly King Gulu into the magic furnace of Tal-Yris, and burned it for five days and five nights before finally killing the Pot-Belly King Gulu completely.
Burned to ashes.
At this moment, the soldiers made a new discovery.
"General, look, this is the body of a pilgrim." The little Hugo, the company commander of the musketeers of the Old Guard, immediately signaled that there were corpses on the roadside, and he hurriedly shouted to Bertrand.
Bertrand wanted to step over, but the blessings of the Eye of Tarr and the Lord of Nature were in vain. He saw the corpses nearly a hundred meters away at a glance, indicating that he did not need to go over, but said to Ryan
: "He is a pilgrim, Your Majesty."
"Normal, this is the Road to Corona." Ryan immediately understood what happened, and the Knight King sighed softly: "Okay, we can almost go back."
"Yes." Everyone just looked at it for a few times before deciding to return.
In addition to being the border area between the Empire and Britannia, the Way of Curona is also the famous pilgrimage route of the Church of the Goddess of Mercy.
As we all know, the headquarters of the Church of the Goddess of Mercy is in Curona, the capital of Britannia. However, the largest sanatorium and the largest number of patients of the Church of the Goddess of Mercy are basically in Brunswick, the capital of the empire. Every year, the Church of the Goddess of Mercy in the empire encourages
Pilgrims who are sick and disabled make pilgrimages to the Church of the Lady of Mercy in Curona.
The priests of the Goddess of Mercy Church promised that as long as they completed the pilgrimage, they would receive free medical resources and the blessing of divine magic. This caused a large number of pilgrims who suffered from illness or hoped for divine salvation to come to Bu from all over the empire every year.
Brunswick, and then set off from Braunschweig and walked thousands of kilometers to Kurona.
In fact, the priests of the Goddess of Mercy Church will always try to encourage as many believers and patients as possible to leave through speeches and promises. If the number is not enough, in the end the Goddess of Mercy Church will even take the initiative to pay to send people away. Most pilgrims generally
Before leaving Reikland, they have already been reduced to begging for a living. Some pilgrims who look like beggars will be deported by the Brittanian border army, while others will be arrested and imprisoned.
Lack of food and water leads to physical weakness and death from disease.
To make matters worse, this group of pilgrims had to pay a transit tax when crossing the border. Originally, the Brittanian knights felt the need to show their mercy and declared that the pilgrims would be free of charge, but soon unscrupulous traders
and postmen, the smugglers took advantage of this rule to claim that they were pilgrims, which eventually made the knights angry and stipulated that no matter who they were, they must pay the transit tax.
And as everyone can see, the border area between the Empire and Britannia is very desolate and full of greenskins, bandits and even many small groups of monster war gangs, so the pilgrim who can finally reach the headquarters of the Goddess of Mercy in Curona
Only about 3%-10% of these pilgrims arrived in Kuro
Afterwards, the pilgrims will receive free treatment from the headquarters and magical treatment released by the archbishop himself. After the treatment, the pilgrims will be asked to return to Brunswick immediately. In the end, only 1%-3% of people will be able to return to Brunswick.
Promote the generosity of the Church of Our Lady of Mercy and encourage other believers to continue their pilgrimage.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, people with brains will know that the so-called "Kurona Pilgrimage Route" of the Church of the Goddess of Mercy is a bit weird and has some strange meaning?
You taste it, you taste it carefully.
Ryan had long seen why the Church of the Goddess of Mercy was doing this. He also knew that this pilgrimage road was covered with the bones and blood and tears of pilgrims, but the King of Knights still remained silent about it.
The reason is very simple, that is, the Church of the Goddess of Mercy is one of the few churches in the world that accepts and treats patients, the elderly and the homeless free of charge. This is the teaching of the Goddess of Mercy Salia, but there is a
The problem is that the Church of the Goddess of Mercy does not collect tithes, and basically all its income comes from donations from nobles and citizens. The church does its best to help the poor but seriously lacks sufficient power and financial resources. Therefore, they need pilgrimage ceremonies and need to pass this kind of pilgrimage ceremony.
This is a way to "eliminate" the very large number of poor and sick people who rely entirely on relief from the Church of the Goddess of Mercy.
On the way back, the King of Knights was silent. Ryan thought that this also involved the "left-right dispute" that could never be resolved, that is, the issue between the left and the right. This issue is very complicated. Let me briefly talk about it.
On the issue of relief, the leftists showed that they "demand social security and ensure the welfare system", while the rightists showed that "the kingdom does not support lazy people, but emphasizes competition and stimulating subjective initiative."
Of course the poor like the leftist social security and welfare system, but there is a problem here, just like the problem faced by the Church of the Goddess of Mercy, that is, high welfare, high social security = high taxes, so do the poor like high taxes? Obviously not,
In the end, everyone is just enjoying the benefits together, and if they don’t want to work hard, they just rest on their past laurels.
The right advocates that competition is cruel and does not support lazy people, leading to the polarization between rich and poor, which the poor hate deeply. However, the right also has low taxes and high freedom that everyone likes. So do the poor like low welfare or even no security? Obviously they don't like it either. In the end, it is class.
Solidified and completely lost his enterprising spirit.
This problem has troubled mankind for thousands of years. Just like populists and elites, mankind has swayed left and right, going back and forth in cycles. It has always only temporarily alleviated the contradiction and has never found a real solution to this problem. The "unimagined road" has proposed extraordinary
Many times, but none of them have been successful. Countries with high welfare and low taxes will go bankrupt within a few years, but there are quite a few countries with high taxes and low welfare...
Returning to the king's red, blue, and gold-domed tent in the camp, Ryan gently opened the inner tent. Veronica was sitting in the hall of the tent, talking to Aurora and Theresa about the future of the Sorceress Assembly Hall.
The topic of the debate was whether magic theory is more important or practical experience is more important. Seeing Ryan coming back, Veronica said casually: "Lian, why did you come back so fast?"
"I just came back after a casual patrol." Ryan said with a smile. He took a look and noticed that Lawn and Duke Bohemond were sitting in front of the stove stewing cattle whip. When Bohemond saw Ryan coming in, he smiled evilly.
Said: "Your Majesty, try my craftsmanship, you must need this."
"No, thank you." Ryan thought that the stewed bullwhip would be of no use except filling his stomach. The knight looked at Lawn and said, "Are there always so many corpses of pilgrims on this road?"
"How many? I have sent people to clean up several times." Raun said helplessly: "Since Your Majesty signed the contract with Emperor Karl-Franz, the main energy of our border defense army has been spent on cleaning up small-scale green areas.
Pisces and bandits, as well as these pilgrims, sometimes there are so many that we have to work together."
"Very good." Ryan had nothing to say. The Knight King once again emphasized to himself that his current goal was to resist the frenzy of Chaos, and put everything else aside in advance: "Where is Hagen?"
"Duke Hagen will come later. He has summoned the young knights errant from Gisoleaux and is lecturing them." Duke Bohemond said carelessly: "He said these young knights errant are the waves behind the waves.
The Holy Grail and endless glory are waiting in front of them, and the chivalry war is their best stage."
"Ha, if he just speaks like this to the young knights errant and the knights' retinues, there will be no problem." Ryan nodded with a smile. The Knight King thought for a while and walked towards the inner room: "I'm going to see how the dinner is being prepared.
How's it going?"
In the kitchen, Morgiana, the Lake God Witch, and several servants happily hummed music and cooked dinner. The dinner was very simple, including corn, ham and egg soup + fried foie gras + grilled steak + vegetable salad + Tyrell black pepper
Chicken noodles + butter bread, seeing Ryan coming in, Morgiana said softly: "Why are you coming in? Dinner won't be ready for a while, just wait."
"What, why can't women cook but men can't? Angry! Shaking! Cold! When will our knight master really stand up?" Ryan walked to the big pot of corn, ham, egg and egg soup with a smile and gestured.
The servant stepped aside and took matters into his own hands: "I am a master at cooking. When I was young, I often took risks alone. Morgiana, how long has it been since you went on an expedition in person and left the territory of Britannia?"
"I have never left Brittania since I became the Lake God Witch." Morgiana is wearing a maid apron and a white headscarf (given by Orika) on her head, giving her a homely beauty: "
This is my first time leaving Brittany."
"Laun and the others outside are really lucky to be able to eat the food you cooked." Ryan smiled.
The King of Knights has reason to be happy. Due to the logistics guaranteed by the empire, the knightly army can march very quickly. It can take at least a month for the knightly army to arrive at Middenheim, provided there is no battle.
The King of Knights also found a handful of leeks in the corner of the kitchen. Ryan couldn't help but laugh: "Isn't this an 'organic back wave'? Morgiana, where did you get it?"
"What organic back wave?" Morgiana didn't understand: "This was found in Marienburg's logistics supplies, but no one liked to eat it, so it was left there."
"That's it." Ryan grabbed the leek and suddenly wanted to cut it with a sickle, which felt so good.
After a while, dinner was ready, and everyone began to sit down and prepare for the meal. Ryan, Lawn, and Bohemond prayed to the fairy in the lake. Veronica and Theresa were waiting for Ryan to finish praying and move his fork.
Move the fork again.
Only Aurora looked at the steak, soup, salad and Tyrell noodles in front of everyone with black lines on her face, as well as a wet empty plate in front of her, and said dissatisfiedly to Morgiana: "Your Highness Morgiana
, what does this mean?”
"Oh, Ms. Aurora, you are still here, I forgot." Morgiana sat next to Ryan, and the Lake God Witch said coldly: "I thought you wouldn't dine with us tonight, so I didn't.
Prepare your portion."
Veronica laughed so hard that she almost fainted. Theresa wanted to stop her, but Ryan stopped her and said no. Ryan told Theresa to just watch. Out of trust in Ryan, Theresa said nothing more.
"What do you mean I won't have dinner with you tonight?!" Aurora was so angry that she almost stood up. The Holy Witch said angrily: "I came here to have dinner on the order of the king, and I have been sitting here all the time.
,Are you blind?"
Raun and Birhemond also looked at Morgiana strangely. This didn't seem like a mistake made by the Witches of the Lake God. However, the two dukes were unable to speak, so they could only keep their heads down while eating.
Ryan's face was full of black lines, and the King of Knights opened his mouth, and finally he could only say: "It's okay, I'll make another one right away. Ms. Aurora, please wait a moment."
"No, Ms. Aurora, I'm sorry, I'm not prepared. So, Ms. Aurora, you can just deal with it with this." Morgiana waved to the servant and handed over a large piece of cake weighing enough to weigh two kilograms.
No. 1 barley bread and a can of butter: "Now in the wilderness, you just have to get over it a little bit."
Aurora stood up directly, and veins suddenly appeared on the face of the Holy Witch: "It seems, Your Highness Morgiana, we need an honorary duel to solve the problem!"
"What an honor!" Morgiana also stood up, and the Lake God Witch looked fierce.
In the end, the two great wizards of the sanctuary fought outside the tent, and the final outcome was that Aurora was defeated miserably. She was not Morgiana, who mastered both life and sky magic and was the first choice of the Lake Fairy.
The opponent, the Holy Witch, was put into a tent by Morgiana, her limbs were tied, her eyes were blindfolded, her mouth was blocked, and she was "taught" a lesson. No one knew what Morgiana had taught her, but Ryan vaguely knew that Olika was there.
It seems that the army had a private communication with Morgiana before setting off.
Since then, Aurora has kept a low profile and restrained herself a lot in the military.
It took more than ten days for the Chivalry Army to quickly pass through the Kurona Road and pass by Marienburg. Here at Marienburg, they received the second batch of logistical supplies loaded with thousands of carriages.
Afterwards, the army continued eastward, arriving at the southern part of the Westland, gradually approaching the Drakwald Forest in the Middenland.
At the end of December, Lane received the first urgent military message.
"The main force of the approximately 130,000 Chaos army has approached the northern border of the empire! The imperial coalition forces from the three provinces of Nord, Oster, and Ostermark have fought against the Chaos army in the south of Kislev for several times and all suffered defeats!"
"Erengrad still stands!"
"Bekafen, the capital of the province of Ostermark, is facing the attack of Nurgle's army! Elector Hertwig-Wolfram has gathered tens of thousands of troops to prepare for a stubborn resistance!"
"The news shows that hundreds of thousands of new Chaos reinforcements have begun to move south from the Mourning Mountains!"