Sword of Dawn

Page 467

"How could the ambassador not know about his country's declaration of war?" An official from the government affairs department stared at him, with an expression of anger or a smile on his face. "Is this the sense of humor of the Typhon people?"

Hetty looked at a holographic image beside the round table: "General Philip, tell me about the situation on the border."

Philip nodded: "We lost a border defense point near the Paramer Heights. Only [-]% of the defenders successfully evacuated, and the others died heroically. Fortunately, General Maryland has wiped out the enemy who invaded the defense line. The Iron Throne, World Python and three light armored trains are patrolling the railway network, temporarily filling the gap in the defense line, and at the same time searching for any remaining intruders. At present, it is preliminarily determined that the one who invaded the empire's territory is the Iron River Knight of the Typhons regiment, but for some reason this Typhon ace army did not have infantry and battle mage units to coordinate their actions, but just rushed in so straight-this is the main reason why they were quickly wiped out."

"Are there any other actions for the Typhons?"

"No military action with a clear purpose has yet been discovered - but the First Legion is always ready to face war."

face war.

The few words Philip said seemed to carry some invisible force, creating an awe-inspiring atmosphere in the meeting room.

Hetty raised her head and looked around the room.

The holographic projections of the participants or personnel surround the round table, and their eyes all fall on her.

But she could tell that behind every pair of gazes, there was actually a bit of uneasiness hidden——

There is one most important person who is not here at this moment.

Even Hetty couldn't control her emotions. Her heart had been beating faster than usual since just now. At this moment, more than ever, she hoped that her mountain-like ancestor would appear immediately, and use thunder to blow him away. This unprepared crisis was quickly suppressed, resolved, or formulated a perfect response plan, but she also knew that imagination could not solve the problem.

The ancestor hasn't come back yet, but he will be back soon, and before that, he must fulfill his responsibilities.

"Summon the ambassador, contact the other party's capital, and send state inquiries. This is required by international rules. It is a rule jointly formulated by our majesty and the emperor of the Typhon people. Now Cecil has fulfilled his responsibility in this regard—" Heti said in a deep voice, "Whether the Typhon people abide by the rules they promised themselves is their own business, and now we should do ours.

"Philip, let the First Legion complete preparations and advance towards the boundary line of the Fort of the Treaty in the shortest possible time. Regardless of whether the Typhons have any follow-up military operations, we must regain the initiative, and if the Typhons have any hostile actions— As long as you are in the firing zone, attack. You and General Maryland are solely responsible for the specific battle plan.

"Godwin, be prepared to control and guide public opinion, you should have a lot of plans in this regard...

"Anton, you are temporarily in charge..."

Hetty quickly made a rough assignment of work——in the face of this sudden situation, she had no room for everyone to make detailed arrangements at the meeting, and many things had to be decided quickly, and after making all the arrangements, she finally Stand up, put your hands on the table.

"Everyone, this is no longer a 'conflict'. Although there are still many weird things in this matter, we must prepare for the worst-it may develop into an all-out war!"

Chapter 0977

The meeting was over, but Hetty didn't leave the room.

She kept Solderin, and not long after, Kamel was also called into the meeting room by her.

Long before the end of the meeting, Soldering noticed something, and when there was no one else around, he asked bluntly: "Do you think this matter is very strange?"

As Gawain's comrade-in-arms back then, Solderling was actually Hetty's elder here, so even though his position was a little lower, he always talked straightforwardly with Hetty without worrying about it.

"This matter is weird from the beginning to the end," Heti nodded frankly, her eyes swept between Kamel and Solderin, "The actions of the Typhons are illogical. Throwing out a lone force to attack the border defenses is not justified from any tactical point of view-Philip and General Maryland both emphasized this. And this illogical behavior...is not justified by the commander's stupidity or insufficient intelligence. Law explained.

"It's impossible for the Typhons to be stupid. They're not that backward in intelligence. It's impossible for them not to know the existence of armored trains and railway defense networks."

"Are you suspecting... a mutation of the Church of the God of War in Typhon?" As a member of the rebels, Kamel naturally thought of this.

"Although there is no evidence, it is very likely." Hetty nodded, "The abnormal situation of the Church of God of War has been going on for a while, and the Typhon royal family has adopted many methods to suppress its church activities and weaken the gathering of believers, but there is no abnormal situation at all. There is no sign of the end, and we can think that all their measures have failed-although we don't know how the God of War who is on the verge of madness has affected the believers, we can assume that the actions of the Knights of the Iron River are in line with the God of War. Out of control."

Solderling couldn't help frowning: "If that's the case, then we and Typhon..."

"Regardless of whether the Knights of the Iron River were ordered by Rosetta or by their 'lord', in fact they all attacked the Longwind line of defense. The enemy has come, and of course we have to fight back—this matter It won't change," Heti said without hesitation, "The key is that we must figure out as soon as possible whether we are fighting against the Typhons or against that out-of-control god.

"Now Maryland and General Philip are conducting military operations on the border. At the same time, they will also conduct investigations to collect as much information as possible from Typhon's side. However, the main army is best at fighting frontally. They may not be able to quickly find out the truth—the latter It is the strength of the Iron Rangers.

"Solderling, you may need to go to the eastern border—take your rangers and find a way to find out what happened there. The military intelligence officers who infiltrated Typhon will also cooperate with you."

Solderin nodded without any doubts: "Of course, the Iron Rangers are used to deal with this kind of situation—and I understand the situation on Typhon's side quite well, so it's just right for me to go."

"That's right," Heidi recalled something, with a smile on his face, "I almost forgot that you stayed in Typhon for a long time."

At this time, Kamel next to him also broke the silence: "Is my mission to fight against the possible pollution of gods?"

Hetty looked at the ancient magister who was full of arcane brilliance, her face became serious, and she nodded vigorously: "Yes—this is probably another battlefield."

"If Typhon's army is really eroded by the crazy will of the god of war, then the imperial soldiers who fought against them will undoubtedly be exposed to danger," a buzzing voice came from Kamel's body, "although Cecil The belief in the god of war in the territory is not strong, but some soldiers and officers in our army are also affected by it, and the possibility that spiritual pollution will spread along these ordinary believers cannot be ruled out."

Hetty asked with a serious expression: "Will the existing protective measures work?"

"Through the further deciphering of the siren rune and the in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of 'Eva', we have improved the 'mental protection system' on various vehicles and individual soldier protection. Naritil believes that its effect is sufficient Fight against close-range, visual and auditory mental pollution for hours. On the other hand, we have set up a 'human barrier' system in the neural network, by converting the low frequency oscillations in the siren's song into neural background signals , we can uninterruptedly 'broadcast' the information flow with purification effect in the whole network, coupled with the certain resistance provided by Naritil itself, as long as the neural network can cover the front line, even if the soldiers suffer from mild mental pollution, we can It can also be reversed and purified.

"Of course, this is all laboratory data—the whole system has not been tested in actual combat, and I must confess that."

Out of the rigor of a scholar and the responsible attitude of his character, Kamel bluntly stated the possible hidden dangers in these protective measures, and Hetty had obviously considered this long ago.

"It's better than nothing. At least we have a way to deal with it. As for the effectiveness...things that should be tested in actual combat must be faced with actual combat after all," she said, and then asked, "The progress of the psionic choir How? Can the psychic singer trained by Wendy come in handy now?"

"I'm afraid we still need some adjustments," Kamel said with some embarrassment, "Although we have successfully integrated the low-frequency oscillations in the Siren's Song into the nerve thorns, and greatly shortened the training period of the psionic singer with the magic device, However, it still takes a certain amount of time for the human body to adapt to "casting spells outside the body", and even the psychic singers who have passed the adaptation training are very unstable, and the nerve thorns will greatly expand the original magic power perception range of humans, especially the military models... We are working on it Find a way to solve this problem.”

"This kind of technology involves the spiritual and mental fields, it is necessary to be careful," Hetty sighed, "It doesn't matter, everything can't go smoothly, even if we don't have psychic singers, we at least have a mental protection system and a neural network In the 'humanity barrier', we are not without means."

After making some arrangements, Kamel and Soldering also left.

Finally, Hetty was the only one left in the huge conference room.

After standing quietly on the spot for a while to let his overheated mind finally cool down, the butler Cecil finally sat back on the chair a little tiredly, and took a long breath.

……

Under the morning light, the communication tower was operating at full power, and the rune ring floating in the force field was slowly rotating in the cold winter wind, from Winterwolf Castle to the Shadow Swamp, from the northern clearing to Aldernan, one after another The communication tower relayed the urgent battle report from the border to the distant place, and finally arrived at Rosetta Augustus' desk.

Even the talented and bold Emperor Typhon would be stunned by such explosive news.

In the royal study of the Obsidian Palace, Rosetta leaned forward like a falcon, with her hands propped on the tabletop, her eyes fixed on Ferdinand who was standing in the room: "Your Majesty Ferdinand, the situation has exceeded our expectations."

After so many years, Ferdinand once again felt the suffocating pressure: "Your Majesty, I don't understand... why the Iron River Knights..."

"Because God of War is 'God of War', because God of War needs a war," Rosetta said with a particularly gloomy face, "We have always ignored... We only know that there is something wrong with the Church of God of War, but we don't know what their god wants to do What... He needs a war, as long as it is a war, it can be chaos within Typhon, or it can be... a full-scale war outside."

Ferdinand said hurriedly, "Your Majesty, do you think Andersa..."

"She should have withdrawn to the defense line of Winter Wolf Castle at this moment—according to the worst situation, Sir Ferdinand, the worst situation," Rosetta said in a deep voice, "The Cecils should have received the news from the border, and they will summon Our ambassador, and contacted Aldernan, they should have done so... we will draw up the letter now, clarifying the situation, this is a war that should not break out!"

"Will they accept it?" Ferdinand couldn't help but said, "If the Knights of the Iron River have launched an attack, then this is by no means as simple as a border friction. Maybe the troops in the Changfeng Fortress have already begun..."

"Whether they believe it or not, we must have such a reply," Rosetta stared into the eyes of the old duke, "then, order the Empire's third and fourth mobile knights to move to the defense line of Winter Wolf Castle and the defense line of Winter Castle, At the same time cut off all the railways connected to Cecil - pull up those mechanical bridges, and before the situation is clear, they cannot let their mobile fortresses rush in!"

Pei Dinan's heart trembled.

Obviously, although Rosetta is still seeking to resolve misunderstandings through diplomatic dialogue, he is also mentally prepared for all-out war.

The old duke lowered his head: "Yes, Your Majesty!"

In the shortest possible time, a concise, sincere, and well-organized letter was drafted. Seeing the ink-stained handwriting on the paper, Ferdinand couldn't help but sigh softly: "It would be great if this letter could stop the situation... ..."

"Although we are preparing for the worst, I still believe that this letter will play a role-the Cecilians noticed the hidden dangers of the gods earlier than us, and they have also had experience in facing 'divine disasters'. If If they are willing to calm down and think about it, they will definitely notice the anomaly behind the whole incident," Rosetta said slowly, "The most important thing now... is to prevent the situation from deteriorating and the chaos from the God of War belief to continue to ferment.

"Miss Pei Dinan, activate that list—all military officers and powerful nobles who have been in close contact with the God of War Church and whose beliefs are suspected to be higher than their oath of loyalty must leave their key positions immediately. The freezing and transfer of key powers will be carried out according to the plan. After the pope was summoned by the Lord, in the name of the royal family assisting the Holy See to maintain the situation, isolate all priests and keep them away from the army..."

"Your Majesty," Ferdinand was worried, "under such a tense situation, doing so may further weaken the combat capability of Typhon's army and affect the stability of the country—the Cecilians will launch an attack across the board at any time."

"It's more of a threat to keep people in our national system who can get out of control at any time - I don't want to do that, but we have no choice," Rosetta stared into Ferdinand's eyes. The crisis, maybe you and I have faced it, is the biggest crisis that the entire Typhon Empire has ever faced... We are not prepared enough, but in the face of divine disasters, mortals will never be adequately prepared. Do everything we can Come on, Ferdinand."

"...I understand," Ferdinand took a deep breath. At this moment, he seemed to return to decades ago, back to the time when Rosetta Augustus had not ascended the throne, and the Typhon Empire was as it used to be. Ansu is as deep in the quagmire, the era of domestic crisis - suffocating pressure, the future hidden in the chaos and fog, the situation that may slip and fall at any time, the years in memory and the situation in front of them are subtly overlapped, All these made his heart, which was no longer young, thump, "We will overcome the crisis again, Your Majesty."

"Of course it is."

……

Ferdinand hurried to the communication tower of the Obsidian Palace, holding a letter in his hand that was written by Emperor Rosetta to clarify the situation.

He wants to send the contents of this letter to Cecil City through the communication line and the Cecil people's magic net communication-in a sense, this may be the last chance to prevent the situation from slipping into the abyss.

He stepped into the gate, passed the guards who saluted him in the hall on the first floor, and took the lifting platform leading to the upper floor of the communication tower. He came to the sending and receiving center of this facility. Just as he stepped off the platform, he saw a panicked man The mage on duty hurriedly ran towards this side.

"My lord!" Seeing Grand Duke Ferdinand, the mage immediately raised the paper in his hand and shouted, "Emergency message from Cecil City!"

"let me see!"

Pei Dinan took the transcribed document and quickly glanced over it.

Everything was as His Majesty the Emperor expected—the battle on the border between the two countries had angered the Cecils, and now the two countries were standing in the abyss of war.

Both sides are sliding towards the bottom of the abyss.

"Send it to His Majesty's study immediately." He returned the transcript to the mage, and said quickly, at the same time, he was already taking big steps towards the sending and receiving center of the communication tower.

Now that he has received the inquiry from Cecil, he can now send the reply drafted by His Majesty without waiting any longer.

This matter cannot be entrusted to any attendant or mage.

He entered the sending and receiving center. In a not-so-big room, a magic circle was running quietly on one side of the wall. A huge crystal was inlaid on the platform in the center of the room, and the surface of the crystal was radiant.

After ordering the on-duty mage to adjust the forwarding parameters, Pei Dinan came to the platform, took another look at the contents of the handwritten letter, then put his hand on the crystal, and began to inject magic power while concentrating on the corresponding message. Information transcribed into the crystal—

"...Meddling and sabotaging the economy, culture, and even our country's internal affairs has become unbearable for the Typhon people... Several armed provocations on our border...declared war...to defend our..."

The crystal on the platform flickered silently, and the information transcribed into it had already spanned a long distance in an instant, and arrived at the next communication tower, from Alder South to the northern clearing land, from the Shadow Swamp to Winter Wolf Castle, and soon, it It will complete the final forwarding and enter the magic net of the Cecils.

On the flickering crystal, in the blind spot of Ferdinand's sight, the crystal clear surface reflected a blurry figure. Malm Dunit looked at Ferdinand with a smile on his face, with a gentle and loving expression.

Chapter 0978

Typhon declared war.

Maryland stood in the room of the tallest tower in the Changfeng Fortress, her eyes looked towards the direction of the Typhon Empire through the crystal glass window, her face was tense, and she didn't say a word for a long time.

The orders from the imperial capital and Typhon's declaration of war were placed in his hand.

A huge vortex has been formed, and it is meaningless whether it is the gods or Typhon's main combat faction that stirs this vortex. The important thing is that when a huge vortex begins to exert its power, all those in it will People don't seem to have much choice-maybe this matter is really driven by the crazy and out-of-control belief in the god of war, but to Cecil's soldiers, this is no different, enemies who are ordered by the emperor and ordered by the gods They are all enemies, and the enemies are in the direction of Winter Wolf Castle.

Intelligence shows that the defense line of Winter Wolf Castle has been undergoing large-scale military mobilization since last night, and the large-scale main force is gathering. Even the Black Banner Battlemage Corps of Winter Castle is moving to the border, and there are also soldiers from Typhon. The informant showed that several reserve legions may have also received orders from Aldernan. Although this last piece of information was vague, it was enough to prove the Typhon people's war intentions.

Cecil's advantage now is the speed of military operations.

Maryland lowered his head, and on the table in front of him, spread out Changfeng—the tactical map of the Winter Wolf Fort area. A blue flag bearing Cecil's mark is being planted on the map.

……

On the open ground next to the Fort of the Treaty, a mechanized unit consisting of hundreds of various types of tanks, multi-purpose infantry fighting vehicles, and personnel carriers is standing in the cold wind, and Cecil's flag with blue background and gold patterns is flying high in the winter sky Among them, the fortress that was originally garrisoned by the two countries has now completely fallen into the hands of Cecil. The few Typhons in the fortress barely resisted and became prisoners of war-now their flags have been thrown on the ground , and they themselves...probably haven't figured out what happened.

Inside an armored command vehicle, Philip exhaled slightly, his expression gradually becoming solemn.

A staff officer entered the command vehicle, wrapped in the cold air from outside, he walked quickly to Philip and asked in a low voice: "General, the next step..."

"Launch a lightning raid on Winter Wolf Castle before dusk - heavy artillery attack, clustered advance, no need to be stingy with ammunition, our task is to destroy the core of the Typhon's border defense before the main force of the Typhons completes their mobilization and assembly - as for specific actions, Just follow the second set of plans finalized before.”

"Yes, General!"

In the cold wind, the surging power of the magic engines was released one after another. The bearings rotated, the connecting rods operated, and the crawlers crushed the hard and barren ground. The chariots made a low roar and began to move towards the Tifeng defense line. direction to move.

……

Here comes Cecil.

Several magical flames rose from the hilly area in the northwest, and in the next few minutes, flashes of flames and explosions began to rise from that direction. After a short delay, the city wall of Winter Wolf Castle could faintly hear Joyo's roar came from afar, and those low and faint roars made the soldiers a little nervous, and made Andesa's face even more gloomy.

After the young wolf general left the window and returned to the long table with a large tactical map, she looked at a senior officer in the castle: "Our mobile force set up on the small triangle slope has fought the Cecils. .”

The officer was looking away from the tactical map. He looked into Andersa's eyes with a serious expression on his face: "It's not close from the Fort of the Covenant to the Little Triangle Slope, and it takes two hours for the knights marching at high speed to arrive." —the Cecils are moving faster than we thought."

"They mainly use chariots as their means of movement—all kinds of chariots," Andersa looked at her subordinates, "it is not only a vehicle, but also a weapon, and it is also a strong fortress."

"According to the existing intelligence, unless the Cavaliers store up their energy in advance and use the power of the combined shield and heat cone to destroy Cecil's 'steel push tactics' at once, otherwise the conventional troops will be facing those tanks in any case. When fighting, they will fall into a huge disadvantageous situation - on the other hand, the mechanized battle mage troops can fight against those chariots, through flexible tactics and long-range attacks, but it is only a confrontation, and there is no obvious advantage. We need... ..."

At this moment, a rush of footsteps came from outside the door, and the voice of the orderly sounded, interrupting the officer's speech: "General! The Earl of Winterhold and the Black Banner Magicians have arrived! The Earl is now outside."

Andersa raised her head immediately: "Let the Earl of Winterhold come in!"

Accompanied by the sound of steady and powerful footsteps, Earl Palin Winterhold, who was wearing a dark blue starry robe, a gem scepter and a black magic book, stepped into the room. After seeing this familiar elder, Andersa obviously showed a sigh of relief, she stood up and went forward: "Earl of Winterhold—we have been waiting for you."

"I hope I haven't missed anything," the Earl of Winterhold nodded. "I heard that the Cecilians have already started to attack."

"Yes, the attack has already begun, and I'm afraid it won't take long to reach the defense line of Winter Wolf Castle," Andersa said frankly. "Now the mobile troops we set up around the small triangle slope have already contacted them."

Palin Winterhold hummed, and asked again: "Aside from the Black Flag, which troops are in place?"

"The 22th and [-]nd Regiment of the National Knights from the direction of Brown Valley have arrived at Winter Wolf Castle before noon, and then your Black Banner Magician Regiment - the rest of the troops are still on the way, and I am afraid it will be tomorrow at the earliest. time to arrive.”

"Then the Cecilians will definitely try to storm Winter Wolf Castle before this evening, so as to break down this line of defense in advance," Palin Winterhold said immediately, "Winter Wolf Castle is the only gateway to the empire from the northwest, Cecil No one would like to see it turned into a solid stone..."

Several officers in the room couldn't help but whispered a few words, but the whole room quickly fell into silence again.

Storming and destroying a solid fortress with shields and enchanted walls within a day and night is almost unimaginable in the old war order, but the people sitting here are not ignorant countrymen. A person has studied all kinds of information from Cecil, so they are very clear-the Cecil people have not only done this, but also succeeded more than once.

A series of deduction plans quickly flashed through Andersa's mind, and she couldn't help frowning and sighing at the same time: "All this is too unexpected, and our preparations are not sufficient..."

"This is not only beyond our expectations - I believe it is the same for the Cecils," Palin Winterhold said lightly, "This is a war for which no one is prepared, and everyone is on the same side." At the starting line, after the vortex is formed, everyone will fall into it irresistibly, so we can be cautious and serious, but we can not be so pessimistic."