Rose Palace.
The Duke of Buckingham wiped his sword slowly.
On the shelf beside him, neatly hung the suit of armor that belonged to him.
When William III was still crown prince, he wore this armor to go out with his brother; when William III was crowned king, he wore this armor to meet the challenges of the thirty-six kingdoms; after the fall of William III, he Wearing this armor to guard the young king's territory; in the civil strife of the Rose, he wore this armor to defend the king's throne.
Now, he will once again put on this armor and fight for the king.
This is the King's Defender.
General John hurried in: "Ready."
The Duke of Buckingham shoved his sword, stood up, and reached for the armor on the shelf.
General John couldn't help but say, "Father, let me go."
When the Duke of Buckingham received the battle report from the north, as the king expected, the first thing he did was to prepare for the next war. He not only made a series of preparations before the conscription, but also mobilized the personal soldiers of the royal family and the old men of the period of William III.
The personal soldiers transferred to the southeast by the king were the "Iron Rose" cavalry that expanded after October. The original royal family soldiers are still stationed in the king's territory, waiting to fight for the king at any time.
Before going to the southeast coast, the king not only handed over the Rose Palace to the Duke of Buckingham, but also temporarily handed over the royal family to the Duke of Buckingham.
"Newcana Castle is a big deal."
said the Duke of Buckingham lightly.
Although the conscription order has been issued, it will still take some time to mobilize food and grass and gather troops from all over the world. And the Newcana Castle in the Northland was under siege by the enemy at this time. The Newcana Castle was the anchor of the royal family that Legrand nailed in the Northland, and it could not be breached no matter what.
Newcana Castle is under the control of Legrand, whether it is advancing or defending, it has just had to rely on.
Once the castle falls, the royal family will lose vital barriers and throats.
The insurgents in the North knew this too, and were trying to take Newcana Castle with all their might. Legrand couldn't wait for the time of the conscription, and he couldn't bet on whether Newcana Castle could hold on to the support of the army.
Therefore, the Duke of Buckingham decided to personally lead the royal family and those trustworthy old ministries to break the siege of Newcana.
Today is departure day.
"Where are you standing now?" The Duke of Buckingham took off his helmet and turned to look at his son.
"Rose Palace."
General John wondered why his father suddenly asked this question, but he answered anyway.
"This is the Rose Palace, and this is the heart of the kingdom." The Duke of Buckingham snapped, "At the time, my brother entrusted it to me, now His Majesty entrusted it to me, and now I entrust it to you on behalf of His Majesty. You must always remember it. You must always remember where you are standing, even if you give everything you want it to be safe and sound.”
"Yes, father."
General John suddenly became serious, and he stood up straight.
"Swear to guard the palace to the death."
"When the army is assembled, the conscription order issued by the monarch can only be led by His Majesty himself. When His Majesty and I are not in the Rose Palace, you must do what you say today." The Duke of Buckingham finished speaking and opened his hands. , hugged his son gently.
General John stood frozen.
In his memory, his father had never acted so gently. He grew up listening to his father's glory, and witnessed his father's battles again and again.
"Your Majesty told me."
The Duke of Buckingham released him and tapped him on the shoulder.
"The Battle of Bouven was not your fault."
The old knight who had been with his father on the expedition for many years put on armor for the Duke of Buckingham.
The armor that had been soaked in countless blood was finished on the Duke of Buckingham, and the steel and murderous aura revived on the Duke of Buckingham. He became the majestic, terrifying imperial lion again. He is the "defender" of the king, and all those who challenge the king's power will be trampled into mud by his iron cavalry.
Lions are immortal!
The Duke of Buckingham strode out of the Rose Palace.
The torrent of iron armor gathered in front of the gate of the palace, and the personal soldiers of the Rose Royal Family stood quietly under the light of the sky, and dozens of scarlet king flags were unfolded in the wind, like a surging wave of blood. Foremost among these were some knights with white hair on their temples, but they were more formidable than the young knights.
"Set off!"
The Duke of Buckingham got on his horse.
The armor reflected the dazzling light, the king's flag rolled over, the iron stream turned from stillness, the knights galloped out following the Duke of Buckingham, and the horseshoes carried the flying slush.
This is the cavalry of the Rose family!
…
When the Duke of Buckingham led his personal troops to the North, the cities along the southeast coast of Legrand set up tall trebuchets.
This is the king's order.
The plague ships that crossed the Abyss Strait at the beginning of the new year were the first to meet the Royal Fleet. After receiving a secret letter from Ferry III, the king ordered the blockade of the sea to be strengthened, and the urgently expanded royal ships patrolled the coast more closely than before.
Before the plague ships could approach land, the royal fleet threw boulders and sank them.
But the patrols of the royal fleet are limited compared to the entire long coastline. Still some plague ships approached the land, successfully throwing some corpses into the city.
However, fortunately, there is already an example of the plague of Kossoya in the front, and each city has a typical example of how to deal with the plague.
Once a corpse is thrown into the city, the drawbridges at each city gate are lowered immediately, and the city is immediately locked down. After the plague of Cossoaia, other cities also strengthened the cleaning treatment of the city and imitated Cossoaia to lay sewage, which more or less played a role in containing the epidemic.
But it was the king who really kept people calm.
Not long ago, the king managed to save Kothsoa from the plague. And now, the king is in the southeast. This gave people a precious calm and rationality in the face of the outbreak of the Black Death, and it did not turn into panic.
The Plague Swarm ship did cause a lot of trouble to the southeast of Legrand in early January.
During that time, cities in the southeast were infected with the plague one after another.
During that time, the king's carriage was on the road almost every day. The king spent nearly a third of the day rushing from one city to the next. Thanks to the response measures of the king, the royal fleet, and various cities, the Black Death was finally brought under control along the southeastern coast of Legrand.
The carriage rolled over the snow on the road.
The Chief of Internal Affairs handed over the letter from the Rose Palace to the King just now.
The king pressed his forehead with one hand and picked up the letter with the other.
The letter was written by his cousin, General John.
In the letter, General John informed the King that the Duke of Buckingham would lead his own troops on an expedition and temporarily hand over the Rose Palace to him. At the end of the letter, General John made a request to the king.
- He asked to be the king's "defender".
The king looked at General John's somewhat nervous words at the end of the letter, smiled slightly, put the letter on the low table laid out in the carriage, and picked up a pen to promise General John's request.
"The Low Countries..."
After writing the reply to General John, the king leaned against the wall of the carriage a little tiredly. During this period of time, he frequently opened the gates of hell, which was also a big burden for the king.
The specific battle report of the northern land was also sent to the king.
After seeing the fact that the Newcastle rebels were well equipped, the king already understood what was going on.
The Low Countries and the north of Legrand face each other across the sea. The Low Countries, known for their "sailing boats", of course have the ability to secretly deliver weapons and equipment to support the rebels to the north of Legrand under the cover of merchant ships. This is not something that can be accomplished overnight.
This rebellion in the Northland has been planned for a long time.
It seems that the Holy Court has been preparing for a long time in order to let Legrand fall into the war and have no time to consider the Holy Court's founding of the country.
The carriage stopped.
This is the end of this "plague" trip, the last port city to be infected on a large scale.
When rushing to each infected city, the king has given orders:
He demanded that all coastal cities conduct self-defense in the face of the plague. Every day in each city, people must observe the approaching infected ship from the observation tower. And every city must set up trebuchets. Once ships that are not royal warships approach, they will be sunk directly without any communication.
If such an order was issued before the plague hit Legrand, it would definitely encounter heavy criticism and resistance from "humanity".
Today, however, these coastal cities have had unprecedented close contact with the Black Death, and even if there are "compassionate ones" who want to speak, they will be drowned out by other voices who are more concerned about their own safety.
The city reduces the risk of being infected, and the king solves the city that was caught off guard... Under such a response, the predicted "dead fish" failed to really approach the shores of Legrand, and the plague was brought under control.
When the preparation of food and forage was completed and the knights who obeyed the military service gathered in various places, the king would leave the stabilized southeast and go north to join the war in person.
In the cold wind, the king got out of the carriage.
He raised his head and looked at the flag of the Rose King flying in the fleet.
Why did the Rose family finally choose "Scarlet" as their logo
-Because the flag of a country is always stained with blood.
…
What is war
Blood, Fire, Glory.
These are the things that those who are in power, those who are in conflict have.
But for ordinary people caught up in the war, there are others—the groaning wounded, the corpses lying on their backs, the indiscernible hatred.
The war that started at the end of 1432 spread in the north, like a huge monster, devouring life bit by bit. Legrand's market town in Newcana was drawn into the rebellion.
The outer walls of the town fortress were overthrown, the victorious rebels rode their horses into the town of Legrand who had settled here, the merchants of the market, the civilians... Men, women and children were slaughtered and their wealth was plundered. Then the fire blazed across the crying borough.
Blair is such a borough built by Legrand in the Northland.
Three days earlier, rebels from the North had captured it, and a scene of disaster unfolded in this ordinary town.
"Dean."
Two young priests in black robes carried a stretcher and hurried into the Brear Abbey.
This small monastery was the only one that survived the fighting, and the rebels did not step into the monastery. When the city was broken, many people nearby hid in the monastery, and Abbot Anil of the monastery sheltered them.
At this time, the monastery was full of the groaning of the wounded, and the stretchers had been placed in the courtyard. The priests had been traveling through the ruins these days, collecting the bodies of the deceased, and bringing those alive to the monastery.
Rescue of the sick and wounded, as well as giving to the poor, is a criterion written in the "Rule of St. Benedict".
God loves the world, so he requires his followers to love the world too.
The abbot of Breer Abbey, Father Anil, came out quickly, and together with the priest, he cleaned the wounds of the wounded and read a short passage from the holy book.
After the new wounded was placed, Dean Anil returned to the cross.
There has always been a look of sadness on his face these days.
"Dean."
The young Father Lemmy followed behind him, and he spoke apprehensively.
"What you feared happened."
Dean Anil raised his hand and drew a cross on his chest, and said painfully, "This is a sin."
The accents of Dean Anil and Father Lemmy have the color of the eastern side of the Abyss Strait.
More than two decades ago, Abbot Anil was the youngest theological genius of the Holy See, and he was considered very likely to be the youngest cardinal in the history of the Holy See. However, Father Anil, who had a bright future, spoke out in the Holy See against the Pope and the Sanctuary.
- He demanded "the return of the Holy Court to the cleansing".
Father Anil believes that some of the Holy See's actions over the years have gone against the Holy See's purpose.
He advocated that the clergy should abide by poverty, should meditate quietly, oppose the sale of the priesthood, and oppose the clergy participating in the struggle for power. At the 1411 meeting of the Holy See's Castle in the Bay of the Holy Spirit, Father Annick protested against the interpretation of the Code of Penances by the meeting headed by the Pope.
Soon, the Pope ordered that he be tried at Vinoshen Castle.
In court, Father Annick successfully refuted the Bishops Conference's accusation of "heresy", and his citations to the Holy Books and many Holy See classics are excellent. Even, that outstanding rebuttal, in order to win some supporters.
There was no reason for the Sanctuary to put him at the stake, and in the end he could only be exiled from the power center of the Holy Court to the north of Legrand to serve as a humble abbot. Some of his followers traveled with him across the turbulent Abyss Channel, and they lived like monks in the desolate north of Legrand.
These people, headed by Father Annick, successively established dozens of monasteries in the Northland, and they formed a faction that "should not oppress the poor without authority; Orphans and widowed mothers should be supported, and poor people should be given financial assistance to the best of their ability." As his purpose.
Twenty years are like a day.
Now, what Dean Anil worried about had really happened.
These days, he watched painfully as the battle unfolded from the other side of the Abyss Strait and swept the earth.
Those who hold the power, they push the flow of this history, but—
They want to build the kingdom of God, but where are the merciful, the merciful, the pious
Such as these pious young people in the monastery, their contributions and sacrifices, these loves, will be overwhelmed by war and hatred.
What are they going to do? What will happen to them? How many people will be involved and will be gently crushed into dust
"Holy Lord! This is our sin."
The dean, who already had white hair, knelt down and pressed his forehead to the icy ground.
The young priest watched him kneeling silently in the cross, and at that moment he felt that he had seen an icon.
The power of the gods is not in the stake and the sword, but in love.