The black iron gate slowly closed, and the alchemists who turned into skeletons continued to sleep in the darkness.
"I thought you would wake them up?" The devil asked curiously, watching the king order the basement of the tower to be tightly sealed, "After all, the Holy Court has already begun to build the kingdom of God."
"No, not yet."
The king answered calmly.
The army that sleeps in the ground is a powerful sword hidden by mortals. It will be a cavalry, a sharp dagger that pierces the Holy Court and pierces the gods. Only when it is secret enough and unexpected enough, can it play an important role at the most appropriate and critical moment.
When to use it, the king already has a rough judgment in his heart.
but not now.
After the devil said goodbye, the king did not leave the tower directly.
He walked up the black stone steps one by one, the windows of the tower opened, and the wind came in, with the low and broad voice of the twilight bell, touching the eardrums. The king ascended to the highest point of the tower, and from the highest point of the castle looked down at the city that belonged to him.
The devil told him something else too.
Among the castles of the Rose family, some of the castles were actually designed by alchemists. Bomari Castle is one of them. After the talented alchemists formed an alliance with the Dragon Slayer, they went up and down their castles for a long time. Less effort.
The castle itself is a huge formation.
The minarets that the king saw are some of the important nodes in this formation. At this time, the king looked down from the highest point and found that the streets of the entire castle followed a strange rule. Large and small streets were paved on the same surface, which was a magnificent picture full of geometric figures.
That's why the devil advised the king that if he could, it would be better not to destroy the castle itself.
However, after the Battle of God's Punishment, the Rose family lost Beaumari Castle in that almost annihilated disintegration, and the rebels who later occupied it apparently did not know this.
They smugly made quite a few modifications to the castle in an attempt to make it more powerful.
In order for Beaumari Castle to exert its due strength, it needs to make a series of repairs and restorations. In this regard, the king has a good candidate - Mr. James, who has become a military madman.
The tail of the twilight bell faded into the mountains, and the king returned to the council chambers of the castle.
General Sheehan has been waiting for a while.
After a full day of cleaning, Legrand has taken full control of Beaumarie Castle.
The big reckoning has begun.
A few days later, two messengers arrived at Beaumari Castle.
The courier came from the Balboa state.
They brought the news the king wanted.
After the fall of Balbo Castle, General Edmund of Angel State faithfully carried out the king's order. The brave Anger army thoroughly cleaned the royal family of Balbo State to ensure that no Barr was left behind. A member of the royal family of Bourbon. That day, blood stained the stone slabs of Balbo Palace.
The royal family of Newcana is treated in the same way as the royal family of Balboa.
The rebels have suffered defeat.
The purge of the royal families of the two states created a bit of controversy for the king - because the members of the Balbo state royal family who died under the sword of Angel's cavalry were young and old.
The king's orders were extraordinarily cold and unforgiving.
"Our critics can write again."
Before giving the order, the king once said this to General Sheen with a smile.
"I hope they can quell the war on their own." General Sheehan replied angrily.
The king shook his head without comment.
What will happen next in the Northland will be an unprecedented reckoning. Balbo and Newcana have lived too long under their respective kingdoms. If a new order is to be rebuilt here, then the king must Guarantee that no royal bloodline of a rebellious state will survive.
The slaughter is only the first step in cleansing.
When people in the north were talking about the killing of the royal families of the two states, the king's officials listed all the things that the two royal families of the Balbo state and the state of Newcana had done to the people of the north in the past few years. Come out, organize it into the "Book of Punishment", and send a large number of personnel to spread it all over the Northland.
In the Book of Retribution, the King's Treasury officials rigorously refuted the rhetoric that had been used by the rebel coalition to incite rebellion:
- It was not Legrand that really caused the impoverishment of Balboa and Newcana, but the greed and greed of the royal family of the state. When the people of the North were suffering from hunger and cold, such as the King of Newcana, Lantoft the Red Bearded, his palace was magnificent, and his personal property was equivalent to the tax of the whole state for three years.
It has to be said that after the king's officials have been tortured several times by the king, their ability to debate has skyrocketed, and they can be called impeccable.
The officials wrapped in black cloaks spoke generously, as if they had become a part of the Northlanders, and scolded the exploitation and oppression of Lantoft and others with tears.
But this part of the accusation is not false.
Take Newcastle for example.
After the king recaptured Beaumari Castle, he immediately organized personnel to review the Newcastle financial archives kept in Beaumari Castle. The poverty and backwardness of the Northland are inseparable from the rule of Newcana.
The economic system of Newcana State under the rule of the Lantoft family is dominated by the ancient manor system. The land area under the manor system is not small. Some large manors have an area of several thousand mu, while small manors are only hundreds of mu or even dozens of mu. Among the estates registered in the White House District Files of the State of Newcana, almost all of the large estates of more than one thousand acres belonged to the Lantoft family and their loyalists.
While fixed rents and rents in kind have been generally implemented in Legrand, Newcana is still implementing the labor rents of the last century. In the state under labor rent, only peasants were nominally public peasants, but in reality they did not have much demarcation line with serfs.
The manor has its own independent judicial courtyard, and even because it is an independent state, it is difficult for people controlled by the manor to directly bypass the state and request the ruling of the Legrand Royal Court.
Harsh climates, ancient institutions... The Northland certainly smells of savagery and poverty.
The king found what he wanted from the heavy dossier:
- He sorted out the system that the Qiangwei family had in place when they ruled the Northland.
Victory in war is only the first step in recovery. After military victory, the king must also awaken the hearts of the people.
It is also an invisible war.
After the "Book of Punishment" spread, the king's officials were ready for the second propaganda offensive.
Bards played an important role in this propaganda offensive.
A bard is received by the king.
During the conferment ceremony before the king confronted Gurrendi, the bard plucked the strings of the harp in the square and sang the old Legrand ballad. The king sent for him from Banz City. No one is more familiar with great legends and ancient epics than bards.
It was an ancient memory passed down in the strings.
"I hope you can sing the former tranquility, peace and beauty of the Northland again." In the hall where the fire was burning, the king said to the bard, "Is there such a song?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." The bard's temples were gray, and he was wearing a pair of leather shoes that were badly worn from walking too much, and his face was wrinkled. But he has bright green eyes. "I'd love to sing those songs..."
As he spoke, he plucked the strings, looking for the tune in his memory.
The melody is melodious, like a snow falling.
"What do you want?" the king asked gently, listening to the melody that reminded people of snow, fire and deer hunting.
"I don't need anything, Your Majesty." The bard looked at the King with his bright green eyes. "In fact, I have a song I wrote myself that I would like you to listen to. If you can, this is for me. The greatest reward!"
"Please."
The bard carefully tuned the strings, his expression became extremely focused, extremely reverent, and he hummed lowly.
"Tell me, tell me, the people of Koya
who took you to the hills
who took you to the long guns
—It was the young queen with black hair
…”
The melody was low, and the bard's voice was slightly hoarse. This is a song he is most familiar with. He sings it from the southern mountains of Legrand to the snow-capped mountains in the north. Wherever he goes, he spreads this song that people don't know. The melody is melodious and yet sad.
He sings of a young queen.
A young queen with black green eyes, she picked up a spear from the blood, and led the people to defeat the intruding enemy, so people made a crown of thorns and wore it on her head.
The young queen met the young monarch at the age of seventeen. They met in the flaming mountains of Kaya, and they fell in love with each other in blood and fire. Finally, the young king passed the seven barriers set up by the Kaya for his queen, just like all the knights who want to pursue their sweethearts in fairy tales. So the Khoya happily handed their queen into the man's hands.
They pulled up a brisk melody for the Queen and sang cheerful songs for the Queen.
Those songs are still passed down from generation to generation in the city-state of Khoya.
In the melody of the harp, the fire swayed, and there seemed to be red mountains all around. Under the maple forest, the young monarch plucked the strings, and the young queen's long dress was blazing.
The bard finished singing, and no longer plucked the strings, but the vague figure still appeared before the king's eyes.
The king looked at their indistinct faces and heard the faint lullaby melody in a trance.
It was as if there were once hands that gently caressed his cheek, as if someone once held him in his baby, sitting by the bright fire, patted his back gently, and coaxed him to sleep in a low voice... So gentle , so warm, he is surrounded by love.
"who is she?"
asked the king in a low voice.
"Queen Eleanor, our everlasting queen."
The bard saluted the king, and he had green eyes, characteristic of the Khoya.
Queen Eleanor.
The name touched a string in the king's heart.
That is…
his mother.
"She..." The king's voice was low, and he stared at the ground. "What kind of person is she?"
"She is the best queen of Keya." The bard looked at the young king and found the shadow of their beloved queen on the king's face, "If you go to Keya, you can see her statue, The best bard in the world came from Coya, and the people of Coya loved her."