When Priscilla, with a pale face, led the imperial knights through the portal to the town of Kagad, they were once again welcomed by the local lord Kagad III.
The family of Kagad III had lived on this plain for generations, so naturally, the entire plain and the town and farms belonged to him.
He welcomed the arrival of the Night Witch, and even more so celebrated her plan to go to the parish to "intercede" for them.
"That's great! If we can get the approval of the diocesan patriarchs, then our territory will also have a good harvest next year!"
Looking at the count in front of him praying devoutly to the cloudless sky, Priscilla didn't know what to say for a moment.
The residents here do not understand the nature of the drought, and do not understand that their trip to the parish is not strictly for the drought, but to deepen the relationship between the royal family and the parish...
But what could she do? She couldn't just tell him the secret right here, right
So Priscilla could only respond twice, then turned around to look at the streets that were somehow caught up in a frenzy and the residents who were holding mass under the leadership of the priests of the Church of Light and said:
"Yes, if everything goes well... But I see that the situation in Kagad Town seems to be a little cheerful. What's going on?"
"Oh, this is because our earldom's annual sacrifice is coming - this year in order to please the God of Light and bring us a good harvest..."
"Sacrifice?"
Although the Earldom of Kagad is a neighboring earldom of the village of Skull, to be honest, Priscilla is not clear about the customs of the Earldom of Kagad.
She was very curious about this, and felt that the residents here would work towards a common goal, and were already considered the better side among the townspeople in the surrounding areas.
In response to the inquiry from the Witch of Night, Count Kagad simply said that his people had recently "spontaneously" gone to the Monster Forest and captured some horned monsters. Now they have cut off their horns and are keeping them in captivity, waiting for the start of the sacrifice to burn them along with wine and tributes to the God of Light to please him.
But before he could finish his words, Priscilla frowned, "Monsters in the Monster Forest... Monsters? Aren't there only wild beasts in there?"
"It's more like a beast. Although it has limbs, it's still a monster overall. And not just monsters. We're also planning to sacrifice some death row prisoners here."
"Death row? What crime did he commit?"
"You provided treatment to a monster without permission. Your entire family will be sacrificed to the God of Light and judged by Him."
"Uh..." Why would someone who secretly provided treatment to a monster be sentenced to death? Why would this bring disaster to an entire family
Priscilla opened her mouth, but finally remained silent.
She wordlessly led the Imperial Knights out of the town of Kagad. Along the way, she could see countless devout believers prostrating themselves at the feet of fanatical priests, receiving their masses and loudly praising the greatness of the God of Light.
"The power of the parish has increased again." The accompanying Knight Robert grinned, because his chest injury had not yet fully recovered.
"Originally, they could mobilize several armies in the diocese alone. Now that faith has spread, I'm afraid the only one that can compete with them is General Dreshuka's military district."
"But the military district... Humph, even your armor is like this, military district, can you still count on us?"
"But at least they are better trained. They know how to throw crossbows and how to line up. They also know that war is not based on faith and recklessness, but on strategy and tactics."
"What about the all-important logistics?"
Priscilla's heavy sigh caused the Imperial Knight Commander to fall silent.
Their team left the town, crossed the suspension bridge of the city gate under the stone wall, and came to the national road located in the suburbs outside the city.
The poorly maintained national highway was overgrown with weeds, and the stone bricks were cracked, so horses had to be careful when walking on the road.
They happened to pass by a group of farmers who came to the town to sell goods, and happened to hear the farmers' complaints:
"The drought in the central region seems to be spreading here... Ouch! I almost fell down... What kind of road did the former regent build? It's not as comfortable as the ridges in my fields."
"Look at what you said, it's not that the road is bad, it's just that everyone has to take care of it."
"Then do you think this is the fault of the former regent? He built the road but didn't manage and maintain it. What was the point of building it?"
"You're right. Alas... the problem was only two years ago. Why did they open a "night school" for no reason? It made my wife and daughter want to learn to read like crazy, instead of staying at home and preparing dowries. What's the point of my wife learning to read? In the end, she still has to exchange so much food for dowries..."
"And the underground pipes are so hard, it must be those things that angered the God of Light and caused the drought..."
"There was also the Red Cross a few years ago. My brother was not sick, but he was diagnosed with a disease when he went there. I told him not to go, but now he is sick again. How can seeing a doctor be as useful as praying to the great God of Light? The holy water given by the pastor is more effective than the medicine from the Red Cross..."
"And that factory made it so hard that no one bought the straw sandals my uncle had made. If his daughter hadn't married him off for a good price, he would have hanged himself..."
"And the heating systems in the capital... Humph! The regent king doesn't build one for our Earldom of Kagad as well. Isn't this just favoritism towards the royal family that supports him?"
"As a result, the project seems to be interrupted now?"
"It's all the Regent's fault..."
"It's all the regent's fault. The late emperor shouldn't have appointed him as regent..."
The chattering group of farmers soon passed by the national road.
The Night Witch turned around and looked at the peasants with a very complicated look. The clothes they wore were still cheap clothes produced in the steam factory a few years ago.
She opened her mouth, but was speechless - and at that moment, Knight Robert sighed and said, at least they still remembered the late emperor.
"The late emperor and the regent are the true emperors of the Roman Empire together." Knight Robert said with emotion, "Although the regent knows countless reforms, his political skills are not as strong as the late king... Although the late king can deal with countless capable people in politics and coordinate the interests of everyone, he does not have the ability to change.
Originally, if the two of them had governed the country together, it would not have fallen into such a state... Why did the late emperor die on the battlefield out of nowhere? Alas..."
The Witch of Night recalled the late emperor who had passed away on the battlefield against the barbarians, and who was also the father of the little queen.
He died on the battlefield, he was indeed a brave and glorious warrior - but why did such a warrior die from an arrow shot from behind while charging on horseback
The Witch of the Night thought of the little queen’s tongue, her mother who also died in an “accident”, and the only male left in the Roman royal family…
She shuddered subconsciously. What would the Roman Empire become to avoid its final demise
She really doesn't know.
…
At the same time, in the cellar of the town of Earl Kagaard.
The "monsters" whose antlers had been cut off were crying quietly, and Joseph, a former Red Cross doctor who had risked his life to save them but ended up bringing disaster to his family, could only hug his wife and daughters and cry loudly.
"I'm sorry, my wife, my children, I'm sorry." Joseph's face was in tears. His wife and daughter in his arms were already tired of crying and could only nestle in his arms and sob quietly.
“I shouldn’t have taken this risk. I should have left this filthy and corrupt country with them… I knew that these human-shaped beasts would never change their barbaric ways, but I never thought that they would be worse than wild beasts!
These children thought they were in trouble and came forward to give them medical treatment, but these beasts actually did that kind of thing... Alas! Alas! "
Joseph was the chief doctor of the Red Cross established by the Regent. Under the guidance of the night school, he used his intelligence to complete the studies of herbal medicine, which seemed crude at the time, in two years. After providing free assistance to the poor in the Red Cross for many years, he became the chief doctor.
He was one of the people who witnessed the expulsion of the Regent, and he was operating on a poor man who was about to die.
As a result, after he, his assistant, his wife and daughter were dragged out and beaten, he happened to see the regent's lonely back walking on the national highway.
Although the Red Cross had been completely abandoned, Joseph still abided by the oath he made before the regent.
He and his wife and daughter took scalpels and herbal bags and went around providing treatment to those in need, even if the patients did not offer him a cup of hot water after surviving, but instead offered piety to the God of Light. He had lived this proud yet poor life for the past year, and at one point he felt indebted to his wife and daughter who could not have a quality life.
The more proficient he became in surgery, the louder the patients who survived his surgery would agree with the God of Light.
The louder the voices praising the God of Light, the more families of patients will come to him to ask for his help.
Over and over again, he didn't take much money, and he didn't even drink a few cups of hot water handed to him by the patients' families - he saved countless souls, but the people he saved thought it was his right.
Friends once came to persuade me that the Roman Empire was no longer the wise country ruled by the regent. They should cross the sea to Isgard, go to the elves, or even go to the kingdom of the Great Khan instead of continuing to waste time here.
But Joseph still kept his oath: he never forgot that he studied to make the Roman Empire stronger, and he never forgot that he practiced medicine to save more people from suffering from illness.
However, what happened in the Earldom of Kagad completely shattered his faith.
Were they people or animals he saved along the way
Looking at the "monsters" with their antlers cut off, Joseph felt his hands trembling: These are living people, why do they have to endure such treatment? Why do they have to endure such treatment? Why
Impulsively, he took up the surgical kit and sneaked into the cellar. He stopped the bleeding and sutured the wounds of the girls who were seriously injured, but he could do nothing about the missing organs on their heads.
With this kind of injury, one can only go to the kingdom of the elves and beg the elves who know how to grow broken limbs to release their magic.
Before Joseph could come to this conclusion, a blow from behind made him stumble and fall to the ground.
When he woke up, he was locked in the cellar. When he woke up, he saw the farmer whose mother and brother he had saved with surgery had grabbed his wife and daughter and broke into the cellar.
"A heretic colluding with the demons!"
With a "Puh" sound, the spit on Joseph's face, and the trembling wife and daughter who were also captured in front of him, made Joseph's faith completely collapse.
Along the way, was he saving people or animals
The chief doctor, who was going to be burned at the stake along with his family and the demons on March 1st, burst into tears.
This man, who had never shed a tear even when his parents were killed by barbarians, was finally broken at this moment.
Just as Joseph was wailing, a pale demon girl came forward, tore off some parts from her rough clothes, and used them to wipe the tears of the three humans in front of her.
She whispered something incomprehensible to humans, but Joseph knew she was trying to comfort him, and he cried again.
"Your Majesty, the Regent—Your Majesty, the Late Emperor! Please forgive my transgression... Please return like lightning and put a burning end to this fallen empire—I beg you... Don't let these inferior humanoid creatures harm others again, I beg you..."
In the cellar of Earl Kagaard's territory, the doctor, whose heart was completely dead, and the demons relied on each other and vented their inner fears and grievances.
And in the Monster Forest, in the village of the Ling tribe.
Yang Hao said: "Chief, let your tribesmen do as I say. Yes, let the children with insufficient magic power make the "hands" in this frame, and let the adults with sufficient magic power make the "limbs" and "torso" in this frame - yes! That's right! That's it... I guessed it right. As long as you set a standard, those of you who can't make golems on your own can also help with the production of golems!"
Looking at the golem that was slowly standing up in front of him, it looked slightly smaller than the patriarch's 8-meter-tall golem, only 5 meters tall.
Yang Hao was extremely excited. This meant that the good days of the Kagad people were coming to an end.
By then, the endless army of golems will break through the defenses of the priests and militia of the Church of Light and directly break into the heart of Kagad Town, catching them off guard.
Just like that, he had a new idea:
These golems, according to the chief, require "precise control" that allows them to even carefully hold a bird's egg between two stone fingers.
This directly results in a member of the Ling tribe being able to control only one golem, and depending on the accuracy of the golem's movements, the magic power consumed will also vary, which in turn affects the efficiency of the golem army.
This is very troublesome. Yang Hao doesn't need these golems to perform the flexible "dancing" movements that Naluga is proud of.
He just needed these golems to smash, hit, push, and charge - just to perform these simple movements.
So after thinking about it, he suddenly had a new idea:
Can we do the opposite and refuse precise control, but instead use an "ant colony" approach, allowing one Ling tribe member to control ten golems to launch an attack
This is not only more efficient, but also saves more manpower for use as a "reserve team"...
But whether it can be feasible depends on whether the Ling people have the ability to do so.
Thinking of this, Yang Hao turned around and looked for Nalujia.
While he was searching for Naluga, he didn't know that Theresa was standing in front of Naluga with a serious face, telling her the preparations needed for the next communication with Yang Hao.
Chapter 20: Why can't golems use weapons? !
"Mother Teresa, what do you mean by—"
"Yes, that's what I mean. Please don't disobey his orders. I won't allow you to do that. If you do, I will take him away from here now, and you can solve the problems of your own people by yourselves."
"If he can save my family, I will do anything. But I can't understand why you take this so seriously."
In response to Nalujia's question, Theresa just shrugged and did not directly answer Nalujia's question.
During this period, Theresa had been paying attention to Yang Hao's condition, who was in a state of frenzy.
She was very worried whether Yang Hao would develop some mental illness because of this - fortunately, he was just planning revenge.
An eye for an eye, blood for blood, this is only natural, so Mother Teresa would not say anything.
But after observing and realizing that even in this situation, Yang Hao would only have physical contact with her and be a little intimate with her, and would not even have physical contact with the Ling people - she suddenly realized something.
This man probably only trusts himself. When talking to other people other than himself, he has to be three or five meters away, so he is probably only willing to trust himself.
Although he said he wanted to help the Ling people, he actually had no intention of trusting them at all.
It's not his fault - Theresa thought, anyone who has experienced what he has done will never trust anyone again.
But because of this, Theresa must keep this tiny hint that may affect his life in the future...
As long as the Ling people behave well, and as long as they do not disobey Yang Hao's orders during this operation, then...
In the future, Yang Hao will be able to restore his trust in people little by little, and live a normal life. He won't have to build a house far away even after settling in the elves' village, and he won't even be willing to say hello to his neighbors.
So after thinking for a few minutes, she just said, "This is a little secret between us," and pushed Naluga, who looked confused, out.
She also had to help release some small divine powers to those Ling people who made golems. She believed that Yang Hao could handle it, so let it be.
…
After finding Nalujia, Yang Hao immediately discussed his ideas with her.
Yang Hao's idea was very simple, which was to let the Ling people give up the "precision control" that was accurate to the slightest touch of each finger, and instead control the golems in a cluster manner to perform simple but effective ordinary actions.