The nun took Yang Hao's arm, then made a face at the elf's back: But do you want me to let my guard down and give up my man
No way!
Chapter 7: Finn's Council and the Desire for a Regent
In the meeting room of the green courtyard in the Sky Garden Fingal.
Finn is holding an important meeting with respected old elves regarding the future direction of change in the Elf Kingdom.
"I think we have to face up to this major issue."
At the meeting, Finn looked around at the old elves around her seriously - these elves had lived for hundreds of years, were much older than her, and were more stubborn than her. Because of this, their determination to protect the elven kingdom would be stronger than anyone imagined.
These old elves are masters in their respective fields, possessing powerful abilities that are far beyond the reach of humans and even elves - but because of this, these old elves can easily ignore the threat posed by the new humans.
Now the new humans of the Roman Empire... or barbarians, are a major threat that the elves are about to face.
Finn knew that the old elves would certainly scoff at this, thinking that the weak human barbarians would never risk invading the Elf Forest, but that was the fact.
The parish has begun training militias, gathering more than half of the formally trained fanatical soldiers to prepare for an invasion to the south of the Elf Forest.
The individual strength of most militiamen and soldiers is indeed too weak to be considered effective, but those powerful priests and bishops are a real threat to the elves.
Not to mention, the number of soldiers assembled in the parish was simply too large.
While the Elf Kingdom had less than 2,000 regular troops, the parish mobilized more than 200,000 troops at one time - the difference in numbers was simply too great.
On average, each elven warrior needs to deal with 100 human soldiers.
Although the elves have the ability to fight to the death in the Elf Forest and the Parish, or even gain the upper hand, if humans go crazy and plan to burn down the entire forest, it will be an irreparable loss to the elves.
After all, Finn knew very well that the humans of the Roman Empire were this kind of race—
If they want something, they will plunder it. If they cannot plunder it, they would rather destroy it directly. They are simply the best among barbarians.
That is why their threat is so significant.
Thinking of this, Finn's face became even more serious. "The parish has assembled an army of about 200,000 soldiers to invade our borders and forests. Although most of these 200,000 soldiers are militiamen who will collapse at the first blow, I think everyone should be clear about what the parish soldiers have done.
They once invited the simple natives of the Monster Forest into human cities in the name of "invitation", and then killed them when they were off guard.
They will destroy everything in their path, gnawing at everything valuable or worthless.
They will trample our lawns, cut down our woods, harm our people, and perhaps even gain a foothold in our homes.
This is an unacceptable humiliation for us... However, the Elven Kingdom does not have the strength to stop the invasion of the parish with the least possible loss - I think the masters of tanners and bowmakers should be most aware of this."
Finn stated in an operatic and serious voice. The two masters she named nodded solemnly, then stood up together and answered Finn's question in the same singing-like manner:
"Yes, just as the great Finn said, our current equipment cannot cope with the subsequent losses."
The first person to speak was the bow maker. The longbows commonly used by the elves were made by craftsmen like them. Because of this, the bow maker knew very well that although the longbows of the Elven Kingdom were perfect, they were extremely complicated to make:
"It takes a hundred years to make a longbow, but the parish's army will launch an invasion within a year. We have about 6,000 replacement longbows stored in our warehouse, but considering the intensity of the upcoming war... these weapons are far from enough."
"What's more, this time the Bayerzas Empire is not fighting alongside us."
The old tanner who spoke sighed helplessly. He was a veteran who had participated in the last great war of demonic disaster. He had extremely rich combat experience and could naturally see the flaws in the elves' perfect longbow tactics at a glance.
"Our elves' 'longbow tactics' are the perfect product of years of cooperation with the 'shield wall' and 'javelin' of the Byrdians Empire. But now that the Byrdians Empire has sunk into the ground, we will no longer have warriors as tough as the Byrdians to hold the front line, and we will no longer have Byrdians cavalry to protect our flanks.
In this situation, if we engage the parish army head-on, we will inevitably be forced to face the choice of retreat or hand-to-hand combat after firing ten rounds of volleys.
Retreating means that our front line will continue to retreat until it reaches the edge of the Elven Forest, giving them the opportunity to trample our land and burn our forests.
Hand-to-hand combat... I'm not trying to belittle you. We elves are all sword masters, and we're all good at close combat.
But there is an old saying among humans that a master can be defeated by a random punch. When surrounded by nearly a hundred people, even the veterans who participated in the Demonic Disaster War did not have the confidence to break through the siege, let alone the "new generation" who now account for more than half of the army? "
The military structure of the Elf Kingdom is generally divided into two types.
One type is the veterans who participated in the Demonic War a thousand years ago. They are called "Old Times" and "Old Trees" in the organization of the Elf Army. They are veritable veterans and trustworthy officers.
The other type is the new recruits collectively referred to as the "new generation" or "seedlings" -
These elves are newborns born after the Demonic War. They have never experienced war. Although they have sufficient training, compared with veterans, new recruits who have never seen blood are always impulsive and eager to establish merits. Compared with veterans, they are more easily lured into traps by merits.
The former are few in number but elite, while the latter are larger in number but more impulsive - of course, there is no doubt that they are both formidable opponents for ordinary human soldiers.
But, it is just a "strong enemy".
Once engaged in hand-to-hand combat, even the best elves may become physically fatigued due to prolonged fighting, causing the blades in their hands to wear out or even crack.
As time goes on, fatigue will affect your nerves, leading to mistakes and injuries.
Injuries will further affect the elves' combat efficiency, and may even cause an elf to die on the battlefield.
Even if they are not injured, the elves' blades will be stained with blood due to long-term chopping of melons and vegetables, and may eventually bounce or even break, which can also lead to the death of an elf on the battlefield.
Not to mention, the parish’s army also has priests who are particularly troublesome to the elves—
Surrounded by a large number of believers, these priests were as disgusting as the tower firing points on the city wall.
They will continuously release divine magic to heal their believers, continuously release divine magic to interfere with the elves' combat, and even directly use divine magic to kill every elf they see with the naked eye.
Although the magic of a single priest is as insignificant as that of an ant, the priests among 200,000 fanatical believers... in a sense, they may even be more difficult to deal with than dragons.
Under all kinds of unfavorable conditions, the elf soldiers will die one after another in hand-to-hand combat.
This was unacceptable to the sparsely populated elves.
The elves have become accustomed to the good old days thousands of years ago when their human allies created a safe environment for them to fight. Now that they are asked to fight in such a dangerous environment, few elves can adapt.
But that's why Finn said they needed to face the facts.
In an instant, all the old elves put their mentality in the right place.
Although there are still a few hot-tempered ones who disdain the power of the parish, at least on this occasion, they will keep a calm mind and discuss the way out for the elves with everyone.
Everyone was discussing what to do.
Some people advocate that "it is better to save the people and lose the land than to save the land and lose the people", but when asked "where will we survive after leaving the resources of the Elf Forest", they can only choose to remain silent: after all, the elves' current resource output is all in the Elf Forest. This piece of land cannot be abandoned in any case.
Some people also advocated "attacking first". As long as the enemy commander was killed, the invasion of the diocese would be self-defeating. However, within two minutes, the archery master's wry smile caused this plan to fail:
When priests of the Church of Light are around believers, they possess great power proportional to the number of believers, and the commander of this invasion of the Forest of Elves is a bishop.
It's hard enough for a priest to be surrounded by thousands of believers, but a bishop personally leads 200,000 believers...
Expecting to kill the enemy commander surrounded by 200,000 people? It would be more realistic to expect the elves to slaughter all 200,000 people.
"After all, although I can accurately hit a human head with a bow and arrow from five kilometers away, altitude, suitable weather, open space, and most importantly, "magic power" are necessary conditions for achieving such an assassination.
But when I draw my bow and shoot the arrow, the gathering of magic power will inevitably attract the attention of the bishop.
He will use his divine power to resist my magic, and may even use the divine power to have a race with me to decide who lives and who dies.
It's not that I'm afraid, but it's a fact: I will definitely lose this duel, and the best outcome is to escape back to the safe base with my body.
After all, it is true that my jewel arrows can penetrate more than a dozen layers of sacred barriers, but surrounded by 200,000 believers, he may have nearly a hundred layers of sacred barriers on his body!
It is destined to be impossible for me to kill him. It would be more practical for me to name their priests one by one than to assassinate him. "
Although the elves appear to be arrogant in most cases, they are not conceited. They are very aware of the gap in objective facts and will not be complacent because of their own strength.
Because of this, now that the archery master who has the most say in assassination has spoken, all the elves have acknowledged a fact.
That means the Elf Kingdom must reform.
But how to do it specifically? What goals should be set? Who will take the lead is a question that must be clarified.
The elves chattered and finally all turned their eyes to Fen.
Finn was prepared for this.
She smiled and sang softly, "Now, His Majesty the former Regent of the Roman Empire has entered Fingel. If nothing unexpected happens, I will invite him to the Green Courtyard to discuss "what's next" after he stays for a few days to prepare.
He is a capable man, and his contributions to the Roman Empire are obvious to all.
Not to mention, Mr. Arthur, the diplomat he sent earlier and now a citizen of the Elven Kingdom, is also a capable person. Therefore, I am willing to make him the regent of Caparia to guide our reforms. "
Japaria—that is the name of the Elven Kingdom.
But in the past, only the brother country of Bayerjans knew this country's name.
So when Finn brought up this title, the old elves immediately understood something—
Since Finn is willing to accept the former regent as a former brother and hopes that he can take on the important task, then let's do so.
Just like there are always a few opponents in human society from time to time, there are also opponents among the elves.
But it is clear that they are objecting to other places.
"Great Finn, you just expect them to join us without paying them anything?" What they objected to was that Finn seemed to be planning to entrust the important task to them without giving them any benefits.
"He's not an elf, Finn! He's a human! Elves are willing to sacrifice unconditionally for their country and hometown, but he is not an elf."
"I will discuss the remuneration with him. If necessary, he can even co-govern with me."
"I don't think so. Finn, he already has someone by his side." An old elf shrugged, "It's the Purple Princess."
In response, Fen just smiled and said that she would give a remuneration that would satisfy the other party, but now, has everyone confirmed this big thing
The old elves looked at each other and voted in unison: "Yes. As long as there is a capable person, whether he is an elf or not, we are willing to let him lead us in reform."
"In that case, then let it be."
Finn smiled and nodded, dismissing the meeting.
Watching everyone leave in an orderly manner.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
After realizing that the elves had far more cohesion than the Roman Empire, even though she was noble, she couldn't help but feel happy in her heart, but with it came a heavy responsibility.
Because people trust her, she must do her best.
Surviving the immediate threat to the diocese was only the beginning.
More importantly, they still have to survive the next demonic disaster...
"In that case... we must negotiate with the purple princess."
Elf Fin muttered to himself in the empty conference room.
The Elven Kingdom also protects their territory for the Bayerzans Empire in accordance with past promises.
Not only that, there are also a large number of "half-elves" in the Elf Kingdom who are the result of the combination of the Bayerzans Empire and the elves.
In any case, the elves need the regent. The elves will deliver everything they have protected to the Purple Princess as promised, but if the Purple Princess is willing to hand over the regent to the elves with further assistance, that would be even better.
But is it really that simple
Just as Finn was thinking about something.
In St. Petersburg, Bishop Stephen was spending a happy holiday with a handsome boy, and said to his attendant:
"The elves won't trust outsiders - come on, before we invade the Elven Forest, send scouts to spread the stigma of the former regent in the Elven Forest! This way, the former regent will be caught in a dilemma, and in the end he can only die in the Monster Forest without causing us any trouble!"
"What are you standing there for? Go!"
Bishop Stephen was very proud.
Looking at the roster of his 300,000 troops, he grinned with his mouth full of gold teeth and thrust forward with force, causing the handsome boy under his crotch to roll his eyes and also giving himself supreme pleasure.
Chapter 8: Bishop Stephen's Vision
After ending his happy holiday and asking his followers to drag out the young man who was lying on the ground with porridge in his mouth and throw him away, Bishop Stephen found that his servants did not act according to his orders, but still stayed outside the door waiting for him to come out.
He couldn't help but frowned. Before Bishop Stephen could say anything, the attendant spoke first:
"I think it's meaningless for us to stigmatize the former regent. Bishop Stephen, don't forget that when we exiled the regent, the elves sent us a semi-public letter of condemnation two months later!"
Hearing this, the obscene words that Bishop Stephen was about to blurt out turned into the crystallization of wisdom the next moment.
Earlier, when he was happily having fun with the boy, he hadn't focused his attention for a while.
But now he realized it—the elves seemed to value the Regent very much. They had sent letters of condemnation because of the Quiet Exile incident before, so it was naturally impossible for them to be affected by his current stigmatization actions.
Um…
Let wisdom stand on the peak again. Bishop Stephen decided to abandon the plan that he had proposed without thinking at the time.
However, in this case, since it is almost certain that the former regent will head towards the Forest of Elves, my strategic plan must be adjusted accordingly...