Luoer City, the eastern province of the empire.
As the largest city in the eastern part of the empire and the capital of the Eastern Province, the situation in Luoer City is very chaotic at the moment.
The Flame Warriors of the Divine Cult took control of the entire city many days ago and expelled the imperial government officials here.
It turns out that there were 30,000 local garrison troops stationed here. Unfortunately, the eastern province of the empire was indeed the area with the strongest religious influence. In the entire eastern province, the believers were the most devout and had the largest number of people. Even the original garrison had a considerable number of devout believers.
Five thousand of the 30,000 defenders are devout believers (part of the reason for this is that the divine religion deliberately infiltrated a group of people into the local garrison in order to strengthen its penetration into the empire in the eastern province of its base camp. ), and when a large number of flame warriors and religious sorcerers suddenly launched an attack, they quickly took control of the city government and then forcibly expelled the defenders.
It can be said that in the city of Luoer, where the religion is deeply rooted, the government loyal to the imperial royal family was deceived, the army was defeated without mobilization, and the five thousand devout believers lurking in the army took the lead in mutiny. In this case, the local garrison played no role.
After the Divine Cult took over Luoer City, they immediately released the city government officials and some detained nobles.
This was also the center of religious rebellion in the eastern part of the empire. In the past few days, a large number of flame warriors have moved closer to Luoer City. Preliminary estimates suggest that the maximum number of troops here once reached 100,000. This does not include the militia composed of devout believers, some believers, and those mutinous imperial soldiers.
With Luoer City as the center, a large number of flame warriors spread in all directions, igniting the fire of rebellion in the divine religion everywhere in the eastern provinces of the empire. In less than a week, more than half of the territory of the Eastern Province fell under the control of the cult.
Now on the city walls of Luoer City, there is no longer the thorn flower flag that symbolizes the imperial power of the Light Empire. The governor's palace, which originally belonged to the provincial governor, had been burned down, and the new authority was established in the original religious house. From time to time, a group of militiamen wearing religious armbands walked past on the street. They wore white robes and pointed hats. Holding a long sword weapon taken from the local garrison armory in his hand, he acted as the original security patrol soldier.
From time to time, in the central square of Luoer City, there are missionaries giving various impassioned speeches and agitation - of course, in such speeches, without exception, the royal family of the Empire of Light is described as It is a sinful group that blasphemes God and violates the will of God, and is the core of sin.
Traces of decay can be seen everywhere on the streets of the city. There are traces of the fire, collapsed houses, mountains of garbage on the streets, and hurried pedestrians.
Obviously, as a purely religious organization, although the Cult has relied on the deep-rooted forces in the eastern provinces to seize control of power, they do not have the ability to manage a city - to be frank, they are an excellent destroyer. By. They drove out imperial government officials, dismantled institutions, and broke down the system that originally drove the city. But no effective new machine was built.
A group of fanatical religious elements turned the entire city into a center of religious fanaticism. Even the huge statue of Emperor Abbasid that stood in the center of the city center square was torn down. The stones were broken into pieces and transported to the city walls as military preparations for the upcoming holy war...
The cult even began to openly distribute weapons. Recruit devout believers from ordinary civilians to take up arms and join the ranks of armed rebellion against the empire.
It is a pity that at the place where weapons are sent every day, no matter how loudly the missionaries shouted, there were only a few responders. In one week, less than 300 people were summoned, and more than half of them were still there because of their rich income. Some local ruffians and scoundrels participated for military pay.
Of course... No matter what, the entire Luoer City is shrouded in a fanatical religious atmosphere. Walking in any corner of the city, you can see militiamen with armbands and various slogans. You can see the garbage piled up on the streets (because the government has been dissolved, and the new government agencies established by the religion are busy with major things such as jihad, and have not yet allocated their energy to manage trivial things like street garbage).
It can be said that among all the cities in the Eastern Province that are controlled by the cult, most of them are in the same situation as Luoer City.
Of course, the Eastern Province has another characteristic. Since this is an area with traditional religious power, and the "Holy War" broke out here, the vampire power in the entire Eastern Province is unprecedentedly weak and almost completely extinct!
A carriage slowly drove out from the west gate of Luo'er City. The curtains of the carriage lifted up a corner, revealing a pair of charming eyes, looking at the busy militiamen and recruited craftsmen above the city.
"Alas... these madmen." A graceful voice in the car seemed to be sighing: "Do they think these chaotic rabble can withstand the elite army of the empire?"
There was a long queue at the city gate, and the crowds waiting to be checked in and out of the city gate were extremely crowded.
The new city gate control system established by the Divine Religion two days ago also added a new city gate tax.
Originally, after the divine sect dispersed the imperial officials, they obtained a large amount of property from the local government, but it was obvious that the divine followers did not know how to handle these funds. After they spent a large amount of money to repair the city walls, spent a large amount of money to recruit militiamen, and spent a large amount of money to hoard military supplies and weapons, they suddenly found that their pockets had bottomed out!
In desperation, they started to tax!
Not only has the traditional religious contribution tax been increased by 30%, but you also have to pay a certain fee for entering and leaving the city gate.
It was obvious from the expressions on the faces of those waiting to enter and exit the city gate that they were all very dissatisfied.
The old skeleton once said: Religion is an illusory thing after all. Once the interests of survival are designed, most people will abandon that empty piety. After all, there are only a very small number of religious fanatics in this world.
"What a bunch of idiots." The people in the carriage looked at the angry-faced pedestrians and sighed sincerely: "Now that we have gained control of the city and a large amount of territory, the first thing to do is to find ways to bribe them. Human heart! Don’t those religious people even understand such a simple truth?”
The carriage gradually drove westward, away from Luo'er City, and the person in the carriage opened the window, revealing a pretty face.
"How long will it take for us to reach the west?" The soft voice of the woman who spoke was almost innately charming. It was Nidis who had a bloodline and had been missing from Rody for many days!
Nidis had her long hair tied back casually at the moment and was wearing an extremely simple coarse cloth. Her face seemed a little thin, and her beautiful eyes also looked a little tired and lost a bit. The look of the past.
The driver turned around and smiled and said: "Miss, we'd better walk south for half a day and then go west. The west is in chaos now, I heard people say. A disaster occurred in Panka City the day before yesterday! Thunder and fire fell from the sky, and the whole city was in chaos. Destroyed! Now the entire eastern province is in chaos, you’d better be careful..."
Nidis smiled slightly, and she seemed to sigh in a low voice: "Is it chaos? There are so many flame warriors here. For me, it is the safest... At least, there will be no vampires here. Trouble with me."
After a pause, she laughed loudly and said, "You said that Panka City was destroyed by lightning from the sky? What happened?"
"Shhhhhhh!" The coachman was startled, looked left and right, and then whispered: "Miss, you can't say this nonsense. I just heard it accidentally when I was changing the wheel in the car shop this morning. The two members of the Flame Warriors talked and heard a little bit about it. It seems to be a secret that is strictly sealed by the religion and cannot be mentioned casually! "
After a pause, the old coachman sighed: "Have you always said that the divine religion represents the gods? Why did God rain down thunder and lightning to destroy the city of Panka? Alas, I heard that there was nothing left in the entire city there, everything was gone. It was in ruins... There were so many people there, so many people died at once, how pitiful... "
After saying that, he raised his whip.
Nidis was curious and said with a smile: "Oh? I heard you said that there is a nose and eyes. Is there really such a thing?"
"Of course!" the coachman whispered: "Don't you know? A lot of strange things have happened in the Eastern Province these past two days! I heard that in many villages, people suddenly died, often overnight. In other places, there was a mountain, but in one night, the mountain suddenly disappeared. I don’t know what happened. The flame warriors didn’t care about it. Even the former empire’s garrison kept going. I'm going to patrol everywhere. But these guys from the God's Cult usually look bright and talk about the gods, but these days they are always asking for money. I don't understand. Why do the gods want so much money?"
Nidis couldn't help but burst into laughter when she heard what he said was interesting.
Seeing his beautiful passenger laughing, the coachman got excited and couldn't help but cursed in a low voice: "Damn it, I have to pay five copper coins for tax when I go out of the city gate. If it weren't for Miss, you gave me more money for the carriage." , I will lose money on this trip. Oh, I hope Duke Tulip will bring people here to drive away these money-hungry sticks! They are basically vampires!"
When she heard the word "tulip", Nidis' face darkened, she fell silent randomly, and stopped talking.
The wheels rolled, heading west. After walking for a while, they turned to a fork in the south.
Nidis looked outside in the car. At this moment, the outside was full of wilderness, with only some low hills in the distance. She smiled and said, "Where are we?"
"Come on, come on, we'll be there just after turning around the small town ahead." When the coachman said this, his tone became a little nervous and he whispered: "Miss, you don't know, this place was haunted the day before yesterday! You Look..." He pointed to a hill in front of him and said, "Have you seen that hill? It was originally connected, but now it seems that there is a piece of it broken in the middle, right?"
Nidis looked towards where he pointed. Sure enough, the hills that were supposed to be connected seemed to have been dug out in the middle.
She smiled and said, "So what?"
The coachman shook his head repeatedly and said: "It's different, it's different! Did you know? When I walked this road a few days ago, the mountains looked like this! They were originally in a row. But it turned out that the night before yesterday , there was thunder and lightning in the sky, but it was really weird. There was no thunder or lightning in other places, but the thunder and lightning in the sky gathered in one place and hit the ground with all their strength. As a result, the hill was smashed out. There’s a gap! Don’t you think this is haunted?”
"Oh?" Nidis frowned, with a somewhat solemn expression on her face.
The hills in the distance are not high, only about ten meters. They are the kind of low hills unique to the eastern provinces.
"Could it be that the empire's army came over, and the warlocks in the army fought with the warlocks from the cult?" Nidis said to herself, and then said with relief: "What does it have to do with me? I'm just wandering around now, what's the matter? Don’t worry about it, as long as you don’t encounter any vampires, it has nothing to do with me who they beat!”
Thinking of this, a smile appeared on her face again and she said: "Well, since you know that this place was haunted the night before yesterday, you still dare to take this road now?"
The coachman laughed and said: "Miss, I am a rough man. Although I don't know many things, I still know that a good horse will never turn back to eat grass! Think about it, even beasts like horses know this truth. Do ghosts and gods still know it?" Don’t you know? Hehe... If a good horse doesn’t turn back, then the devil won’t turn back, right? There was trouble here the day before yesterday, so it probably went somewhere else, so it’s best for us to take this route today. It’s safe!”
Although this coachman was rude, he was also quite interesting. Nidis chatted with him casually for a while, and felt a little tired, so she smiled and said: "Okay, I will rest for a while. We are in town ahead. Wake me up. I want to Go down and buy something."
The driver laughed and said, "Okay, turn around the hillside in front and you will find a town. Miss, please rest. I will call you after a while."
Nidis nodded, retracted the strength of the carriage, and lay down inside to take a nap. However, the coachman's words "tulips" aroused some sadness in her heart. Although she was resting, her mind could not calm down for a moment. Suddenly she thought The tall back of that man reminded me of the bright smile on his face for a while, and the scene of him barging in while I was taking a shower that night at sea. His face sometimes smiled and sometimes sighed.
I don’t know how long it took, but Nidis had just started to feel a little sleepy when she heard an extremely sharp scream coming from outside!
Years of being hunted made Nidis immediately alert. She turned over and climbed up. She had already pulled out a short knife hidden in her boot and held it in her hand. She opened the window and shouted: "What's wrong!"
At this moment, the carriage had stopped. Nidis opened the window and saw the coachman sitting on the seat, staring ahead in stunned silence...