The Royal Capital of Graycastle, a mansion with a garden in the inner city.
Today is the scheduled information exchange day, and Thassa is sitting on the soft chair in the living room, waiting for the arrival of the members of the dove and top hat acrobatics. After the fall, the closing time of the inner city gate was brought forward to the evening, and the secret gathering had to be held in the afternoon.
Hill Fox was always the first to arrive at the mansion.
He was wearing a blue velvet open-neck coat, light gray leggings and moccasin boots, and a white bow tie around his neck, looking like a nobleman. After salute, he handed back the "Kingdom Customs History" under his arm to Thassa, who took the book and glanced at him with interest, "Have you read it?"
"Yes," Hill nodded, then hesitated, "Won't you teach me some fighting swordsmanship... or assassination skills?"
"Why?"
"When the evil disease broke out, you said that you would train me to be a qualified intelligence officer," he scratched his head, "but so far, you have only handed me some bizarre books."
"You mean 'History of Customs'?" Thassa poured himself a glass of wine and threw in two ice cubes, "This is not a bizarre book, it records the origins, traditions, and family emblems of nobles from all over the kingdom. , as well as special products of scenic spots. As an intelligence collector, you must first have a lot of knowledge to roughly judge whether the information from various places is valuable. As for swordsmanship and assassination?" He smiled, "I didn't plan to let you sneak in. It is dangerous, time-consuming and labor-intensive for a certain organization or to go deep into the enemy's interior to probe for information. With this skill, it is better to spend more gold dragons to buy insiders directly."
"Not everyone can be bought off," Hill insisted.
"And those organizations that are watertight are also difficult to insert into the eyes. It is impossible to sneak into them without ten or twenty years of effort." Thassa shook the glass and took a sip of ice wine, "Qualified intelligence personnel only Just do two things well: discern the message and hide yourself. These books I give you are the basis for discerning the message, as for the second point... As an acrobat, you should be more experienced than me. For example, your today's It's a nice outfit."
"..." Just as Hill Fox lowered his head to ponder the meaning of these words, the clown and others also arrived at this remote residence one after another.
"Sir, everyone is here."
"If that's the case, let's start," Thassa put down his glass and spread out his notepad. "Who comes first?"
"Let me say it first, my lord," said Yan Shan, who was the most burly one. "The camp on the outskirts of the eastern district of the capital has a new batch of newcomers."
The news made the guard's brows twitch slightly, but he didn't expect that the first information he heard was not good news. Since most of the Knights of the Royal Capital was damaged, this barracks set up in the suburbs has become the garrison of the militia. All the rats, escapees and criminals that Tifek recruited would be stuffed into Dongying before they set off on the expedition. And more than a month ago, a militia of more than 1,000 people had just been dispatched to the western border, but now there are new manpower
"how many?"
"There are only two or three hundred people at present, and most of them seem to be from the North... In addition, there are some rats from the Blood Sail Club, but compared to the first two times, there are not many rats willing to go."
"Closely monitor their movements. Every time more than 200 people are added to the camp, they must report to me once." Thassa instructed.
"Yes, my lord."
These people have only one use, and that is to use the pills as consumables. Now that the Queen of Clear Water is heading north, and there is no resistance in the southern border, Tifeko will undoubtedly continue to attack His Royal Highness Roland's territory. He must pass the news back to Border Town as soon as possible.
"Next, the secret information that the clown brings you, or, in other words, chatting after drinking," the clown said in an exaggerated tone, "I can't verify the authenticity of this news, but I heard that the businessmen said it with a nose and a face. , let's take it as true. They said that Garcia Wimbledon's black sailing team appeared in the Kingdom of Everwinter and launched an attack on the church, and the siege of Wolfheart City collapsed because of this. They are also preparing to take advantage of the During the period before winter, bring some scarce commodities to sell."
The Queen of Clear Water actually went to Yongdong? Thassa was a little surprised, but it doesn't matter whether the news is true or not. She chose to go north and leave Greycastle, which means she has given up her right to fight for the throne. "That's all?"
"Okay, I know it's a bit far from Greycastle," he stuck out his tongue, "I'll ask for more useful information next time."
"Cough cough," Hill coughed twice, "Sir, you have a new clue for the task you entrusted to me. Tifek built a new workshop in the inner city, and also recruited a lot of clay artisans. They were all shipped there. But the workshop is heavily guarded, and my people have no way of knowing what those saltpeters are used for."
"Oh?" Thassa was refreshed, "Did they really transport the saltpeter into the workshop?"
"Indeed," Hill nodded. "I personally tracked a carriage for goods."
This is extremely valuable information. Having been with His Royal Highness Roland for a long time, he naturally knows that the indestructible gunpowder is an alchemical item, and its main ingredient is saltpeter. He had noticed this since the saltpeter in the salt making field around the capital was bought out, and arranged for Hill Fox to inquire about the whereabouts and uses of the goods.
Now that the other party has transferred saltpeter from the alchemy association to the workshop, the intention has been very obvious from the alchemy experiment to the workshop production, which shows that they have mastered the formula of gunpowder. The priority of this piece of information is even higher than the new soldiers in the Eastern Suburbs Camp.
"Good job." Thassa applauded.
…
After the secret conversation, everyone left the mansion in batches.
Before leaving, Hill suddenly asked, "My lord, can we really push Timothy off the throne when we do all this?"
"Of course," the guard smiled. "Haven't you seen the letter sent by His Royal Highness Roland through the broken troops? His throne is already crumbling."
In the evening, returning to the Underground Trumpeter Tavern, Thassa met an unexpected acquaintance: Sean.
Like himself, he is also the personal guard beside His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince.
Walking into the guest room on the second floor, the two chatted for a while before Thassa closed the curtains and asked in a low voice, "How did you know I was here?"
"His Royal Highness gave me a token to find Ms. Margaery, she knows where you are." Sean took out a crystal clear red gemstone and shook it.
"He has a new task to explain?"
"It's not a task, it's a gift," Sean smiled and walked to the window, pulled a crack in the curtain, and whistled. I saw three gray-brown birds flying into the room, landing on the table and cooing at him. After each bird was fed some grains of wheat, they died down.
It was the first time that Thassa saw such a spiritual bird, "This is..."
"A messenger trained by witches," Sean explained while stroking the grey bird's neck. "Unlike carrier pigeons, they can travel back and forth between two places on their own, without being taken away and released back home. You only use the right Birds speak a specific password, and they will send the message to His Royal Highness. If it goes well, you only need to wait a day before you can receive His Highness' reply.".
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