In Cecil's military area, inside the headquarters of the Military Intelligence Bureau, Reymont's body was quickly brought before Gao Wen.
The regional bishop of the southern diocese died in a strange manner. Apart from some scratches and dirt left on his body when he fled, he had almost no external injuries. What caused his death was some kind of "high fever" generated from his head. The eye sockets of a regional bishop have been burned into two black holes, the dry and scorched eye skin clings to the eye sockets of his skull in a disgusting state, and his brain... seems to have been burned Ashes.
"We found him on a mountain road in the Dark Mountains," Soldering reported what he knew, "when we found him, he was dead, there were no traces of fighting around, and there was no residual magic wave. The cause of death is as follows: You see, brains burned to ashes...but I've never seen a curse or magic effect like this."
Gawain squatted down and carefully checked the situation of the Holy Light Bishop. When he reached into Remont's eye socket, Amber next to him couldn't help making a nauseous sound: "Ugh...you are too disgusting..."
Gao Wen ignored the amber, but dipped some ashes on it, and rubbed it with his fingertips twice, a tiny golden light flashed away in the ashes.
"It's the residual echo of the Holy Light, coming from the brain... This bishop was burned to death by his own Holy Light," Gawain frowned, "But why?"
Amber began to make serious analysis there: "Is it because he ran away on the battlefield, violated some teaching of the Church of the Holy Light, and then ran into the mountains and couldn't bear the condemnation in his heart, so he died? Exploding in conscience?"
Gao Wen raised his head and glanced at Amber: "Do you believe this?"
Hetty ignored Amber's Hu Po's analysis, and asked solemnly beside Gao Wen, "Ancestor, can you see anything?"
"It can't be seen that apart from the cause of death caused by the backlash of the holy light, there is no trace left on his body... But it's not that he has no thoughts at all." Gawain clapped his hands and stood up, "The brain was burned by the backlash of the holy light. This proves that the initial runaway begins in the brain, which makes me think of a group of people…”
Hetty looked at Gawain's expression and suddenly realized: "The Eternal Sleeper?"
"It seems that those cultists have not stopped. They are always active in areas we don't know," Gao Wen said in an unsurprising tone. It is not inconceivable that the Eternal Sleeper appeared on the battlefield in the southern border, although he was curious why the Eternal Sleeper "helped" the Cecils kill an invader, but this did not affect him from continuing to do his own thing, " Send this body with the others to the incinerator and burn it completely."
Two soldiers came in and carried away Remont's body, while Amber looked at the Bishop of Holy Light who was being carried away and sighed: "A regional bishop... just died like this... By the way, you and the Church of Holy Light are completely opposed Hey."
"Their regional bishop led twelve knights to Cecil Territory to 'negotiate' with me and asked me to hand over the civilians in the city. From that moment on, they declared war," Gawain said indifferently. "And even if they didn't come out today, sooner or later I would have to confront them. You should know the laws enforced by Cecil. It is impossible for the Sect of the Holy Light, which is becoming more and more extreme, to accept that the laws of the government affairs department are higher than the church. 'It's the norm."
Hetty recalled the battle report sent by Kamel before, and suddenly showed a thoughtful look: "Speaking of... that bishop and the knights led by him probably didn't plan to fight us to the death at all this time. The bishop used The saying is to negotiate with the lord and ask us to hand over the sheltered 'heretical'. I suspect that their purpose at the beginning was to lure you out, the ancestor, and then temporarily hold you back. When the time comes, they should find a reason As long as the retreat is followed by the rules of friction between the church and the nobles, gold, silver and some land can be used as compensation, and this can be covered. And I guess, according to the original plan of Earl Horsman and the Church of the Holy Light, Cecil will It is the absolute loser of this war, and the Holy Light Church is probably still waiting for our compensation."
Hetty was busy processing the information from all parties before, and she didn't concentrate on it. At this moment, everything settled down temporarily, and she suddenly realized that the "Bishop of the Southern Diocese" led twelve Holy See knights to Sisi Erlin understood the real purpose of the "negotiation", and Gao Wen's reply made her expression even more subtle: "It's obvious that they're just here to hold me back. Could it be that they're still planning to capture this city? ?”
Hetty didn't know what expression to make: "In the end, they all died here...not even the bishop survived."
"Remember what I said at the beginning?" Gawain glanced at Heidi and said leisurely, "They can start this war, but it's not up to them how large the war will be after it starts."
Hetty was thinking about Gawain's words, and Gawain gave her a new order: "Notify Godwin to issue an additional number, the content is that the Church of the Holy Light colluded with Earl Horsman... No, some priests and Earl Hossman colluded and plotted to attack Cecil City, but because he was too weak and overwhelmed, his entire army was wiped out after fighting with one of our technicians."
Hetty blinked: "... Is it really written like that?"
Gao Wen nodded: "Just write it like this, and then publish it in the whole territory, not only in the territory, but also let the army take it away and send it to the entire southern border, so that all literate people in the southern border can have a chance to see it. Also remember, you must It should be emphasized that 'some corrupt priests have colluded with Earl Horsman'."
Gawain originally wanted to announce that the entire Church of the Holy Light had colluded with Earl Hossman and was an enemy of Cecil, but he knew that he could not regard the entire Church of the Holy Light as an enemy, at least not now.
The priest class of the Church of the Holy Light may be corrupting, but the believers of this sect are composed of a large number of people, including Cecil, about a quarter of the people in the territory are believers of the Holy Light. Although these ordinary believers may not have such strong and extreme beliefs and support for the Church of the Holy Light, if he suddenly declares the Church of the Holy Light as an enemy, it will still inevitably cause confusion, so he had better announce it at the beginning of the public opinion propaganda. Fallen priests are distinguished from ordinary believers.
And there is another point, the religions of this world are not only a kind of spiritual sustenance, their "magic power" and the gods themselves are real, and even these two are also part of the productive forces and the natural world, unless the Church of the Holy Light is like the three He has completely distorted and degenerated like a dark sect, and lost his foothold in the normal social order. Otherwise, he would not be able to take the "faith of the Holy Light" as the target of destruction. What he can destroy can only be those priests.
And it has to be a corrupt priest. After all, it is impossible for the entire Church of the Holy Light to have only one Wright? Aviken, right
Just now Amber said that he was completely opposed to the Church of the Holy Light. This sentence may be true, but Gao Wen has his own understanding and arrangement for this sentence.
Heidi took the order and left, leaving only Amber and Gawain in the room for the time being. Amber pondered for a long time, and suddenly remembered a detail from the task Gawain arranged for Heidi: "Ah! You just now Said to let the army send things to the entire southern border... Isn't the war over yet?"
Gao Wen glanced at Amber: "When did I say the war is over?"
"But we have won all the battles," Amber scratched her hair, "Earl Hosman in the north died, and his army dispersed, and Earl Pepper in the west also died. I heard that he escaped Even the bishop of the Church of the Holy Light is dead now... I heard that many prisoners were captured on the front lines in the north and west, and many of them were nobles in the southern border. Under normal circumstances, the war is not equal to the end Is it? Then you should negotiate with the families of those noble captives, asking for money, food, and land... "
Amber looked at the half-smile expression on Gao Wen's face, her tone became lower and lower, and finally stopped slowly, with a horrified expression on her face: "Oh my god, you don't plan to stop at all, do you?"
"I have said long ago that this is a war to reunite the southern border, and what I want is not the previous unification situation in which the nobles separated and relied on fragile loyalty and vassal relationships to maintain it, so I have I don't plan to ask for any 'ransom', let alone negotiate," Gao Wen said with a serious expression, "Earl Hossman's coalition forces are indeed broken up, but remember, they just dispersed, not disappeared, or surrendered. , but ran away from the battlefield. They neither became the population of Cecil, nor the nutrients of the land in the south. And those nobles who were captured... The families behind them, their castles, their manors, they They are still their respective duli territories, and all of this is still there, as long as the fleeing troops return to these places, then these places will still be the territories of the nobles, not the land of Cecil."
Speaking of this, Gao Wen emphasized every word: "In the southern border, there is one and only one Cecil Territory."
"You don't intend to..." Amber looked into Gao Wen's eyes in disbelief, "kill all the noble families in the southern border..."
"Of course I won't kill them all, at least not directly, because then the social order will collapse, and whether I want to admit it or not, the nobles and their vassal 'upper class' are currently the main source of intellectuals , I have to use this group, I have to use their power," Gao Wen said, "but I still have to 'destroy' them, destroy their system and foundation... After this, all people will be glorious and law-abiding Sei Ciel Citizen."
Speaking of this, he sighed slightly: "I very much hope that every noble in the southern border and their vassals can accept this arrangement, but if they can't accept it... I hope at least there will be enough incinerators."
A bewildered expression gradually appeared on Amber's face, and at the end, she became jittery.
Seeing this, Gao Wen couldn't help laughing: "Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"I won't listen!" Amber covered her ears with her hand, "What you said is either so difficult that you will die or it will scare people to death!"
Gawain smiled, and stretched out his hand to touch Amber's hair. The height of this short winter melon is so perfect that he put his hand on it just right.
Then he turned around and looked out the window at the setting sun that was gradually sinking.
Knight Philip should have set off with his order, and the cleanup of the southern border has begun.