Chapter 556: Reinforcements from the Valley

"Very good." Madam Zi pursed her lips and showed a satisfied smile. "If everyone agrees to this decision, it will be easy. All major cities have their own city defense forces. We will use this as a basis and then recruit a large number of mercenaries from each city. I believe that it should not be difficult for each city to pull out an army of more than 5,000 people.

Once the conqueror army poses a threat to their respective cities, we must actively urge their respective cities to provide military support and attack the conqueror army from behind.

If necessary, send our assassins to assassinate them indiscriminately.

If there are those who violate this agreement, they are the enemies of our Dark Night Mask and the entire Dragon Coast."

"We, the Light of Persku, are willing to abide by this covenant."

"We, Astorian, are willing to abide by this covenant."

"We, the Purple Mask Pirates, are willing to abide by this covenant."

The dark forces present expressed their opinions one after another.

This is just the basic terms of this dark meeting. After most of the dark forces approved it, the Dark Masks reached dozens of cooperation plans by coercion, inducement, or alliance.

Only a small part of these cooperation plans are related to the Conqueror Army, and most of them are taken by the Dark Mask to expand its influence.

If it were in the past, many dark forces, especially those independent pirate groups, would have left long ago and would not agree to the Dark Mask's terms that are obviously full of hegemony.

Now under the oppression of the Conqueror Army, they have to bow their heads.

The battle of Irip told them that even in Dragon Lake and on the sea, they are not absolutely safe, especially those stupid people of the petrified lizards, who not only were wiped out, but also lost three three-masted sailing ships to the Conqueror Army, giving them the ability to attack the sea.

Their warships can run, but the nests on the major islands cannot run, so they have to guard against it.

The Dark Mask actually took advantage of the strong pressure brought by the Conqueror Army and easily pushed its influence out from the west gate to the entire Dragon Bay. It must be said that they can become bigger and stronger, not without reason, and they can often turn disadvantages into advantages.

The major cities that have always been scattered have formed the most basic alliance.

These dark forces have an advantage that ordinary forces do not have, that is, they emphasize efficiency. They make decisions here and then they put them into action.

Their actions are naturally inseparable from various interest transactions, intimidation and manipulation. Some people who are tough and refuse to implement their decisions are secretly assassinated and replaced by those who obey their orders. It is not uncommon.

Major cities began to actively prepare their own mercenary armies, and those dark forces began to drill into the darkness and hide themselves deeper to prevent themselves from becoming new targets of the conqueror army.

As for Gavin and his men, they had no time to pay attention to the reactions of other cities, but were busy preparing to attack Afonso.

All the dog-headed men in their hands were scattered into the warehouse hills, turning all the warehouses, secret rooms, and caves upside down, looking for the secret underground passage to Afonso, preparing to implement the decapitation tactic to kill Amus directly, and Afonso would fall without attacking.

The whole war changed dramatically because of a secret meeting-Afonso envoy Grace wanted to meet Gavin secretly in her personal name.

"Lord, we shouldn't take this risk. If she really wants to surrender, she can just come to our army to meet. Why did she have to be so mysterious and meet at the warehouse hill not far from Afonso? And ask you to come alone? This is probably a trap set for you." Veronica objected fiercely.

"My opinion is exactly the opposite. It is precisely because the other party is cautious enough that this surrender is real. After all, the other party serves under a quasi-legendary wizard. Even if he specializes in the necromancy system, he has to guard against prophecy spells. Especially for someone like her who is in a high position and knows many secrets, she must be the focus of surveillance and will definitely not be able to get away easily. The secret passage leading directly to Avanso in her hands is very important to us.

Although the kobolds are gifted in detecting and digging tunnels and have advantages that humans do not have, their current task is to find a needle in a haystack.

Without using vibration bombs, the speed of large-scale excavation will drop significantly, and it will definitely take a long time.

What we lack now is time. The cities on the Dragon Coast have been shocked by us. At present, they are just gathering mercenaries to resist. Maybe at some point, they will really unite and launch a full-line attack on us." This time, Kailisha's opinion is completely opposite to Veronica's.

"The risk is still too great. We have an absolute advantage in military strength. There is no need to take such risks. Looking for a secret passage is just to find a shortcut to victory. Even if there is no shortcut, we can still win by adopting normal siege tactics." Veronica still disagreed with the plan of sending her coach into danger easily, especially when she just learned that her opponent might be a sinister devil. All kinds of conspiracies and tricks are what the opponent is best at.

"Once we choose to attack, our casualties will increase significantly regardless of victory or defeat." Kailisha has a gambling nature in her bones. "For this, taking a little risk is nothing, and I believe in the strength of the lord. Even if Arms and his intelligent bone dragon take action personally, he should have no problem holding on until we come to support him."

She has fought side by side with Gavin many times and has a deeper understanding of his strength. Even if she is facing a legendary spellcaster, with his versatile ability, it is not a problem to last three or two rounds.

If you focus on escaping, I believe it will be difficult even for a legendary caster to stop you.

"I still feel that the risks and rewards of this matter are not proportional to the risks. It is not worth taking the risk." How could Veranika not know what Carissa said, but she prefers to control everything in her own hands, and Not for this kind of uncontrollable gamble.

"What's the Lord's opinion?" Carissa did not continue to argue with Veranika, but turned her attention to Gavin. The final decision-making power on this matter rested in his hands.

"You are only considering the danger of this matter, but have not considered why Grace would do this? What is the possibility of her surrender? When we met with us before, she was a staunch supporter of Ivanso. Over the years, she She has contributed a lot to the development of Ivanso. According to Sarode's identification, the Basilisk Human Slave Trading Group directly dealt with her." Gavin did not directly answer Carissa's question, but raised it. A series of questions.

"There is no loyalty at all between these evil disciples, even if they have a master-disciple relationship. Grace is the person who has dealt with us the most in Ivanso City and knows our strength best. It is very likely that after comparing our strength in her mind, I think it’s impossible to defend Ivanso, so I surrendered to us to save my life,” Carissa replied without thinking.

Veranika also held a different view on this matter, "Your explanation doesn't make sense. If she just wanted to save her life, she could have used the teleportation spell to escape, and there was no need to intervene in this war. In this situation, secretly By contacting us, she will take an unprecedented risk. Once discovered by Arms, she will face an extremely tragic fate. I really can't think of a reason for her to take such a risk. The greater possibility is that this It’s just a trap.”

"Even if it's a trap, it still has value." Gavin said with a smile.

"Can traps also be used?" Both Veranika and Carissa were slightly stunned, obviously not understanding what Gavin meant.

Gavin did not explain directly, but asked in a persuasive way: "What is the purpose of finding the secret passage leading to Ivanso?"

"Of course it is to carry out the beheading plan and kill the opponent's necromancer..." Veranika paused and suddenly realized, "If the opponent really uses this as bait to try to kill the Lord, we can completely use it and set up counterattacks. Killing traps. After all, if they set a trap, they will definitely not use ordinary undead soldiers, but elite undead. It is even possible that the necromancer Arms and the intelligent bone dragon will take action personally. As long as they are killed, Ivanso The city will collapse without attack."

Gavin nodded and said: "As long as it is properly arranged, this matter is not more difficult than going deep into Ivanso City to kill the necromancer. We can launch a large-scale feint attack in Ivansuo City and kill all their ordinary undead soldiers." They are all stuck, so they can only use their elite to fight against us."

"If this is the case, this plan does have certain feasibility." Veranika no longer insisted on her opinion, "But when the Lord goes to see Grace, he cannot go to the meeting alone. I will accompany you. There is a mutual understanding between the two. taken care of.”

"No." Gavin shook his head and refused, "Although the possibility is very low, we still have to be careful that Grace really wants to surrender and wants to deliver important news to us. Maybe the other party is sure that I can mess up fate. No Only the characteristics detected by the prophecy spell dare to contact us secretly."

"But..." Veranika still wanted to argue.

Gavin waved his hand and said: "There is nothing wrong with it. This is the risk we must take if we want to win and use our tactics. All you need to do is to arrange our ambush as well as possible to ensure that if it is a trap, Not only can it ensure my safety, but it can also wipe out all the enemy’s elite ambush troops and reduce the pressure on subsequent plans.”

Now that the coach has made a plan, the only thing Veranika can do is to implement it, "Okay, I will prepare the corresponding tactical plan."

"Chief of Staff, there is a team of paladin outside the army asking to see the lord. They say they are friends of the lord and come to support us." A female mage staff officer reported loudly outside the camp.

"Paladin team? Come on, you two come with me!" Gavin couldn't help but smile from the bottom of his heart. He had already guessed who was coming.

He walked non-stop to the outside of the conqueror's army. Standing at the entrance of the chariot, he saw two flags fluttering in the wind from a distance. One had a balance scale pattern on a war hammer, which was the symbol of Tyr, the god of justice. The other holy symbol is a flaming silver sword embroidered on a blood-red field, symbolizing Tempus, the god of war.

The paladins under Tire's banner were all wearing gleaming silver paladin plate armor and riding brown war horses. Their number exceeded a hundred.

The warriors under the Tempus banner are all wearing plate armor, but these armors are all scarred, and in some places there are even bloody stains that have not been washed away. This is a symbol of having experienced hundreds of battles. They all ride white. Mares, numbering only a dozen.

A devout believer of the God of War, if given a choice, will choose a white mare as his mount, because when their god appears on the battlefield, if he rides the white mare Veros, it means that the army will win, and if he rides the black stallion Deros, it means that the army will lose.

So, when a believer of the God of War would rather rush to the enemy on foot than ride a black stallion, don't be surprised.

But most of the time, when the God of War appears on the battlefield, he usually steps on a white mare with his right foot and a black stallion with his left foot, which effectively avoids the situation where he can lose even if he is hit by a flying dragon. He will only appear in the image of a warhorse when the war has a final result. Over time, the different meanings of the two warhorses have emerged. Tempus naturally disdains to argue this misunderstanding with anyone, including his believers.

Seeing the paladin of Tyr, Gavin was not surprised at all, and at the front of the team, he saw several familiar faces-Daniel, August, Selul, David and Dick.

It was somewhat unexpected that the exclusive sacrificial team of the God of War appeared here. Although Tempus was revered as the God of War, he chose not to help either side most of the time on the battlefield, because the war was not one-sided, but two-sided, and both sides were honoring him.

Or if he bet on both sides, he would be invincible.

When he could only choose one side to bet on, he never used justice, kindness, or evil as a reference for betting, but whoever won he would help - so, in this world, justice does not always defeat evil, and sometimes evil will override justice. The most important thing to see is who is stronger.

This also explains why the military and civilian sentiments of the Conqueror Army are so high, because due to this interpretation of the teachings of the God of War, they believe that the God of War has given them full affirmation, and they will win the battle with Afonso.

But Gavin knew that there were deeper reasons. Don't forget that he was half of the chosen one of the Goddess of Strategy, the Red Knight, and the entire army of conquerors came from Dalauma, the biggest place of faith for Lady Strategy. To be frank, they had the obvious label of the Goddess of Strategy.

The entire migration can be regarded as an unprecedented and huge military strategy layout. Once successful, it will help stabilize the priesthood and godhood of Lady Strategy, and even help her raise the kingdom of God, break away from the ranks of demigods, and become a true god. This is the deep reason why Zalanda and Veronica spared no effort to help Gavin.

The God of War Tempus is said to have a son and a daughter. The one called the son of Tempus is Uthgar. His faith is relatively primitive and not widely spread among intelligent life. Usually, those barbarians or wild intelligent creatures believe in him. His faith is mainly concentrated in the Uthgar barbarians in the north. It is said that the entire Uthgar barbarians are his people, and these tribes are named after the part of his power they possess.

The one called the daughter of Tempus is the strategist, the Red Knight. As for her deeds, there is no need to repeat them.

Tempus's attitude towards this son and daughter can be said to be completely opposite, which fully reflects what it means to value girls over boys.

While he recruited believers from the Uthgar barbarians, he acquiesced and even encouraged his believers to convert to the Red Knights, and strictly prohibited his high-level priests from launching heresy crusades against the Red Knight Church.

According to legend, Tempus, who never spoke in the continent of Faerun, now mainly spends his daily life eating, drinking, hunting and teaching with his daughter, the Red Knight, and teaching by example. As for Uthgar, he is completely free-range - when she is not causing trouble, he does not care at all.

But if Uthgar is really in trouble, this god of battle who likes to protect his shortcomings has always helped his relatives and not his relatives, and only he is qualified to educate this stupid son.

Recently, Tempus has even sent down an oracle, asking all the Tempus temples in Faerun to add shrines of the Red Knight. This is a treatment that Uthgar, the ancestor god of the Uthgar barbarians, has not enjoyed for thousands of years since he became a god.

From this series of actions, it is not difficult to see how much Tempus values ​​his daughter who has just been promoted to a demigod.

This is just the idea of ​​Tempus measured by ordinary people with a secular perspective. Those who have a deep understanding of the gods and their existence know that this is just an appearance.

What it really represents is a change in Tempus's concept of war. He is gradually abandoning the barbaric and irrational way of war (the Uthgar priesthood is a prominent representative of this aspect) and advocating the kind of war with sufficient strategic and strategic layout (this is the aspect represented by Ms. Strategy).

As for why he did not change directly himself, but promoted a new subordinate god, there are naturally many reasons.

First, the original image and priesthood of the gods have been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and it is not easy to change this.

Second, this is also the cunning of the God of War. This is a typical two-handed preparation.

If successful, the other party is his subordinate god and must be loyal to him, and her priesthood will naturally be included in his priesthood.

If they fail, it is their own business, and has nothing to do with them. Instead, they can directly intervene in related wars because of their subordinate relationship, and swallow up everything belonging to the gods into their own sphere of influence.

This method is not only used by Tempus, but also by many powerful gods.

The gods’ attitude is that of their devout believers. All the Tempus believers naturally take extra care of the followers of Lady Strategy. It seems that their appearance here has become a matter of course.