Your war hammer is too fake

"The surface people rudely rejected our wish to return to our homeland. This is not only a shame for the Nest Clan, but also a boost for us to rise again," Namtaru said, looking up at the starry sky made of countless pebbles of different colors on the ceiling of the palace. "We will definitely return to our former home, but not now. We will take back the land under the sun, but before that, we must maintain this hypocritical peace with the surface people."

"We will," Nadel said, "Under your leadership, the Hive will surely regain everything they have lost."

"Send someone to tell the people on the surface," Namtaru withdrew her gaze from the ceiling, "Tell them that I accept their invitation."

The author says:

Author's words: I had a quarrel with my mother. As usual, she kept nagging me about my drinking behavior, saying that it was unhealthy, a waste of money, and I should be careful of diabetes, and so on. She seemed to care about me. Then the content of the quarrel turned back to the fact that she only gave me 500 yuan a month. Even now, she still insists that 500 yuan a month is enough. Haha. Expect such parents to understand their children? You might as well dream.

Chapter 351: The Beginning of the Mechanicus

Northeast of Marienburg, Iron Valley Air Force Base.

[Barel Magic Hammer: I have followed your request and asked my cheap son to write a letter to Namtaru in your name. Calculating the time, the letter should have been delivered to the other party by now. ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: Very good. Just in case, I need your army to be ready for battle, the kind of full mobilization. If the worst happens, I need to take over the command of the Plateau Fort Corps. ]

[Barel Hammer: No problem. ]

When the Asrai-Caldor coalition invaded the Desolate Castle and took the initiative to provoke a war, Dustan, who had been stationed in the Castle of Kovang for a long time, had to return to Akendorf to personally coordinate the relationship with the Mountain Kingdom to avoid unnecessary conflicts. Due to the special nature of the Castle of Kovang, the Lord of the Holy Scripture must be stationed there, so Barel volunteered to go north.

After the meeting between the Phoenix King and the High King was over and the dwarves no longer hated the high elves squatting at their doorsteps, Dustan cleaned up his mess and rode his arcane phoenix back to Fort Koren, taking over the shared point for the masters of the holy books. However, Barel, who had been acting as the commander, did not return, but temporarily teamed up with Dustan to fight the Yankees.

The military pressure on Fort Kewang has been gradually increasing. The frequent attacks by Chaos followers and other things have caused the expansion plan of the fort to be postponed again and again. The minions of the Dark God appearing outside the fort are not only increasing in number, but also in quality, including some Chaos warbands and Yankee tribes with a terrifying reputation. In response, the Lords of the Holy Scriptures are discussing the feasibility of deploying a flying fleet to Fort Kewang, but unfortunately the conclusion is not optimistic, mainly because the pressure on logistics support is quite large.

An Jiyue was already considering whether to buy a city heart and bid it in Kewang Castle. Only a semi-industrial, semi-fortified city with complete facilities could meet the various conditions required to maintain the daily operation of the flying fleet. Otherwise, it would be impossible for the flying ship to go back to Xuanshui for even the most basic maintenance work, right?

The price of the city heart is the same as that of the anchor point, one million credits each. The Jiedushi has enough credits on his books, but the idea has not been implemented yet because the food supply of the city itself is a bigger problem: although the land around the fortress can barely be used for farming, due to the high latitude, only one season of cold-resistant crops can be grown each year. Such poor agricultural conditions cannot support a city.

If we choose to import food from outside, it would be a problem just to find the food, not to mention how to deliver it... But the location of the fort is too remote, and it is difficult to travel by land. In addition, there are all kinds of dangerous creatures along the way, including but not limited to greenskins, ogres, snow monsters, giant wolves, etc. The only feasible way to transport food is by air. The problem is, how can the Lords of the Holy Scripture have so many flying ships? You can't forbid others to use air transport, and all the transportation capacity will be on you alone, right?

The logistical supply of the garrison in Kewang Castle depends entirely on the cooperation of several Lords of the Holy Scriptures who have their own armies here. They use the supply cards drawn from the supply pool to remotely deploy food, and this expensive logistical method costs points. In order to save some points, the dwarf army in Kewang Castle now has three meals a day, and each meal has hate jerky (Note 1)...

As for where the raw materials come from? I can only say that wherever there is chaos, it is always easy for greenskins to breed.

In order to deal with increasingly powerful enemies, Barrel usually either helps fight, swinging his rune hammer [Furnace Master] to slash Chaos Champions and Greenskin Warlords, or goes on field trips to see if there is any way to alleviate the various difficulties he faces. For now, the latter has not made much progress.

After coordinating with Barrel, An Jiyue interrupted the mental connection with the chat group and turned his attention back to the blueprint in front of him. The engineer apprentice with a rather remarkable name was currently detained in the obsidian prison of the military police at the air force base. After An Jiyue and Aiwen arrived at the military police's office, they did not immediately interrogate Belisarius Kaul, but instead ordered the Light Mage to take out a whole stack of blueprints found at the scene of the arrest.

The girl picked up the drawings one by one in order, and her brows furrowed more and more as she looked at them. Aiwen, who didn't know engineering, could only sit on the chair opposite and study the decoration style of this place.

"Very strange," An Jiyue said after putting down the last drawing in her hand, "or rather very weird. These drawings." She tapped the table lightly with her fingertips: "They give me an extremely familiar feeling, as if they were designed by me."

"...Ah?" Aiwen's eyes widened: "What do you mean?"

"I'm pretty sure I've never drawn these drawings, but many of the details are undoubtedly my style. What's even stranger is that this design is too perfect. If it were me, I would need to come up with a rough draft first, then make a verification machine to test it, and make targeted improvements based on the feedback from the test results... I would have to go through so many iterations before I could come up with such a perfect design, but these drawings were drawn by this medieval Kaul in one go."

Knight Ji tilted her head: "Is there something wrong with him?"

"Yes, but not necessarily in a negative sense," An Jiuyue nodded. "I looked at his resume. When I first came here on the Swift, Kaul was working at this air force base. Do you remember what I said at that time (see Chapter 324)? At that time, I had a strange feeling that some precious treasure appeared near me. Combined with the dream I had last night, I think he is the 'mechanical little man'."

"The time doesn't match?" Aiwen asked doubtfully, "You finished the dream last night, but according to the confession, Kaul finished the last drawing at dawn this morning."

"The time and space of the Chaos Realm are inherently chaotic," An Jiyue shook her head. "A guy who will be promoted to a demon prince tomorrow has participated in the Battle of Death Island. Things like this are very common in the Warhammer world."

"There's no doubt about that nest," Aiwen said, turning her head to look at the Light Mage, "You didn't beat him, did you?"

"The witch hunters proposed torture, but I rejected it," said the Master of Light. "The suspect Belisarius Cawl has no trace of Chaos corruption. To be precise, his soul is too 'clean'. As a mortal who has never been bathed in the glory of the Outer Gods, this is not normal, unless there is a great being protecting his soul."

As he spoke, Master Guangming looked up at An Jiyue.

"Have your people release him," An Jiyue pondered for a while, then raised her head and said to Aiwen, "And hold a public purification ceremony or something like that. Tell the public that Kaul was haunted by a ghost in the swamp, and that all the strange things that happened before were caused by the ghost, and that you have already exiled this spirit."

Upon hearing this, the Light Mage looked at Aiwen. Facing the inquiring gaze of her subordinate, Aiwen nodded slightly.

"I won't see him until the time is right," An Jiyue continued, "Talk to him privately and tell him that the truth can only be what we claim. Some things are better for him to keep to himself and not tell anyone irrelevant. As for these drawings..."

"Send it back to the Coast Heavy Industry headquarters and have the engineering masters make a prototype to test it first," Aiwen took over the conversation. "If the product can really meet the performance indicators marked on the drawings and is reliable, I will approve Kaul to obtain the official engineer qualification in advance. Successfully restoring the core technology of the steam tank is definitely a merit worthy of an exceptional promotion."

"Don't forget to send someone to protect him secretly," An Jiyue added, "He is a 'local' and Jianqi can 'see' him."

"I will."

After the Light Mage took the order and left, An Jiyue walked to the window and looked out at the base. After a long moment, she turned around and looked into Ewen's eyes: "If, I mean if. If one day our Kaul suddenly puts on a red robe..."

"The Oil Man is the Oil Man," Evelyn said disapprovingly, "He's still much better than Chaos."

So An Jiyue didn't say anything more.

……

Note 1: A dwarven specialty food made with goblins.

The author says:

Author's words: Reply to reader "Reader1709663047":

Sorry, my emotions got a little out of control when I was writing the last chapter... Although I know that thinking about such things is meaningless, sometimes I still can't help but wonder, if I had a pair of normal parents, I wonder what kind of person I would become?

Chapter 352 Troubled Times

Throughout September of 2503, several major events occurred in the Old World.

The first incident occurred within the Empire, where Sigmar suddenly appeared, and on a large scale and with high intensity. The priests of the Church of Sigmar found that it was easier to cast divine spells than before, and more people could cast divine spells.

More than one combat priest said that when they recited the battle prayer, they felt more clearly about Sigmar's divinity and power. In addition, some low-level clergy who had difficulty performing divine arts in the past could now release miracles from Sigmar stably, sending the blessings of the patron saint of the empire to the people of the empire.

According to the report of the West Territory intelligence agency, in a series of apparitions, the most outrageous incident came from a battle priest named Luther Huss. At this point in time, although this Chosen of Sigmar (Note 1) did not have the lofty reputation he later had, he already had a certain degree of fame.

As an outstanding agitator, a powerful warrior and a devout priest, Luther Huss has been wandering around the Empire fighting against the raging dark forces since he passed the test set by Sigmar and became the chosen one of the Warrior God. When Sigmar suddenly began to appear frequently, Luther was tracking a group of Khorne believers in Reikland.

From the results afterwards, it was obvious that this was a trap specially prepared for Luther. When Luther led a group of voluntary hunters, whippers and free militiamen to trek through the gloomy and bizarre forest for several days and finally found the enemy's base, hundreds of Khorne Chaos Warriors suddenly appeared and surrounded Luther and his followers.

"The Blood God has ordered!" The Chaos Lord who led this group of rabbit-eared red cans appeared in front of Luther, holding up a chopping axe forged from the Chaos Demon Realm and roaring, "Chosen by the Short Man, your head will become a gift from the Axe Father to the Killer Whale God!!"

Luther had never heard of the "Killer Whale God" before, and he didn't bother to care about it. Amid the war cry of "Blood sacrifice to the Blood God, skull to the Skull Throne!", the battle or massacre began. Luther's followers were quickly slaughtered, and the casualties they caused to the enemy were minimal. In the end, only Luther was left on the battlefield, still roaring and swinging his hammer, fighting with endless fury.

As the Battle Priest swung his hammer and knocked over the eighth Chaos Warrior of Khorne, the Chaos Lord decided to deal with him personally. The Chaos Warriors stepped back, leaving a space for the two to engage in a duel that would please the Blood God.

The Chaos Lord who served the Blood God had strength worthy of his position. Luther was suppressed throughout the battle. Just dealing with the Chaos Lord's fierce attack was exhausting, let alone counterattack. His hammer was knocked down, and he stumbled and fell to the ground. Just as the Chaos Lord raised his axe and prepared to offer the head of Sigmar's Chosen to Khorne, Luther suddenly burst into a dazzling golden light...

When a group of provincial infantrymen rushed to the scene, they were all stunned by the scene before their eyes: hundreds of corpses of Khorne Chaos Warriors piled up into a hill, and Luther himself sat on the top of the "hill", looking like he was thinking about life. What was even more incredible was that Luther's armor was severely damaged due to too many attacks and could be directly scrapped, but he himself did not seem to be injured at all.

This big news shocked the entire empire. Every Sigmar believer who heard about this firmly believed that it was Sigmar who saved Luther from the desperate situation. The details of the whole incident were soon reported all the way to Altdorf. The emperor and the high priest personally summoned the battle priest, and then the Church of Sigmar officially announced that Luther was Sigmar's prophet, His Chosen One!

In response, Yurik's followers rejoiced that the empire had become more powerful, while eating lemons to their heart's content.

The second major event happened in Bretonnia, which was also related to gods and was much more explosive than the above one.

All the statues of the Goddess of the Lake in Bretonnia, regardless of the material, stone, wood or metal, were festering, oozing pus, moldy and rotting, and covered with disgusting pox. This inexplicable abnormality caused a huge panic in the Knight Kingdom, and all kinds of messy rumors were flying around. The evil spirits lurking in the kingdom took the opportunity to stir up trouble, causing countless chaos, and the knights who were supposed to suppress the chaos were even more panicked than the old farmers.

To make matters worse, after the incident, Lawn immediately sent people to look for the lake fairy, only to find that Morgiana was missing! The king immediately ordered a blockade of the news, but the matter was still leaked.

Although there is no evidence, Lawn Leo Cornwall still believes that this must be the work of Tzeentch's followers! As we all know, in the Warhammer world, if something strange happens and the culprit cannot be found, it must be the work of Tzeentch and his followers!

Unfortunately, it was not the case this time. It was actually the Parravons who spread the news. The Inner Circle had received some inside information from Egwene in advance and made targeted arrangements. Although the knights who were the executors were terrible at being spies, fortunately, their opponents' counterintelligence capabilities were even worse than theirs.

The people of Parawon were also panicking on the surface, but in fact, they were almost unable to hold back their smiles. Li Biao fell, and the inner circle was full. The abnormality of the Lake God statue made the infiltration work of the inner circle much easier. The people of Parawon would give priority to selecting young knights from other principalities, observe their reactions to this matter, and then choose the opportunity to show them the "truth".

As the focus of infiltration, the Principality of Quinalis constantly had young knights whose faith was shaken being secretly absorbed into the inner circle. Of course, there were also cases of failure, so these people could only ask them to help keep the secrets - although the professional level of the Paraon people as spies was still very high, but perhaps it was because practice makes perfect, this group of inner circles were becoming more and more skilled in keeping small secrets, especially good at using various "accidents" to make certain people shut up forever.

With the help of the Inner Circle, the chaos in Bretonnia is getting worse. Laun is in a state of panic but has no way out. He has been praying to his gods, but has never received any response. In fact, it is not just him. Knights, saints, and prophetesses are all praying to the Lady of the Lake, seeking her guidance, but their efforts are useless. If the blessing of the Lake God is not still effective, Bretonnia would have exploded on the spot.

The "Operation to Recapture the Duchy of Musillon" originally planned and promoted by Lawn had to be postponed indefinitely, even if it was not stillborn. Under the current circumstances, the knights, who had lost all their morale, could not take the initiative to attack.

According to the intelligence obtained by the Inner Circle, Laun is now frantically sending people to search the world for the whereabouts of the Lake Fairy, and at the same time constantly writing letters to other dukes, trying his best to stabilize the situation. As for how useful these measures are, it can only be said that it is better than nothing.

The third major event occurred in Tyrell: Poggio the Besieger was assassinated, but did not die.

In the original history, Poggio was assassinated in this year. An Jiyue once thought that this might not happen, after all, the situation in the old world had changed greatly. After the second anti-intervention campaign, Egwene sent envoys to Miragliano to ask the besiegers to explain his previous unfriendly behavior.

Poggio received the Elector's envoys, but when the two sides met for the first time, a group of rat assassins raided the venue and tried to kill everyone and frame West. The rats planned this carefully and spent a lot of money to bribe some of Poggio's men. No matter how you look at it, this is a deadly situation -

Unfortunately, the envoy sent by Evelyn was named Almarik de Godalon.

Facing four Black Thirteens (Note 2) and the rebellious human soldiers, the legendary Holy Grail Knight performed a live "You are surrounded by me alone". No enemy could survive a single blow from Sir Almarik, not even Black Thirteen. The Holy Grail Knight almost killed all the assassins and traitors alone, and then escorted Poggio to the military camp.

At this time, the city of Miragliano was in flames. Rebellious mercenaries and bribed rogues were looting and burning everywhere, forcing the troops loyal to Poggio to be unable to rush to support their master in time.

And then, there was nothing else... Poggio was able to conquer Tyrell, so he certainly had the ability and prestige. Most of the mercenary troops in the city were loyal to him, and the rebellion was ultimately initiated by only a small group of people, some of whom were coerced. When the besieger himself appeared in the barracks and announced that only the ringleaders would be held accountable, the rebellion was quickly put down.

After everything was settled, Boggio thanked Sir Almarik for his help and gave him a lot of gifts. In response to Westerland's questioning, the besieger admitted that Ulthuan had made an offer he could not refuse. Boggio refused to reveal the specific price, but only promised that he would not take the initiative to hostile Westerland again. As for the "compensation" that Egwene asked for, which was the island of Sartosa, Boggio agreed without much hesitation.

This does not mean that the Lords of the Holy Scriptures will be able to take over this pirate nest immediately. After all, the so-called "unification" of the Tyrells is not the same as the centralized power of Cathay. The compensation paid by Boggio is actually a kind of permission. He allows the Westers to take Sartosa by themselves, and other Tyrell city-states will not interfere in this matter.

After resolving the previous minor dispute between the two sides, Poggio immediately made two requests. First, he hoped to redeem the War Dog mercenaries captured by the Westmen. Second, he wanted to buy flying battleships, even if they were second-hand. As a merchant prince known for his research on new arms and new tactics, Poggio really couldn't resist the charm of these big treasures flying in the sky.

Sir Almarik agreed to the first request on behalf of Egwene. Since Boggio was so sensible, it would not be a big deal to release the captives. As for the second request, it was rejected without hesitation, no matter what price Boggio offered. Are you kidding? The Lords of the Holy Scriptures don't even have enough airships!

It is worth mentioning that the Tyrells were not the only ones who wanted to buy flying battleships. After the Second Anti-Intervention Campaign, the Bretonnians were the only people in the Old World who were indifferent to the idea. All other countries, whether they could afford it or not, expressed their intention to buy it from the Cathays or Westland. Even Lady Kislev went to Sanhe Prefecture to inquire about the news.

The one who came was Katarin, a ten-year-old loli.

……

Note 1: At the end of time, there were three Chosen of Sigmar in the Empire, namely Emperor Ka, Woten and this one. Among them, Woten was not born yet or had just been born at the time in the book.

Note 2: Clan Eshin’s top assassin, second only to Death Master Snikch in status and strength.

Chapter 353 Assistance Program

Sanhe Prefecture, Xuanshui, and Wugong Mansion.

"Sister An!" Accompanied by a clear childish voice, ten-year-old Katarin threw herself into An Jiuyue's arms. Her little head skillfully moved back and forth in the governor's arms, causing the pair of slimes to bounce around.

"Katalin?" An Jiyue stroked the little girl's head, which felt very good. "Why are you here?"

"Dad wants the flying ship that Sister An built," the black-haired loli said in a baby voice, "but Dad doesn't have that much money, so Dad asked me to go to Sister An to see if I can get it cheaper."

Compared to last year, Katalin, who has grown another year older, looks basically the same. The future Ice Queen is still a lively and lovely little girl, and has not yet become cold and ruthless due to the side effects of using ice magic. An Jiyue doesn't know where the future of the little girl and Yuri will go. Speaking of which, it seems that the boy has joined the Griffin Corps?

"If you want to operate an airship, it's not just a matter of money," the governor said while RUA Loli, "Kislev has to import even muskets from the Empire. Your industry is too weak and you don't have the basic conditions to maintain the normal operation of the airship."

Seeing that Katarin's eyes were a little confused, An Jiyue suddenly realized that it was too much for her to talk about this with a ten-year-old girl. No matter how smart she was, given Katarin's age and experience, Boris Bokaha obviously couldn't really let his precious daughter preside over the negotiations, which meant...

"Greetings, Duke." A half-bald man wearing a patriarch's robe and with sparkling eyes walked in. He gently pressed his left chest with his right palm and leaned forward slightly: "Esun's chosen god has ordered me to be fully responsible for all matters related to this military purchase."

"Constantine," An Jiyue nodded slightly, not even showing the slightest intention of getting up from her seat, "I am really disappointed that you are still alive."

"As long as the Bear God still needs my service, I will never succumb to death," the current second-in-command of the Great Orthodox Church sat on the chair brought for him by the servants of the Duke's Mansion. Two followers stood behind him, one on the left and one on the right. "Kislev needs the war machine you invented. For this, even if we have to empty our last Pro (Note 1), we will raise enough money."

"Don't talk like I'm some loan shark coming to collect debts," the governor couldn't help but cover his forehead. "It's not just about buying a flying battleship. The daily training expenses, the equipment needed for maintenance, the ammunition, and the repair expenses are all expensive. You may be able to scrape together the money to buy the ship, but what about the subsequent expenses? Just like I told Katalin, you even have to import muskets from the Empire."

Constantine seemed to think for a moment. "Besides this, is there any other trouble?" asked the half-bald man.

"If you buy the airship, then based on the military aid agreement signed between the Heavenly Court and Prager," the girl paused for a moment when she said this, "we will also sell the airship to Prince Belov."

"That's impossible," Constantine said flatly. "They are poorer than we are. They even think that muskets are too expensive."

"So this is the problem. In order to ensure that the power between you two is not unbalanced, which would lead to some unnecessary radical ideas in the Bokaha Palace, the Heavenly Court will ensure that the city of Prager obtains equal military force," the governor spread his hands, "Mr. Constantine, the order given to me by the Heavenly Court is to ensure that Kislev continues to defend the north of the old world as always and keep the minions of the evil god out of the civilized world. As for who will undertake this task, the Heavenly Court does not care, and neither do I."

Ban Tu gritted his teeth when he heard this. Seeing this, Katarin's round eyes rolled around and she said in a sweet voice: "Sister An~"

Because Katarin's expression was so cute, An Jiyue couldn't help but pinch the little girl's face in her arms: "Katalin, if I were a man, you would definitely be the beauty who caused my country to fall."

"I don't understand," Constantine said in a deep voice, "Why does the Heavenly Court have to support the separatists? Isn't there anyone in Zhendan who wants to break away from the rule of the Dragon Emperor? If you do this, aren't you afraid that you will suffer the same setbacks?"

"I don't want to be too rude," An Jiyue raised her head, with a half-smile on her face, "Before I first met Prince Belov, I never thought of supporting the Ugol people. Do you know the difference between your Patriarch and the Ugol prince?"

Without waiting for Banbal to speak, the governor said, "Prince Belov knows what it means to ask for help. On the other hand, Boris Bokaha's words and deeds always make me suspect that the Heavenly Court wants something from Kislev. The Heavenly Court's plan is to strengthen the power of the entire Order camp by aiding the residents of the Old World. Aid to Kislev is part of the established plan, but this does not mean that you can take the opportunity to blackmail us and make some incredible and rude requests."

"We are grateful to all who are willing to help us," Constantine said, "but if the premise for obtaining help is that Kislev must kowtow and give up its self-esteem, then we would rather deal with the endless darkness in the north by ourselves."

"No, you don't know how to thank others," An Jiyue shook her head. "I have done a very in-depth investigation on you. One fact that I find unbelievable is that the imperial people have always helped you in the past and now, but not only do you not thank the imperial people, but you think they are all soft eggs and unworthy of your friendship."

The Princess of Kislev in the governor's arms clutched the corner of her clothes tightly.

Constantine was silent. "...So," he said with difficulty, "my mission has failed?"

"If it were just you and Katarin, you would certainly not succeed," An Jiyue softened her tone a little, "You are lucky, Lady Kislev, you have a God who truly loves you."

"Esun?" Ban Tu looked stunned.

"I have talked with Ersun once before. The details cannot be disclosed. Anyway, the Heavenly Court owes your God a favor." The governor leaned back and let his back fit perfectly with the back of the armchair. "Listen carefully and tell your Patriarch exactly what I say next. I want to lease the Slughov Fortress for 30 years. The rent is four grasshopper gunboats and four grasshopper transport boats, as well as a fixed amount of spare parts and ammunition every year. The latter will last until the lease expires."

Hearing this, Constantine couldn't help but stand up from his seat: "This..."

"I don't accept any bargaining," the Jiedushi waved his hand, "You either agree or refuse."

"The number of airships you sell to Prager cannot exceed half of the number of airships obtained by the Royal Court, and the models must be the same!" Constantine said loudly, "Otherwise, I can reject your proposal on behalf of the Patriarch right now."

"Okay." An Jiyue nodded.