Your war hammer is too fake

Athel Loren burns.

This is not a metaphor or a figure of speech, it is the literal meaning. Standing on the deck of the Kingfisher and looking into the distance, thick columns of smoke covered the horizon, and the raging fire was devouring the home where the wood elves had lived for generations.

"What are the results of the investigation?" An Jiyue asked without turning her head.

"We have found out that the beastmen were the ones who set the fire," Shigeru Nishikori walked out from the shadows behind the bridge. "According to reports, half of the thirty groups of Eagle Guards we sent out have found traces of the enemy, and one group encountered a harpy a hundred miles away from here."

The two frigates, Kingfisher and Oriole, were traveling with a Grasshopper-class transport boat loaded with supplies. As for the Partridge, which had participated in the previous air battle at Fort Desolate, it had already been handed over to the Shuofang Army's aviation unit. The fourth Kingfisher-class ship, Willow Warbler, and the fifth Kingfisher-class ship, Thrush, had both completed outfitting and flight tests. The former was also ordered by the Shuofang Army and was currently preparing for a long voyage to Jingning; the latter was temporarily in a semi-idle state due to a serious shortage of manpower in the air force.

All subsequent orders for Kingfisher-class frigates have been cancelled. If nothing unexpected happens, there will only be five ships of this class, and no new ones will be built. After temporarily freezing the research and development projects of shield generators and shipborne radars, the keel of the first Swift-class frigate has been laid and is expected to roll off the production line in the middle of next month. If the construction department is allowed to work in three shifts at full capacity, it can actually be rushed to completion by the end of this month. However, after thinking it over, An Jiyue still relaxed the requirements for the construction progress.

The flying ship department of the Xuanshui Arsenal has been working overtime for six months, and even spent last year's New Year's Eve in the workshop. The high-intensity work has made Mozhe and the workers very tired, so An Jiyue ordered the arsenal to arrange paid vacations for the employees in batches. Anyway, it is unlikely that they will encounter a battle of the intensity of the Desolate Castle air battle in the short term... right?

"Which group discovered the harpy?" asked the Jiedushi.

"Group C4, the people in the empty building 3." The deputy captain answered without hesitation.

An Jiyue immediately found the group of Eagle Guards according to the number, using the system unit's mental network, and connected to the perspective of one of them. The girl first saw the rapidly reversed sky and ground, and then the black wings passing by the edge of her vision. She immediately realized that the owner of this perspective was rolling, which was an uncommon maneuver for the Eagle Guards' air knights.

She saw "herself" suddenly extend a spear to the side, and the next moment the sharp tip of the spear cut the throat of a harpy, and the vicious winged creature immediately fell down, holding its neck. Then, she heard "herself" shouting into the radio microphone: "Too many enemies, Group C4 requests to retreat, repeat, Group C4 requests to retreat!"

After a few seconds, a vague voice came from the receiver filled with white noise: "Retreat authorized."

This world has radios. Dwarven engineers have invented steam radios long ago, and they support voice calls, although the sound quality is incredibly poor and the communication distance is not far. An Jiyue introduced this technology and developed a new type of radio based on the principle of magic with reference to the existing samples, which happened to be used this time.

This kind of Lingshi radio is not small in size and not light in weight, so it can only be temporarily stuffed into the belly bomb bay of the mechanical bird. If the mechanical bird carries a radio, it cannot carry tracking rockets. For this reason, all the Eagle Guards are dispatched in groups of two, one responsible for carrying communication equipment and one responsible for carrying long-range weapons, and the standard spears, flails and shields of the Eagle Guards are all brought.

An Jiyue observed for a while with the help of the Eagle Guards, and then cut off the mental connection. According to the information shared by the dwarves, the fire started in the northwest of Athel Loren, and then spread to the entire forest. The Eagle Guards from the Desolate Castle were limited by their range and could only circle within the range of the Pine Cliff.

The point is, Pine Cliffs, as one of the twelve realms of Athel Loren, is located at the easternmost end of the entire forest.

"The fire has already burned here, and I don't know what happened to the Oak of Ages," An Jiyue frowned and thought, going through all the known information in her mind one by one, "The Green Bean Sprouts couldn't have been wiped out..."

The timing of the beastmen's attack was too good, the governor thought. The main force of the wood elves was annihilated in the battle at the Desolate Castle, and then the split-toed ones came out to beat the fallen dogs. An Jiyue absolutely didn't believe that there was no conspiracy here.

It is well known that if you encounter strange things in the Warhammer world, it must be Tzeentch's doing. No matter what Tzeentch is planning, An Jiyue will not let this blue-haired big Cuckoo succeed.

Judging from the existing intelligence, the outskirts of the Athel Loren Forest have most likely already fallen. If Ariel is not stupid, she will definitely withdraw all her remaining forces to the Oak of Ages the moment she notices the invasion of the Beastmen. The target of Chaos is likely to be the Oak of Ages itself, the magical plant planted by the Old Saint himself.

It would definitely be too late to go there by land. The straight-line distance between Desolate Castle and the Oak of Ages has exceeded the maximum range of the Eagle Guard. Two Kingfishers alone may not be enough to turn the situation around.

[Morgan Ringo: Something big happened, Naisi came to me for help! ! ]

[Morgan Ringo: She said that Athel Loren was invaded by beastmen and the forest was in danger. She asked me to fulfill my previous promise (see Chapter 263) and immediately mobilize the army of the Crucible King's Court to rush north to help.]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: You finally showed up. You didn't respond when I @ed you before. Also, your news is a bit delayed. I'm at the edge of Athel Loren right now... The whole forest is burning.]

[Morgan Ringo: I've been designing new equipment recently, so I turned off the chat group to concentrate on my work. Anyway, what should I do now? Do I really have to take the blame for these brain-dead guys?]

An Jiyue was not the only one among the Lords of the Holy Scriptures who had research capabilities. Morgan also had the attribute of a great princess. However, unlike the all-round Jiedushi, the Lord of the Weaver was specialized in magic machinery. When she checked in, she chose a 35-point positive trait called [Mechanical Prophet]. This trait was also reflected in Morgan's false memory: the pollution-free magic smelting furnace used by the Zhui Mu King's Court was designed by "Morgan Linge" himself.

[Group leader #An Jiyue: Think about it on the bright side. At least you finally got the chance to brush your points that you always dreamed of, right? You can agree to it. After all, we can't just sit there and watch Athel Loren become a highly corrupted area. Sooner or later, we will have to intervene. ]

[Morgan Linge: I have no objection to earning points by beating the beastmen. Then what? Aren't you planning to conquer this broken forest with the dwarves? What should I do if you come to attack me?]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: Emmmm... This is indeed a problem, but it is not unsolvable. It is difficult to please people, but is it also difficult to offend people? You gather the troops first, and I need to think carefully about the specific action plan. ]

[Morgan Ringo: That's good. My new work is almost finished, so I can use the beastmen to test their combat effectiveness.]

After saying that, the Lord Weaver's avatar went dark. An Jiyue thought about it and clicked on the private chat with Xiao Yiyue. The governor of the Shuofang Army did not respond immediately. An Jiyue waited for more than ten minutes before seeing her reply.

[Admin#Xiao Yiyue: I just finished talking to Gao Yun. He said that he personally hopes to go to Xuanshui. ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: The fish has finally taken the bait. Give him a pass and say that he is welcome to visit Xuanshui. Oh, by the way, can you spare the transportation capacity now? Show some strength to them appropriately, so that it will be convenient for us to negotiate with them later. If the situation on your side allows, then arrange for a flying ship to send Gao Yun to Xuanshui. I will rush back as soon as possible. ]

[Group leader #An Jiyue: Tsk, everything happened at the same time. I wanted to go to the Oak Tree to take a look, but I don't trust Morgan to handle this big situation alone.]

[Administrator #Xiao Yiyue: I'll let the Partridge fly for a while. ]

【Group leader #An Jiyue: OK. 】

Chapter 294 The Darkest Hour

Let’s go back in time to a week ago.

The Forest of Athel Loren is a magical forest located east of Bretonnia. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides and consists of twelve different realms. Among them, the most central and critical realm is called the Eternal Forest, where the Oak of Ages and the King's Forest are located. This is not only the natural core of the forest, but also the political center of this woodland kingdom.

Not every one of the Twelve Realms is inhabited. The wild forest in the southeast corner has been abandoned for many years. Only some crazy forest spirits like Koledi are imprisoned in this desolate forest by the magic barrier formed by the guide stone to prevent them from harming the normal residents of Athel Loren. In addition to this forest, which is essentially an extra-large prison, there are many dangers hidden in the Athel Loren Forest that even Asrai cannot avoid, some of which existed long before the elves arrived.

Some threats also come from enemies the Wood Elves have faced in the past. Whether it is Beastmen, Greenskins, Undead, or something else, there are always forces that have tried to encroach on the sacred forest for various reasons, and they have all failed without exception. That said, Greenskins and Undead are easy to deal with, and they can be repelled. The special environment of Athel Loren and the elimination of the Wood Elves and Forest Spirits mean that even Greenskins cannot gain a foothold in this forest; as for the Undead, it is obviously impossible for Shaxu, the Wind of Death, to gain the upper hand in an area where the Wind of Life is so strong.

——Athel Loren is one of the few areas in the world where the veil is relatively weak. Here, things from the Chaos Realm can pass through the veil and reach the material world more easily than other places. This makes the entire Athel Loren Forest full of magical winds, and also makes the marks left by the power of chaos more difficult to expel and purify.

Take the Sorrowful Grove, located northwest of the Oak of Ages, for example. This was the place where the residents of Athel Loren fought a decisive battle with the "Shadow Sin" Morgul. The Lord of Skulls met his first death here, but the forest itself also paid a price for this: Morgul, as a mobile super-pollution source, exudes terrible chaos corruption just by its existence. This twisted force is so strong that any friendly unit that appears near Morgul may suddenly turn into a group of chaos eggs when the wind of magic fluctuates slightly.

When this creature, whose combat power was actually quite modest and whose only ability depended on being dirty enough to disgust its opponents, died for the first time in the mortal world, the place where it was killed was forever changed. The foul blood flowing from Morgul's body corrupted the land for miles around, especially an ancient oak tree called Addaivoch, whose roots once held a hall for the Lords of the Blighted Lands to gather. Now the entire tree has become a withered shell. It is worth mentioning that the dryad maiden of Koledi, Dacha, the "Tree of Sorrow", once ruled here in the distant past.

Since then, the Blighted Lands have been running wildly on the road of sustainable pills. The most important job of the Wood Elves living there is to guard the borders of the territory and monitor the movements of those dangerous beings within the territory, ensuring that the Beastmen, who are becoming more and more numerous every year, cannot threaten the safety of the forest. Given the importance of this task, the Blighted Lands always gather many Wood Elves from other realms, and everyone fights side by side to limit the threat of Chaos to the Suffering Forest and prevent it from spreading.

However, things have changed recently. In order to prevent the prophecy of Athel Loren being destroyed by the Dwarves and their unknown allies, Ariel first managed to convince her husband Orion, and then the demigod couple ignored all objections and almost went their own way to mobilize most of the army of the woodland kingdom, including the Blighted Lands.

As most of the already tight manpower was withdrawn at once, the elves of the Blighted Land could not even maintain their daily patrols of the Suffering Forest. The two ladies (Note 1) who ruled here were deeply worried about this. Due to their special duties, they did not go with the army like other lords, but stayed in the territory.

Among the twelve realms, only the Lords of the Blighted Land, the Wild Woods, and the Eternal Woods did not go out to fight. After a fierce argument, the two ladies decided to abandon most of the strongholds before the army returned triumphantly, and to gather all the people and the remaining troops for unified protection. This dangerous migration work was interrupted just as it began: the beastmen came.

To the west of the Blighted Lands is the forest border formed by a network of waystones, and further west is the land of the Bretonnians, or more precisely, the territory of the Principality of Quinarlis. In a certain Total War, Quinarlis is a secondary town and was assigned to Paraon, but in fact the Principality of Quinarlis is several times larger than Paraon. About a quarter of the famous Mount Oka is located in Quinarlis, causing this principality with a white unicorn as its emblem to suffer the threat of orcs all year round.

The Quinaris were used to it, but in the past six months, the number of enemies roaming in the Principality has increased for some reason. The Quinaris did not know that this situation was actually indirectly caused by the Paraon people. After collectively returning to the "true goddess of the lake", the number of Ai's Holy Grails in the Paraon Principality has been steadily increasing, which in turn stimulated other Paraon knights to work twice as hard and beat the enemies in the Principality again and again.

Aiwen is neither a riddler nor a fan of fancy tricks. As long as one has the potential to become a Holy Grail Knight and has made certain contributions in battle, he will be promoted and have the supreme honor of drinking the Holy Grail water. It has been only a little over half a year since the establishment of the Inner Ring, and the Principality of Paraon has secretly had fifty Ai Holy Grails.

The various monsters were unable to defeat the Holy Grail Knights Plus and could only flee. They either fled north to the Grey Mountains or south to the Principality of Quinaris, and even Athel Loren was affected. Small groups of greenskins, beastmen, and even Skaven broke into the forest, forcing the remaining wood elves to mobilize manpower to fight.

The Blighted Lands were no exception, with thousands of defeated greenskins breaking through the borders of Athel Loren and fleeing deep into the forest, looting supplies as they went. Several poorly defended wood elf villages were razed to the ground. The two ladies who ruled the Blighted Lands had no choice but to personally lead their guards to deal with the greenskin threat.

The defenses, which were already extremely weak, were now completely gone. When the wood elves who had cleared out the greenskins hurried back, they only saw the village on fire, the tribesmen who had been slaughtered, and the figures of horned beasts running around in the fire.

In the boundless anger and despair, the Wood Elves who returned home were surrounded by Beastmen who were ten times their number. The two ladies sent their best riders on the fastest horses to the Eternal Forest to report the news, while they chose to stay and prepare for the last battle of their lives.

If it weren't for the sudden arrival of more than a dozen forest dragons at the critical moment, the Withered Lands would have been the first area to be completely destroyed. These powerful scaly flying beasts rushed into the Chaos Beasts, using their fangs and claws to start a grand massacre. In the end, when the leading beast king was killed, these beastmen collapsed.

Under the cover of the forest dragon tribe, the two ladies gathered the remaining tribesmen as much as possible, and then retreated to the Eternal Forest for shelter. When they arrived at their destination, they learned another shocking news: the expeditionary army was defeated, and almost all of them were annihilated except for the cavalry. In order to allow Ariel to evacuate, the forest elder Dursu stayed behind to cover the retreat, and his current life or death is unknown.

Elves and dwarves are races that rely on soldiers for everything, and the loss of a large number of troops is equivalent to the loss of a large number of people. Even if there is no more conflict and war, the Asrai will need many small seasons, perhaps a whole great season, to restore their population before the expedition, and peace is exactly the last thing that will happen in the Warhammer world.

When they learned that their husbands, brothers, sisters, and children were almost all trapped in the Gray Mountains, the two ladies broke into Ariel's residence in anger, wanting to ask the Mage Queen how she had fought the war into such a mess; however, when they saw the figure who was tortured by guilt and was emaciated, all their anger disappeared in an instant.

After returning to the Oak of Ages, Ariel, who felt ashamed to face the people, locked herself up and refused to see anyone except the Twilight sisters. Even Orion, who came to visit her with a seriously injured body, was turned away by Ariel. If the web of life had not suddenly experienced a violent disturbance, perhaps this autism would have lasted for centuries.

While the Twilight sisters were still discussing how to cheer up their mother, the emaciated Ariel rushed out of her dwelling like a mad prophet, screaming to her people a bad news that made the situation worse: Sianasir, the terrible monster called "Morgul" by his kind, has risen in the Bitter Glade. This monster is gathering a great army, and the beastmen who were previously repelled by the elves and forest dragons of the Blight Lands are only its vanguard.

Upon hearing the news, Nais rushed to the scene. The spellcaster didn't even have time to catch his breath before the mad Ariel grabbed his shoulders.

"Recall Lord Morgan!" the Mage Queen shouted to the Spellsinger, "Tell her that her people need her help more than ever!"

……

Note 1: The names of the rulers of all twelve realms are given in the Wood Elves' Military Book. There are two rulers of the Withered Lands, Lady-Tevaril and Lady-Delynna.

The author says:

Author's words: My mother took me away to work as a farmhand last night... I didn't come back until 4am today. I slept for a while and then got up to update.

Chapter 295: Chatting and Laughing (Part 1)

A year later, An Jiyue met Gao Yun again.

This former governor of the Central Provinces Heavenly Army, current governor of the caravan and Jade Court spy, did not take the more mainstream trade routes this time. Instead, after entering the Sorrow Mountains and reaching the Gate of the Big Stomach, he turned south and took the Dragon Pass to enter the Kingdom of Ngaubula. A large area south of the Dragon Pass is the territory of the Ogre Tree Hammer Tribe, which also has a trade route passing through it.

The Longfang Road was never just a single route, but a collective name for several routes. Gao Yun had a relationship with the tyrant of the Tree Hammer Tribe, and he planned to hire some ogre mercenaries here. But when the caravan arrived, they found that the Tree Hammer Tribe had become history, and a force calling itself the "Shuofang Army" had occupied the place.

The red battle robe, black lacquer armor, three-star flag, all-firearms military composition, and mechanical horses, all these elements made Gao Yun feel very familiar. To his surprise, although the Shuofang Army occupied this trade node, it did not charge transit taxes or other taxes to the caravans, but only provided some very reasonably priced paid basic services.

Gao Yun stayed in this outpost for several days, located on the boundary between the Haunted Forest and the Ngboula Kingdom, with the Dragon Pass to the northeast and the trade route to the Inda Kingdoms to the southeast. He gained a lot from what he saw and heard. This outpost, which was under construction, had already taken shape as a trading town. In addition to Gao Yun's own caravan, he also saw another Aurora caravan, as well as some Old Worlders and Inda people, including merchants, travelers and mercenaries.

However, the Indians were not very welcome here... Gao Yun noticed that although the Shuofang Army allowed the Indians to rest and purchase supplies here, they did not allow these residents from the Land of a Thousand Gods to enter the outpost. They could only set up tents outside the outpost. The Indians were quite dissatisfied with this, but when the Yulin Guards stationed here processed a group of troublemaking Marathas into second dimensions, no one dared to openly question the Shuofang Army's differential treatment.

After a good rest and replenishing food, water and light wine, Gao Yun did not go to the Old World as originally planned, but turned southwest, preparing to go to Jingning City, which was said to be the headquarters of the Shuofang Army. The existence of Jingning and its specific location were no secrets, and Xiao Yiyue did not mind conducting some controlled trade activities with the outside world. In fact, a high elf merchant ship from the Eastern Colony had visited the dock of Jingning before.

Although Xiao Yiyue always felt that these white bean sprouts were actually here to gather information, rather than to open up new routes and trade with friendly countries as they verbally claimed.

The vicinity of the outpost is not within the coverage of the Order Domain, but the changes brought about by the anchor point deployed in Jingning are obvious: Gao Yun's caravan traveled in the notorious haunted forest for two days, during which they found that the forest was not as absurd and weird as rumored, and they did not see any "dirty things" along the way.

That being said, the scenery they saw along the way was still gray, depressing, and cold, and the peasants and horses responsible for clearing the way for the caravan could smash several trembling skeletons every day. However, when the caravan really entered the coverage of the order field, everyone suddenly found that after crossing a clear boundary, they came to an extremely normal world, with normal trees, normal moon, normal plants and animals, and carefully built roads.

Walking on the smooth road paved with large stone slabs, the caravan's speed suddenly increased. They soon arrived at their destination, Jingning, a small city that was equivalent to a relatively large county town in terms of size, but had towering city walls comparable to those of Shangwu.

Jingning had known about their arrival. During this journey, the caravan often encountered patrols of the Shuofang Army and transport teams carrying large and small bags of supplies. The core sphere of influence of the Shuofang Army, that is, the area covered by the Order Domain, did not prohibit outsiders from visiting, but it was impossible for outsiders to wander around at will. Gao Yun actually obtained a pass from the Shouzhuo Envoy stationed at the outpost before he was allowed to go to Jingning.

After all, in order to deal with the numerous dangers of all sizes on the Longfang Road, any Cathay caravan that goes to the Old World to engage in trade activities must have a security team that matches the large amount of wealth it carries. It is naturally impossible to send dragon guards out to trade like in a certain Total War game. The appearance of dragon guards in the caravan is purely a game effect. Such an outrageous thing cannot happen in the real world, unless this caravan is not a caravan at all; but other than that, the caravan has almost everything, and some caravans even have giant cannons and sky lanterns.

Due to the special mission of this trip, Gao Yun's caravan temporarily joined many "newcomers" before leaving Shangwu. The entire caravan had more than 500 full-time combatants, a team of Yuyong Lancers and two huge cannons. The military force of Gao's caravan should not be underestimated. Most of the small lords of the Sigma Empire could not afford so many standing troops even if they emptied their family coffers.

Any sane ruler would not rashly send such a team into his town, and Gao Yun understood this. When communicating with Jingning, Gao Yun took the initiative to say that all long-range weapons could be left in the camp outside the city, and his people would only carry melee weapons into the town. With Xiao Yiyue's approval, the Shuofang Army agreed to this proposal.

After staying in the hotel arranged by the Shuofang Army for one night, Gao Yun was received by Xiao Yiyue the next day. The two sides had a meaningless conversation, each trying to test the other's strengths and intentions. For Gao Yun, the only and biggest gain from this meeting was that Xiao Yiyue said that she and An Jiyue belonged to the same camp. In addition, she would arrange transportation to send Gao Yun to Xuanshui. Due to limited transportation capacity, the Shuofang Army could only provide ten places, and it was impossible to send the entire caravan over.

Gao Yun agreed. Then, he and several followers, as well as the real leader of this mission, Liu Jianguo, the staff of Yulong Yuanbo, boarded the frigate Partridge and flew over the Haunted Forest, the Naughty Kingdom, the southern part of the Dark Land, and finally crossed the World Edge Mountains to reach Xuanshui surrounded by mountains.

It would take a year to travel by land, but the airship arrived in six days. During this time, because the distance between Xuanshui and Jingning was too far, it was beyond the maximum range of the Kingfisher-class frigate, the Partridge and a grasshopper transport boat fully loaded with fuel also landed somewhere in the dark land and refilled alcohol fuel.

An Jiyue had the idea of ​​developing a professional supply ship when designing Grasshopper, but unfortunately, due to heavy workload, he had no time to research this. If the Shenzhou Fleet wants to fly long distances, it can only find a place to land halfway and let the accompanying transport boats manually refuel, which is not only inefficient but also very dangerous.

During this trip, the Partridge encountered an attack while landing to add alcohol. First, a group of wandering giant wolves tried to approach the warship, but were shot by the dwarfs and fled away whimpering with their tails between their legs; when the alcohol refueling operation was almost completed, a wild flaming giant bull jumped out from nowhere and swooped down from the air with great momentum.

There was a celestial official among Gao Yun's companions. Seeing this, he was about to take action, but was stopped by Liu Jianguo. Yulong's staff wanted to see the abilities of these "compatriots", and they did not disappoint him.

The two projectile guns raised their elevation to the maximum, and the crisis was resolved after a round of salvos. The flaming giant bull, which was pierced by the steel harpoon, fell to the ground like an oversized skewer, and after kicking its hind legs a few times, it stopped moving. This clean and swift killing made Gao Yun and others speechless, but the people of the Shuofang Army did not seem to care.

After paying the price of a bottle of high-quality rice wine, Gao Yun, who personally tried to get close to the enemy, learned from the first mate of the Partridge that they had just fought a fierce battle with the Kingdom of Caledor among the high elves last month. Although there were many casualties, the results were also great. It was later confirmed that a total of 27 "Yinglongs" were killed.

With the spoils delivered to them, the Partridge fleet arrived at Xuanshui. The law that "supernatural creatures are alchemical materials" also applies to Warhammer. This flaming giant bull will soon appear in bulk in various places where it is needed. As for Gao Yun and others, they were arranged to stay in the guest room of the Duke of Wu's mansion.

Early the next morning, after a hearty breakfast, the first official meeting between the Zhendan Celestial Empire and the Zhendan Celestial Empire began.

The author says:

Author's words: I still have to work hard on writing. My mother has always relied on economic control to exercise pathological personal control over me. It was after Shao Nian Meng published this book that the royalties from the book greatly improved my extremely tight daily expenses, and my life became much better. My mother used to only give me 500 yuan a month. In addition to the rent and water and electricity bills, all my monthly expenses had to be paid from this 500 yuan. As for wages, I have never seen wages paid to me in my life. She firmly believed that 500 yuan a month was more than enough, as if she had stamped her mind with it, and I had nothing to say about it.

After realizing that I was "too independent" and "disobedient", she took it for granted and tried to control my income from writing. I naturally couldn't agree. Then all kinds of things happened, which everyone should be able to imagine. In short, plus the one chapter I owed before, I now owe two chapters. I will probably be able to be quiet in the next few days, so I will try to make up for it as much as possible, eh...

Chapter 296: Chatting and Laughing (Part 2)

On May 2503, 5 of the Imperial Calendar, Xuanshui, the back garden of the Duke of Wu’s Mansion.

After breakfast, Gao Yun, Liu Jianguo and a astronomical official were led by the servants of the Duke of Wu's mansion to the back garden, where they met An Jiyue who was waiting in a pavilion. Gao Yun, who was born in the military, looked around and saw that in addition to the few servants in the garden, there were only a few people wearing full sets of armor, with even their faces covered by masks and equipped with swords. These Jiedushi's guards were in groups of two, standing in various corners of the garden with a variety of short weapons, and many of them also carried strong bows or crossbows.

As for An Jiyue herself, she changed into the Tang Dynasty Pillar suit that she had worn when she first traveled through time: a purple round-necked robe with dark patterns, a cross-legged martial hat on her head, short black boots on her feet, and various odds and ends such as a goldfish bag, a military governor's seal, and a white jade waist badge hung on the belt that bound her slender waist.

The servant led the three visitors to the pavilion, and then retreated outside the pavilion to wait quietly. The three looked at each other. Gao Yun, who had been standing in the center when they came, now stood aside, while Liu Jianguo sat on the stone bench opposite An Jiyue, and looked at each other across a small round stone table.

"My name is Liu Jianguo, nice to meet you, General An." After a moment, Liu Jianguo bowed and spoke first.

Jin Zhifan, who was standing behind An Jiyue, looked over at him with his eyes slanted. The deputy captain's gaze made Liu Jianguo feel as if a sharp dagger had slid gently across his throat. Even without looking back, Liu Jianguo could feel Gao Yun tense up, while Si Tiancheng on the other side looked calm.

The governor glanced back, and the deputy commander immediately put away his killing intent. "What advice does Your Highness Yulong have?" An Jiyue asked directly, seemingly not understanding the subtle wording of the staff.

Liu Jianguo didn't look surprised or stunned at all. If he didn't have psychic powers, An Jiyue would have been fooled by his calm performance. "General An is really as swift and decisive as the rumors say," Liu Jianguo said with a smile. "Before I left, the Prime Minister told me that if he is really a wandering son of the Celestial Empire, what's wrong with the Imperial Court giving him some help?"

The pavilion suddenly became quiet. Gao Yun subconsciously looked to the side, and found that the Si Tiancheng named Qin Yu was also looking at him. Their eyes met, and then they immediately looked away.

"But if not," An Jiyue said softly, "what is that hidden prince going to do?"

"As the old saying goes, only the ability and reputation cannot be borrowed from others," Liu Jianguo restrained his smile, "I heard that General An has done a great job in this western land. I originally thought it was just some exaggerated rumors, but what I saw recently, I just know what it means to have a strong military force..." At this point, Liu Jianguo paused delicately: "...the country's power is growing day by day."

"I have no intention of establishing myself," An Jiyue said, "The title of Supreme Ruler is just an empty title."

"In remote areas of our country, there are often self-proclaimed emperors rising up for the empty reputation that General An despises," Liu Jianguo said. "General An may not care, but I would like to ask if the generals in front of General An do not care either?"

"Is this Yulong's concern," An Jiyue asked, "or the concern of those two people in Haotian City?"

"What is there to worry about in the Heavenly Court?" Liu Jianguo stroked his beard and said, "General An is far away in the heavens, so he is not subject to the laws of the court. He is free and unrestrained."

"I almost understand what you mean," An Jiyue nodded, and then suddenly said, "Get up." The girl cast her eyes on Gao Yun and said, "Sit down, I'll talk to you. This old loach can go away now."

Gao Yun was still staring, but Liu Jianguo had already stood up from the stone bench with a smile, and then pressed Gao Yun down on the bench without saying anything. "Although Brother Gao has no official position now, it doesn't matter," said the old loach with a smile, "Brother Gao, just talk to General An about the business, I will support you!"

The former gatekeeper swallowed hard and said, "Excuse me, Lord An, is Mr. Bing (Note 1) here?"

"She is recuperating. Even if she can come back alive from an expedition to the Arctic wasteland, she will lose half her life," An Jiyue's tone relaxed a little after changing the person she was negotiating to Gao Yun. "Her soul has suffered a serious trauma. I can only seal her in an ice coffin to relieve her pain, otherwise she will go crazy from the pain."