Chapter 685 Wizards’ Meeting in Southern County
After arriving at Fort Sora, Horn did not continue to command the army personally, but delegated the command to a group of officers and witches such as Jeanne.
After expelling the armies from the temples in several nearby towns, except for the God's Punishment Army that advanced towards Dragonfly Bay, the rest of the armies did not proceed further.
After all, the supply line was stretched too long, and the losses were a bit large, and supplies began to run out.
In the past few days, Horne was either patrolling and receiving people nearby, or looking through the ledgers at Sola Fort to estimate trade and population.
After this battle, the secret parties in the southern county, including Thelomis himself, became much more at ease. Although they did not actively agree with Horne's proposal, they no longer opposed it as strongly as before.
As the situation gradually stabilized and the war in the southern county turned dangerous, Horn took advantage of the fact that most of the secret party leaders in the southern county gathered at Sola Castle to convene a gathering of wizards and began to formally discuss the future of the southern county with them.
Since Sora Castle was small, Horn chose a temple outside the city.
Unlike Changdi City, which is surrounded by mountains and rivers and has natural city walls and a long embankment, Sola Fort is still divided into a military castle and a commercial port, as well as scattered residential buildings and shops to form an outer city.
Standing on the top of the temple's base, Horn could see the panoramic view of the outer city of Sora Castle.
In April, the hot sunlight makes the grass blades curl, and even with the naked eye you can see the evaporation and distortion of the moisture in the air.
Flange-shaped stilted buildings and snake-like sandstone houses line up side by side. Red, purple or even pink flowers, trees and vines are interspersed among the white houses.
Due to the rocky terrain near Sola Fort, and the locals have the habit of planting potted medicinal herbs, when spring comes, flowers bloom, and it looks like a hanging garden at first glance.
Although the war at Sola Fort had just ended, there were still people going to the market under the red and purple flowers and trees.
In such a hot environment, men, women and children wearing sun-shading cloaks and veils walked around in twos and threes under the shade of trees and under the eaves, picking and choosing between various vendors and shops.
Alchemists stirred the crucible, astrologers held astrolabes, red-turbaned vendors shouted and slapped the fruits on the stalls with handkerchiefs, and monks of the Guard hesitated in front of the shops holding peppers.
Almost within a week, the supplies left by the French quickly turned into bags of pepper and frankincense, which were exchanged among the monks and merchants.
Horn has previously inspected the pepper market here. The price of pepper as a spice is about 5 dinars per pound. It is even cheaper to wholesale or buy it in the countryside.
He had seen the residents of Green Blood Town cooking sweet bean porridge over a fire with cinnamon trees, adding all kinds of pepper and cardamom.
The current market price of pepper in the empire is about 60 dinars to 110 dinars per pound. Excluding travel expenses, the nobles in the Clove Corridor can make 20 times the net profit when they resell it.
No wonder the nobles in the Lilac Corridor would rather fight against the royal family and launch a war of suppression in advance than accept the north flow of spices.
It is no wonder that the earl of Ursion has a fortune of 30,000 gold pounds, and the Duke of Darney has a fortune of only 60,000 gold pounds. The common wealth of the earls of the Thousand Valleys is between 3,000 and 6,000 gold pounds.
Horn's gaze passed through the crowds of people going to the market. When he came down the slope paved with fine stones, he could see the white stone railings with snake patterns carved on the chest.
The height of the snake-man temple under his feet was about the same as that of a normal castle wall.
It is built up of square sandstones and looks like a small pyramid with its upper half cut off. Above the base is a corridor composed of circular columns, forming the Quetzalcoatl Temple.
At this moment, Horn stood in front of the moldy green bronze door, watching the secret party leaders wearing all kinds of strange clothes and tattoos walking up the stairs.
Every time a person came, Horn would come up and shake his hand. The sun gradually rose into the sky, and at 9 o'clock, he turned around and walked into the venue, and the bronze door behind him slowly closed.
As for those secret party leaders who were late or did not come, they all knew what would happen if they did not attend the meeting. It was they who refused power.
The circular hall, which was originally full of rancid smell, was now filled with the scent of flowers and pepper.
On the wooden shelf that had been built in advance, each member of the secret party sat down according to their relationship and origin. Horn roughly counted about two hundred people.
Seeing Horn and other monks from the Sacred Axis taking their seats, Lulesi, as the witch council and the governor of the northern county, stepped onto the main stage.
Putting her speech on the table in front of her, she stepped on the small stool and stretched her upper body out of the main podium. Her white twin ponytails were tied into a woman's hairstyle.
After taking a drag on her pipe and blowing out a smoke ring, Lulesi lazily opened the speech script in her hand:
"Dear wizards:
Today, we stand here to celebrate a hard-won victory. When we look back at the darkest moment, the army of the church broke through our borders and burned our homes.
I once thought that the richest southern counties would fall into the hands of the church as the western counties had done, but I was wrong.
The people of Black Snake Bay came through again! With the staff in our hands and the courage in our hearts, we have endured the most desperate days. Today, we can proudly say: We have not surrendered!
However, we must realize that this victory does not come only from our courage and determination. It can even be said that our courage only accounts for a relatively small part.
Our victory is that the Sacred Axis of the North lends a helping hand and joins us in driving the enemy out of here.
Please...you...Collect_6Ⅰ9ⅠBookⅠ(Six\\\Nine\\\Book\\\!)
Everyone, when we fought with blood and blood countless times against the church, I once asked myself, and maybe you also asked yourself:
Why are we so fragile that we are suppressed again and again without being able to fight back? Why do we have indomitable warriors but need the help of the Divine Axis to resist? ”
Having said this, the white-haired Loli once again picked up the huge pipe, took a long puff, and then continued to speak in the quiet and smoke-filled venue:
"Perhaps the answer to this question can be found in the Thousand River Valley in the north. You see, they were not born strong. They were once divided into large and small forces, quarreling and opposing each other like us...
But in their most critical moment, they chose unity and sacrifice.
As a result, they, who are obviously less free and less independent than us, not only maintained their freedom, but also completely drove the church power out of Qianhe Valley, and even came to our aid.
So, my wizard friends, today we not only celebrate victory, but also hope that everyone will think: freedom and independence were once our pride, but now, have they become shackles?
As a representative of the Witch Council and the Northern County Federal Council, I do not require you to answer immediately. I only hope that everyone can seriously recall and think about everything we have seen these days. ”
As Lulesi walked down from the main podium carrying the small stool, some of the secret party leaders thought about Lulesi's meaningful words, but some still looked dismissive.
However, the Holy Axis army was ahead. After Thelomis read out the "Black Snake Bay Joint Declaration" based on the "Thousand Valley Freedom Charter", everyone still applauded and agreed to carry out the same reforms as in the northern county.
The registration of secret parties and the formation of county councils have quickly entered the agenda of many secret parties.
But soon a new problem blocked the next process.
"If you set up a card to collect taxes on the spices and brown sugar we sell ourselves, why are we not allowed to set up a tax card?"
Sure enough, those secret parties who relied on the spice trade to make a living stood up and began to oppose.
(End of chapter)