I will be crowned king

After reluctantly returning the pipe to the stingy commander-in-chief, Alexey, who looked a little disappointed, turned and walked out of the prison, wondering what excuse he should use to convince the Fifth Infantry Regiment outside the door. There is their commander Julien, who is probably facing a formidable enemy.

Alexey did not lie to Joseph. He really did not have a close relationship with this "youngest member of the officer corps" - the other was Anson Bach - or in other words, no one had a close relationship with him.

This colleague, who looks strong on the outside but is delicate on the inside, is an extremely difficult person to get along with. You must always be careful when dealing with him. If you are not careful, your dignity will be hurt, and then you will not want to talk about anything.

Pay attention to your words... This is simply more painful than being executed for Alexei, who has always been "cheerful and outgoing".

With an unhappy expression of being forced to do nothing, Lieutenant Colonel Alexey Dukasky, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, walked out of the prison door alone.

In the messy cell, only the unconscious Joseph, the legion commander and his grenadier commander were looking at each other.

Biting the pipe he took back from Alexey's mouth, Anson stared at Fabian squatting on the ground without saying a word; he lowered his head and his chest rose slightly; even though he couldn't see his face, he could still feel it. His mood was fluctuating violently.

After a while, Fabian raised his head and met Anson's gaze without hesitation:

"What do you want to ask?"

"It depends on what you want to say."

Anson remained calm: "I won't force you, but I want to know what all this is about."

"what happened?"

Fabian was stunned for a moment, and then showed a slightly self-deprecating smile: "If I say that I actually don't know what is going on, would you believe it?"

"I believe it." Anson shrugged:

"You can just say what you know, or what you want to say."

"What I know and what I want to say... Haha, you are still as cautious as you were when we first met."

Fabian looked down at Joseph beside him, and the smile on his face gradually disappeared:

"He is my uncle, but after all, he has been missing for more than 20 years. Before, I was only suspicious. It was only just now that I was completely convinced that it was him. However, he probably recognized me when we first met."

"The first time..." Anson recalled:

"Is it when you were in Changhu Town?"

"Yes, he was the leader of the Changhu Town militia at the time. He cooperated with the Promise Keepers militia led by me to put on a show of 'being defeated and forced to surrender', allowing me to defeat and capture his Changhu Town militia with zero casualties. Militia group." Fabian nodded:

"In fact, I already had my doubts at that time."

"Do you suspect that he is the same person as your missing uncle?"

"No, I suspect that he may be secretly colluding with the Crecy family." Fabian shook his head, and his calm tone made Anson reveal a flash of surprise:

"Don't worry, Commander-in-Chief, neither the secretary nor the chief of staff have disclosed this information. I relied on my own intelligence network and observation to deduce it bit by bit."

"Although he made many seemingly reasonable excuses for his behavior and motives at the time,... I served as a member of the Guards and have seen many similar suspects. Pretending to be sincere sophistry and telling the truth cannot escape me. Eye."

"So I speculate that you have probably reached a deal with the Crecy family, asking their people to actively cooperate with your military operation to take down Long Lake Town, and Uncle Joseph is one of them."

"Similar signs have become more and more obvious since then. Your hesitation in Black Reef Port made me deepen my judgment in this regard, and concluded that the agreement between you and them is probably related to Sail City - the Storm Division got the Red Reef Hand Bay and Long Lake Town, the Crecy family obtained Sailing City, and finally divided the six major colonies of the empire equally."

"During this period, he did not do anything special, and he actively cooperated with the Storm Division's strategic deployment... But this is actually also abnormal, because it is difficult for Changhu Town to profit from these military operations; and his colleagues 'Compared with us, my dear Uncle Joseph is too positive."

"Then, he left Changhu Town and joined the Shooting Army."

Fabian's eyes gradually sharpened, and for a moment, Anson seemed to see the Guards officer sitting on the sofa in the apartment again, questioning him in a gentle voice:

"The emotion of doubt... is like a seed. From the moment it appears, it is natural to grow; but my problem is that I planted more than one seed in him."

"When you think about the possibility that he is Uncle Joseph, it's hard to think about his relationship with the Crecy family, especially since I don't have any evidence yet."

"Evidence... This is how I convinced myself. I have no evidence, only a bunch of speculative suspicions. He behaved normally and did not harm the interests of the legion, so why should I still doubt him?"

"But even if you want to cut off the doubts that have taken root and deceive yourself, you need external help; for those uncertain factors, I want to get answers from him personally."

"That's why you went to find him privately." Anson blew out a smoke ring:

"To get an answer that will convince you?"

"Well, it's also to avoid causing too much impact."

The commander of the Grenadier Corps leaned against the cold iron fence and breathed a long sigh of relief: "If I tell you my suspicions, then for the sake of safety, a large number of shooting army officers headed by Joseph must be eliminated... But now It’s almost December, and there are less than four months left before spring next year, which will be a devastating blow to the shooting army, which is just starting to gain momentum.”

"Comparatively speaking, private negotiation is the least bad option."

This is true... Anson thought in his heart.

In fact, this was what he was worried about at the beginning. If a large number of people were really involved because of the Cressy family, his shooting army plan would be virtually bankrupt, and it would be impossible to put it together in the remaining few months. So many officers, not to mention those indigenous soldiers.

At the latest by the end of December, indigenous people from various colonies who have either purchased or "donated" will gather in Beluga Port. If there is a problem with the officers, then there will be something wrong with the indigenous soldiers. After all, they are originally the old gods. For believers of the sect, it is not surprising even if they serve the evil god of the Land of Rest openly.

As Fabian said, suspicion is like a seed. Once it is planted, it will not stop. Even just monitoring Joseph will inevitably cause people to panic. In the end, if a large number of people are not eradicated, the shooting army will not stop. The work simply cannot be carried out normally.

If it were the army of the Kingdom of Clovis, it might be okay if everything had standard procedures. The most tragic result would be that a few major suspects were shot to death indiscriminately. As a warning, a new batch of officers would take office. Everything is business as usual.

The problem is that the Shooting Army is a standard private soldier, even if Anson's highest expectation for it is the average level of the levy corps; as for what level the levy corps is...Major General Ludwig at Thunder Castle should have the most say.

This kind of army is already stuck in the bottom line. If you purge the officers and let the soldiers report each other, and everyone passes the test, the combat effectiveness that was finally accumulated will be gone in an instant.

Of course, if they were just gathering numbers and treating them as a "handicraft army" by laying them out, it wouldn't matter... But they probably dispersed without waiting for the battlefield, which is quite poetic like morning dew melting under the sun.

There is a saying that "as you are loyal to your army, your army will be loyal to you", which probably means this.

So Fabian made a private appointment with Joseph in the hope of quietly resolving the matter. It was actually the right thing to do. Anson himself would probably have used a similar method... Besides, he didn't have any evidence in his hand, and there was no way to talk about a report or anything like that. rise.

...If he is not a member of the Crecy family.

Looking at Joseph who was motionless, Anson took another hard puff on his pipe.

"That's what happened... As for the result of the conversation, he concealed it perfectly and didn't let me notice any flaws. The several times he 'happened' to Beluga Port City and the coincidence with the time of your assassination were also sufficient. explain."

Fabian was silent for a while, and his expression suddenly became calm: "Of course, it is true that there was no report to you and no private investigation. I will not deny it. Everything is at your disposal."

After saying that, he slowly stood up and dusted himself: "In addition, if you are going to interrogate Joseph, or simply shoot him, don't give him too much pain, and don't hand him over to Thalia. Ma’am—that’s my only request.”

So he already knew about the Luen family... Anson nodded slightly.

"Danglang——"

The quiet silence was interrupted by the sound of the door being pushed violently, and the two people who met each other stopped talking in a tacit agreement.

After a while, the military doctor, who was chewing two cigarettes, came in with two assistants. He glanced at Joseph lying on the ground silently, and then looked at the grenadier commander who had a gunshot wound on his leg, and frowned slightly. He raised his eyebrows:

"Why are there two of them? Didn't that bastard Alexey say there was only one?"

"Maybe he remembered it wrong?"

Anson chuckled. In the darkness and the surrounding smoke, it was indeed difficult to notice the wound on Fabian's leg: "Excuse me, Chief Hank."

"It's not troublesome. What's troublesome is the teacher who taught mathematics to our commander of the Second Infantry Regiment." The military doctor rolled his eyes and waved to the medical soldier who followed behind him: "Go, call a few more people in, and bring two more people with you." Get a stretcher."

After giving instructions, he turned back to look at Anson: "The chief of staff has arrived at the headquarters and said he has something to see you."

"I understand, let's get over it."

Anson nodded slightly, put away his pipe, and said to Fabian before leaving: "Then let's talk later."

"good."

The commander of the Grenadier Corps smiled indifferently, somewhat letting go of all his composure, and watched Anson leave the headquarters prison.

After walking out of the prison gate, Anson walked straight to the reception room of the headquarters; probably because of the movement in the prison just now, the atmosphere in the entire military camp became significantly more solemn. There were troops on alert and gathering everywhere, looking ready to take action. Posture.

After stopping a messenger who was passing by in a hurry, he asked and found out: After a detailed investigation, the Commander-in-Chief discovered that a large number of remnants of the Faithless Knights had sneaked into Beluga Port, and was preparing to dispatch the Fifth Infantry Regiment to march into the city to cooperate with the Second and Third Infantry in the city. The three infantry regiments launched a large-scale suppression and cleanup.

Thinking that his simple "unblock" order was misinterpreted by Alexey in this way, Anson froze in place, and suddenly felt the urge to hit someone.

But he didn't know that the commander of the Second Infantry Regiment was more aggrieved than he was - there were people from the Fifth Infantry Regiment everywhere outside at that time, and Lieutenant Colonel Julien was a guy who was particularly sensitive to dignity.

If Alexey dared to lie directly and said that nothing happened in the prison and that it was none of your business here, Julien, who was "conscious of being humiliated", would have dared to directly detain him and rush in with his own troops.

In comparison, "white lie" is already the least bad option - of course this does not change Anson's idea of ​​"rewarding" him.

Arriving at the gate of the headquarters, Carl Bain, who was leaning against the door, was waiting silently. When he saw Anson's figure, he casually put out his cigarette butt, walked forward quickly and said:

"People from the Harold Foundation are here and waiting for you inside."

He did not ask what happened in the prison, nor did he mention how Fabian was doing... As a professional scapegoat who had cleaned up countless messes all year round, Carl Bain was used to this kind of thing, unless Anson took the initiative to mention it , otherwise it would be difficult to ask.

This is the attitude and the tacit understanding.

Anson nodded and asked casually: "Is there a purpose for talking about it?"

"No, but judging from their expressions and what they asked about, they already have something to do with the Faithless Knights... I always feel that it is different from the usual arrogant attitude, and they are too cautious." Karl shook his head, looked around and lowered his voice. The voice said:

"I remember you mentioned that you have successfully made the local Faithless Knights of Beluga Port betray you, right?"

"It's just a part, it's a cooperative relationship now." Anson shrugged:

"The ones attacking Beluga Port now are all part of other colonies before - they should be directly ordered by the Cressey family."

"The Cressy family, so Miss Thalia went to Wintertorch City for this reason..." Karl nodded slightly, with a flash of understanding in his eyes:

"What do you need me to do?"

"Manage the shooting army well and let them start training as soon as possible. Don't disrupt the plan for today." Anson paused and said:

"In addition, you may have to take care of the Grenadier Regiment and some military affairs for a while during this period. If you are too busy, bring Norton Crosell over to help. I feel that his talent in management is stronger than that of command... In short We’ll wait until Fabian recovers from his gunshot wound.”

"...Fabian?"

"Yes, Commander of the Grenadier Corps, Army Colonel Fabian." Anson raised his eyebrows:

"I can't bear to give up on such an excellent deputy commander so easily."