Iron Powder and Spellcaster

[Interrogation Record]

first

Time: 13th, March, 560

Starting at 8:01

Ends at 9:30

Inquirer: John Thomas, Lieutenant Colonel, Commander, 6th Battalion, 7th Regiment

Recorded by: Sickingen Müller, Captain, Captain of the Gendarmerie, Solingen Cantonal Garrison Headquarters

Person being questioned: Alfonso de Paiva

[The inquiry content is recorded as follows]

Q: Tell me your name.

Answer: Alfonso de Paiva.

Question: Family situation?

Answer: Mother, two sisters, and one brother.

Question: Not married?

Answer: No.

Q: The name you use in Solingen is Alfonso de Paiva?

Answer: No, my identity in Solingen is the fur trader Kapfen.

Question: What is your real identity?

Answer: Royal Commission for Safety, Commissioner II, Director of the Canton of Solingen

Q: What are your responsibilities?

Answer: (Silence for a moment) The intelligence collection of Steel Castle and Solingen State, as well as the intelligence of the six autonomous states will also be compiled and screened by me, and then sent to Nordmonta.

…

They are all poured from the same mold, and the questioning process of the Monta Carabinieri is no different from that of the Veneta Carabinieri.

Moreover, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas must have been determined to handle the case without leakage, so he asked for a lot of necessary but not critical information at the beginning of the formal interrogation.

Winters glanced at the unimportant content and pulled the scroll directly to the end.

…

Q: Tell us about the fire on the night of March 10.

Answer: (Silence).

Question: Why don't you speak?

A: I don’t know where to start.

Q: Start from the earliest place you can think of. For example, when did you learn about the arson plan? Who told you that?

A: I didn’t know the plan from beginning to end. The messenger only told me what to do, not why.

Question: Messenger?

Answer: Your Majesty... Henry III's most trusted executor. I don't know his name, only that he is the Messenger.

Question: When did you first meet the emissary?

Answer: One month ago.

Question: Who brought him here?

Answer: No one, he found me by himself.

Question: Then how do you know he is the messenger?

Answer: He carries a token, can read code words, and knows my identity.

Question: What token?

Answer: The iron ring, and a key.

Q: Key?

Answer: Commissioners of the Royal Commission of Safety are given a steel lock when they receive their appointment. Each lock corresponds to a key. The key represents the emperor's absolute power. When the man came to me, he had my keys with him.

…

"Key? Ring."

Winters' mind raced, and he immediately thought of the simple steel ring and the small bunch of keys found in the secret room.

Except for the liquid fire, iron bombs, and gunpowder, everything stored in the secret room-including the bags of ballast-was taken by Winters as trophies and was not given to Monta's Army.

To be sure, Winters never mentioned the cards, keys, and rings to anyone who wasn't aware of them.

Lieutenant Colonel Thomas, who heard about the "key" for the first time, carefully asked a lot about the key: what material, what style, what size, etc.

Winters blinked, turned the page, and continued looking for the key information.

…

Q: Tell us about the riots. Who were those assassins?

Answer: I don’t know.

Question: Don’t know?

Answer: I don't know. The Security Council is not an assassin-killer, it only engages in passive information gathering. The mobilization of the garrison, the price fluctuation of flour, the character and tendencies of city councilors and state legislators... These are the things I usually inquire about.

Q: What happened to those assassins?

Answer: If the emperor wanted to get rid of someone who was an eyesore, or if he thought force was necessary, he would send those swordsmen. As for who are those swordsmen? We don’t ask and they don’t tell.

Q: Tell me how you incited the riot.

Answer: (sarcastic smile) If there is no firewood and straw, what is the use of flint and fire sickle?

Q: I'm asking you a question.

Answer: It was cold and rainy last year and the crops failed. The price of wheat remains high after autumn, and even rises to one gulden per bag after winter. The prices of barley and oats also increase. People had to add more acorns, lentils, and peas to the flour. Even so, wages can buy less and less bread. Also, do you know how many workshops are still in arrears with the wages of their helpers? Do you know...

Q: (Knocks on table) Answer the questions that are asked of you, not the questions that are not asked of you.

Answer: (Gasps) The mule workers are holding back because they still hold on to the hope that the trade ban will be lifted and their employers will sell off their stockpiles and pay off their wages. So as soon as the news from the Horn Castle came back, disappointment was immediately replaced by anger. A cry of "take back what we deserve" and a brave person taking the lead are enough to channel their anger into action.

A: You see, the riot is there, it will happen sooner or later, I just speed up the process. And you are too arrogant, so arrogant that you turn a blind eye to the wrath of the silent ones. Do you know where the mule workers meet regularly? Do you know how many associations there are among mule workers? Do you know who the most prestigious person among the mule workers is? You don't know because you treat them like mules.

Question: (questioning coldly) So you know everything?

Answer: (Spread your hands).

…

Winters sighed.

Regarding the resettlement of disaster victims, the military and administrative departments of Solingen State have so far failed to come up with a proper plan.

After the fire, rents and bread prices in Steel Castle skyrocketed, causing even many residents who were not affected by the disaster to complain.

Citizens who can afford the rent or have relatives who can join them can still stay in the city for the time being. And those poor people who have nothing to begin with have no way to go to heaven and no way to go to earth.

If Colonel Bern hadn't temporarily recruited a large number of young and middle-aged men to fight the fire and provide food and accommodation, a second round of riots would have broken out in Steel Castle by now.

Servetus's large-scale reconstruction plan looked good to Winters, and could even be said to be the only hope for Steel Castle.

Clearing the ruins and rebuilding the houses required a lot of labor, and Servetus's ambitious plan even included dredging rivers, repairing roads, and expanding the city.

Through some honest and reliable partners, Winters immediately obtained a complete copy of the draft submitted by Servetus to the Executive Committee - the emperor's hand fell, but the steel castle still did not escape being penetrated like a sieve Same fate.

Unfortunately, no matter how good a mason is, he cannot make bricks without straw.

Although Servetus's plan was good, no one wanted to pay for it. Even if there is a way to "raise debt using city assets as security", the chance of success is very slim.

Because what Servetus needs is not a small amount of money, but a huge amount of funds, so huge that the gold Winters brought can only temporarily quench his thirst.

Debts must be repaid after all, and if you borrow money using city assets as security, you have to rely on property owners with citizen rights to pay for it.

And "turning the city from a good asset into a debt hole" is exactly what the "Steel Castle citizens" don't want to see.

According to information received by Winters, the city council's executive members preferred the "evacuation" option.

That is to say, the unemployed and homeless people in the prefecture are sent to other autonomous prefectures to reduce the food and housing burden of Steel Fort, and then slowly raise funds for reconstruction.

As for what’s next for the evacuated people? The executive members tacitly did not discuss the topic.

Therefore, when he and Servitt negotiated a scrap iron purchase agreement, Winters was not nervous at all. He even skipped the back-and-forth process and directly offered Servitt a purchase price per ton.

It’s even a step-down price—that is, the larger the total quantity, the lower the unit price.

Because "the original purchase plan has been achieved, and if we continue to purchase scrap iron, we will have to bear unnecessary risks. Of course, there will be more freight costs."

Servetus turned pale and walked away on the spot.

But in the end...it ended with a friendly handshake.

Winters blinked, opened the scroll of inquiry records, and continued reading.

…

Q: Tell us more about your plans.

Answer: (Sigh) I have already said, that is not my plan, that is the messenger's plan. I don't understand the Messenger's plan. I know your interrogation tactics and there is no need to ask me this question repeatedly because I am telling the truth.

Q: Then tell me about the part that you participated in and that you know about.

Answer: I only know that there were four teams of people operating at the same time that night. I was responsible for delaying your entry into the city and creating time for others to carry out their tasks.

Question: Four teams? Which four teams?

Answer: There is one team each from Nancheng, Beicheng, and Old City, as well as my team.

Question: How many people are there?

Answer: I don’t know. I don't know how many people the messenger brought. I only know that he assigned me twenty-two swordsmen.

Question: Can more than twenty people stir up the steel castle?

Answer: There are also some peripheral personnel who are unaware. (Tired) It doesn't take a torch to light a house full of firewood.

Question: What are the tasks of each team?

Answer: You know mine. The group in the old city was responsible for guiding the rioters and getting rid of those who got in the way when necessary. As far as I know, those who go to Beicheng should go to kill Bai Ying. The group in Nancheng was led by the messenger himself. I don't know his purpose. I guess...heh, I won't guess anymore.

Q: Tell us about Borso da Este, the White Eagle.

Answer: Many contraband and personnel entered Monta and Steel Castle through his method.

Q: Does he know your identities?

Answer: (laughing) I probably don’t know. Or pretend not to know.

Question: Why does he want to help you?

Answer: Because he also has a lot of contraband that he wants to transport into Beimengta.

Q: Since he helped you, why did you kill him?

Answer: Why can't we kill him? He is a nobody to you, but worthless to us. As for why he was killed? I don't know what the messenger was thinking. Perhaps it was because the envoy visited him in person that he wanted to silence him? I have no idea. Besides, he was not the only one the envoy wanted to kill.

Question: Who else will the envoy kill?

Answer: (Lazily) The congressmen and forge owners who are close to Veneta will be killed more, and the people who are pro-Union Province will also be killed, just to show off.

Question: Why?

A: I told you, I don't know. (Hesitates for a moment) If you want to hear it, I can tell you my guess.

Q: Tell me.

Answer: The messenger wants to break the factional balance of Steel Castle, get rid of the Veneta faction figures, and then anger Veneta. Alas, it doesn't really matter what the messenger wants, what matters is what the emperor wants. I guess I have a vague feeling that His Majesty may not want to see Nanmonta interfere too much in the situation in Plato.

Question: Is there any connection between getting rid of White Eagle and preventing Monta from interfering with Plato?

Answer: (helpless) Have you ever played chess? There are always people who, when they make the current move, have already seen several subsequent moves in their mind. Your Majesty—Henry III was a man of foresight who predicted that his family would eventually conquer the world. The information I submit is often given feedback, sometimes even detailed instructions. I can feel that although the Empire has only fought in the north and east over the years, His Majesty's eyes have always been on the Shade Mountains and on you. "

Question: I still don’t understand. Killing pro-Veneta people will only lead to enmity between Monta and Veneta. How can Monta do not interfere too much in the situation in Plato?

Answer: How do I know? I also want to ask you, is it possible that a massacre with the footprints of people from the United Provinces will give the Southern Montague government a blow in the head, so that you will not dare to act rashly?

Q: (exchanging glances) What you said is all speculation.

Answer: (impatiently) Yes, and I told you a long time ago that what I said was all speculation.

(brief silence)

Interviewee: (asked tentatively) What is the current situation in Nancheng?

Inquirer: It may be burned to a crisp, or it may be intact. Why are you concerned about the situation in Nancheng?

Answer: (Bitter) Nancheng is the place where the envoy is personally responsible, as well as advisors. That place should have been burned to the ground, right? But the baron gave me four Newlon clocks, and I didn't know what to think.

Question: You still haven’t said why you care about the current situation in Nancheng.

Answer: (Sigh) What I say next is all guesswork.

Q: Please tell me.

Answer: I don’t know the full extent of the messenger’s plan. But according to the way he distributes his troops, as well as the locations of storage points and safe houses - I have told you all the storage points and safe houses I know, they are all in the North City. So I guess... the messenger wanted to destroy two districts of Steel Castle at once.

Question: Nancheng and Old City?

Answer: Yes, keep Beicheng. It was more difficult to handle the Nancheng side, so he personally led the team.

Question: Why?

Answer: Keeping the rich might be more beneficial to his plans. Besides, if a person's limbs were cut off and only his head was left, he wouldn't live long.

Q: Why is it better to keep the rich?

Answer: (Reluctantly) I said, don’t speculate on the messenger’s thoughts. The messenger is the secret hand of the emperor, and his plan is ultimately to realize the emperor's ideas - he should think about what the emperor wants.

Question: What does the false emperor want?

Answer: (unconsciously nervous) What I say below is all based on the premise that the emperor ‘does not want to see Nanmonta interfere too much in the situation of Plato’, and these are all my guesses. Can you not record it?

Q: Tell me.

Answer: If Your Majesty does not want to see Monta influence the situation in Plato, then destroying a mere steel castle may be a world-ending disaster for you, but for Your Majesty, it is like erasing a drop of ink on the map. ——The handwriting is really too small.

Question: (The brows are getting tighter and tighter)

Answer: (Swallowing unconsciously) If His Majesty wants Monta not to interfere with Plato, then the way he will achieve his goal will definitely not be to let Monta retreat even if he wants to. It is impossible to interfere with Plato'. Because he will not give his enemies a choice, he does not even give his subjects a choice - this is his style.

Q: What do you want to say?

Answer: (hesitating) I think the Steel Castle incident may be just the beginning. If His Majesty doesn't want to see you reaching out to Plato, (pause) famine, war, plague... He will definitely find a way to achieve his purpose and make you trapped in the mountains, unable to take a step. For He is the One who has authority from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth—that’s what the prophecy says.

Question: (Contemptuously) We don’t believe in the prophecy of the false emperor’s self-deification.

Answer: (laughing sadly) But every citizen of the empire firmly believes in this.

…

The record of the first—actually, the second—interrogation ends here.

Winters slowly put away the scroll, his mind still occupied by Alfonso's warning.

"Have you finished reading?" Colonel Berne asked from the hospital bed.

"I've finished reading." Winters put the scroll into the copper sleeve and asked with a smile, "Can I take this copy with me?"

"Copy?" Colonel Berne stared: "This is the original, and this is the only one! It will be sent to the Horn Castle today. After you read it, seal it for me!"

Winters flicked the oil lamp carelessly, and flames flickered out of the wick. He picked up a copper spoon filled with fire paint and placed it on the fire to bake patiently.

Colonel Berne raised his eyebrows: "Can you use magic?"

"It's okay to light a fire." Winters replied in a relaxed tone, but he still refused to give up: "Can I make a copy?"

"Okay." Colonel Bern snorted softly: "You can stay in Monta and copy as many copies as you want."

Winters fell silent. He melted the wax, poured a little on the buckle of the copper sleeve, then took Colonel Berne's seal ring and covered it.

Colonel Berne said with hatred: "Do you know how many people this small roll of parchment will involve? What consequences will it cause? If you still want to return to Plato, stay as far away from it as possible !”

Winters sighed: "I hope it can calm down the big shots in the United Provinces and Veneta and let them know that there is an evil dragon on the other side of the mountains waiting for us to kill each other - as for Pala Let Plato handle the matter of Tu by himself.”

"Boy, do you think the big shot you are talking about doesn't know that there is a dragon on the other side of the mountain? But don't they still do whatever they want?" Colonel Berne took the sleeve and sneered: "Let them consider these things. Well, it’s enough for us to do our duty as soldiers.”

Winters sighed again. After a while, he cheered up, stood up, and meticulously raised his hand to salute Colonel Berne: "I haven't thanked you for raising the carriage for me. I can't thank you enough."

"They are all scrapped carriages fished out of the river. If you are willing to pay for them, I would like to thank you on behalf of the people of Steel Castle." Berne waved his hand half-heartedly: "Go away, go away. Don't let me see you again. is you."

Winters didn't move: "I have something else I want to tell you."

"What's the matter?" Bern frowned.

"It's not a big or small matter." Winters cleared his throat and asked, "What are you going to do with the body that is suspected to be a court mage?"

"How else can we deal with it?" Colonel Berne was confused: "Seal it as evidence and wait for inspection by the higher-ups."

"That's not possible. The body of a court mage is not that of an ordinary person. The body of a court mage should also be a trophy. What's more, I killed those court mages, so they can't all belong to you, right?"

Colonel Berne laughed angrily: "Then what do you want to do?"

Winters replied confidently: "Of course it's one and a half!"

Colonel Berne was choked and couldn't speak for a long time. It took a long time before he finally calmed down and said, "Okay! Then it's half for each person. But how do you take it away? How do you embalm it without an ice cellar?"

"Of course I have a way. There are five corpses in total, I'll take two and a half."

"Here are three for you. Get out!"

Winters raised his hand in salute and walked neatly to the door.

Just as he opened the door, Colonel Bern's voice came from behind: "Wait!"

Winters held the door handle, turned around and asked, "Do you have any more instructions?"

"You kid, you are so damn indifferent!" Colonel Berne slapped the edge of the bed with his palm, dumbfounded: "You didn't even say goodbye."

"I'm not leaving today." Winters grabbed his short, burned hair and explained sheepishly: "I still have some unfinished business in Steel Castle. When I leave, I will come back to say goodbye to you. .”

"No need. Don't come." Colonel Berne was silent for a moment and said: "I joined the army at the age of sixteen and entered the military academy at the age of twenty-four. After so many years of military service, I have never seen many people who lose their temper. One-eyed man is one, you... ...Barely counted as one. If you walk out of this door today, we may never see each other again."

Colonel Bern turned his head and looked out the window: "Boy, take care, don't die on the battlefield."

"Take care of yourself too." Winters raised his hand in salute.

"What else have you not finished in Steel Castle? Do you need my help?"

"No, it's a small matter." Winters raised a smile on his lips: "I'm just waiting for a reply."

[Additional update! ]

[This chapter is mainly to fill in the holes. I re-read it myself, and there are only so many holes that need to be filled in for the time being. If there are still holes that have not been filled in, please book friends remind me. If it's a hole that "can be filled", I'll fill it in this chapter. If it’s a “cannot be filled in temporarily” or “it has already been filled in and there is no need to refill it”, then I... then I will cover my eyes...]

[But there probably won’t be any tomorrow (today). If something happens, you may have to go back to work urgently. ]

[Everyone must be healthy in the new year! ]

[Thank you book friends for your collection, reading, subscription, recommendation votes, monthly votes, rewards and comments, thank you all]