Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 272 The Way Forward

  When the last drop of wine has been consumed, the farewell banquet should be over.

  In accordance with Platonic custom, Mrs. Mitchell gave the Colonel a new pair of stirrups and a new pair of boots as gifts.

  Bode laughed and put on new boots, and threw the old shoes out of the window to show that he was completely free from bad luck.

  It is interesting to say that Winters used the way of the country of galloping horses to catch up with Colonel Bode, but the Platonic people present were actually Colonel.

  The confused Captain Mason was sent back to his apartment by Heinrich, and he was still talking about his breeding experience before leaving.

   And Colonel Bird wanted to talk to Winters alone.

   Leaving Mitchell's House, the two strolled along the banks of the St. George River, chatting about anecdotes about Luyuan.

   "I can't walk." Colonel Bode looked at the two large rocks on the shore: "Sit down for a while."

   "Okay." Winters had long wanted to leave.

   After sitting down, Winters slowly stretched his left leg and let out a muffled groan.

   "Why do you feel like an old man?" Colonel Bode teased: "Get up and sit down and hum."

   Winters knocked on his left knee and replied easily: "In the battle on the west bank of the Styx, this side was stepped on by a horse's hoof. It was almost better, but the weather has turned cold recently, and it started to feel sore and itchy for no reason."

   Colonel Bode was silent for a long time before he spoke, his tone full of guilt: "I haven't thanked you yet. If you hadn't come back to save me that night, I would have died."

   "No thanks." Winters pointed to the back of his head and said with a smile, "I got a hammer here, and I can't remember a lot of things that night."

   "I'll tell you."

"never mind."

"thanks."

   Winters smiled and said nothing.

   Winters has changed, so has Colonel Bird.

   The former colonel was burly, enthusiastic, laughing loudly, scolding fiercely, like a majestic stallion;

   Today's one-armed soldiers are silent, quiet, too thin to support clothes, appearances age before age, and hearts are more vicissitudes than appearances.

   While he still retains a positive sense of humor, it's hard to come out of it - something Winters understands best.

  The two sat on the boulder and listened to the river surging in the dark, and they were silent for a long time.

   It was Colonel Bode who spoke first. His attitude was as witty as ever, and he joked: "No wonder I said at that time that I would marry your daughter to you, but you couldn't resist. It turns out that your horse already has a bridle."

   Winters stopped breathing: "Don't mention this to Miss Navarre."

   "What are you afraid of?"

   "Not afraid... Forget it, I formally ask you."

   "Don't worry." Bodler couldn't help laughing, and patted his junior on the shoulder: "How can you tell the ladies about the gentlemen?"

   "That's right! That's right!"

   "You little guys from a young school." Bode's eyes filled with three-point pity: "I have had too little contact with women since I was a child, and I don't know whether it is good or bad."

   "You haven't been to preschool?"

   "I didn't even have a prep school at that time!" The colonel laughed heartily: "I entered the academy at the age of 20, and the bar mitzvah is over."

   "The times are different." Winters defended himself feebly.

   Colonel Bode laughed even more happily, as if he asked casually, "Do you have any plans for the Teltown Department?"

"The sword swung over to the shield, and the bow and arrow flew over to the armor." Winters picked up a few pebbles, launched the pebble with the arrow technique, and distorted the flying direction of the pebble with the deflection technique: "There is no plan, but there is an idea. "

   "Can you tell me?"

   "There's nothing that can't be said." Winters laughed, and he used his fingers to outline the map in mid-air: "I want to divide Tiefeng County into upper, middle, and lower parts according to the direction and distribution of rivers."

   "By upstream and downstream?"

   "No, it's divided according to the basin." Winters explained: "So there are only Wolf Town, Heishui Town and Wumastiff Town in Lower Tiefeng County."

   Colonel Bode whispered a name: "Lieutenant Bud."

   "Xiatiefeng County is vast and sparsely populated, and more than 20,000 refugees are settled there. Bud is in charge."

   "Looks like this." Colonel Bode pondered, "Is Middle Tiefeng County the rest of the area south of the St. George River?"

"Yes, the remaining five towns of the eight southern towns are Middle Tiefeng County. North of the St. George River is Upper Tiefeng County." Talking with quick-thinking people is easy, and Winters bluntly added: "Upper Tiefeng County is the richest. , also has the largest population. Technically speaking, Geroudan, located on the north bank of the St. George River, also belongs to the Upper Iron Peak County.”

   Colonel Bode looked at the air, as if there was a map there, and even said with a smile: "I see... you are dividing cabbage, one layer is one layer."

"If you go against the New Reclamation Corps, it's really like cabbage. The more you go out, the more dangerous it is, and the safer you go in." Winters did not deny it, but when he changed his words, his expression became serious: "But if you go against Heard Man, it's like a cabbage being sliced ​​open with the flanks completely exposed."

   "Where in Tiefeng County, don't you send troops?"

   "No." Winters was expressionless: "Leave it to Bud."

   "Where is Shangtiefeng County?"

   "Neither sent, Beiba Town is not loyal to me."

   "For this reason, why don't you send troops to help them?" Colonel Bode smiled half-smiling.

   "No." Winterstein said honestly: "Because they are not loyal to me, it is difficult for me to obtain supplies and mobilize manpower in Upper Iron Peak County. It is not suitable for combat, so I do not send troops."

   "What are you going to do?" Colonel Bird's expression gradually became serious.

   A pebble flew out of Winters' hands and exploded in mid-air in an instant: "I want to fight in Zhongtiefeng County."

   "The premise of the main battle is that both parties involved in the battle have the will to engage in the main battle." Colonel Bode asked curiously, "How do you know that the Teltown people are going to fight in Zhongtiefeng County?"

   "I don't know." Winters said quietly: "And if I were the enemy chief, I would try my best to avoid the main battle."

   "There are many barbarian tribes and factions, and the system is fragmented. The disadvantage is that it is easy to collapse at a touch in a major battle. The advantage is." The principal sighed: "Flexible, dozens of light cavalry is an army."

   Winters said lightly and happily: "So the focus of this campaign is not to command my troops, but to command the troops of the Teltown people. Let them go to war with me on the battlefield of my choice."

   Colonel Bode was stunned at first, then frowned, and finally laughed out loud.

   "I know why Arpad likes you so much." The colonel slapped Winters on the shoulder hard: "Young people are really scary, dare to think and do, I'm really old!"

   "Don't be in a hurry to boast." Winters was rather helpless: "I haven't figured out how to mobilize the enemy. It's really... In any case, the result can't be worse, and I have nothing to worry about."

Colonel Bode deliberately said with a straight face: "After determining the strategy, the process of trying to get closer to the strategic goal is tactics. If I were to command, I would not even have the idea of ​​"commanding the enemy"; even if there was, I would use various The reason is denied. You already have a direction, isn't that good enough?"

   The compliments of the elders were more unbearable than the scolding, and Winters urgently changed the subject: "You said Arpad? What?"

   "I appreciate you very much."

   Winters played with the stones casually: "I didn't find it."

   "He gave you the jug, doesn't he appreciate you enough?" Colonel Bode raised his eyebrows and asked, "When I was a warrant officer, I never saw the jug leave him."

   "What's the matter?" Winters laughed. He had always thought that the jug was thrown at him by Arpad.

   "Of course, everyone knows General Arpad's lucky jug, which is his amulet!"

   "I can't protect myself." Winters couldn't help but smile: "It's scrapped."

   "Scrap?" Colonel Bode narrowed his eyes.

   "Blocked a buckshot for me." Winters pointed to his left chest: "Here."

   Colonel Bode laughed so hard that he burst into tears. After laughing, the colonel wiped his tears and said, "Since Arpad is mentioned, there are other things I want to ask you."

   "Please." Winters sighed in his heart.

   "Did you kill General Sackler?" Colonel Bode's expression changed and his eyes were sharp.

   "I killed it," Winters readily admitted.

   "Why kill?"

   "There are many reasons, but in the final analysis, I want to kill him."

   "Kill if you want?" Colonel Bode asked.

   Winters replied calmly: "Yes, kill if you want."

   "Do you still want to kill others?" the colonel asked with a sneer.

   "Think before."

"now what?"

"Faded."

   "What faded?"

"The hatred has faded." Winters wrinkled his nose: "And I found that killing a person is not good. Kill Sackler, and Teckler. Kill Arpad, and Valpad. Kill one. , there are ten people in the back waiting to take over, boring."

   "It doesn't work to kill one person, so you have to kill more?" Colonel Bode gritted his teeth: "What on earth are you trying to do?!"

   "What do you think?" Winters asked rhetorically.

"I think?" Colonel Bode glared angrily and shouted: "I think you are a careerist! When you see an opportunity, you will use any means to seize power! You want to trample everyone under your feet, even if you have to kill thousands of people for it. Thousands of people don't care!"

  Winters took a deep breath, sighed, and asked the colonel with a smile: "You said that an animal looks like a wolf, squeaks like a wolf, and walks like a wolf, is it a wolf?"

   "It's not a wolf, is it a dog?" Colonel Bode sneered.

   "Yes. Everyone will see it as a wolf and treat it like a wolf, so what is it?"

   "Of course it's important!" Colonel Bode roared like thunder: "Don't be around me here! I just want to know what you want to do? You're not a wolf? Then tell me how you are different from a wolf."

   "What do you want?" Winters said bitterly. "If only I could know."

   "I **** beat you to death!" Colonel Bode stood up abruptly, waving his arm vigorously. The majestic and savage stallion rushed out of the vicissitudes of the body.

   "You can't beat me." Winters pressed the colonel back to the stone: "Relieve your anger, I'll talk to you slowly."

   Colonel Bode gasped heavily and coughed violently.

   Waiting for the Colonel to catch his breath before Winters spoke.

Looking at the black river under the night, he recalled with some nostalgia: "In the beginning, I pretended to be a robber and went to ambush the grain collection team to prevent Revodan from coming to Wolf Town to force food. At that time, I knew what I wanted to do. "

   "Pretending to be a robber?" The colonel sneered.

   "I can't really be a robber, can I?" Winters asked of course: "I have an appointed officer in the town. Is it necessary to openly hostile to Gervodin?"

"Then?"

   "Then I found out that there is no point in just protecting Wolf Town. Although other towns have nothing to do with me, if the entire Iron Peak County burns, Wolf Town will surely be reduced to ashes."

   "So your territory is getting bigger..."

   "So I started to think about the source of the problem." Winters lowered his head and fiddled with the pebble in his palm: "The problem is not with the common people, nor with the soldiers who carry out orders, or even those who directly give orders like Major Ronald.

  People hated the soldiers who demanded food and the soldiers, and by the way, they hated the masters in the city of Gervoudin, because they directly came into contact with these two floors.

   And the real problem lies with the higher-level decision makers, but the decision makers are hidden behind the agents, so there is always an illusion that the duke is good and the duke's servants are bad. "

   "So you have to deal with General Adams?" Colonel Bode narrowed his eyes: "After the war begins, the only important thing is how to end the war. Even if you can really defeat General Adams, have you thought about how you will end?"

   Winters didn't answer directly, but said with a smile: "I'll tell you the truth - don't laugh at me. At first, I really had a little 'savior' feeling to take Gervodin and Iron Peak County.

   "Savior?" Bode groaned from the depths of his nose: "What about now?"

   Winters was a little less interested: "Now I realize that it was my salvation that caused the people of Iron Peak to no longer need salvation."

   Winters simply sat facing the colonel and looked directly into the colonel's eyes: "If it weren't for me, if Iron Peak County was still under the control of the New Reclamation Army, what do you think it would be like now?"

   Colonel Bird turned to look at the river, not looking at Winters or speaking.

   "Then I'll speak for you. Continue the levy! Continue the levy! Peasants flee! The fields are barren! Last year's and this year's grain reserves will be exhausted sooner or later, followed by famine, banditry and rebellion, followed by even greater famine!"

   Colonel Bode couldn't help but sigh.

"Is what I said false?" Winters' voice increased a point with each sentence: "You said I was going to kill thousands of people? Yes! That's right! General Adams killed it himself. People, I'm afraid there's not as much as a fraction of what I killed!"

Winters pointed to the Gervodin Square in the distance, and his momentum suddenly rose: "There, I beheaded dozens of people and hanged dozens of people. Further north - north of Hammer Fort! Colonel Zipper, many, many My senior, they all died because of me!"

He stared and questioned Colonel Bode: "Taking a life with a sword is murder, but taking a life with famine and war is not murder? General Adams has clean hands, and mine has blood, so he is nobler than me? Yes? Alas, if General Adams was willing to act, there would be people who would praise him for being merciful!

   How can there be such a truth under the sun? ! I tell you, General Adams is the biggest executioner! The master who rules the Republic of Palato is the biggest executioner! I put blood on my hands and they put blood on others! "

"I used this sentence to answer before, and I still use this sentence to answer." Winters stood in front of Colonel Broad, looked down into the colonel's eyes, and declared word by word: "Yes! A lot of people will die. But if my people are willing to die for me, my enemies will know. If my people are not willing to die for me, my enemies will know. I wonder how many people are willing to die for me of enemies?"

   Colonel Bode subconsciously wanted to defend, he said with difficulty: "How could the New Reclamation Corps watch farmers starve to death? As far as I know, isn't General Adams also recruiting refugees to open up wasteland?"

   "But did he do it? He didn't do it!" Winters patted his chest: "Sorry, I did it.

  What Adams can't do, I do; what he dare not do, I dare; what he doesn't want to do, I'll do. If it weren't for the monkey **** face to make trouble, in May or June next year, you will see the wasteland turn into a golden sea of ​​wheat. "

   Colonel Bode's aura was completely suppressed.

After    silence for a long time, he generously admitted: "You did a good job. General Adams recruited the strongest among the refugees to serve as soldiers, and let the remaining refugees go to wasteland.

   As for the land, houses and farm animals of the manor owners, they were redistributed to the refugees. General Adams couldn't, didn't dare, and wouldn't do it—he and his men were big estate owners themselves. "

   Winters did not have the joy of winning. He sat back on the big stone quietly and shot the stones into the river one by one.

   "The joy of cruelty will eventually end with cruelty." Winters' voice was deeply frustrated, frustrated and confused: "But I don't know, what can I bring to people."

Colonel    listened silently.

"I'm just making Tiefeng County return to its previous appearance, and nothing has changed inside or outside. Therefore, Beiba Town and I are lukewarm and distant." Winters supported his forehead: "I not only understand them , I also think it's reasonable for them to do so.

   To them, my replacement of the New Reclamation Corps is just another person to collect taxes. Beiba Town thinks this way now, and sooner or later, Nanba Town will also think this way. "

Colonel    patted Winters on the shoulder and made a pun: "To be alive is a gift in itself."

"The premise is that you can take your life at any time." Winters's voice sounded clear in the quiet night: "Before facing death, people do not regard survival as a gift, but only take it for granted. It should. It's not arrogance, it's nature."

   He asked with a smile: "If I knew the date of my death, would I still be chatting with you here? I've already gone to Miss Navarre to get married and have children."

   Colonel Bode looked up and laughed.

   These two people who have faced death can understand best: when death is approaching, many things that are not important now will become important; many things that are important now will become unimportant again.

   Winters sincerely expressed his confusion to Colonel Bird:

   "The current situation is that I rescued Tiefeng County from the legion, but found that Tiefeng County can live well without me."

   "I've seriously reflected - maybe from the beginning, I shouldn't have thought about resuming production. I should just eat the grain in the warehouse and wait for the famine."

"Wait until everyone starts to starve. I'll give every starving person a weapon and lead them into White Mountain and Vigne, eating and drinking everything like a swarm of locusts. Many refugees attacked other places, and finally succeeded or failed with great vigor."

   "It's really nice to be like that." Winters smiled sadly: "It's much better than hanging up and down in Tiefeng County now."

   "Why not?" Colonel Bode asked seriously: "Don't you want to be the savior? Start a fire that burns the world, and you are the savior of the refugees."

   "Because I don't want to," Winters replied dismissively. "I don't want to be a savior, and I'm not a savior. I'm an executioner—I'm never going to deny that."

   "Then what do you want?"

"I don't know either! But I can't say that to anyone. I'm like someone walking in front of thousands of people with torches. If I say 'I don't know where I'm going', I'll step on the torches. Destroyed. What will they do then?"

   "Can't talk to others, but can talk to me?"

   "Yes, I can only tell you." Winters spread his hands: "After all, you are a bystander."

   Colonel Bird hummed softly.

"But I'm not worried." Winters smiled freely: "Isn't the old marshal forced to join the rebels back then? Did he know where he was going at that time? Did he know where he would end up going? No? Step by step?"

   "What did you say?" Hearing this, Colonel Bode immediately became anxious. He jumped up from the boulder, pointed at Winters and asked angrily, "Not enough Tiefeng County, not enough new land, not enough Plato? You still want to be a marshal?! Why don't you become an emperor?"

   Colonel Bode shivered with anger.

"Don't worry, I'll just give an example." Wentesla sat down with the colonel and patiently appeased: "Maybe next year the red and blue roses will be the winner and the winner will be overwhelmed, and I will escape back to Veneta to do it. What about the petty business? Who knows what will happen in the future?"

   Colonel Bode threw off Winters' arm angrily.

"All in all, I want to stop and think about it," Winters told the colonel sternly: "I won't expand until I figure out what I can bring to the people, until I've won the loyalty of Iron Peak. If I can't even return to Tiefeng County, why should I attack other counties? I want to see where to go first, and then continue to move forward."

   Colonel Bird sneered: "You're not overwhelmed by ambition."

   "I also want to ask you, what is your allegiance, concern, and concern? Is it the government? Is it the army? Is it the republic? Or the people?" Winters asked rhetorically.

   Colonel Bode could not answer.

   "I would like you to stay and help me." Winters bowed deeply to Colonel Broad sincerely.

  "Help you?" Colonel Bode groaned: "I, Colonel of the Republic, come to be a rebel with you?"

   "Don't help." Winters straightened up and sat back on the boulder.

   The old and the young sat silently without looking at anyone.

   After sitting for a long time, the river flowed quietly in front of the two of them.

   "I want to go back to the castles." Colonel Bode said suddenly.

   "I'll prepare a horse for you." Winters nodded simply, he was neither surprised nor disappointed: "Arrange someone to **** you—don't worry, it's really escorting you, not killing you."

  Bode slapped Winters angrily: "You kid, you are so vicious now!"

   "I don't kill you, how can you call me vicious?" Winters was extremely aggrieved.

   "That thought is vicious enough!"

   "Okay, let's do it. When are you leaving?"

   "If you can't recruit, you're going to kick me out?" Colonel Bird laughed angrily, and slapped Winters in the back again.

   "It's up to you, I would like you to stay for two more days." Winters was also a little reluctant: "Anyway, when you want to leave, I will arrange a carriage and horse **** for you."

   "Just a few days."

"it is good."

   "I'm going back to the castles."

"no problem."

   "I'm different from you foreign bachelors. My wife and daughter are still in the castles." Colonel Bode sighed: "I have to take it over."

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   (end of this chapter)