Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 94 The Secret Society

   After realizing that the defenders of Tacheng were racing against time to consolidate the fortifications, the two army commanders who approached the reconnaissance in person immediately returned to the Red Sulphur Port.

   It was already night when the two commanders rode back to the port of Red Sulphur. Not caring about the battle for command, Leighton, who returned to the Red Sulphur Port, immediately ordered the San Marco Legion to hand over the city defense to the friendly army, and then led the headquarters to Tacheng lightly overnight.

  The third "Great Veneta" Corps will take a day's rest in the Red Sulphur Port, and then carry the baggage of the two legions to join the San Marco Corps.

   Braziers and torches lit up the central square of the Red Sulphur Port. Antonio and Layton rode on their horses, watching the urgently assembled San Marco Legion distribute hemp rope.

   In this era, many people suffer from night blindness, even if the moon is bright at night, they are blind. Therefore, qualified officers will try to avoid night operations as much as possible, but at this time the situation is urgent, and the Veneta people can't manage so much.

One end of the hemp rope is tied to the waist of the soldier in front, and the other end is tied to the hand of the soldier in the back. Only in this way can we ensure that no one is left behind, lost or escaped during the march. This is a clumsy approach, but an effective one.

When    was ready, the Legion of Saint Mark formed four columns and set off from the port of Red Sulphur.

The solemn-looking Antonio raised his hand and gave Layton a military salute. Layton, who was also solemn, did not return the salute, but just waved his hand and left, without saying a word to Antonio who came to see him off. .

   The civilians of the Red Sulphur port hid in their houses, peeping at the movements of Veneta's army from cracks in doors and windows. A few days ago, the vicious Veneta soldiers went from house to house to arrest people.

  However, the city head changed the king's flag, an army of Venetas left, but a new army of Veneta came. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, and the people of Hong Kong Red Sulphur fall asleep in this anxiety.

   Winters did not rest, he was waiting anxiously in a room of the Third Legion's garrison.

  The door was pushed open and Antonio walked in. Winters stood up and saluted, but Antonio pressed his arm, patted his shoulder, and said nothing.

   What if a man sees his son drowning? Whether he can swim or not, he will jump into the water to save people.

   What happens when a commander is faced with a "snake stinger" situation? Even if he has a guilty conscience, he must "break a strong man's wrist".

   But when the two identities overlap, things get complicated.

On the day the    III Corps was ambushed, Antonio abandoned Winters and his Centuries. Winters didn't know what was going on in Antonio's heart at that time, and he knew it must be uncomfortable.

   This is something that can't be helped. Fighting always kills people. He doesn't resent his adoptive father for this. After being tempered as a true officer on Red Illusion Island, even if there was a grudge in his heart, he has already let go.

   But he didn't know what to say to Antonio either, so he didn't say anything, and Antonio didn't say anything either. Since it is difficult for men to communicate frankly about feelings, most of the time they simply do not communicate.

   Besides, there are more important things at the moment.

   "I've found the person the Secretary of State of the Union asked you to look for." Winters bluntly stated the information he thought had to be made known to Antonio as soon as possible.

   "Huh?" Obviously Antonio didn't react and was stunned.

   "Corpse, to be precise." Winters bit his lower lip.

   "Lionel..." Antonio tried to recall: "...is the person he asked me to find before he left? It seems to be called..."

   "Mara, the special envoy of the Interprovincial Secretary of State Mara." Winters reminded: "When Secretary Lionel leaves, please send Mr. Mara's ashes to him."

   "When I'm old, my memory is really bad." Antonio smiled wryly and asked inexplicably, "Did you find that person on Red Iwo Island? Did he die on Red Iwo Island?"

Winters took a deep breath and said in a low voice: "No, not on Red Iwo Island... in Seablue City, in the morgue of the garrison headquarters - the person who was assassinated in the pier was the special envoy of the Secretary of State of the Union Province. ."

  Antonio was confused at first, then he took a breath, and he asked Winters solemnly, "Are you sure?"

   "Yes, the Assassin's accomplices confessed to me personally."

"who is it?"

   Winters gritted his teeth and spat out a name: "...It's Lieutenant Colonel Contell."

   "Contel?" Antonio suddenly changed color: "He is so bold! Where is the other person?"

"Lying in the hospital, people lose consciousness and may not survive. Lieutenant Colonel Comter was shot in the stomach on the day of the attack on the port and his intestines were pierced. I found a doctor on the island to take it out for him. He was shot with lead, his intestines were sewn up, and his abdominal cavity was cleaned. When he was conscious, he confessed to me personally that I didn’t think he was lying, and there was no need to lie about it.”

   Hearing that Contell's life and death was still unknown, Antonio's mood calmed down a little. He exhaled and asked, "Why did Contell assassinate the special envoy of the Secretary of State of the United Provinces?"

"It wasn't Lieutenant Colonel Contaire, but someone else in Lieutenant Colonel Contell's group." Winters organized the language and said, "According to them - because Veneta needs the tower. Neal Islands."

   Then, Winters told Antonio all the information he knew.

  The special envoy of the Secretary of State of the United Provinces Mara did not arrive at Hailan City secretly for no reason. He carried an agreement, an agreement on the Tanilla Islands.

  Veneta's desire for the Tanilla Islands is well known.

  Seven years ago, the Fremen people began a brutal tug-of-war with their eastern neighbors. In order to raise more military spending, the Freiman Sultan, who controlled half of the eastern route, began to levy higher business taxes.

   Therefore, since Debella took office, the tax revenue of Veneta has been declining, and the immediate prosperity has declined. The merchants who made their fortunes on the Eastern route went bankrupt one by one.

   In the internal trade circle of the Gulf of Cenas, the status of Veneta's core transit point is also facing a strong challenge - the challenge from the Tanilla Islands.

  The Tanilla Islands are no longer the wild islands that were thirty years ago. The archipelago has prospered rapidly as a neutral port among the major forces and accumulated a lot of wealth.

  Because there is less tax, the tax rate must be increased. When the tax rate was raised, businessmen fled to the lower-tax Tanilla Islands. There are fewer businessmen, and the tax base is reduced. In order to maintain the original tax, the tax rate must be raised again.

   As a result, a vicious circle is entered.

   "Veneta needs the archipelago", these are the words of Colonel Contaire. It's not because of some **** pirates, the pirates of the Cenas have been flooded for decades, but they have only been emphasized again and again in recent years, all because Veneta needs the archipelago.

  Whether it is to eliminate competitors, but also for the new raw material origin and commodity dumping ground, more importantly, for the new port - ocean port.

   The ports along the Gulf of Cenas are too small and too shallow. The Tanilla Islands are full of deep-water harbors, and to the east of the archipelago is the Ocean of Storms.

  Getting Tanilla means not only getting new land, but also getting a new possibility, the possibility of a new route, the possibility of a new route across the Ocean of Storms to the Spice Islands.

   The Fryman Sultan imposed heavy taxes on merchant ships, hurting trade on the one hand, but at the same time increasing the price of goods from the East, making them more profitable—provided they could bypass the control of the Freemen.

   And the Tanilla Islands means this possibility. After decades of surveying and mapping, Veneta's navigators have realized that if the earth is a sphere, then a straight line can be drawn from the Tanilla Islands to the Spice Islands.

  To do all this, you need to pass through the stormy ocean with rough waves and high winds, and through the stormy ocean that has swallowed the lives of countless explorers.

   In order to pass through the ocean of storms, you need ships that are strong enough and seaworthy enough, dry docks large enough, and ocean-going ports.

   It is for a thousand and one reasons that more and more Veneta people realize the great value and potential of the Taniria Islands, especially within the Veneta military.

  The young warriors of Veneta have reached a consensus in the fierce debates about the future of the country: Veneta must seize the archipelago. To further this purpose, at least one secret society was formed within the Veneta army.

  The dying Contel refused to reveal more secrets of the group to Winters, but just tried to get Winters to accept his ideas and to include Winters as a member of the secret group.

   And Winters got more information about the group in the process.

   But the Venetas were not the only ones who saw the potential and strategic value of Taniria, the Union Provinces were also aware of it. The Republic of the United Provinces started earlier and laid out the islands earlier. Before the Veneta began to emphasize that the islands were sold by pirates, the United Provinces had already spared no effort to infiltrate the Tanilla Islands, intending to turn the islands into the first island of the United Provinces. Eighteen provinces.

   Even the political structure of the Federal Republic allows her to offer more favorable conditions than the Republic of Veneta. It is better to be the eighteenth province of the union than to be another county of Veneta.

  Because of this, Veneta will become more and more radical, and every time the consul de Bella speaks in the parliament, he must mention the Taniria Islands, and his words are more intense each time.

   But Lionel, Secretary of State of the United Provinces, raised a new possibility, one that did not have to spark conflict within the Senas Alliance.

His envoy came secretly to Veneta to make a deal, one that Debella and Lionel had been discussing secretly for a long time: to turn Taniria into an overseas territory of the Senas Alliance, to maintain its Semi-independent status, a common rule is implemented by Veneta and the federal provinces.

   This is destined to be an agreement that neither party will be satisfied with, and it is also the reason why the special envoy of the Secretary of State of the United Provinces was assassinated.

   In all sincerity, Winters has no objection to the argument that Contaire said "everything is in the interests of Veneta". Acquiring Taneria would be a huge benefit for Veneta, Winters agrees.

   However, since the political reconciliation went against their expectations, Contell's associates openly assassinated the special envoy of the State Secretary of the Union Province, and everything they said could no longer be trusted by Winters.

  In Winters' view, these people say "everything is for Veneta's interests", but their actual actions are only for their own political ambitions.

  The army is the weapon of the country, and the military academies have been instilling this in the officers and students. However, when the weapon has a mind of its own and even tries to influence the actions of the person holding the weapon, it is essentially a mutiny.

  The soldiers who were drowned in the sea, those who were nailed to the stakes, those who were scorched in the gun fortresses, all died from the ambitions of the Contels.

"That's all I know. Contaire's secret society should be covered by the Duelist Club. These people are already very dangerous. They have tasted the sweetness of violent manipulation of politics. I can't imagine what they dare to do in the future." Wen Tes concluded: "But according to Contaire, they didn't blow up the pier. Another group of people blew up the pier... I don't know if it's true or not."

   He originally left all these contents in the letter, but since he survived, there is no need for the letter. He was eager to find Antonio to explain all this, just to remind Antonio that there was already a secret political group in the Veneta Army.

   No one knew which officer belonged to this secret society, and there were even other officers like Conter in the Third Legion. And most dangerously, this political group is becoming increasingly violent and aggressive, using killing methods to root out those who stand in their way.

  Antonio pondered without speaking.

   After thinking for a while, he said: "...Secret associations, I have heard a little about them. There are many secret associations in the army, but this is the first one who dares to kill people..."

   "If you want to check them, I can sneak in. Contaire is trying to recruit me. If he survives, I will use him as a stepping stone. If he dies, it will be easier."

"No, you don't need to check it out, it's too dangerous for you to check it out. You should use honest means to deal with such shady things, but now is not the right time. We have already gone to war with Taniria, and it is time to employ people. . If this matter is exposed now, the Military Commission will only deal with it without any pain. If it insists on sternly scolding the public, it will damage the army's combat power." Antonio frowned and said: "This matter you Don't worry, I will go to Admiral Zio and deal with it from top to bottom."

  Winters heard Antonio's subtext and said unwillingly: "You mean, Contel and the others have tied themselves to Veneta, can't they handle it?"

"There is no turning back. The battle has already started. The most important thing now is how to end the war. They will be dealt with, but the timing is not right. We need to find a proper way, a way that does not damage the military's combat power." Antonio frowned into a knot: "Let me handle this matter, don't get involved too deeply."

"You also have to be careful with these people. They even dare to kill the special envoy of the State Secretary of the Union Province. The blood on their knives will only make them more mad. They may even... attack their own people." Tonio said he would take over, and that might be the best solution for now.

  Suddenly, Winters remembered something and said hesitantly: "There is something else that may be more involved than Contaire..."

   "Huh? What's the matter?" Antonio rubbed his temples and asked tiredly.

   "I... I seem to have killed a court mage."

   I came back who shoveled the tauren's house.

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   (end of this chapter)