Realm of Power

In the central city of Dorok, there are white raindrops in the gloomy sky. White rain and fog envelope the city that is still shaking. There are very few pedestrians on the streets.

All the shops on the street have their doors closed, and most of the people who can be seen along the street are fully armed soldiers. Strict checkpoints have been set up from one end of the street to the other.

Location of Aaron's Gate

"Stop"

The city gate guard casually stopped an oncoming carriage. The back of the carriage was covered with bulging rainproof felt. The heavy ruts dragged deep ruts on the ground. The swaying surface of the carriage was loaded with goods.

Maybe I was in a hurry, so the felt cloth behind the carriage was not well covered, and many branches belonging to plants could be clearly seen exposed at the edges.

"What's on it? We need to check it." The city gate guard looked at the carriage and the person sitting on the driver's seat of the carriage, and said with a serious expression on his face.

"Sir, I am Ankers from Fei'anshan County. We were drinking together last month." At this time, a fat businessman rolled down from the carriage seat and handed a bag of money to the city gate guard. While explaining with a flattering smile on his face, "Look, there's nothing special about this. It's just a piece of stuff I bought for the Speakers. You see, there's no need to search..."

"Things belonging to the Speakers?" The city gate guard was stunned for a moment, and the hand that was about to receive the money bag immediately retracted as if it had been burned by coals.

"What's wrong, sir? The abnormal army of the city gate guard made the merchant stupid. This guy has always been very quick in collecting money in the past. Why is it unusual this time?

"Come here, check carefully." The city gate guard pushed the businessman standing in front of him away. He glanced at the carriage with a serious look. Originally, he was going to collect the money, but the businessmen said that something. Made him feel the seriousness

Just yesterday, one of his colleagues was dismissed from office on the spot by the Chief Speaker Duo Ze because he accepted a bribe from a family member of an imprisoned speaker and sent a message to a local speaker in prison to take care of himself. And he was treated as a traitor. At this sensitive moment, who dares to accept such a bribe that can cost lives?

"It could be a big fish." The city gate guard raised his eyebrows slightly. He circled the carriage a few times and said, "According to the war decree just promulgated, many things are now classified as contraband. I must Take a look. Do you have any contraband here? If so, all must be confiscated."

"Impossible, this is absolutely impossible. You see, these are all legal procedures and there is absolutely no possibility that they are any contraband." Hearing what the city guard said, the fat businessman took a deep breath and hurriedly took something out of his arms. He handed over a document that he had prepared a long time ago and said, "Look. This was reviewed by the parliament in person. If you don't believe it, you can send someone to the parliament to investigate."

"Legal formalities signed by the parliament?" The officer took the document from the businessman's hand. After just one glance, he casually crumpled this precious document into a ball in his hand, raised his head and continued to ask, "If this doesn't work, is there any other proof? If not, we must check."

"Sir, what are you doing..." Seeing that the document he thought was his trump card turned into a ball of waste paper in the hands of the city guard, the businessman suddenly panicked, his face as pale as a piece of paper,

He didn't know yet about the chaos in the parliament that had just broken out in Aaron. He didn't even know that the army had taken control of the whole city, but he knew that if the contents of the carriage were exposed, even if the speakers came forward, it would be difficult to protect himself.

"Look carefully, this was signed by Speaker Dilly himself," the sweaty businessman repeated again.

"I've made it very clear, this is useless." The officer smiled grimly and pulled hard with both hands. The businessman looked at the shredded paper in the officer's hand, and his distressed facial features were all twisted together. For this document, he He spent 7,000 gold coins in exchange for it, and now it was torn apart like this. If he didn't make him feel distressed, how much energy and time would it take to earn back 7,000 gold coins?

He tilted his head slightly and said, "Speaker Dilly is no longer here. Just this morning, this worm who made a lot of money from the war has been hanged in public. Now you are holding a document signed by a dead man. What do you think?" What else is the effect?”

"Ah, you mean Speaker Dili is dead. How is this possible? He is the distinguished Speaker." After hearing the officer's words, the businessman turned pale and murmured in disbelief.

"Is there any possibility? If you still say that this represents rebellion, I will immediately order you to be arrested and then hang you like those moths." The city gate guard snorted murderously and fiercely said to this man. The businessman said, "To tell you the truth, according to the orders from above, it doesn't matter whose goods it is, not to mention it's still a war, everything is for victory."

"Do you want to show that you are with that moth? The corner of the city gate guard's mouth turned cold and he threw it away. The fragments of the document were rolled up by the autumn wind like holes.

"These, and these, must be confiscated." The city guard ignored the frightened businessman next to him and opened up the felt cloth covering the goods. The boxes full of goods inside made his eyes light up. Name an item and the soldier next to you will unload the pointed goods from under the felt cloth of the carriage.

"Sir, you can't do this. These are goods with due procedures. There is absolutely no contraband in them." At this time, the businessman recovered from the shock. He shouted, almost desperately trying to rush to the carriage to stop it. , but he was stopped midway by two tall and strong soldiers. He could only wave his hands in vain and shouted hysterically. His shouts attracted a nearby patrol.

"Bianti, what's going on here? An officer with an obviously higher status came over. Judging from the badge on his chest, he was a squadron leader.

"It's nothing, sir. I just suspect that there is contraband on this carriage." The city gate guard stood at attention and respectfully gave a military salute to the oncoming superior. "

"Contraband? Someone, come up and take a look." The squadron leader glanced at the carriage and waved his hand. A soldier climbed onto the carriage and moved the wooden box inside a few times. It seemed heavy. The wooden box turned out to be unusually light,

"Open it." The squadron leader's eyes flashed with coldness, and he asked the soldiers to kick a wooden box off the carriage. "Bang!" The wooden box was smashed to the ground by the soldiers. Countless green grass buds, like flowers that suddenly bloomed, suddenly scattered to the ground from the broken corner of the wooden box. This is a plant with dark red flower buds on its rhizomes. The green stems and leaves and dark red flower buds look so out of place.

Everyone's movements stopped, and their eyes suddenly focused on these green grass buds.

"This is..." The squadron leader, who looked calm just now, trembled. He stared at the scattered green grass buds on the ground with bulging eyes, and swallowed hard.

Although he doesn't understand medicinal herbs, he has heard of this plant with pink flower bulbs. Gesang grass is a very precious hemostatic medicine in the Dorok Mountains because it grows on high cliffs. Therefore, people need to hang on ropes and risk their lives to pick this herb. Every year, people lose their lives because of picking this herb. Therefore, it is expensive and can only be used by wealthy noble families. At the beginning of the battlefield, the Dorok Council had strictly prohibited merchants from selling this drug specially provided by the military.

But because of the fierce fighting on the front line. There are still some bold businessmen who will take risks and spend a lot of money to secretly hoard this herb. Especially when rumors of substandard wound medicine broke out in the Dorok army some time ago, the price of this natural herb quickly skyrocketed. Many times, the price of just this box is 5,000 gold coins on the black market.

The businessman whose secret was exposed was also looking at these green grass sprouts with sweat on his face.

If caught by the soldiers, the same fate as Speaker Dilly awaits him, and he will be hanged in public. Then he was hung in a sling for a full month, which served as a warning to all those who dared to do anything.

"Come here, catch this guy immediately." The squadron leader reacted first. He pointed at the businessman and shouted sharply to his men who were still stunned. At this moment. A sudden change occurred,

"Whoosh!" A cold light that was difficult to distinguish with the naked eye was like a meteor shooting out from the corner of the city gate street. Because the speed was so fast, almost no one saw the traces of the arrow clusters. They only felt a white line flashing through their eyes, and the squadron leader's body With a tremble, his hands tensed painfully to tighten the area where he had been shot. A bright red arrow emerged from the back of his neck, and bright red blood shot out from the wound like a squeezed tomato.

"Assassin..." The shrill shout caused chaos at the city gate. The soldiers ran in disorder towards the direction where the arrow clusters were shot, panting like wounded beasts.

In a building in Aaron City, Duo Ze's face looked heavy and scary after receiving this report. Why do these speakers want medicine? If it is to hoard Jijuqi and sell it at a good price, they can be near the front line. Just sell it, there is absolutely no need to transport it to Yalen, which is still hundreds of miles away from the front line.

"Has the person been caught?" Duoze raised his head and asked the city officer Marquis Longsage who came to report. This was a middle-aged soldier with strict eyebrows and short slender eyebrows. Marquis Longsage was wearing a military uniform. He is a head taller, and his somewhat dark skin shows almost no signs of age.

Since the last personal assassination, Duoze has transferred another of his confidants, Longsage, to Yage to take charge of city affairs. Longsage is also the commander of the fourth legion in this plan, and he has a normal job In the name of the transfer, the parliament did not realize that the 7,000 soldiers under his command were also transferred to Aaron with Ronsage.

"No, the businessman took advantage of the chaos and escaped. The assassin only found a row of messy footprints. From the direction he drove, he should have jumped into the moat and escaped after launching the attack. We sacrificed an excellent officer."

Ronsage's face was not good-looking. The officer who was shot to death was his nephew, a bold, careful and promising young man. If time and circumstances allowed, Ronsage believed that he would become Dorothy. When the news came that he was one of the famous generals of Ke, Ronsage was stunned for 20 minutes before he recovered from his grief.

"What a pity. What a good young man. Sometimes I wonder whether what I did was wrong or right."

When he heard that the assassin had not been caught, a trace of sadness flashed across Duo Ze's face.

"God, why do so many young lives always die prematurely? They should have grown into big trees in the sky that support Dorok's future, instead of becoming meaningless corpses. From last year to now, there have been too many Many young people died.

Duo Zai looked out the window with deep eyes. The gray sky was full of low clouds, and his eyes were filled with inexplicable emotions. His once determined face that never gave up became a little more lonely and dim. His lips trembled slightly and he said in a soliloquy tone.

"Rumble" a dark rolling thunder came from far and near, making bursts of dull sounds, which seemed to be an answer to DuoCho.

"Sir, believe in yourself, no matter right or wrong, as long as you stick to your beliefs with a clear conscience, this is what your Lord told me." Feeling Duoze's heavy heart, Longsage suddenly stood up and saluted Duoze, respectfully. Duo Ze said

"Everyone has followed your Excellency and has worked so hard to get to this point. The current situation does not allow us to hesitate, otherwise, we will be ruined. Therefore, I boldly request that in order to avoid long nights and dreams, I hope that Your Excellency can order immediately. "We must execute all prisoners who are still in custody. Only by completely killing the source of these instructions can we truly eliminate this unnecessary crisis."

"You want me to kill all the speakers? How could you have such a dangerous idea?"

Duo Ze unexpectedly turned around. Looking at Ronsage fiercely, his gaze fell on Ronsage like a sharp sword. Ronsage's proposal reminded him of the problem he had just been thinking about.

The purpose of wound medicine is to treat the wounded, and it is not easy to obtain this specific herb that is strictly controlled by the army. Such a whole cart of Gesang grass is enough to meet the needs of an army.

The other party did not traffic him to the front line where he could be sold at a higher price, but to Aaron in the rear. Unless there was someone in the council who was planning the same plan as his? This fleeting thought made Duo Ze subconsciously shuddered. There are also people in the parliament who want to seize power by force and have secretly trained dead soldiers, so they need to mobilize such a large amount of medicinal herbs.

"Immediately mobilize the army to launch a city-wide manhunt, especially the residences of the speakers." Duoze turned around and ordered decisively, "We must search carefully, dig three feet into the ground, and don't miss even a single tunnel."

Airey in the mountains north of Dorok. The central attic, quietly hidden among the green trees and red flowers, is always lonely, solemn, and has a hint of awe. This is the characteristic of the core of power that once ruled the Dorok Mountains for hundreds of years.

Whether it is the era of Dorok Cloud or the current era of the Falcon Empire, it is the center of Airei, representing the highest power that rules the area of ​​Airei. Although this place is peaceful and peaceful on the surface, it is actually always at the center of the storm. No matter where it comes from, the ups and downs will eventually be revealed to a greater or lesser extent here.

In a room in the building, the large military map has been removed and replaced with a military terrain map strictly divided by the Falcon Empire. Since there is still very little information on the New World, the intelligence department that produced the map can only refer to the Navy. The information returned by the headquarters traced the directions of several routes leading to the continent of Obarro on the edge of the map. In some areas that have not yet been clearly explored, the adjutant of the headquarters gently added a "?" at the back, which indicated where. The situation is unclear or changing.

The fat man akimbo, holding a water glass, carefully reviewed the newly sent map from the adjutant. In any case, although it cannot be compared with the scale map of future generations, it at least depicts a more detailed geographical position.

Judging from the new map, with the surrender of the Salander region and the submission of the Dongting Grassland, as well as the expansion of the Northland, the territory of the Falcon Empire has more than doubled compared to the last revision.

The original situation of several countries standing in the inland center has disappeared. The red color representing the empire's territory has covered three-quarters of the map. Occasionally there are some areas of different colors, which are also allied princes like the western part of Wikiya. These areas have been Surrounded by the divisions of empire. But now,

According to intelligence, Ruitang Tingna's Royal Court Army, which had evacuated from the North, had returned to its base and began to follow Fatty's instructions to move several tribes loyal to the Royal Court south in a planned manner in order to find a more solid support point.

The Dongting Western Army, which had captured a large number of prisoners of war in the north, had internal conflicts over the issue of sharing the spoils on their way back. Because each had lost a lot of cavalry, the various tribes were unwilling to give in to each other.

Some tribes even started fighting, injuring hundreds of people. In the end, the fat man, as King Khan, reprimanded them severely, and finally he was able to shake down these unruly guys.

But Fatty knows that this calm is only temporary. Under the land of Dongting Grassland, the speed of undercurrents is beginning to accelerate as the main force of the royal court led by Ruitang Tingna moves south. The power gap always needs someone to fill it, and ambition It has never disappeared from the blood of the Dongting people. There is evidence that the Western Army is communicating with each other. It seems that they are already planning how to seize the grassland where the Wangting tribe moved before the Eastern Army takes action. territory

Since the beginning of August, conflicts among various ethnic groups in Dongting have begun to break out continuously. First, several tribal disputes were launched.

Then there are some larger tribes, relying on their numerical advantage to continuously squeeze the living space of small tribes, forcing these small tribes to follow the main force of the royal court and move south.

According to Ruitang Tingna’s feedback,

There were about 200,000 people who moved south with Wang Ting this time. In other words, the people who moved south only accounted for about a quarter of the total population of Dong Ting.

There are at least 500,000 Dongting people still stubbornly staying on their own pastures.

They have already begun to prepare for the new power struggle and are ready to find their own foothold.