Chapter 1000： War deadlock

Rosetta got up from behind the desk. He came to the map not far away, his eyes slowly swept across a series of markings on the border area, and Matilda's voice came from behind him: "Past Within a week, the Cecils had increased their troops on the Winter Wolf defense line four times. At the same time, the control area extended from the fortress all the way to the Shadow Swamp. Not long ago, they controlled the mechanical bridge in the Shadow Swamp area and allowed the armored train to enter the war zone. Columns of war machines entrenched like a fortress on the line from Shadow Swamp to Winter Wolf Keep, putting tremendous pressure on our border offensive..."

"It seems that they have made up their minds to be nailed to Winter Wolf...This is a strategic fulcrum," Rosetta nodded, "So we can't rule out the possibility of their sudden attack on Aldernan."

"It seems so..." Matilda responded, "We have now cut off the railway line from the Shadow Marsh to the country, and established a new line with Winterhold as the fulcrum. The forces mobilized from the country are constantly flowing. The ground gathered there. The Cecil’s steel chariots and mobile infantry advancement tactics caused us great casualties at the beginning, but after Earl Palin Winterhold withdrew from the Winter Wolf defense line, he guided the first-line troops to develop many Effective tactics, now our Transcendent troops can effectively fight those machines... But we still have nothing to do with the two mobile forts of the Cecilians."

"Palin Winterhold..." Rosetta whispered, "After the fall of Winter Wolf, he was questioned by many in the country... Now those doubts are finally quiet."

"In the Battle of Winter Wolf Castle, one of the two main commanders surrendered and the other evacuated and returned to the rear. After this incident was passed back to the country, no matter how public opinion guided it, it eventually hit the upper class of society for so many years of pride and self-confidence. After a serious injury Not to mention the surrendered Andesa, Count Palin Winterhold was said to have evacuated early unscathed... Many nobles believed that he was even more shameless than Andesa."

"It is ridiculous that only those who are not on the battlefield at all and do not understand the army are laughing, but the real generals know that it is the two questionable commanders who have bought us the opportunity to breathe and adjust," There was a hint of coldness in Rosetta’s tone, but he did not stay on this topic for too long, and soon shook his head, “It seems that the war machine called'armored train' is better than we started at the beginning. The investigation is even more difficult."

"The information investigated in the intelligence before technological advancement is obviously out of date. The armored train was a semi-finished product, but now the Cecil has perfected its weapon and power system," Matilda said solemnly. "That thing has the firepower of the strategic mage regiment and the protection of a city wall, and can fly freely on the track, and the entire track is protected by a powerful shield and countless military stations and guard towers set up along the way. Small trains patrol back and forth on the protective track. According to the description from the earl of Winterhold, this is a'dynamic and offensive and defensive' system, and none of our arms can deal with it...

"The Cecilians obviously used a lot of effort to design this set of things. The purpose of its birth was not to deal with those weak and small countries, but to deal with behemoths like Typhon..."

Listening to his daughter’s narration, Rosetta fell into short thoughts. After a long time, he sighed softly and said thoughtfully: “A moving fortress can be attacked, defensive, and habitable. The continuously advancing supply line, if several railways are built to extend to the wasteland, and advance bases are continuously set up under the cover of armored trains, human civilization may even be able to counterattack the Gondor wasteland..."

Matilda obviously did not expect her father to have such a thought, but she immediately realized the meaning behind this thought, and her face suddenly showed a surprised expression: "Father... what do you mean?"

"Gavin Cecil, his eyes are indeed farther than we can see," Rosetta said, but shook her head quickly, "but this is not the time to talk about this. The key is those trains...they With strong firepower and long range, this means that they can cover the engineers while they are fighting while laying the railway forward. Even if we blow up the mechanical bridge and the railway junction, as long as the Cecilians are willing to pay, they can. Keep pushing forward unswervingly, so we must find a way to deal with that thing."

"...The Earl of Winterhold proposed a plan, but this plan once again faced our shortcomings," Matilda said. "He believes that against this land fortress, the use of ground forces will face huge battle damage anyway. The only effective method is that the main guns of the air-raid armored train can only attack ground targets. Although it also has smaller weapons capable of anti-aircraft, its firepower is far weaker than that of the ground. As long as it does not face the deadly The main guns, we have the opportunity to destroy them from the air."

"In the air..." Rosetta's eyes narrowed, but her expression didn't stretch at all.

"Air superiority is not on our side," Matilda said in a heavy tone. "Although we have the largest air magician regiment and griffon force on this continent, the Cecilians turned their war machines on. In the sky, griffons and wizards are too fragile and slow to face machines, and most importantly, wizards with flying capabilities and experienced griffon riders are obviously more precious than those machines, and we cannot afford to consume them."

Rosetta pondered, and slowly said, "...Can the flying machine be copied or its shortcomings can be studied?"

"We shot down a few aircraft, and the wreckage has been sent to several research facilities under the name of the Royal Mage Association and the Industrial Association, but it may be difficult to imitate them in a short time. Experts in the rune field report that they have been found on those machines. Another brand-new rune system is completely different from the runes currently used by elves and humans, but somewhat like the legendary dragon language... These runes interact with the special alloys that make up the flying machine to generate power. We can neither piece together a complete set of runes, nor know how the materials that serve as the base of the runes are produced. In this case, we must imitate the aircraft...Even if luck is on our side, time is too late."

"It's true... we are chasing an unfamiliar field from scratch. There is no such time," Rosetta said in a deep voice. "In a short time, we still have to find a way in the field we are good at... Do those flying machines have weaknesses?"

Matilda nodded immediately: "Yes, and the weakness is unexpectedly simple, but it is also very tricky. It is probably to reduce weight and improve flexibility. Those flying machines do not have the same strong armor and high power as steel tanks. Energy shields, and their anti-gravity structure lacks protection, and their anti-interference ability is very weak. Ordinary arcane traps can make them temporarily lose power. In theory, they only need to go nearby to release a small-scale arcane to their power structure. The impact of the technique can make that thing fall, or at least temporarily lose control and combat power, but..."

"But the premise is that our mage must be able to live close to those things," Rosetta said blankly. "That thing flies faster, more agile, and has a stronger offensive ability than the mage and the griffin, so it is itself On the contrary, the weakness in strength has become irrelevant. No opponent can approach it at all, and can't even catch it."

Matilda was speechless, but Rosetta returned to the map after a moment of silence. He seemed to have forgotten the topic he was discussing, but instead focused on the lines that represented military mobilization. And on the arrow, after more than a minute of thinking, he suddenly broke his silence: "The next group of troops will go to the front in a few days... Earl Cremont Dart will lead the reorganized Fourth Army and the last one. Support the'Church Volunteer Group' to the Winter Fort."

"Cremont?" Matilda was stunned, but quickly reacted, her face became a little complicated, "He should be the last stone among the stubborn and conservative nobles... In order to destroy your New Deal, he is more than Once rushed to call among the nobles and wizards, but because of his influence, even Hadillon couldn't help him..."

"Palin can do it," Rosetta said lightly, "the worst, the Cecilians can do it too."

"...I am worried that the Count Dart will simply surrender in the first battle. He hates you more than the Cecilians. Sending such a person to the front will only further weaken our strength."

"He won't, he does hate me more than the Cecilians, but he loves Typhon more than himself... I have dealt with him too much," Rosetta slowly turned around, looking Looking at the foggy Aldenan outside the French window, "He knows my intentions, but he will still rush to the front line, and then die there heroically with hatred... If it weren't for this war, he wouldn't be in any situation. Will do this kind of thing, but Typhon is in trouble now."

Matilda fell silent for a while, and then hesitated for a few seconds before saying: "In addition, about that ‘Church Volunteer Group’..."

"The priests of the God of War want this war, and I will give them this war. Those are some fanatics who are about to lose their ability to judge, but at least they can be used for the last time," Rosetta turned her back to Mattie Erda said that the latter couldn't see his expression at all, "They readily accepted the order, for the time being...it is the last piece of the puzzle that the church can provide us."

Matilda thought about it. She seemed to instinctively feel the violation from her father's arrangement this time, but before she could ask anything, she heard a knock on the door suddenly coming from behind.

Rosetta turned and looked at the door: "Come in."

In the next second, the door of the study was opened, and Diana appeared there in a black maid dress and black hair cape. The maid first nodded slightly to the side Matilda, and then bent down to his master.

Rosetta looked at the lady who had been loyal to the Augustus family for hundreds of years: "What happened?"

"The Cecil technician stranded in the Alder South Railway Company still refused to continue to provide services, and the consular officer also rejected your proposal," Diana said blankly. "In addition, similar situations have occurred in railway hubs across the country. ."

Rosetta pondered for a moment, while Matilda looked at her father subconsciously.

The Cecilians stranded in Typhon... She also paid attention to this matter for a while. The war came too suddenly, and neither the responding party nor the "declaring war" party were prepared. When the border conflict escalated into a hot war within 48 hours, and cross-border traffic was suddenly interrupted, many foreigners were unsurprisingly faced. Embarrassing detention situation. The technicians, investment merchants and state representatives sent by Cecil were stranded in Typhon, and the envoys, students and businessmen who were sent to the opposite side by Typhon were also stranded in Cecil.

The new "international order" of the past two years has brought this kind of troublesome situation that no one has ever considered and faced. Before this, even if two countries that communicate with each other suddenly went to war, there would be no such complicated detention of personnel. A phenomenon, because there was no cross-border trade and technical exchanges, and there were no national-level foreign students and inspection activities.

Matilda knows that many people are now actively involved in this matter. Some are actively organizing the evacuation and evacuation of the stranded people. Some are trying to establish a "wartime passage window" through various channels. Aldernan and Sisi In this situation, Ercheng still maintains fragile, difficult and cautious contacts in order to deal with such troublesome things.

During this period, the Cecil technicians stranded in Aldernan refused to accept the Augustus family order and refused to continue to provide technical services for Typhon. This matter has attracted a lot of attention. Frankly speaking... Marty Jorda even admired the bold Cecils.

Most of them are neither knights nor mages. According to the traditional view, they are just civilians. There is no need to follow the rules of knights and nobles, but they are no worse than knights on the battlefield.

There was a slightly depressed silence in the study, but in the end Rosetta broke the silence: "Has anyone clashed with them?"

"No," Ms. Diana shook her head. "According to your order, we have maintained the greatest restraint. The food and drinking water supply in the embassy and technical staff residential areas have also remained normal, but now we have banned those places. Personnel access."

After a few seconds of silence, Rosetta finally exhaled and said slowly: "Tell the ambassador that he can leave Aldernan in the near future, and we will send him out at the end of the Dark Mountain."

Diana glanced at him: "In exchange for our own ambassador?"

Rosetta nodded slowly: "This matter has been arranged, so you can just tell it directly."

"So what about those technicians?"

"... If they refuse to serve, just refuse, tell them that their safety and life in Aldernan will still be guaranteed," Rosetta said. "Treat them well and set up more security personnel in the corresponding neighborhoods to prevent Extreme citizens or aristocrats with unclear brains will make accidents. In addition, if possible, continue to send people to contact them in private. Not everyone is a high-spirited fighter, when the transaction is carried out in private , There will always be someone willing to fall to us."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

(Happy birthday to the operating officer Xin Xin Qian Qian!)