The Swordsman of Faerûn

Chapter 885

The outcome of Zhentil Castle was doomed before the war started. The tall city walls could resist the orcs and giants from the north, but they could not stop the Iron Legion from the valley.

Although the Zhentarim soldiers are fierce and good at fighting, they are no match for the soldiers of the Gudibu Battalion assembled into a mandarin duck formation.

The aristocratic mages who were truly relied upon by the people of Zhentil Castle could not help being overshadowed by the big casters in the valley.

Look at the spellcasters of Zhentil Castle, the most powerful of them is Manson's student Ximanmen, even if there are many of them, they can face the great sage Elminster who is teleporting, the silver-haired sisters Among them, Shiron, Storm, and even Ms. Simbu also came to help, and there were many better valley spellcasters. These Zhentil Castle people were all desperate.

Of course, the most outstanding spellcaster among them is a tavern maid from High Moon City in the south of the valley——Sandra Sissel.

This is also an existence that holds the power of the curse fire.Different from William's unique application of the energy-absorbing properties of the cursefire, Ms. Sandra is better at killing the target with the power of the cursefire itself. She is not afraid of any spells. When facing her, spellcasters in Zhentil Castle are almost like The lamb to be slaughtered is average.

Of course, Manson's escape was the biggest blow to the morale of the defenders of Zhentil Castle. As a true legendary archmage, Manson should have been the one who fought against top spellcasters such as Elminster and Hillen. main force.

If Mansong can sit in the floating fortress, he can even fight against all opponents on his own. Unfortunately, Mansong did not do this.

The army of the valley used the golem mecha to break through the southern wall of the city, and then captured the bridge across the Tessa River, and prevented the guards from destroying the bridge. Small credit.

In the end, when the flag representing the Kingdom of the Valley was hoisted on the floating fortress to show the success of the occupation, the people of Zhentil Castle completely lost the courage to resist. They threw away their weapons and took off their cumbersome armor. Flee in a hurry.

Most of the people of Zhentil Fort chose to surrender in desperation, but some soldiers fled to the north of Zhentil Fort's north wall.

It took the Valley Kingdom's army three days to capture Zhentil Fort, but it took a full three months to deal with the city's residents.

Most of the original citizens of Zhentil Castle were denounced as slave labor and formed labor camps to open up wasteland and build roads in the south. Some of the original Zhentil Castle slaves were given freedom and rights and became new citizens of Zhentil Castle. More of the new citizens were Valemen from the south.

The fall of Zhentil Castle represented the initial stabilization of the general territory of the Valley Kingdom, but William no longer sought more territorial expansion, but chose to concentrate on development, vigorously engage in infrastructure construction and development of productivity, and encouraged the people under his rule Fertility, popularization of education, and advocacy of production have allowed the entire Valley Kingdom to show prosperity in a short period of time.

Although in the second year, the so-called Valley Standing Stone Calendar 1360, the Kingdom of the Valley united with the surrounding countries to form a coalition, and had to fight the Tucan tribe, a nomadic army from the East, in the kingdom of Sykes in the East. , but this did not affect the pace of development of the Valley people.

William is so wise, he can always predictably formulate general strategies for the Valley Kingdom, and then let his talented ministers and subordinates use their talents freely to complete a series of tasks.

He is good at listening to other people's advice. He often walks among the people alone, listens to the people's aspirations, and actively solves their problems.

In fact, William spent most of his time wandering around the valley with groups of guards, uniting with local guards to eliminate monsters and thieves that endangered people's lives and properties.

What people talk about the most is the story of the King of the Valley leading an elite warband to raid the Underdark.

In the tenth year since the Kingdom of the Valley was established, dark elves appeared in many places in the Kingdom of the Valley. These elves from the ground are cruel and vicious guys. The Kingdom has caused no small amount of damage.

The angry king sent troops to expel the dark elves, and he himself kept chasing and killing those executioners. At least [-] dark elves died on the land of the Valley Kingdom, and [-] dark elves became the people of the valley. captives and slave labor.

Of course, some dark elves fled back to the deep underground world in a hurry, but this didn't make these poor guys escape their bad luck.In order to completely eliminate the threat from the underground, William led an elite battle group composed of tauren, dwarves, and humans into the underground world.

Along the way, they defeated countless monsters and enemies, including direclaws, duergarmen, illithids, mushroommen, and more.

Of course, the underground race that suffered the most is still the dark elves.The city of Sichen Lalane, an underground dark elf city in the south of the valley, suffered William's heaviest blow.

The dark elves of Schindalen are proficient in divination and teleportation magic, especially using spells and items to locate food, water and minerals.They were also the chief culprits of the dark elves attacking the valley kingdom, and then they were punished by William.

Of course, the dark elves didn't want to sit still. They used spells to summon many helpers, including devils from hell, demons from the abyss, and even the servants of the spider queen Rose, wax melter and a large number of demon hunting spiders.

It's a pity that their resistance did not delay the pace of failure, and even suffered the most fatal punishment from William.

In the end, the city of Sichendalene was destroyed by William's cursed phoenix. More than 70.00% of the dark elves died on the spot. deep underground.

William has always believed that the biggest problem of the Valley Kingdom has always been the problem of underpopulation, so he sacrificed the tried and tested law of forced birth by his ancestors in his previous life.

William stipulated that if any young man of legal age did not marry and have children within two years, he or she would be punished with hard labor and be married forcibly by the official government.

This almost ruthless law undoubtedly made many righteous people very uncomfortable. Many people, including the silver-haired sisters, strongly opposed it, but William resolutely insisted on enforcing it.

Of course, the result brought about by this made William very happy.

In the first ten years of the Valley Kingdom, its total population had exceeded 100 million, and in the second decade it even reached as many as 300 million (an increase of nearly five times compared to when the country was founded). Most of the growing population is nearly non-working children.

Almost every family of the Valley people has more than two children, and families with five or six or even seven or eight children are not uncommon.

In order to help people raise these children to grow up normally, William enforced the compulsory education system of the Kingdom of the Valley, requiring every child in the kingdom to attend school to receive education. The schools in the kingdom provide free breakfast and lunch, and tuition fees are naturally the same. No.

This caused the kingdom's education expenditure to account for more than 70.00% of the entire kingdom's financial expenditure. If it weren't for William's resource support from the entire Flame World, and the Valley Kingdom is the richest grain-producing area in Faerun, this kingdom has long been due to financial problems. Deficit and bankruptcy collapsed.

Fortunately, when the first batch of children who received a complete education grew up and successfully entered the society to become producers, this great kingdom finally began to take off astonishingly.

The infrastructure of the Kingdom of the Valley is extremely top-notch even in the entire world of Faerun. The wide rock-based road runs through the east, west, north, south, and steep terrain or narrow rivers in various places have been opened and widened.

Many factories powered by magic or flame power have been established, and various industrial products are sold all over Faerun, including various textiles, metal utensils, swords and armor, books, porcelain, non-staple foods after deep processing of grain, large-scale products such as Metal carriages, steel paddle steamers, etc., among which the merchants of Sembia and Jondas are most fond of selling and using the products of the valley.

At this time, the valley kingdom began to show some ferocious fangs, and the new generation began to lead the expansion. They annexed the high valley that was not conquered by William earlier, and fought countless wars with Sembia.

In fact, in the second decade, William gradually gave up the king's rights in his hands and transferred more rights to the chief executive officer of the Valley Kingdom. Of course, the chief executive officer had been deliberately renamed the prime minister by William at this time.

The term of each prime minister is five years, and the term of office cannot exceed three consecutive terms (including intermittent succession), which means that each prime minister can only hold power for a maximum of 15 years.

In the past, the first prime minister, Shiron, did not agree with William's ideas (due to the forced marriage order), and actually resigned after only one term. The person who replaced her was the former first consul of Far Mountain City, Zeria. Ms. Talladim.

The reason why this lady took office was not because of her qualifications, but because of her uncompromising style of implementing William's law and her rigorous work attitude.

It is precisely because of Ms. Talladim's iron fist that William's major policies can be implemented smoothly within the kingdom. Of course, Ms. Talladim's reputation is not very good, and many people who are quite resentful towards her are always vicious Call it the "cruel witch," "the king's bitch," the "screaming hag," and more.

All this stems from Ms. Talladim's consistent harsh punishments when she was the prime minister. Whether it is for the public or officials, this strong-handed female prime minister has never been soft on anyone who violates the law, including her His own uncle, Anadol Talladim, was severely punished by Lady Talladim.

The reason was that Anadol was 50 years old but had been single all the time, and then the poor old pastor was severely punished, and was forcibly rationed to a rude but strong widowed peasant woman.

Although the peasant woman who had already given birth to two children gave birth to three more children for old Taladim, Anadol regarded her niece as an enemy from then on.

Why can't you match your uncle with a prettier and younger aunt?
Ms. Talladim served three consecutive terms as Prime Minister and then stepped down with William's blessing. By the way, she bore William four children, one boy and three girls, but Ms. Talladim was not William's Wife, she was single until she left office.

William is arguably the man with the most children in the entire kingdom, with 26 sons and nine daughters.Due to William's longevity, these children were not legally granted any privileges in the kingdom, and they went to school and grew up like normal civilian children.

The only privilege William gave them was the freedom to marry, without being bound by the marriage law.

Isn't it unfair to others when some people deliberately ask why William doesn't treat his children equally in the marriage law?

William said: "If I really treat people equally, it would be unfair to other people's children.

Although there are no laws and regulations, my children are born with privileges, which are derived from the inheritance of blood and tradition. They are called princes and princesses, and their children will also be regarded as nobles.

If princes, princesses, and nobles are exchanged too much, their existence will inevitably backlog the survival resources and development resources of ordinary children, which is independent of human will. "

Someone asked again: "Then why do you have so many children?"

William replied helplessly: "No way, I have too many wives."

······
In the third decade, a new prime minister came to power, and it was another female prime minister.

Iljana Starcloak, the first consul of Dusk Town, and the sister of William's advisor Cheval Starcloak.

In fact, Cheval Starcloak is more suitable to be the prime minister, but William's former magic consultant and assistant lived in William's palace, while Ms. Iljana Starcloak has a half-elf husband.

However, Irjana only served as prime minister for one term. She did not step down voluntarily, but failed to be re-elected. The National Council of the People's Republic of China voted a vote of no confidence in her re-election evaluation, which made Ms. Irjana Xingpao feel sad step down.

It was William's younger sister, Mishal Burning Soul, who took over as Prime Minister. Ten years ago, she played a leading role in the kingdom's annexation of High Valley, and the friction between the Valley Kingdom and Sembia was the battle in the south of Guouta. Misha'er of Sicheng pushed it with one hand.

The city of Otas is the super castle built by William in the Battle Valley. The name of the city was given by the goddess of the earth, Tantea, which means the place where oats flow oil.

Of course, William preferred to call the city Jinling.

Misha'er is a standard believer in expansionism, and even William can't restore her desire to make contributions.

When Mishaer came to power, the total population of the valley was close to 1000 million, and nearly half of them were ambitious young adults, so she brazenly launched an invasion of Sembia, and occupied Sangbia in just half a year. The whole of Biya.

Mishaer is an excellent expander. With nearly ten times the population of the Sambiians, she spent three years digesting the territory and wealth of Sambia, and then launched a campaign against Cormier's offensive.

A year later, Suzar, the capital of Cormyr, was captured by the Valley Legion led by the female general Serul William Sword. Aizen V was forced to surrender, and the kingdom of Cormyr was destroyed.

During the Valley Kingdom’s occupation of Sambia, it was not that no one found William, who was almost reclusive, and asked him to stop the female prime minister’s “aggression” as a king, but William used the kingdom’s power structure, and he had no right to interfere with the prime minister’s affairs The decision was rejected on grounds.

Later, some guys under the banner of "savior" organized a top adventure team to try to assassinate the Prime Minister of the Valley Kingdom, Mishaer Burning Soul, so as to prevent the Valley Kingdom from annexing other countries.

Then the rescue team fell under William's knife, and then several big heads that were hidden deeply were chopped off by William.

William stepped on those bony heads and threatened: "Misha'er is my own sister, whoever dares to hurt her, I, as an older brother, will chop off anyone's head and kick it like a ball!"

Misha'er served as prime minister for 15 years. During her tenure, the Valley Kingdom successively annexed Sembia, Cormyr, and Hantu (which faces Genggu across the Dragon Bay), and conquered the military horse grassland in the north and Sasha. The land of Er turned the Moon Sea into an inland lake of the kingdom.

As a result, Mishaer Burning Soul was called the Conqueror and Greedy Princess.

At this time, some people are very fortunate that the prime minister of the Valley Kingdom has a re-election period, and 15 years will not allow Princess Mishaer to conquer the entire world.

Compared with Yamen Khan, who tried to lead the Tucan tribe to conquer the world 30 years ago, Mishaer's pace of conquest is undoubtedly slower.

However, unlike the Tukan tribe who failed to occupy an area and completely collapsed, the Valley Kingdom, under the leadership of Misha'er, once occupied a piece of land, it was completely digested and became an inseparable part of the kingdom.

Under such a steady and steady fight, even though the Valley Kingdom has suffered several defeats, it has always been invincible. No matter whether it is the orcs, giants, monster invaders from the north, or the anti-Valley coalition forces organized by the surrounding kingdoms and city-states, they cannot resist the Valley army. military force.

If it weren't for the harsh living environment of the wild ice fields in the north, the Northern Legion led by Phinia and Kaoyi would be enough to destroy the lair of the frost giants in the extreme north.

Since you can't fight on the battlefield, then solve the problem outside the battlefield - this is the smartest way for all the people in the Kingdom of Dread Valley.

During the period of Misha'er's last prime minister, many well-known figures joined the Valley Kingdom one after another to contribute to the development of the Valley Kingdom.

They praised everything about the Kingdom of the Valley, the government of the Kingdom, the laws of the Kingdom, and the traditions of the Kingdom...

When Misha'er's three consecutive terms ended, the wise people actively selected the next successor for the kingdom. It's not that there is no old man in the kingdom who proposed that Misha'er continue to be re-elected, but was attacked by countless virtuous and virtuous people. They say that those who propose such a motion are undermining the foundations of the kingdom.

After having a secret meeting with her brother William, after all, Mishaer did not break the rules and continue to be re-elected. She publicly delivered a speech on her retirement and encouraged people to embrace the traditions of the kingdom.

The fifth-generation successor of the Valley Kingdom's prime minister was beyond everyone's expectations. It was actually the former first-generation prime minister—of course it was still called the chief executive officer at that time—Ms. Hellen.

Ms. Helen's coming to power did not violate the law of serving as a prime minister, and the first decree she took to power was to abolish the law of compulsory marriage, which was what she hated the most, and it was also the introduction of Hellen's resignation.

Hillen's resolution has the support of almost the vast majority of citizens, including the entire government bureaucracy.

Without him, it is only because it is the fifth decade of the founding of the Valley Kingdom, and the population of the country has reached 3000 million. It is difficult for the kingdom's bureaucracy to implement the compulsory marriage policy, and the civilians below are also unbearable.

The abolition of the compulsory marriage law can be said to be a real move in line with public opinion.

Hillen served as prime minister for two consecutive terms. During her term of office, the Kingdom of the Valley hardly made any outward expansion. The entire country and people were immersed in their own small lives, which made the Kingdom of the Valley the main material of the world of Faerun and even all of them. The happiest and richest country in the plane.

Countless people from other places and even outer regions tried to migrate to the Valley Kingdom, and there were countless smuggling trends. It was quite like William's previous life in the eighties and 90s who defected to the lighthouse, and it could even be said to be even crazier.

After Helen ended her ruling period, the prime minister who succeeded her was another lady, the most famous female general in the Valley Kingdom, Cyrul Omesser, who has the title of "Iron God of War", and the relative of the great Valley King. teach students.

The first thing Cyruel did when he came to power was to propose to William, who had been out of charge for many years, to change the title of the kingdom, but William readily accepted the proposal.

So William and Selur led the important officials from all over the country to hold a grand Zen ceremony under the Stairway to Heaven in the Shadow Valley, and renamed the Kingdom of the Valley to the "Xia" Empire, taking the first dynasty of the hometown of the previous life as the country name.

Of course people like to call it the Great Xia Empire.

The reason why William didn't use "Hua" is because there is no inheritance of Chinese culture here, so it can't be used as a double character name.

However, many habits and inheritances from William's previous life have gradually spread in the empire, such as diet, martial arts, and arithmetic.

The coming of Cyrul Omeser started a new round of expansion of the Great Xia Empire. During her tenure, Tumisi, Imbutu, and Cesk became part of the Great Xia Empire, and the Dragon Coast became a part of the Great Xia Empire. The southern territories of the empire.

During this period, William used great power to dig out the southernmost abyss mountain range, linking the deep lake in the south with the Weihong sea area. naturally connected).

The last region Cyrul conquered during his tenure was Aglaron, the kingdom of Lady Simbu, one of the Silver Sisters.

However, there was no real war between the two sides. As the prime minister of the empire, Cyrul Omeser went to Aglaron in person to have a secret talk with Queen Simbu. Afterwards, the two sides reached an agreement, and Ms. Simbu gave up. In the position of Queen, Agoralong peacefully merged into the Great Xia Empire and received the same citizen benefits.

The army of the Great Xia Empire wanted to protect the people in the Agoralon region from the invasion of the Kingdom of Serre.

In fact, Simbu has long been tired of being a queen. Even though she has the power to slaughter cities and countries, she can rely on her own strength to resist the invasion from the Red Robe Wizards and protect the people of Agoralon.

But this kind of life is not easy, and Simbu has insisted on it for nearly a century. She hopes that someone can replace her responsibility, of course, the premise is that the receiver must be reliable enough.

Undoubtedly, there is no more reliable receiver in this world than the Great Xia Empire.

(End of this chapter)