Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 943: Escape without a fight?
"Let's talk about the Nidhogg." Linger changed the subject: "The more we learn about a constructed mecha, the greater our chances of winning against the Witch Society. Your understanding of it should not be limited to just the name, right, Gloria?"

"you guessed right."

The pirate leaned back in her chair, wiped her musket, and then began to wipe her rapier with a gold-wire cage-shaped handguard. She said slowly, "After all, the people who fought it head-on were mainly Solomon's Dogs led by Grann. Small characters like us could only provide cover from the outside."

"Solomon's Dog?" Ling Ge was very sensitive to this name: "What does it have to do with the Thirteen Hermits?"

The Thirteen Hermits is a secret alliance dedicated to resisting the rule of the Witch Society. Its members include but are not limited to magic societies such as the Truth Society, the Fertile Soil Sect and the Silver Moon. The initiator is Solomon, who is not only the leader of the Truth Society, but also a philosopher of the Witch Society. Later, he was dissatisfied with the Witch Society's attempt to promote the magic system instead of the magic system, so he chose to betray and make the intelligence of the Witch Society public, which made the mysterious world know the existence of this ancient organization.

It can be said that Solomon was also a person standing at a critical juncture in history.

But this time, it has nothing to do with him.

"Gran Solomon is an orphan of the Solomon family of the Kingdom of S'E. After escaping death on the night of the extermination of his family, he fled to the distant Storm Sea and established the Solomon's Dog Pirates. At first, he was unknown and almost no one knew who he was. However, when the colonial war broke out, the fleet that transported supplies to the Western Land Allied Forces was plundered crazily by the Solomon's Dogs, which once caused the Allied Forces' logistics line to break and the front line to fall into a stalemate. Later, the Allied Forces dispatched several fleets to encircle and suppress the Solomon's Dogs, but they all escaped and even sank several warships in return, greatly weakening the Allied Forces' naval power. If the Order had not increased its investment in overseas battlefields in a timely manner, the outcome of the Silent War would have been almost rewritten."

"After this battle, Solomon's Dog became famous, and Grann Solomon became a great pirate who roamed the world, more famous than Captain Drake and Whitebeard in the Age of Navigation. Later, when the East Continent regime secretly funded major pirate groups to attack the West Continent's maritime power in the four seas, Grann Solomon was the most active and was therefore the most feared by the West Continent coalition."

Gloria raised the polished sword to her eyes. A touch of elegant cold light flashed across the snow-white blade. "Basically, he wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible."

"The Kingdom of Suer?" Linger was puzzled. "Isn't that an ancient kingdom located between the Sonia Peninsula and the Ashold Islands? In that case, Grann Solomon is still from the Western Continent. Why would he help the regime of the Eastern Continent?"

"You are wrong. Grann Solomon has never intended to assist the East Continent. He is only unilaterally confronting several maritime powers in the West Continent, including but not limited to the Great Brittany Kingdom, the Mindrias Empire, the White City Republic, the Knights of Lesonville, the Kingdom of Metosh... and the Kingdom of Suer."

The names Gloria mentioned almost covered all the powerful countries in the Western Continent, which made Ling Ge even more confused. Where did Grann Solomon get the confidence to confront these countries? And why did he do this? "Does he have a grudge against these countries?"

Even including one's own country.

"Of course, apart from hatred, there is no other factor that can make a Sequence 2 True God desperate to launch revenge." Gloria's lips curled up slightly: "If we want to discuss this issue, we have to trace it back to the development of the colonial era. As we all know, after the Great Britta Kingdom won the Silent War and established the overseas colony of O'Shea, the benefits it reaped made the countries of the Western Continent jealous, and a wave of colonization followed. However, at this time, the countries had to face a problem, that is, the East and West Continents are separated by the vast and dangerous Storm Sea, Endless Sea and Chaotic Sea. Whirlpools, reefs, sea beasts and other threats emerge in an endless stream. Although the navigation technology of the Western Continent is advanced, sailing on the sea still involves huge risks. During the Silent War, the Great Britta Kingdom successively sent about troops and warships to the Eastern Continent as support, but more than soldiers and warships were lost in the storms during the sea voyage, which was even more severe than the losses on the battlefield."

"Too long routes often bring unnecessary losses. For this reason, it is necessary to establish a stable sea base as a transit point. At the same time, some inland countries that want to join the colonial wave lack high-quality seaports and must find ways to make up for it from the outside. The coastal areas of the Western Continent do have natural sea bases with superior geographical locations and abundant port conditions, which are very suitable for the preparation and docking of large fleets. Columbus and Magellan's ocean voyages and the Mayflower Fleet's voyages all transited here. That is—"

Miss Pirate paused here deliberately, and Linger had already guessed the answer: "Sonia Peninsula and Ashold Islands?"

"That's right." Gloria chuckled. "I don't think I need to tell you much about the rest of the story. You who studied history should know it better."

Lingge was silent. He did know something about this period of history and naturally knew what happened afterwards.

Both islands were formed by the movement of the plates that split the continent. Their total area is about half the size of the Kingdom of Brittany. There are many natural deep-water ports. Many islands are distributed on the safe waterway leading to the East Continent, which is a must-go for ships. The Sonia Islands are relatively remote, so the development of civilization is relatively backward, and it is still in the primitive city-state system; the Eshhod Islands were migrated from the mainland before AD. Criminals, poor people, bankrupt merchants and downtrodden nobles brought civilization and knowledge, and together with the local indigenous people, they established the feudal monarchy of the Kingdom of S'E, which was closed and isolated from the outside world. Although it has a long history, it is limited by population, resources and land, and its national strength is not strong.

Such a weak person possesses the greatest wealth and holds the key to the colonial era, which naturally attracts the covetousness of many people.

On April 1570, 4, the Mindelias Empire sent troops to the Kingdom of Suer in the name of suppressing pirates. The famous "Battle of the Cliff of No Return" broke out soon after. The Kingdom of Suer was defeated and forced to sign a treaty with Mindelias to cede land, allowing the empire to successfully obtain the coveted natural port and sea base.

This marked the beginning of the next fifty years, during which the Sonia Islands and the Ashoid Islands were invaded. The three great powers, the Great Empire of Mindrias, the Great Britta Kingdom, and the White City-State Republic, together with the other five medium-sized countries, divided up more than ninety percent of the territory of the Kingdom of Su'er and signed the so-called "Peaceful Development and Non-Aggression Treaty" with the Kingdom of Su'er. History called it the "Nine-Nation Alliance", and the Kingdom of Su'er was forced to survive on the remaining territory.

As for the Sonia Peninsula, which had no unified regime, it was even more miserable. It was divided up by small inland countries that were determined to participate in the colonial struggle. The names of invaders were engraved on every coastal port and dock. They burned forests and reclaimed wasteland and built docks, while the local residents could only retreat into the depths of the jungle and established the "Sonia Guerrillas" with the secret support of some foreign forces, hoping to expel the invaders and recover their land.

This is not a glorious history. Therefore, scholars who study this period of history always mention a sentence from the famous historian Ranke's lecture at the Minsuriya Royal Historical Academy when discussing this period: "The colonial war is first and foremost an internal war." It is not only a war for the distribution of interests, but also a war for qualifications. Countries that do not even have high-quality ports are not worthy of participating in this colonial game of overseas expansion. For example, the Sonia Peninsula and the Ashoid Islands are not participants in the game, but just chips on the table.

"I heard," Linger recalled a little secret that was not recorded in history books but heard from his mentor: "Before Mindeliyas launched an invasion on the Kingdom of Suer, the Kingdom of Suer had no intention of resisting and tried to quell the war by ceding territory. It was General Solus from the Solomon family who insisted on fighting and personally led 30,000 troops to a stalemate with the Imperial Army near the Cliff of No Return. But at the end of the battle, General Solus died suddenly of illness, causing the Kingdom's army to be completely defeated. Could it be..."

"Sudden death is not a new excuse." Miss Pirate said sarcastically, "It's nothing more than the Empire seeing that they couldn't gain an advantage on the front battlefield, so they changed their approach and put indirect pressure on the royal family of the Kingdom of Suer. And the old and foolish monarch did become suspicious and allowed the Empire's spies to carry out the so-called assassination plan, which further fueled the flames and eliminated the Solomon family, the only family that could compete with the royal family politically."

"His foolish action not only completely cut off his own retreat, but also gave birth to a revenge monster like Grann Solomon. I heard that Solomon's Dog even ventured across the Storm Sea during the rainy season, bypassed the Cliff of No Return, and bombarded the royal city directly from the sea. The old king could only hide in his palace and tremble. The Imperial Navy stationed nearby did arrive in time to provide support, but Grann Solomon sank two of their new warships, causing them to lose face."

"How do you know so much?" Alice asked, peeking her head out from under the table. "Aren't you a small character...eh?"

Facing the dark muzzle, she retracted her head from the bottom of her heart, while the pirate lady slowly retracted her musket and kindly reminded her: "Compared to Grann Solomon, I am indeed a small character, but that doesn't mean you can provoke me, dear Miss Alice. As for why I know so clearly, of course it is because Grann's crazy behavior angered the Empire, so the Imperial Navy and the Crusaders intercepted Solomon's Dog at the junction of the Endless Sea and the Storm Sea, trying to completely eliminate this threat."

"But Grann learned of this plan through secret channels in advance, so he issued a pirate call and personally summoned 86 pirate groups of all sizes, leading them to surround the Imperial Army's sea base, Comine Island. He took the lead and promised that all the loot would be privately owned, and he would bear the responsibility himself. As a result, the pirates were in high spirits and fought bravely, almost forcing the garrison on the island to jump into the sea for their lives. If the turbo mothership Nidhogg of the Order had not arrived in time, the Empire might have lost this sea base."

"Were you protecting Solomon's Dog from the outside? I mean, in your memory." Linger asked quickly, "Did Grann Solomon fight with the Nidhogg? How strong was the latter?"

He did not ask about the outcome. After all, Grann Solomon was only a Sequence 2. Facing the combined construct mechas of the cult, it would be difficult for him to win. But his name is still widely known in the world, which means that even if he lost that battle, he did not lose miserably, unlike the Celestial Feastman, the Great Lord of the Abyss, and Gundaruf, who were directly blasted into slag by the Conviction Cannon of the Scarlet Night Gate.

Is it because Grann Solomon's combat power is stronger than the latter three, or is it because the combat power of the turbo carrier Nidhogg is not as strong as that of the Earth Witch Scarlett?

Lingge felt it was the latter and hoped it was the latter.

However, Gloria's answer still surprised him.

"There was no fighting." She glanced at the young man and answered casually, "As soon as the Nidhogg appeared, Grann Solomon gave up his original plan and directly ordered the Dog of Solomon to leave the battlefield. The remaining pirates also scattered. Except for a few who were slow to move and were caught up by the Nidhogg and became unlucky, everyone else escaped safely. The battle ended hastily, and neither side achieved their goals."

Ah this.

"He just ran away?" Alice's head popped out from under the table, commenting, "Isn't this guy too cowardly? Is he worthy of being the Pirate King?"

Although Grann Solomon is just a great pirate, not the Pirate King as Alice said, her opinion is also everyone's opinion. After all, Gloria described him as being so patient, happy to take revenge, and vindictive, but in the end he didn't even have the courage to confront the Nidhogg head-on? The Celestial Eater was blocked in his lair and didn't even think of surrendering (because surrendering would not end well), and Rochelle even summoned the Constructed God in an attempt to defeat the Scarlet Night Gate head-on to prove that the Constructed Mecha is not invincible. In comparison, Grann Solomon is a bit inferior.

Is a Sequence 2 True God so cowardly?

"It's slightly different from what you think." Gloria said, "Gran Solomon is a fanatic driven by revenge. He has the courage to fight against a strong enemy. If there was a one in ten thousand chance of winning, he would not run away without saying a word and damage his prestige in vain. But at that time, there was a strong man who was much stronger than him on the Nidhogg. Gran was sure that he had no chance of winning, so he chose to retreat."

"Who?" Alice couldn't help asking.

However, everyone had some guesses in their minds. After all, the only enemy that a Sequence 2 True God could feel he could not defeat was...

"The commander of the 300,000 holy crusaders of the Order, and also the chief commander of the Western Land coalition." Gloria said word by word: "The Witch of Dissension, Favrona."

(End of this chapter)