Three Philosophical Questions for Travelers

Bugu said: "But if we don't fight, we will be enslaved by the northerners forever - every year we have to pay taxes to the northerners, our iron mines, trade routes, and even the key points of the country such as Tianfuguan are in the hands of the northerners Hold on. If I don't rebel, then our descendants will be oppressed by them forever," he suddenly changed his subject at this point, "Master Haven, I heard that you once rebelled when you were in Mustang Town, right? ?

Haiwen said: "That's not rebellion, Your Majesty, I just used the power of a judge legally and reasonably."

The king shook his head and said, "I don't care what it is, it doesn't matter. I just want to ask you, why did you do that? It was to free the serfs from the oppression of the landlords, right?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"That's right, since you can use violence to save the serfs, why can't I use war to save the Gulf?"

Haiwen was dumbfounded for a moment, the tyrant's gaze forced him to sweat—how should I answer him?I saved the serfs, so he saved the Gulf from the hands of the northern nobles, isn't he saving?When he raised his eyelids, he saw that the gaze of the little trident was as sincere as the sun; he saw Lan Chu's eyebrows slightly closed, smiling slightly; and the throne, the big chair made of cast iron...

"War is not the best choice, Your Majesty!" he said bravely, "If you can use a quick battle to overthrow the violent rule of the northerners and liberate thousands of oppressed people, the people will applaud! But This war will only bring endless suffering! Five years? Ten years? How long will it take and how many people will die? Can we win in the end? Can people usher in a long-term peaceful life after victory? Your Majesty! Please tell I!"

"Hahahahaha!" The King of the Bayland laughed loudly, and the sound shook Haven's ears, as if the castle was shaking.

When he finished laughing, Wan Lai was silent.Bagu asked Haiwen, "Do you understand war?"

Haven shook his head.

"Then why do you think this war is going to be protracted? Why are we losing?"

"Because of the unequal national power, the territory, population, and wealth of the northerners are multiples of ours. Moreover, the Gulf region is not united. I think it will be difficult for us to win." Haiwen said.

Bagu nodded, and said to him: "Haven Ambside, you are a man of courage, but not a smart man. When I make friends, I can allow you to be stupid, but you can't be bad; I can also allow you to It's bad, but you can't be stupid—such as Lan Chu!" He pointed at his prime minister, and Lan Chu raised his eyelids and said, "Your Majesty, you are really wise and kind."

The king glanced at Lan Zuo, snorted coldly, and then said to Haiwen: "Let me tell you this, the northerners are not as powerful as you imagined, and the Gulflands are far stronger than you seem. As for what you said 'Not united enough'? Hahahahaha! The northerners are almost divided into three, you tell me that the Gulf is not united? Let me tell you, I am not fighting alone, there is an ally! This ally is the northerners Myself! When I attack the nobles, the knights and the church are my allies; when I attack the knights, the church and the nobles will assist me; when I fight the church, the nobles and the knights will surely stab me in the back The knife of the church. When I have marked all three of them once, then the north will be rotten, and my military flag will be able to be planted in Eagle Head City!"

Haven thinks his idea is too idealistic, "Your Majesty, I think—"

"The most important thing!" The little trident interrupted him, "The bay has the greatest emperor in the world, that is, me, Bone Kahn! I am the bravest warrior, the most mighty general, The wisest military god! When I lead the army to fight, the warriors in the bay will be invincible. I am the chosen hero, the supreme king of this world! And you, Haven Ambside!" He Pointing at Haiwen with his thick index finger, Haiwen felt as if a sword was being pressed against his throat, "Do you want to pledge your allegiance to me?"

The coercion of the emperor made Haiwen terrified, his hairs stood on end, and the phrase "willing" almost blurted out.However, this fear is diluted when he thinks about the beliefs in his heart and the people who need his protection.He raised his head and said to the giant: "I will never be a war puppet, Your Majesty the King! I have sworn to protect the land of Bear Mountain and the people on it, and I will never push them into the battlefield!"

Hearing this, the little Trident suddenly laughed, and he said, "Who said I want you to be a war puppet? I never thought of sending you to the battlefield, Ambside. That's all your own imagination."

Haiwen froze for a moment, then asked, "Then what exactly do you want me to do?"

"That place is not up to you.", Seven

"That place is not up to you.", Seven

The king smiled, and he said, "Master Earl, do you think I asked you to pay for my war? Don't I know how many people and how much money there are in Bear Mountain?"

Haiwen thought for a moment and asked, "Do you want me to guard the Antler Pass?"

The little trident shook his head again, and said, "Master Haiwen, don't make wild guesses. Although I look like a rough man, I have read books and can recognize people. I will not let someone like you go to the battlefield." Let me die. Let me tell you, Bear Mountain will become my arsenal in the future. You have to do all these things, Ambleside! You don’t know anything about warfare, but you can do some production. Bear Mountain is a logistics base, I want you to take care of this."

"How do you know I'm good at this kind of thing?"

Ba Gu glanced at Lan Chu, Lan Chu shrugged and shook his head, then Ba Gu said to Hai Wen: "I just know!"

Haiwen realized that he and the king had nothing to say.

"If you agree, your title will be retained, and the power of the nobility will remain as usual. As for the people of the Sea God Cult? My lord, you can bear the pain and let them live in the castle. I will send a special envoy to carry out a decent handover ceremony, and give enough your face."

Haiwen sneered and said, "I can't even defend the castle, so what kind of 'legitimate noble'?"

The king frowned and said, "You are so fucking stubborn! The old man in Pinewood Castle is not alive for a few years. I will discuss with the priests to bury him in advance, and then give up Pinewood Castle to you! That's fine. , stop talking nonsense, you either agree or die! Choose one!"

I don't have the capital to negotiate with him, Haiwen thought to himself, if he wants to kill me, he can kill me immediately.Haven thought for a while and said, "I can promise you, but I have one last request."

"Say it!" The king was obviously impatient.

"I will be in charge of your weapons production, but what I do in my own territory, no one else has the right to interfere, and no one can. I want autonomy at the duke level, including the power to amend the laws of the fief."

"Are you fucking trying to rebel?" Bugu asked.

"I will not let my power leave my fief."

"Then why do you want so much power?"

"I need my own set of rules to do things, Your Majesty. If you want me to produce weapons, you have to give me this power."

"Success, I agree!" He waved his hand and said, "Is there any other request?"

"Gone."

It is indeed gone, Haiwen thought to himself, no matter what, my goal has been achieved - I lost Bear Castle, but I got something more important.

A chance, a chance to liberate people.

Ba Gu clapped his hands and laughed loudly, and said, "That's it! Lan Zuo! Write him a letter and ask him to bring a token and go to Xiongshan Mountain. Haven? If you win against the northerners, I will give you an official title."

Hearing this, Haiwen couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty, there is one more thing I don't understand."

Ba Gu asked impatiently: "What do you not understand?"

"Xiong Mountain is located at Lujiao Pass, which is an important border pass. Why should the production base be set up in such a place?"

Ba Gu sneered and said, "Then where do you think it should be set up?"

"It could be closer inland," said Haven.

"Isn't the transportation a lot of trouble?"

This also makes sense. "That's at least a little further south," he said.

"In the South? The South?" said the King, laughing. "And what about when I'm at war with the Southerners? Have you thought about it, Ambside? Huh?"

Haven was stunned - I really hadn't thought about it.

And who would have thought?

************

The battle flags on the city wall of Bear Mountain fluttered.Under Xiongshan City, the army has become impatient.

They are a mob without any training, and they are an army built with enthusiasm. What this army lacks most is patience.

Tang De'en was still looking at the battle flag on the city wall, and Brian the bear was also standing there, looking at him.

Maybe we should camp here, Tang Deen thought to himself, but this place is too close to the castle. If the Bear Mountain garrison raids the city, our coalition forces may be defeated.Although there are enough of these guys, the discipline is too poor, and a little bit of turmoil will immediately defeat morale.

To put it bluntly, the sea god coalition forces just looked scary, and Tang De'en lacked confidence in a real fight.

Just when he was anxious, the voice of the demon monk sounded leisurely behind him: "Tang De'en, you don't really want us to wait for ten days, do you?"

Tang De'en really had this plan at the beginning, but the Sea God Alliance obviously couldn't complete the ten-day wait.He turned his head, and the monster monk's huge eyes were staring at him.Tang Deen felt that he was being watched by a shark.

Tang Deen said: "In three days, if they don't open the city and surrender within three days, we will take Xiongshan City."

"Three days?" Putin raised three slender fingers, his fingers were longer than ordinary people's knuckle length, "You let everyone sit here for three days? These three days I will listen to you give them lectures huh, Master?"

Tang De'en glared and said loudly: "It's only three days! If an army can't bear to stand by for three days, what will it use to fight the northerners?"

The demon monk was choked by him, and his face immediately turned sullen, and a fierce light glowed in his terrifying big eyes.However, Tang De'en was not afraid of him. Tang De'en was the only one in the Sea God Cult who dared to confront the demon monk head-on.

The two faced each other tit for tat, and suddenly the atmosphere was not right.At this time, the daughter of the Sea God swam slowly in. She looked at the two tall men and said, "So, how long are you going to wait?"

"At least three days." Tang Deen said.

"I don't want to wait a moment longer," Putin said.

Lorelei Heine wagged her fish tail and slapped the shiny slime on the ground.She pondered for a while, and said, "If this continues, my scales will be dry."

Tang Deen said: "I have prepared fresh sea water for you, Your Highness." And you can also change back to human form, Tang Deen thought to himself.

Lorelai shook her head and said, "I don't want to take a sea bath here."

"Then you can—"

"I want to go to the castle to wash." She interrupted Tang De'en, their eyes met, and Tang De'en felt something was wrong at that moment.

Like Tang Deen, Lorelai has been patient for the past 20 years. She hid her identity and hid beside Tang Deen. The 20 years of painstaking efforts are for today.

At this moment, that woman was no longer his "gentle wife", but a descendant of the sea god—a genuine sea monster.

"No, Your Highness! You can't attack Bear Castle. This is equivalent to tearing up the alliance between Sea God Cult and Jinsha Castle. If you do this..."

"Tang De'en!" The mermaid's high-pitched voice made his eardrums hurt, and the old man couldn't help taking a step back.Lorelei bared her shark-like fangs and said to him:

"You have to know that this place is not up to you."

After saying that, Lorelai raised her right hand.The air suddenly froze and became as cold as ice, and Tang Deen felt as if he had fallen into the deep sea. "Your Highness, no!" He shouted, but the shout was first covered by Putin's laughter, and then collapsed in the cold wind.

The mermaid chanted the spell, and the ancient Xiongshan City gradually withered in the cold wind.

Chapter 8: Planning Well

Chapter 8: Planning Well

The contract has been concluded, and Bagu watched Haven Ambleside leave the hall.When the bald man left, Lan Chu immediately laughed and said, "My king, your way of winning people's hearts is still so brutal."

"Was I also very rough when I wooed you?" Bugu asked him.

"Oh, that's really..." Lan Zuo looked at him with his right eye, opened and closed his eyes, "You know, Lan Zuo Kleist is delicate and weak, I'm afraid he can't stand your overbearing bullying. "

"Don't fucking say such disgusting words, you little bastard!" Ba Gu squeezed the armrest of the Iron Throne rattling, "Let me ask you, have you finished surveying the terrain of Heavenly Father's Pass? Are you okay?"

"I have been there three times. I have drawn two versions of the map, horizontal and vertical. I can guarantee that the valleys on both sides of Tianfu Pass are excellent. We can hide at least [-] soldiers there."

"It doesn't take that much, two thousand is enough."

Lan Zuo glanced at him and said, "The northerners have at least 2000 vanguard troops, so you're going to ambush [-]?"

"And my elite troops."

"Your Majesty, I remember that your elite troops are only [-] people?" He said, squinting at His Majesty the King.

You little bastard!Little Trident also looked at him sideways, and said, "I expanded the number of recruits, and now there are one thousand and two."

Lan Zuo said, "Twelve hundred people—"

He interrupted: "—not one thousand and two, I only plan to take 800 people there, and the other four hundred are the reserve team."

"That's eight hundred plus two thousand, two thousand and eighty plus twenty thousand." Lan Chu folded his arms, "Your Majesty, how do you want to fight this battle?"

"And me, I will lead these warriors to fight, and I can kill an army of [-] by myself."

"Even if the gods come down to earth, they can't fight [-] people single-handedly."

Bagu shook his head and said: "Fighting is not about whose weapon is sharper, who is stronger, or who has more people. The most important thing in fighting is courage, followed by strategy. If I have courage and you have strategy, we can fight." Invincible."

"Oh, then I will wait for the good news." Lan Zuo said and bowed to salute.

In the evening, the master of the scholar's tower asked to see Ba ​​Gu, saying that he had something important to report.For this "important matter", Ba Gu had already guessed most of it in his heart.Sure enough, the mage said to him: "Your Majesty, Feixin said that the people of the Sea God Sect attacked Xiongshan by force, and now the castle has fallen."

All of this was within Ba Gu's expectations.

People from the Sea God Sect simply couldn't stand ten days.

This group of short-sighted people, Bone thought to himself, if there is no one left, he really doesn't want to cooperate with the Sea God believers.

He has two plans: first, if the people of the Sea God Cult keep their contract, then turn Bear Mountain into a front-line fortress and Pinewood Castle as a logistics base; He wasn't afraid if the ceremony turned into a naked riot—he could still trick his way into a good show for his enemies.

So he ordered loudly, saying: "Convene the imperial meeting in the front hall! Bring me all the ministers who are panting! Immediately!"

The guards were ordered to call the ministers immediately.

After a while, people came to the king's hall, a total of six ministers.Including the Chief Financial Officer, the Minister of Military Aircraft, the Director of Etiquette, the Chief Justice, the Bachelor and the Prime Minister.There should have been seven of them, but Dory Lance, the head of the imperial bodyguard, had already been beaten to death by him, so one chair was vacant.

Bugujiao lit all the oil lamps, and the castle was brightly lit.

He slapped the report on the table and said to his ministers: "My friends, let me make a long story short, and now there is a rebellion in Xiongshan."

The first person to make a sound was Minister of Military Aircraft Solista.He stared, and the chain mail on his shoulders rattled, "Who is it?"

"People from the Sea God Cult."

Solista was Bow's most loyal fighter and one of his most supportive.Solistat stood up abruptly and said, "Please send me to suppress the rebellion! I will bring you back the head of their leader, Your Majesty!"

"Okay—what about the others?"

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, most of the people present were veterans of the cabinet.These people are in their seventies, dizzy, and can't say anything useful, so Bugu is just asking symbolically.

That being the case, these old ministers answered symbolically.The judge said that rebellion was illegal, the etiquette director said that rebellion violated the rules, and then the treasurer said that we don't have enough money!If you can't fight, don't fight...

Ba Gu didn't want to listen to these nonsense, and he stopped immediately after the round of speeches was over.He said to these people: "I have heard the opinions of all ministers, and I will respect your opinions. Now, Solista!" He said loudly.

The general's face was tense, "Yes, Your Majesty!"