novelraw #266 - Section 266
#266 - Section 266
He let his thoughts wander, feeling that this was at least not a bad state to be in, right?
The Eternal Night Empress didn't say much, seemingly lost in thought, but actually eavesdropping on Roger's thoughts.
In fact, most of the time now, even without listening to Roger's thoughts, she understands his intentions.
But this wonderful coincidence that initially made her remember this little guy, like a special bond, always maintains Roger's special position with her.
Actually, Little O sometimes thinks that explaining this to him, reminding him to practice his mental control, wouldn't be a bad thing.
Although many funny things have happened, the ultimate result of being able to hear his thoughts, the soaring of the empire, and the special relationship between the two of them, shouldn't be terrible, right?
But she ultimately hesitated.
She told herself that the empire's strategic offensive was at a critical juncture, and any conflict between the two of them could cause this chariot to become unstable.
So, it's better to remain still than to move rashly, and to be more patient.
Being as swift as the wind in war is a confidence built on countless victories, but in unexplored territories, she's a bit stuck in her comfort zone, afraid to step out.
The current relationship of good friends, with some secret warmth and ambiguity that can be tacitly understood, seems pretty good too.
When things slow down, really slow down, then consider the important matters of life!
After some deliberation, she once again delayed her decision.
The tavern gradually became lively, but the two of them didn't need to reveal their true identities; their bearing and temperament alone set them apart from ordinary people, creating an aura field around them, maintaining a quiet and comfortable space while they slowly drank.
The commoners and nobles of the empire are no longer separated by an insurmountable chasm, but important figures still possess far more power than ordinary people. Bullying with power is rare, and it's always discovered by the Dark Night Guard, but no one wants to cause trouble.
There are always young people who don't know the limits of their actions, and a good life is hard-won. Ordinary people have a much lower risk tolerance than the big shots.
A good life has increased everyone's confidence, and also made them more rational and restrained, knowing to cherish the present, rather than resorting to desperate measures.
So, the level of public security in the capital is improving day by day because life is getting better, everyone has shoes on, and fewer and fewer people are completely desperate.
The Eternal Night Empress suddenly asked, "Speaking of which, hasn't Xiana returned yet?"
"Her career in that world is flourishing, and she won't be back anytime soon."
"I asked you to cultivate a usable talent, but it turns out you're raising a public servant for another world?"
"It's true in the short term, but in the long run, this isn't a bad thing for the empire."
"Hmph!"
"This really isn't a defense." Roger said seriously, "Has Your Majesty ever thought about what to do if the final result is failure, and the beautiful country we worked so hard to create is destroyed and sealed by the Seven Gods?"
"I can't lose, why think about these unnecessary things?"
She was a bit drunk, her eyes bright and full of aggression. When it comes to national affairs, she's always full of aggression.
"So, I have to think more. What Xiana is doing now is also leaving a few sparks behind, and at the same time helping the empire explore a possible path."
Roger didn't seem to mind being rebuffed and naturally took over the topic, "Your Majesty looks down on those uncivilized people, but the moment people realize their own value and have the courage to resist the gods may only be a moment. Anyway, since we haven't invested anything, let Xiana explore the possibilities."
The Eternal Night Empress suddenly revealed an interested look, "If this path is feasible, you want to promote it in the planes controlled by the gods?"
Roger nodded and explained his thoughts.
Everyone understands when it's said, it's about establishing a magical world version of enemy rear bases.
The experience comes from this operation against Tebella, and we've already seen the results of sabotage in the enemy's rear.
Compared to the intensity of the frontal battlefield, the Seven Gods' protection of the world isn't comprehensive. Planes that have already started herding sheep basically won't invest extra power, but will let the church forces manage themselves.
The empire's fleet facing the traditional aristocratic armies of these magical worlds is like modern armies looking at the Jurchens. The Eight Banners, invincible in their era, are a joke in front of floating fortresses.
Sorry, this is really a dimensionality reduction strike. Gods rely on deeper accumulation, higher-level power, and strange methods to suppress the children of the system on the frontal battlefield, but that doesn't mean the church in a non-war state can do the same.
This is a cost issue. The power of the gods is based on faith, and this thing is a consumable, and there are too many places to use it:
Strengthening themselves requires it, maintaining the kingdom of God requires it, creating new angels requires it, and transporting troops to the main world requires it...
It can be said without politeness that the world of the gods is also quite capitalist. The power of faith forces them to work hard and compete intensely to avoid their own fall.
From a certain perspective, the gods are addicts of faith, and from the perspective of their individuals, it's also full of helplessness...
But there's nothing to sympathize with, after all, this path was chosen by the gods themselves. The pitiable god is full of hateful aspects.
It is because of the distribution of the power of the gods and the necessity of faith that the empire's tactics of Tian Ji's horse race have been updated to version 2.0.
In the Seven Gods camp, the strongest are of course the Seven Gods themselves. These selfish and eternally yearning guys concentrate 90% of the faith they harvest on themselves.
Then are the petitioners, holy spirits, and angels of the kingdom of God. They are the Seven Gods' thugs, so a certain intensity must be guaranteed.
Finally, there are the planes that have been occupied, contributing a large amount of faith every year, and receiving about 1% of the return, bestowed by the gods to the best-performing church leaders.
This is the most beneficial structure for the gods' own development, but it also leads to emptiness in the rear, with loopholes everywhere that can be broken through.
The empire's fleet broke into the enemy's rear and only targeted Tebella, taking advantage of her energy being tied up on the frontal battlefield and unable to spare her hands, directly exposing the weakest church, which hasn't had a chance to support, and was beaten so badly that it wanted to counter but couldn't keep up with the empire's fleet's mobility.
Tebella's exasperation is evident. As a god, when has she ever been played with like this?
The effect of this tactic is certainly good, and it also serves the grand strategy of angering Tebella, but it will definitely not be possible to imitate other gods afterward.
The empire's fleet has its limits, and so do the soldiers. The Seven Gods camp has accumulated too many advantages in the early stage. If they only carry out destruction without occupying, the faith produced by those worlds will still belong to other gods.
Even a Saint Seiya won't fall twice with the same trick. Now the other gods are turning a blind eye to Tebella's experience, the root cause is that they haven't encountered an opponent of the same level for too many years, and they don't think the empire can really bring her harm.
Including Tebella herself, she actually thinks so, feeling that the current situation is at most earning less, but definitely not suffering a loss.
If the empire's strategy succeeds and Tebella falls, and then wants to use the same routine to deal with the next god, the others won't be stupid, and will definitely support each other.
After all, that is the gods' rear. Now it's the seven families' forces checking each other, watching the joke.
When this joke is revealed, the other gods will naturally learn their lesson and won't allow the empire's fleet to run rampant in the occupied areas like this.
Just like the empire cultivates children of the system, they are all selected on the empire's frontal battlefield to delay the speed of those planes falling and buy more time.
As the empire's technical strength improves, the help given to the children of the system is increasing and becoming stronger, but in reality, as time goes by, the combat power invested by the Seven Gods is getting stronger and stronger, and the resistance effect of the children of the system is decreasing.
When these old guys of the Seven Gods get serious, they are still quite terrifying. The empire's development time is still too short, there is only one world, and only those few hundred million people.
It can have one fleet, ten fleets, but it cannot have a hundred or a thousand fleets. Resources and population are limited, and it is definitely impossible to rely on the power of one country to fight against the Seven Gods who occupy more than half of the universe's planes.
So, the operation that the empire will eventually complete is still escape—strategic transfer, using the wandering plane plan to buy more development time.
But now Roger feels that while transferring itself, the people in the occupied areas can do things themselves.
Now Xiana is carrying out such an attempt. She is teaching Had the ideological transformation similar to that of the Green Vine Empire, and a group of like-minded former war goddess believers have gathered around her.
They are preparing to gather the power of the people themselves, spread this kind of thinking, and find a possibility for them to get rid of the control of the gods.
Their advantage is that the local war god church has been defeated once, and the high-level clergy led by Pope Louis colluded with devils, and the things they did were made public, causing the believers to feel abandoned, and they were resisted and distrusted to varying degrees by other churches.
But the disadvantages are also obvious. The number of people is small, the strength is limited, and the churches of other gods have already targeted this blank area, relying on their powerful strength to suppress this kind of thinking of the abandoned god.
Had and his group are on the list to be dealt with more urgently than heretics, and have been wanted by all the churches. The religious court has been chasing after them, completely underground actions.
The Green Vine Empire can expel the Seven Gods Church, but it is based on its own strong national strength, having an invincible Eternal Night Empress who can suppress the Seven Gods Church from infiltrating the empire.
Even so, it was very dangerous in the early stage, and it almost led to an internal crisis in the empire because the Seven Gods and the remnants of the seventeen countries united.
Had is spreading heresy in the enemy's rear, which is even more like dancing on the tip of a knife. Although it has been effective, it may collapse at any time if the church launches a wave of encirclement and suppression.
So, Xiana can't get away. She is the strongest combat power and the biggest financier of Had's side, and also a spiritual mentor—
Well, based on Roger's mischievous suggestion, and part of the memory inherited by Xiana, and the name is very suitable, Had and their organization that helps the bottom people is called the Tianming Army (Army of Heavenly Dawn).
Xiana occupies Xia Di's body and once again occupies the name of Tianming Mentor.
Although she herself never thought of being called that, even Had, after experiencing the desperate great transfer, only Xiana, because she had lived in the empire, believed that the country that only existed in her description could be established, and supported everyone with firm belief to survive the most difficult night, a well-deserved spiritual mentor. Everyone likes to find the little angel to enlighten them when they encounter psychological confusion and incomprehension.
Over time, the name Tianming Mentor was placed on her head, and she couldn't refuse even if she wanted to.
Xiana also expressed great helplessness about this.
She clearly came to find the direction, but in the end, she became the one who provided hope and pointed the direction.
Where to reason?
However, in this process, she also gained quite a lot, and many of the questions she had been thinking about in her heart had answers.
The longer she leaves the empire, the more she will identify with that country.
The empire has not achieved absolute fairness, but there is considerable fairness and enough opportunities:
As long as a person relies on their own efforts and wisdom to pursue a good life, they have the opportunity to reap the future they expect.
It has nothing to do with your bloodline at birth, and it has nothing to do with your humble risks to the gods, only because you are you, and your words and deeds determine your height.
Roger also combined his political and history textbooks, and the initial work experience of the Dark Night Guard sweeping the nobles, and learned a lot of methods and ideas from Xiana to close the distance with the bottom people and exchange sincerity for sincerity.
To move them, it doesn't matter how much money you give, in fact, a hope and a possibility are enough.
No matter how humble an existence is, they have the instinct to pray for a better life. If it can be in this life, why entrust it to the next life? Why must we endure those hardships now?
The Eternal Night Empress frowned, "Your idea is very good, but it's too difficult. Without the help of absolute force, they can't possibly succeed."
"Failure will definitely exist, even more than once, but only by getting up from failure, and a will tempered by thousands of hammers and hundreds of refinements, is it possible to conquer those forces that have existed since ancient times and open up a new world."
Roger looked up at the lights of Aodu outside the bar window, which were more brilliant than the night sky, and showed a smile, "Your Majesty has already seen the power after the people are awakened. Maybe they don't need strategic fortresses, they can also create their own era."
You might not believe it, but once upon a time, a group of people used millet and rifles, wheelbarrows, and cannons that were pieced together to defeat those American-equipped and German-equipped elites, and then agreed to the most powerful national army with abundant supplies.
If there is anything that can bring dawn to the suffering alien plane, it must be such power.
"Why don't I secretly go to see the real situation on Xiana's side." The Eternal Night Empress was said by Roger, and also developed some interest, and disguised herself with a very excited identity, "Today, I am your adjutant."
The Eternal Night Empress covered her appearance, put on the ordinary uniform of the Dark Night Guard, and turned into a tall female military officer who could only be said to be pretty, and left as soon as she said, taking Roger to the target plane B.
Roger's heart skipped a beat.
With Xiana's temper, without the suppression of the Eternal Night Empress's identity, wouldn't she expose something?
The Eternal Night Empress heard his worries, cut off the Soul Imitation Bracelet on Roger's hand, and said with a smile, "Secretly, don't remind Xiana of my identity~"
Chapter 244 The Empress Arrives at the Base
Target plane B.
In the continuous deep mountains, in the depths of the ancient dense forest, which should be a paradise for monsters, there are more farmlands, houses, workshops, and a group of soldiers with simple equipment but good mental state are patrolling.
A girl, seeing how hard they were working under the scorching sun, used the Empire's own handkerchief to wipe their sweat. She also pointed to the watermelons in the field, indicating they could pick as many as they wanted to quench their thirst.
The young soldiers blushed and refused, explaining in slightly different dialects and accents the discipline of their unit, emphasizing that they absolutely could not accept even a needle or thread from the people.
However, they came from different countries and spoke different languages. The girl, becoming somewhat anxious, picked a large watermelon and forcibly placed it in the squad leader's arms before turning and running away.
The captain and his soldiers were in a dilemma, holding the watermelon and unsure how to handle the situation. They also couldn't chase after the girl.
She was a newcomer to the base and already had difficulty communicating with most people. If they chased after her, it could lead to misunderstandings that would be difficult to explain.
Finally, a clever soldier came up with a good idea: they would leave a few extra copper coins in the girl's field, considering the watermelon purchased.
The discipline didn't say they couldn't do business with the locals of the base. The captain agreed that this was indeed a good idea and left money for the girl at twice the market price.
They stopped patrolling for the time being and took a break. With a smack, they split the thin-skinned watermelon, each taking a large piece, their faces surely covered in juice.
"It's so sandy and sweet!"
The captain exclaimed. After patrolling under the hot sun for so long, suddenly eating the cool watermelon made him feel comfortable all over.
The men also felt the watermelon was great, joking that the girl might have taken a liking to the captain. They urged him to pursue her, so they would have an endless supply of watermelon all summer...
The squad leader, thinking of the girl's charming face, was a little slow to answer. The next day, rumors spread throughout the entire battalion about a certain squad leader's amorous thoughts.
In times without fighting, the farmers happily worked the land, the soldiers dutifully guarded their posts, and the artisans in the workshops skillfully wove clothes. Further underground, factories equipped with imported magic crystal machinery were quietly being built...
This was the largest of the few remaining bases of the Tianming Army.
Because it had not yet been discovered by the Church, its current development could be described as smooth, expanding very rapidly and stabilizing the resource shortage caused by the previous overpopulation.
After the joint encirclement and suppression by several churches, they lost the land they had painstakingly built and cultivated, and were forced to move into increasingly mountainous areas, making their living environment more and more difficult.
Now they had finally recovered. Both the soldiers of the Tianming Army and the civilians who depended on them saw hope for the future.
The former Tianming Leader schemed and plotted to revive her dynasty.
The current Tianming Leader, however, was truly in this alien world unrelated to her, allowing many to see the dawn after the darkness.
Of course, the current situation of the Tianming Army was still quite dangerous. Slightly larger cities and towns were controlled by nobles who were attached to the Church and had issued wanted orders for the Tianming Army.