A week after the submission day ended, a list of winners was posted on the bulletin board in front of the church.

To the surprise of the inhabitants, there was only one winner, and it was a captive named Hans.

After this, it was rumored that the Holy Son personally received the captive at the headquarters of the Order. Just when everyone was wondering what this guy named Hans had written. In the square in front of the church in Twilighttown, a large tent for theatrical performances began to be set up.

The construction of the tent took half a month. For such a long time, a play based on "Mockingbird" was also officially presented to the residents of Twilight Town in this tent.

That night, the 200-seat improvised theater was filled with 300 spectators.

During the hour-long performance, people talk loudly at first, gradually lower as the plot progresses, and eventually turns into endless cries and sobs.

Despite the shabby stage set and hasty arrangement of props, the tragic encounter of the father and son in "Mockingbird" deeply touched the hearts of the audience, and made these people sad and uncontrollable.

In the days that followed, the stage show "Mockingbird" caused a stir throughout Twilighttown. Not to mention the full house, there were even people from far away towns who rode in horse-drawn carriages for a day and a night, just to get a ticket.

As for the author of the script, Mr. Hans, he was completely sought after as a star.

Todd not only gave him the rewards of the competition and the income from the performance as agreed, but also specially allocated a sum of money from the Twilight Mutual Fund to set up a "literary studio" for him to fund his full-time writing.

Through this "Story Contest", Twilight Town is quietly making some changes.

First of all, people's perception of literature has gradually broken the shackles of theological allusions and myths and legends, and has taken a big step towards the awakening of self-consciousness and thinking change.

Secondly, the success of "Robin" promoted the commercial development of literature and drama. In the town of Twilight, more and more merchants saw the huge business opportunity, and they held coins high, looking for any possible success and script, which indirectly contributed to the driving force of folk creation.

Last, and most importantly. The need for literacy in Twilight is becoming more and more driven by literature and drama. For those who have financial conditions or have dreams to pursue, a new path in life - writing is placed in front of them. And if you want to write the ideas in your head, you must first learn how to write. Driven by this motive, and at Todd's own request, free classes for monks and students sprung up. The enthusiasm of the people, coupled with the large number of textbooks printed by the printing press, officially entered a wave of learning.

Of course, that's all for later, so let's turn our attention back to the Knights of the Twilight. After finishing the "Story Contest", Todd began to focus on the military again.

After nearly three months of outward expansion and the reorganization of prisoners, Todd convened a military meeting at the Order's headquarters, attended only by Huggins, Cumberland, Alfonso, and Tristan as an informant.

The meeting began with Huggins introducing the expansion of the Knights of Dusk: relying on the "Inheritor" and explosives packs, the Knights are invincible and invincible. Huggins led his troops to capture a total of 11 fiefdoms, transferred about 1,300 residents to Duxi Town, and obtained about 130,000 silver moons. After many battles, the popularity of the Knights of the Twilight West has greatly increased.

Cumberland then took in 229 prisoners and formed a cavalry company of 25 standard cavalry rifles, and a semi-formed hoplite regiment. During this time, Alfonso took over the defense of the town from Huggins, and carried out a new round of selection and training of the militia regiment.

Finally, Tristan, a deacon from the capital of the Papal States, shared with the Knights of the Twilight West what he had recently learned from the Church.

The first news was about the state of the battle on the Eastern Front. The allied forces of the Holy Acropolis and the Knights Templar, with the allied forces of the Silver Ring and the Barbarians, have been fighting for months. The largest of these clashes took place twenty days ago, with a total of 12,000 troops mobilized by both sides and an encounter broke out in a mountain pass near the watchfort. After a day and a night of fierce fighting, although the Church coalition was superior to the Allies in terms of battle loss ratio, the battle still ended with the Church coalition retreating on their own initiative.

The second news came from the south. According to the information received by the missionaries of the Church, the sectarian strife within the Fatimid dynasty, the southern desert kingdom, has gradually entered a white heat under the political operation of a kingdom prime minister, Saladin, and those infidels who believe in Allah may break out at any time.

The third message came from the Papal States. After the "Plague of Truth" incident, the First Inquisition collected a large amount of evidence of heresy, and although the secular nobles of Taylor City tried their best to prevent the trial from proceeding, the situation has become more and more serious for the scholars and disciples who have been arrested.

For the first two things, Tristan's advice to the Knights of the Twilight West is only four words - "wait and see". But for the third thing, he seemed unusually anxious and anxious.

In the young deacon's original opinion, the church had to take into account the mood of the secular kingdom when judging the teachers and students of the academy in the past, and this trial might be the same as in the past, with a lot of thunder and a little rain, and finally it will be over. But to his surprise, the Pope seemed determined to take the academy away. In the end, this is not so much a judgment against the truth as a knock and a threat to worldly forces.

After comforting Tristan's feelings, Todd began to discuss the strategic direction for the future with the military "cadres" of the Knights of the Twilight.

Huggins suggested that while the Eastern Front was attracting the enemy's main force, it was necessary to gather superior forces, expand the territory under the Order's control as soon as possible, and acquire as many people and wealth as possible.

Alfonso wanted to reorganize his forces as soon as possible, and to send an army to the fort east of Twilight Town for regional defense. The rationale for this is that most of the industrial, livestock, and residential areas of Twilight have been relocated, and if the enemy uses highly mobile forces to destroy and loot, the losses of Twilight will be incalculable.

Listening to the two men's speeches, Todd nodded, only to find that the old knight had not spoken a word until now.

Cumberland heard the general commander ask, and after brushing his beard, he expressed his opinion.

In his view, expanding territory as soon as possible, acquiring population and wealth, and moving defense forces eastward are all correct strategic directions. But there is one strategic weakness in Twilight, which has been close to being defenseless, and that is the military invasion from the sea to the north.

Although Twilight has set up an observation post on Waiheke Island, this passive defense method will not only occupy a considerable part of the Knights' military resources, but will also bring great constraints to Twilight's coastal military planning. Therefore, how to eliminate or reduce the threat of the enemy in the north is the most important task of the Knights of the Twilight West at the moment.

Todd agrees with Cumberland's analysis, but he looks at it differently than the old knights.

Cumberland analyzes how to stop the enemy's attack from the holes in Twilight's defenses, while Todd analyzes how the town should connect with the outside world from the perspective of Twilight's future development.

The town is now in a very awkward position, its agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts and industry are on the rise, but there is only one way for these industries to digest their products - domestic demand. The merchants of the town were not without consideration and sold their goods to other towns, but all the commercial routes were difficult: to the north, the Falling Star Mountains, and the caravans wanted to reach the north unless they could grow wings, to the east, there was turmoil and war, and there was no way for the caravans to pass through that land safely, and to the south, the roads were long, the roads were bad, there were no supply points, and there were layers of checkpoints, and this route was not realistic.

Speaking of which, the only convenient trade route is the sea to the west.

But when it comes to maritime trade routes, Twilight Town faces two major problems: one is the backwardness of ship construction technology, and the other is that the sea lanes are vulnerable to pirate attacks.

Thinking about it this way, the Knights' next attack should indeed be focused on the alliance between the North Island pirates and the barbarians.