Believe, all will not be in vain – your birth, your life, your suffering.

- Stav Mahler (outstanding Austrian composer and conductor)

The news that the orc army had abandoned the province of Mendan and withdrew to the Sunset Fortress caused a huge sensation in the province of Nice, where the army was gathered, and the high-level leaders of the army led by the Duke of Gna finally discussed a safe response after several high-level meetings.

Duke Rundstede, who had the best relationship with Bai Feng, was ordered to lead his 50,000 elite divisions and four fully formed standing legions to the province of Mendan, and in the next three months, Duke of Rundstead and Bai Feng would jointly build the first line of defense in the province of Mendan.

The Celestial Dragon Empire, which had lost Sunset Fortress as a pillar of defense, had to rely on a large number of troops to rebuild the defense line against the attack of the orc army, and the province of Mengdan, which was closest to Sunset Fortress, was undoubtedly the best place to deploy the defense.

With an elite army of 300,000, Bai Feng's headquarters and the Duke of Rundstead, who commanded an army of 130,000, combined the total strength of the two armies was as high as 430,000, accounting for almost half of all the armies of the empire stationed on the eastern front.

The army of Albert, Kleist, and Reinhardt still stationed in the province of Nice, each of which consisted of a royal legion and seven standing legions, each army had 190,000 soldiers and a total strength of 570,000!

According to the idea of the five dukes, Duke Gna, the province of Mengdan, which had been in ruins, would be built into a purely military province full of defensive fortresses, and the empire's million-strong army in the six eastern provinces would also be stationed in the province of Mengtan to build a defensive front.

Among them, the first line of defense built by Duke Rundstead and Bai Feng in the early stage will be split into two lines of defense in the future, and the army of Duke Albert will form a new second line of defense with the split army of Rundstead after resisting the province of Mengdan.

The army of the Duke of Kleist and the army of the Duke of Reinhardt will build the third and fourth lines of defense respectively, and the final defensive network of the province of Montan will be the absolute main force of the four lines of defense built by the million-strong army to block the western exit of the Sunset Fortress.

The opening and advancing of the army only required an order from the Duke of Gna to carry out, but it was not so easy to turn the ruined province of Montan into a military province, because the Duke of Gna could not come up with enough funds to rebuild the province of Montan.

If it would take a billion gold coins to restore the province of Montan to its pre-war state, then it would take at least two billion gold coins to rebuild the province of Montan into a purely military province, and such a large amount of money would not be at all something that Duke Gna could provide.

Even if the five major duke families of the empire, which have been inherited for hundreds of years, help each other, it is impossible for Duke Gna to collect two billion gold coins in a short period of time, because the financial resources of the five duke families are not strong, and a lot of wealth still exists in the form of fixed assets.

This means that if Duke Gna wants to implement his plan for the defense network of the province of Montan, on the one hand, he must actively mobilize troops to build a defensive line in the province of Montan, and on the other hand, he must obtain the support of Charlemagne to allocate funds from the Imperial Ministry of Finance to rebuild the province of Montan.

How Duke Gna persuaded Charlemagne to invest two billion gold coins in the rebuilding of the province of Montan did not matter to Bai Feng, who led the army stationed on the front line of the province, and he was never interested in the mode of passive defense.

In terms of defense, the elastic defensive combat method of the 'Iron Wall General' Vermina to defend and counterattack is the defensive mode that Bai Feng admires the most, and the rigid defensive mode of building a defensive line is really meaningless and valuable.

Of course, this is not to say that Bai Feng does not approve of Duke Gna's plan to build a defensive network in Mengdan Province; on the contrary, the practice of building a defensive front in Mengdan Province is indeed the most effective means of defense at present, and Bai Feng agrees with this.

The Sunset Fortress, garrisoned by hundreds of thousands of orcs, is simply not something that an empire that is caught in a two-front battle dilemma can recover; instead of vainly breaking the blood in front of the Sunset Fortress, it is better to build a defense line on the spot in the province of Mengdan, accumulate strength and wait for the opportunity.

It's just that Bai Feng is very dissatisfied with Duke Gna's order to lead his army to build a defensive line on the spot, especially the Marquis of Bedouin's impatience, which has already posed a rather deadly threat to the province of Bronjansson under Bai Feng's secret control!

Bai Feng, who wanted to lead the army back to Brojansson Province but couldn't, could only stay in Mengdan Province patiently, and just in case, all the combat troops in the net had begun to secretly assemble in Brojansson Province a few days ago, and even the shadow killer troops took action.

There are one hundred and twenty battlefield ghosts in Adrien's netting combat force, one hundred and twenty shadow killers under Ivan as the trump card for counterattack, and Bai Feng, who is far away in the province of Mengdan, finally has the means to eliminate the Marquis of Bedouin.

Unless the situation really reaches the last resort, Bai Feng will not allow Adrien and Ivan to directly come forward to help Moritz and the others, after all, using the Marquis of Bedouin to improve the ability of Moritz and the others is also one of Bai Feng's purposes in leaving the Marquis of Bedouin.

The recovery of the province of Mengdan was by no means a happy thing for the Marquis of Bedouin, who had always maintained a vigorous ambition, and Bai Feng, who could return with his army at any time, became a sharp sword hanging over the head of the Marquis of Bedouin.

Marquis Bedouin, who proclaimed that he was not afraid of Bai Feng, could not be afraid of Bai Feng who had 300,000 elite soldiers under his command? When he thought of Bai Feng, the last mutiny of the Fire Legion shrouded the heart of Marquis of Bedouin like a nightmare.

The Marquis of Bedouin, who did not want to lose everything again, was determined to strengthen his control over the Brojansson Province, and try his best to completely control the Brojansson Province, which was gradually regaining its former vitality, before Bai Feng led the army back to the Brojansson Province!

If the Marquis of Bedouin wants to completely control the province of Brojansson, the first thing he needs to cut off is the power that Bai Feng left in the province of Brojansson, and the first to bear the brunt are the provincial military officer Moritz, the secretary Heinrich, the civil affairs officer Hess, and the financial officer Shalah.

As for the 3,000 Brojansson County City Defense Army led by Wink, in the eyes of the Marquis of Bedouin, who had an army of 25,000, it was just a small dispensable army, and it did not pose any threat.

At this time, the 10,000 standing soldiers that the Duke of Rundstead 'loaned' to the Marquis of Bedouin had already returned to the Duke of Rundstead, and the 25,000 troops under the command of the Marquis of Bedouin were all due to the Earls of Hamilton and Count Abraham.

After the withdrawal of 10,000 standing soldiers, the Marquis of Bedouin, who felt that his military strength was weak, continued to weaken the strength of the three divisions of the Fire Legion, and threw the problem of how to improve the strength of his army to the Earl of Hamilton and Count Abraham.

Both the Earls of Hamilton and the Earl of Abraham were among the high nobles of the Empire, and their knowledge of the military was fairly level, and they both made some good and feasible suggestions in the face of the problems given by the Marquis of Bedouin.

The Earl of Hamilton, who was concerned about the number of troops, proposed that the Marquis of Bedouin, in the name of the governor of the province, issue a conscription order in the province of Brojansund, and that a group of able-bodied recruits be recruited to expand the size of the army in the governor's palace.

Count Abraham, who was concerned about the quality of the army, made a suggestion: let the Marquis of Bedouin, in the name of the governor of the province, force the fire army to surrender another batch of weapons and equipment, and arm the army subordinate to the governor's palace with sophisticated weapons and equipment.

Both of these modest proposals were implemented by the Marquis de Bedouin, with Earl Hamilton in charge of recruiting troops in the province and Earl Abraham asking for weapons and equipment from the Legion of Fire.

In fact, Count Abraham's suggestion was made with the permission of Moritz and others, and the real purpose of this suggestion was not to help the Marquis of Bedouin improve the quality of his army, but to re-exacerbate the conflict between the Marquis of Bedouin and the Legion of Fire.

The three divisions of the Fire Legion stationed near the county town of Brojansson have already been sold out by the Marquis of Bedouin, and if the Marquis of Bedouin asks for weapons and equipment from the Fire Legion again, will the Fire Legion still be able to get it?

Heinrich came up with this bad move, but he didn't expect it to be self-defeating to help the Marquis of Bedouin, and the three generals Eder, Ospina, and Sania, who endured it again and again, chose to continue to endure in the face of the Marquis Bedouin's aggressive attitude.

The weapons and equipment that were enough to arm 5,000 soldiers were all taken from the soldiers of the Fire Legion, and this humiliation made the soldiers of the Fire Legion who had never suffered such humiliation accumulate grief and anger in their hearts to the verge of exploding.

If it weren't for the persuasion of Eder, Ospina, and Sania, the angry soldiers of the Fire Legion might have mutinied like last time, and even with Eder and others pressing, the extremely unstable Fire Legion would still become uncontrollable.

In stark contrast to the indignation of the soldiers of the Fire Legion, the soldiers under the command of the Marquis de Bedouin were ecstatic, and as an ordinary escort unit, they were naturally excited to be able to change into weapons and equipment that could only be used by the Royal Legion.

After this expansion and rearmament, the number of troops under the command of the Marquis of Bedouin increased from 19,000 to 25,000, of which the number of elite soldiers equipped with the weapons and equipment of the Fire Legion reached 15,000, accounting for 60 percent of the total number of troops.

On the third day after the completion of the expansion and redress, the Marquis of Bedouin, in the name of the governor of the province, dismissed Moritz and four others from their provincial high-ranking positions.

The Earl of Hamilton and the Earl of Abraham were appointed by the Marquis de Bedouin as the new treasurer and secretary of the province of Brookenson, respectively, and two other counts, who had sworn allegiance to the Marquis of Bedouin in time, were appointed as new military and civil officers.

Marquis Bedouin's approach was obviously challenging Bai Feng's authority, but Moritz and the others, who did not have the strength to confront Marquis Bedouin, had to temporarily choose to back down;

On the day that Moritz, Heinrich, Hess, and Shalah were dismissed, they packed up and moved out of the county town of Brojansson, and then all the middle and junior officials of all four departments in the county town of Brojansson left their offices by resigning.

The dismal departure of the members of the White Peaks was tantamount to giving them vacant official positions to the down-and-out nobles who were eyeing them, and at the stroke of the Marquis of Bedouin's hand, countless down-and-out nobles were transformed into official officials in the province of Bronjansson.

When the excited officials took up their new posts, the current situation of having no money available for the financial department, no one to manage the civil affairs department, a law to follow for the affairs department, and no soldiers for the military affairs department to control was like a basin of cold water, which poured cold water on all the down-and-out aristocrats.

The empty warehouse of the financial department made the Earl of Hamilton almost vomit blood in anger, and he had no choice but to ask the Marquis of Bedouin for help, and the Marquis of Bedouin, who also had no money in his hand, did not have any extra gold coins to give to the Earl of Hamilton, and he was counting on the Earl of Hamilton to collect money for him!

Count Abraham could not even change a single law in the slightest, which enacted the laws of the Imperial Empire, which had laws for the protection of the common people and the two great chambers of commerce, and the laws representing the interests of millions of civilians and the interests of the two great chambers of commerce were not allowed to be touched by anyone.

If Count Abraham or the Marquis of Bedouin dared to change a law at will, the enraged millions of civilians could easily tear them apart, and the civilians of Browjansson Province, who had experienced the ravages of the Orcs, were much more irascible than the civilians of the other provinces of the Empire.

However, it was not the millions of civilians who really made the Marquis of Bedouin jealous, but the powerful Westminster Chamber of Commerce, which had been in the imperial capital for a long time, and still had some understanding of the strength and background of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce.

Therefore, he will not easily touch the interests of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce, but will try his best to establish a relationship with the Westminster Chamber of Commerce in order to gain the friendship of the Westminster Chamber of Commerce;

Although the Marquis of Bedouin did not know why the relationship between the Westminster Chamber of Commerce and the Sophia Chamber of Commerce was so close, such an intimate relationship was enough for the Marquis of Bedouin to list the Sophia Chamber of Commerce as an unmanageable existence, and that was enough.

The helplessness of the finance department and the secretary department is a fact that the Marquis of Bedouin can hardly change, and the military department and the civil department are not so lucky, and the Marquis of Bedouin, who has a large army in his hands to rely on, is determined to control these two departments with his own army.

Of the 25,000 soldiers subordinate to the Governor's Palace, 10,000 of them were directly assigned to the command of the new military officer by the Marquis of Bedouin, and the provincial military affairs department, which had 10,000 troops, instantly became a provincial upstart department with superior strength over the city defense army.

The main responsibility of the civil affairs department is to manage the people of the province, and the people of the province of Bronyangsong, who sang the praises of Baifeng, naturally lacked a good impression of the Marquis of Bedouin; in view of this phenomenon, tens of thousands of officers and men of the military affairs department became an auxiliary force in the management of the people by the civil affairs department.

Before the White Peak power in Browyangshire County was completely cleared, the Marquis of Bedouin's main time and energy was focused on Browjansson County, where the provincial capital was located, and the control plan of the other three counties was temporarily shelved by the Marquis of Bedouin.

The ambitious Marquis of Bedouin did not know that while he was planning to destroy the power that White Peak had left in Bronjanssonshire, Wink, the commander of the city defense army that he had been ignoring, had already controlled a considerable army with the assistance of Woodlow and other knights.

Of the 10,000 troops directly under the new military officer, about 3,000 were under the control of Woodlaw and other knights, and about 4,000 of the 15,000 troops still under the governor's palace were under the control of Woodlaw and other knights.

Of the nearly 7,000 soldiers, at least 4,000 had been taken under the control of the officers of the city defense corps whom Wenk had secretly sent to their midst, bringing the actual number of troops under Wink's control to 7,000, not counting the 3,000 city defenders in the other three counties.