Chapter Twenty-Four: The Crow's Song
Frustrated, the Confederate army of St. Orlando was slowly withdrawing from Port Louis, and a small Norman army army in the distance was watching them, looking at their expressions that wanted to laugh but did not dare to laugh, Josephine was eager to draw his sword and hack them all to death. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
But she couldn't, according to the treaty signed at Castle Raven by the Norman League and the St. Orlando League, the Empire was required to withdraw all military forces in the Fontainebleau area within fifteen days, and at the same time, the remaining ships of the Third Fleet of the Navy lost by the Kingdom of Riberia would be paid to the Norman Offshore Fleet as compensation, and the League would also have to pay 10 million finneys in military compensation and the cost of rebuilding the region.
On the day of the signing of the treaty, the whole alliance was in an uproar, and the angry allies accused the front-line soldiers of being too wasteful, and did not play the role of defending the country at all, not only did they not have the slightest confidence in the rear negotiations, but their own military strength was also greatly reduced, and the loss of two main army corps, an auxiliary volunteer army and a whole naval fleet in exchange for only an apology from the Norman alliance and no more than one military force stationed in the Fontainebleau area.
But what's even more bizarre is that the bastards in charge of the negotiation matter, after paying so much price, shamelessly impose a new compensation tax on the entire territory of the Holy Orlando Empire, which should have been paid by the allies in the end, all of which was imposed on their own alliance leaders.
The emperor was completely overthrown, the crown prince was far away from the center of power, the other royal families were powerless and could only obey the cabinet ministers to manipulate the country at will, and as for the people at the bottom, they had already set off riots, but unfortunately they were ruthlessly suppressed by the garrisons of various lords and dominions, except for the royal domains.
After this war, the St. Orlando Empire, which has been in the national fortune for more than a thousand years, has exposed its weakness, and the allies and the big nobles in the country shamelessly squeezed everything from this great country, emptying the treasury like a mouse, and selling the country to get a good handful by the way, which is really unbearable to look at.
Lorraine only thinks that in the beginning of the war, the army of the Central Powers may not be inferior to the Norman Alliance, but unfortunately the logistics are not smooth, the coordination of the troops is not good, and there are people in the rear who are pulling their backs, so it is really difficult to win.
At this time, Princess Josephine and Major General Philip rode by in silence, and it turned out that a small team of officers sent by the Norman army in the distance was followed by reporters, "Hello, Your Highness and Your Excellency, I am George who is responsible for defending the Fontainebleau region in this battle?" The Earl of Lyle, the two of the troops they led were very impressive... Surprised, I personally express my admiration for you. ”
Princess Josephine was still a little younger, and snorted lightly, "Perhaps, I have never heard of the so-called Norman Alliance having a garrison in Fontainebleau, you started the war without authorization, and destroyed the base and army of the Empire, and one day I will double it back!" ”
"Ha, I'm looking forward to the day coming, Your Highness, but you have to settle your own troubles first, but I've heard that the cabinet ministers of your country are very dissatisfied with you."
After speaking, George, who was full of villainous ambition, turned his head to look at Major General Philip, this general's independent army was the regular army of the Central Allies that caused the most damage to the Norman army in this battle, although he wanted to ridicule the other party a few words, but there was really no record on the battlefield, and being able to show off to the princess of St. Orlando does not mean that he can also give the general of the Kingdom of Riberia a little color, if he really humiliates the other party, maybe this major general will return home and lobby the privateer fleet to harass his own fleet every day, When the time comes, the emperor will definitely wear small shoes, and it will definitely be better to live than to die.
He nodded slightly and didn't say anything, just made a small request, "What do you say!" You want to sell you all the ordnance we can't take with us? ”
Count George waved his hand, "It's not sold to me, it's sold to an outstanding young merchant, it is because of this excellent young man that I can reorganize the army in the shortest possible time, I would like to introduce you, an arms merchant from the southern city-state, Yuri?" Mr. Orlov. ”
Yuri, who was dressed in black gentleman's clothes and had several bodyguards, appeared in front of everyone, and the other party obviously saw Lorraine in the distance, but he just nodded slightly and continued to talk with the dignitaries in front of him with a smile.
It should be said that he is worthy of being a merchant of death, and within a few days of the signing of the Treaty of Fort Crow, he could get the news that he took the line of the front commander of the Norman Army and ran over to buy the weapons and ammunition of the Allied Army, to be honest, Lorraine was eager to sell the tattered guns in his hand quickly, these smoothbore guns from unknown workshops are not good at all, and they can only do two rounds per minute in the hands of those red-clothed soldiers, as for the mages who are not used to playing with antique guns, it is good to be able to do one shot in two minutes.
Thinking of this, Lorraine felt that it would be good if he could make a fortune from Yuri, so that he would have the time and money to decipher those drawings, and this retreat had already decided to go to the imperial capital of El Carloon, to the place where the talent was most concentrated, to find experts to develop his own business, such as to get some relatively simple inventions and creations in the future, preferably to make semi-automatic firearms, maybe he could become the leader of a large group of companies in the future, it is amazing to think about it.
Soon it seemed that the negotiations had been settled, and although Princess Josephine looked unhappy, she still sent someone to inform the officers to stop the procession, collect ordnance and ammunition, and prepare it for Yuri to inspect.
A group of officers led by Lieutenant Colonel Kalinin figured out the reason and said by name that they did not trust the dead merchant, to which Yuri personally ran over to explain, "Lieutenant Colonel Kalinin and all the respected officers of the St. Orlando Empire, I understand your distress very well, you are very angry and embarrassed that a brave and warlike army is forced to lay down its arms and obey the indiscriminate command of some guys who have never been on the battlefield in the rear, but please look at the soldiers around you." ”
Yuri pointed to the tired soldiers, these poor people were covered in dirt, many of them were wounded, there was no magic treatment, they could only be bandaged indiscriminately, after the hard battle, there was no reward, only the uncertainty of the future, not to mention the crowsburg treaty, which broke the hearts of these soldiers.
"See? It is unknown whether the Imperial War will come up with enough Finney, and instead of brothers coming home with blood and tears and hugging their wives and children, it is better to sell me the broken copper and iron in your hands now, and I can guarantee that the price will be absolutely satisfactory to you, and that you will be able to provide sufficient supplies at a discounted price. ”
Sufficient money and supplies are precisely the weakness of this army, seeing the wavering eyes of the officers, Lorraine understands that there should be no surprise in this business, so don't think about continuing today, after Yuri's patient persuasion, all the officers and soldiers finally agreed to his purchase request, and prepared to stay here for a few days before setting off again.
For this reason, Lorraine ran to Yuri's convoy for the first time, and saw a mountain of supplies piled up on dozens of cargo wagons, but judging from the text and labels on them, almost all of them were obtained from the 52nd Garrison Legion of the Norman Alliance and the 7th Legion of the Reich.
"We met again, I didn't expect you to be promoted so quickly, Lieutenant Lorraine."
Looking back at the smiling merchant of death, Lorraine had to admit that this guy was indeed the super merchant in history whose luck and wrist were against the sky, and it was only in less than a month that he made his first appearance to let him get so many supplies with a white glove empty wolf, and I believe that there are definitely a lot of gold coins.
"Should I say, Mr. Yuri, are you really very good? So much of it was bought from supplies captured by the Norman Alliance and the Imperial Army, right? ”
Glancing at the carriage, Yuri nodded hesitantly, "You're right, but there is a small problem, that is, these materials almost don't cost money, you just need to take care of those greedy quartermasters and give sufficient kickbacks by the way, everything is not a problem, you see that now Her Royal Highness the princess and the general have to spend money to buy the materials that originally belonged to the friendly army, otherwise how can they bring so many of you home?" ”
Lorraine lowered his head gloomily, as a logistics officer, he naturally knew how far the shortage of materials in the army was, and the food resources he was in charge of were already very scarce, and it was no surprise that after three days, he could only provide bread mixed with sand and sawdust and sell cakes as staple food, as for whether he could make it to the Duke of Koman, it was really unknown.
"Don't look worried, my good lieutenant, you're just a logistics lieutenant who knows a little magic or two, leave the big things to the people above, and the small things to the subordinates, make your own decisions and follow the experts' opinions, and there will be no big problems. Got it? Hurry up and choose some ingredients to treat our stomachs, none of the chefs here are good at cooking, and the barbecue you made at the banquet is so memorable that my mouth is drooling, please make another meal. ”
For Yuri's request, Lorraine also thinks it's not bad, so many days have passed, everyone hasn't eaten a good meal, find some good ingredients to make a delicious meal, and let the cooking soldiers learn it, and make it for the soldiers, I believe it will also improve morale.
Whatever comes to mind, he finds some flour, eggs, butter, sugar, and salt from the truck, and as for the yeast, Yuri managed to find some from somewhere, and as for the process, Lorraine said that the unlucky guy with a bloody face over there said it all.
Kneading them all together, and when they slowly expanded to twice their size, they were divided into small hollow pillars that looked a bit like the baking cups of later generations, but in the Musket era, the materials were limited to just use.
Sprinkle a little precious sesame seeds and put the bread preparations in the oven for about thirty minutes, and the fragrant butter bread is out of the oven, this batch is for the generals, Lorraine and Yuri, so take it out and move on to the next step, as for the empty oven, it begins to bake more simple bread for the soldiers.
The problem of meat products has stumped Lorraine, because of the continuous fighting and the sneak attack of the White Wolf Legion, the beef stored in the vicinity has long been depleted, and it can only be replaced with substitutes such as monster meat, seafood meat, and meat of unknown but presumably non-humanoid creatures.
To turn all this meat into meatloaf, in addition to using magic, it is by manpower, which is served by Lieutenant Colonel Kalinin and the Norman knights, and there is no need for Lorraine to worry about it, just stand next to the preparation of materials and by the way, admire the muscular men for the victory or defeat on the battlefield, put down the kitchen and continue to fight.
Lieutenant Colonel Kalinin, who is of the Rus's blood, is worthy of being a man of steel muscles, and the meatloaf made by the Norman knights is very skillful, and all the meatloaf that comes out of their hands is extremely unanimous in believing that a lot of effort will be saved when cooking.
While the muscular men were dealing with the meatloaf, Lorraine, who had already finished preparing onion rings, accidentally found a set of oriental kitchenware from Yuri's personal belongings, which he said was snatched from some unlucky poor ghost as compensation, but Lorraine had already seen from the emblem and materials found on the kitchenware that it was a very good set of kitchenware.
The letter will be suspicious, fry the onion rings little by little to make the fragrance, add condiments similar to vinegar and sugar, slowly reduce the juice over low heat, add salt to taste, I personally feel a little sweet, but it should be okay, put these aside for the time being, take out a pot again and start to put oil and meatloaf.
Originally, the edible oil of this era did not satisfy Lorraine, but there were magical oil-making spells in the heavenly tattoo smart terminal that he carried, what vegetable oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, tea oil, etc. added up to more than a dozen, although the amount of magic consumed is not a lot, but it is very concerning, why did he pre-install these strange spells when he first obtained this thing, but he can't change them at will, and now the whole person has become a logistics mage, and the poor magic amount on his body is not only supplied to the terminal, All that's left is the amount of alchemy items to make.
Shake your head, regardless of the frustrating and unfortunate thing, sprinkle pepper and salt and wait for three minutes to bake, it only takes one minute to cover the patty with the sliced cheese and add the butter bread prepared earlier, and the meatloaf cheeseburger is full of home-style atmosphere!
The burgers shared with the officers and superiors have different flavors, and Princess Josephine, who was originally a little depressed, actually ignored the advice of her relatives after eating the first Demonized Mountain Chicken Burger, and ate five hamburgers in a row before barely giving up, which can only be said that Lorraine's home-cooked burger is really extraordinary.
When everyone forgot their worries because they were satisfied with the food, the low morale naturally did not continue, and the reinvigorated soldiers accelerated the collection of ordnance and completed their respective tasks in only half a day, much to Yuri's amazement.
After dealing with a series of matters, he was ready to return the kitchenware to Yuri, but was rejected by the other party, "It's a great pleasure to be able to eat delicious food when you go out to work, we haven't known each other for a long time, but you have helped me complete two big business, just a set of kitchenware is nothing, and this is also a kickback for you." ”
As a result, the other party's money bag, when opened it, found that it was a Southern Trade Confederate bond worth 1,000 pfennigs, which was indeed a large kickback, although he did not sell any ordnance to the dead merchant.
"Thank you, where are you going after that?"
"Of course, it's looking for a ship to pull this cargo to a place where there is business...... Hey, it's actually going to the Kolsaland Peninsula to sell to the rebels there, okay, I won't say more, someone over there has come, I hope we can taste your food together in the future, goodbye Lieutenant Lorraine. ”
Yuri? Orlov waved his hand and left, but the next one to arrive was indeed the princess herself, I have to say that Princess Josephine was no longer depressed at this time, and the girl in the knight's uniform looked very heroic, "Lieutenant Lorraine, thank you for the food you cooked for us, I really don't know how to deal with the demoralized subordinates without those hamburgers......"
"Please don't say that, Your Highness, this is what I have to do." In fact, Lorraine is very flustered now, an imperial princess actually thanked herself in such a low voice, what does it mean.
Seeing that the other party looked very nervous, Josephine suddenly smiled, "Don't be so nervous, just treat it as a thank you between friends, I will call you Lorraine directly in the future, what about you, don't say anything Your Highness, just call me Josephine." ”
What else can Lorraine say in the face of this Highness, he must nod his head and agree, maybe he will need to ask this Highness for help later.
After receiving an affirmative answer, Josephine took out a small box from behind him and handed it to Lorraine, "This is given to you as a gift between friends, I don't know what will happen to me when I return to the imperial capital, as for whether you and other soldiers can be compensated, I can only try my best, so I will give you this gift as compensation first." ”
After asking for the same from the other party, Lorraine gently opened the gift box, which contained a gray-green gemstone ring, which looked very inconspicuous in appearance, but after casting the magic vision, the color containing the powerful magical aura almost blinded him.
Ring of Infinity Treasures: Crafted by the Royal of St. Orlando, it replicates the ring on Terrayari of the Prophets, producing one gold coin per day, one Generic Magic Gem every ten days, and one Flawless Diamond every 100 days, with good luck for the wearer.
It's simply a priceless super magic prop, gold coins or something seem to be very little, but you can always buy groceries over time, although there is only one ordinary quality magic gem every ten days, at least it saves the material cost of making magic props, as long as you find a sufficient energy source, it is too simple to open a magic grocery store.
Being able to produce a flawless diamond every 100 days is an indispensable thing for performing high-level magic, resurrection magic, and a large magic array, and as for the attribute of good luck and accompanying it, it can only depend on whether the goddess of luck Temorrah is blessed or not, so it doesn't matter.
"Your Highness Josephine, this is too precious, I ......"
Josephine stretched out her hand to stop Lorraine's next words, "We are friends, and this is a gift and compensation, needless to say, as a descendant of Empress Sylvia, the gift I gave has never been returned." ”
Lorraine was silent, he understood that this was the pride of the royal family, but the next few days must be extremely difficult, and the domestic strife and difficulties surrounded it, it was really a headache.
Just when the two of them were troubled, a flock of crows flew up from the woods beside the road, and the chaotic cries seemed to have some ominous smell in addition to making people feel uncomfortable, and the road ahead was long and you only knew what you would encounter.