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The battle for the north is still a war of attrition.

The rebels resorted to guerrilla warfare, harassing from time to time the territories of the Great Khyar, which were loved by the lower classes. But after all, years have passed, and the rebels rely on the resources of the soil produced in the north, and in any way cannot compare with the continuous support south of the center.

At the beginning of spring, the seventh rebel leader (there have been seven leaders in just six years, which shows the fierceness and tenacity of his resistance) surrendered. It is said that Dino Firebird cut off his head and offered it to the king as a gift of triumph.

During Dino's expedition in the north, Sheka Hawthorn was also by his side. Mo Shi occasionally contacted them through "sound magic".

Dino Firesparrow was divided, and like his brother, he was Efaya.

No one is surprised.

After the troops led by him returned to the court, he was given the title of earl, married Princess Terlotta, and held the position of a five-body minister.

The so-called "five body ministers", the five bodies refer to the hands, legs and tail, of which the left is respected.

Dino was still young, so he was the "Lord of the Tails".

Sheka Hawthorn also remained in the center. This time, he and his wife moved into the house that the Firebird family had bought in the city.

And Moshi-

Moshi Toyosui, unfortunately, is now given the name Moshi Nightfall, a word adapted from obsidian, which is often used by Snowwalker to give his surname (Moshi felt that the king chose this stone as his name out of pure amusement), giving him the title of Earl, inheriting the Chipping City and the Silver Castle.

The king greatly promoted him. And he was tormented by all kinds of piercing eyes as he passed through the palace corridors.

Yes, Mo Shi couldn't shirk these "Longen".

But he also has corresponding countermeasures:

First of all, he did not admit that the southwest side of the Falling Star Mountains, where Chipping City was located, belonged to the territory of the "Earl of Nightlight", and instead referred to this place as "the ore workshop managed by the Golden Lion King".

Moreover, he himself remained in the center, leaving Opal Duzirconia, the son of a nobleman born in the south, as the actual administrator, and the annual taxes collected were all paid to the court, except for the maintenance of the castle. The most important point is that today's Chipping City does not have a private legion, but seeks the protection of the royal army, and is completely subordinate to the central government in a de facto sense.

In this way, whether it is the Southern Scarlet Foot Faction or the Eastern White Lizard Faction's border land lords, there is no reason to make it difficult to cut the Colorful City.

And Mo Shi can pretend that he is still a nobody, and quietly be a close minister in the court.

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But the story can be retraced, starting with Opal and Long Tail.

Opal managed to stay in the Silver Fort for a while in September through the introduction of Mor Amethyst, and given his background in not serving the central magnates, it was not difficult for him to be received as a southland hyar. The north wing of the castle was not allowed to enter, and Opal tried to think of many ways.

But in fact, since it is considered a "secret", it means that it is exactly what the opal is looking for. He deduced that the mint was hidden in the castle.

But soon, Opal realizes that he appears to be being watched. When he tried to leave the castle, the ministers in charge tried every means to obstruct him, but he could not say any actual reason. He was placed under "house arrest" in the Silver Castle.

In the end, it was the long tail that found tangible evidence one step ahead of opal.

Longtail searched the side of the mines in the Falling Star Mountains, trying to make his way through Duke Goldmane's territory and head east. The boundaries of the mountains were not clear, and he spent days wandering in the forest until he finally found the clue - the river.

A section of a river filled with ash.

Snowwalkers smelt gold and silver in the same way as Mostone knows:

The first process, grinding: first put the ore into the water mill, crush the large pieces of ore through hydraulic action, and then grind it into powder with a stone mill.

The second process, washing: the ore powder is washed in water to remove the non-ore part, leaving a powder containing more gold and silver, which is called concentrate powder in the jargon.

The third process, clumping and sintering, mixes powder containing gold and silver with rice to make pellets, layers it with charcoal to form piles, removes sulfur from sulfide, and sinters into crunchy ore pellets.

The fourth process, lead reduction smelting: the ore mass is mixed and smelted with lead, and the chemical replacement is carried out to form a lead block containing gold and silver.

The fifth process, ash blowing method: the lead containing gold and silver is smelted on the plant ash, and oxygen is blown in to remove the lead from the lead block. Blowing away the grass ash yields high-purity gold and silver.

- Metallurgy tends to emit a lot of waste, and these wastes become clues.

The long tail follows the river upstream. While seeing the metallurgical plant with his own eyes, he was accidentally discovered and arrested by the Goldmane family soldiers guarding the gold mine. Fortunately, the communication between Nagao and Moshi does not require any conditions, as long as Moshi has his hair and skin, and he is still alive, the connection can continue.

He informed Yi of the location of the metallurgical plant, and Mo Shi immediately reported to the king that the evidence of the crime of the golden mane and the scales was conclusive.

However, it takes time to send troops to the Southern Expedition.

During this time, Nagao knew that he had to ask for more blessings than he could.

He told the story he had made up again to the manager of the metallurgical plant, and this time he said his last name, "ochre". After all, Ochre is the name of the Count, from a mountain range further south that produces metal ore, but he is a "mongrel". But at this time, he hoped that the surname would allow him to live longer.

He noticed that the workers here were not allowed to leave the mines and metallurgical plants, and were doing hard labor day after day. So he volunteered to go into the mine and do hard labor.

The administrator agreed.

He toiled in the dark cave with the canine-headed civilians until the Firesparrow and the King's army set foot in the Falling Star Mountains.

-

When Diffondo Firebird temporarily takes over Chipcut, Opal and Longtail brave the snow and return to the royal city.

Moshi greeted them outside the city.

He stood on the snow like a pitch-black sapling, and like a wisp of black smoke.

He didn't seem to change at all, but Nagao could see the change in himself and the opal zirconium next to him—they were tired and haggard, and the joy of "victory" was so little that it didn't translate into reality.

In other words, it wasn't until they actually saw Mo Shi again that they felt that the matter had indeed come to an end.

Moshi looked at them, then let out a long sigh.

And his first sentence was: "In the future, I will no longer dwell on the facts, and force detailed evidence and justice - this is the last time." ”

It's strange, although Long Tail can't understand it, he can also hear a certain deep desolation in Mo Shi's words.

"You say this, Lord Moshi, as if I had made a little gopher for nothing!" he quipped, "but I have been digging for gold in the mine for months, and Lord Opal has counted the number of pillars and tiles in the Silver Castle, right?"

Mo Shi smiled and shook his head.

In addition to this inexplicable sorrow, Long Tail could see that Mo Shi was in a good mood, and he hugged Opal, and even hugged him. Scared him a little.

"You've lost a lot of weight. Mo Shi looked at the long tail.

"I thought you'd compliment me on my muscles. Well, in fact, the first thing I did when I came out of there was to run to the city to find a tavern, and I ate until I couldn't stand up—"

Mo Shi laughed a few times, and then hurriedly waved his hand.

"Speaking of which, we should hurry into the city and stop standing in the snow and talking. Duna has specially invited a cook lady to make sure you have enough to eat and drink tonight. ”

"You're going to invite me to your table?" asked Nagao, half-incredulous.

"As long as the opal doesn't mind. Mo Shi joked.

"Of course. Opal replied calmly.

(//)

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