Looking out from the window of the battleship's command room, the sea is calm and the sky is clear, the afternoon sun makes the port buildings in the distance dyed with a layer of golden light, and many unknown seabirds fly up and down happily on the sea, and from time to time they fall on the mast of the battleship and make a crisp and pleasant chirp, which is completely a pleasing port picture.

The wine on the table is also good wine, it is the famous Enlos good wine, which one of the officers bought at a high price from a passing merchant ship at sea, and it is not easy to get this wine now, some time ago the pirates have been robbing like crazy to make this wine almost out of stock on the mainland, and the price has skyrocketed.

It was a pleasant and beautiful weather, and it was a very pleasant thing for friends to get together and drink rare wine, but everyone here was in a heavy mood and complained, and now because of the words of the beard, the atmosphere in the command room became even more incompatible with all this, and no one spoke anymore, everyone fell into silence, bowing their heads and drinking sullen wine.

After a long time, another officer broke the silence in an astringent voice: "These can't explain anything, I don't think that His Majesty Catherine will acquiesce to Jian Chen and the Empire as enemies, I don't know what happened to cause this strange situation now, but I only know that I am from the Empire, and I have joined the Emperor**, so I have the responsibility to fight for the Empire and all enemies, we can't ignore the Empire just because His Majesty Catherine is gone, right?" ”

In his tone, there was deep helplessness, but also dissatisfaction with the status quo, and it attracted a sigh.

After a while, another officer with brown hair and deep eyes said lightly: "It's true that we are from the empire, it's not wrong that we are emperors, of course we should fight for the empire, but this doesn't mean that we have to throw our lives on the battlefield for the mistakes of some people!" I'm on the same page as Berlands, the current Empire is a real disappointment, maybe we really shouldn't have let Catherine go in the first place! ”

The man who spoke was Craggs, the highest-ranking officer in the crowd, he was the commander of a certain Imperial naval fleet, he was bold and calm, scheming, quite a general, and was promoted by Catherine when he was reorganizing the navy, and he was the leader of the group, and everyone believed him, and the Berlands he mentioned in his words was the bearded officer who had just provoked the topic.

His sudden statement surprised everyone, because everyone did not expect that even the always cautious and steady Craggs would suddenly openly question the current state of the empire like the impulsive Berlands, and faintly revealed that he was unwilling to fight.

"You don't have to be so surprised, it's not surprising, in fact, since the incident of the Angel Clan, I have been disappointed in the situation of the Empire, and many of the practices of the Regent Kendall have disappointed me." Finding the strange eyes of everyone, Craggs smiled indifferently, didn't care, and continued to say to himself, "Indeed, Lord Kendall is two generations of important ministers of the empire, and he is famous in the empire, his loyalty to the empire is unquestionable, and I also believe that he is bent on strengthening the empire and restoring the empire's past glory, and over the years, he has made countless contributions to the empire. ”

"In the last war, his performance has shown all this, if it weren't for his strong support, how could Her Majesty Catherine, who returned to the empire with a small group of people, be recognized by the emperor in the shortest possible time? Without his help, Your Majesty's road to recovery will be even more difficult! ”

"But all this does not hide the fact that Lord Kendall is not a qualified leader, he does have amazing attainments in military affairs, it can be said that he is the soul of the current emperor, but his talent is also limited to the military field, his performance in politics is really poor, and he is used to dealing with everything with his emperor's toughness, look at the situation of the empire after he became the regent, internal affairs and diplomacy are mishandled, and the problem of the angel clan has almost lost the most important ally, The indifference to the Faro army led to the loss of the Hammondale region, and the tough foreign policy made the Bracada and the elven kingdom are getting farther and farther away from the empire, and the Holy Alliance exists in name only, and this kind of bad luck with allies, as well as the unsmooth progress of the war in Hammondal, has made various hostile forces, whether overt or covert, see the hope of defeating the empire, and they are ready to move one by one, and finally lead to the doubling of the pressure on the emperor, and in order to cope with a possible war, they have to start expanding the army, which makes all parts of the empire complain, People's livelihood has also been greatly affected, and the little vitality that Her Majesty Catherine has spent years saving for the empire is now being squandered by Kendall in the shortest possible time! ”

"Now, regardless of the actual situation of the empire, he took the initiative to provoke a war in the Titalia region, if this war is won, it is fine, if it is defeated, I am afraid that the empire will never be at peace, as for the affairs of the sea, everyone knows it, I don't need to say it! I only know that it is stupid enough to invest so much in the navy to fight a war that must be lost, I don't know what kind of psychology the regent is based on, thinking that the emperor can win, and wants to fight with the alliance fleet at sea, with the current situation of the imperial navy, it is the right choice to hold the coastal waters, strengthen coastal defense, and not give the enemy the opportunity to land on the empire from the sea, I have reported to the above on this matter, but there is no response, it seems that whether it is the regent or the emperor**, They are all determined to make a majestic presence on the sea. ”

"The empire is embarking on a most dangerous path under the leadership of the regent Kendall, and on this road, how far the empire can go, I am really not optimistic, therefore, like Berlands, I am quite confused about the decision made by His Majesty Catherine at the beginning, why did she help that Chen Jian to be an enemy of the empire, could it be that His Majesty has already despaired of the empire because of the abdication, so he gave up the empire?"

Speaking of this, Craggs's words were loudly interrupted by an officer: "How is this possible, how much effort has Your Majesty spent on the empire to have today?" How could she abandon the Empire! Craggs, what are you talking nonsense? To slander Your Majesty like this! ”

Craggs smiled bitterly, without defending, but continued: "In order to solve this doubt, I began to care about everything that happened before and after His Majesty's abdication, trying to find out the truth of the matter, it just so happened that this time among the personnel who were added to my fleet from all over the world, there was an old acquaintance of mine, he had been in Hammondale for a while, he was still a middle-ranking officer, and knew a lot of things, from him, I knew a lot about Hammondale, and about Jian Chen. ”

"This old acquaintance of mine was stationed in Hammondale with the imperial army after the plot of the elven kingdom to attack Hammondale was foiled, and His Majesty was also in Hammondale at that time, according to him, it was at that time that Chen Jian began to get His Majesty's favor, at that time Chen Jian also served as His Majesty's marching staff officer for a period of time, and gave His Majesty a lot of good ideas, and His Majesty would also consult Chen Jian on many things, and this matter also caused a great sensation in His Majesty's military camp at that time, and everyone knows it, Later, I asked some people who were in Hammondale at the time about the incident from other sources, and the results were confirmed. ”

"From this incident, it is not difficult for us to see that His Majesty really values this Chen Jian, and a series of things that happened later also prove this, but what does Your Majesty value about Chen Jian? After asking the old acquaintance a little more about it, I finally understood one thing, and that was the attitude when it came to race! ”

"Your Majesty's plans for the Hammondale area must be known to everyone, right? Fort Werning, White Cliff Pass, and the city of Hammondal, among which I am most concerned about the city of Hammondal, in my old acquaintance's description, the scale of the city of Hammondale is really amazing, in terms of a border area, it is still a military important place, why does Your Majesty invest so much manpower and material resources in the construction of people's livelihood? Or because of race! ”

"Maybe you don't know that under the auspices of Your Majesty, the Empire has immigrated to the Harmmondale region twice, the first time is thousands of halflings, and the second time it includes all races in the Empire, and the number has reached tens of thousands, it is worth noting that this is different from the expulsion of foreigners to the Harmondale region after the regent's accession to the throne, but only pure immigration, Your Majesty built the city of Hammondale in order to settle a large number of aliens in the empire, And from the attitude of Chen Jian, who was still the lord of Hammondale at the time, towards the aliens, it is not difficult for us to see what kind of attitude His Majesty who valued Chen Jian towards these aliens! ”

Hearing this, Berlandz, who had a long beard, couldn't help but interject and asked, "Do you mean that Your Majesty is also the same as Jian Chen now, wanting to achieve racial equality?" ”

Cragus nodded: "This is not an impossible thing, this can also be seen from His Majesty's friendly attitude towards the Titarians, as far as my personal opinion is concerned, if the empire can absorb people of all races to join the empire, for the empire's use, let them show their strengths, instead of excluding aliens as now, it is not a good thing for the empire, maybe this approach will cause some disputes in the short term, but in the long run, it is more beneficial than disadvantageous, with Your Majesty's vision and eloquence, Of course, she will not fail to see this, and the reason why she immigrated aliens to Hammondale may be to try to reduce the conflict caused by the implementation of racial equality policy, Hammondale is far away from the empire, and there are lords like Chen Jian who advocate racial equality and are deeply supported by the locals, and the large number of local garrisons can also play a role in suppressing the possible movement of aliens, which has too much convenience. ”

"It's just that all this came to a halt with the invasion of the Krigan people, and Jian Chen was also framed by the Krigan people and had to defect from the empire, maybe there is also the result of the secret role of some people in the empire who strongly reject foreign races, so that it can explain His Majesty's strange attitude towards Jian Chen from time to time, and I don't know much about what happened after that, and I don't dare to guess, but Your Majesty left Lord Christine and them to Jian Chen before leaving, I think there must be some kind of deep meaning, maybe Your Majesty has already seen through the leadership of Kendall, The empire will eventually embark on a road of no return, so I will say that it is not impossible for His Majesty to give up the empire, and Jian Chen, perhaps because of the similarity of His Majesty's philosophy, has been entrusted by His Majesty, so Lord Christine, who agrees with His Majesty's philosophy, will also be loyal to Jian Chen, of course, these are just my guesses! The truth of the matter is clear only to the parties involved! ”

Saying that, Craggs sighed heavily: "I said so much, I just want to explain one thing to you, the road Kendall is going to take now is not the path that His Majesty was going to take, I don't want to die on the battlefield for Kendall's wrong choice, and I don't want to watch the empire go further and further down the wrong road, I love our empire, but I can't change everything in the empire now, if this war at sea is inevitable, I will try to take my people away, Even if they are charged with treason, they should not hesitate to send the soldiers of the Empire to death in vain, and I hope that in this way, I will try to provoke the regent to reflect on his wrong ways! Let this inevitable battle at sea be avoided! ”