The meeting lasted until sunset, when the lights were lit, and the reception, control, and renovation of the Rock Fortress were finally roughly arranged, and the most important of all arrangements was who should guard the vital northern gateway next.

Gawain did not choose the two "veterans" of Philip and Byron.

Of course, the loyalty and ability of the two knights are undoubted, but they are not suitable to defend the Rock Fortress, and the First Combat Corps they lead, as the main force of Cecil, bears the heavy responsibility of maintaining the security of the entire southern border and defending the Dark Mountains, especially the second point, which Gawain does not dare to relax no matter what.

In Gawain's eyes, the wasteland across the Dark Mountains was far more of a threat than the human kingdom to the north—and while the Rock Fortress was an important gateway to the south, no matter how important it was, Gawain couldn't weaken Cecil's native defenses.

Byron and Philip could not be tied to the fortress, and apart from them, the young generation of commanders trained in Cecil's own country were still inexperienced, and none of them had the talent to take on this heavy responsibility.

In the end, Gawain chose the old knight from the Kant region - Wald?? Perridge.

With the help of Philip, the veteran knight successfully transformed an old-style noble private army into Cecil's 2nd Combat Corps, and although there is still much to be perfected in this legion, the old knight's abilities have already been demonstrated in the process, and even more commendable is Wald?? Perridge's ability to accept new things and ideas is surprisingly strong, as the oldest knight in the Kant region, he is even faster than those young people in learning new weapons and tactics and new military regulations, and even Philip has praised this to Gawain.

And in addition to ability, Wald?? Perridge's character is equally trustworthy.

The task of defending the Rock Fortress and renovating and modernizing it fell to the 2nd Combat Corps.

After the meeting, Gawain stood in the deserted hall, looking at the map hanging on the wall and lost his thoughts.

The north gate was knocked down.

The royal capital may soon know the news, but with the current situation where the dukes of the west and north are tired of dealing with the rebels in the east, they will not be able to solve the crisis in the south, they know the combat effectiveness of the rock fortress, and they can naturally estimate how strong the Cecil army that broke through the rock fortress in one day, as long as they are not stupid, the two grand dukes will realize that in this case, even if they put together a team, it will not be possible to take the rock fortress back at all, but it will only add to the consumption - so the most likely reaction of the royal capital, It is to send messengers to contact in order to seek temporary "stability".

And whether the king sends an envoy or an army, it is almost the same for Gawain, all he wants is a Duchy of Cecil that is not disturbed by the outside world and is completely under his control, he will temporarily close this gate, isolate all the forces that want to dye the realm, and then quietly absorb and digest this vast territory that has just fallen into his hands, so that his basic plate is completely stabilized, and enter a benign stage of industrial operation, this process may take years - even with the pressure of the demon tide, He had to speed everything up, and this process was indispensable.

The advent of modern weapons will obsolete the traditional castle tactics, but this does not mean that portals such as the Rock Fortress are meaningless, at least for the time being, and this northern gate will firmly hold the lands of the Duchy of Cecil.

The nearby air distorted slightly, and a shadow emerged from the air, and Gawain turned his head to look in the direction where the shadow appeared: "How's the situation outside?" ”

Amber picked up the water cup from the table next to her, and poured down most of the cold tea with a "coo-goo" before she began to report the situation outside: "Everything is in order, the main force has completed the takeover, the original defenders of the fortress have all been imprisoned, and the Steel Rangers have just found the last group of guys hiding from the mill in the west of the city - they are all exiled knights from the original south, and their ability to escape and hide has really improved a lot." ”

Gawain nodded: "What about the civilians in the city?" ”

Amber grabbed another piece of snack and stuffed it into her mouth, and said while chewing: "The inner city is under martial law, the wartime curfew is enforced, and of course the civilians stay in their own houses, but the female knight named Margarita has already taken the soldiers to read the 'Anmin Notice', and has sent the materials and medicines for pacification, these two things are quite effective, and the civilians in the inner city are quite orderly except for a little nervous." ”

Gawain exhaled, "Because we didn't bomb civilian areas. ”

The Rock Fortress is a fortress city - both a fortress and a city, where nearly 10,000 soldiers have been stationed for a long time, and in order to maintain the operation of the fortress and the stability of the army, the central area of the fortress is a fully functional town, where a large number of civilians live in addition to soldiers.

In order to prevent accidental damage to civilian areas, Cecil's army had only bombarded the southern walls and the military installations behind the first wall during the previous shelling, and even when Soldlin and Ropenny carried out sabotage operations in the inner city, they burned and attacked places such as barracks, outposts, and mage towers, and although the urban areas where civilians lived were slightly affected in the process, the damage was almost negligible compared to other places.

It can only be said that the fragility of the aristocratic army of this era helped Gawain a lot, and those undisciplined and unscrupulous levies lost their will to resist almost immediately after the fall of the walls, so that Cecil's army was able to take the entire fortress with only limited artillery bombardment - if the defenders of the Rock Fortress were an army with a strong fighting will and modern experience, if they continued to resist after the fall of the walls, and even retreated into the inner city and relied on the intricacies of streets and dwellings to fight the Cecil in the streets, Then this battle will definitely not be won so easily.

Civilian injuries in the inner city are never so minor.

After reporting the situation, Amber began to stare directly at Gao Wen, she was still holding a snack in her hand, and the corners of her mouth were still stained with scum, but her eyes were very serious, Gao Wen saw this guy's state, and knew that she couldn't figure it out again, so she said casually: "You can ask whatever you want." ”

"What are you going to do with that Sir Maryland?"

"What kind of problem is this—of course it is treated as a prisoner of war," Gawain waved his hand, "send Cecil back, labor, indoctrination, indoctrination of Cecil's laws, and then see if he is willing to be a part of Cecil, and become a good law-abiding citizen, so that I can still retain his title of nobility, although the 'new nobility' basically has a title and an annuity......"

Amber suddenly looked disappointed when she heard this answer: "Hey, I thought you would treat it specially." ”

Gawain was silent for a moment, then asked unhurriedly, "Do you remember what I said last time in front of you and Wright?" ”

Amber thought for a moment: "Those about the landed aristocracy? ”

Gawain nodded: "That's right, there are also 'good' among the traditional landed aristocracy, who retain chivalry, pursue true aristocratic virtues, and have admirable character, and Sir Maryland is such a nobleman - but this still can't change the nature of his landed aristocracy, and the limitations of his 'aristocratic virtues'." He was a respectable knight, but it wasn't enough, in my personal capacity, I admired him, but as a lord, I had to transform him without discrimination. ”

Speaking of this, Gawain couldn't help but laugh: "Of course, there is still a difference between Sir Maryland and those southern nobles - I believe that Sir will successfully awaken and complete the transformation, and become a law-abiding and harmless 'new noble' to the territory, I see the shadow of Philip in him, this kind of person, although the personality is old-fashioned and difficult to reverse, but as long as they recognize the right direction, their transformation will be very reliable, unlike those who have been hopelessly Southern nobles- They may have shouted their allegiance to Cecil on their first day of collective labor, but I couldn't fully believe them for ten years. ”

"Those traditional nobles...... Amber couldn't help muttering after hearing this, and then stuffed the last bite of snack into her mouth, "But it doesn't matter, you finally knocked down the north gate of your heart, and now that the entire southern territory is completely under your control, you have time to take care of those guys slowly." ”

"The whole South? No, I don't control the entire South. The corners of Gawain's mouth turned up, and his gaze went beyond the amber on his face covered with biscuit crumbs, and fell on the military map, on the "city of Luan", where the Cathedral of St. Luan was located.

The city was located in the northwestern part of the South, and it was enclosed by a red circle.

Amber noticed Gawain's gaze, turned her head to look at the map, and suddenly showed a surprised look: "You are going to ...... What did you do to those sticks? ”

"No, surround them for a while," Gawain said, shaking his head, "St. Luan's Cathedral is not a rock fortress, physically destroying or occupying that church can only outweigh the losses, and destroying the foundations of the old Holy Light Church in the south should be punished, and this requires good preparations." ”

Amber keenly noticed the word "Old Church of the Light" in Gawain's mouth, and laughed knowingly.

Three days later, the situation in the Rock Fortress was basically stabilized, and all kinds of registration and statistical work were completed. Knight Perridge and his Second Combat Regiment had taken complete control of the fortress, and Gawain boarded the Kraken-powered battleship Aurora and left the fortress with Amber, Byron, and Penny.

And with the convenience of the magic network, the news of the victory at the front was actually transmitted back to Cecil by wireless signal long before the army returned to the mainland.

In Cecil City, inside the government hall, Hetty has ended her web communication with Rebecca - after filtering out the gleeful chit-chat and illogical nonsense of her eldest niece, she has figured out Rebecca's needs.

Moments later, she summoned Kamal.

Filled with arcane brilliance, Kamal entered Hetty's office and greeted the "Grand Butler Cecil" in front of him, who had a low-level mage but had excellent internal affairs skills: "Good afternoon, ma'am—news from the front?" ”

"That's right, a big win," Hetty said with a smile, "and Rebecca said there's something you need to do—it's the lord's orders." ”

"Technical questions?"

"Sort of," Hetty nodded, "The lord has decided to take advantage of this victory to conduct a large-scale broadcast test, and Rebecca has provided a plan to test the actual performance of the Magic Net Communications......"

.。 m.