Rosetta stood up from behind his desk, he came to the map not far away, his eyes slowly swept over a series of markers in the border area, and Matilda's voice came from behind him: "In the past week, the Cecil have increased the Winterwolf defense line four times, and at the same time the control area extends from the fortress all the way to the Shadow Swamp, not long ago they took control of the mechanical bridge in the Shadow Swamp area, allowing the armored train to enter the war zone, and now the war machine is entrenched like a fortress on the line from the Shadow Swamp to the Shadow Wolf Castle, Putting a lot of pressure on our border offensive......"

"Looks like they're determined to be crucified in Winterwolf...... It's a strategic fulcrum," Rosetta nodded, "so we can't rule out the possibility of them suddenly attacking Aldenand." ”

"It seems so...... Matilda replied, "we have now cut off the Shadow Swamp's railway line to the country, and have established a new front with Winter Castle as a fulcrum, and the forces mobilized from the country are gathering over there. The Cecil's steel chariot and motorized infantry advance tactics took a heavy toll on us at first, but after Count Parin Dongburg withdrew from the Winter Wolf Line, he directed the front-line troops to develop many effective tactics, and now our Transcendental forces are able to effectively counter those machines...... But there is still nothing we can do about the two mobile fortresses of the Cecil. ”

"Palin Wintercastle...... Rosetta whispered, "after the fall of Winterwolf, he was questioned a lot at home...... Now the voices of skepticism have finally quieted down. ”

"In the first battle of Winterwolf Castle, one of the two main commanders surrendered, and the other evacuated early and returned to the rear, after this matter was transmitted back to China, no matter how public opinion guided, it finally hit the pride and self-confidence of the upper class of society that lasted for so many years. Not to mention Andessa, who surrendered after being seriously wounded, Count Parin Dongburg is said to have evacuated early unscathed...... Many aristocrats considered him even more dishonorable than Andesa on this basis. ”

"It's ridiculous that only those who don't go to the battlefield at all and don't know the army are laughing, while the real generals know that it was those two questionable commanders who bought us a chance to breathe and adjust," Rosetta said with a hint of coldness, but he didn't dwell on the topic for long, and quickly shook his head, "It seems that the war machine called the 'armored train' is even more difficult than we first investigated." ”

"It's technological progress - the information from the previous intelligence is obviously outdated, the original armored train was a half-finished product, and now the Cecil have perfected its weapons and power system," Matilda said with a serious expression, "It has the firepower of a strategic mage regiment and the protection of a wall, and it can fly around the track, and the entire track is protected by a layer of powerful shields, countless military stations, watchtowers, and small trains patrolling back and forth on the protective tracks, According to Count Winterhold, it's a 'dynamic and defensive' system that none of our troops can deal with......

"The Cecil apparently put a lot of effort into designing this set, and it was created not to deal with small and weak nations, but to deal with behemoths like Typhon......"

Listening to his daughter's story, Rosetta fell into a short thought, and after a long time, he sighed softly, and said thoughtfully: "The mobile fortress can be attacked, defended and lived, and it itself is equivalent to a constantly advancing supply line......

Matilda obviously didn't expect her father to come up with such an idea, but she immediately realized the meaning behind this idea, and a surprised expression suddenly appeared on her face: "Father...... What do you mean? ”

"Gawain Cecil, he does look farther than we do," Rosetta said, but quickly shook his head, "but now is not the time to talk about that. The key is those trains...... They have a lot of firepower and a long range, which means they can cover the sappers as they fight and lay the railroad forward, and even if we blow up the mechanical bridge and the railroad junction, as long as the Cecil are willing to pay the cost, they can keep pushing forward, so we have to find a way to deal with that. ”

“…… Count Winterhold came up with a plan, but it once again faced our shortcomings," Matilda said, "and he believed that against such a land fortress, the use of ground troops would face huge battle losses anyway, and the only effective means was air strikes - the main guns of the armored train could only attack ground targets, and although it also had smaller, air-capable weapons, it was far weaker in firepower than on the ground." As long as we don't face that lethal main gun, we have a chance to destroy them from the air. ”

"...... in the air" Rosetta's eyes narrowed, but his expression did not stretch in the slightest.

"Air superiority is not on our side," Matilda said in a heavy tone, "and while we have the largest army of aerial mages and griffons on the continent, the Cecil have driven their war machines into the sky, and both griffons and mages are too fragile and slow to face the machines—and most importantly, the mages and experienced griffon knights with the ability to fly are clearly more valuable than those machines that we can't afford to consume." ”

Rosetta thought for a moment and said slowly, "...... Is it possible to imitate or study the shortcomings of that kind of flying machine? ”

"We've shot down a few of them, and the wreckage has been sent to several research facilities under the name of the Royal Mage Guild and the Industrial Construction Guild, but I'm afraid it's going to be difficult to replicate in a short period of time. Experts in the field of runes have reported discovering a new system of runes on those machines, completely different from the runes currently used by elves and humans, and somewhat similar to the legendary dragon language...... These runes interact with the special alloys that make up the flying machine to generate power, and now we are unable to piece together a complete set of runes, nor how the materials that are the base of the runes are produced, in this case to imitate the flying machine...... Even if luck is on our side, it will be too late in time. ”

"Indeed...... We are catching up with an unfamiliar territory from scratch, and we don't have this time," Rosetta said in a deep voice, "and we still have to find a way to find a way from what we are good at in a short time...... Do those flying machines have weaknesses? ”

Matilda nodded immediately: "Yes, and the weakness is surprisingly simple, but it is also very tricky - probably to reduce weight and improve flexibility, those flying machines do not have the same strong armor and high-power energy shield as steel chariots, and their anti-gravity structure is weak due to the lack of protection, the anti-interference ability is very weak, ordinary arcane traps can make it temporarily lose power, theoretically just go to the vicinity to release a small arcane impact on their power structure can make that thing fall, Or at least temporarily out of control, out of combat power, but ......"

"But only if our mage can get close to those things alive," Rosetta said with a blank face, "they fly faster, more agile, and have more offensive ability than mages and griffins, so the weakness of its own strength becomes irrelevant—there is no opponent who can get close to it, and it can't even catch up." ”

Matilda was speechless, and Rosetta returned to the map after a moment of silence, as if he had forgotten what he was discussing, and instead focused his attention on the lines and arrows that represented military movements, and after a minute of thought, he suddenly broke the silence: "In a few days, the next troops will be on the front...... Count Clemmont Dart will lead the reorganized Fourth Legion and the last of the 'Church Volunteers' to Wintercastle. ”

"Cremont?" Matilda was stunned for a moment, but quickly reacted, and her face became a little complicated, "He should be the last stubborn stone among the stubborn old-school nobles...... In order to sabotage your new policy, he has campaigned among the nobles and mages more than once, but because of his influence, even Hadiran can't ...... him."

"Palin will have a way," Rosetta said lightly, "and the Cecil people have a way." ”

“…… I fear that the Earl of Dart will simply surrender in the first battle—he probably hates you more than the Cecil, and sending such a man to the front will only weaken us further. ”

"He won't, he does hate me more than Cecil, but he loves Typhon more than himself...... I've dealt with him too much," Rosetta slowly turned, looking out the floor-to-ceiling window at Aldenand, in the fog, "he knows what I mean, but he'll still go to the front and die there with hatred...... If it weren't for this war, he wouldn't have done such a thing on any occasion, but now Typhon is in trouble. ”

Matilda was silent for a moment, and then hesitated for a few seconds before she said, "Also, about the 'Church Volunteer Corps'......"

"The priests of the god of war want this war, and I'll give them this war, and it's all fanatics who are about to lose their judgment, but at least they can be used one last time," Rosetta said with his back to Matilda, who couldn't see his expression at all, "They gladly took the order, so let's ...... It's the last piece of the puzzle that the church can provide us. ”

Matilda pondered, as if instinctively sensing the discord from her father's arrangement, but before she could ask anything, she heard a knock on the door suddenly coming from behind her.

Rosetta turned to look at the door, "Come in." ”

In the next second, the door of the study was opened, and Diana, dressed in a black maid dress and a shawl with black hair, appeared there. The head maid first nodded slightly to Matilda beside her, and then bent down to her master.

Rosetta looked at the lady who had been loyal to the House of Augustus for hundreds of years: "What happened? ”

"The Cecil technician who is stranded on the Aldernan Railway Company still refuses to continue to provide service, and the consular officer has rejected your offer," Diana said with a blank face, "and similar situations are happening at railway junctions across the country." ”

Rosetta groaned for a moment, and Matilda subconsciously stared at her father.

Cecil Stranded in Typhon...... She also followed the matter for some time. The war came so suddenly that neither the responding side nor the "declaring war" side was unprepared, and when the border conflict escalated into a hot war within 48 hours, and cross-border traffic was suddenly interrupted, many foreigners were unsurprisingly faced an embarrassing stranded situation. Cecil's technicians, investors, and state representatives were stranded in Typhon, as were the envoys, students, and businessmen sent by Typhon to the other side.

The new "international order" of the past two years has brought about such troublesome situations that no one has ever considered and faced, and before that, even if two countries that exchanged with each other suddenly went to war, there would not have been such a complex phenomenon of personnel stranding, because there was no cross-border trade and technology exchange, and there were no students and study tours at the national level.

Matilda knew that there were many people who were now actively campaigning for the matter, some were actively organizing the evacuation and evacuation of the stranded, some were trying to establish a "window of passage in wartime" by various means, and that Aldenan and Cecil were still in fragile, difficult, and cautious contact in order to deal with this troublesome matter.

During this time, the refusal of Cecil's technicians to accept the Augustan family's orders to continue to provide technical services to Typhon has attracted a lot of attention, frankly...... Matilda even had some admiration for the bold Cecil.

Most of them were neither knights nor mages, and according to tradition, they were just commoners, and they didn't have to follow any knightly codes or noble codes, but they did no worse than knights on the battlefield.

There was a slightly oppressive silence in the study, but eventually Rosetta broke the silence: "Did anyone clash with them?" ”

"No," said Ms. Diana, shaking her head, "we have exercised the utmost restraint on your orders - the food and water supplies in the embassy and technical quarters have also been kept normal, except that we have now banned people from those places. ”

After a few more seconds of silence, Rosetta finally exhaled and said slowly, "Tell the ambassador that he can leave Aldenan in the near future, and we will send him out at the end of the Dark Mountains." ”

Diana glanced at him, "In exchange for our own ambassador?" ”

Rosetta nodded slowly: "This matter has been arranged - you can just relay it." ”

"And what about the technicians?"

“…… If they refuse to serve, let them refuse, and tell them that their safety and life in Aldernan will still be guaranteed," Rosetta said, "and treat them well, and set up more security personnel in the corresponding neighborhoods to prevent accidents from being caused by extreme citizens or nobles with unclear minds." Also, continue to send people to reach them when possible – privately. Not all of us are strong-willed warriors, and when the deal is done in private, there will always be people who are willing to fall to us. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

(Happy birthday to Operations Officer Xin Qianqian!) ）