Christy sent Rolov home, and it was dark in the villa, and the old lady and her two maids were happy somewhere, presumably the same as before, and they still came back very late.

After entering the house, Rolov threw his shirt on the chair, sat down on the sofa again, sobered up a little, and then got up and went to the kitchen to drink a glass of cold water.

There was an inconspicuous door at the bottom of the stairs, and after Rolov had drunk water, he opened the door, and behind it was a room, but there was no bed, not a bedroom, and although there was a bookcase, it was not a study.

This place can be called, the exhibition room.

The room was the size of a living room, with six bookcases standing on three walls, each with four rows of bookshelves, filled with books. There is also a wall against a sofa, and in the middle is a half-height exhibition window, in which a medallion with a diameter of 15 centimeters is placed.

The medallion is made of pure gold, and in the upper center, it is the logo of the Snake Shadow Group, a black snake, bent into an S shape. Next to the logo are some delicate patterns, in the middle of the pattern, you can see the two numbers "16".

This is something that can only be held by the leader of the snake shadow, and it is called "snake eyes", which symbolizes the power of the leader. It will be held by the successive bosses, the same size, but the pattern is different. This piece belongs to Harry.

Rolov leaned on the sofa, tilted his head slightly, and on the top of the bookcase in front of him, from left to right, there were a total of sixteen people's upper body photos, thirteen men and three women. On the far right is Harry, who was taken shortly after he took office, and is now the only photo of his son that Rolov can find.

From right to left, the photographs are dated to a distant age, and Rolov slowly scans the photographs, underneath each photograph the names of the owners, as well as their nicknames.

The sixteenth Chief, Harry Caton of the Clear Sky.

The fifteenth generation leader, "Arrogant Gun Heart" Potok Sivin.

The fourteenth generation leader, "Generation Pride" Simon Carton.

The thirteenth generation leader, the "Uncrowned Empress" Sylvia Latos.

The twelfth generation leader, "Attack on the Martial Emperor" Philip Caton.

Eleventh generation leader, Skoyol "Evil Heart Mask" Caton.

The tenth generation leader, "Heavenly Jealous Talent" Fengyin Tetsuya.

The ninth generation leader, "The Silent Ghost" Drake Caton.

The eighth generation leader, "chaotic heart" Fengyin Shenghua.

The seventh generation leader, "Cold-eyed Snake Scorpion" Hines Van Dom.

The sixth generation of the leader, "Love Without Borders" Morse Warsaw.

The fifth-generation leader, the "Iron Fisted Woman" Mandeka Caton.

The fourth generation leader, "Single-minded" Griffel Hoon.

The third generation of the leader, Orutu "Visionary" Carton.

The second generation of the leader, Brian Caton, the "Shadow Successor".

On the far left is an elderly man who was in his sixties at the time of the photo, but his hair was not gray, and he had few wrinkles, and he looked to be in his mid-50s. His eyebrows and beard were thick, but they still couldn't cover those eyes.

Without any prejudice, discrimination or affection, it is simply used for the eyes of objective observation.

Every time I look at these eyes, even a veteran officialdom like Rolov will have a chill from the bottom of his heart, as if the old man in the photo is not ancient, but is sternly examining his descendants.

Ibs Caton, the old man's name, a name that can be found among the founding fathers of the Arctic Nation, founded Serpent Shadow, and was enshrined as the first leader by the second leader, the eldest son, Brian.

Nicknamed "Covering the Sun".

*****

Before the outbreak of the War of the Century, the predecessor of the Arctic Kingdom, the last kingdom of the Tuyatesra Seven Empires, the Quillon Dynasty, was still an old imperialist country. It has certain colonies in both the Anzhou Continent and the Maizhou Continent, and its national strength was once very strong.

Since the beginning of the first 40 years of the new era, the industrial revolution has swept the world, mechanization and EXP technology have become the darlings of the times, and new powers have also risen. They were very unhappy with the carved-up world, especially Astoria, which was the first to complete the industrial revolution and had the largest steel production in the world, followed by a great military reinforcement.

The Seventh Empire, on the other hand, did not pay enough attention to technological and military reforms, and its control over the colonies became weaker and weaker. By 35 BCE, the Seventh Empire had lost more than half of its colonies, some of which became independent and some of which were taken away by other powers.

Even within the Seventh Reich, discontent was brewing. From the common people to the ministers, from the market to the royal palace, they all complained about the outdated system and the backward military, but the king remained indifferent.

At that time, Ibs was only a small officer in the army, but he had a heart that worried about the country and the people. He clearly saw that the world is an arsenal now, and the Seventh Reich is the barrel in the arsenal, and in today's increasingly fierce competition among the great powers, war will break out sooner or later, and what echoes it must be a vigorous revolution at home.

If it is not to be consumed by the flames of war, the empire must seize the time and reform the army and system, and it is not too late.

Although Ibs was young, he was very studious, he graduated with honors from the best military school in the country, the Culiato, and he was a good student of all kinds of military and political works, and he had a unique opinion on many things.

Thirty-five years before the new era, Ibs, who was only 24 years old, wrote his famous essay "Twenty Years of Crisis". In the article, he predicts that the current world pattern will be broken within 20 years, and the country must have a sense of danger, not get by, and follow the example of the emerging powers, such as Astoria, to carry out thorough political reforms, promote mechanized production, and so on.

On the military front, he stressed the need for the armed forces to be cohesive and combative, and made an unprecedented proposal to train a contingent that specializes in high-risk tasks. This team must have excellent combat effectiveness, firm execution, be able to endure all kinds of harsh environments, and will not betray.

This is the "special operation" often used in modern warfare. Later scholars generally believed that Ibs's thesis was the prototype of the theory of special operations, and this idea was very advanced.

Ahead of its time, no one can understand it.

Due to the perception of the people at the time, and Ibs's inconspicuous status, this paper was so lost that Ibs was even warned by his superiors not to "talk nonsense", because his article clearly meant to reform the imperial system.

"One more time, for whatever reason, directly dismissed!"

His boss told Ibs this, and without waiting for him to do anything, Ibs left the army of his own accord, which was 34 BC.

Ibs went to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, where large swathes of the country had been colonized, and people fought hard to regain their homeland, and faced provocations from Astoria, a powerful new enemy. Ibs was intrigued by a country that had been struggling to survive under pressure, and came here to learn more.

He went to the Huangdao Military Academy to apply for a teacher, and at the same time continued to learn and absorb like a sponge. From military theory to tactical thinking, he did not refuse to come. even went to Murong Town to visit Mr. Fenglin at that time to learn fighting skills.

The days of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were the most important period in Ibs's life, which lasted until August 19, 15 BC, when the War of the Century broke out.

Without declaring war, Astoria suddenly attacked the fishing islands of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, slaughtered the soldiers and civilians on the islands, and quickly occupied them. In the days that followed, Astoria's allies followed suit and launched a blitzkrieg against their chosen countries.

The war of the century, in full swing. At this time, exactly twenty years had passed since Ibs wrote his thesis.

Not long after the war began, Astoria took all of the Seventh Empire's remaining colonies on the continent of Maizhou. On March 7 of the following year, Astoria's fleet appeared in the eastern seas of the Seventh Empire and marched simultaneously towards the cities of Debia and Akiyama.

Faced with the well-armed and well-trained Astorian army, the city of Derbia resisted for only 7 hours before it was captured, and the city of Akiyama fell the next day. Like the rising tide of the sea, the Afghan army flooded the two cities and continued to march inland.

Because of the war, Ibs did not return to the empire until April 14 BC, when most of the empire's coastal cities were captured. As Ibs expected, the people, who could no longer stand the decay of the empire, formed an army of rebels. They wanted to drive out the Astorian invaders, overthrow the Quylon dynasty, and establish a new state.

The "Twilight Rebellion" in the history of the Arctic Kingdom kicked off.

*****

The times create heroes, there is aggression outside, and there is revolution inside, and such a chaotic situation of internal and external troubles is the moment when Ibs shows his talents.

Shortly after returning home, Ibbs joined a small revolutionary army. This force of less than 200 men, coming from somewhere on the western frontier, was advancing towards the capital city of Neor, harassing the Imperial and Afghan armies along the road in guerrilla warfare, and joining other large revolutionary armies if possible.

Ibbs persuaded the leader to take over, and then trained the team rigorously according to his special theory. There is nothing to do, harassing and sneaking attacks on the Afghan army's troops, destroying the Afghan army's facilities and strongholds, and making the Afghan army very annoying.

Two years later, 12 years before the new era, the team had gone through countless battles, and there were about 100 people left, but all of them were excellent agents skilled in assassination, infiltration and sabotage, and soldiers with the ability to engage in head-to-head fire.

Ibbs recommended his team to the leader of the most powerful revolutionary army of the time, Hedris. With an army of about 300,000 men, Heydris rose from the northern city of Kurstra in the same year of the War of the Century to become one of the three largest revolutionary armies in the country.

At first, he did not take Ibs's small team in his eyes and took them in, but only to show his tolerance. Heydris prefers to place his henchmen in important positions in the military.

Ibbs saw all of this, but kept silent.

In June of the 11th year BCE, Hedris's forces made their way east, finally reaching the city of Vicon, a port occupied by Astoria. Weikang is a medium-sized city, less geographically important and less militarily significant than the cities of Derbia and Akiyama.

That is, the defenders here should not be too strong.

According to historical records, there were about 10,000 Afghan troops stationed in Weikang at that time. And Hedris brought with him a hundred thousand troops. If Weikang can be recovered, it will open an outlet to the sea, and the significance is not small.

However, no one expected that his army of 100,000 would have no way to take 10,000 Afghan troops.

The Afghan army had already completed the transformation of the perimeter of Weikang, with a considerable number of strong fortifications, and used tanks to cooperate with pillboxes to meet the attack, and used the depth of the city to lure the revolutionary army into the city, and then encircled and annihilated it.

The siege lasted 10 hours, and the revolutionary army suffered more than 40,000 casualties and had to retreat, while the Afghan army seemed to have lost only a few hundred men.

Only then did Haydris realize that he was too careless, and the soldiers of the Afghan army were not only tactically sophisticated, but also more advanced. They used very lethal bullets that carried a small amount of EXP, and the parts hit by such bullets were eroded by the EXP, accelerating their ulceration.

At that time, the empire had not yet widely used EXP weapons in the army, let alone the revolutionary army.

Reinforcements from the Afghan army are coming, and if it drags on, even if it captures Weikang, there is no point. In order to avoid greater losses, Hedris held a meeting with many generals and planned to retreat.

Towards the end of the meeting, Ibs, who had not spoken, stepped up.

"Please give me a night's time, I have a way."

"What can you do?" Heydris asked.

"I'll lead a night attack tonight, please take your troops to stand by outside the city, and when we succeed, you will attack the city."

Heydris squinted, as if he was looking at a freak.

"How many people are you going to bring? There are too many I don't agree with. ”

"Not much, as long as my 100 subordinates."

There was a lot of discussion in the conference room, and Hedris's squinted eyes widened, and he wanted to rebuke Ibs, but after thinking about it, he gave up. Success or failure, anyway, only about a hundred people will be lost. What's more, if he is not his own confidant, he should be used as an outcast.

He agreed to Ibs' plan, and that night, Ibs set off with his assault team.

As a result, again it surprised everyone.

Before the siege, Ibus collected a large number of maps and materials about Vicon, and during the siege, he personally followed the team and checked these materials in the rear, and finally had a surprise.

Outside the city of Weikang, there is an exit to the sewer, which happens to be outside the area occupied by the Afghan army. The Imperial sewers are still spacious enough to accommodate two people walking side by side.

So, the assault team invaded through the sewers, and as Ibs thought, it was ignored by the Argentine army. Because this sewer has been abandoned since 17 BC, it has not appeared on the map. And it was not completely sealed, thanks to the low efficiency of the imperial officials.

Along the way, the assault team cleared the dirt and rocks used to seal the sewers, followed Ibs' self-made map, and stopped at a blocked exit.

And on this, it happens to be the EXP arsenal of the Afghan army.

Boom –

As soon as the assault team that blew up the exit rushed into the weapons depot, they picked up their guns and fired indiscriminately. The Afghan troops guarding the arsenal were caught off guard, and many died before they knew what was happening.

The commandos quickly eliminated the enemies in the arsenal and cut off the power supply to the arsenal, leaving the arsenal in total darkness. But Ibbs was not worried, his men were accustomed to fighting at night, relying on the terrain and using the guns in their arsenals to fight back against the enemy who rushed at the sound of the noise.

The Afghan soldiers also assembled quickly, but for fear of damaging the arms inside, they appeared timid and did not dare to fire violently. And the commando team is very polite, anyway, it is also the enemy's equipment, and the bullets are shooting wildly as if they don't need money.

Thousands of Afghan soldiers were dragged by these 100 people. Sensing that the time was ripe, Ibs fired a flare, and the brilliant light exploded in the night sky.

Outside the city, Heydris couldn't believe that Ibus had succeeded, and immediately led his troops to attack the city for the second time. Under the combination of the inside and the outside, the Afghan army was in chaos. In less than 3 hours, the revolutionary army recaptured the city of Weikang.

This battle made Ibs famous, and Heidris's was also impressed by him, and on the day of the liberation of Weikang, he held a feast to celebrate Ibs' achievements.

But Ibbs had already made a calculation in his mind.

Hedris congratulated on the surface, but in fact, he was also jealous of him in his heart. Having spent a year with Heydris, he knew that this man was bent on reaching the pinnacle of power, the king's throne. Sooner or later, it will become a stumbling block.

As a result, while Ibs continued to work for Hedris, he secretly won the hearts of the people and expanded his power.

In February 10 BC, Heydris personally led a team to attack an important stronghold of the Afghan army, the 70,000-strong garrison of the fortress of Griforta, which is the transit point of the Afghan army, located in the heart of the empire, and its value is self-evident. The fortress stands on the plain, like a majestic castle, and when you look at it from afar, you know that it is unbreakable.

If the fortress can be captured, it will not only be a heavy blow to the Afghan army, but also establish enough prestige in the whole country. That's why Hedris stormed the fortress of Griforta. Once successful, on the day of the victory of the revolution and the formation of a new government, he will have an extra heavyweight chip to compete for the position.

Hedris mobilized his troops and gathered 200,000 elite troops, but there was no Ibs team.

Ibs knew in his heart that his power was growing day by day, and he had reached the point where he could keep pace with Hedris, and it was impossible for Heidris to tolerate someone threatening his position, so he made such a move, wanting to take credit and establish prestige.

So Ibs pushed the boat down, saying that he was ill, and secretly wrote down the time and composition of Hedris's attack and the composition of his troops into a note, and threw it outside the fortress of Griforta.

He deliberately did not write about Hedris's attack plan, so that the Argentine army would be on guard, but not perfectly prepared.

As Ibs had predicted, the Argentine and revolutionary armies were defeated, and the fortress was badly damaged, but it was not captured, and Heydris fled in disarray.

Ibs felt that the time was ripe, so he struck first. He rallied his team and gave a speech, declaring the need for a metamorphosis of the revolutionary army. also used the battle of the fortress to amplify the incompetence and arrogance of Hadris. At this time, not only Ibs's subordinates, but also those soldiers who returned alive from the fortress, many people also identified with Ibs.

The night after the siege of the fortress, Ibbs led a raid on Hedris's quarters, killing him in his bed. Once again, the assault team became the protagonist, and with only 50 men, they crushed Hedris's personal guard of more than 2,000 men.

Heydrys' army was taken over by Ibs. Three months later, Ibbs persuaded two more revolutionary armies to cooperate with him. Although nominally a council of three parties would form a military council to manage the team, Ibbs was backed by his elusive commando team, so he often had the upper hand in deliberations.

It can be said that the actual leader of the forces of the revolutionary army is Ibs.

Since then, the land of the empire has become a three-way melee between the revolutionary army, the imperial army and the Afghan army. Three years before the new era, the revolutionary army captured the capital of New, and the rule of the Quelen dynasty came to an end.

A new nation will be born from the ashes of war. It was hoped that the new government would be able to drive out the invaders as soon as possible and restore the entire country.

The best candidate to lead the new government is naturally the most vocal leader of the revolutionary army, Ibs.

But, once again, Ibs made a surprising move.

On May 4, 3 BC, the main figures of the revolutionary army held a meeting to discuss the establishment of a new government. At the meeting, Ibs mentioned only two things, first, that the new state should be a constitutional monarchy, and second, that he surrendered all political rights, but would continue to lead the army and win the war.

The reason why he chose a constitutional monarchy was that Ibs also had his own considerations.

The war against Astoria is not over, and the new government must quickly reassure and stabilize the situation. Although the empire has fallen, there are still many nobles of the former dynasty who insist on being crowned a new king.

These were all powerful local lords who had also contributed to the revolution, and among them, the lords of the five cities of Arrandel, Scandia, Koganny, Akiyama and Debia still had a force to be reckoned with. The future war still needs their strength, and Ibs cannot ignore their opinions.

As a direct result of the constitutional monarchy, these five local lords also maintained certain privileges after the war, and to this day, the lords have disappeared, leaving behind five stronghold cities.

Another voice that Ibs had to pay attention to came from within the Revolutionary Army.

When the revolution was going well, Ibs was already keenly aware that some people in the revolutionary army were thirsting for power day by day, and the internal frictions that occurred from this were one after another.

The revolutionary seedlings of those years have grown into towering trees, which are not afraid of storms and rains, but it is difficult for it to take care of the insects that eat away at the branches and leaves.

Perhaps, the real opponent to fight against is not the empire, nor Astoria, but some people around him. After the overthrow of the empire, a new government awaits perhaps a civil war. Ibs gradually came to think of this.

So, he voluntarily gave up his political rights and let others form a new government, but the army could not let go. This will not only stabilize the voices of some critics within the revolutionary army, but also allow him to continue to maintain a safe position.

The meeting lasted a week, and after a week, both of Ibs's proposals became reality. The revolutionary army formed a new government, propped up a new king with no real power, and established a parliament.

The Arctic Continent was born.

At the same time, there was also the snake shadow, which was the new name given by Ibs to his commando team, which had expanded to 800 people, from an idiom of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: cup bow snake shadow.

The snake shadow in the wine glass is not an entity, it is just an illusion, but it is also an illusion that can bring a real threat to people. Fiction and reality, truth and falsehood are difficult to distinguish, this is the definition of Ibs for the snake shadow.

Over the next three years, under the leadership of the new government, the Arctic army gradually drove Astoria out of the country, and by January of the new era, the entire territory of the Arctic Kingdom was liberated, and the whole country rejoiced.

Amid the cries of the celebratory victory, Ibus remained silent, took the serpent shadow, left the army, and came to settle in Arandel.

After the external enemy disappears, the internal trouble will become more and more obvious. So he retired as soon as possible, surrendering all power so that he would not be drawn into the coming strife.

Before leaving, he held a secret meeting with the prime minister of the new government, promising him that he would be willing to help him at any time in his personal capacity in the event of internal turmoil within the new government.

In turn, the new government wants to ensure the status and security of the Serpent Shadow in Arandel. To put it simply, the snake shadow can become the bodyguard of the new government, and the new government will provide shelter for the snake shadow.

Serpent Shadow's abilities had been proven in countless battles, and the Prime Minister quickly agreed to Ibbs's suggestion and wrote it into a memo.

Since then, the snake shadow and the government have been connected by a black thread.

And then gradually, towards prosperity.