Gastens, who was still fighting guerrillas with Ivan in the province of Enspan, did not know that there was someone waiting for him in Elena. He and the 3rd and 4th regiments of the production brigade circled Elliot's defense area twice, killing more than 2,000 people, and more than 100 of his own deaths, before handing over the 3rd regiment, which was already familiar with guerrilla warfare, to Berranch, and together with the sharp knife regiment and the 1st regiment of the production brigade in his previous hands, they formed a team of more than 3,000 people in three regiments. For the sake of convenience, Berrancier called the newly formed group a guerrilla column behind enemy lines, and sent Gastens away. His leader, the miracle worker, will return with the 4th Regiment of the Production Brigade that has been tested by the fire of war to continue to guard Elena. And he, Bellanch, had fallen in love with the feeling of being ambushed.

Gastens actually wanted to continue to play for a while, and although their previous guerrilla war had caused some losses to Eliot, it was not enough to disrupt his offensive rhythm. However, Elena is also in a tense situation, and if he wanders outside for too long, he may miss important information. Moreover, after fighting guerrilla attacks along the way, they also gathered many new peasants who could not afford to live a life of serfs again, who had participated in the land reform and had divided the land, adding up to more than 3,000 people. They came for Elena, and even more so for Gastens. Aside from himself, Gastens didn't know who else could bring these people back to Elena safely.

Returning to Elena from the place where he said goodbye to Bellanchier took four days of Gastens to go. Fortunately, the Western Military District had left the province of Enspan, and Eliot was too busy with Berranchier's harassment, so Gastens did not encounter any enemies on this march. When he arrived at Elena, he handed over the newly recruited soldiers to Ivan, who had returned with him, and went straight to the factory office. He's going to ask and see if anything has happened during this time.

"You're back, great!"

Daisy looked happy when she saw Gastens returning, and William Richardson, who was standing next to her, walked up to Gastens with a smile and reached out to shake his hand.

"What, I'm not welcome here?"

"Welcome, of course welcome!" Gastens hurriedly responded, and then beckoned everyone to sit down again. Elena has no shortage of workers, no shortage of technology and no shortage of factories, the only thing she lacks is people who understand technology. He had tried to turn his prospective father-in-law over countless times, but he never succeeded. Unexpectedly, it didn't take long for him to come by himself.

"I just didn't expect Master Richardson to come over so soon, I thought I'd have to wait a little longer", Gastens took the kettle himself and began to pour the tea, Daisy stood beside him, looking at her father.

"Honey, don't you know, my dad almost died."

"Oh?" Garstens raised his eyebrows, but was not surprised. If the Emperor hadn't thought of touching Daisy's father, he would have despised the Emperor's intelligence.

"It's not all you're responsible," William smiled, as if the time he had been on the run was insignificant, "Now that I'm here, don't hide it from me, Gastens, kid." I've been to the factory for the past few days, and the wooden head of Gurakos says that I can't even enter the door of the research institute without your order! Isn't that ridiculous, you say? Who am I, and I still covet the technology of your research institute? ”

"Huh? If you don't covet it, then how about I raise you in Elena and let you work every day with the other workers? Gastens knew that his father-in-law-to-be was duplicitous and deliberately teased him.

"Don't don't", William hurriedly stretched out his hand, "Aren't I in a hurry", he shook his head and continued, "I'm here, don't hide it." You have a good place for everything, but there are no professionals. You're alone during this time, you're busy enough, aren't you? ”

"Well, I'm much more relaxed when you're here," Gastens smiled, placing the poured tea in front of William, "we're really strapped for manpower right now." I designed a new line for iron bullets, but it just didn't work. The people below can read the blueprints, but the things that are made are always uninteresting. During this time, I was busy fighting guerrillas, and I didn't bother with it. Since Lord Richardson is here, why don't you start here? ”

"Iron bullets, will they be too heavy? How do you deal with stress and motivation issues? Is the steam system a good match? ”

As soon as William heard that there was something to do, he opened his mouth and began to throw questions. Gastens turned his head and smiled at Daisy, opening his mouth to say silently.

"Look at your father."

Daisy smiled too, she squeezed Gastens on the shoulder, and sat down next to him, "You better talk about it, with my dad here, your factory will have a technical backbone." If you want me to say, although you have a lot of ideas and design things, but how to manage the factory well, my dad is more professional than you. ”

"That's that, that's nature."

Gastens nodded hurriedly, then took out the blueprints and began to communicate with William. The arrival of this great expert really helped him a lot. With William's help, he was able to leave most of the routine and productive work of the factory behind and devote more energy to Elena's revolutionary cause and the design of more advanced weaponry. So, although it was a little funny at first, as soon as he started explaining, Gastens immediately went into serious mode.

After all, for Elena now, every ounce of strength is precious.

————————————

After talking to William, Gastens led him to the factory laboratory, where he gave a more detailed introduction to the current progress and problems on the unfinished production line on the site before returning to his office in the factory. There, Daisy had prepared a simple lunch as a reward for welcoming him back. And after lunch, and before he even had time to rest, Gastens met Miguel Martinez, who had come to visit him and surprised himself, in the reception room.

"When we first met, Lord Gastens was even younger than I thought, and he was really handsome and intelligent!"

Miguel was dressed in a full suit, with fine beads of sweat on his forehead. In the middle of summer without air conditioning, his outfit can make people who are not healthy feel hot and dizzy. Gastens turned up the steam fan in the room, poured a cup of Lunding for the spokesman of the mage tower capitalist, made himself a cup of tea, and sat down across from Martinez. During the entire process, Martinez stood up straight, surveying the furnishings in the room. And when Gastens completed the whole process of receiving guests, he put down his hat, took off his coat, and sat down in front of Gastens.

"I was indeed a little surprised by Mr. Martinez's arrival, I wonder what is the reason for your visit this time?"

Gastens has always disliked nonsense, especially in the face of enemies who are very different from his own class position. Miguel Martinez represents the class he is destined to exterminate, and some of the people at the top of that class. He was able to give this spokesperson a smile and a glass of lunding, which was already for the sake of him taking the initiative to visit him regardless of the danger.

Perhaps it was Luna who had heard about Gastens style, or perhaps it had been prepared, Martinez put back a polite smile on his face and opened his mouth to be a bombshell.

"At most two weeks, the Western Military District will be history. The forces of the Negru Republic will be directed at Ankenrein. We are no longer the most powerful force in this country, but we are still the richest power in this country. We hope to work with you to change the country after the loss of Paul Chung. ”

Hearing Martinez's words, Gastens raised an eyebrow. The certainty in the other party's tone convinced him that Martinez should have known something he didn't know. He tapped his fingers lightly on the tabletop, making a rhythmic "tuk-tuk-to-tuk-" sound. After a while, he asked a question.

"Why did Paul Chung have to lose?"

"An apprentice without ambition can't become a magister", Martinez quoted a proverb, "but ordinary people can't become a magister no matter how ambitious they are, can they?" ”

"You gave up on Paul Chung? I think he's done a good job, being able to achieve semi-independence under the nose of His Majesty the Emperor, and still maintaining a basic relationship with Roswell, and the twists and turns in this are not something that any general can figure out. ”

"Like you said, Paul Chung is a general, a very good general. But he always felt that he was not just a general, and if he asked too much, we would be helpless. ”

"Is it because the Lorraine-Rennes line has been breached recently?" After saying a few obscure words, Gastens and Martinez chose to get straight to the point, "You think he can't keep Rylin, let alone your career, so he came to me?" Don't you know what I do? ”

"For the Mage Tower, there are no enemies in this world, only friends."

The words quoted by Miguel Martinez are from the two Grand Magisters before Luke Brewster, Gabriel Bennett. At that time, the Mage Tower was very active in the countries of the world, and no one could fight against the Mage Tower, and all those who fought against the Mage Tower died. Gabriel's proclamation after killing one of his opponents sounds enthusiastic at first, but behind it lies a cold murderous intent.

"In this day and age, it's not a good thing to still hold on to the glory of the Mage Tower."

Gastens frowned, and the other party didn't seem to want to explain directly. He took a sip from his teacup, pondering the information the other party had and the purpose of coming this time. Do you really want to cooperate?

"Master Gastens is communist, we know," said Miguel Martinez, "but as Master Havari said in On Capital, for the sake of three hundred percent profit, the capitalist can make a deal with the devil and even put a noose on his head." Now Paul Bell is no longer useful, and if we don't choose you, there will be no place for us in all of Ankenrein. We are all people who grew up in this land, and we don't want to leave this country. ”

"Charlie Ronin."

Gastens named another name.

"Like I told you before, we want to change the country, and Charlie Ronin just wants to be emperor himself."

Miguel Martinez accentuated the pronunciation of the word "change". Gastens suddenly understood something, and he sat up straight and looked at Martinez with some surprise.

"You ...... What exactly do you want to do? ”

"Just like you, my lord," Martinez still had the same formulaic expression with a polite smile, "don't you think it's time for the other Lord Paul to take a break?" ”

"Without Paul Chung, what are you going to do to rest him?"

It was only then that Gastens understood what the capitalists of the Mage Tower were trying to do. It seems that Paul Gibson's encroachment on the capital of the mage tower has accelerated recently, otherwise he would not have forced these people to this role.

"We don't need people", Martinez was not surprised that Gastens guessed what he thought, "we have people of our own." All we need is your weapons, your weapons that can change the face of war. ”

"Want to buy a gun?" Gastens punctured the paper. After so many twists and turns, the final goal is really his own weapon.

"Want to invest in you and your communism."

Martinez solemnly corrected, "If you agree, we will set up an office in Elena, and we will also transfer some people and assets to ......"

"The proletarian revolution does not cooperate with the capitalists."

Gastens interrupted Martinez with a serious expression.

"But we have a common enemy, don't we?" Martinez did not show any frustration at Gastens's statement, "I have already read the article "Who is Our Enemy" that you wrote in the latest issue of "Fluorite". I can tell you responsibly that at this stage, he-"

At this point, Martinez pointed in the direction of Roswell, "—is our common enemy." I believe that you, who are proficient in "On Capital", must know the relationship between the main contradiction and the secondary contradiction, right? ”

Gastens was amused by Martinez, who seemed to read a lot in front of him. Martinez saw him laugh and laughed himself. The two laughed for a while, and Gastens relaxed himself.

"Tell me, what do you know, what do you want, what price can you give me?"

"The improved steam cannon of the Neglo Republic has entered mass production, and the current production capacity is not known, but we know that more than fifty cannons are already on their way to the front, plus the previous forty on the front. Paul Chung can't keep Rylin's. ”

Steam cannons? That kind of thing is very powerful against a dense formation of queues to shoot, even if it is a solid bullet. It is also reasonable for the Mage Tower Capital Department to make this judgment.

Gastens figured out why and asked again.

"And what do you want?"

"We want your weapons, the Thunder One, a hundred, each with two hundred rounds of ammunition."

"What's the price?"

"A pyroxene vein, top-of-the-line, just around the corner."

Hearing Martinez's offer, Gastens suddenly wanted to laugh. Not long ago, Skye Hamm's chief of staff, Manny Casdil, used the same thing to tempt him. It seems that these people know about the lack of pyroxene on their side.

"Okay, let's talk."

Although he guessed the chips on the opposite side, Gastens was still interested. If he guessed correctly, what these capitalists want to do can greatly reduce Elena's pressure, and even bring him a new turnaround, it is not necessarily.

The steam fan hummed, blowing a hot wind through the two of them. The wind swirled around the room, and then fell silent.

No more sound.