The morning light is faint.

At this time, the city of black gold slowly opened its gates.

Boom –

With the opening of the gates of the Black Gold City, it indicates that this protracted war has ended, and the Holy Dynasty has recovered the last piece of territory of the country, of course, this so-called "recovery" is not legal, because the Black Gold City is already technically the city of the Empire.

If it is placed in peacetime.

The matter would then be brought to the International Conference, when the Kingdom, the Empire, and some of the nations to the west would be able to openly invade the territory of the Holy Dynasty under this banner and enforce the "just" ruling.

But this is no longer the case.

Now that the countries are too busy to take care of themselves, especially the United Kingdom, they wish that the Holy Dynasty could rub the sharp energy of the empire and buy time for them to recover, so it is naturally impossible to use such a reason to trouble the dynasty at this time.

Of course.

It cannot be ruled out that after the mainland enters a period of peace again, other countries will make a fuss about this matter. But as long as your fists are hard enough, if you don't launch a war of aggression against them, they will be thankful that they dare to take the initiative to provoke you?

The so-called rules of the game have always been defended by force.

The game between the great powers does not talk about rules and laws at all, and they tend to prefer the most primitive way of solving the problem.

Vega clearly understands this.

He is not upset about tearing up the contract to take the Black Gold City, but is ready to use the chips in his hand to negotiate terms with the Empire, and if he is lucky, he may be able to become the fisherman of this war.

So what chips does Vega have in his hands?

Although this time the war Vega lost about 30,000 soldiers in a legion.

But here I have to mention that the final result of this battle was 50,000 enemies destroyed and 70,000 captured.

Under Vega's front and rear attacks, there were basically no enemies who fled, and most of them were captured by Vega, including Escal, the commander-in-chief, and several of his division commanders.

These are all chips.

Leaving aside the 70,000 captives, Eskar alone is enough to "sell" for a good price.

As for this 'good price', Vega has already thought about it-

War airships!

Although Vega already has drawings for this strategic-level weapon, the drawings are two different things, and it will take a long transition time to understand the technology, and it is estimated that it is unrealistic to expect the kingdom to fulfill its promises at this stage.

Therefore, Vega resisted the temptation to kill 70,000 captives to improve his strength, just so that he could exchange 70,000 captives and generals like Eskar for a good price, so that the dynasty could survive the gap without an air force.

And killing captives is a matter of disrepute after all.

It is certainly cool to kill 70,000 people to improve your strength, but the next time you encounter an enemy of equal strength, as soon as this matter is spread by the commander of the enemy army, then the soldiers below will fight to the death and not surrender, and in the long run, Vega will definitely lose more than you lose.

Therefore, in the long run, the captives can only be used as bargaining chips.

As a big country, of course, it is impossible for the empire to refuse this negotiation, and if the empire refuses to negotiate, it is estimated that the whole country will be in turmoil as soon as people with intentions publicize it in the empire.

And that's exactly what Vega expected.

On the seventh day after the end of the war, the Empire sent an emissary to attempt to deliver an application for negotiations to Thea.

At that time, Cheris stopped this in time, and she asked Vega to keep the emissaries out of the door, not allowing them to submit their applications to Thea, of course, for the reason of taking the initiative in the negotiations.

Gilis told Vega that it would not be too late to accept the Empire's request for negotiations in ten days.

Because these 10 days are enough time for the envoys of the empire to be restless, slowly increase the bargaining chips in their hearts, and when the day of the actual negotiation comes, it will be easy to figure out how much the empire can pay at most in this negotiation.

Vega handed over the negotiation to Chillis.

Because after all, she is a businessman, and a businessman is obviously very good at negotiating.

Time flies, on the eve of negotiations.

Vega began to do superficial work in the prisoner camp to show that he had not mistreated the prisoners, although no one believed this kind of thing, but the face project still had to be done, so as to extort an extra amount of money for resettlement and food.

At the same time, Vega came to the High Prison to meet with Eskar.

Squeak –

The gloomy cell door was opened.

This so-called high-level prison does not mean that the interior of the rooms, food, and other conditions are better, but that the methods of torturing people have been upgraded from the primary level to the advanced level, making people more desperate for survival and death.

As soon as he entered the room, Vega saw the haggard Eskar.

At this time, he had been tortured into a human form, although there were no marks on his face, but his body was covered with centipede-like scars, which looked really shocking.

This is not a TV series.

Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for high-ranking generals to receive any preferential treatment when they are captured, and they will be punished by the enemy's increased punishment, after all, the more senior generals have, the more secrets they have in their hands, so there is no reason not to torture them.

"Shogun, it's been a good time. ”

Vega ignored Eskar's injuries and only greeted him with a smile as he untied his men and invited him to sit in a chair.

"Ahem, ahem—"

The pale-faced Eskar coughed, and instead of answering Vega's question, he picked up the wine on the table and poured it into his mouth a few times, until he was choked and couldn't drink it.

There was silence for a few more minutes.

Escal, who had recovered a little, asked, "The Empire has finally sent someone to negotiate with you?" It's a little more than I expected, and you can finally go home......

"Your Excellency the General is so confident that I will let you go?"

Vega smiled, as if ready to scare Eskar.

However, Eskar obviously didn't care: "You and I were both generals of the Empire, and I think we have both experienced the unforgettable 'secret training' of a lifetime, so do you think these punishments can make me tell me the information of the Empire? ”

"Your Excellency is wise. ”

Of course, Vega didn't have the luxury of trying to get anything out of Eskar, he just came here to say goodbye to Eskar, no matter how they worked, this time he was afraid that he would never have the chance to see him again in the future.

After all, Escal had personally cut off the good fighting in the West Bank.

Therefore, the most likely possibility is that the Empire will allow Eskar to retire early, and in severe cases, even deprive him of honor and rank.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem......"

For the first time, Eskar showed a decadent expression: "Even if I am redeemed, it is not difficult for the nobles to guess what my ending will be, for the sake of working together, can you answer me two simple questions?"

"But it doesn't hurt to say that. ”

Vega was not prepared to embarrass a general who was about to retire from the stage of war, and at this time it seemed quite generous.