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The middle-aged gentleman was stunned, and then thought about it, it is indeed not of much use, and now the Dominion only has about 10,000 self-defense forces as a standing force, which can only maintain normal law and order, even if it is expanded several times, it is far from the military strength of several surrounding powers, once there is a conflict, it is impossible to control the situation at all, sighed, lowered his head and stopped talking. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"I know you have good intentions, but since the founding of the country, our Dominion has been based on industry and commerce, and does not pay attention to the military, and its security mainly depends on the balance of power of the three countries to maintain, and the people have formed a custom of valuing industry and commerce over other customs for more than a hundred years, and it is probably not possible to achieve it overnight if they want to suddenly change their concept at the moment. In recent years, the strength of the Pasha people has faintly surpassed the other two countries, and in the early stage, they obtained a large area of economically developed areas through the conquest of Luzon, and their strength has risen a lot. Our immediate priority is to bring about a rebalancing of power among the three countries, and an alliance between Luzon and Komini to contain the Pasa is imperative and the only way out. That's why I'm going to spare no effort to promote their peace talks and alliances. The female archduke also showed a hint of weakness at this time.

"The minister understands, but the minister thinks that if we can properly strengthen our military strength, we may be able to add a little weight to our side in the future situation. The middle-aged gentleman offered his opinion.

"The increase in the strength of the army will not be effective in a short time, and since most of the people in our Free Dominions are reluctant to join the army, even if they are forcibly recruited, it will be difficult to achieve the desired goal, and if this causes unnecessary suspicion among other countries, it will be more than worth the loss. As long as we can forge a strong alliance between the Luzon and the Komini, I don't think the Pasha will ever dare to think of us. "The Grand Duchess saw this very clearly, and the Pasha people would not risk the condemnation of the world to invade the Free City until the other two countries were settled.

"I just hope that Frederick kid doesn't disappoint me, and that someone who can be an enemy of Kutuzov should not be bad. Turning around, waving her hand to signal that the middle-aged gentleman could step aside, the Grand Duchess muttered to herself.

The sumptuous carriage drove smoothly out of the pasture into the dark night, seemingly satisfied with the success of the negotiations, and the young man ignored the uneasy demeanor of the secretary of state beside him, and leaned comfortably against the cushion behind his back while admiring the night through the window.

The state secretary beside him was sitting on pins and needles, squinting at the young man next to him from time to time, and swallowed back what he wanted to say. Finally, his actions affected the relaxed young man, who withdrew his gaze from the window, and the young man shook his head and said with a smile: "Lord Tomina, why are you so unbreathed because you are still the state secretary next to the prime minister? Didn't I already tell you? I will explain to the prime minister, and I will bear all the responsibility, what? Can't you still trust me?"

"Major General, you misunderstood, it's not that I can't trust you, it's really that I think we have made too many concessions in this negotiation. It is unreasonable for us to be asked to pay such a large ransom for only a few thousand captives, and our finances are not very rich, and it is immoral to expel His Highness Burley from the country! It is unreasonable for His Highness Burley to defect to us when he came to us, and we have accommodated him as a refugee, and now we want to expel him! If the people were to know about it, it would seriously damage the reputation of the principality, and I am very worried about the opinion of the Prime Minister on this matter. And how useful can it be to sign a covenant and not announce it to the public, but only to have Archduke Catherine testify?"

Sighing softly, the young man was a little disappointed in his father's assistant, and he didn't know how he got into this position?

"Secretary, the prisoners, I want to tell you, they are all fighting for the survival of the country, they are all valiant soldiers, they must be redeemed, as for the amount of money, I think it is okay to have more, now we have to ask the Komini people to have more, and the ones that give more should be spent on us to buy peace. As for the question of Burley, I did not approve of it in the first place, it is just a private matter in the country, and at the moment we can't even take care of ourselves, where do we have the energy to take care of anything else? Now that his brother has become the Grand Duke, we have done our best to give him to his brother, and the reputation problem you mentioned, I am thinking, if even the survival of the country is a problem, I am afraid that the reputation problem will only be put aside. There was a hint of ridicule in the young man's words, his own survival was not guaranteed, and he was still there to talk about benevolence, righteousness, morality, and the image of the country, which was simply ridiculous!

"The matter of the covenant is a formality, and it is useless to declare it now except to provoke the Pashas, and the Pasha people will know about it sooner or later. The fulfillment of the covenant lies in the needs of both sides, and there is no dependence on interests, and no one will follow the implementation even if the jade seal of the country is sealed, and if there is a combination of interests, there is no half-word of paper, and you can still fight with all your might! Secretary, you don't understand this truth, right?" The young man said the last few words in a somewhat eloquent voice, and the secretary of state nodded his head again and again.

For a moment, there was silence in the carriage, save for the creaking of the wheels of the carriage across the road.

"Why is Archduke Catherine so active in bringing about a reconciliation and alliance with the Kominis?, she is very clever, for she perceives the danger brought about by the growing power of the Pashas, and once we have destroyed Luzon and Komini, Liberty City will become the new capital of the Pasas!" the young man finished a few words, said no more, leaned back, rested his head on the cushion of his chair, closed his eyes, and fell into silent contemplation.

"Everything is ready, division commander, we can send our forces out. Yue Shan carefully inspected the subordinates who had disguised themselves as the Taiping Sect's Holy Sect Army, and knew that he couldn't see any flaws, so he reported to the house.

"Well, let them go, remember to take a detour to Lu Long's side, a little farther away but not easy to expose. He also seriously told Yue Shan, who led the team, that Yue Shan would lead a wing of the "Holy Sect Army" to bypass the mountains at the southern end of Lulong Mansion and enter Longdong, attack Partridge Pass from the back, and force the garrison stationed at Partridge Pass to ask for help from Bonan, so that Shenei could lead the army to enter in a bright and bright manner. Before that, Bonan had already sent people into the Partridge Pass

Just when Yue Shan led the disguised troops to the north across the steep Liupan Mountain and detoured to Longdong, the other two troops were also advancing westward without stopping, and converged in a small town 100 miles away from Partridge Pass according to the established route, and the "Holy Sect Army" led by Yue Shan at this time had only drilled out of the Liupan Mountain area and entered the plain area after two days and one night of marching, and it was still more than 60 miles away from the road leading to the northwest.

Ignoring each other, the two forces stumbled towards a destination.

Although the commander of the sensitive Partridge Pass garrison did not have any confidence in defending the fortress, he did not slack off in the slightest in reconnoitring the situation, and when the Taiping army appeared in the town of Shan, a hundred miles away from the garrison, he immediately sensed the menacing attack of the other party.

After a brief consideration and discussion, several officers quickly reached an agreement, that is, immediately to the northwest garrison in the west for help, and quickly sent fast horses straight to Yangmakou, sixty miles away, in their minds there are not many garrisons in Yangmakou, but as long as the other party comes, the responsibility for losing the fortress can be borne by the other party, after all, the entire territory of Longdong Mansion has been lost for many days, and they can "hold on" It is commendable that the Partridge Pass fortress has not fallen for so long, and if it falls as soon as the Northwest Army takes over, it is naturally the incompetence of the Northwest Army, and the superiors will certainly not blame themselves.

After receiving the letter of request for help, the 2nd Division, which had long been ready to go, immediately ordered a cavalry wing to go first, and the other three wings of light infantry also quickly followed, and the logistics troops and baggage vehicles also followed. In the face of such an "efficient" Northwest Army, the soldiers who came to ask for help also had to sigh to themselves.

When the garrison officers who were waiting for reinforcements from the northwest to come and take over in the pass learned that the number of the Holy Sect army that was rapidly advancing towards Partridge Pass was as high as 30,000, they were all stunned, such a large number of Taiping rebel troops were not expected at all, and let them wait a moment longer They also felt that the knife of the rebel army seemed to be about to be cut down, without any discussion, almost all the officers immediately gathered their men and horses and swarmed out from the west gate of the fortress, completely leaving their responsibilities behind.

The common people in the fortress also dragged their children and daughters, helped the old and the young, and joined the ranks of the refugees.

The oncoming Shenei was completely confused by this group of fleeing guys, while secretly laughing at Yue Shan's realistic performance, and on the other hand, he also pretended to say that he wanted to speed up the march of the troops and must not let the chaotic army control the Partridge Pass, he never thought that what he was about to face would be the real Taiping Sect army, and in his mind, he didn't care about the information obtained by the garrison scouts, and such a timid scout actually increased the number of camouflage troops he sent several times, how could this not make him feel ridiculous.

While ordering the cavalry wing to advance quickly and stationed at Partridge Pass, and at the same time asking the infantry wing to keep up with the progress, Shenai personally led the cavalry to gallop wildly, hoping to occupy Partridge Pass as soon as possible.

Almost at the same time, the Taiping Sect's Tanma also discovered that the target of his side was actually an unguarded empty city, and the overjoyed commander immediately ordered the cavalry team of 10,000 people to quickly enter the fortress with 5,000 people, while the rest of the troops maintained the original marching speed and rushed towards Partridge Pass according to the established plan.

The two torrents were separated by a pass, because they didn't expect that both sides would play this level at the same time, and unconsciously, they finally bumped into each other head-on.