Patriarch Friedus came faster than Victor expected, and the Knights of the Iron Wall of the Kingdom of Dordor had just arrived in the afternoon, and when the sun set, the Patriarch rode a horned wolf and led a dozen clergy guards to appear on the periphery of the Fahran outpost camp. Victor didn't even have time to discuss the details of the cooperation with the two Golden Knights of Dodor.

If someone can save you and your men's lives, you'd better treat them with respect and try to get close to them. Priests are the ones who can save the High Knights.

Four highnesses and a dozen silver knights all arrived at the gate of the camp to greet one of the three patriarchs of the College of Cardinals, the legendary priest Friedus.

Victor and Friedes met for the first time, but they were both familiar with each other.

He is the eldest of the three patriarchs, 94 years old, his father is a paladin of the Testil family, and his mother is a high-ranking priestess of the Krudal family. Like his mother, Friedus served the Lord of Light from an early age, renunciating his Paladin family name to become a devout shepherd. A veteran knight and legendary priest who lived to be at least 120 years old, Friedes spent most of his time in the Grand Diocese of Sassan, and even when he became patriarch, he rarely returned to the Cardinals. He was well acquainted with the situation of the Sassan Empire, and for 46 years he was in charge of the teaching affairs of the Grand Diocese of Sassan, and was known for his impartiality and impersonalness, and treated the eastern, central, and western parts of the Sassan Empire equally.

You must know that in recent hundreds of years, it has almost been the norm for the church's relief materials to be tilted towards the Sassang Empire, especially the eastern royal political group controlled by the paladin family. With the support of the Church, the Knights of Radiance and Frederick not only built a complete defense line in the east, but also developed 100,000 elite cavalry, and the combined cavalry of the central and western lords of Sassan was less than half of theirs.

Friedes changed this situation, and during his tenure as patriarch, the Barcelius family in western Sassan successfully expanded to 9,000 elite cavalry, complete with chain mail, inner leather armor, helmets, combat boots, spears, shields, scimitars, throwing spears, and bows and crossbows, no different from Frederick's royal janissary cavalry.

Everyone said that Duke Usein Barcelius had caught up with a good era.

Friedus' impartial and serious approach bridged the political divisions within the Sassonian Empire, and Patriarch Frederick was finally able to put aside their differences and join forces against the Centaur Great Khan. His prestige among the lords of the Sarsan Empire overshadowed that of Emperor Frederick and the Duke of Barcelius, and the documents issued by the Sarssanian royal family were a dead letter in the western part of the empire, to which Duke Barcelius would respond to the handwritten letters of Friedes.

Needless to say, Patriarch Friedus was the most influential figure in power in the Sassanian Empire.

Victor collected information and rumors from many aspects, and analyzed that Patriarch Friedes was a principled man, a strong desire to control, a serious and old-fashioned person, and a resolute worker, and that his eldest son and eldest daughter died on the battlefield, and he did not use the power in his hands to seek survival for them.

Victor is well prepared for such a character, including how to deal with his criticism. However, the reality of Patriarch Friedes subverted his impression.

After the two sides met, the silver-haired, tall old patriarch took the initiative to pat Victor's shoulder armor to show affection, and said with a loud smile: "Your Highness Randall, Your Royal Highness Princess August, you arrived in the Sassan Empire 8 days earlier than I expected. On behalf of the suffering faithful, I would like to express my gratitude to the Kingdom of Cambes' vanguard reinforcements. May the light of our Lord shine forever on the two Highnesses. ”

There's something wrong with this style of painting...... Victor muttered in his heart, and said at the same time with Roland and the two highnesses of Dodor, "Praise the supreme Lord of Light." ”

Roland explained very casually, "We are lost on the prairie, or we can be a little faster." ”

The two Golden Knights of the Knights of the Iron Wall, Dietrich and Doonkrew, were suddenly a little embarrassed. It was agreed that they would unite to pressure Friedes to open the route for the exiles to move south, so as to preserve the tenant system and the Dodor Kingdom's frontier in the Wraith Forest. To deal with a tough-hearted negotiation opponent like Friedes, you can only adopt a tougher negotiation strategy, simply put, you don't explain the changes in the vanguard reinforcements, anyway, with His Royal Highness Randall in the lead, the two of them are not as big as the sun elves, as long as they follow behind and show a resolute attitude.

Roland said "lost" lightly, explaining why the vanguard reinforcements of Cambis did not appear in the intended location, Copper Halberd City. Shouldn't Dietrich and Doonkru also explain why the Knights of the Iron Wall suddenly moved south to Lord Fakhran?

How do you explain this? Do you want to be so deceitful?

Fortunately, Patriarch Friedes didn't ask, just nodded, his eyes swept over the sides of the camp gate, and he frowned and asked, "You found an ogre wandering tribe nearby?"

There were six spears with ogre's heads, heads of all sizes, the same ugly and stupid, some giggling, some angry, some confused, and some dazed, looking horrible and eerie in the light of the torches.

Victor's expression became solemn, he nodded, and said, "Your Excellency Friedes, please come with me." ”

He led the group to an open field at the back of the camp, about 200 square meters of newly turned soil, which at first glance knew was a joint burial pit.

No one spoke, and the pine torches crackled and burned, and the light and shadow swayed, adding to the solemn and heavy atmosphere. With a grim expression, Friedes walked around the edge of the burial pit and asked in a deep voice, "Have the two Highnesses seen it?"

Victor and Roland nodded in silence.

Three days ago, the ferocious warrior Red Wolf led a pair of scouts to track the traces left by the goblins transporting food, and found the ogre's lair in the Fagon Forest north of Lord Fakhran.

Ogres have tendons that are tough enough to serve as crossbowstrings for military heavy ballistas, especially since their large spines can be used to make bowstrings for large ballistas. No matter how superb the processing process of this biomass material is, there is a limited service life, and the more fresh tendons the better. What's more, the Gambis vanguard reinforcements are in dire need of food supplies collected by the ogres.

Victor and Roland excitedly lead 3 Grand Knights, plus 200 elites, to raid the ogre's lair in the Fagon Forest. This ogre tribe has only 2 adult male ogre brutes, 2 females, and 1 cub, and their leader is not a silver-tier berserk ogre, controlling dozens of gnolls and hundreds of goblin and kobold slaves. Victor and Roland took action personally, and there was no suspense in the whole battle, and the ogre was killed without even having a chance to escape.

Two Silver Knights lead the hunt for the fleeing Gnoll bandits, elite warriors sweep out goblins and kobolds, and the rest count the spoils. It includes hundreds of tons of green barley, dozens of tons of cured meat, hundreds of barrels of beans and dried vegetables, and air-dried meat specially made by ogres.

Ogres, like goblins, have a habit of storing food, eating their prey by removing their heads and internal organs, smearing the rest with grass juice and dirt, hanging them to dry, and saving them for a period of scarcity before eating them slowly. The ogre's lair in the Fagon Forest is home to dried cows, sheep, wild boars, even bear monsters, goblins, gnolls, and human corpses.

The tragic scene of more than 200 corpses of men, women, and children, made into dried meat by ogres, hung in the woods and dangled, had a great impact on the hearts of the soldiers of the vanguard of the Gambis.

The expressions on everyone's faces were like solidified rocks, and their eyes shone with the fire of anger and hatred. Friedus looked at the chaplain and asked, "How many people have died?"

"One hundred and fourteen people. The battle priest, dressed in chain mail and with a bloody mace hanging from his waist, said solemnly.

"Have you had a requiem ceremony?"

"Yes, sir. ”

"May their souls have peace in the kingdom of the Lord's God. ”

Friedus and his clergy guards drew the emblem on their chests and chanted in a low voice. He asked, "Were any soldiers killed or wounded?"

The battle priest replied, "One person was seriously wounded, six were lightly wounded, no one died, the wounded warriors were all treated by divine healing, the lightly wounded have recovered, and the seriously wounded need to recuperate for ten days to recover." ”

"You're doing a good job. Patriarch Friedus nodded, affirming the merits of the Battle Priest, turned to the side and said to Victor, "Let's go inside and talk." ”

"Your Excellency, please. Victor raised his hand and walked side by side with the Patriarch into the sentry camp.

The camp had been renovated, and the supplies taken from the ogre were neatly piled up in the open space, and the small space suddenly seemed crowded and cramped, and thousands of Gambis Vanguard soldiers and more than 300 elites of the Iron Wall Knights could only camp on the periphery.

Patriarch Friedus and the four highnesses sat around the campfire in the center of the camp, and the high-ranking knights of the two kingdoms left the camp very consciously to give them room for secret conversation.

The legendary priest stared at the campfire for a few seconds before speaking, "Ogres are omnivorous monsters, and in the northern wilderness, there are not many of them. Like the large orcs, ogres rarely invade human settlements, but when they do, humans are their prey. Other large orcs, medium orcs, and small orcs can hunt humans just as well. ”

Duke Dietrich of the Kingdom of Dordor said: "Ogres are rare to see in the Kingdom of Dordor in normal times, a few days ago, we exterminated a raging orc tribe gathered by ogres on the eastern border defense line of Sassan, and we also saw the same scene, about more than 200 people were made food by them. ”

He touched his shiny bald head and said with emotion: "Frankly speaking, that kind of miserable scene is the first time we have seen it in the Knights of the Iron Wall...... We don't want that to happen in any kingdom. ”

"There are records of the history of the monastery of the Church, but I myself have only recently witnessed the monsters turning humans into dried meat...... Therefore, we cannot accuse ordinary people of being cowardly and cowardly, and we can understand that every time a full-scale orc war breaks out, the lords and the clergy of the Church evacuate the unarmed people to safer areas...... Ordinary people are like tender meat dipped in honey to orc monsters, which can attract more monsters to join the war against humans. In fact, in this orc war, many orc tribes that were not centaur slaves also infiltrated the eastern defense line, plundering supplies, preying on humans, and collecting vassal slaves. ”

"Lord Fakhran is located on the south-central border of the Sassan Empire, more than 200 kilometers away from the eastern defense line, and I have never received an urgent notification from Lord Fakhran about an ogre invasion in the past few decades. But this time, I'm sure the ogres you killed weren't from the Eastern Defenses, they were supposed to be ogre wanderers coming down from the Boulder Mountains. ”

"Lord Fahran has 4,469 registered citizens, and if their army is still in the territory, these ogres will definitely not dare to invade. Friedes picked up a dry wood that was about to be extinguished, threw it into the campfire, and continued: "The Lordess has discovered the traces of the ogre invaders, and immediately ordered her subjects to abandon their farms and villages, and take refuge in the Bronze Halberd City and the Lord's Castle respectively. There is nothing wrong with her response, and if the populace doesn't withdraw, it will only attract more monsters...... The so-called strong walls and clear wilderness also include ordinary people. ”

Roland, who was sitting on the stump stool, hugged his knees, blinked his eyes, and asked, "The air-dried meat we found in the Fagon Forest is not the people of the Lord's Lordship, but the tenant exiles who fled west from the Sasang's territory?"

Friedes nodded, "Yes." But I don't, and I won't, count how many tenants have been killed. I can only be clear that it was the refugees who fled west who led the ogres to the Forest of Fagon, to Lord Fakhran. ”

Victor broke a piece of firewood, threw it into the campfire, and asked, "Your Excellency Friedus does not count the number of tenants killed, but he still has faith in the tenant system. ”

Friedus stared at the bonfire for a moment, nodded and said, "Your Highnesses should be able to see that I am the most active promoter of the tenant system. Lord Sassan and I were the first to witness the superiority of the tenant system...... In just three years, we built three new cities, 22 castles, 48 camps, more than 100 sentry camps, and opened up a large amount of farmland and pastures. The enthusiasm and efficiency of the tenants far exceeded that of the displaced workers, and without the tenant system, the pioneer would never have reached the scale it has today. ”

"......It's a pity that the full-scale orc war broke out too suddenly......"

The patriarch shook his head and sighed: "Give us another two and a half years, and the opening of the lead line can be perfected, and there will be no loopholes, and the situation will not become so bad." ”

"I still have faith in the tenant system, but it will take time to regroup. Pastor Friedes nodded firmly.

Victor was silent for two seconds, and then said: "The trend of the times is unstoppable, and from the birth of new agriculture and animal husbandry, the tenant system will not completely disappear." I am convinced that this war, and even future wars, will not be able to defeat a new system that is in keeping with the trend of the times. However, the progress of the times is full of twists and turns, waves move forward, and even the phenomenon of horse-drawn carriages going backwards will occur. It stems from the regression of ideas, panic, rumors, and lack of confidence that will bring the tenant system to a standstill, and when it moves forward again, perhaps a hundred years from now, or a few hundred years from now......"

He looked left and right, his dark golden eyes swept over everyone's faces, and also caught everyone's gaze, the corners of his mouth outlined a radiant smile, and said, "That's our junior's business, what do we have to do?"

"If today's highnesses and clergy can't usher in a new era, it's ......nothing," Victor said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid, my descendants have no future!"

"Forest centaurs and mountain dwarves migrate west to the endless forest, Ant-Man invades the human realm, and barbarians descend the mountain...... All kinds of unusual events are indicative of some kind of danger...... The main purpose of our implementation of the tenant system is to increase the strength of the human kingdom and open up the depth of defense of the human kingdom in the shortest possible time...... This large-scale invasion of the centaurs interrupted the strategic deployment of the kingdoms and severely damaged the people's confidence in the tenant system. ”

"Well, I'll just take it as a coincidence!" Victor looked at Friedes, nodded and said, "Your Excellency, Honorable Patriarch, like you, do not recognize the tenant status of the victims of the Pioneer Leader. The real tenants should be their next generation, young people who have received basic education in general schools run by the church and the lords. The first real tenant group appeared ten years later, but this inexplicable coincidence will slow down the appearance of the tenant group. ”

Duke Dunnkru Friedrich, with golden hair and amber eyes, said: "I fully agree with His Highness Randall, we are buying time for the future of the human kingdom, and this full-scale invasion of the centaurs has actually disrupted our deployment and made the future of the human kingdom full of uncertainty. ”

Friedes nodded secretly, people's wisdom precipitates with age, people's horizons become broadened with the improvement of status, even if it is a pig, it will become wise after sitting in the lord's seat for a long time. Clever lords, Friedes has seen a lot, but no matter how smart the pigs are, they are still pigs, and in the face of the system and reality, they are just as mediocre. Some people are different, they are natural leaders, and Victor is one of them. He grew up in adversity, no matter what setbacks he encountered, he never forgot to seize the initiative, and the purple cane that no one wanted was turned into a valuable strategic material by him; he used the swift bird, which was regarded as a delicacy and a pest beast, to form the swift bird light cavalry that was the envy of the great lords; he opened up a territory in the poor and white Randall, built water conservancy, and developed new agriculture and animal husbandry; he mistakenly killed Austin Buryatia, the great knight of the Gambis kingdom, and turned the city of Buryat Yeliu into a free trade lord; he created a tenant system, cooperated with the church to open a general education school, and developed a mercenary army of thousands of people...... Those wise lords are like pigs compared to him.

Randall's success is attributed to the rare gift of intelligence of the transcendent, but Friedes believes that his political achievements stemmed from a thirst for initiative and never succumbed to reality and institutions, but that his approach was so clever that people unconsciously ignored his aggressiveness.

Victor united with the Golden Knights of the Kingdom of Dordor to put pressure on him, and Friedes was not surprised at all, if Victor honestly led the team into the Eastern Defenses, he would be surprised.

Friedes didn't feel offended, all as he expected.

That's what a top-notch transcendent like Randall's Highness should do

The old patriarch waved his hand and said bluntly, "Let's not waste any more time. The four highnesses have brought me here, what are the requirements?"