The Ranger who returned from the bloody battle was in the prime of life, and his physique was extremely good, although he was dying due to exhaustion and excessive blood loss, but after pouring a bottle of Qinggang Elixir, he recovered a lot of spirits, and his face resurfaced with the spirit of a strong soldier in a hundred battles.

Seeing Baron Edelman enter the room, he immediately struggled to get up and knelt down on one knee, "Your Excellency, Your Excellency, Deputy Squadron Leader of the Eighth Squadron Durant salutes you. As he spoke, he reached into his bosom and grabbed a large handful of metal plaques engraved with the emblem of thorns. "The eighth squadron of the rangers was attacked by the vanguard of the barbarians, and broke through in a bloody battle, and twenty-one people from the squadron leader and below were killed one after another, and there was no coward who was greedy for life and afraid of death!"

Baron Edelman's face was solemn, and he took the blood-stained metal cards with both hands, and solemnly handed them to Sir Lockner. "Good lads, Captain Lochner, wait until the day of the dawn of victory, and arrange a solemn funeral for them. ”

"Yes, Your Excellency. Sir Lockner bowed his head with sorrow on his face, his shoulders trembling slightly, and he looked much older at once. "They won't die in vain, I swear to the gods that I will let those barbarians pay for their blood!"

"It is better to swear to the gods than to swear to your own sword. Ansenbach said in a strange manner, "The war between Coventry and the desert barbarians is not a day or two, and the gods may not care about these small things, not to mention that there are gods on the barbarians' side, and there may be more of them." ”

Sir Lochner's beard trembled with anger, but in front of Baron Edelman, he did not scold after all, but strode out of the room with his metal cards held high in both hands, his neck strained.

Avery took in all of this, and couldn't help but feel a little frustrated. The situation in Coventry is indeed not good, the barbarian army is coming, the unity within the Thornflower family is not enough, and there seem to be signs of a struggle for power. Regardless of Baron Edelman's inner considerations, it was clearly not the position of an archon to allow a conflict between the Chief Ranger and the Ranger Captain.

It seems that the power reshuffle within the Thorn Flower family is imminent.

It was a judgment that was very frustrating for Avery, and since he left Broughfry House, a series of troubles had followed, which could not help but give him a new perspective on his bad luck.

"As soon as the matter is over, I will immediately go to the temple of the god of fate and make a prayer and make an atonement money by the way. ”

Avery was depressed, but nothing compared to the solemn atmosphere in the room. As a veteran ranger, Deputy Squadron Leader Durant has a good summary of the intelligence, and he explained what happened in a few words. And when he finished speaking, the whole room was covered in silence for five minutes.

As Avery had guessed, the situation in Coventry was very bad. Ever since Lady Veronica was assassinated, no, maybe earlier, it should have been since the accidental death of the previous head of the family, and the rift in the Thornflower family has appeared.

On the face of it, the previous generation of Sir Lockner refused to hand over the position of Captain of the Ranger on the pretext that no one was qualified to inherit him, and there were only more obstacles and frictions in the secret, and he was as stupid and incompetent as Sir Rollec, just because he was the cousin of Baron Edelman, whose surname was Brippes, and he held such an important position as the Governor of the People. If it weren't for the big mistake in the investigation of the carnival night tragedy, Baron Edelman wouldn't have been able to easily remove this idiot.

Internal worries gradually emerged, and external troubles followed. Since Baron Edelman took over, the desert barbarians have attacked Coventry more than once, but never on such a large scale. In the hundreds of years since Coventry was founded, there have been only a handful of attacks that unite more than ten barbarian tribes, and this time, the detected anomalies alone include thirteen powerful barbarian tribes, with a total of more than 10,000 elite warriors.

This is a war of extremely unequal forces. Although the city-state of Coventry has more than 50,000 inhabitants, the city guard plus the rangers only has a total of 2,000 people, and even if Baron Edelman issues a ****** and adds the personnel of the major guilds, chambers of commerce, and temples, he can't gather 5,000 soldiers.

Considering the excellent equipment and strong city defense, 5,000 soldiers seemed to be completely enough to resist the attack of 10,000 barbarians, but this was not the case, the desert barbarians were all soldiers, regardless of men and women, young people under the age of fifteen and old people over sixty years old could also wear armor and bow and fight on the battlefield, and the elite barbarian warriors were enough to defeat the junior molten gold warriors.

In this way, it is not a war of 5,000 against 10,000, but a war between 5,000 ordinary soldiers against 10,000 molten gold warriors and hundreds of thousands of ordinary soldiers, and the ratio of forces between the two sides is like a thatched hut against a raging storm, and an isolated island against the whole ocean.

In the face of such a terrible situation, even if the people in the huts and isolated islands work together and sacrifice at any cost, it is difficult to say that they will win, and if they still have to fight for power and profit, and self-harm in internal strife, there is absolutely no chance of victory.

Baron Edelman Brippes is in his forties, a man who has reached the peak of his fitness and self-confidence, and despite the dire situation, his decision has not wavered. In the presence of Avery, he issued several orders in succession, not only raising the level of martial law further and issuing ****** to the residents of Coventry and the major powers, but also temporarily stripped Sir Lockner of his position as chief Ranger of the rank of chief of the rangers under the pretext of lack of energy, and replaced it with chief ranger Ansenbach temporarily.

These orders undoubtedly strengthened the power of the Thorn Flower Clan's Young Zhuang faction, but they also inevitably deepened the rift within the family. At least from Ansenbach's report, Sir Lochner was reluctant to hand over the captain's badge, until he drew his sword and threatened, and then threw the badge with the sword around the thorns on the table, leaving behind a mocking remark.

"I only see opportunity, not danger, kid...... Far worse than his father. ”

Baron Edelman was having dinner with Merlin Avery the "Iron Master" when he heard this relayed by the Dallas butler, and the otherwise peaceful atmosphere was completely ruined by this sentence. Baron Edelman immediately dropped his knife and fork, and Avery felt that the steak in his mouth was suddenly tasteless, as if he were chewing a mouthful of candle wax.

"Tell the head of the family to be 'that kid'!" Baron Edelman stood up and paced around the table and chair with anger in his anger, "I'll make you see the joke, Iron Master, there are some people in the Thorn Flower family who really disregard their dignity and humility, and they should have been cleaned up a long time ago!"

Avery smiled awkwardly and didn't rush to the topic. Because of the treatment of Lady Veronica, he is already on the same side as Baron Edelman, and it is unlikely that he will accept olive branches thrown by other forces at will. The appearance of the Blackwing Reaper and the carnival night tragedy added to his sense of crisis, and unlike the young apprentice who had just left Broughfry Academy, Merlin Avery now had some experience and vision to discern what was hidden beneath the surface.

Without the cooperation of the Thornflower family, Lady Veronica, who has a special status, would not have been assassinated so easily, and the assassin's whereabouts are still unknown. Although Sir Rolek, a former civil justice with a reputation for incompetence, was charged, it was clear to those in the know that it was just a scapegoat, a discard that was thrown.

The real mastermind behind the scenes was already beginning to lay out when he helped Sir Rolek to seek the position of Governor of the People's Republic of China a few years ago. Due to the constraints from within the family, Baron Edelman did not realize that the situation was not good until the assassination of Lady Veronica, so he resolutely took an extremely tough action.

As to how effective this disposition will be, or whether it will cause more intense upheaval, neither Baron Edelman nor anyone else is entirely sure.

Avery was even more pessimistic.

He was already praying that Coventry would hold out longer, at least until the Blackwing Reaper Gana Enlais woke up. With a Winged Knight as a follower of the Grandmaster-level Molten Gold Warrior, Avery can at least guarantee that he will be able to get out of Coventry at the worst of the situation.

Baron Edelman quickly regained his composure and returned to his seat, but he no longer had the heart to finish the rest of his dinner. "Back to what we just said, Iron Master. He leaned over with interest, his eyes shining brightly, "Tell me, in your opinion, what do you need to do to prepare Coventry for winning this war?"

“...... Abandon the city's readiness to escape. Avery thought bitterly, but he at least remembered that this sentence should not be spoken, "I don't know about war, Your Excellency, I've just read some books about war in my teacher's library. The experience gained from the book alone is not really useful, so I can only make a few suggestions, and I will leave it to your Excellency the Archon to judge for yourself whether it is correct or not. ”

"You're so gracious, Iron Master. Baron Edelman leaned his back on the soft cushions, found a more comfortable position, and picked up his quill. "Tell me, I'll keep it down. ”

"There is no doubt that this war is very hard, and this is an important prerequisite for the consensus that we have reached. So in order to win the war, a lot of sacrifices must be made. Avery began in a heavy tone, as he quickly considered what he wanted to say. "Your Excellency, with all due respect, between the two walls of Coventry, inside and outside, it is now too much of a disorganization. ”

"Coventry's population has tripled in the last 13 years, so it's inevitable to build some residential and commercial areas. Baron Edelman proudly replied that the thirteen years of prosperity were certainly a testament to his ability to govern, and that Coventry had evolved from a mere military fortress to an economic and cultural center in the western part of the empire.

"These buildings certainly have their purpose in peacetime, but when war came, they became a huge weakness in Coventry's twin city defences. You see, Your Excellency, this is a sketch of my drawing. Avery said as he took a roll of parchment from his bosom and spread it out on the table. This map is a sketch map of Coventry's defense system, created by Victor Leader and based on information from the Night Falcon team, which is far less accurate and detailed than the actual map, but it is sufficient for explanation.

"From the outer city to the inner city, there were twelve streets, each wide enough for four heavily armed knights to gallop side by side. From the perspective of the overall defense system, this is designed for the rapid retreat of the remaining defenders when the outer wall is lost, which requires us to do two things. The first is to ensure that the streets are free of traffic, and the second is to ensure that these streets can be blocked quickly if necessary. ”

Baron Edelman had straightened up, and the expression on his face had changed from pretending to be relaxed to solemn. At first, he didn't take Avery seriously, because the Iron Master was just a young alchemist, perhaps a genius at alchemy, but war and alchemy were two unrelated realms.

"You mean that the streets are now much narrower because of the many makeshift dwellings, and that there will be a lot of trouble when the defenders are evacuated?"

"Not only that, but these buildings will also serve as bunkers for the besieging side, so they must be cleared. What we needed were wide, unobstructed streets, and the buildings on either side of the buildings to collapse after the defenders had withdrawn to the inner city, forming low ruins that would hinder movement. This would make it a huge graveyard for the desert barbarians between the outer walls and the inner city, as long as we could gather a sufficient number of pneumatic rifles, and distribute plenty of lead bullets. ”

Baron Edelman twisted his well-groomed beard and fell into deep thought. Avery's words reminded him of the original appearance of the city-state of Coventry, a decade ago, when his father was still alive, and Coventry had few caravans and adventurers except for the city guards, rangers and reclamation militia. This barren and tenacious military fortress once made countless desert barbarians bitter their teeth, but in the eyes of Baron Edelman, his father's abilities in other aspects were indeed very average except that he was an excellent military commander.

The Thornflower family can't become strong with the war against the desert barbarians, and Coventry needs to be injected, not only as a poisonous thorn that everyone in the western frontier of the empire fears, but also as a bright pearl to admire.

After the unexpected death of his father, Baron Edelman, with the support of several family elders, successfully ascended to the throne of power, and then married the daughter of the Iron Duke, completely stabilizing his position. As a result of his efforts, Coventry gradually prospered and became a major force in the western frontier of the Empire, an achievement that Baron Edelman was always proud of, and an important reason why he remained confident in the face of adversity.

However, on this night, this conversation with a young alchemist who was not very proficient in military affairs made Baron Edelman's self-confidence begin to waver.

This was the first change that Avery had ever expected.