The Daohuang Dynasty was able to win a decisive counterattack, which seemed to have exhausted its current luck.

The enemy did not stop as expected but decided to continue the attack, and the defenders of Suzhou City could not withstand it for a long time, and at the end of the counterattack, they also gave their last breath, and soon the city was broken.

There were only 5,000 defenders in Kaifeng City in the rear, and they were all soldiers with little combat effectiveness, and the city defense was also turned into an ornament because it had not been repaired for a long time, and it was quickly taken in the face of the enemy's attack.

At this time, the Northern Expeditionary Army had just set out from Hangzhou City and had only advanced three kilometers. When the news of the destruction of Kaifeng reached the rear, Luo Kai, the minister of the Qincha who had been appointed as the governor of the southern defense, had no choice but to redeploy the Northern Expeditionary Army back to Hangzhou, and then began to consolidate the defensive line to prevent the rebels from risking a breakthrough and causing some gaps in the defensive line.

The uncertainty of Yang Guangdao's life and death made the quarrel in the court stop against him, after all, if he really sacrificed, then he should not be criticized, but should take care of his family, and add official positions and nicknames.

If he hadn't sacrificed, then the merits of that decisive counterattack would have been enough to make him an object that could not be criticized, and criticizing him now would only ruin his career.

At present, the main concern is that this war may develop into a national war like the Northern Expedition, so whether to change the objective to just drive the rebels out of the country.

Just to get out of the country, the proposal was naturally quickly rejected.

Even if the treasury was directly smashed to the bottom, the imperial court of the national dynasty could not allow the rebellious vassal states that betrayed and invaded the Daohuang dynasty to continue to exist in this world.

So not long after the end of the Northern Expedition, the empire mobilized again. After the emperor's decree was issued, countless manpower and material resources began to tilt from the rear to the first-line defense line of Hangzhou City.

The two sides began to stalemate around this place, each expanding its own fortifications, forming two thick fronts on the front line of Hangzhou City.

。

At the beginning of the stalemate in the East, a full-scale civil war broke out in the Holy Kingdom, in which at least fifty divisions were now involved in the fighting, and various heavy weapons on the front line began to be put into service.

Unlike the battles in other regions, the Holy Kingdom has strong technology and a different way of fighting. In the air, on the ground, and even in the river, three-dimensional battles are underway. Armored spearheads are not only tanks, but also Land Cruisers, various models of Steam Armored Knights.

The southern faction already had enough intelligence to show that the Eldridges had mastered how to use Hessehija, so they launched an attack in the hope of retaking Hessehija before the Eldridges could use Hessehia.

The Divine Descent Organization hopes that the gods will come, but what they hope is that they can control the descending, not really adding a god to their heads who can control their life and death at any time, let alone a séance controlled by the enemy.

Without Hessexia, then it would be impossible to carry out their goals, and the forcible séance could only be used as a last resort, and the price would certainly be different from the use of Hessehijah.

Cecilia began to put her men fully operational, trying to rescue Hecesia from her family and send her abroad.

Of course, there was a part of the Reform that disagreed with the rescue and split with Cecilia. Cecilia also knew that she was organizing herself for her own personal affairs, and she was using it for her own personal use in order to change the organization of the Holy Kingdom.

So she gave all her power and resources to the Order, and then left the Order with people willing to help her rescue Hessehija.

Unbeknownst to her, Ludwig had secretly taken over the Reformation Organization. It turns out that he has been lurking in the reform organization under a false identity, and when Cecilia delegated power, he used the inside line he arranged to take power into his hands.

Therefore, the current goal of the Reformation Organization has also changed to rescue Hecehija, but there are many more assassination missions and spies. In this way, saving Hessehijah as a cover would be a good way to accomplish some of the things that the organization had always wanted to do, and no one would object to it.

Ludwig, however, did not tell Cecilia all this.

Ludwig informed Kimchi through the Institute of Secret Studies and told him to flee abroad with Hercesia as soon as she was rescued from her family.

So Kimchi was quietly returned to the Holy Kingdom from the Kingdom of Rothel in the name of training, tentatively for a month, which meant that Ludwig and Cecilia would be operating within a month.

Kimchi returns to the Holy Kingdom with only Viroya, Kirsten needs to help Felian Vinolle form an air force and take over the Combined Knights, and Reinhardt needs to be responsible for keeping the Kahlan Mansion safe.

The first thing he needs to do now is to familiarize himself with the current environment of the Holy Kingdom, after all, the current Holy Kingdom is very different from the Holy Kingdom he once knew well.

。

It's raining, and no one cares what time it is.

Kimchi squeezed through the crowd waiting for the government to distribute supplies with an umbrella and returned to the house Ludwig had provided for him and Veroya.

This is a border town close to the Rothschild Kingdom, because of the civil war, supplies began to be scarce, but fortunately, because it is at least far from the front line, and very close to the Rothschild Kingdom, it does not matter that the basic living guarantees of the residents who fled abroad are still available.

Although there is no ban on various entertainment facilities, a curfew has been imposed here to ensure that the support of the Rothil Kingdom to the northern faction is not blocked.

Kimchi's current identity is a prosecutor sent here by the military, and the power is big and small, and as a commissioner sent from the top, the power depends on personal interpretation.

Normally, such a person would be ostracized, but as long as he did not bother the local officials, he would not bother.

Viroya unchained the door and relocked it after Kimchi entered the house. Obviously, Viroya thinks that this place is not safe enough, and there may be southern agents to attack them at any time, but obviously Kimchi does not think so, but he is not against Viroya using these vigilance methods.

Although the town has implemented a material distribution model, this is only relative to the people at the bottom, and for the high-level people, it is a special supply to be faceless, and nothing is said directly without shame.

Today, Kimchi brought back the next week's food, and whatever he wanted was just to write down the food he needed on Friday of the previous week and hand it over to the army in charge of transporting supplies.

As for the cost, the local officials saw that Kimchi did not care about them and helped pay for it. Of course, Kimchi had no interest in them, he only came here to escape to the kingdom of Rothil with Hecehia a month later.

In order to escape the plan, now he needs to exercise his physical and military literacy every day, because it is impossible to give him a unified knight when he is on the run, so he can basically rely on himself.

Entering the living room, he collapsed on the big sofa big enough to make a bed, and fell asleep without saying anything, the day's training was still very tiring.

Viroya began to cook, but apparently she was a little absent-minded, like the taciturn Kimchi.

She was worried about Hessexia, and Kimchi was just confused about the concept of her sister, and the thought that she would live with her for a long time in the future made her feel complicated.

After Viroya cooked her meal, she woke up Kimchi. He rubbed his head and got up from the couch and made it to the table to start eating.

Seeing that the day was about to end as boring as usual, it turned out that just as Kimchi was halfway through his meal, there was a knock on the door.

Kimchi and Viroya immediately lifted their spirits and glanced at each other. Viroya opened a dark compartment from the floor, took out two pistols from it, and gave one to Kimchi.

Kimchi came to the door with a pistol, and now it was impossible to pretend that there was no one at home, so in order to avoid that the door eye had been controlled by possible enemies outside, Kimchi had to lean on the side of the door instead of the back of the door and ask.

"Who is it?"

“。。。” There was no talk outside, just a silent knock on the door.

Kimchi glanced at Viroya, who nodded. He took a deep breath, unchained the chain and slammed the door open, crouched down, held the gun in front of him, and Viroya immediately aimed her pistol at the door.

It's just that all of this seems to be self-inflicted, and there is no one outside, as if it was just a hallucination or a ghost just now. The rain sounded softly, and there was no sign of strangers.

Kimchi cautiously checked the street outside, there was no sense of anything unusual, and then looked down at the ground, where a letter had fallen, and he picked it up and immediately closed the door gently.

Back in the house, Viroya first checked the letter to see if it was dangerous, and only opened it after confirming that it was safe, and there was only a note inside.

"Watch out for Ludwig, his ultimate goal is not to send Hecehija abroad." It says so

Kimchi frowned and looked at the note, and Viroya breathed a sigh of relief.

"Brother, I think we'll get out of here early and meet Rothschild, who knows what the hell this Ludwig is up to." Veroya said.

“。。。 If this note is true, Ludwig doesn't want to send Hecesia abroad, does he want to summon some god himself? ”

"Oh, what are you doing so much, let's go back early." Viroya nudged Kimchi's arm.

“。。。 No, I have to see what Ludwig wants to do, since he doesn't want to send Hessesia abroad for what he called me back to the Holy Land.

What am I worth? ”

"Dude! Don't be presumptuous, you're a gray-eyed person! Veroya was not happy to hear this

“。。。 If you don't say it, I'll forget about it. Kimchi remembered when he had just arrived in the Holy Kingdom a few years ago.

"So brother, if we return to the kingdom of Rothschild, there will be nothing to do, even if Ludwig has any conspiracy, don't worry."

“。。。 Speaking of which, who is the person who delivered the letter? What is his or his or what purpose is it? ”

"Those must be people who don't want to see the Ludwig plan succeed."

"That's not necessarily, it's also possible that the Southerners want to sabotage the rescue plan."

"Oh, I said don't care about so many things, let's go back to the kingdom of Rothschild whatever you want, and then slowly see how the follow-up will develop to know what's going on."

“。。。 No, why do you keep wanting me to go back to Rothiel, Viloya? What's going on? Kimchi finally felt that Viroya was abnormal.

"No, no, it's just ... I think it would be nice for Hecehijah to stay in the Holy Kingdom. Veroya said.

"That's not going to work, now she's a tool that both the North and the South want, and those people don't see her as a human being at all, can you imagine what they're going to do? The Divine Descent Organization and the upper echelons of the clan knew how to summon the gods, why didn't they do it? It definitely needs a process, it's my own sister after all, and I can't leave her here. ”

“。。。 Then we'll save her ourselves. ”

"I haven't figured out what the hell is going on with this letter, so I can't be in such a hurry."

"Brother, don't care what the letter is, since the person who sent the letter can do it so unknowingly, then it must not be a prank, as long as Hecehia is in our hands, there is still some conspiracy."

“。。。 That makes sense, but how do you hide the signs that we're gone? ”

"It's very simple, don't move this week, just find an attendant and let him apply for the next week's supplies and then pick them up every day for the next week."

"Is it that simple? Won't it be exposed? ”

"The method is simple, it's not easy to find someone and you can trust it."

"Okay, just do as you say."

Just do what he says, and anyway, neither of Ludwig has any guilt for going against his arrangement.

Viloya found someone the next day, Wittman. This is Reinhardt's old friend, a Teutonic who currently owns a farmland on the border of the Holy Kingdom. Once had a fateful friendship with Reinhardt, Veroya's commission was followed without hesitation, and it seems that she and Aishuur also have hypocrisy to be trusted.

Kimchi first prepared the army men, and then began Thursday of this week, let Wittman start to go to collect the distribution supplies, and then live in Kimchi's house to fake that he and Viroya are still there.

On Friday, they secretly left the town and drove their second-hand steam vehicles to avoid the army's advance and the lines of material transport, and began to make their way towards Sanctuary City.