On the afternoon of October 23, the conference hall of Jinhu Palace.

Due to the previous major incident in the city of Sassnia, the Emperor Valstad personally convened his cabinet to discuss countermeasures.

The Earl of Southgate, the Foreign Secretary, looked uneasy, and the voice of the old Imperial minister was full of worry and fear:

"Your Majesty the Emperor, the identity of the foreign dignitary who was assassinated yesterday has been confirmed by the local coroner in the city of Sassnia, and it is Sir Hacansom Yanutran, the minister of the Solan Kingdom sent to our country."

Empress Valsta frowned, turned her gaze to Baron Colin Douglas, Minister of Imperial Intelligence, and asked sharply:

"What the hell is going on? You didn't do it, did you? ”

Seeing the Empress's fierce silver-gray one-eyed staring at him, Baron Colin was frightened, and waved his hand again and again: "No! I'm not stupid enough to poke a hornet's nest! It's too late to curry favor with that minister, so how could he send someone to kill him? ”

The Emperor lowered his head and thought for a few seconds, then said, "Could it be that the identity of the assassin is really just an ordinary citizen?" Assassinate the minister of the Chin Cha according to his own will? ”

"I'm afraid that's what happened, you know, this minister has been riding on our heads for a long time. Your Majesty the Emperor, that guy even dares to contradict you, and he makes nonsense in front of us important ministers, and his attitude towards others can be imagined.

He's been living in the diplomatic embassy of the Kingdom of Solan in Sassnia for a while, and as far as I know, he's been a hopelessly fool with his fellow bastard gringo diplomats!

He also thought that he was safe, our Valsta people are strong, but not everyone is willing to suffer from this nest, sooner or later someone will stand up and clean up the garbage, and in vain, he will find his own death. ”

A senior official of the Ministry of Police said: "Your Majesty, we have set up a professional task force to participate in the investigation, and the body of the assassin has left a lot of useful information. ”

The emperor smiled bitterly and shook his head:

"What's the use of finding out the identity of the assassin now?

There is no point in pursuing these now, the death of the minister is already an established fact, and at the scene, there is also a diplomat of the Kingdom of Solan who witnessed the whole process of this matter, and sooner or later this matter will reach the ears of King Louis Lafalette I of Solan, rather than wasting time to find the murderer, it is better to think about countermeasures in advance. ”

The representative of the main battle faction, the generalissimo of the palace, Neulai, stood up emotionally and said: "The big deal is to start a war, we have worked hard to rectify military affairs over the years, isn't this the moment we are waiting for?" ”

The emperor made a downward posture with the iron hook on his left arm and motioned for the other party to sit down: "Having said that, our strength is still far inferior to others, and it is reasonable to avoid war as much as possible, or to delay the war as much as possible." ”

Sir Simon Gallieni, the Emperor's mentor and the Empire's Supreme Military Advisor, praised: "Your Majesty is calm enough and patient enough to judge the situation, and we are loyal to our courtiers, neither provoking anger nor fearing war." ”

Earl Southgate said: "Since the assassin has been killed on the spot, there is no need for a judicial trial, and our top priority now is to write a sincere letter of apology to King Solan, sorry for not doing a good job of security, allowing the murderer to succeed, and then we can only wait for the result." ”

The Emperor stood up: "That's it!" In order to show my sincerity that I must not allow the clerk to write on my behalf, I will go back to my office to write this handwritten letter, and then stamp it with my family emblem and send it out. ”

In the streets of Fort Midknight, the capital of the Empire, the populace organized a demonstration, revering the assassin of the Solan kingdom as a national hero, and expressing their deep antipathy at the shooting of the hero by government soldiers

A veteran who had lost his legs was put on his shoulders and cried out hoarsely: "Our Empress is a fool! He even killed his own people to protect the gringos! ”

The military police knight who was in charge of maintaining order on the side frowned: "Sir, that old guy has spoken disrespectfully to our Majesty, and wants me to arrest him?" ”

The officer glanced at the dense crowd and said, "The citizens are very excited, let them vent their mood, our task is to follow the procession, and if there is a violent incident of smashing the shops along the street, we will step forward to stop it." ”

Mass demonstrations and rallies spread across the country, which exhausted the local public servants responsible for maintaining order.

Under the excitement of the crowd, a wave of xenophobia was set off, many innocent foreigners were taken out and beaten by the locals as citizens of the Solan Kingdom, and the turbulent and chaotic situation lasted for about a week before gradually improving, but there was also good news, that is, the number of young people who took the initiative to go to the recruitment office to sign up for the army has increased significantly.

In the third week of the assassination, order had been fully restored in the streets, and the troops stationed in the various barracks had entered a state of first-class combat readiness, with a constant stream of wagons and compressed biscuits, gunpowder, ordnance, uniforms, long leather boots, and other supplies in the Vietnamese barracks.

On November 15, on the outskirts of Fort Midknight, the imperial capital, in the camp of the Guards cuirassiers.

Midshipman Edgar Midknight rode his horse to sprint training,

She was wearing an extremely heavy, shiny silver breastplate, a gorgeous iron helmet decorated with peacock tail feathers, a hand wearing thick cowhide gloves tightly holding a heavy straight-edged saber, and a high-quality leather boot under the white cotton leggings, and the spurs on the back of the boots gently pierced the horse's abdomen, which provoked the heavy horse to gasp and begin to accelerate the sprint.

The target was a scarecrow 200 yards away that was fastened to a stake, and interestingly, someone dressed the scarecrow in a tattered red suit in imitation of the red uniform of the Solan Kingdom.

The horse sprinted to the side of the target with a thunderous momentum, and Edgar leaned down deftly, perfectly using the sprinting power of the warhorse, and the right hand holding the saber turned slightly sideways, easily cutting off the head of the grass.

"Good! Her Majesty the Princess is amazing! The Guards cuirassier recruits cheered loudly.

They all knew how difficult that action was just now, and it was not easy to accurately pierce the target at Rutz's sprint speed, let alone cut the head accurately, if it wasn't for excellent control of the body, it would be absolutely difficult to do.

Princess Edgar Midknight was accustomed to being surrounded by crowds,

On the one hand, because of her appearance, on the other hand, because of her strong skills,

The recruits spoke highly of this noble, beautiful, and powerful midshipman, who was a princess of the Empire, but she did not have the slightest superiority, and became good friends with everyone in the barracks.

Today's sprint training is over, and it is time to rest, Edgar returns to the ordnance office, takes off her heavy cuirass, takes off her iron helmet, unties her bun, and spreads her long silver hair, she first goes to the barracks bathroom to take a hot shower, and then changes into a new black captain's regular uniform.

Her friend William Einfurt was waiting for her to come out outside the barracks, and the two of them made an appointment to go shopping together in the shopping streets of the imperial capital after today's training.

William Einfurt, dressed in the uniform of an artillery officer of the Guards Army with the rank of major on his shoulder, was waiting for her at the door of the bathroom.

"I love the barracks! It's a great feeling to work up a sweat in training! Edgar smiled, "What about you?" William, is it still going well? ”

"I'm having a good time with my colleagues," William said, "and those of us who are working on a new cannon to be dispensed with are so terrible that my ears are almost deafening." ”

"That's not going to work! If you become deaf, then I have to write down my words on paper to show you, it's too troublesome. Edgar quipped.

"The veterans gave me advice to open their mouths while covering their ears, which would release some of the sound waves and reduce the damage to the eardrums caused by the sound of the cannonball."

The two got into the carriage with a smile, and in the evening, they walked down the bustling commercial street of the imperial capital with a large pile of shopping bags, both wearing brown glasses and masks in order not to attract attention.

"You go back to the palace, I'll look for you again tomorrow." William Dow.

Edgar looked down at his pocket watch, "What's the hurry?" Isn't that early? What, you want to get rid of me quickly and go to some lady to be merry? ”

"Oh, it's really not easy for me, I will be suspected of cheating for anything...... William shook his head with a smile and said: "Okay, since you don't want to go back to the palace, then let's find a restaurant to eat, and then go to the Grand Theater to watch a play, how about it?"

Edgar Bird leaned his head on William's shoulders like a human, and his hands firmly grasped the other party's strong arms: "Hehe, this is pretty much the same. ”

At this time, for some unknown reason, the bells of the whole city were ringing, and a large group of newspaper sellers came out of an alley in front of them, holding high the newspaper and shouting:

"Come and buy a copy of the evening newspaper! Big news! King Louis Lafalette I of Solan has declared war on our country, and war is coming! ”