In the alleys, the hot summer is far less lively than the winter, and even the gangsters who usually hang out here and there find a shady place to cool off.

Under the scorching sun, a strange light suddenly appeared in a corner, rippling like water waves, and a woman in a linen robe appeared out of thin air against the colorful light.

She had a beautiful and flawless face, but her face was sickly pale, and she opened her eyes and glanced around, and finally walked forward with lotus feet.

There was a tavern there called "Adventurer's Paradise", and when she walked to the door, a sour breath came to her face, making her frown, her lips squirmed a few times, and she applied a [shield technique] to herself to keep the foul air out.

Probably because the weather was too hot, there weren't many people inside, except for a few scantily clad sexy girls, only a few drunk strong men, who were falling asleep on the side, snoring loudly.

Her arrival did not attract anyone's attention, the girl was bored with her nails buttoned up, her face was full of boredom, and if a poor ghost came now, even if it was only a little stronger, she would be willing to roll around.

The woman's eyes shone strangely, and she passed the drunkard and the girl, and went straight to the counter, where there was a thin old man wiping his cup with a sackcloth, looking drowsy.

She slapped the counter and knocked over a few empty wine bottles, and the old man's eyelids trembled, and he slowly put down the glass in his hand, and said in a hoarse voice, "Madam, what do you want to have?" Ale or brandy? ”

"I want a cup of Edward's glory, do you have it?" The woman's voice was cold, the temperature around her seemed to have dropped a few degrees, the sleeping man sneezed several times, and the girl also hugged her arms.

The old man didn't seem to be affected, but there was a huge amount of energy faintly exuding from his thin body, and he said hoarsely: "Hehe, what a long name, of course there is." ”

He waved his hand, and an invisible barrier enveloped the two of them, and then calmly picked up the cup and began to mix wine.

The woman watched him mix several liquors together, exuding a seductive color under the wonderful combination reaction, and couldn't help but taunt: "It turns out that the heir of the Sofitel family has not forgotten the glory of Edward. ”

The old man's hand paused, and then replied calmly: "Of course we haven't forgotten, the Sofitel family has fulfilled this promise with blood, how can we forget?"

Not only us, Your Highness, but also not forget. The old man pushed the glass containing the scarlet liquid in front of her, and his tone was more solemn and serious.

"But I can't forget at whose hands my adoptive father died." Picking up the silver wine glass, she took a sip, and the hot sensation washed over her mouth, throat, and stomach.

Her voice was full of murder, and a strange light appeared in her eyes.

"It was an accident, Your Highness." The old man's tone was low, and his expression was a little painful, obviously recalling some bad memories.

"Then, I need you to make amends for this accident and renew the promise of your ancestors, in the name of the Sophites." The woman's expression was a little excited, and the wine glass was pinched and deformed by her.

"Your Highness Merlan, for this promise, the Sofitel family has been torn apart. The dripping blood was like this glass of wine, which gathered into a stream in the former royal palace.

You were young at that time, and you probably didn't know that we sacrificed everything, and my only son also fell on the way to the charge, because your father, we have sacrificed too much, how much more do you want us to lose? ”

The old man stared at Mei Lan quietly, his eyes revealing a sense of pathos, and his thoughts seemed to have returned to that day...... The fires, the black smoke that soared into the sky, the palaces that gradually turned to ashes, the warriors who fell in tears and shouts...... Blood, fire, death......

But the mistake needs to be remedied! Dominis. Sofitel, are you going to break your promise? Mei Lan's voice suddenly increased, and the cup in his hand was heavily placed on the countertop.

Domires was silent, his figure becoming more and more stiff as he thought. After a long time, he sighed and said, "The bloodline of the Sofitel family will not break the promise of the ancestors, Your Highness, tell me about your plan, although it has no effect on our current strength." ”

Mei Lan finally didn't have the appearance of choosing people to devour before, she said calmly: "What rank are you now, and how many people can you mobilize?" ”

"I'm now at the rank of Great Mage, and there are less than five hundred private troops who can mobilize, and even if we rush into the palace, we won't pose any threat to that person."

Domiris shook his head, the Sofitel family, which had been torn apart after heavy losses, no longer had the foundation and strength it once had.

Mei Lan frowned deeply, although she knew that they had suffered a lot of losses back then, she didn't expect it to be so big, and the original plan didn't seem to be applicable anymore.

"Let your people sneak back home and wait for news from me. It's not a lot of people, but it's not without a chance, as long as I get that thing, I can give it a try. ”

"That thing?"

"You can think of it as a weapon, a powerful weapon, enough to make up for the lack of our hands." Mei Lan's tone rippled, the strange crystals, almost every one of them had a power comparable to that of a high-level magician.

As long as she can get or make a batch, she can quickly close the gap.

"Where's that thing?" Domiris straightened his back, and a faint aura of terror was reviving behind him.

"Maybe you can find the answer there." Merlin looked in one direction, where the castle stood. She had already understood that the lords of this territory were the most suspicious, and it was likely that they were the first to discover the ruins in the Demon Beast Mountain Range......

With a quill in his hand, Ryan wrote smoothly on a slightly yellowed piece of paper, and after a moment, looking at the work on the table, he was very satisfied.

It's not that I'm satisfied with what I wrote, but that this paper made in the paper workshop is the latest to make it, and the quality this time is significantly higher than the previous ones.

And the yield has also increased, and now there is a thick pile in Lane's latrine, and he will switch to this chrysanthemum rubbing after he is convenient.

I have to say that this is a leap in the quality of life, and his papermaking is naturally not just used to wipe his buttocks, the use of paper is too much, printing books or something is one thing.

It can also be made into oiled paper, which is also very useful for packaging green sugar cubes. The most important thing is that its cost is relatively low, more close to the people, and will play a key role in the future popularization of education.

"Yes, I finally don't need expensive and difficult animal skin paper in the future, I have to find a way to write or buy some books, and when the time comes, I will print it and send it to the school, so that the school can have the appearance of a school."

For paper, Ryan doesn't have too many ideas of secrecy, everything is hidden and tucked into the meaning, just like selling green sugar, the positioning of paper is still an expensive commodity.

To put it simply, it is not to pit the money of the poor, sell it to big merchants and nobles, and the price is lower than that of animal skin paper, so you are not afraid that no one will pay, the demand for paper is very large, and you are not afraid that there is no market.

"Goo-goo-goo"

The fluttering sound of wings came, and a letter bird landed on the windowsill, and Barton, who had been napping, suddenly seemed to have discovered a new world, and pounced directly, frightening the letter bird to scurry around.

Ryan couldn't help but have a headache, how could this wolf be different from what he thought, a little like the husky in his previous life, he was very energetic, and he was busy jumping up and down all day long.

"Okay Barton, it's not your toy." He scolded loudly and stretched out his arm, and the letter bird hurriedly landed on it as if he had seen a big savior.

Two letter birds, one in the cement factory, and the other was taken away by Allen, the two letter birds looked about the same, so he didn't know who sent the news back.

He hoped it was Allen, who had been gone for nearly a month, and there had been no news back, although he didn't show it, but his heart became more and more anxious day by day.

Removed the bamboo tube on his feet, took out the small note inside, and just glanced at Ryan's face, and a happy color suddenly appeared, this news was sent back by Allen.

This can be regarded as untying the knot in Ryan's heart for a few days, at least they are still safe, at the beginning Alan briefly explained why he had lost contact for so long, it turned out that after entering the Demon Beast Mountain Range, the treasure hunting rat seemed to have found the target, and took them to search south.

I don't know why there is a problem with the state of the letter bird, Alan insurance consideration, so he did not forcibly release the letter bird, until a few days ago, its state improved, and Alan released it back to inform the news.

What really surprised Ryan was that they had not wandered around the mountains and forests for a month, but had a big harvest, and on the twenty-fifth day after their departure, they successfully found a vein.

According to the ore samples dug up by the treasure hunting rats, it is preliminarily determined to be black ironite, but the direction of the ore vein and the difficulty of mining are still unknown for the time being, and I hope that Ryan can send someone to take over in the future.

The black iron ore that he had been thinking about finally landed, and Ryan suddenly slapped the table heavily, scaring the letter bird and Barton a lot.

Soon, Ryan sent someone to call Delai, and told him what had happened, and the next morning, a team of thousands of people set out on a journey under the leadership of the letter bird.

This team was commanded by the commander of the legion, Delai, escorted by a full 500 soldiers, hundreds of conscripted men and craftsmen, etc., and the scale was a little smaller than the last limestone mine was developed.

This time, Ryan didn't choose to go in person, first, because the elite in the city came out and needed him to sit in the territory. The second reason is that the location of the black iron ore found this time is in the outermost part of the Demon Beast Mountain Range, and the danger is extremely small, so it is not worth making a big deal about.

Although the black iron mine is important, it can't change anything whether he goes or not, and he has more important things to do, which is to build a blast furnace to make steel.

Iron must be made into steel in order to exert its greatest value, but steelmaking in this world is far from being as simple as in the previous life, and there are tens of thousands of tons and hundreds of thousands of tons at every turn.

Fortunately, the steelmaking technology in this world is relatively mature, and Ryan is responsible for copying the homework, and there is no need to design it himself like before.

Steelmaking is only part of the plan, and the steel will be digested, weapons will be forged, and agricultural tools will be renewed...... There was so much he needed to do.

He has to make a reasonable and detailed plan, his habit makes him need to have a plan no matter what he does, people are not sophisticated machines, and it is easy to ask questions if he does not plan well.

Tonight, Heveen and Ryan stayed up all night......

——————

At the same time, in the Gothic province in the south of the kingdom, thousands of rebels poured into the tall and sturdy walls, mottled with blood and corpses everywhere silently telling the tragedy of the war.

Another city has fallen.

This rebellion has been going on for more than half a year, and many noble territories have completely fallen, and no one expected that the originally small civilian rebellion would have such a big impact.

Hundreds of nobles lost their territories, and many gave their lives.

The rebel armies were not as disorganized, undisciplined as the nobles had originally envisioned, but rather disciplined, with qualified commanders and clear strategic intentions.

The most humiliating thing for the nobles is that compared to the rebels, their aristocratic alliance is the real scattered sand, all of them have ghosts.

The local nobles wanted to take the initiative to regain the lost territory, while the nobles from outside wanted to hold on to their existing territory and gradually counterattack. It is reasonable and well-founded, but in fact it is just to preserve strength.

Both sides are well aware of this, and for this reason every military meeting basically broke up unhappily, and it was impossible to reach a reunification at all.

Although Grand Duke Douglas is the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces in the south, he is not a word here, not only is there a secret check and balance by the great nobles from all over the country, but even the king has sent an envoy over, which is very obvious.

Coming and going, although there were more and more support, but the lost territory was not regained much, so the rebels really sat on the throne, and then the royal army would have an excuse to set foot in the south, which was intolerable to Archduke Douglas.

So, after careful consideration, he decided to gather all the elites in his hands and take the initiative to recapture a few key hubs first, but no one expected that the rebels really showed their fangs at this moment......

A man covered in a black robe stood on a huge chariot with his hands in his hands, and he was shrouded in an evil aura, which was very eerie and chilling.

He was surrounded by soldiers who were clad in stubborn clothes, but if you looked closely, you could see that these people had dull faces and wooden expressions, which were very strange.

A cloud of black mist suddenly appeared next to the chariot, and the figure of another black-robed man was revealed, with a skull mark on his chest like the man.

"Your Excellency, Douglas's army is now on its way, do we have the next step?" The black-robed man said respectfully to the man on the chariot.

When the man heard this, he murmured softly without looking back, "Douglas, Chelt Eagle." I'm looking forward to playing against you. ”

"Pass the order, and the whole army will march!"

"Woo woo~~~"

The desolate trumpets sounded, and tens of thousands of rebels marched forward, and the chariot under the man's feet rumbled forward under the drag of several huge beasts.

Their goal was the richest city in the Gothic Province, the Golden Spike.

……

(End of chapter)