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In winter, the lawn in the park is withered and yellow, but the trees are gills and silk armor, after all, the city of Nedel is not far from the sea, and the wind blowing from the sea in winter regulates the climate of the city very well, and even occasionally a drizzle falls.

The wind was only a little chilly, and the people in the city only needed to add a slightly thicker coat to ward it off.

Pirianke sat cross-legged behind a stall selling cheap ornaments, grinning nonsense with the same vendors around him, complaining about the damn lockdown policy, soliciting passing girls, and privately commenting on the young women of the past.

Pirianke's clever mouth said good things about honey and oil, and he was very clever in starting this business, and the stall was constantly crowded with people, and half of the girls in ordinary people came to buy things. Half of them came to see this handsome guy.

The park was still full of people, but except for these young people, everyone else was in a hurry, and even the guards who usually liked to rub some oil at the sellers walked down the street with their swords in their hands.

Epoch, Taurex hurried into the park from the end of the long street.

He was still dressed in pure black, with a wide-brimmed hat that was pressed low to cover most of his face.

Piriank looked down and bargained with the girl in front of the stall, not even glancing at Taurex as he walked past him.

As he walked into the park, he slowed down and looked around, skirting a flower bed and sitting on a stone bench.

After a few minutes or so, Taurex stood up again, dusted off his clothes, and turned around and walked briskly down the long street. He looks like a passer-by who is temporarily resting in the park.

Pirianke looked up and chatted with a frowning brow beside him. The eyes never took off the chair.

It wasn't until the sun was setting, the sky was getting dark, the park was getting fewer and fewer pedestrians, and there were more and more cats coming out to forage for food, that Piriank and the vendors began to prepare to close their stalls.

By the time he had finished packing up his things and leaving, an unobtrusive homeless man next to him was already squatting in a tree hole not far away wrapped in clothes that looked tattered but were actually extremely warm.

After bidding farewell to the peddlers with a bag of copper coins in his hand, Piriank returned to his lodgings first. Throw things away and make a fire to cook.

After the cover-up was done, Piriank returned to the headquarters of the venture capital firm.

Piriank pushed open the door to the conference room and called out, "General Manager." ”

Belen held a cup of hot tea and nodded to Piriank with a blank face, and Pirianke could see that Belen's eyes were bloodshot, obviously he hadn't slept for a long time.

The old man with the portrait next to him was also there, and at the moment he was holding a charcoal pen, writing and drawing on white paper, and when he saw Pirianke coming in, he grinned at him, and then beckoned to him, and said, "Friend." Come here. ”

Pirianke obediently walked over to the old man and the man. The old man dropped the painting in his hand, blew off the crumbs and stuffed them into Piriank's hand, and said, "I've sent you." ”

Pirianke took it and looked at it, the naked bust of a young woman painted on it, shook the portrait in his hand, Pirianke said with a smile: "Old man, you are my own grandfather, let's not bring such a despicable person." Good"

The old man rolled his eyes and said, "Look at your little bit of talent." A yellow-haired girl can't handle it, old man, when I was your age, I was already in the midst of thousands of flowers. ”

Pirianke hurriedly waved his hand and begged for mercy, saying, "Okay, let's get down to business." ”

Belen picked up the text in his hand and said, "First." Our men have just confirmed that the note left behind by Taurex is gone. ”

Piriank was shocked when he heard this, and said, "So fast!"

Belen nodded and said, "For us." This couldn't be better news. It shows that our goals are still there. ”

Piriank nodded, and said, "After Taurex left the note, a total of nine people have been near the bench. ”

Belen snorted and said, "It seems that our people are not missing, they are following nine people." ”

Piriank turned to the old man and said, "Old man, let's get started." The first was a middle-aged man, about five feet tall, with very dark skin, a long pointed face, triangular eyes, and a bald head. ”

The old man nodded, and drew on the paper with a solemn expression.

After a few more hours, Belen took the portraits, spread them out on the table, and waited patiently.

One after another, people walked into the conference room, and after carefully looking at the portrait, the people who came in nodded to Gu Lun, sat down and began to introduce their stalkers.

Soon the room was full, Belen bowed his head and spoke to Marmos, and everyone else sat silently.

Belen suddenly knocked on the table and said loudly, "Guys, you did a good job today. ”

The people below said sparsely: "Lord Xie." ”

Belen sat up straight and said, "I know time is tight and everyone is under a lot of pressure. ”

Marmos sighed and said, "My lord." There are only three days to complete the calculation, and it sometimes takes half a year for us to catch someone in the past, and the eldest sister and grandfather are in front of us, and the brothers are afraid that they will not be able to explain to the old man. ”

Belen frowned, and shouted: "What are you afraid of, doing what we do is this, carrying a knife to cut people is the least time, what we do is these trivial things, observing, recording, inducting, and the last few days, we are nervous, these people hiding in the city are more nervous than us." Nervousness makes mistakes, and that's our chance. ”

"Yes, my lord, we understand. ”

Belen snorted and said, "Critical time." None of us can go wrong, I circled the four most suspicious people, and the less" Eight then stared at the other five. In the next two days, most of the people's tasks were to Po Dengjiaojiang four people. Do you understand?"

"Yes!"

"Very good" Belen nodded, then reached out and picked up a report on the table, "Let's take a look at the first one in the warehouse, the pipe spider..."

Adele pushed open the office door, and hurriedly walked in with a gust of cold wind.

She casually untied her long coat. Throw it on the sand beside him, and then say hello to Catherine.

Catherine's long head was folded. Secured with a crystal bodhisattva, the mantis drooped slightly, staring at the text in his hand, revealing a slender and graceful neck, if Lorraine couldn't say anything here, he would pounce on it and bite it.

Catherine raised her hand and pulled a strand of her head behind her ear, and said without raising her head while approving the text: "How was the meeting?"

Adele is also dressed as a mature woman, with a long comb neatly draped behind her head, and a dark long skirt, dignified and generous.

After stroking her clothes, Adele sat on the chair next to Catherine and said, "According to Angus's report, the residents within a hundred miles outside the city have been evacuated, and the food and supplies that can be transported from nearby have also been transported into the city, and those that cannot be transported are loaded onto ships and sent upstream. Although there are many people who oppose this, but in general, it is quite smooth. ”

Catherine shrugged slightly, and said, "It's a pity that those villages outside the city don't know if they can survive this battle." ”

Adele also sighed and said, "This is also a matter of no choice, it's a big deal, when the battle is over, let's allocate funds to rebuild." ”

When Catherine heard this, she couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Reconstruction? It's easy to say, but how can it be so easy?"

Not to mention the huge consumption of military spending, after this battle, the provincial treasury of Nai An is empty, where will those funds be raised?

Even if it is raised, it is necessary to know whether there will be a conscience and the dog officials who have been eaten by the dog take the opportunity to embezzle the money. When the time comes, the common people will still have nothing

But if you don't do anything, you are sorry for your conscience.

She rubbed her smooth forehead and said, "Let's try our best." ”

As he spoke, his voice changed and he said, "By the way, Belen just came with the news, and they have a clue about tracking down the traitor." ”

"Oh?" said Adele, "but there is good news." How's that going?"

Catherine shook her head worriedly and said, "I've been waiting for news too. ”

"Haven't come yet?" Adele was stunned for a moment and said, "It's been a few days." ”

Catherine and Adele then fell silent.

They all knew that the incident that Lorraine had been sentenced to death was extremely serious.

If it is used well, it can top tens of thousands of elite soldiers. Even if there are another 350,000 orcs, they can all be annihilated under the city, and keep as many deaths as the other party comes.

But if you don't prepare well, then the situation in Nedel City is not optimistic. You must know that now the air defense of Nedel City is weak, although the city defense is strong, but the soldiers are outnumbered, it is simply a hot meat bun sent to the dog's mouth.

Adele hesitated for a moment, and suddenly said, "Why don't I go and see it myself?"

Catherine reached out and patted Adele on the shoulder. Relieved: "You don't understand this, what's the use of going." Trust Lorraine, since he said so, he should be able to do it. ”

There was a knock at the door, and General Philip pushed it open, strode in, and bowed to the two men.

Catherine and Adele looked up at the same time. Looking eagerly at General Philip.

Catherine clenched her hands and asked nervously, "How is it?" General Philip smiled and said, "Lord Lorraine's idea is very good, the people in front of me have sent back the news, and the first step of the plan has been executed. ”

Adele breathed a sigh of relief, Bai Xian's hand patted lightly on her chest, and said in a loud voice: "That's good! That's good!"

Catherine slowly leaned back in her chair, followed by a long breath, and said, "Okay, then you can almost tell the people below and prepare for the battle." ”

General Philip saluted and said in a deep voice, "Yes, Your Highness." ”

In the afternoon of the same day, all the military and political officials in the city of Nedel were summoned by Angus for a meeting.

When Angus said the news that "more than 20,000 half-orcs will attack Nedel in three days", it can be described as a shock.

The whole venue was dumbfounded.

The officers were okay, after so many days of intense preparations, they had already seen that Nedel City was going to fight a big battle, but they didn't dare to guess until there was no definite news.

Otherwise, in this tense moment, play smart. Guess the intentions, if you guess wrong, it's good to say, so that you can show the foresight of the leader, bird raw fish soup or something.

In case Yang Xiu guesses correctly, a crime of vain intentions and shaking the morale of the army will be deducted, but the head will be cut off directly.

And the civil servants were stunned. At any time, it is also a common practice for civil officials to be courageous. Even Brother Da Fei said back then: Civil officials are not greedy for money, and military attaches are not afraid of death. The subtext is that civil officials can be afraid of death, and military generals can be greedy for money.

Even though the Ruman people are a country by force, they are no exception.

Nidel City has not been in war for more than 100 years, and most of the civil officials are used to the days of bright lights and wine, singing and dancing.

Usually, everyone is greedy, greedy, greedy, or something, and they have never seen what a war is like.

The biggest battle I've ever seen is a fire in the backyard of my house, and the eldest wife came to catch the rapist and got into a fight with the second wife

Thinking that there are not many soldiers in the city now. And on the other side, tens of thousands of ugly and murderous orcs are about to be killed. These civil officials are all anxious, and they can't wait to have a three or five million heavenly powerhouses around them to protect them.

They simply jumped up and yelled at Angus.

"Why are the orcs coming?"

"What is the Governor doing in the South? That's tens of thousands of troops

"Let Lord Lorraine come back to support quickly, quickly, maybe it's still too late. ”

Angus watched coldly as they were arguing there.

When they had enough of calling themselves, Angus said in a deep voice with a straight face: "Her Royal Highness the eldest princess has sent news to the governor, but the army is hundreds of miles away, and it will take at least half a month to drive back to rescue.

During this half-month period, His Highness ordered the city to be held.

All officers must stick to their posts. Those who leave their posts without permission will be severely punished.

A qiē rally was canceled, and martial law and curfews were immediately imposed throughout the city. ”

He paused for a moment, looked at the faces of the civil officials below, and said, "If there is anyone who dares to disobey, there is no immediate killing."

The officials fell silent.

Angus looked at the stupid appearance of the people below, cursed "waste wood" in his heart, then stood up, turned around and left.

In less than a meal, the entire city of Nedel knew the news that the orcs were about to attack the city.

Although the atmosphere in the city has been very solemn these days, in the eyes of the Nedel people, war is still very far away from them.

Until then, they would never have believed that orcs would be six or seven hundred miles deep into Naian. Fight all the way to the city of Nedle.

At first, the people were panicked, and the residents of Nader gathered in front of the grain store to buy food and various daily necessities.

Almost instantly, the entire stock of food in the Nidel market was snapped up.

When the people asked again, all the merchants unanimously said that "there is really no food".

Catherine, of course, knew what they were fighting, and under the next order, it was strictly forbidden to hoard and raise the price of food, and arrest people as soon as they could. Forfeiture of property.

The owners behind the grain stores were aristocrats. Although they were very dissatisfied, martial law was imposed. The whole city was under military administration, and if you disobeyed orders at this time, you would be disobeying military law, and the city guards, guards, and even the militia were all captured by Catherine.

There are even 800 Praetorian Guards and more than 100 magicians in the Governor's Palace.

Not to mention, the people of Nedel City. They can see with their own eyes that Catherine has been in these days. A large amount of food was hoarded in the city of Nedle. At that time, the convoy carrying grain blocked the streets for two days, and now Nidel has enough food to last for two months.

At the command, the tense atmosphere in the city eased slightly, and all the shops that were about to close and half-close were reopened.

After the panic, the Nedel people began to become impatient and angry again, and even scolded in public, "Lorraine, that kid grew up eating, and more than 20,000 orcs came to beat us with such a swagger." ”

There were many complaints in the city, all accusations of Lorraine's ineffective fighting, and although there were people who understood the situation to defend Lorraine, they were quickly drowned in saliva.

However, looking at the patrol soldiers walking around the street, these angry people still retained their sanity, and dared to complain on their heads, and quickly shut up when they saw the soldiers coming.

Unlike the commoners, who could only hold back their grievances, the nobles and officials in Nedel City used their brains at this time and began to find a way to leave the city that would be in the midst of war.

They first asked Angus and the others for detailed information about the orcs, and when they knew that there were still two days before the orcs could reach the city of Nedle, the powerful men began to jump up and down.

Because there are traitors in the city, in order to avoid leaking any news, Catherine has already issued an order to close the city, and no one is allowed to leave the city except for the soldiers on duty. These magnates all begged Angus and other dignitaries to come to the door, and gave them heavy gifts to beg them to open up. Go up and intercede with Catherine and Adele, and let them out of town.

Angus roared angrily at that time and said: "As a Naian, I have the responsibility of defending the land and defending the country, and I see who dares to escape."

thought that he was capable, and even went directly to Catherine and Adele to go to the door, but they were all kicked out by the Praetorian Guard.

Soft no, these lords and gentlemen are all hard, with their families and servants directly to the city gate, and the defenders of the city gate are identities, and heavy bribes, and finally hundreds of people gathered at each city gate, around the guards noisy and shouting.

The officers and soldiers guarding the city gate all received orders from above, and dared to open the door privately, and the military law was engaged, with one word, "behead."

Money and relationships are not as important as their own lives, and the officers at the city gate pushed back those big people with a cold face.

Seeing that the crowd was excited and the scene wanted to get out of control, Philip ordered the Praetorian Guards to rush to the various gates for reinforcements.

The Praetorian Guards didn't care if those people were hereditary nobles or wealthy people, they saw that these fat and pig-like guys even dared to resist the orders of Her Royal Highness the Eldest Princess, and the Praetorian Guard officer who led the team yelled: "Bullet pressure!"

The Praetorian Guards rushed into the crowd with sticks and beat them up. Disperse all the people blocking the doorway.

After a while, the people from the venture capital company sent the list of big names who made trouble at the city gate to Catherine's table, and Catherine just sneered, drew a big red cross on the list, and said to herself: "You wait for me." ”