This was followed by a parliamentary debate.

The parliament of Asturias debated behind closed doors for three days not to declare war on the High Elves, and even Her Majesty the Queen was present in the Parliament.

Because it was a closed-door debate, the details of the discussion in this session of the National Assembly have not been made public, only the results.

But a few years later, some memoirs written by lawmakers at the time described some of the scenes, exposing how Congress gradually changed from a pro-war pro-war to a pro-war vote to a pro-war faction gaining the upper hand.

When the final result was reached by 276 votes to 143 votes against the war, it meant that Asturias could begin to prepare for war.

However, only the decision of the National Assembly to declare war for the sake of the dignity of the kingdom and free trade was announced, and later in the memoirs it was known that the votes and the words of Duke Solomon on behalf of Her Majesty's unity of thought were known.

"Ladies and gentlemen, in order to defend the dignity, freedom, and interests of the Kingdom of Asturias, even the last drop of the blood of Fadel and Farusion will be drained. ”

But even the apparently biased remembers of the memoirs lament at the end: "It is not only the blood of Fadel and Falucion that is drained." ”――

Asturias resolutely and quickly united the will of the country, sounded a declaration of war, and made a gesture of defending the interests of its merchants to the death.

And the external signs show that this does not seem to be a joke, and the domestic arsenal has begun to produce at full capacity, and the shipyard in Modo has begun to build various warships.

This made the Saxons and Aurora suspicious, and the Titania was more embarrassed.

Because its crown prince Tristan has been insisting on talking to the High Elves instead of choosing war after the Titanian merchants were also humiliated and suffered huge losses.

He pleaded with the High Elves through Duke Alvarez that Titania was unaware of the dangers of ambergris. Even if there were, the original recipe came from Asturias.

He hoped that after gaining the understanding of the High Elves, the two sides would reconcile, and even if they could not get all the losses from the High Elves, as long as they could help those highly influential families and businesses recover most of the losses, then the war could be avoided. And in general there is a profit.

At that time, Titania can stay out of the matter and achieve his original intention, even if Solomon's plan fails, Titania will not lose money; on the contrary, Asturias will fall into a dilemma, and the strength of the war alone will not be caught, and if there is no war, the foundation of the kingdom's governance will be greatly shaken.

However, Tristan's intentions were brutally shattered by the stubborn High Elves, who even drove back the Duke of Alvarez's emissary and denounced him as a traitor and a lackey.

It was only then that Tristan realized that something was out of his control.

The reason for this is precisely because the Titanian merchants crowded out the merchants of other countries in the trade of ambergris. Accounts for the majority of the High Elves' market share.

This forced the merchants of Asturias to open up a new market for the Centaurs, and the Titanians were happy at the time.

But in fact, since then, Tristan's plan has been skewed, because the benefits obtained by Titania in the ambergris trade are no longer something that can be casually discarded by virtue of his influence, and because the Titanians sell the most ambergris among the High Elves, now the High Elves oppose the ambergris trade, and naturally regard Titania as the first evil.

Even if Tristan threw out the news that Asturias was the initiator, it still couldn't shake the High Elves' hatred of Titania at this time.

And Asturias' swift and resolute declaration of war against the High Elves in the spirit of upholding the dignity of the kingdom and free trade has greatly stimulated the people who have suffered great losses in Titania. Trapping Tristan in the middle of a storm.

His good brother, the second prince Garon, who had been depressed since the position of the crown prince was determined, jumped out again in good spirits. He volunteered to go to Emperor Sauron to plead for those ambergris dealers.

Although Garon's move did not receive the support of Sauron, after the news broke, the Titanian tycoons who were involved in the ambergris trade immediately rallied around the prince of Garon as if they had seen a savior.

A few days later, Prince Garon entered the palace again, but this time he represented the interests of many domestic wealthy families, merchant groups, and big businessmen.

So Sauron had to summon the crown prince Tristan to the palace to discuss. No one knows the detailed process in it.

However, Titania later issued a statement expressing extreme indignation at the High Elves' false claims that ambergris cream was poisonous, forcibly confiscating imperial property, killing and imprisoning imperial merchants, and respecting and protecting free trade from unfair treatment. Regardless of war, we must safeguard the common interests of the Titanians.

The two most powerful nations on the Azure Continent have both begun to activate their respective war machines, but when it comes to a big battle with the High Elves, it is natural to be prepared.

Therefore, the two countries began to make preparations on the one hand, and on the other hand, they invited other forces on the mainland.

The Council of Asturias passed a resolution to allow the orc tribes of the Western Beast Alliance to join the kingdom and allow the Rose Bank to return to Santa Quentin, so that the south of Aurora no longer objected to the invitation of the two countries, while the Titanians took care of the traditional nobles of the north of Aurora and finally pulled the Aurora into the chariot, and the Aurora promised to send an army to participate in the joint battle.

On the Saxon and Church of Light, in addition to the benefits of the war, the two countries agreed to join the combined army on the condition that they would force the High Elves to agree to the Church of Light to obtain missionary rights in the Emerald Land.

However, Solomon did not have great hopes for Aurora and Saxon, the Aurora people are fully engaged in the management of Cologne, and if the strength of Titania and Asturias is controlled by the High Elves, then the Aurora people will not be able to ask for it, which is just conducive to their expansion on the continent of Falmalik.

As for the Saxons and the Church of Light, they will hope that the two countries and the High Elves will fight to the death, anyway, they will not lose much in the anti-trade actions of the High Elves, and they promised to send an army, which is also to strengthen the determination of the two countries to go to war with the High Elves. If it really wins, the Bright Church can open a church and preach in the Jade Continent, and it won't suffer any loss.

However, Titania and Asturias must also pull them in, as long as they participate in the war, they will be more or less helpful when the war is critical, and more importantly, with the help of the possibility of eliminating internal strife. In the name of righteousness, these countries and forces will not be hindered.

Of course, some of the preparations that are actually lurking beneath the surface are also going on in secret.

Solomon had been preparing for this war for a long time, and he had a long conversation with Pope Yusuf of the Church of the God of War, and then asked Fawkes to send an emissary to the Celestial Fire Plateau, and finally he personally went to the Dark Regions.

When he returned from the Dark Lands, the nations convened another secret meeting to discuss the planning and command of the war.

In the end, a plan was drawn up between the nations for the start of the war, but they could not agree on the command.

Titania's idea was to establish a unified command, that is, the countries elected one commander, two deputies and three marshals to be responsible for commanding the troops of the expeditionary force and commanding the battle. Asturias did not say anything about this. But Saxon and Aurora resolutely disagreed, and were only willing to send troops into battle, but insisted on self-command.

In the end, Titania had no choice but to agree to act in unison and command separately.

The commander-in-chief of Asturias's side is Admiral Perseus, and the sea troops are commanded by Bethof, the commander of the Poseidon Legion; Titania is coordinated by Crown Prince Tristan at home and abroad, and the command of the war is grabbed by the second prince Garon, which is not good news for Tristan, because Galleon is brilliant in this war. It is possible that he will pose a renewed threat to his crown princeship.

Aurora sent only one unit and a small number of ships to join the battle, commanded by the former border governor Tiago, while the Saxons and the Church of Light did not send an advance force at all. They only promised that if the Combine could successfully establish a bridgehead and portal in the Emerald Continent, they would send troops into battle.

At this time, Asturias and Titania are also making final preparations, the most critical step in the first stage of the war with the High Elves is to establish a bridgehead on the Emerald Continent, and may also need to repel a counterattack by the High Elves until the portal is built.

The two continents are too far apart. If the portal is not built, it will be difficult for the follow-up army to reach by sailing, and if the speed is too slow, it is likely to be pushed back into the sea by the High Elves, after all, it is the home of people. Only through the portal can the power of the countries on the Azure Continent be thrown over as quickly as possible, and even if the Saxons and the Church of Light agree to participate in the war, they will not see rabbits or eagles.

As for the portal, it will be regarded by the High Elves and druids as destroying nature and the plane, of course it doesn't matter at this time, anyway, everyone is going to war, even if it is, there is no need to scruple in the war.

Of course, it is useless to go directly to build a portal, which is the home of the High Elves, and the changes caused by the portal are extremely difficult to hide from the druids and the strong among the High Elves, and even if they are built without adequate protection, they will be destroyed.

Therefore, according to the initial stage of the plan of the kingdoms, a strong navy will be used as the advance force to occupy a suitable city on the coastline of the Emerald Continent and then establish a waypoint.

The shipyards of Titania and Asturias were building warships and converting some suitable merchant ships into battleships as well.

The shipbuilding industry in Asturias was not very developed before, but after the annexation of Modo, Modo had a good foundation in shipbuilding and naval warfare, because of the previous situation of Modo, the land was far from being the opponent of other powers, and it had developed to the sea, and had a lot of experience in fighting with the sea tribe all year round.

Thanks to Modo's foundation and experience, Asturias was able to build sail clippers many years ago.

However, after combining magic technology and dwarven mechanical civilization, hybrid merchant ships and warships appeared.

For this war, the Asturian Council specially approved the budget to build three magic mechanical hybrid warships, each of which cost no less than the original all-round floating ship, which is not very cost-effective, but there is no way, the two continents are too far apart, and the floating ship cannot fly directly over.

These three warships were originally intended to be built into full-scale magic guide warships, but it was precisely because they were too far apart that the cost of pure magic crystal burning was too great, and if they were mixed with magic and mechanics instead, they could get hybrid power by burning black rocks.

In addition to these three, seven more warships with three types of hybrids at once are under construction.

The three types of hybrids refer to the simultaneous presence of sail power. A steam engine is also installed on the ship, and if the steam engine burns black rock instead of burning it, it can also gain additional mana.

However, there is a difference between these seven warships and the previous three, the difference is that the first three ships have placed a large number of magic arrays on the ship and the attack and defense methods obtained based on the magic array, so even the crew driving the ship is not only ordinary sailors, but also specially equipped with a magician brigade and three groups of magic apprentices. Only in this way can the three ships be steered, while the others are only responsible for navigation guidance and use as meat shields in case of a broadside battle.

These seven warships can't be so gorgeous, first, the cost is too high, and second, it is too late in time, so its combat mode is in a compromise way.

These seven warships can only have both power, and maybe one or two magic arrays in the ship will use the magic power of burning black rock alone to give the ship some kind of magic effect, but in terms of attack, it is impossible to be as gorgeous as those three, but the shipborne artillery provided by the dwarves is chosen.

Here we must talk about the mechanical technology of the dwarves, and the magic of Asturias is being developed. Mechanical technology has always been a mixed ingredient in the development of magic, and often after the success of a technology or road with magic plus mechanics, there is always a search for alternative methods to further reduce costs.

And the dwarves have always refused to admit defeat, they have also continued to research and improve the machinery, and after the muskets, artillery naturally appeared, and after being reminded by Solomon, the dwarves cooperated with Bethof's Poseidon legion. Artillery was brought onto ships and became a new weapon in naval warfare.

In the past naval battles. When the Poseidon Legion deals with the attack of the Sea Clan, most of them face side battles and ramming battles, especially the possibility of attacking from underwater, so the amphibious talents known as the Scale Clan are the only Terran Kingdom Navy that can fight with the Sea Clan at sea.

After the artillery was put on board, after testing, the effect was very good. The lethality produced by a salvo of dozens of guns was staggering, initially solid shells, like the kind sold to Khorin that they used against the Imperial Army of Aprolo.

Under the frantic research of the dwarven craftsmen, although the breech cannon has not yet appeared, the flowering shell and the delayed explosive device have been successfully developed.

Magically a similar effect can be achieved. For example, the fire magic, but the dwarves have also achieved a similar effect through the power of machinery.

If you want to make a comparison, the high-power artillery plus the flower bomb is at least twice as powerful as the explosion magic, reaching the peak of the intermediate single magic, but the range attack effect is greater than the explosion fire magic; if according to the magic theory, the larger attack range plus the lethality of the sixth-order single attack spell can be included in the seventh-order range attack spell, that is, to achieve the attack strength of the lower level plus a large area attack; but the effect of the artillery plus the flower bomb does not fully meet this standard, the attack intensity is barely reached, but the range is much smaller, such as the meteor fire shower in the seventh-order spell, can cover a maximum of several square kilometers (the larger the coverage area, the weaker the spell attack strength), while the limited range of the flowering bullet is much smaller.

Therefore, the attack of artillery and flower shells is rated as a sub-high-level attack by mages, which is not only different from the range attack spell strength in the seventh-order spells, but also higher than the effect of medium-level spells.

In this refit, these seven three-series hybrid warships are dominated by machinery in the attack system, and the weapons equipped are multi-deck guns, but the guns that can shoot bullets are not too late to be equipped in large quantities.

Each of these seven ships was equipped with a hundred guns of various sizes, of which only 40 were special guns capable of firing flowering shells, and 20 on each side.

In addition to these ten main warships, most of the first-class ones are converted from armed merchant ships, sails and steam power, although this can also burn black rock, but due to the lack of a device to store magic power on the ship, burning black rock is also a waste.

Further down there are pure sail warships, which have also been modified and equipped with guns, but most of them are guns that can only fire solid shells, and the guns that can fire flowering shells are only in the single digits.

The reason why sails are also widely used is mainly due to the difficulty of replenishment for ocean voyages, and it is necessary to rely on sails to save fuel.

In addition to the warships, at Solomon's suggestion, a number of merchant ships were also recruited as special supply fleets, and a huge fleet of more than 100 ships was planned to be formed to prepare for the expedition. (To be continued.) )