"You must not go out. ”

Valrhona stopped in front of Roland, her tone steady and her voice low, and her expressionless face had no room for negotiation.

"Their purpose is you, and to go out now is tantamount to throwing yourself into a trap. ”

Whether it's against bandits or against the country, the approach is the same.

Shoot the man first and shoot the horse, and capture the thief first and capture the king.

The same is true of the "vaulting" operation. As a well-targeted special operation, the only supreme target of the "vaulting" operation was Roland himself. Without this, any other "achievement" is meaningless. No matter how clever the propaganda department of the empire is, how many heads and equipment they come up with to prove that they have won a "great victory", no matter how much they preach that "the destruction of the guerrillas is coming." None of the people would think that an action that did not achieve its goal would be a "victory", and it would soon be clear again that the guerrillas were everywhere and that the Defence Forces continued to be exhausted. Who is the winner, at a glance.

It may be hard to say, but in fact, no matter whether the good guys, the wicked guys, the ruffians, the peasants, the priests, the intellectuals, the kind of life he had lived before, and what he looked like in the eyes of others, once they went to the battlefield, they were all pawns. They are chess pieces and cannon fodder that can be discarded at any time in the name of "taking into account the overall situation" and "dedicating oneself to the ideal", and sometimes they don't even need a name or reason.

the so-called war;

The so-called struggle;

At the end of the day, that's exactly what it's all about.

"I know that I shouldn't say that, losing an infantry company, or even a division, we still have the opportunity to recruit soldiers to raise the banner of the revolution again. But without you, without the command of the 'Freikorps', the whole revolution will be interrupted for at least twenty or thirty years. The Empire will absorb the fruits of the war without being disturbed, and shape their ideal 'fourth-class citizen' through a combination of administration, propaganda, and education. At that time, it will be difficult to spread progressive ideas and raise the banner of revolution. In order to avoid this situation, even a certain amount of sacrifice is not hesitated. ”

If there is one of the greatest strengths of the Empire, it must be the long life and patience of the elves.

A person's life is only a few decades in the blink of an eye, and the time span from a person's birth to death may not even be over for elves, and in the time of a generation of elves, human beings may have completed the replacement of four or five generations.

Such a long life made the Empire's top brass not only far-sighted in formulating policies, but also with a high level of policy continuity and stability. On top of that, the consequences of many education policies take a long time to become apparent, and the elves have the advantage of longevity by observing the effects of various education policies in the same way that they can observe the reaction of litmus paper, so as to create an education system that best meets their needs.

At that time, the soil in which the revolution is nurtured will cease to exist, and the revolution will become a tree without roots, and sooner or later it will be exhausted. Once the revolutionary forces at home were resolved, the empire would be free to deal with Charlemagne's exiles abroad, or to build up strength and prepare to destroy the nations. At that time, the world will really fall into the abyss from which it will never recover.

This is a crossroads in the history of the world, where Roland would be lost and the flames of revolution would be extinguished and the world would sink into darkness. If the core leadership of the revolution can be retained, even if the "Freikorps" suffer a heavy blow and the revolution falls into a low ebb, it will only be temporary. They still have a chance to start another revolution, even more so than it is now, that will spread throughout the occupied territories.

Saving oneself and destroying the enemy - this is the basis of strategy and tactics in the first place.

But this is ......

"There is no difference between us and the Empire. ”

“......”

The style of the empire is, in a word, one of extreme realism and self-interest.

Perhaps out of reserve, perhaps for image reasons, the Empire is not as explicit as the Albians and can put words like "there are no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only eternal interests" on the lips. But in practice, the empire is entirely concerned with efficiency and profit. Therefore, they can sacrifice others without care, commit unforgivable crimes, and then use asymmetric intelligence superiority to carry out impression operations afterwards, package evil deeds as a last resort, use various data icons to prove it, and use words such as "if you don't do it at the time, the sacrifice will be greater" and so on to steal concepts and assert their own legitimacy. In the end, even the atrocities were glorified.

This is the way of thinking and behavior that the Empire has extended based on the basic national policy of "all beings are born unequal", and it is taken for granted to them, even if you point at their nose and shout "ridiculous" and "sick", they will only shrug their shoulders and say they do not understand.

No country would issue a denial of human rights to livestock.

To the Elves who dominated the Empire, humans were just high-class domestic animals that were slightly similar in appearance, walked on two feet upright, could speak, could use tools, and could understand and carry out commands. Domestic animals that do not listen to discipline are pest animals, and expelling, suppressing, and exterminating them are reasonable stop-loss behaviors, let alone immoral.

Whether people accept it or not, the Empire does think so from the bottom of its heart.

However, if the Freikorps had done the same thing, no matter what justification they had and how compelling their circumstances, they shouted that "there is no precedent in history for achieving great things without sacrifice". From the moment they, like empires, saved themselves at the expense of others on the basis of profit and loss, they were tantamount to self-denying the principle of democracy and righteousness that they had put forward, and from that moment on, everything they advocated began to collapse. When everyone agrees and acquiesces to this, the destruction of democracy and righteousness is complete. No matter how loud the slogan of "liberty, equality, fraternity" may be, they have become a different kind of empire, reduced to the one they once hated the most.

"Even if we fail to catch or kill me, the Empire will use the propaganda system to portray us as terrorists who use civilians as meat shields, coerce civilians into suicide attacks, and escape by stepping on the corpses of innocent people. With the means of intelligence dissemination at our disposal, we cannot counteract the overwhelming propaganda offensive of the Empire. Even if an ordinary person has doubts, he cannot check them one by one, so he can only choose to believe in more authoritative media. ”

"But ......!!"

"The most important thing is that even if you break away now, with a large number of reconnaissance 'legions' and reconnaissance planes in the air on the scene, you will definitely be discovered if you can't go far. ”

Taking a deep breath, Roland said in a decisive tone:

"Whether you want it or not, this is an inescapable battle, and if we can't fight a bloody road, we will have no future at all. ”