It does not take much time to get to the bottom of a matter that none of the parties have intended to conceal, and the parties not only do not stop the investigators, but also provide them with all kinds of conveniences, and the progress can be described as leaps and bounds.

It took only one day for the results of the cross-checked survey to be put in front of the decision-makers of the countries, and the people who decided the fate of the country found themselves facing a war with no hope in sight.

This is no longer a matter of choosing sides and pulling sides, as the literal meaning is intended to express - the rise and fall of the state in one fell swoop - the countries have stood at the fork in the road of history, just like Charlemagne. Do they choose to follow the signposts of history pointed out by the Divine Agent, or do they want to take another fork in the road? To put it more bluntly, do they want to live or to perish?

I'd rather fight to the death like a beast than be kept in captivity like a domestic animal - this sounds very heroic, and it is also very imposing to death, as if the person who spoke was a one-meter-five tall military commander, hanging two large utility knives and a pneumatic catapult hook and ready to go out and fight with the giant. The problem is that the other side is not a gentle species like giants, but transcendent divine consciousness agents who can lift the table and restart the world anytime and anywhere.

In the face of the monsters that terrorize humanity with natural disasters and destruction, strategy, courage, power, enlightenment, sacrifice - everything is so humble and ridiculous, and the situation can be described as hopelessly bad.

Everyone has reached the point where they have to make a choice, obey or perish?

Faced with the oldest philosophical question since the advent of intelligent beings, the nations chose to wait and see what unfolded while consulting with Minerva to meet her demands.

"It's not so much that they're so frightened that they don't care about hatred of democratic republicanism, it's more that they're not willing to live in the shadow of the empire and that guy, and choose the least risky of all the dying ways. ”

Valrhona turned the coffee mill, and the coffee beans brought with the diplomatic documents made a crisp cracking sound, and the aroma of a long-lost absence slowly spread through the room.

"Thanks to this, the coffee situation can be regarded as a temporary relief. ”

"It's not very satisfying, but it's the first step to opening up the situation. ”

Throwing the minutes of the meeting onto his desk, Roland let out a sigh of relief and collapsed in his chair.

The perception of democratic republics has not changed, and in their eyes it is still a poisonous ideology, which, if it spreads in their own countries, will erode the existing order and destroy the national polity. Considering the possible reaction and pressure of the Empire, it is clear that the idea of establishing Charlemagne's government-in-exile on its own soil is not feasible.

To be honest, Roland also considered a plan to establish a government in exile, but he was vetoed by himself at the first time.

From the standpoint of the nations, it is indeed in their interest to have a government-in-exile that casually rubs itself around. However, they would then be bound to come into direct conflict with Alfheim, which is exactly what the nations are trying to avoid at the moment. Thus, the government-in-exile is far less attractive than the idea of "propping up Charlemagne and Alfheim to tear each other apart". At the moment when Li Lin has already identified himself as a substitute for divine will, the countries are even less capable and determined to set up an "orthodox Charlemagne-in-exile government" on their own soil.

From Roland's own point of view, a government-in-exile is not a safe option. Judging from the historical record and Albiang's consistent performance, even if such a regime in exile is established in Albion, all it can do is watch itself be squeezed out of its value little by little. If any more democratic and republican ideas were propagated, without Yalfheim's intervention, Albion himself would have taken a black hand from behind and cleaned up this regime in exile.

This is too far from Roland's goal for him to choose at all.

To be able to capitalize on the fears and selfishness of other countries to successfully sell a plan to establish a democratic republic abroad is a successful first step and one of the few good news in recent times.

"The nations want us to provide a route to exile, and if you can, it's better to include a list. ”

"Should I say they're so kind......

Stirring the coffee, Roland smiled wryly.

It is completely normal for an exile to submit a route and a list of people to the place of exile, after all, it is impossible to casually say that I want to go into exile, and here you will reply "No problem, come quickly", and then easily cross the border and go to another country to establish a government-in-exile.

This is a time of war, not to mention the series of diplomatic problems that may arise from the acceptance of exiles from a defeated country by a neutral third country, and the question of how to break through the blockade line alone is enough to make people scratch their heads. Now Charlemagne has completely lost air and sea supremacy, and the various naval and air weapons of the Defense Force are like no one in Charlemagne's airspace and territorial waters, as if they have become their own backyard. Some daring submarine captains even dared to rise to the surface in broad daylight and shell the ships in the harbor with naval guns at the mouth of the harbor. At the risk of the submarine running aground, a handful of brave captains floated directly near the coastline and shelled shore targets with naval guns. In such a situation, not to mention large ships carrying hundreds of people, even fishing sampans going to sea will attract hordes of submarines to watch, and they want to go into large-scale exile?

The success of the exile program depends on a high degree of secrecy, surprise from the enemy, rigorous organization, meticulous arrangement, seamless coordination of the transfer process, and finally a little luck. As long as the above elements can be gathered, a shocking reversal of the retreat drama can be staged under everyone's noses.

Therefore, in terms of logic and flow, Albiang's request is not excessive.

It's just that as the situation changes, for example, when the situation quickly tilts in Yalfheim's favor, the list is likely to be diverted for other purposes...... As Albion always does, no one can guarantee that one day a mail from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will appear on the desk of the Stacy headquarters building, containing the original list of Charlemagne's exiles.

Albiang is not to be believed.

But now the situation has become so urgent that it doesn't matter if you make a deal with the devil, even if you know that Albion may betray you, you can only entrust your life to these guys who are no different from the devil.

"The most important thing now is how to get out of Charlemagne. ”

Shaking his head to shake the tangled dissatisfaction and unhappiness out of his head, Roland put down his coffee cup and walked to the map table.

"If you want to leave the mainland and go overseas, you can only go through the waterway, and at present, all of Charlemagne's airspace and territorial waters are under the supervision of Alfheim, and it is already difficult for ships to leave the port, and a large number of ships leaving the port will only attract submarine captains who want to go crazy with their medals. ”

"How about breaking it into pieces? Since large ships are not good, how about evacuating people to the other side of the strait first with small boats that can be collected immediately? Small boats are large in number and have a shallow draft, so it is impossible for a submarine to waste torpedoes on small hulls. With the sea conditions of the strait, it is difficult for a submarine group to chase and sink all the ships, even with the addition of surface ships and the underwater type MDS. ”

"No, I can't. In addition to surface and underwater threats, there are also enemy forces in the air, who move faster than the navy and have a full grasp of the situation, no matter what tactics are used, they cannot escape the tactical eye in the air. What's more, there are guys like the Seven Deadly Sins here, if the sea and air forces can't be contained, it will be their turn to appear, and in front of those monsters, even if there is a ship group escorted by a regular fleet, it is in vain. ”

"So it's completely impossible to depart from a port in your home country. ”

Valrhona sighed and looked at Charlemagne's border on the map.

"All that's left is for refugees to travel overland to Brittanya and then overseas via Albion. ”

The only foreign territories that could accommodate Charlemagne's refugees today were Normandy, Brittany, and Flanders under Albion. The passage to Ceres has been blocked by the Wehrmacht, and the path to Castile is still smooth, except that the border between the two countries is mostly steep mountains, similar to the Serres side, which is not suitable for large-scale human traffic; Forgive Charlemagne is a matter of Mother Goddess, and we are responsible for sending Charlemagnes to Mother Goddess", in this way to "farewell" Charlemagne. Sending the refugees there was no different than herding the sheep into a wolf's den, and in the end, the port of Castile was not far from the area of activity of the Wehrmacht's naval and air forces, and if the news leaked, the regiment would still face the embarrassment of being beaten.

It seems that the only suitable route is to go to Albion and then to the overseas colonies.

However, this remaining passage has its own problems.

The first is the question of whether Albion is reliable, as mentioned earlier, but in the context of no other option, there is no point in dwelling on this.

The actual route of retreat, especially from the numerous ports in Flanders to Brittania, to Albion proper, was more worrisome than Albion's integrity.

How to get past the eyes of Alfheim and cross the Strait of Lamanche is at the heart of everything.

Important port cities have always been an important stage for spies, especially in times of war, and there are as many spies as there are carps crossing the river. Spies from belligerent nations, spies from neutral countries, and even commercial spies sent by chambers of commerce, as long as a location is important enough, they are sure to be seen.

There must be the ubiquitous Stacy agents.

If there were a sudden horde of Charlemagnes in a port city, the discerning agents would never have missed such a conspicuous target, and Alfheim would have taken such measures to prevent them from leaving, and even to demand that Albion extradite the exiles.

So, how do you cross the Strait of La Manche safely?