Chapter 490 – The Lights are Going Out at Horn Bay
Chapter 490 – The Lights are Going Out in Corner Bay
Just as Paul and Gelder were high on their hands, a person dressed as a lord’s guard trotted into the plant and quickly came to Paul’s side.
He saluted Paul and Gelder, “Your Lordships.”
Then he looked at Paul.
Paul asks, “Looking for me? Can I help you?”
“It is the gentlemen of the Council of State who have come to you to discuss matters, and the exact reason is in this letter.”
Because Gelder was present, the guards did not know whether to say it or not, and simply handed the letter directly to Paul.
Paul opened the letter, his eyeballs swung rapidly from side to side, his eyebrows were first tightly wrinkled, and then stretched out.
Gerd held back his curiosity and waited for him to finish reading the letter.
“Forgive me for asking, but did something happen? If you can tell me.”
Paul handed him the letterhead directly, “War has broken out in Horn Bay.”
“So it has.”
Gerd took the letterhead and skimmed through it roughly.
His face did not show any expression of surprise at all; anyone who knew a little bit about the situation in Horn Bay would not be surprised by the outbreak of war.
It would be surprising if it didn’t break out.
Paul said, “The initial news came in by carrier pigeon, and the war is estimated to have been on for over a week.”
He then asks “Does the Royal Government have the power to provide protection for the Aldo traders in Horn Bay?”
Gelder shrugged his shoulders with a bitter smile, “It’s a bit difficult with the current situation, and there’s still a Jarls between the royal domain and Horn Bay. In fact, this is the first time I’ve heard of the idea of using the power of the state to provide protection for merchants who have traveled out of the country, in general, shouldn’t they be left to their own devices, after all, if they chose to chase their wealth, then they have to take the risks that come with it.”
“Well!” Paul did not continue on this topic.
“Count Greiman, does the outbreak of the war in Horn Bay bother you?” Gerd saw a hint of worry between Paul’s brows.
Paul replied, “The Gulf of Horns is an important trade transit and rest and supply point for us, and if it is destabilized there, it will pose a serious threat to our trade with the East.”
He apologized and said to Gelder, “In that case, Lord Earl, I will have to go and discuss countermeasures with my officials immediately, so forgive me for not being able to accompany you to continue the rest of your tour.”
Gelder waved his hand, “You don’t need to concern yourself with me at all, please go about your business.”
He knew that the Northwest Gulf had a huge maritime trade, so this was important to Paul.
Paul gave him a slight nod and led the guards outside the workshop.
……
The Horned Bay countries generally practiced the citizen soldier system, and in the case of the Horned Bay Alliance, for example, the alliance had ten main cities, including Fort Ness, and each main city and the various satellite towns around it constituted a large district, which was both an administrative unit and a military organizational unit. Each district is required to provide one unit of infantry and one unit of cavalry, as well as five ships, crewed and armed, and has always been roughly so constituted. The naval and military forces of the ten regions of the entire Horn of Africa Alliance are under the command of ten generals, who take turns in commanding them when they go on campaign, with the chief general holding the highest position.
All free men of the League are citizen-soldiers, and there are four classes of citizen-soldiers based on property: the first and second classes provide cavalry, the third class provides heavy infantry, and the fourth class, or proletarians, provide light infantry or oarsmen.
In the past, all classes of citizen soldiers were required to provide their own weapons – this was the reason for the classification based on property.
However, this time, in order to completely solve the threat of the inland countries, the alliance carried out certain military reforms, and shelled out a large amount of money to purchase a large amount of weapon armor from the Northwest Gulf, on the one hand, using metal armor to increase the number of heavy infantry, and on the other hand, using leather armor to provide a certain degree of protection for the light infantry who were previously basically unarmored.
At this moment, Quiller Foster was wearing a pair of well-made full-body armor, standing on a high platform together with other important military generals of Horned Bay, and below the high platform was a black crowd.
Quiller, as a noble son, there was definitely a part for him in the war.
This second son of the Foster family was looking at the scene in front of him with a worried face. A war mobilization meeting was being held in Nisborough.
Senator Horace, the leader of the war party, was vociferously impressing upon the audience, in an impassioned tone, the righteousness of his side in this war and the message that his side would win.
“Citizens of the Confederacy! My dear fellow citizens!”
“The evil Church of the Horns and their inland lackeys have assembled, and as I speak, their armies have begun to cross the border and violate our beautiful country! Please answer me, should we sit back and watch this aggression?”
The crowd on the stage rallied, “No!” “Death to the dogs of the Church!”
The cries went on and on.
“I see your passion to defend your country!”
Horace continued to shout, pleased with the people’s response.
“The despicable and shameless Horned Bay Church has used a long planned murder to plant evidence against the great alliance! They truly call themselves servants of the Lord of Light in vain, and the Heavenly Father will send down angry thunderbolts to punish them.”
“All this time, the Horned Bay Church has carried the name of the Lord of Light, but it has been engaged in bullying men and women; citizens, fellow citizens, ask which one of you does not have one or two relatives who have been bullied by the Church’s so-called witch hunts? But do they really conduct witch hunts? Oh, look at it, it is plainly stated in the Book of Grievances that they are only using the name of witch hunts to exploit the wealth of innocent people.”
The reaction from the stage was fierce, “Fuck the church!” “Fuck Elvis!”
The curses were endless, and everyone was reminded of their painful memories in the witch hunt movement.
“Because of the witch hunts, our commerce was blocked, because of the witch hunts, ours became dangerous for everyone, because of the witch hunts, we had to be careful even to say a word!”
“However, we had already endured all of these, and at that time we were still naive enough to think that the Church was really thinking about the general public! However, it wasn’t until the son of a bitch Church wanted to transfer everyone’s hard earned hard earned money to that group of unproductive white-eyed wolves in the interior that we realized that we had been fooled, and the reality gave us a hard slap in the face!”
“And so the heroic people of the League gave a heroic reply – expelling the Church’s lapdogs from League territory, no longer recognizing it as the Heavenly Father’s representative on earth, and bravely confronting the Church’s exasperated threats of war!”
“Now they have put their threat into practice on vile grounds! But we will tell them that the great Confederacy dares even more to protect his people! We – vow to fight to the end!”
Horace’s barrage of words set the stage ablaze.
“Resist to the end!”
“Resist to the end!”
The loud slogans resounded almost throughout Fort Ness.
……
Unlike the frenzy in the square, there was silence in the Speaker’s office.
Joe Foster and his friend Speaker Marcus were standing in front of the window, looking at the people who were dispersing after the pep rally.
“My friend, do you think we will win this war?”
Unlike his confidence in front of others, Marcus asked this in an apprehensive tone in front of his best friend.
Foster slowly said, “Whether we can win the war or not ……”
He pointed out the window, it was nearing nighttime, and the families within Nisborough were beginning to light their homes, and the tops of the lighthouses on the docks were beginning to burn brightly – it had always been a source of pride for Nisborough to have a dense array of lights, which spoke to the wealth of the inhabitants.
Yet Foster said:
“The lights are going out all over Horn Bay, and we probably won’t see them relit again in our lifetimes.”
(End of chapter)