From Witcher to Lord of the Empire

After denying the Marshal's proposal, East quickly gave his reasons.

"There are 50,000 cavalry troops stationed in Upper Soden, and there are several divisions of heavy cavalry." East pointed in the direction of Upper Soden, "With the strength of us and the Eastern Front, it is impossible to take them down. Completely besieged."

"I've heard of Marshal Menno of Nilfgaard. He has made great achievements in battle. It is definitely not a dead-brained person who can sit in this level of position. If he decides to avoid the northern army and decides to charge east or west, His strength can easily tear through our 'defense line'."

"Compared to the west, where the Yaruga River runs across, our Sintra will be their first choice to break through. At that time, tens of thousands of cavalry will drive straight in... Sintra will be at risk of falling again."

After such an analysis by King Skellige, the strategy proposed by Wieselkid is indeed a bit of a gamble on the fate of the country.

"So Your Majesty... Uh, what do you mean, Your Majesty Easter?" The Marshal showed an inquiring look.

East thought for a moment and pointed to several places on the sand table.

"It is indeed possible to establish a defensive line in the direction of Lower Soden and Livia, but we must leave a route in Sintra that we can control and allow the Nilfgaardians to retreat."

"The whole south of Sintra would be a good option."

"After we defeat the Western Group Army, it is equivalent to cutting off their Central Army's retreat. Menno will definitely drive his troops back to help like crazy. At this time, we will attract them to the south of Sintra, and then fight with other soldiers Together, the horsemen smashed the Nilfgaardians and drove them out."

"Remember, it's just 'defeating'. The proposal of 'total annihilation' of the Nilfgaardians is very tempting. I also hope that I can give the empire a hard punch and let them taste the pain. But our current strength is still weak Yes, only by relying on a lot of 'methods' and 'surprise soldiers' can we barely fight, so...'defeating' them is enough."

East, who hated Nilfgaard no less than the Sintra people, even more so, took a deep breath and proposed the safest plan: "Everything is based on recovering Sintra, preserving Sintra, and Creating a good rebuilding environment for post-war Sintra is a priority."

Marshal Vesekid was silent. As a military general, he had fought too many battles, and indeed he would occasionally go up to the top. But this proposal was made by East, and he must pay attention to it.

"But if we get to Sintra, it's mostly a plain..."

The marshal frowned and raised an objection. Lane suddenly waved his hand at this time.

"There are many fortresses in the east of Sintra. Under the premise that we send heavy troops to guard them, the Nilfgaardians who have no logistics and mostly cavalry will not choose to attack the city rashly. They can only walk around the border. We We can stop him here—”

Everyone looked in the direction of Lan's finger, and Easter's eyes suddenly became sad.

That place is the Manada Valley, where the lionesses died. There Nilfgaard ambushed what was then Cintra.

"This is also a good place for us to ambush their cavalry regiment."

With the support of the Duke of Lannister and the King of East, even Marshal Vesekid couldn't say anything against it, let alone the others.

So the brown-haired officer began to smear the finalized marching route on the map, and after writing it down for preparation, he went back to form his troops.

...

After a while, the battle plan was basically finalized.

Lan glanced at Duke Darcy, who was still in a daze, and was about to wave his hand to signal the attendants to take him down.

East suddenly pressed Lan's shoulder.

"There's something I'm very concerned about, Lane. I want you to ask this guy if he understands for me."

Lann showed a puzzled expression.

East frowned: "When I was fighting the Nilfgaardians on the front line, I felt that their troops seemed to be passive and their desire to attack was not strong. Compared with the Nilfgaardians in the past, this is simply heaven and earth. Don't."

"Either the commander of their Western Army, Joachim de Witte, is an idiot, or they have another conspiracy." Easter analyzed, "I never pin my hope of victory on the enemy's incompetence, so I I would rather believe in conspiracy theories, I need to know the exact information."

Lan nodded to express his understanding, turned around and immediately released his magic power to ask Duke Darcy.

They soon had a surprise.

Under the influence of Fayin, Duke Darcy can be said to know everything and talk endlessly.

"According to the tradition, after His Majesty succeeds to the throne, he should choose a young girl who is ready to marry from the noble families of the empire as the queen, so as to ensure the superiority of the imperial blood."

"However, some time ago, we received information from spies in the palace. It seems that His Majesty has been issuing secret missions to his spies and warlocks, asking them to find Cirila—the purpose is to marry Cirila as queen."

"Joachim, like me, is a veteran of the three dynasties. Those of us can't bear the emperor's arbitrariness in this kind of thing...so we hope to teach the emperor a lesson on the front line in exchange for his compromise."

...

How brave, this group of court nobles.

Everyone first expressed admiration in their hearts. They sincerely expressed their "admiration" for this kind of old nobleman who brought political contradictions to the front line of the battlefield, as an enemy.

If there is any pass, the 100,000 troops may not cause as much damage to Nilfgaard as they themselves.

Afterwards, everyone reacted differently to the information revealed by Duke Darcy that "the emperor wants to marry Ciri".

There are four main types.

The first type is like the adjutant brought by Marshal Vesakid, and the generals with unclear information on the dwarf side. After thinking about it, they felt that they knew the truth—through marriage, Emperor Emhyr could obtain the legal right to rule Cintra. Sintra has an important strategic position as the gateway to the north, and Princess Cirilla deserves an imperial heir.

The second type is Easter, Mossack, and Kratz who knew Emhyr's true identity through Lann. They knew that Emhyr was Cintra's former son-in-law "Prince Doni" and Ciri's father. Therefore, they thought this was nonsense, and believed that Duke Darcy's intelligence personnel within the empire were extremely incompetent.

The third is Ciri. She hasn't been told the truth by Lann yet, but as the protagonist of this information, she feels sick.

The fourth type is Lann.

Xiongshi rubbed his brows, he knew that Emhyr was serious.

During this period of time, Emhyr really wants to be a ghost father!

Regarding the matter of the ancient blood, Emhyr could be said to have been limped by Vigfortz.

At this stage, he is unwilling to admit that Ciri is his daughter, and let people know that he once used the alias "Doni", and feels that the experience is very shameful; but at the same time, he wants to integrate the blood of the ancients into the Nilfgaardian royal family to obtain The power to "conquer the world".

Driven by this motivation, he created one of his most well-known memes—the kind that would get the book banned if he uttered it.

...

"Lan."

Lan felt his sleeve being pulled by the little princess, and when he lowered his head, he saw the watery eyes of the other party.

Considering that there are so many courtiers present, Lan En refrained from touching her head for the purpose of protecting Princess Weiyi.

"Wait a minute, I have something to tell you, Ciri. You have to be prepared..."

Lan En whispered, then patted his face to regain his senses.

The news revealed by Duke Darcy is more valuable than expected.

"Let's ignore Emperor Emhyr's real purpose. But the responses of the two frontline commanders are worth making a fuss about. It will be of great help to our attack on the Western Group Army."

"Originally, I planned to squeeze all the information on Darcy and use it to sacrifice the flag, but since this is the case, we can make him die more 'deservedly'."

He thought for a moment, then turned his head and made a new order: "Ens, write a letter to Emperor Emhyr. The content is that we have captured his Eastern Front commander, the hero of his restoration to the throne. If Darcy If the Duke is safe and sound, then he must pay the ransom according to the rules of the Northern Territory, and then let the army withdraw from Sintra, you can decide on the exact wording."

"The process of delivering the letter should be done with a lot of fanfare. Be sure to let the intelligence personnel placed in the palace by these old nobles know."

"After writing the letter to Emhyr, send a letter to Fultestay in Temeria. The information that Darcy just gave is written, and the enemy has already set them as strategic targets. I I don’t believe he can remain indifferent this time.”

Although the relationship with Fultestay is not very good, Lan also believes in the military quality of the orthopedic king. If you are lucky, you can still get a support soldier.

Then he turned his head to look at Reso: "I need the guerrillas on the front to spread a message to the Western Group Army: after capturing Duke Darcy, the people of Sintra follow the rules of war in the north and want to negotiate with Emperor Emhyr But the emperor, who was out of character and unwilling to compromise, blatantly refused, and personally sent killers to sneak into Sintra."

Lane pointed to Duke Darcy who was still under the effect of the seal.

"Duke Darcy was a tough guy. After being captured, he showed amazing willpower and did not confide any information to the people of Sintra. However, the poor man died under the assassination of his own people. The people of Nilfgaard will never Compromise. The Lion of Cintra is furious at the loss of an important captive...or so, you polish it up at the end."

Lei Suo narrowed the amber snake eyes slightly, and nodded in response. Colgrim behind him couldn't hide the corners of his mouth that started to rise.

After hearing the words, everyone followed and turned their attention to Duke Darcy.

Looking at the still bewildered commander of the Eastern Group Army, the hatred in their eyes subsided before they knew it.

"In a sense, we have fulfilled Duke Darcy's last wish. After all, they want to cause some 'trouble' for the emperor." Colgrim said, shaking his head.

Now it's not just Colgrim, everyone can't hold back the corners of their mouths.

——

Just when everyone in Sintra finalized the final course of action.

On the other side of Brokiron Town, and even Brokiron Forest, a "beautiful" hoof crushed a small piece of dry soil.

Few would describe a hoof as "beautiful", but this one deserves it.

Looking up, the black body hair on the hoof gradually disappears, revealing the covered white skin with interesting magic lines drawn on the skin; further up is a pair of small goat horns, and a pair of charming A face with two temperaments, gentle and charming.

Nanomi, the female night devil brought back from Skellige after Rann made a contract with [Followers]. When she was in the archipelago, she liked to stay away from human habitation, and she has been living in the Forest of Brokilon since she came to Sintra.

She gets along well with the dryads, and occasionally joins the "festivals" between the dryads and humans to satisfy her racial needs.

But at this moment, the female night devil crossed the mountains and crossed the forest.

In front of you is a valley shrouded in smoke. As far as the eye can see, there are thousands of graves and tombstones covered with moss.

Some of the tombstones are featureless, a single piece of shapeless rough rock; others are polished and carved into the shapes of obelisks and monuments; and those that stand in the middle of this rocky forest are erected as dolmens , Stone mounds and ring stone arrays ruled out the possibility of natural formation.

This is Finn Kahn, a large elf cemetery in Soden.

Although the rule of the elves was overthrown by humans, this cemetery has been preserved because of its "value in historical research and art appreciation", and it can barely be regarded as a scenic spot in Soden.

It was only because of the subsequent Battle of Sodden Mountain that it had been deserted for a long time. Normal humans don't want to approach the cemetery of elves, but the refugees caused by the war don't mind spending the night here. The stone sheds and ring stone circles in the middle are the masterpieces of the refugees.

Naomi, who may be older than the corpses buried in several tombstones near her, walked among the tombstones without any psychological pressure, talking to herself.

"Great, I found the Elven Cemetery, so I'm going to look for any huts nearby... wait!"

Nanomi's nose twitched a few times, and the air was filled with a strong smell of herbs. That's wormwood, basil, sage, star anise, and cinnamon.

"Ha." Naomi's face showed a smile that was enough to make everyone in Brokilon Town no longer miss the Dryad, "Come out, old man, I found you!"

The sound of fingernails scraping against stone suddenly came from behind a tombstone. In this environment, it could easily be mistaken for a ghoul.

But soon an ordinary hand stretched out from behind the tombstone, holding a plant root that looked like a child.

And then, a thin man with gray hair and dark eyes with an aristocratic aquiline nose emerged from behind the tombstone.

"Long time no see...Nanomi. Let me state first, I'm not avoiding you, it's just that such a complete mandala root is rare, I can't resist..."

The smile on Nanomi's face became even more rippling. And the middle-aged man in front of him looked at the female night demon's smile enough to make everyone in Brokilong town forget the dryad and his wife, and her naked body, but his face was silent.

It seems that the alluring beauty is not as attractive as the herbal rhizome in my hand.

Fortunately, he quickly pulled his attention back: "I didn't know you would come over today... There is a beautiful flower field nearby, do you want to go and see it?"

"Of course." Nanomi seemed very interested in the middle-aged man's proposal, "but not now. I heard that you live in seclusion around here. Are you working as a herbalist?"

"Strictly speaking, it's a 'hairdresser'." The middle-aged man spat out a strange professional name. "The recent war has caused many refugees. I will provide them with some needed medicines to treat some dangerous injuries."

"Ha, what reward do they want to pay you? Help you gather medicine, or directly 'pay' for blood?"

"No, it's free." The middle-aged man said slowly, "I told you a long time ago that our race does not need blood as a necessity for survival."

"Hahahahaha..." The female Night Demon couldn't straighten her back from laughing suddenly, "Those guys who call you a vampire should really see what you do, it's really interesting!"

"Vampire is a more polite term, and most people will call us 'vampire freaks' or 'monsters'." The middle-aged man's tone is still unhurried, "But I can understand that human beings are very interested in powerful, unknown The stuff is always full of fear."

"It doesn't change my view of life, I firmly believe that there is something shining in human nature."

"Okay, okay, great philosopher. I always like to talk to you. Your serious look is much more interesting than that of your kind." Nanomi patted her face. Every movement will cause a ripple.

"Then Naomi, why did you suddenly think of looking for me? How long ago was the last time we met? Decades? Hundreds of years?" The middle-aged man carefully picked off the soil particles on the root of the mandala in his hand, " I heard that you are doing well in Skellige, and you should continue to stay. It's not peaceful here recently, and I'm even considering changing places..."

The female night demon laughed: "You can't imagine my reason."

"I found the blood of the ancients, and there are more than one. They haven't fully grown up yet, but their strength is already amazingly strong."

"The confluence of the heaven and the sphere is imminent, and the pace of hoarfrost is always approaching. We are all witnesses and know what kind of tragedy it will be. So I joined the team of the ancient blood, because it is the most sensible choice."

"Then I thought of you again, my old friend Regis. As a visitor from another world at the last celestial sphere convergence, I believe you will also be interested in the ancient blood."