[I made a mistake yesterday, but I have modified the content. Except for the title, the plot is fine. There is no need to subscribe again. I apologize to everyone.]
"Those devils of the Holy See will come back?" Conan asked with lingering fear.
"If there is no accident, next spring, a small force will infiltrate, and in two years at most, the warships of the Holy See will appear in the northern sea."
Conan lowered his head and carefully analyzed Salin's words. He didn't quite understand what Salin meant, but he knew that the barbarians had at most two years before they would continue to face those devils.
The barbarians were not afraid of fighting, but those devils were protected by evil gods, and the barbarian gods had long fallen.
Salin stopped talking and quietly waited for Conan's answer. After a long time, Conan sorted out his thoughts and described the Holy See's situation in the north to Salin again.
According to Conan's knowledge, the Holy See had been active in the north for at least five years. In the beginning, the Holy See came to the north to preach and develop believers among the barbarians. After two years without any results, the people of the Holy See in the north were replaced on a large scale by the black-armored warriors of the Inquisition.
Then came the beginning of the massacre. The barbarians had a large area of activity, and the tribes were not concentrated. The Holy See didn't have many people in the beginning, but after gradual nibbling away, only after two years, tens of thousands of barbarians completely disappeared from the northern wilderness.
The Holy See's methods were very cruel. They didn't want children or the elderly, only barbarians who could fight. Often, after a barbarian tribe was wiped out, the number of barbarians who survived was in single digits. Most of the barbarians who managed to escape were not in their tribes. They had gone out to hunt, and that was why they were spared.
Conan's tribe's area of activity was quite large, and he knew the location of hundreds of tribes within a radius of a thousand miles. After three years, not a single one of the hundred or so tribes remained intact.
Salin made a simple analysis. The northern wilderness was a protruding land in the upper right corner of the Myers Continent, and it had a vast area. According to such a distribution density, there were at least hundreds of thousands of barbarians in the northern wilderness. A tribe controlled about a hundred miles, and there were not many people, about a hundred or so. This living density was already lower than that of the Caucasus. No wonder for so many years, there was no news of any big forces appearing in the north.
The barbarians still lived in a primitive way, and they weren't willing to run around like the Caucasians. They were a race that was almost forgotten. The first time they were remembered, it brought about a tragic end.
The Church was divided into three factions. The Judgement Court was one of them, the Divine Envoys were the other, and the main faction that dealt with the secular world was the Cardinal Institution. Capturing barbarians and refining them into blood knights was something that the Cardinal Institution would never do. The Cardinal Institution was the one who had signed the contract with the three empires back then.
The people who first preached should be the forces of the Divine Envoys.
The seven Divine Envoys of the Church had special followers and were secretive in their actions. They could turn a blind eye to the creation of the Blood Knights. The Oracle's power must have seen that there was no hope of preaching, so they let the people from the Inquisition in.
According to Conan the Barbarian's description, the inquisitors had to kill two barbarians to capture one. The Inquisition's initial losses were also great. But after a year of fighting, the situation was completely reversed. The inquisition sent a large number of Divine Masters, and the death rate of the black-armored warriors suddenly decreased. The barbarians had no priests, and the injured couldn't get any help.
If the number of barbarians was around 150,000, then the inquisition could capture 50,000 people in total. These 50,000 people would be refined into blood knights, which would be five knight regiments.
Five knight regiments at the level of swordsman was really a terrifying force. If these blood knights didn't attack the city, they would cause great damage in the field.
Rex's swordsman battalion in Kushui Commandery was already a rare elite force. After ten years of training, the ratio of swordsmen to swordsmen was only one to four. In other words, out of ten warriors, two would be swordsmen.
But after ten years, Rex only had one such elite battalion, which was 10,000 people, among which 2,000 were swordsmen. The Church spent three years searching for barbarians in the north, and they could create more than 20 times the strength of Kushui Commandery. If the two sides fought in the field, Rex's swordsman battalion would be completely annihilated.
Of course, Rex still had a large number of low-level Mages, but the inquisition also had a large number of Divine Masters and Ascetics. These people had the power of Mages, which was a divine spell bestowed by the gods. Perhaps with the addition of Mages, Rex's swordsman battalion could fight one against two, but the enemy's strength was more than 20 times. This wasn't something that Mages could deal with.
Judging from the timing, the inquisition caught the barbarians at the same time that the black mages appeared. Salin suspected that the incident with the black magicians was a ploy by the Inquisition to attract people's attention so that they could ignore what was happening in the Northern Wilderness. The problem was, how did the inquisition bring more than 50,000 barbarians back to the Tanggulas Empire?
Was the Grand Duke of Phoenix involved in this? If this was true, then there was probably a large number of hidden forces of the Church in the Phoenix Duchy. Once the war on the western front became tense, these hidden forces would attack from the north. The worst possibility was that there were already Blood Knights deployed in the Phoenix Duchy.
The new Grand Duke of Phoenix was still in Sacred Rock City, and wouldn't return to his country no matter what. The entire duchy relied on the support of the local nobles.
Salin's suspicions weren't without reason. The appearance of the black mages seemed to be short-lived, and they were suppressed by the local nobles of Phoenix. With the power of Phoenix, if the black mages really did rise from the ashes and were well prepared, the Phoenix nobles wouldn't be able to eliminate such a large number of black mages without Qin Yin's help.
If such a thing happened in the Phoenix Duchy, then Salin's newly built city would be in great danger. The straight-line distance from Phoenix to here was less than two thousand miles. If it was the Blood Knights, they would arrive in two days at most.
If Salin's city was already built, he wouldn't be afraid of the knights. But he didn't even have the city walls, not to mention the Magic Towers to help defend the city. If the Blood Knights attacked before the city was built, Salin wouldn't be able to defend the city at all, even with the magic cannons.
Worst of all, if Rex returned with a large army and had to pass through the Phoenix Duchy, Rex didn't know how dangerous it was. Rex didn't know how dangerous it was. If it was really as he had guessed, Rex's men might be completely wiped out.
"Sir Salin, I'll ask the elders to contact the survivors of the other tribes." Conan finally made up his mind. In Salin's city base, the life of the barbarians was pretty good. There was no more cold or hunger. All that was left was hunting, fighting, and training that the barbarians were all too familiar with.
"You … go." Salin's heart was a little heavy.
After Conan left, Nelis said, "Master, should we send someone to Kushui Prefecture?"
"It's too late. Rex might be in the Caucasus region now. And there's no teleportation circle in Kushui Prefecture. It's almost impossible to find Rex. "
"Then go to the border of Phoenix and wait. There are only two or three roads into Phoenix anyway."
"I can't send anyone." Salin looked worried for the first time. In the past, he had almost nothing and no foundation. If he encountered trouble, he could just run away. Now he had a city on his back. This was the city that his teacher asked him to build. He couldn't run away again.
The manpower on the three warships that Jason gave Salin was halved. Rex took a third, Passatro and Cornuco took another third. If he sent the remaining third, the city would completely stop working. Of course, those pirates couldn't be sent to Phoenix. Salin was still worried about them.
And if all the people here were transferred away, what about the Three Kings and the Revenants? Once something happened to Salin, this place would completely belong to the Three Kings. His teacher's hard work would be in vain.
"How about Daniel?" When Nelis mentioned the Necromancer, Salin could only shake his head.
"Daniel is now willing to follow me obediently, but his level is too low. And we need at least three people to go to Phoenix to guard all the roads. "
Nelis had no other way. The Winged Skeleton had to control the Coiled Turtle Alchemy Ship and couldn't leave. She had to protect Salin and couldn't leave either. Other than that, there were only four level-three mages around Salin. Their strength was similar to Daniel's. With their departure, Salin was left as the sole commander.
"No wonder those legendary mages have so many followers around them. Sigh …" Salin sighed frequently. He didn't lack money or materials. He just lacked manpower.
"Master, the Vatican may not immediately think of how to deal with you. Why don't we divert the Vatican's attention …"
"How?"
"There are a lot of reputable mercenaries in Scotia. We can hire a batch to Phoenix. If the Vatican really has hidden forces there, it's easy to make a move that can't be hidden. Rex will naturally be more careful."
"When the number of mercenaries exceeds a certain level, they can't freely enter other countries. Although Phoenix is only a duchy, it belongs to Qinyin. It won't let a large number of mercenaries enter. If the number of mercenaries is small, it won't be of any use at all. Rex is also Duke Qinyin. No one dares to stop her when the Duke of Phoenix isn't here, but mercenaries can't. "
While Salin was worrying, someone knocked on the door.
"Come in." Salin called. A magic apprentice walked into the hall where Salin was practicing and said, "Master Salin, Passatro and the others are back."
"Back?" Salin was overjoyed. He was just worrying about the lack of manpower, and Passatro and Cornuco were back. He really wanted to sleep. "Bring me to see them!"
"Salin, you're in such a hurry. Do you want to see me?" A familiar yet strange voice came from outside the door.
"Ernie?"
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