...
Soli Dahl crossed the broken castle gate with satisfaction and walked into the castle of Coldwind Town.
"Take down Coldwind Ridge in three days?" Apart from the two days spent on the road, it only took him a quarter of an hour to break through the town's wall. Of course, it was still a question whether the mud fence, which was only as tall as a man, was counted as a city wall. There were only a few guards on guard duty. After two of them were killed by the Judgement Army, they immediately dispersed. There was almost no formal resistance.
"Is this the town that guards the border?
The Kingdom of Graycastle is just so-so. "
The only thing that dissatisfied him was that when the army of the church was still halfway up the mountain, the beacon under their feet started to smoke, as if they knew that they were coming to attack the town.
Although it was only a matter of time before the other territories in the Northern Region saw the alarm, this lack of respect still made him a little angry. They regarded the troops of the Holy City as enemies in advance, which meant that they had been desecrating the town for a long time. He had already sent a small team of Judgement Army to the beacon, ready to capture these people and interrogate them before sending them to the gallows.
"This way, my lord," the Knight leading the way said in a trembling voice. When the sword was placed on the necks of these people, the knights did not show the righteousness of sacrificing themselves to protect their lord. Instead, they immediately knelt down and surrendered, declaring that they were willing to serve the church.
This was the ugliness, cowardice, and helplessness of people without faith. They were not worth mentioning compared to the Judgement Warriors who fought for God.
After killing several guards along the way, the Judgement Army broke into the lord's study and blocked all possible windows — although Soli felt that they did not have the courage to jump out of the window. He slowly stepped into the room and watched the pale Lord of Coldwind Ridge slump into the chair.
"Good afternoon, Lord Kevan Marton."
"You, you dare to break into Coldwind Ridge... Does the Holy City want to openly make an enemy of Graycastle?"
"He's finished," Soli thought. Fear had completely robbed him of his will. After fighting against demonic beasts in the Hermes defense line for decades, the archbishop had honed a unique ability, which was to taste fear. Some people could turn fear into the desire to survive, while others could only be swallowed by fear. The former was a necessary quality for Judgement Warriors to be promoted to God's Punishment Army, while the latter would be eliminated by endless bloody campaigns.
Kevan was obviously the latter.
"That's right. Didn't you already know that?"
"What? No! I don't understand what you mean — "
"It's too late to regret now, sir," Soli interrupted. "Buying food at a high price and forbidding merchants from going to the Holy City. Don't tell me you did it on a whim... The King of Graycastle wants to turn Coldwind Ridge into an outpost to attack the Holy City. Of course, he can't blame us for launching an early counterattack."
"You are making groundless accusations!" Kevan shook his head, "I didn't do any of these things. The king has never sent an envoy to Coldwind Ridge, not to mention attacking Hermes!"
"It's fine if you don't want to admit it. His Holiness will have his ways to search your brain for the information he wants. However, it won't do you any good if that happens. So, it's better for you to confess everything you know now."
"I, I really didn't do this. You can't wrong me!" His fat body shrank back. "I'm the Lord of Coldwind Ridge, an Earl of the Kingdom of Graycastle! Your behavior has violated the Months of Demons Convention! "
"Enough. You asked for it."
Soli Dahl waved his hand in annoyance. The Judgement Warriors immediately dragged him out of the study.
After the archbishop sat down on the lord's seat, he vaguely felt that something was wrong. The lord had obviously been overwhelmed by fear. Why did he still refuse to give in? Was he so loyal to Roland Wimbledon that he would rather be taken to the Holy City for interrogation than to reveal the king's plan?
At this moment, a chief judge walked into the room and said, "Your Excellency, Pysos has sealed the granary, but..."
"But what?"
"There's not much food stored in there. It's estimated that it's only enough for the townspeople to eat for one or two months. It's impossible to support an army."
"Are you sure?" Soli frowned.
"Pysos searched the granary and even asked the guards. They said that there hasn't been a large shipment of grain recently. The wheat in the warehouse is the same as last year's stock," the chief judge reported in detail.
"Then what's with the news that the town is buying grain at a high price?" He thought for a moment and said, "Go and ask those merchants."
"Yes." The chief judge nodded. "In addition, we've searched all the garrison camps in the west of the city. Most of them are empty. According to the surrendered Knight, there hasn't been any effective replenishment since the Border Army was wiped out in Hermes."
In other words, Coldwind Ridge wasn't ready for war at all? This was too different from the information provided by Zero. The archbishop's frown deepened. After a long silence, he ordered, "There must be believers of the church in this town. Gather them and ask them in detail about the changes in Coldwind Ridge in the past two months. Also, interrogate those who voluntarily surrendered to the church and the local Rats. I want to know what's going on immediately! "
The chief judge clenched his fist and said, "I'll do it now."
Soli leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh. The attack on Graycastle was a plan that had been decided long ago. The process and gains were not important, but he did not like this feeling of surprise at all.
"Where did I go wrong?"
The next day, the chief judge handed the collected information to the archbishop's desk.
Soli turned to the first page and quickly scanned through the confessions. "Two local merchants bought grain on a large scale, and they hoarded thousands of kilograms of wheat?"
"That's what the merchants said," the chief judge said in a low voice. "After learning about this, I immediately searched their houses. There was indeed a lot of grain, but that's only for individuals. There were only 20 kilograms of grain in the basement, and there was no one in the house. Also, there is no one in the house. They must have escaped not long after the fire was lit. "
"You mean … colluded?" The archbishop quickly understood what the chief judge meant.
"Yes, Your Excellency. Only by colluding with foreign merchants and pretending to buy and sell grain from the left hand to the right hand, and then from the right hand to the left hand could they create such a false impression."
"Where did those merchants come from?"
"From various towns in the Northern Region, Deepvalley Town, City of Evernight, Windswept Castle... They started buying grain at a high price a month ago. At first, not many people paid attention to it. It was not until the number increased that the merchants began to pay attention. We've locked up all the merchants in the town, but we haven't found those guys who transported the grain. "
If the two parties really colluded, then the chance of catching them was very small. But … what was the other party's goal in doing this? To attract the attention of the Holy City so that His Holiness the Supreme Pontiff could launch an early invasion?
Soli turned to the last few pages of the report in confusion and saw another piece of information.
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