Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 271 The way forward
The farewell feast should end when the last drop of wine is drunk.

In accordance with Plato's custom, Mrs. Mitchell gave the Colonel a new pair of stirrups and a new pair of boots as a gift.

Bode laughed as he put on his new boots and then threw his old ones out the window to show that he was finally rid of his bad luck.

Ironically, Winters welcomed Colonel Bode in the style of the Land of the Galloping Horses, even though the Colonel was the only Paratun present.

Captain Mason, who was in a daze, was taken back to his residence by Heinrich, who was still talking about his breeding experience as he left.

Colonel Bode wanted to speak with Winters alone.

After leaving Mitchell's residence, the two strolled along the St. George River, chatting idly about anecdotes from the Army Academy.

"I can't walk anymore." Colonel Bode looked at the two large rocks on the shore: "Let's sit for a while."

“Okay.” Winters had no intention of leaving anytime soon.

After sitting down, Winters slowly stretched out his left leg and unconsciously let out a muffled groan.

"Why do you look like an old man?" Colonel Bode teased, "You sit down and keep humming."

Winters tapped his left knee and answered casually, "I got trampled by a horse's hoof during the battle on the west bank of the Styx. It was almost healed, but recently the weather has turned cooler, and it's inexplicably started to ache and itch again."

Colonel Bode remained silent for a long time before speaking, his tone full of guilt: "I haven't thanked you yet. If you hadn't come back to save me that night, I would be dead."

“No need to thank me.” Winters pointed to the back of his head and said with a smile, “I got a hammer blow here, and I can’t remember a lot of things that night.”

"Let me tell you."

"never mind."

"Thank you."

Winters smiled but didn't say anything.

Winters has changed, and Colonel Bode has changed too.

The former colonel was burly, enthusiastic, laughed loudly, and cursed fiercely, like a magnificent stallion;
Today's one-armed soldiers are silent, quiet, and so thin that they can't even fill out their clothes. Their appearance shows signs of aging before their physical appearance, but their hearts are even more weathered than their outward appearance.

Although he still retains a positive sense of humor, it's difficult for him to move on—something Winters understands best.

The two sat on a large rock, listening to the river churning in the darkness, and remained silent for a long time.

Colonel Bode spoke first, his tone as humorous as ever, joking, "No wonder you refused when I said I wanted to marry my daughter to you. Turns out you already have a bridle on your horse."

Winters's breathing stopped: "Don't mention this to Miss Navarre."

"What are you afraid of?"

"It's not that I'm afraid... never mind, I'm making a formal request."

"Don't worry." Bode couldn't help but chuckle, patting his junior on the shoulder: "How could gentlemen possibly discuss their affairs with ladies?"

"That's right! You're absolutely right!"

“You little guys who came from kindergarten,” Bode said, a hint of pity in his eyes. “You’ve had too little contact with women growing up, you don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”

"You didn't attend primary school?"

"I didn't even have a preparatory school back then!" the colonel laughed heartily. "I entered college at twenty, and I'd already had my coming-of-age ceremony."

“Times have changed,” Winters weakly defended himself.

Colonel Bode laughed even more heartily, as if casually asking, "What are your plans regarding the Teltown division?"

“Swords come, shields block; arrows fly, armor blocks.” Winters picked up a few pebbles, launched them with the Arrow Spell, and then used the Deflection Spell to distort their flight path: “No plan, but I do have ideas.”

"Could you tell me about it?"

“There’s nothing I can’t say.” Winters laughed, tracing a map in the air with his finger: “I want to divide Iron Peak County into upper, middle, and lower parts based on the course and distribution of the rivers.”

"By dividing it into upstream and downstream?"

“No, it’s divided by river basin,” Winters explained. “So Lower Iron Peak County only has Wolf Town, Blackwater Town, and Five Mastiff Town.”

Colonel Bode uttered a name softly: "Lieutenant Bard."

"Xia Tiefeng County is sparsely populated, and more than 20,000 refugees have been settled there. Bader is in charge of it."

"So it seems," Colonel Bode pondered, "that Central Peak County is the remaining area south of the St. George River?"

“Yes, the remaining five towns of the Southern Eight Towns belong to Middle Iron Peak County. North of the St. George River is Upper Iron Peak County.” Talking to quick-witted people is so much easier, Winters added bluntly: “Upper Iron Peak County is the richest and most populous. Strictly speaking, Gevordan, located on the north bank of the St. George River, also belongs to Upper Iron Peak County.”

Colonel Bode gazed at the sky as if there were a real map there, and said with a smile, "I think... you're dividing a cabbage like this, one layer wrapped around another."

“If we’re facing the New Reclamation Army, it’s like a cabbage. The further out you go, the more dangerous it is, and the further in you go, the safer it is.” Winters didn’t deny it, but then he changed his tone and his expression became serious: “But if we’re facing the Heds, it’s like a cabbage being sliced ​​open, with its flanks completely exposed.”

"Aren't you going to send troops to Xia Tiefeng County?"

“No.” Winters said expressionlessly. “Leave that to Bard.”

"What about Shangtiefeng County?"

"I won't send any more; the Eight Garrisons of the North are not loyal to me."

"Is that why you're not sending troops to help them?" Colonel Bode asked with a half-smile.

“No,” Winterstan replied honestly, “because they are not loyal to me, I have difficulty obtaining supplies and mobilizing manpower in Upper Iron Peak County. It is not a suitable place for fighting, so I will not send troops there.”

"What do you intend to do?" Colonel Bode's expression gradually turned serious.

A pebble flew from Winters' hand and exploded in mid-air: "I want to have a showdown in Central Iron Peak County."

"The prerequisite for a major battle is that both sides have the willingness to engage in a major battle." Colonel Bode asked curiously, "How do you know that the Teldens want to fight a decisive battle in Central Iron Peak County?"

“I don’t know,” Winters said quietly. “Besides, if I were the enemy leader, I would do everything I could to avoid a major battle.”

"The barbarian tribes are numerous and their factions are many, resulting in a fragmented organizational structure. The downside is that they are prone to collapse at the first sign of trouble in a major battle. The upside, as the headmaster sighed, is their flexibility; a few dozen light cavalry can form an army."

Winters said casually, "So the key to this battle is not commanding my troops, but commanding the Telden troops. I need to get them to fight me on the battlefield I've chosen."

Colonel Bode was stunned at first, then frowned, and finally burst into laughter.

"Now I understand why Alpard likes you so much." The colonel patted Winters on the shoulder forcefully. "Young people are indeed formidable, daring and ambitious. I'm really getting old!"

"Don't be so quick to praise me," Winters said with a hint of helplessness. "I haven't figured out how to maneuver the enemy yet. It's just that... no matter what, the outcome can't be any worse, so I have nothing to worry about."

Colonel Bode deliberately put on a stern face: "Once the strategy is determined, the process of trying every means to get closer to the strategic goal is tactics. If I were in command, I wouldn't even have the idea of ​​'commanding the enemy'; even if I did, I would deny it with all sorts of reasons. You already have a direction, isn't that good enough?"

Praise from an elder is harder to bear than scolding, so Winters quickly changed the subject: "You mean Alpard? What?"

"I admire you."

Winters casually toyed with the pebble: "Didn't find it."

"He gave you the flask, isn't that enough to show his appreciation?" Colonel Bode raised an eyebrow and retorted, "When I was still a warrant officer, I never saw that flask leave his side."

“Is that so?” Winters chuckled. He had always assumed that the flask was something Alpad had casually tossed to him.

"Of course, everyone knows about General Alpad's lucky flask; it's his talisman!"

"It can't protect me anymore." Winters couldn't help but chuckle. "It's ruined."

"Scrapped?" Colonel Bode stared wide-eyed.

“He took a lead bullet for me.” Winters pointed to his left chest: “Here.”

Colonel Bode laughed heartily, tears streaming down his face. After laughing, the colonel wiped away his tears and said, "Since we've brought up Alpard, there's something else I'd like to ask you."

"Please ask," Winters sighed inwardly.

"Did you kill General Sackler?" Colonel Bode's expression changed, his eyes sharp.

“I killed him,” Winters readily admitted.

Why kill?

"There are many reasons, but it all boils down to one thing: I want to kill him."

"Kill me if you want?" Colonel Bode questioned.

Winters calmly replied, "That's right, kill if you want to."

"Want to kill more people?" the colonel asked with a sneer.

"I thought about it before."

"now what?"

"It's lost its flavor."

"What's gone bland?"

“The hatred has faded.” Winters wrinkled his nose. “Besides, I’ve found that killing one person doesn’t work. Kill Sackler, and there’s Tecker. Kill Alpard, and there’s Valpard. Kill one, and ten more are waiting to take over. It’s boring.”

"Killing one person isn't enough, so you want to kill more?" Colonel Bode gritted his teeth. "What exactly do you want to do?!"

“What do you think?” Winters countered.

"I think?" Colonel Bode's eyes widened in fury as he roared, "I think you're an ambitious man! You seize power by any means necessary when you see an opportunity! You want to trample everyone under your feet, even if it means killing thousands of people!"

Winters took a deep breath, sighed deeply, and asked the colonel with a smile, "You say, if an animal looks like a wolf, howls like a wolf, and walks like a wolf, is it a wolf?" "If it's not a wolf, is it a dog?" Colonel Bode sneered.

"Yes. Everyone will see it as a wolf and treat it like a wolf, so does it even matter what it is?"

"Of course it's important!" Colonel Bode roared. "Stop beating around the bush! I just want to know what you're up to? You're not a wolf? Then tell me, how are you different from a wolf?"

"What do you want to do?" Winters said bitterly. "I wish I knew."

"I'll fucking beat you to death, you little brat!" Colonel Bode suddenly stood up, swinging his one arm wildly. A powerful, savage stallion burst forth from its weathered body.

“You can’t beat me.” Winters pressed the colonel back onto the rock: “Calm down, calm down, let’s talk this out.”

Colonel Bode was breathing heavily and coughing violently.

Winters spoke only after the colonel had caught his breath.

He gazed at the black river under the night sky and recalled with some nostalgia, "At first, I disguised myself as a bandit to ambush the grain requisition team and prevent Revodan from forcibly requisitioning grain in Wolf Town. At that time, I knew what I wanted to do."

"Pretend to be a robber?" the colonel scoffed.

“I can’t really be a bandit, can I?” Winters retorted matter-of-factly. “I’m an appointed garrison officer. Is it necessary for me to be openly hostile to Ghevodan?”

"Then?"

"Then I realized that protecting Wolf Town alone was pointless. Although the other towns had nothing to do with me, if the entire Iron Peak County were to burn down, Wolf Town would surely be reduced to ashes as well."

"So your territory is getting bigger and bigger..."

"So I started thinking about the root of the problem." Winters looked down and fiddled with the pebbles in his palm. "The problem isn't with the civilians, nor with the soldiers who carried out the orders, nor even with people like Major Ronald who gave the orders directly."

People hated the soldiers who conscripted grain and men, and by extension, they hated the lords in the city of Zhevodan, because these were the two levels of government they had direct contact with.

The real problem lies with higher-level decision-makers, but these decision-makers are hidden behind their proxies, which creates the illusion that the Duke is good and his servants are bad.

"So you're going to take on General Adams?" Colonel Bode narrowed his eyes. "Once the war begins, the only important thing is how to end it. Even if you do manage to defeat General Adams, have you thought about how you'll handle the aftermath?"

Winters did not answer directly, but said with a smile, "To be honest—and don't laugh at me—I initially did take over Ghevorden and Iron Peak with a bit of a 'savior' mentality."

“Savior?” A muffled groan escaped from deep within Bode’s nasal cavity. “And now?”

Winters said somewhat listlessly, “Now I realize that it was my salvation that made the people of Iron Peak no longer need salvation.”

Winters simply sat down facing the colonel and looked him straight in the eye: "If it weren't for me, if Iron Peak County were still under the control of the New Reclamation Army, what do you think would be like now?"

Colonel Bode turned to look at the river, avoiding Winters' gaze and remaining silent.

"Then I'll speak for you. Requisitioning grain will continue! Requisitioning men will continue! Peasants will flee! Fields will lie fallow! The grain reserves from last year and this year will be exhausted sooner or later, followed by famine, banditry, and rebellion, and then an even greater famine!"

Colonel Bode couldn't help but sigh.

"Am I lying?" With each sentence, Winters' voice rose an octave: "You say I'm going to kill tens of thousands of people? Yes! That's right! General Adams probably didn't kill as many people as I have!"

Winters pointed to the distant Gevordan Square, his tone suddenly rising: "Right there, I beheaded dozens and hanged dozens more. Further north—north of Hammerhold! Colonel Zeppelin, and countless seniors, all died because of me!"

He glared at Colonel Bode and questioned him: "Taking a life with a sword is murder, but taking a life through famine and war is not? General Adams's hands are clean, and mine are bloody, so he is more noble than me? Yes, if General Adams were willing to put on an act, people would praise him for his compassion!"

"What kind of logic is this under the sun?! I tell you, General Adams is the biggest executioner! The lords who rule the Republic of Palatine are the biggest executioners! I stain my hands with blood, while they smear it on others!"

“I’ve answered with those words before, and I’ll answer with those words now.” Winters stood before Colonel Bode, looking directly into the colonel’s eyes, and declared, word by word: “Yes! Many will die. But if my men are willing to die for me, my enemies will know. If my men are not willing to die for me, my enemies will also know. I’d like to ask, how many are willing to die for my enemies?”

Colonel Bode instinctively tried to defend himself, but he managed to say with difficulty, "How could the New Reclamation Corps just stand by and watch the peasants starve to death? As far as I know, wasn't General Adams also recruiting refugees to reclaim land?"

"But did he succeed? He didn't!" Winters patted his chest. "Sorry, I succeeded."

What Adams couldn't do, I'll do; what he dared not do, I dare to do; what he was unwilling to do, I'm willing to do. If it weren't for that monkey-faced guy causing trouble, you'd see the wasteland turn into a golden sea of ​​wheat next May or June.

Colonel Bode's momentum was completely suppressed.

After a long silence, he readily admitted, "You did a very good job. General Adams at most recruited the strongest among the refugees to serve as soldiers and sent the rest to reclaim wasteland."

As for confiscating the landowners' land, houses, and livestock and redistributing them to the displaced people, General Adams could not, dared not, and was unwilling to do this—he and his men were themselves large landowners.

Winters, however, felt no joy in victory. He quietly sat back down on the large rock and began to shoot pebbles into the river, one by one.

“Savage pleasures will end in cruelty.” Winters’ voice was filled with deep frustration, defeat and confusion: “But I don’t know what I can bring to people.”

The colonel listened silently.

“I’m just restoring Iron Peak County to its former state; nothing has changed inside or out. That’s why the Eight Northern Towns are lukewarm towards me, neither close nor distant.” Winters rubbed his forehead. “I not only understand them, but I also think it’s perfectly reasonable for them to do this.”

To them, my replacement of the New Reclamation Army was simply a matter of changing who collected taxes. That's how the Eight Northern Garrisons see it now, and sooner or later, the Eight Southern Garrisons will see it too.

The colonel patted Winters on the shoulder and said in a double entendre, "To be alive is a gift."

“The premise is that life can be taken at any time.” Winters’ voice sounded clear in the quiet night: “Before facing death, people do not regard survival as a gift, but as their due. This is not arrogance, but nature.”

He asked with a smile, "If I knew when I was going to die, would I still be here chatting with you? I would have gone to marry Miss Navarre and have children long ago."

Colonel Bode laughed heartily, looking up at the sky.

These two people who have faced death can understand best: when death is near, many things that are not important now will become important; and many things that are important now will become unimportant.

Winters sincerely expressed his confusion to Colonel Bode:
"The current situation is that I saved Iron Peak County from the Legion, only to find that Iron Peak County can live well without me."

“I’ve reflected on this seriously—perhaps I shouldn’t have thought about resuming production in the first place. I should have just eaten the food stored in the warehouse and waited for the famine to occur.”

"When everyone starts to go hungry, I will give each starving person a weapon and lead them to attack White Mountain County and Vone County, like a swarm of locusts, eating and drinking everything. Then I will take more refugees to attack other places, and finally achieve a great success or failure."

“If that’s the case, it would be much better.” Winters smiled bitterly. “It would be much better than being stuck in Iron Peak County like this.”

"Why not do that?" Colonel Bode asked seriously. "Don't you want to be a savior? Start a fire that burns the world to the ground, and you'll be the savior of the refugees."

“Because I don’t want to,” Winters replied dismissively. “I don’t want to be a savior, and I am not a savior. I am an executioner—I will never deny that.”

"What do you want?"

“I don’t know either! But I can’t tell anyone that. I’m like someone carrying a torch ahead of thousands of people. If I say, ‘I don’t know where to go,’ and then stomp out the torch, what will happen to them?”

"You can't tell others, but you can tell me?"

“Yes, that’s all I can say to you,” Winters said, shrugging. “After all, you’re an observer.”

Colonel Bode gave a soft snort.

“But I’m not worried.” Winters laughed nonchalantly. “Wasn’t the old marshal forced to join the rebels back then? Didn’t he know where he was going back then? Didn’t he know where he would end up? Didn’t he also take it one step at a time?”

"What did you say?" Colonel Bode immediately became agitated upon hearing this. He leaped up from the boulder, pointed at Winters, and asked furiously, "Iron Peak County isn't enough, the newly reclaimed land isn't enough, Palatour isn't enough either? You want to be a marshal?! Why don't you become the emperor?"

Colonel Bode was trembling with rage.

"Don't worry, I'm just giving you an example." Wentesla gestured for the colonel to sit down, patiently reassuring him, "Maybe next year the Red and Blue Roses will be decided, and the victor's army will be on the border, and I'll be back in Veneta doing some small business? Who can predict the future?"

Colonel Bode angrily shook off Winters' arm.

“In short, I want to pause and think things over,” Winters told the colonel seriously. “I will not expand further until I have figured out what I can offer the people and until I have completely won the loyalty of Iron Peak County. If Iron Peak County cannot win their hearts, what right do I have to attack other counties? I want to figure out where I should go before I move forward.”

Colonel Bode sneered: "You're not blinded by ambition yet."

“I would also like to ask you a question: what is it that you are loyal to, concerned about, and care about? Is it the government? The army? The republican system? Or the people?” Winters countered.

Colonel Bode couldn't answer.

“I would like to ask you to stay and help me.” Winters bowed deeply to Colonel Bode with genuine sincerity.

"Help you?" Colonel Bode grunted. "Me, a colonel of the Republic, joining your rebel army?"

"Fine, I won't help then." Winters straightened up and sat back down on the large rock.

The old man and the child sat there silently, neither looking at the other.

They sat there for a very long time, with the river flowing calmly in front of them.

“I want to go back to Kingsburg,” Colonel Bode suddenly said.

“I’ll prepare horses for you.” Winters nodded readily, neither surprised nor disappointed. “I’ll arrange for someone to escort you—don’t worry, it’s really an escort, not a kill.”

Bode was so angry that he slapped Winters: "You little brat, you're really vicious now!"

"How can you call me cruel if I don't kill you?" Winters felt extremely wronged.

"Having this idea is vicious enough!"

"Alright, fine. When are you leaving?"

"So you're trying to get rid of me just because you can't recruit me?" Colonel Bode laughed angrily and slapped Winters on the back again.

"Whatever you want, I'd like you to stay a couple more days." Winters was also a little reluctant: "Anyway, whenever you want to leave, I'll arrange carriages and guards for you."

"In the next few days."

"it is good."

"I want to go back to Kings' Castle."

"no problem."

“I am not like you foreign bachelors; my wife and daughters are still in Kingsburg.” Colonel Bode sighed deeply. “I must bring them over.”

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(End of this chapter)