Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 93 Secret Society
Realizing that the defenders of Tacheng were racing against time to strengthen the city's fortifications, the two legion commanders who had personally conducted reconnaissance immediately returned to Chiliu Port.

It was night when the two legion commanders returned to Chiliu Harbor on horseback. Ignoring the struggle for command, Layton, upon returning to Chiliu Harbor, immediately ordered the Saint Mark Legion to hand over the city's defenses to friendly forces, and then led his troops, lightly armed, to Tower City that very night.

The Third Legion, "Great Vinetta," will rest for a day at Red Sulfur Port before joining the Legion of Saint Mark, carrying the supplies of the two legions.

Braziers and torches illuminated the central square of Chiliu Harbor, where António and Layton, on horseback, watched as the hastily assembled San Marco Legion distributed hemp ropes.

Many people in this era suffered from night blindness, remaining blind even in bright moonlight. Therefore, competent officers would avoid nighttime operations whenever possible. However, the situation was urgent, and the Venetians couldn't afford to disregard such considerations.

One end of the rope was tied around the waist of the soldier in front, and the other end was tied to the hand of the soldier behind. Only in this way could it be ensured that no one would fall behind, get lost, or desert during the march. It was a clumsy method, but it was also an effective one.

Once ready, the Legion of Saint Mark set off from Porto Chilu in four columns.

With a solemn expression, Antonio raised his hand to salute Layton. Layton, equally solemn, did not return the salute, but simply waved his hand before whipping his whip away without saying a word to Antonio who had come to see him off.

The civilians of Chiliu Harbor hid in their houses, peeking through cracks in doors and windows at the movements of the Venetta army. They still vividly remembered the ruthless Venetta soldiers going door-to-door arresting people a few days earlier, and the residents of Chiliu Harbor breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the Venetta army was only heading out of the city.

However, the banners changed hands; one army of Venetians left, only to be replaced by a new one. No one knew what tomorrow would bring, and the people of Chiliu Harbor slept in this state of unease.

Winters, however, did not rest; he waited anxiously in a room at the Third Army's camp.

The door was pushed open, and Antonio walked in. Winters stood up to salute, but Antonio pressed his arm down, patted him on the shoulder, and said nothing.

What would a man do if he saw his son drowning? He would jump into the water to save him, regardless of whether he could swim or not.

What would a commander do if faced with a "viper's sting" situation? Even if his conscience is guilty, he must "cut off his own arm like a hero."

But things get complicated when these two identities overlap.

On the day the Third Army was ambushed, Antonio abandoned Winters and his centurion. Winters was unaware of Antonio's inner turmoil at that moment, but he knew it must have been painful for him.

This was unavoidable; people always die in war, and he didn't resent his adoptive father for it. After being tempered as a true officer on Chiliu Island, even if there were any lingering resentment in his heart, he had already let go of it.

But he didn't know what to say to Antonio, so he said nothing, and Antonio said nothing either. Because it's difficult for men to openly express their feelings, most of the time they simply don't communicate at all.

Besides, there are more important things to do right now.

“I have found the person the Secretary of State of the United Provinces asked you to find,” Winters stated directly, stating the information he felt needed to inform Antonio as soon as possible.

"Huh?" Antonio was clearly taken aback and didn't react.

“To be precise, it was a corpse.” Winters bit his lip.

“Lionel…” Antonio tried to recall: “…was he the person he asked me to find before he left? I think his name was…”

“Marat, Marat, the special envoy of the Secretary of State of the United Provinces,” Winters reminded him. “Before Secretary of State Lionel left, he asked you to send Mr. Marat’s ashes to him.”

“I’m getting old, my memory is definitely not what it used to be.” Antonio gave a wry smile and asked, puzzled, “You found that person on Red Irrawaddy Island? He died on Red Irrawaddy Island?”

Winters took a deep breath and said in a low voice, "No, not on Red Sulfur Island...it's in Blue City, in the morgue of the Garrison Command—the man who was assassinated on the dock was the special envoy of the State Secretary of the United Provinces."

Antonio was initially bewildered, then gasped, and asked Winters solemnly, "Are you sure?"

"It's confirmed. The assassin's accomplice admitted it to me personally."

"who is it?"

Winters gritted his teeth and uttered a name: "...It's Lieutenant Colonel Contair."

“Contel?” Antonio’s expression changed drastically. “How dare he! Where is he?”

"Lying in the infirmary, a person loses consciousness and may not survive. On the day of the attack on the port, Lieutenant Colonel Contel was shot in the stomach, and his intestines were punctured. I found a doctor on the island to remove the lead bullet, sew up his intestines, and clean his abdominal cavity. He admitted it to me in person while he was conscious, and I don't think he was lying, nor did I have any reason to lie about this."

Upon hearing that Contel's fate was unknown, António calmed down slightly. He exhaled and asked, "Why would Contel assassinate the special envoy of the Secretary of State of the United Provinces?"

“It wasn’t Lieutenant Colonel Contaire, but someone else from his group,” Winters said, gathering his thoughts. “According to them—because Veneta needs the Tanilla Islands.”

Winters then told Antonio everything he knew.

Mara, the special envoy of the United Provinces' Secretary of State, did not arrive in Aquamarine City in secret without a reason; he carried an agreement, an agreement concerning the Tanilla Islands.

Vineta's desire for the Tanilla Islands is well-known.

Seven years ago, the Fremen began a brutal tug-of-war with their eastern neighbors. In order to raise more funds for their war effort, the Sultan of Fremen, who controlled half of the Eastern shipping route, began to levy higher commercial taxes.

Therefore, since De Bella took office, Venetia's tax revenue has been declining, and the current prosperity has shown signs of decline. One after another, merchants who made their fortunes on the Eastern shipping routes have gone bankrupt.

Within the trade network of the Gulf of Cenas, Venetta's status as a core transit hub is also facing a strong challenge – from the Tanilla Islands.

The Tanilla Islands are no longer the barren islands they were thirty years ago. Caught between various powers, the islands have prospered rapidly as a neutral port, accumulating a great deal of wealth.

Because tax revenue decreased, tax rates had to be raised. After the tax rates were raised, merchants fled to the Tanilla Islands, where tax rates were even lower. With fewer merchants, the tax base shrank, necessitating another tax rate increase to maintain existing revenue.

This creates a vicious cycle. "Veneta needs the islands," these are Colonel Contaire's exact words. Not because of some damned pirates—piracy has been rampant in the Cenas Sea for decades, yet it has only been repeatedly emphasized in recent years—all because Veneta needs the islands.

Whether it's to eliminate competitors, or to find new sources of raw materials and dumping grounds for goods, the most important thing is to find new ports—ocean ports.

The ports along the coast of Cenas Bay are too small and too shallow. In contrast, the Tanilla Islands are full of deep-water harbors, and the Storm Ocean lies to the east of the archipelago.

Acquiring Tanilla not only meant acquiring new land, but also a new possibility, the possibility of a new shipping route, a new route across the Storm Ocean to the Spice Islands.

Sultan Freiman imposed heavy taxes on merchant ships, which on the one hand damaged trade, but on the other hand, it caused the prices of goods from the East to skyrocket, making goods from the East more profitable—provided that Freiman's control could be bypassed.

The Tanilla Islands represent this possibility. After decades of surveying, Venetia's navigators realized that if the earth were a sphere, a straight line could be drawn from the Tanilla Islands to the Spice Islands.

To accomplish all this, one must traverse the turbulent, stormy oceans that have claimed the lives of countless explorers.

To navigate the Stormy Ocean, one needs sufficiently sturdy and seaworthy vessels, a large enough dry dock, and an ocean-going port.

For a myriad of reasons, more and more Venetians are recognizing the immense value and potential of the Taniri Islands, especially within the Venetian military.

The young, elite Vinetta soldiers reached a consensus through repeated heated debates about the nation's future: Vinetta must seize the islands. To advance this goal, at least one secret society was established within the Vinetta army.

The dying Contair refused to reveal more of the group's secrets to Winters, but only tried to get Winters to accept his ideas and recruit him into the secret group.

Winters also learned more about the group during this process.

However, it wasn't just the Venetians who saw the potential and strategic value of Tanilia; the United Provinces also recognized this. The United Provinces Republic acted and planned its actions on the islands much earlier. Before the Venetians began emphasizing that the islands were used by pirates to sell stolen goods, the United Provinces had already been making every effort to infiltrate the Tanilia Islands, intending to turn them into the eighteenth province of the United Provinces.

Even the political structure of the United Provinces Republic allows it to offer more favorable terms than the Venetia Republic. Becoming the eighteenth province of the United Provinces is better than becoming another county of Venetia.

This is why Veneta became increasingly radical, and the governor of De Bella always mentioned the Taniri Islands in his speeches to parliament, with each speech becoming more and more intense.

But State Secretary Lionel of the United Provinces raised a new possibility, one that would not necessarily provoke conflict within the Cenas Alliance.

His envoy secretly came to Veneta to reach an agreement, one that De Bella and Lionel had been secretly discussing for a long time: to turn Tanilla into an overseas territory of the Cenas Alliance, maintain its semi-independent status, and be jointly ruled by Veneta and the United Provinces.

This was destined to be an agreement that neither side would be satisfied with, and it was also the reason why the special envoy of the United Provinces' Secretary of State was assassinated.

To be honest, Winters didn't object to Contaire's argument that "everything is for Veneta's benefit." Winters also agreed that acquiring Tanilla would bring Veneta enormous advantages.

However, from the moment when Contair's associates openly assassinated the special envoy of the Secretary of State of the United Provinces because the political reconciliation did not meet their expectations, everything they said could no longer be trusted by Winters.

According to Winters, these people say "everything is for Veneta's benefit," but in reality, they are only acting for their own political ambitions.

The military is the nation's weapon, a concept that military academies constantly instill in their officers. However, when weapons develop their own consciousness and even attempt to influence the actions of those who wield them, it is essentially a form of treason.

Those soldiers who drowned in the sea, were nailed to stakes, or died and were burned in the fortresses all died because of the ambitions of the Contaires.

“That’s all I know. Contel’s secret society is probably using the Duelists’ Club as a cover. These people are already very dangerous. They’ve tasted the sweetness of manipulating politics with violence. I can’t even imagine what they’ll dare to do in the future,” Winters concluded. “However, according to Contel, they didn’t blow up the docks. Another group blew them up… I don’t know if that’s true or not.”

He had originally left all of this in a letter, but now that he had survived, he no longer needed one. He urgently sought out Antonio to explain everything, wanting to warn him that a secret political group had emerged within the Venetian Army.

No one knew which officer belonged to this secret group, and there were other officers like Contaire even within the Third Army. Most dangerously, this political group was becoming increasingly violent and radical, resorting to killing to eliminate anyone who stood in their way.

Antonio remained silent, lost in thought.

He thought for a while before saying, "...Secret societies, I've heard a little about them. There are quite a few secret societies in the army, but this is the first one that dares to actually kill someone..."

“If you want to investigate them, I can infiltrate them. Contair is trying to recruit me, and if he survives, I'll use him as a stepping stone. If he dies, it will be even simpler.”

“No, you don’t need to investigate. It’s too dangerous for you. Such underhanded matters should be dealt with openly, but the timing isn’t right. We’re at war with Tanilia, and we need manpower now. If we expose this now, the Military Council will only give it a half-hearted response. If we insist on punishing everyone severely, it will only damage the army’s fighting capacity.” António frowned and said, “You don’t need to worry about this. I’ll go to General Zio and handle it from top to bottom.”

Winters understood Antonio's subtext and said resentfully, "You mean, Contel and the others have tied themselves to Veneta and can't be dealt with?"

“There’s no turning back now that the battle has begun. The most important thing now is how to end it. We will deal with them, but the timing isn’t right. We need to find a proper way, a way that won’t damage the army’s fighting strength.” Antonio’s brows furrowed. “Leave this to me. Don’t get too involved.”

"You should also be careful of these people. They even dared to kill the special envoy of the Secretary of State of the United Provinces. Their knives are already stained with blood, so they will only become more insane. They might even... turn on their own people." Although unwilling, since Antonio said he would take over, this might be the best solution at the moment.

Suddenly, Winters seemed to remember something and stammered, "There's something else, which might be even more important than the Contaire matter..."

"Hmm? What is it?" Antonio rubbed his temples and asked wearily.

"I...I think I killed a court mage."

I'm back after wiping out the Minotaur's house.

Thank you to all the readers who voted for the book before, especially Tianshui Youjiaren, Zhengyi Chunjie Shi Kaola, writersbolck, 20181013204343295, writersblock, Kaofenfen, Yushitongzhou, and Ami Yuan Hongjian. Thank you everyone.

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(End of this chapter)