Imperial Crown.

Chapter 348 Insa's Hidden Hand

Thanks to qq reading dad [Autumn, Sorrow] for the 300 reward!

……

"Joshua, I feel like you owe me an explanation."

Blood Eyes sat behind the table, staring at the lizard man and spoke slowly.

He is 44 years old this year. His many years of career as a horse thief did not make him look particularly old, but only left him with a bronze skin.

He wore a scarlet eye patch on his head, covering his right eye; his left eye was a very common brown color.

Seeing Joshua remained silent, Mongar showed a hint of dissatisfaction in his eyes.

He put his right thumb across his fat lips:

"Joshua, how can we cooperate if you continue like this?"

Joshua is a lizard man who is now over 110 years old.

Considering the 200-year lifespan of the Lizardmen, Joshua is just middle-aged.

Like its peers, its body is covered with green scales, and a thick tail pierces through the armor and sways behind it.

The tricorn hat on his head symbolizes his identity as a "pirate general".

The most eye-catching thing is the area between his eyebrows, where a cluster of white scales grows among a green scale.

The black vertical pupils fell on Mongar's face, and the slender black tongue hissed:
"What do you want me to explain?"

"Why did today's siege still fail?" Mongar whispered:

"We already agreed on this when we were formulating the tactics yesterday. Today, your Lizardman Legion will be the main force and transport the siege equipment over!"

Joshua glanced at Mongar:
"But the prerequisite is that your horse thief must firmly attract the other party's attention."

"The results of it?"

"You mobilized more than 1 people, and in a whole day, you only built 14 floating bridges. The construction was faster than the others dismantled them. In this situation, you want my people to take over. Are you going to let them freeze to death in the river in vain?"

Meng Engal's face looked a little grim when he heard this, because everything Joshua said was true.

There was no way around it. After all, Mon Engal's men were all horse thieves, and bullying the weak and fearing the strong was ingrained in their bones.

If he asked the bandits to burn, kill and plunder, they would certainly obey; but if he asked them to abide by military discipline and follow orders, they would not have to point their swords in any particular direction.

Thinking of this, Meng Engal's attitude softened:
"I know I was wrong. Let's do this. Tomorrow I will mobilize more of the untouchables who were robbed and try to build more floating bridges..."

"You humans are really cold-blooded in treating your own people." Joshua snorted coldly:
"But it's up to you what you want to do."

"Anyway, I will judge the situation myself. If it is not safe enough, my Holy Blood Legion will not be dispatched again."

Meng Engar's face was a little gloomy: "Joshua, don't go too far!"

"I went too far?" Joshua's cold eyes flashed with an angry sneer: "I have been restrained enough."

"Have you forgotten what happened when we attacked Eagle Town?"

Meng Engal was once again speechless with anger.

Trust doesn't collapse in a day.

On the day of attacking Eagle Town, the "Holy Blood Legion" composed of Lizardmen finally captured the three outer defense lines. His horse thieves could no longer sit still and rushed into Eagle Town without thinking twice.

In the process, they impacted quite a few Lizardmen and suffered a lot of losses themselves.

A rough estimate afterwards showed that more than 70 Lizardmen died at the hands of the horse thieves that day, and hundreds of vicious horse thieves also died at the hands of the Lizardmen.

What made Mongar even more upset was that the people in Eagle Town evacuated too timely and didn't leave behind many valuables. After being divided up by his men, there was not much left. He only had a few hundred gold coins in his hands, which were not enough to compensate Joshua.

He also paid a lot of money himself!
"But this is not a solution." Mongar said:

"Don't forget the real purpose of our visit."

"If we fail to take down Eagle City, all the sacrifices we made before will be in vain!"

Joshua took a deep breath, stood up and walked out:

"I know."

"But that goal is not worth my people's infinite sacrifice to achieve."

“As I said before, let your people play their roles!
Otherwise, I would rather retreat to Slaver's Bay!"

Seeing Joshua's tail dragging a long trail on the ground, and waiting for Joshua to leave the room, Meng Engar slammed the table heavily, with murderous intent in his eyes:
"Damn reptile!"

Joshua returned to his camp.

After entering the room, a lizardman who looked quite old and had gray scales came up, took the tricorn hat handed to him by Joshua, and hung it on the shelf next to him.

"You look unhappy?" asked the old lizard man.

"Uncle Rousseau, we have been in Eagle Territory for almost half a month." Joshua's tail fell weakly on the ground:

"But not only is there no progress at all, but 319 of our people have been killed or injured. All this is due to Mongar's incompetence. How can I be happy?"

"Now, every night, those dead tribesmen come to my dreams. They do nothing but look at me quietly."

Rousseau stretched out his right hand, whose scales had begun to peel off, and held Joshua's arm tightly:

"Child, they are eagerly expecting you to lead the remaining tribesmen and complete their unfinished business."

The reasons why Mongar attacked the Eagle Territory and why the pirate Joshua appeared inland were all due to similar reasons.

Raven's offensive in Eivor made the Insa Empire feel threatened.

Their proposal to send troops to help Eivor was also rejected by the city-states of Fitun.

So, Insa found Mon Ngal and contacted Joshua.

Hopefully they can capture Eagle City, thereby distracting Raven and forcing him to evacuate the Principality of Eivor.

If he can achieve his goal, Mongar can cleanse his identity and become a noble of the Insa Empire.

And Joshua will also get a territory of his own in Insa.

For Joshua, the title of nobility was not important. What he wanted was a piece of land where his people could reproduce freely.

Although Lizardmen are stronger than humans, their historical heritage has been basically cut off and reproduction is relatively difficult, so they have always been at the bottom of the slavery and discrimination in Slave Bay.

It was not until Joshua gained extraordinary power, established his own pirate force, and grew stronger step by step that the Lizardmen had a preliminary place to stay.

But this is not a long-term solution.

The process for Lizardmen to awaken and become extraordinary is much more complicated than that for humans, and the God-given potions have no effect on them at all.

Even Joshua himself was confused about how he awakened his extraordinary powers - he suddenly gained power after a dream.

That is the awakening from blood.

This is not stable. At least Joshua's three children failed to awaken successfully.

Once Joshua died one day, the tribe would surely fall apart under external pressure. Therefore, Joshua accepted Insa's conditions - that would allow his people to leave the dangerous environment of Slaver Bay and go to an independent paradise to reproduce in peace.

"I've been thinking recently whether my decision this time was wrong." Joshua sighed, "If I fail, how can I face the tribesmen who have high hopes for me? Their families are still waiting for them to return."

"Don't think too much." Rousseau patted the back of Joshua's hand: "What you need now is a good sleep."

“Trust yourself.”

"After all, you have never made a wrong decision in the past hundred years!"

Joshua nodded, took off his armor, and lay down on the bed.

Rousseau extinguished the brazier in the tent and left the tent wrapped in a blanket.

But Joshua did not fall asleep.

He sat up, his eyes emitting a cold green light in the darkness.

After thinking for a long time, he got up from the bed, took out a piece of paper and a pen, wrote a letter, checked and reviewed it carefully, took off a white scale on his forehead and put it inside, then stuffed the letter under his pillow.

……

On the same night, a meeting was also held in Eagle City.

In addition to Nancy and Denise, Old Gordon, Judra, Brocka, Wessacine, Lady Doreen, and other Maple County nobles including Seleva were all present.

Judra also sat at the far end of the long table.

Fiona was responsible for recording the meeting.

But now she was so idle that she was spinning her pen all the time, and there were only two lines of text on the parchment in front of her.

The atmosphere was so depressing that it felt like a funeral.

Nancy only needs to think about strategies to repel the enemy, but these nobles have much more to consider.

A considerable number of nobles, led by Israel Wa, hoped that Nancy would contact Raven as soon as possible and let Raven lead his troops to return for support after resisting the attack of the horse bandits.

Otherwise, once the city is captured, they will all be buried with it.

But Nancy insisted on her own opinion and refused all requests for help from Raven.

Nobles like Seleva also had other ideas, such as secretly sending people out of the city or publicizing the situation through the Sky Eagle platform.

But there were always horned eagles hovering and patrolling in the sky above Eagle City, and people could not get out at all.

The SkyEagle platform is completely controlled by the Griffith family, and Nancy has the final say on what content can be put on it.

This made Seleva and others very desperate - Nancy and Raven maintained communication, and as long as Nancy and others were sure that Eagle City was safe and sound, Raven would never believe the rumors circulating in the market.

And if they really wanted to fall out with Nancy, they didn't have the courage to do so.

Not to mention, things haven't reached that critical point yet.

Regardless, Nancy herself is a level 3 magician, and they may not be able to defeat her.

Even if it succeeds, when Raven turns back, it will not only be the horse bandits that will be destroyed - Raven even dares to attack Eivor, so how can he spare them?
So, every time Nancy held a meeting, hoping that they would come up with ideas and develop a plan to repel the enemy, the atmosphere would become cold.

"Eh……"

Nancy sighed inwardly.

Just when she thought that today's meeting would end in vain, someone came in and reported:

"Madam Nancy, my Lords, Viscount John is leading his troops to support us!"

Nancy's eyes lit up: "Quickly invite Viscount John in!"

Soon, Viscount John came to the meeting room.

It was obvious that this elderly knight had traveled all day long. There was even a layer of frost on his armor, which slowly melted away when he arrived at Eagle City, leaving behind circles of water stains as he walked.

"I'm sorry, Viscount John." Nancy stood up and performed the skirt-lifting ceremony in a serious and respectful manner:

"You just arrived. I really shouldn't have invited you here so hastily. It's just that..."

Viscount John exhaled a breath of foul air: "Madam Nancy, you don't have to be so polite."

"The reason I came here is to resolve the predicament of Eagle City. I myself feel that I came too late and did not come as soon as I received the news. How could I refuse a meeting?"

"What is the current situation?"

Nancy felt relieved by this direct statement.

Viscount John was a well-known and experienced veteran who had participated in the "Frontier Campaign" when he was young.

No one present had more military experience than him.

When the nobles, especially Seleva and others, saw Viscount John coming, they immediately became angry and started to complain.

Between the lines, there was a hint that Nan Qian did not understand military affairs but was giving orders recklessly.

They all wanted Viscount John to take the lead in proposing and tell Raven the seriousness of the matter.

"Quiet!" Nancy frowned. "With so much chatter going on, how could Viscount John hear clearly?"

During this period of time, Nancy had accumulated some authority, and when she said this, everyone immediately quieted down.

"Tsk, just shut up." Seleva thought, "If John is not a fool, he will definitely agree with us!"

Next, under Nancy's auspices, pieces of information were placed in front of Viscount John.

Including but not limited to the enemy's troop deployment, camp garrison conditions, battle situation and results over this period of time, etc.

After reading and digesting all the news one by one, Viscount John fell into deep thought while looking at the map under Nancy's expectant eyes.

First, he made a move and adjusted a few small flags with incorrect information. Viscount John pointed to the map and asked, "Is this the enemy's food storage point?"

"Since we have found the food storage site and you have a lot of Hippogryph cavalry, why don't you throw fire starters from the air and burn it directly?"

Nancy immediately said, "We have considered this before, but although the enemy's food and grass are densely stored, they are covered with large pieces of stone cloth to prevent fire, and there are archers guarding them."

"Throwing objects from high altitudes has no effect, and if we want to set fire to them from close range, we can't break through their long-range defenses."

Stone cloth, also known as asbestos or stone wool, is indeed a commonly used fire prevention measure in the military.

Viscount John nodded, looked at the map for a while, then walked to the window and looked at the enemy camp from afar:
"I read the previous battle reports, and it seems that the bandits and pirates are not on good terms?"

Nancy walked up to John and said, "Yes, there was a small-scale infighting on the first day when they attacked Eagle Town."

"After that, the cooperation between the two sides became very unfamiliar. Sometimes, they even deliberately took advantage of their neighbors and hindered each other. Otherwise, it would not have been so easy to defend the city."

Viscount John had no doubt about this because it could be seen from how the other party set up camp.

Although the camps of both sides were far apart, they shared the same grain storage point. It was obvious that they did not trust each other and were not at ease with the grain in the other's hands.

And this is exactly the gap that is worth exploiting.

……

(End of this chapter)