Throne of the North.

Chapter 526: The Authority of the North, the Contribution of the Blast Furnace

Ryan returned to the Frozen Territory at the first dawn after the snow melted, and his heart was relieved because the assassin in the dark did not try to kill him on the way.

But this was a thorn after all. After Ryan returned to the Frozen Territory, the news of his assassination spread. Faced with this kind of thing, not only the nobles of the North Wind Province, but most of the nobles of the empire showed concern.

"Praise the light, the immortal light that has given me shelter and given me resistance against unjust killing."

Ryan directed the assassination attempt towards the Church of Dawn. He couldn't point fingers at anyone right now, so he could only do this to draw the attention of the nobles to the assassination attempt on him, thus forming some protection at the political level.

After this, Baron Ryan even expressed his speculation about the assassination.

He sincerely believed that this was a challenge to the majesty of the empire.

"Everyone knows that the Kingdom of Andara, under the leadership of His Majesty the King, has closely followed the Empire's footsteps. They have deeply realized the corruption of the Church of Dawn. The Church is no longer the Church it once was. They are no longer pure. Only light is immortal. Only light can provide our Lord with eternal and devout faith."

"They are afraid, they are terrified, but they know that the kingdom prospers with the help of the empire."

"They want to stop all aid from the Empire to the Kingdom of Andara, to withdraw Mr. Otis Brooks's army back to the Empire, and to allow the kingdom to be conquered by the orcs as punishment."

"They want to stop the Empire's magical assistance to the Kingdom of Andara, to stop them from obtaining land to protect themselves, to stop them from growing food, to stop them from gaining wealth and dignity."

"On the battlefield in the south, the Church cannot defeat the sword and shield of the Lion of the Justice Empire. They can only resort to conspiracy and trickery, just like the killing of Marquis Beifeng and the sneak attack that threatened His Highness Nix's life."

This was the first time that Ryan spoke publicly on the land of the North Wind Province. His words not only demonstrated his authority in this land, because from beginning to end no noble stood up to oppose his various inappropriate actions.

At the same time, it was the first time that Ryan clearly stood against the Dawn Church, completely challenging the Dawn's beliefs as an opponent.

The nobles believed that this was the anger caused by the assassination of the Northern Baron. He would stop at nothing and could no longer tolerate the Dawn Church after his own life was threatened.

His words made Meyers grit his teeth.

"He is tying us to the Holy See. Whoever tries to assassinate him in the future, once exposed, will be considered an ally of the Holy See, and the Empire will have no place to stay."

"Just like in the south, the Dawn Path failed. Under the majesty of the Holy See, those Ignazios, the ancient bloodlines, once again surrendered to the Holy See. They are too far away from the Empire, and the Empire cannot save them."

"The Holy See will not be able to save the nobles who are regarded as their allies by the imperial nobles, that is, us who assassinated Ryan."

Ryan's preconceived voice pushed all the responsibility onto the Vatican, seemingly allowing the real murderer to remain hidden in the dark, but the risks brought about by the day when he is truly exposed will be hundreds or thousands of times greater than in the past.

Ryan's voice was very loud, because there was no other voice in the entire North Wind that opposed him, so even the emperor could hear the shouts of the nobles from the northern border of the empire.

He heard different things, like...

"Andara Kingdom..."

Columbus III began to realize that he seemed to have somewhat despised and neglected the Kingdom of Andara.

Yes, after the Road to Dawn ended with the defeat of the Empire, in the land south of the Norris Continent, in the human civilization, many nobles once again began to fear the Holy See, and they did not dare to easily surrender to themselves and seek the protection of the Empire.

The nobles on the Road to Dawn suffered heavy casualties, which frightened the nobles.

Columbus III needed the support of these nobles to join him in rebelling against the Church of the Dawn.

But now the empire has only one follower, and that is the Kingdom of Andara.

Among the nine kingdoms, only this kingdom with cursed bloodline stood against the Holy See together with the Empire.

The southern lands all await the end of the Empire, but before that they will see the end of the Kingdom of Andara.

On the Road to Dawn, the ancient noble bloodline, the nobles headed by Ignazio have lost the courage to resist. Their honor and dignity are being trampled upon, but they dare not show loyalty to the empire.

This won't work!
The emperor pondered, yes, he needed the Andara Kingdom to stay alive and become a benchmark for all nobles.

"The evil gods cursed the royal bloodline, but the immortal light will grant the royal family rebirth and purification. They are devout believers of light."

The emperor gave the order and the power of light began to pour out. He, the Grand Pope of Light, was not just talking, but was able to mobilize terrible divine power.

"The Church of Dawn has no right to set foot on the soil of light."

While the emperor sent out a delegation of light to carry divine power to purify the royal bloodline, he also issued orders to the Winged Canyon. After all, this was the only fortress defense line in the east of the empire, and more than ten provinces were protected by the Winged Canyon.

So, under the emperor's order, the dragon cavalry in the Flying Wing Canyon, which had not moved for decades, was dispatched.

Lord Farrell, the commander of the Winged Canyon, faithfully carried out the emperor's orders. When those strong and mighty dragon cavalry left the Winged Canyon and hovered over the North Wind Avenue, and then began to patrol the kingdom's airspace, the war between the Serra Kingdom and the Andara Kingdom was suspended.

They are so terrifying. A single wyvern is not powerful, but hundreds of them bring a suffocating feeling of oppression. Hundreds or thousands of them can destroy an entire kingdom.

As the wyvern gained air supremacy, there was also Count Pascal from the Danube Province. After so much effort and performance, the emperor and the great nobles of the empire finally had more trust in the gargoyle Count.

Count Pascal got the first chance, which was to allow the Gargoyle Legion to be stationed on North Wind Avenue. Once the Church of Dawn dared to attack the Kingdom of Andara, it would deal a devastating blow to the other side.

Everyone felt the importance the emperor of the empire attached to the sudden arrival of the Andara Kingdom, which made the kingdom a little flattered and sent people to the North Wind Province to inquire with Ryan.

In response to this, Ryan simply smiled and reassured the royal bloodline of the kingdom.

"This will only make you safer. The power of the Church is strong in the south, but in the lands close to the north, the Empire is the real overlord."

"We can fight against the entire six orc kings without relying on any nobles, and the Dawn Church no longer has any more troops in the north."

"The kingdom is safer."

After getting Ryan's answer, the royal family members finally felt relieved. Indeed, the strength of the Dawn Church was mostly concentrated in the south, not in the bitter cold north.

Ryan's voice caused different reactions from the Grand Duke and the Emperor in the South, but in the North, the nobles who knew Baron Ryan better were somewhat lost in confusion and fear about the unknown.

Ryan was assassinated.

This isn't the first time.

When the lord of the frozen land had just arrived in Beifeng, he was assassinated. Later, it was found that the assassination came from Count Weiss, so Ryan became the commander of the army in that war. Count Weiss died in the war. Baron Ryan was never a noble who would be afraid. He would only be more angry.

His revenge will never disappear, but will drown every winter like a blizzard in the north.

"What will he do? Start a war for the North against the Church? But there are no believers of the Dawn around, so he can't lead the army to attack the Kingdom of Sera."

The nobles expressed their doubts and speculations. They were now too deeply influenced by Ryan in the three areas of military, politics and economy.

In terms of military, whether it is the army of the Frozen Territory itself, or the extraordinary army reshaped by Count Sauron with the help of the dragon blood obtained by Ryan, or the army of the fortress in the Xiangshan Plain where Viscount Landa is located, Viscount Landa will not easily let the nobles control their soldiers to withdraw.

For some reason, the armies of Earl Winter and Viscount Hogg could not become enemies of Ryan. In other words, Ryan now no longer needed to rely on the threat of foreign enemies, and was able to control the most powerful army and soldiers in the North Wind Province.

Moreover, no one was willing to be his rival in military command.

In terms of political direction, Earl Winter and Earl Solon would hardly refute Baron Ryan, and the politics of the Borean Province was too simple. It was either facing the south or the north. When facing the south, the nobles needed to work together, and there was a leader, and that was Ryan.

When facing the North, there were no more competitors the moment Ryan personally cut off the head of the Orc Silvermoon Werewolf King.

The only one qualified to have nominal power in this regard is the Marquis of the North Wind, that... one-year-old child.

In addition to this, there is food. Ryan has already gained control of the food issue.

Not to mention the economic level, the Northern Chamber of Commerce brings benefits to all the nobles. The North Wind Province has no extra dazzling wealth except the iron ore, and now Lingdu City is the most prosperous economic center of the North Wind Province.

Therefore, as long as Ryan does not break the rules and attack a kingdom, most nobles do not have the confidence to refuse Ryan's request.

The key point is, what does Ryan plan to do to retaliate against the Dawn Church?

They did not suspect that it was the Dawn Church that assassinated Ryan. After all, in the current world situation, the irreconcilable contradictions between the Empire and the Church were already laid out in the open, and the emperor's attitude led everything to war.

The nobles speculated on Ryan's methods, and Ryan sent an army with a batch of blueprints.

These blueprints were hidden in the Book of Light, which are birch bark books that spread the faith of light. Every year, the Frozen Territory could earn hundreds of thousands of profits from the Church of Light because of these books. This was the contract signed by Ryan and the Marquis of the North Wind, which had been maintained.

With the expansion of the Church of Light, the demand for these birch bark books is increasing, and Ryan will be able to make more profits in the future.

Of course, this is not the focus of this time. After arranging the transport team to go to the imperial capital, Ryan met with the nobles of the palace with the drawings.

The drawings finally appeared in front of the emperor, and the huge thing called smelting blast furnace made the emperor's eyes light up.

"This is a legacy from another world. It can help blacksmiths complete a hundred times the iron forging work, turning iron ore into wrought iron faster, and forging the weapons and equipment needed by soldiers faster."

What Ryan described made the emperor laugh out loud and couldn't help but admire it.

"I have heard of this rising star of the empire. His talent in military warfare is unparalleled. I didn't expect that he could guess the key issues of the war in the Thousand Lakes Province in the far north."

In a military war of the same level, what is the key to victory? Is it the commander's strategy? The most important thing is the quality of the soldiers themselves.

But the so-called quality is too general, and what the nobles see is often limited to the surface.

That is...equipment.

The suppression of equipment can lead to victory in the war.

There is no doubt that a hundred tin cans can defeat a thousand soldiers with spears.

In the hundred years since the Pan-Dimensional War of Gods, war is no longer what it used to be, but the maintenance of logistics has not improved much.

For example, the ancient bloodlines like Ignazio on the Dawn Road in the south have huge wealth, but they have to go to the distant north to buy war weapons and equipment.

The blast furnace will change this condition.

The power and energy that the emperor can wield are terrifying. With a single order, a large number of blast furnaces will spring up from the ground.

"Alchemists? Then let Baron Ryan send a team of alchemists to the south."

The emperor said this because he was very stingy and did not intend to pay any compensation because the war had consumed a huge amount of gold coins.

Of course, the emperor had other ways, such as nominally dividing the swampland south of the Frozen Territory into Baron Ryan's territory at the same time as issuing the order.

Ryan didn't need any reward for this. Mainly, he wanted to show his support for the Southern War and the Dawn Church War to prove his anger about the assassination.

At the same time, this was also the first time that Baron Ryan proved his strength to the southern land.

The Baron in the North is no pushover, and his anger deserves everyone's attention.

As for the alchemists, Ryan sent them to study in the south in order to train his own alchemist academy. It would not work to work in isolation in the Frozen Territory. It could be seen from the fact that the abilities of the alchemists had stagnated recently and not even one of them could cross the threshold of being an apprentice.

They need to see more extraordinary things and then improve themselves.

After contributing the blast furnace and smelting technology to the emperor, Ryan no longer paid attention to the south. When the spring comes this year and the war breaks out again, his reputation will naturally spread because of the sudden increase in iron weapons in the empire.

He also believed that the emperor would keep this secret tightly under wraps during this period in order to deal a severe blow to the Vatican.

The deeper the pressure, the more benefits Ryan will gain when he is exposed.

Looking into the distance, this is the future; looking back at the present, spring is coming, and what people care about most is whether the land under their feet can grow more food.

Food is the most important thing for people. The slaves and common people do not understand the nobles' games. They only care about staring at the land in front of them.

That determines whether they can survive this year.

Ryan was also concerned because he had sent at least two thousand people to the lands of those nobles to help them reclaim the wasteland.

(End of this chapter)