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Chapter 67 Negotiation and Siege

Longyuan City has a long tradition of parliamentary self-governance.

It is said that more than 600 years ago, this place was the territory of the Ellis family, the lizardmen lords.

The lord was extravagant and greedy, constantly raising taxes, to the point that the citizens of the city and passing caravans could no longer tolerate it and rose up in rebellion... After the success of the uprising, Longyuan City was completely without a lord and was completely under the democratic self-governance of the city council.

Of course, in a world where the literacy rate is less than 1%, it's hard to say how much substance so-called democracy actually has.

From Raine's perspective, at least, Longyuan City was nothing more than a crude imitation of the fjord trading city-states. At least the councilors of the trading city-states knew the principle of shared prosperity and shared loss, while many of Longyuan City's merchant guilds had their headquarters in the Imperial Changshui Province. Therefore, after the incident, their first thought was how to transfer assets and reduce losses, without considering whether the city could be saved at all.

This event is also recorded in the original storyline. If Dragon Valley City was killed by Chu Jian, and Dragon Peak City was killed due to carelessness and underestimation of the enemy, then Dragon Plain City was simply courting death. Even after the Dragon Daughter led the refugees to this place, she openly declared herself a "false dragon" and refused to provide the refugees with any form of assistance.

If the city council had been willing to provide boats for the refugees to leave via the Red River, so many people wouldn't have died during their northward migration. Conversely, if the Dragon Girl in the story had been decisive enough to take Dragon Plains City by force, none of the subsequent tragedies would have occurred.

It's okay, I can do what Dia can't.

“I don’t care how your parliament operates.” Rein lay back in the speaker’s seat, casually propping his boots up on the podium, and said arrogantly, “From now on, I’m the one who calls the shots here.”

"Give me democracy or give me death!" one of the lawmakers shouted angrily, standing up and pointing at someone who had come from who-knows-where...

Ryan snapped his fingers.

Ellina raised her slender hand and grasped a lightning spear in the void. With a single shot, she accurately hit the councilor's seat, blasting the arrogant councilor into dust.

The entire council fell silent instantly, everyone instinctively shrinking their necks, trembling with fear.

“I need ships,” Raine continued. “The fleet currently docked in the city is mine.”

"They are not enough to transport all the refugees in Longfeng City... and of course, the refugees in Longyuan City as well."

“Therefore, I will forcibly requisition all the ships of the various merchant guilds.” He interlaced his fingers and said slowly, “Before the White Walkers arrive and destroy this place, transport as many refugees as possible out.”

The councilors, looking at the giant dragon still clinging to the roof, suppressed their various emotions and began to think calmly.

After a long pause, someone finally stood up and said:
“Sir, although we are representatives of various chambers of commerce, we are not the actual deputies of the chambers. Even if we were willing to agree to your request, it would be impossible for us to transfer a ship from the chambers.”

“Of course,” Renn said. “So you can all go back and inform the Chamber of Commerce.”

The members of parliament left one after another, and the building was soon empty.

Dia transformed back into human form, took out her water pouch, and began to gulp down water. For some reason, the longer she remained in her dragon form, the thirstier she became when she returned to human form.

“Raine,” Berthalia suddenly asked, “how do you think they’ll react?”

“Our key lies with the Dragon Daughter,” Raine replied. “As long as the dragon remains, any merchant guild that attempts to escape by ship will be burned by the dragon flames falling from the sky.”

"Therefore, if they do not want to submit to our demands, they can only try to get rid of the daughter of the true dragon."

“Hmm.” Bersalia agreed. “The decapitation tactic of precisely destroying key points on the enemy's side seems to never be outdated. What methods do you think they will use? Assassination, encirclement, or poison?”

"It's definitely a siege," Ellina replied. "Whether true dragons can be harmed by poison is still unknown; assassination requires getting close to the target when they are completely unprepared, but it's unlikely they can gain our trust in a short time. So the only option is to lead our army to besiege this council hall." "Then let's go quickly!" Dia exclaimed immediately. "I can transform into a dragon for a while longer and carry you out of the city!"

“Dia, why do you think Rein deliberately let them leave?” Bersalia reminded her.

"Uh..." Dia finally realized, "Why?"

She began to think about it carefully.

If we look back at how Raine dealt with the nobles of Dragonpeak City, we can easily guess the answer.

“We need to lure out those in the Dragon Origin City Chamber of Commerce who are against us,” Daiya said in a deep voice, “and then deal with them.”

The two elves looked at each other in surprise, neither of them expecting that little Dea could answer so immediately.

“Of course, we can also just kill them all,” Renn said casually, “and then completely destroy all the merchant guilds in the city and seize their ships.”

“But these chambers of commerce also have intricate connections of interest with the nobles of the Imperial Changshui Province,” Ellina continued. “It is clearly not worth it to act rashly and make enemies of so many imperial nobles.”

"But would it be acceptable to steal a ship?" Dia asked, somewhat confused.

“Of course,” Bersalia said with a smile. “That’s why Renn let them go back, after all…”

"...If there's no way to kill the enemy, then the only option is to turn them into friends, right?"

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Outside the city council building, the Longyuan City guards, armed with swords and carrying crossbows, charged in menacingly.

Minutes later, the demoralized remnants of the army retreated in a panic.

According to these deserters, they didn't even see the dragon before being utterly defeated by a silver-haired high elf mage. The mage was extremely skilled in lightning magic, able to blow their heads off with lightning before they could even pull the triggers of their crossbows.

Representatives from several chambers of commerce, who took a hard line, demanded that the guards organize another charge, arguing that the mage's magic power could not be inexhaustible and that once she could no longer unleash lightning, a single crossbow bolt would suffice to solve the problem.

Seeing the high bounties offered by these chambers of commerce, the guards were finally tempted. They reorganized their equipment, bandaged their wounds, put on larger wooden shields, and charged into the city council building once again.

Less than half a minute later, the group fled out in disarray again, saying that the gatekeeper had been replaced by a dark elf mage with brown curly hair, who used fire magic to seal the gate, and that a forced charge would only result in their deaths.

"Isn't there any way to deal with these thugs?" a chamber of commerce representative exclaimed incredulously.

"Why not set it on fire?" another chamber of commerce representative suggested. "The enemy is stationed inside, taking advantage of the cramped indoor environment. We can set fire to the outside and force them out. Then, all we need to do is fire a barrage of crossbow bolts. No matter how powerful their magic is, or how powerful their dragon is, they'll be riddled with holes."

Setting fire to its own council chamber would have been a laughing stock in other places, but these chambers of commerce clearly didn't care about the dignity of the council itself, and thus quickly reached a consensus:

set fire!

(End of this chapter)