What's wrong with building a steel torrent in a dungeon?

"Release His Majesty!"

All kinds of dirty words are heard everywhere.

"Hey, Your Excellency the Duke... I see there is some garbage. Should I clean it up?"

"No hurry." The Duke of Normandy frowned, "Let's finish the important things first. Without the support of the legion commander, these officers of the New Vienna Legion can't do anything."

"Yes, sir! I'll do it right away."

Half an hour later, Grimal appeared in front of Wallenstein's Duke's Mansion with a gloomy look. However, unlike his confident look before, he now looked worried.

They arrived a step too late, and the entire Duke's Mansion was empty. Wallenstein obviously knew how he would be treated, so he fled early.

It seems that I have underestimated Wallenstein.

"Sir, Wallenstein has escaped. What should we do?"

"Send someone to chase her. We must catch Wallenstein! We must not let her run into the territory of the witch Fran."

"As you command!"

At the same time, Wallenstein, who had escaped, and the officers who supported her rushed all the way and finally got rid of those who were pursuing them and came to a suburb far away from Vienna.

She looked at the officers who had fled with her and said loudly, "I'm sure you've all seen that the Duke of Normandy shamelessly colluded with the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance, imprisoned Your Majesty, framed loyal officials, and now wants to purge our New Vienna Legion, which has made great military achievements. Our tolerance has resulted in this."

"For His Majesty's sake, our Majesty must kill these villains!"

"Clear the emperor's side! Clear the emperor's side!"

"Clear the emperor's side! Clear the emperor's side!"

"Drive out the spirits! Restore Shinra!"

"Drive out the dwarves! Restore Shinra!"

The officers and soldiers below roared in anger.

Chapter 291: Surrounding the City

"I didn't expect Wallenstein to act so quickly." Fran couldn't help but sigh as she flipped through the messages sent from New Vienna.

"Although Lord Wallenstein's ability on the battlefield is average, when it comes to efficiency, he is definitely one of the best."

The person who spoke was Fran's foreign minister, Margaret's sister, Catalina.

Ever since Catalina became the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fran has felt a lot more relaxed. With her help, the ties between the Vienna Alliance have become closer. Although it cannot compete with the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance in absolute strength, it is already a force that cannot be underestimated.

I have to say, Margaret's sister is really amazing.

Caterina continued, "Lord Wallenstein took away the elite of the New Vienna Legion. Many of the remaining soldiers could not stand the exploitation of the Duke of Normandy and fled like birds and beasts. The New Vienna Legion is now in name only."

"Even if all these people stay, with the Duke of Normandy's limited ability, he obviously won't be able to convince the public." Christina shook her head.

Christina had a very bad impression of the Duke of Normandy.

When Fran was still "starting a business" in the demon world, the Duke of Normandy often relied on his power to bully others in Vienna, and went to the slums to hunt down boys and girls with good looks, and then sold them as goods, which caused conflicts with Christina many times.

"Wallenstein has successfully broken up the whole into smaller pieces. Now things are going to get interesting." Christina said with a smile, "The Duke of Normandy has gained power. He is both the Minister of Military Affairs and Minister of Economy. He has the support of the elves and dwarves. He will definitely exploit the people even more. By then, I'm afraid the entire vicinity of New Vienna will be in flames."

"The war is already spreading everywhere." Fran said, "Ever since Wallenstein called for the removal of the emperor's entourage, it has received responses from many people in other places."

"To be exact, there are seven places in total," said Catalina.

"Seven? It's only been a few days, and Wallenstein's speed is so fast." Christina was a little surprised.

It's not just that Wallenstein was fast. It was really inhumane to conscript young men during the spring plowing season! It simply left no way for the people to survive. Everyone had no choice but to grasp the only life-saving straw around them.

"Can the Duke of Normandy withstand so many rebels?" Christina said, "What if the rebels unite and directly attack New Vienna and drive the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance into the sea? Then, Fran, your subsequent plans will also be ruined."

"Sister, you underestimate the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance." Fran said, "The elves and dwarves will not sit idly by and watch the Duke of Normandy be overthrown. After all, they have finally supported an obedient agent."

"You mean, they're going to send troops to intervene?"

Fran shook her head and said, "Although I really hope they do this, this little noise is not enough to make the elves and dwarves send out troops directly! And although the rebels are powerful, their shortcomings are also particularly obvious. They are short of supplies and the quality of their soldiers is also poor. It's fine for them to defend their villages with anger, but

I'm afraid it's still a little short of going out and fighting the regular army."

"Ah? Isn't that just a lot of noise but little action?" Christina said, "If they just occupy their own villages and towns, they won't pose much of a threat to New Vienna, the Northern Alliance, and the Chinese Alliance. The Duke of Normandy can continue to exploit them."

"That's not necessarily true." Fran had already thought of a plan.

She jumped off the table, walked to the hanging map, and said, "The big cities of the Holy Roel Empire are all in the west. The development of the east has been limited by the geographical environment and has not been very good. Except for a few big cities such as New Vienna and Hastings City, other places are scattered rural areas, which is a bit different from the west where we are."

"So, if we help Wallenstein, allow her to gain a foothold in the vast rural areas, and then connect the villages and towns. Then the situation will be different." Catalina said thoughtfully.

"I named this tactic 'surrounding the city from the countryside.'" Fran said, "As long as Wallenstein can gain a foothold in these rural areas and focus on development, big cities like New Vienna will sooner or later become isolated cities."

"The rural environment is very isolated, and it is not easy to gain the trust of rural areas." Caterina said, "But now the Duke of Normandy has helped us a lot. His action of conscripting men has caused public outrage. Lord Wallenstein only needs to defeat those conscription officers and save the men to gain a lot of favor."

"After spring plowing comes autumn harvest. The greedy Duke of Normandy will certainly be exploited again." Fran said: "The more they exploit, the faster Wallenstein will develop. The Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance will pay the price for their contempt for the masses."

"Do you need us to provide Lord Wallenstein with supplies and arms?" Catalina asked.

Fran thought for a moment, then said, "It's better not to send the arms. If we send too little, it will be useless for Wallenstein. If we send too much, the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance will use it as an excuse. We should just send food, supplies and other daily necessities as before. In addition, we should separate a portion of the support materials and send it to the New Vienna officials, saying that they are entrusted to distribute it."

"Give it to the New Vienna government? Wouldn't that mean it's falling into the pocket of the Duke of Normandy? I don't believe he will distribute these supplies." Christina frowned and asked, "He might even sell them as merchandise without any changes."

"This is exactly the effect we want." Fran said with a smile.

Ah this...

Christina immediately understood what Fran meant.

I wonder how the starving people would feel when they were surprised to find that the Duke of Normandy had embezzled relief supplies and openly resold the things given to them by Fran.

My sister is really vicious.

"Let's leave New Vienna alone for now." Fran put away the intelligence that was flicked in front of her, then narrowed her eyes and said to Katarina, "Although there are many interesting things going on over there, it is not our strategic focus after all. Has the envoy of the Troll Empire arrived?"

"The envoy just arrived this morning." Catalina said, "According to the arrangement, he will meet with the city lord in the afternoon."

"An envoy from the Troll Empire?" Christina looked at Fran with some confusion.

"Sister, have you forgotten the plan I mentioned before?" Fran said, "Since the dwarves and elves are causing trouble around me, I must give them a taste of their own medicine!! Reciprocity is the way to go."

Chapter 292: I want to sleep soundly beside the bed

In the afternoon, a troll over two meters tall with long limbs walked into the reception hall.

"Mr. Sankara, be careful of the decoration above your head." Catalina immediately reminded.

Judging from Sankara's actions, the height of Vienna Hall was obviously a little bit difficult for the troll to adapt to, and he suffered several losses.

However, when the palace was being designed, the designers probably didn't expect that a tall troll would visit.

"City Lord! Allow me to introduce him to you." Katarina said, "This is the special envoy of the Troll Empire and the eldest son of Jinzaka, Mr. Sankara. This is our city lord, Fran."

"I've heard a lot about you." Sankara looked around and finally found Fran. He had to bend down and say hello to Fran.

In front of the two-meter-tall troll, petite Fran could almost be described as tiny.

"My eldest son!" Fran looked at the troll in front of her and said, "I didn't expect that the envoy is actually the prince of the Troll Empire."

"Hahaha, the city lord is joking." Sankara said: "Our way of inheritance is different from yours. It has always been based on military merit. There is no point for me, the eldest living son."

"Military exploits?"

"To put it simply, whoever kills more elves will be able to succeed the great elder." Sankara said.

Indeed, it's very simple, Fran thought to herself.

"However, we killed the elves not to inherit the throne, but just to resist foreign enemies." Sankara said: "After all, my father has been the chief elder for so many years, and we have no intention of replacing him."

Yes, I forgot that Jinzaka is a saint who has lived from ancient times to the present, and is the oldest among the saints now.

Jin Zhaka is always there, but the prince is always changing. With him around, the succession is probably just a decoration.

Fran said, "Speaking of elves. According to past practice, the elves will harass your country soon after the arrival of spring?"

"Yes." Speaking of this, Sankara's face showed a trace of anger: "Spring is our busiest time. We need to repair the losses in winter and plant new crops, which requires a lot of labor. In order to prevent us from producing with peace of mind, the elves always launch harassment at this critical juncture."

"What kind of harassment?" Fran asked

"It's nothing more than sweeping neutral areas and quietly attacking our outposts and other places..." Sankara said.

"But... the attack does not appear to be fatal."

"But if we don't fight back and don't prepare for a war, the elves will launch a fatal attack." Sankara said, "I remember that more than ten years ago, we wanted to take a chance. As a result, the elves seized the opportunity to attack in a large scale, burning down the villages along the way over 200 kilometers of our land. If it weren't for my father,

If I go out in person, the elves will continue to burn, kill and plunder."

"As expected of an elf, she will seize any opportunity to disgust others." Fran sighed.

"But this year is different." Sankara said, "Thanks to the firearms the city lord has given us in the past two years, and he has also trained a large number of officers and soldiers for us. Now we have a firearms force of more than 2,000 people, so we can save a lot of troops to fill the gap in production."

"But it's not a good idea to always be on the defensive like this... I wonder if you have ever considered actively attacking the elves?" Fran said.

This is also the purpose of Fran summoning the troll messenger.

"Take the initiative to attack?" Sankara smiled bitterly and said, "Of course we want to. But the problem is that we don't have the ability to do so. As you know, the terrain between the trolls and the elves is long and narrow, and the border is very short, so there is no leap at all."

Sankara gestured at the map and said, "This allowed the elves to build an extremely solid defense line along the border. Not only are there towering earth walls, but there are also countless ancient trees that were grown by divine magic. After hundreds of years of consolidation, this defense line can be said to be impregnable."

"I remember that we provided a large number of artillery and incendiary bombs." Catalina said, "The range of artillery is much longer than that of the ancient war tree, so it is not difficult to tear a hole in it. When we were in the Feruman Empire, we have already proved the effectiveness of this tactic."

"In that battle, warriors from the Troll Empire also participated." Sankara said, "If it is just to deal with the immovable defense line, artillery is indeed very suitable. But don't forget that there are a large number of elven archers behind the defense line. The interior of our country is mainly mountainous and jungle, and the speed of artillery is very slow. Once the artillery array

The ground was discovered and there was no time to move."

After hearing this, Catalina said nothing more.

The fact is as Sankara says

Once the elven soldiers discovered the artillery position, they would certainly launch a fierce attack there. With so many arrows from the divine magicians flying out, not to mention the Troll Empire, even Fran's troops would have to think twice, not to mention that the Troll Empire's firearms troops only had more than 4,000 people, and they would not be able to hold out for long if they fought to the limit.

It seems that after forming a firearms unit, the Troll Empire has already considered the possibility of an attack.

"If an active attack doesn't work, what if we deliberately let the elves in first?"

At this moment, Fran said suddenly.

As soon as these words came out, Sankara was stunned, and then a look of joy appeared on his face: "You mean, you deliberately let the elves in, and then closed the door and beat the dog!"

"That's right!" Fran said, "I think the elves will definitely not miss this opportunity. Without the protection of divine magic, the elven soldiers will definitely not be a match for the firearms troops in the Troll Empire."

"Genius! The city lord is really a genius!!" Sankara said immediately: "I think this plan is feasible! If it really succeeds, it will severely shock the elves, and we won't have to be busy guarding against the elves in the next few years."

"It's not a genius tactic." Fran was a little embarrassed by the naked praise. "In fact, this is already a bit outdated. We used it once in the Feruman Empire. The opponent's coach was your old friend, Elendil."

"Is it her?" Sankara said, "She is the daughter of the New Leaf King. She has been stationed opposite us for a long time. Her hands are stained with the blood of many trolls. We all want to teach her a lesson on the battlefield. However, after the Undead Scourge, she was promoted to the commander of the Elven Army in the South. I don't know if we will have a chance to fight again."

"She can actually get a promotion?" This surprised Fran.

"There's nothing we can do about it. After all, all the elves' armies were wiped out, and there's really no one to reward. If you have to say something... at least Aarendil returned safely with his men." Sankara was obviously well aware of the internal intelligence of the Elf Empire.

It seems that the Troll Empire is not completely being chased by the elves. I just don't know how such a large troll can sneak into the Elf Empire to gather intelligence.

"Last time, we lured Elendil into the jungle and trapped her. Although we finally let her go because of the Scourge. I just don't know if she will fall into the same trap twice." Fran said.

"She is a very proud person. She has been a military hero since she was young, and was highly praised by the empire as the so-called military god. Now that the military god has been defeated in the Feruman Empire, she naturally wants to get back at him, lest the honor she has received is undeserved." Sankara said, "I am 70% sure that she will seize this opportunity to attack us."

"As an ally of the Troll Empire, we will continue to help you with supplies and weapons... But in order to prevent the situation from escalating and affecting the entire Northern Alliance, we may not be able to send soldiers to participate directly."

"It is a great honor for us that the city lord is willing to help us." Sankara said, "Besides, the city lord has helped us a lot since the undead disaster. We really don't dare to ask the city lord to send troops directly."

"But we will send some more officers. They have fought elves in the jungle with firearms before, so they have some basic experience and can help you reduce casualties." Fran said, "Also, we also want to learn jungle combat techniques from you. In the future, when we fight elves, we will have to fight in the jungle."

"Thank you very much, City Lord." Sankara bowed deeply to Fran: "It's not about asking for advice, let's learn from each other and pass on our experience!"

"Happy cooperation!!" Fran said

"Pleasant to work with."

Humans and trolls held hands for the first time

The Troll Empire will be the first step for Fran to counterattack the Northern Alliance.

It is also the first step for the main plane to resist the hegemony of gods.

Chapter 293 Three Parties

That night after the conversation with Fran, Sankara left the Holy Roll Empire and returned to the Troll Empire on a speedboat.