"...Our most beloved Water Mill Knight Dangji Heide, fell into a pool of blood."
Sitting on a simple wooden box, Valent Taylor closed the book "The Saint Sun’s Expedition" and looked at the tearful youths.
"Read two more paragraphs."
"Yes, Uncle Valent Taylor, read two more paragraphs."
Gathered around Valent Taylor were seven or eight youths around ten years old.
They wore the simplest linen vests, revealing their smooth sun-tanned arms, sitting cross-legged on the muddy ground, eagerly watching Valent Taylor.
Golden sunlight, swaying reed marshes, slender cedar trees inserted into the green land.
Among the layers of reed marshes, fishern’s simple huts stood on the river islands.
Fisherman songs at dusk, fishern rowed small boats, heading towards the shore.
Valent Taylor reached out to stroke the head of one of the children: "Tomorrow then, you should go eat."
"Read two more paragraphs, at least don’t stop here!" the youth pleaded.
"Yeah, I can’t sleep at night."
"Hahahahaha." Valent Taylor laughed aloud, his ssy white beard trembling with laughter, tears coming out.
Back then when his son went missing, it was at this age.
No, even younger than this age, not yet ten years old.
"Go on, go on, don’t let your Papa and Mama worry."
Pulling each youth up from the ground, Valent Taylor urged them to go ho.
Ever since the Blue Blood Monastery incident erupted, he fled everywhere, spreading news about the monastery.
As the word spread wider, people began to follow him, helping to disseminate information and attack the church.
Unknowingly, more and more people followed him.
It started with only ten or twenty, then suddenly soared to hundreds, even thousands.
Currently, Valent Taylor controlled five or six factions of the Saint Sun Army, scattered in several villages, each with hundreds.
They relied on forests, rivers, and reed marshes to attack, spreading the Thousand River Valley Church’s evil while violently attacking Knights and Priests, even family mbers.
Previously, such bandits would have been destroyed by the church early on.
Since the uprising of the Three Giants, Knights of Hotam County were deployed in several directions, imdiate control slackened.
Under the operations of Valent Taylor, many secretly converted to the Saint Sun faction or Juanist faction, unable to distinguish the difference.
Thanks to the church and monastery seizing lands, peasants were directly subordinate to the church.
Without the swift suppression of Knightly military aristocracy, despite higher incos, control weakened.
Besides taxes, many villagers openly defied church orders.
Not only lagging in raids, but so even sheltered the Saint Sun Army, and cases where Night Guards worked while the Saint Sun Army lived.
Due to the support of Hotam’s people and the intertwined waterways.
The Saint Sun Rebel Army relied on attacking resources and destroying roads to delay Prince Kongdai by three weeks before he sent troops.
This was all Valent Taylor could do.
On the front battlefield, he could not defeat those Extraordinary Knights, the Three Giants were his only hope.
"Did those little rascals co looking for you again?"
A loud voice sounded behind Valent Taylor, he turned his head, a black-haired, blue-eyed man in his thirties jumped off the incoming fishing boat.
The man opened the front of his shirt, revealing a hairy chest, eyes half-open half-closed, with a coarse Knight’s Sword on his waist.
On the boat behind him, fishern carried large boxes of food and goods, jumping off, even an improperly dressed woman.
Valent Taylor rushed over without hesitation: "André! What did you do again? Where did this woman co from?"
"Don’t worry." André chuckled, "I am André, a true man, wouldn’t force anyone into prostitution, she is poor, ca along herself."
The golden-haired woman with white shoulders exposed, smiled charmingly, winking at Valent Taylor.
Valent Taylor’s forehead veins throbbed: "Oh, I’m a pig, can’t recognize who she is... don’t you know how dangerous we are?"
"Baby, wait for in my room first." With a smack, André’s big hand landed on the woman’s plump backside, and she let out a moan before heading towards the house.
"I asked you to investigate Prince Kongdai’s whereabouts, not to... do such shaless things." Valent Taylor looked at André’s carefree face, and sighed deeply at the end.
This is André, considered the second-in-command of the Hotam Holy Grandson Army.
Although he was a Falan refugee and a church fugitive, he was Valent Taylor’s most intimate comrade.
You could even say that the survival and current scale of the Saint Sun Army owed more than half to this greedy and lustful André.
He proposed using the Saint Sun as a code and led the tactics of hiding in villages to attack supplies.
Despite his unreliable deanor, he was unexpectedly reliable in specific battles, often outsmarting the church at every turn.
Valent Taylor really didn’t have much of a way to handle this André.
"Don’t worry." André patted Valent Taylor’s shoulder vigorously, "It’s not like I didn’t handle the real business."
Valent Taylor looked around and led him toward the temporary wooden house outside the village.
Warm breezes blew through the woods, and wisps of smoke rose slowly from the reeds.
At the entrance of the wooden house, stood a few guards in leather armor, but judging by the calluses on their hands and the hairless calves, it seed they had only recently assud their roles.
Inside the small house, the two sat down, and André succinctly recounted what he had learned.
After listening to André’s account, Valent Taylor stroked his chin: "Are you saying that Prince Kongdai has left Feiliu Castle?"
"Yes, if I’m not mistaken, our deposed Prince Charles likely left Hotam County in the morning." André said sardonically.
Valent Taylor imdiately asked, "In which direction did they go specifically?"
"Isn’t it obvious? They must be heading to retake High Castle City." André sneered, "If the Leia civil war leads to the independence of Thousand River Valley, Moliat would be the only one fit to be king."
"Why?"
"First, Moliat is a noble. If she becos the Prince of Thousand River Valley, it’s considered an internal dispute within the noble world, even if the ans are not honorable.
Not to ntion, although we talk about Saint Sun all day, influential people would prefer Moliat.
A farr becoming a prince or king, are you crazy?
Secondly, with Duke Kush dead, only Moliat could receive recognition from both the Falan Kingdom and the Norn Kingdom.
To the Norn people, Moliat is one of their own.
To the Falan people, Moliat is the granddaughter of Grand Duke Hemashi, and the territory she’d gain independence from would be that of the Leia Kingdom - a double delight.
Who they would support is clear as day."
Seeing Valent Taylor’s face show traces of distress, André quickly reassured, "Don’t worry, if Grand Duke Hemashi wins, Saint Sun can’t do without a tropolitan Bishop of Thousand River Valley.
My suggestion to use the Saint Sun banner was because Saint Sun is kind-hearted. Following the Female Grand Duke won’t give you such a joyful life."
"How many troops did they bring?"
"Don’t know, where am I going to find the exact troop details for you." André thought for a mont and added, "But they left a decree company at Feiliu Castle."
"What about over at Rapids City?" Valent Taylor began his venture with funds from Rapids City, and the "Saint Sun Expedition Chronicle" in his hand was obtained from Lady Catherine.
"According to past rchants’ reports, the two decree companies that were stationed at High Castle City seem to have finished resting. At this ti, they’re probably attacking Ansen Castle."
Ansen Castle is a critical fortress upstream of Rapids City; once breached, you could move downstream to capture Rapids City itself.
"Can it be defended?"
"Ansen Castle is as solid as a rock, but whether it can be defended depends on the people." André said unabashedly, "If I were defending, I could hold on until Charles dies of old age."
As for Prince Kongdai, André always referred to him by na.
"Do you think we can win? Can we farrs and small townsfolk win?"
"It’s fifty-fifty." Without much worry, André said with a smile, "Charles’s support has collapsed, the decree company can’t replenish easily, and they’re getting fewer by the day.
He’s like a rootless duckweed right now, and unwilling to gamble since the odds are too low, then he’ll have to play on his own.
The Female Grand Duke relies on her castles to slowly wear them down; it’s just a matter of who cracks first.
We’re too weak, don’t keep thinking about a quick victory; a drawn-out victory is still a victory."
After reporting the information, André eagerly sprinted back to his house.
Leaning against the door, looking at the blood-red surface of the Nao’an River, Valent Taylor silently prayed to the Holy Father in his heart, please hold on.
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