Volume 3: Artifacts Chapter 26 Taking Over the Northern Army
The dining car and carriage number nine were isolated by Luke using mysticism in advance, so the Abyss Mages who entered the train were isolated into three sections by these two carriages. Now that the front section of the train has been cleared, the remaining monsters created by the mysticism pose no threat.
After leaving the remaining Abyss Mages to Sandpaper and Red Falcon to practice with, Luke returned to the dining car.
Agatha smiled with relief when she saw Luke coming back: "You were gone for so long, and the train slowed down, I was worried about your safety. Fortunately, Sandpaper and Falcon just ran over, otherwise I would have brought people to rescue you.
Is everything going well? "
Sinclair looked at Luke, waiting for his answer.
Luke sat down, took a sip of the tea poured by the servant, and then said, "Overall, it went smoothly, but it took some time to weaken the third apostle Belga. I don't have the strength of Qingkong to kill the apostle of the abyss, so I can only use some tricks.
Now that Belgar is dead, we can go back after Sandpaper and Red Falcon have wiped out the remaining Abyss Mages."
Agatha was very happy to hear that the third apostle Belga was dead: "The first apostle Victor left the Abyss Temple. Now there is only one apostle left in the Abyss Temple. The Duke of Celtic will definitely not dare to let him out easily. The work of the Secret Intelligence Bureau will be much easier in the future.
The pressure on the Northern Legion during the reorganization period will also be reduced."
Agatha's last words were addressed to Sinclair, who seemed to be full of thoughts.
Luke asked Sinclair, "Are you still thinking about how this mutiny will end?"
Luke characterized this incident as a mutiny, which was tantamount to showing the Empire's attitude towards the participants of this incident, which made Sinclair feel even worse.
"Can you forgive Qiao Xiuer and spare his life..."
Luke looked at Agatha and felt that it would be best for him to be the villain this time.
"I know that you and Qiao Xiuer have a deep relationship, and everything he did was to make you the emperor of the empire. But doing something wrong is doing something wrong. The empire has forgiven his previous crimes, but he has no intention of repenting.
This time he even colluded with the empire's enemies to assassinate the empire's eldest princess. You should know him better than us. If we let him go, he will plan another assassination. "
Sinclair, on the other hand, was only interested in protecting Joshua.
"I understand what you said. But after my mother passed away, Uncle Qiao Xiuer took care of me longer than my father. He can be said to be my other father and the closest person to me in this world.
For him, I can give up my status as a member of the imperial family and no longer be called Augustine."
Luke didn't expect that Sinclair would even give up his royal status in order to protect Joshua.
Luke waved his hand to let the servants step back, then cast a soundproof barrier and said to Sinclair, "Your notice of giving up the right to inherit the throne is just a declaration for us to stabilize the political situation. Her Royal Highness the Princess has never had any thoughts about the throne. Even if the Queen Regent ascends the throne to become the Empress for the sake of the Empire, the throne will eventually return to the hands of the Augustine family.
You, or your descendants, still have the right to inherit the throne!
If you give up the name Augustine, you will truly give up the supreme throne."
Sinclair's attitude was firm: "All tragedies are caused by the throne. If I give up even the last name of Augustine, Uncle Joshua will have no reason to do anything that is detrimental to the empire. He is an excellent general and a military strategist. Even if he no longer commands the army, he is still a valuable asset to the empire."
Sinclair took out his most precious thing to save Joshua.
Luke felt that he could not be a bad guy anymore, so he said to Agatha: "This has become your family affair, what do you think?"
Agatha was also in a dilemma, and she passed the ball back to Luke: "Sinclair is my nephew, and this identity cannot be changed, but Joshua must also bear the due punishment for his crimes.
Family affairs are also state affairs. You are a cabinet minister, so you make the decision. We will hand it over to the cabinet for discussion after we return to the imperial capital."
Sinclair and Agatha looked at Luke to see how he could satisfy both parties.
Luke smiled bitterly and said, "You really are giving me a hard time. I can't make a judgment now. I'll make a decision after I finish questioning Qiao Xiuer.
My Lord Sinclair, I will respect your kinship with General Joshua, but if I believe that he must die, I will send someone to assassinate him even if I publicly sentence him to live.
I hope you understand. ”
Luke made a major concession, and Sinclair immediately said: "Of course, I can understand. But I have a request, I want to interrogate Joshull with you."
"Can!"
The two sides compromised and took a step back. It depended on whether Joshua could seize the chance of survival that Sinclair had given up everything to fight for him.
At this time, the train came to a complete stop, and Sandpaper and Kestrel completed their mission and returned to the dining car.
The space secret technique was dissolved without the person maintaining it, light appeared in the darkness outside the car window, and then the illuminated fortress appeared.
The panicked and anxious imperial spies outside immediately rushed into the train. After completely controlling all the carriages, the inspector brought his subordinates to the dining car to apologize to the princess and the Marquis of Meteorite.
Outside the train, the soldiers of the Northern Army gathered outside. No one spoke, and they all looked at the train quietly, not knowing what was going on inside.
The train of the delegation disappeared in plain sight. It was obvious that it had encountered a space attack. The spies surrounding the train also shouted loudly, "There's an assassin!"
Inside the train are the eldest princess of the empire, the governor of Raging Waves City, the Marquis of Meteorite, and I heard that His Royal Highness Sinclair is also on it. They can be said to be the most powerful people in the empire.
Nearly two hours passed from the time the train disappeared to the time it reappeared.
Is there anyone alive in the train?
If the Imperial Princess, the Governor of Fury City, and His Royal Highness Sinclair all died in the main base of the Northern Legion.
What will become of the Empire?
What fate awaits me?
The officers who initiated the mutiny were also waiting for information from the train.
Did we succeed in taking the Abyss Temple?
General Joshua, standing high on the fortress, looked at the quiet train with mixed feelings.
What's going on inside now? Is Sinclair safe?
Without letting the people outside wait too long, a team of imperial spies walked down from the train. They spread out to both sides and formed two cordon lines.
Then Sinclair came out of the car.
He stood still and said loudly: "All soldiers of the Northern Army, listen up! Remove General Joshua from all his positions in the army, and I, Sinclair Augustine, will serve as the temporary commander of the Northern Army.
Now! Except for those on duty, all officers and soldiers should return to their respective barracks immediately. No one is allowed to go out without my order.
Anyone who disobeys orders will be punished by military law!
Execute immediately! "
Sinclair's order made most of the Northern Army's soldiers realize that the assassination of the Imperial Princess and Marquis of Meteoric Star was related to General Joshuel.
Now that Sinclair had dismissed Joshua from his position as the commander of the Northern Army, although it was not in accordance with the procedure, the morale of the Northern Army had long since been lost, and the army immediately split into two groups. Most officers shouted out orders and led their soldiers back to the barracks to wait for the result, while a small number of officers and a group of soldiers stayed where they were.
They already knew that the assassination had failed.
The crime of assassinating the Imperial Princess and the Marquis of Meteorite was enough to chop off their heads.
Fight hard!
This was the idea of these officers, but blocking the train were not only the imperial spies, but also His Royal Highness Sinclair.
The officers all looked up at Joshuel who was high up, waiting for his orders.
Sinclair stood outside the door of the carriage to prevent the officers from leading their troops to storm the train.
After all the officers and soldiers who had obeyed the order had left, Sinclair shouted to the remaining people: "Some of you have no idea what is happening, and your loyalty to General Joshua will only add to his crimes.
It's over, everything is over. I don't want any soldiers from the Northern Legion to lose their lives innocently because of this farce.
Please let me handle the rest, and please trust me!"
Sinclair's words made some officers waver. They really didn't know what was going on and they stayed only out of loyalty to Joshua.
There was a commotion among the confronting soldiers, but no one left.
An officer shouted to Sinclair, "Your Highness Sinclair, we only follow the orders of Commander Joshull!"
Sinclair knew that his prestige could not overpower these soldiers, so he shouted to Joshua on the platform: "Uncle Joshua! Her Royal Highness the Princess and the Marquis of Meteorite are safe, and all the assassins have been killed. You have committed an unforgivable crime, do you want to drag so many loyal soldiers to die with you?"
Joshur on the platform looked at Sinclair in front of the train. He didn't expect that the Abyss Temple would fail. Agatha and Meteor were alive, which meant that the third apostle Belga was dead.
Now most of the soldiers of the Northern Legion have been psychologically disintegrated by the Empire's condolences and are waiting to be reorganized by the Empire. Even if the remaining people rebel, it will be difficult for them to cause any big waves.
And why rebel?
Sinclair stood up against himself.
After a moment of silence, Qiao Xiuer said, "I resign from all my positions in the Northern Army, and the position of Army Commander will be handed over to Sinclair. You all should obey the orders of the new Army Commander and return to the barracks to wait for new instructions."
After giving the last order, Qiao Xuer turned and walked into the room.
The soldiers gathered together, looked at each other, and left dejectedly one by one.
Soon, the huge fortress square was empty.
Sinclair couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The Northern Army was saved. The only thing left was...
Sinclair asked the imperial spies to stay behind to protect the train, and he headed for the mountain gate of the fortress. On the way, he picked out a few soldiers on duty and led them to capture Joshua.
Inside the carriage, Agatha looked at the empty fortress square outside and said to Luke, "It seems that Sinclair wants to protect not only General Joshua, but also all the officers involved in this incident."
Luke said, "Since we are prepared to make concessions to General Joshull, we might as well make more concessions. Improving Sinclair's prestige will help the smooth handover of command of the Northern Army.
You have no objection, right?
"No! You, who are about to become the Prime Minister of the Empire, can be tolerant and generous. As the eldest princess of the Empire, I am not a narrow-minded person. If I pursue it blindly, I am afraid that the entire legion will be implicated. The Northern Legion is the most important weapon of the Empire. Besides, they are only against us this time, and their hearts are still loyal to the Empire."
Luke said, "Now that you think so, I know how to handle this incident. Sinclair should have controlled Joshua now. I'm going to talk to him. Do you want to come with me?"
Agatha smiled and said, "No! It would be too much of an honor for Qiao Xiuer to interrogate the Princess of the Empire and the Marquis of Meteorite together. You can go on my behalf. I will wait for your result here."
"Why do I feel like you're just lazy..." Luke stood up and said with a smile, "Just wait here. I'll go see if General Qiao Xiuer is unrepentant."
Luke got off the car with a team of imperial agents and entered the fortress without any hindrance.
Arriving at the legion commander's room, Sinclair and his soldiers were guarding outside.
Sinclair looked at the closed door and said to Luke, "Please rest assured that I did not say anything that I shouldn't have said to General Joshull. Please give him a chance."
Sinclair said that he did not collude with Joshua. He knew that lies could not fool Meteorite, so it was better to be honest and let Meteorite show leniency.
"The opportunity has been given. It depends on General Joxu's own wishes." Luke asked the accompanying spies to stay outside, then pushed the door and walked into the room.
Sinclair followed him in and closed the door.
A light on the ceiling illuminated the room. General Joshuel was sitting calmly behind his desk, looking at Luke and Sinclair who came in without emotion.
Luke did not interrogate Joshua first. He walked to the desk, where the assassination plan was spread out. Luke sat down on the other side of the desk, pointed his finger at the plan, and pulled it in front of him to examine it carefully.
Sinclair walked to the corner and stood still.
"The plan is very thorough!" Luke praised after reading the assassination plan. "Our reactions are all within your calculations. All the spies guarding outside the train were deployed by you almost according to these routes, thus creating a gap for the Abyss Mage to calmly deploy his secret technique.
Just like the wars you led before, it can be called the art of war."
Luke's praise was very harsh to Qiao Xiuer's ears. He said, "It is useless to start a failed operation no matter how smoothly it goes. You won, I lost, this is the result, no need to show off to me?"
Luke said, "Your failure should be attributed to the fact that you found an unreliable ally. The Abyss Temple is not a military unit at all, and does not have the execution and adaptability of an excellent army. When they launched the attack, I just counterattacked them casually, and they lost their composure. From beginning to end, they did not launch a decent attack, and were defeated one by one by my people.
What's even more ridiculous is that I set such an obvious trap, but Belga fell into it without hesitation.
If you were to carry it out, the situation might be different."
Qiao Xiuer couldn't help but smile bitterly: "You are right, the Abyss Temple is not a military unit. I have fought with the Abyss Temple many times and know that they are a group of lunatics who have no tactical mind at all.
From the moment I decided to join forces with the Abyss Temple to carry out this assassination, I was doomed to fail!"
