Iron Powder and Spellcasters Chapter 343

   Chapter 343 Map

  There are two wooden houses in the yard, one for people and the other for storage. Before taking a few steps, Lieutenant Colonel Elek took a look inside and out of the two wooden houses.

   Apart from the simple table, chairs and chest of drawers, there is no furniture in the room. It was clearly indoors, but it was as empty as a wilderness.

  The oil lamp full of cobwebs was thrown in the corner, and the lamp had long since dried up. The sun slanted westward, there was no light source in the wooden house, and it was as dark as a cave.

   Lieutenant Colonel Elek couldn't help frowning and asked, "Why do you live here?"

  John Jesska leaned against the wall, moved his steps a little bit, and finally sat back on the square stool beside the dining table, and asked, "This is my house, I don't live here, where do I live?"

   "Do school officials live in this kind of place?"

   "You can only get half salary after injury." John Jesska replied without emotion: "Besides, half salary has not been received for three quarters."

   Winters looked sideways at Lieutenant Colonel Elek, whose face turned dark.

   "How is that possible?" Lieutenant Colonel Elek asked impatiently, half in surprise and half in doubt, "How can you not be paid for three quarters?"

  John Jesska snorted coldly and didn't answer, but his contemptuous expression was the most straightforward answer—believe it or not.

   Honestly speaking, before stepping into this small courtyard, Winters did not know what it would be like to see Lieutenant Colonel Jesska again.

   In order not to make the scene awkward, Winters anticipated a lot of dialogue. But when he really saw Lieutenant Colonel Jesska's dark eye sockets, he couldn't say anything.

  John Jesska "looked" at Winters and asked bluntly, "What to drink?"

   "Water will do."

   "Nothing else." John Jesska tilted his head: "There is a well in the yard, you need to drink and dig it yourself."

  Winters picked up the water jug, walked straight out of the wooden house, refilled a fresh can of well water, and washed the cup by the way. When dealing with Lieutenant Colonel Jesska, he habitually omits those hypocritical courtesy and etiquette.

   Back at the hut, Winters poured a glass of water for Lieutenant Colonel Jesska and Lieutenant Colonel Elek each.

   "He was your subordinate before?" Lieutenant Colonel Elek regretted the words as soon as he said it. He shook his head mockingly: "What kind of stupid question is this? Otherwise, why would he take a detour to visit you... Oh, that's it, since it's your subordinate, it makes sense to draw wherever you go."

   "Oh?" John Jesska raised a little interest.

  Surveying and mapping is a difficult subject, and Winters admits that he has not even touched the threshold, so he does not want to talk about it.

   Winters asked casually, "The well in the yard doesn't even have a fence. You usually fetch water yourself?"

   "There's a couple of peasants on the other side of town who come to me once a day to get me something to eat and drink," John Jesska explained succinctly.

Compared with his daily life, the former lieutenant colonel is obviously more concerned about other things: "The news here is not well-informed, until just now I thought you died in the battle on the west bank of the Styx. Tell me, tell me something I don't know. "

   "It's a long story."

   "Then talk slowly." John Jesska disagreed: "The last thing I need is time."

   "Lieutenant Colonel, let's talk about it when the time is right."

   "The right time?" John Jesska's eyebrows twitched. While the former lieutenant colonel is known for his bluntness, that doesn't mean he's slow-minded.

   "There are outsiders watching, so it's inconvenient for you to speak?" John Jesska laughed dryly, and directly issued an expulsion order to Lieutenant Colonel Elek: "I won't send you because of my eyesight."

   Rao is Lieutenant Colonel Elek who has long heard of [One-Eyed Jesska]'s reputation for being difficult to get along with. Rao is Lieutenant Colonel Elek's natural good-natured temper, but he was still choked on the stage, his face was blue and white.

   Winters had to turn around for his former superior: "Lieutenant Colonel Elek is not an outsider. If it hadn't been for Lieutenant Colonel Elek to help, I wouldn't be able to find you here."

   "Oh, yes." John Jesska responded indifferently.

According to Winters' knowledge of his previous superiors: Even if John Jesska made an objective assessment without emotion, others would sound like sarcasm; this is John Jesska's talent and instinct, not aimed at anyone or anyone alone. thing.

   Winters apologetically nods to Colonel Elek and apologizes in place of Colonel Jesska.

   Lieutenant Colonel Elek took a deep breath and sighed helplessly, half sarcastically, half admiringly saying: "It seems that the overseas dispatch has not changed you one bit."

  John Jesska snorted, unmoved. He picked up the semi-finished wooden mold on the table and groped for the knife.

   "What are you doing?" Lieutenant Colonel Elek asked curiously.

   "Earn bread," John Jesska replied nonchalantly.

  The sky was dark, Lieutenant Colonel Elek observed for a while, and then he saw that the other party was carving chess pieces: "It's too dark in the room, you don't get a cup..."

   Lieutenant Colonel Elek stopped abruptly. Although John Jesska's knife was slow, it was extremely precise, so precise that Elek forgot that the other party was out of sight.

   "Why don't you get a lamp?" John Jesska's mood was so calm that it was almost cruel: "It's okay to be blind, save money for lamp oil."

  The wooden house was quiet, and only the sound of sawdust and wood tires being separated could be heard.

"I still can't figure it out." Lieutenant Colonel Elek slapped his knee and couldn't help but ask: "How could you not be paid? General Arpad issued a special order: for officers who retired due to injuries in the expeditionary force and died in battle. The officer's survivors care deeply. There must be something wrong, it shouldn't be like this... I'll go back and find out."

  John Jesska didn't seem to hear anything, and concentrated on carving the pieces.

   Winters fiddled with the water glass and said nothing.

   In silence, Lieutenant Colonel Elek gradually came to his senses. He stood up slowly, squinted his eyes and looked down at the same period, and asked hesitantly; "Could it be that you... didn't sign the affidavit?"

  John Jesska sneered disdainfully.

  The truth is revealed! Signing the affidavit and clearing the boundaries with the puppet governments of the castles is a process that all officers serving in the new military government must go through.

  Under the military government, the consequences of refusing to take the oath of allegiance are not as simple as "payment suspension".

  John Jesska was not imprisoned, tried, or executed, perhaps because of his blindness.

Lieutenant Colonel    Elek just didn't know what to say: "It's just a piece of paper, can it be serious? Why? Alas, if you don't get executed, it's your life..."

John Jesska put down the carving knife and wooden tire in his hand, stood up likewise, looked at Lieutenant Colonel Elek, and stated his attitude word by word: "First of all, I am loyal to the Republic of Palato, and only to the Republic. ; secondly, I do not think that Arpad Duyoom and his leading political faction can represent the Republic of Palato."

"Can the group of fat-minded parliamentarians in the Great Council of the Castles be represented?" Lieutenant Colonel Elek retorted: "Believe it or not, right now—at this very moment, those fat pigs are discussing how to pack Prato. Sell ​​it to the Federal Province!"

   "If you don't split Palato from within, how can you give the province a chance?" John Jesska's voice was cold and steady: "Whatever the reason, Arpad's behavior is a rebellion."

   "Obviously the castles betrayed us!"

   This kind of quarrel is meaningless, because neither one can convince the other.

  John Jesska picked up the knife again and continued to carve the pieces. Lieutenant Colonel Elek sat down angrily and drank the whole glass of cold well water in one go, sweat dripping from his forehead.

   Another moment of silence.

   Lieutenant Colonel Elek slapped his thigh and stared at the same period angrily: "Forget it! You can do what you want. But, you have to go back to Oak Forest with me. I'll find you a place to live."

Lieutenant Colonel Elek took out his handkerchief and wiped his forehead, looked around the empty room, and said bitterly: "Since you believe that the military government is a traitor, let's see who has the last laugh! However, it can't be here - living in this kind of place. Broken place, you can't survive this winter!"

   John Jesska did not appreciate the kindness of his comrades in the same period. He asked **** for tat: "Then can you last until next winter?"

   "What do you mean?" Lieutenant Colonel Elek had a cold face.

  John Jesska emptied the table with a wave of his arm, and dipped his fingers in the water in the cup to sketch on the table.

   The sun is about to sink below the horizon, the rays of light are hanging in the sky, and there are almost no fingers in the wooden house.

  John Jesska was drawing stroke after stroke in the dark, not for others, but for himself. Every stroke is very serious, as if to project the mountains and rivers onto this small wooden table.

  Although the specific lines could not be clearly seen, Winters judged from the general outline that Colonel Jesska should be drawing a map of Plato.

"New Reclamation Province, Xilin Province, Jiangbei Province..." John Jesska took it at his fingertips and marked the map in the dark: "To the north is the Republic of Monta, and to the east along the Ember River is the United Provinces and Henan Provinces. Veneta."

  John Jesska's map is very large, including not only the Palatine Republic, but also the other four countries of the Union.

   The map that outlines the territory of thousands of miles in a square inch and maintains a considerable degree of accuracy, I am afraid that it has only appeared on the emperor's desk before.

  With this invisible and visible map, Winters is also the first macro and intuitive look at the internal and external situation of Prato.

"The Ember River, the Ember River is the key to everything." The water marks have dried up, but John Jesska still accurately pointed out the rushing river and the rushing river that runs through the two mountains: "Don't break through. Jin Liujiang, no matter how sharp General Arpad's saber is, he can only be trapped in the northwest corner of Jiangbei Province. Am I wrong?"

   "That's right," Lieutenant Colonel Elek admitted happily.

   "Then have you broken through the Ember River?"

"No."

   "If you can't break through the Jade River, you can only attack along the north bank of the Jhin River to the east." John Jesska took out the chess pieces and placed them one by one on the invisible and invisible map. There was no light in his eyes, and his body was trapped in a chamber, but his mind had never been so free.

John Jesska stated sternly: "From ancient times to the present, the country of galloping horses has been [the north coast is poor, the south coast is rich]. Even if you go all the way to the border with the provinces, the less you can control the land than Pala One-third of the picture. And the essence of Palatu—the towns on both sides of the Jhinliu River, you can't even get your hands on it. Am I wrong?”

   "That's right." Lieutenant Colonel Elek nodded slowly.

   "That is to say, even in the best of circumstances, the castles control twice your land and three times your population. As a career officer, do you think you have a chance of winning?"

   "Population, land, wealth...you only count these, but ignore the most important part." Lieutenant Colonel Elek bluntly retorted:

"It's people who fight wars! One lion can subdue a hundred sheep! The Fifth and Sixth Legions—the Republic's most elite standing armies are all in the hands of the military government. Not to mention the vast majority of professional officers also stand by us. Side. Those idiots in the castles only know how to fight for power, how can they win?"

John Jesska laughed hoarsely, and Winters even heard pity in the laughter: "As long as there is enough money, arms, and people, soldiers can have as many as they want; as long as there is enough training, recruits can also It can be forged into an elite standing army. Thirty years ago, the old marshal won the sovereignty war in this way. Don't you understand this truth?”

"[The armed civilians are not the army, and the armed civilians are only the raw material of the army]." Lieutenant Colonel Elek also quoted a famous saying of the old marshal: "Can the army be forged overnight? Don't forget, all There are not many officers in the castle, and the veterans are even more pitiful."

   "But they have one person, and that person is enough."

"Who?"

"Sackler... Brigadier General." John Jesska spit out a name heavily, and he said decisively: "Having more than twice the source of troops, land, and wealth, as long as Sackler's brain is okay, he will be able to fight this battle. Impossible to lose! He will turn this war into a brutal war of attrition, tightening the noose around your necks little by little until you are finally strangled. He will win... but Prato will lose."

   Lieutenant Colonel Elek was stunned for a moment, then burst into uncontrollable laughter. He laughed so hard that he was out of breath, tears and snot flowing out continuously.

   Even John Jesska, who has always been calm, felt inexplicable at the sudden laughter of the other party.

  John Jesska gradually changed from being surprised and puzzled to serious: "What are you laughing at?"

"What are you laughing at? I'm laughing that you only take military accounts, not political accounts. This is your problem, and it is also Sackler's problem." Out of the corner of his eyes, he brutally said the truth: "Sekler is dead."

  The water glass fell to the ground, and because it was made of wood, it jumped a few times.

  John Jesska's breathing became heavy, and after a while, he said with difficulty: "How did you die?"

   Winters coughed lightly: "It's a long story."

   "Who knows how he died? We don't know, he is indeed dead anyway." Lieutenant Colonel Elek said nonchalantly:

"Perhaps it was a political conspiracy - after usurping the throne of the Grand Chancellor, Magnus's next step was to take control of the army, and he would definitely see Sackler as a thorn in his side and a thorn in the flesh; it could also be due to an assassination - after all, he betrayed all the soldiers of the Republic. ; Maybe he died of illness, who knows? Anyway, he died, there is no doubt about it. As for how he died, we don't care."

   "When did you die?"

   "It's been a while."

  John Jesska took a long time to digest the thunderbolt, and he sat, motionless, as if mourning for Sackler.

   After a while, John Jesska raised his head and said tiredly: "Please go, I have learned enough things today. I won't send you off."

Lieutenant Colonel Elek stood up and sighed: "I know that your relationship with Sackler is not normal... You should go back to Oak Forest with me? As long as there is a roof over my head, there must be a place for you to live. You really can't survive the winter here - you can't even make a fire! If you can't bear your hometown, I'll take you back in the spring, okay?"

  John Jesska shook his head, as if repeating: "Let's go, leave, let me be alone for a while."

   Lieutenant Colonel Elek put on his hat helplessly and greeted Winters: "Then let's go and visit again tomorrow."

   Winters did not move.

   "What's the matter?" Lieutenant Colonel Elek asked.

   When Lieutenant Colonel Jesska and Lieutenant Colonel Elek debated fiercely, Winters did not interject a word. He stared at the invisible map on the square table for a long time, like a stone sculpture.

  The Jiangbei province where the Palatu military government is located is wrapped in the Palatu Republic, the Monta Republic and the Great Wilderness.

   But the dead end is not without an eye, and the Jinliujiang defense line is not impregnable. The newly cultivated province across the river from the western section of Jiangbei Province is likely to be the key to turning things around.

   Go upstream and cross the Jinliu River by detouring the newly reclaimed land and provinces, then the defense lines along the river for the kings and castles will be useless, and the swords of the military government can be inserted directly into the heart of the red rose.

   The "political account" and "military account" that Lieutenant Colonel Elek referred to gave Winters a blow to the head.

  The Palatine Civil War is not just a military struggle, and it is not only the Red Rose and the Blue Rose who participated in the gladiatorial fight.

  The province is ready to move, and Veneta is already on the verge of an arrow. The attitudes of Monta and Vine are ambiguous, and even the empire on the other side of the Shady Mountains may be eyeing them.

   Simply taking the military as the starting point is too simple.

   But in the final analysis, in the end, we still have to wrestle our arms on the battlefield.

   Winters' thoughts returned to his body. He looked at Lieutenant Colonel Jesska and said sincerely: "Before I came to visit you... I actually thought about it, if you have a bad day, I will pick you up."

   "Pick me up?" John Jesska laughed dumbly: "Where? To Veneta?"

   "Not to Veneta—of course, if you want to go to Veneta, it can be arranged for you."

   "It's hard to go home, I don't want to go anymore."

   "How about going to New Reclaimed Land? New Reclaimed Land Province, Iron Peak County." Winters paused for a moment, then added, "My place."

  John Jesska chewed the word "my place" and suddenly sneered: "Your place?"

   "This description is less accurate, but it's about the same."

  John Jesska's expression became serious, and his hands were blue veins.

   He straightened his body, stared at Winters with his dark eye sockets, and spit out the words word by word: "I! No! Go!"

  The little wooden house fell silent again, this time it was quieter than the previous few times. The sound of breathing and heartbeat was clearly audible, and the wind screeched across the roof.

  Winters took the old superior's hand: "You can't go if you don't go."

   [Map…Drawing]

   [Enter the background and see the following content "Updated for two days this month, cumulative update of 15,000 words", so ashamed that I want to hit the wall]

   [The donkey sauce failed to break the grinding plate, and the donkey sauce was dried by the grinding plate]

   (end of this chapter)

Chapter end