Chapter 600: Coldwind Ridge
...
Soli.Dahl crossed the shattered castle gate with satisfaction and walked into the Coldwind Town castle.
Take Coldwind Ridge in three days? Aside from the two days spent on the road, he only used half a quarter of an hour to break through the town's wall—of course, whether that mud fence only one person high could be considered a wall was still a question. There were also very few guards on duty, and after two of them were cut down by the Judgment Army, they scattered in a panic, with almost no formal resistance.
Is this the town guarding the border?
The Kingdom of Graycastle is nothing more than this.
The only thing that dissatisfied him was that when the Church's army was still halfway up the mountain, thick smoke rose from the beacon tower at the foot of the mountain, as if they had expected them to attack the town.
Although it was only a matter of time before other territories in the Northern Region saw the warning, this lack of reverence still made him a little angry—treating the Holy City's team as enemies in advance showed that they had long harbored blasphemous intentions. He had already sent a small team of Judgment Army soldiers to the beacon tower, preparing to capture these people for questioning, and then send them to the gallows.
“This way, my lord,” the leading knight said tremblingly. When the sword was placed on their necks, the knights did not show the righteousness of sacrificing themselves to protect their lord, but immediately knelt down and surrendered, and declared their willingness to be loyal to the Church.
This is the ugly state of people without faith, cowardly and helpless, completely unworthy compared to the Judgment Warriors who fight for the gods.
After beheading several personal guards along the way, the Judgment Army broke into the lord's room and blocked any possible escape windows—although Soli felt that the other party did not have the courage to escape through the window. He slowly stepped into the room, watching the pale-faced Coldwind Ridge lord gradually slump in his chair.
“Good afternoon, Lord Kevon.Mardon.”
“Y-you dare to break into Coldwind Ridge... D-does the Holy City intend to openly antagonize Graycastle?”
He's finished, Soli thought, fear completely deprived him of his mind. Decades of resisting evil beasts on the Hermes line of defense had honed a unique ability in the Archbishop, which was to taste fear. Some people can turn fear into a desire for survival, while others are only swallowed by fear. The former is a necessary quality for Judgment Warriors to be promoted to God's Punishment Army, while the latter will be eliminated by endless bloody battles.
Kevon was obviously the latter.
“That's right, didn't you already know this?”
“What? No! I don't understand what you mean—”
“It's too late to regret it now, my lord,” Soli interrupted, “Buying grain at high prices, prohibiting merchants from going to the Holy City, don't tell me you just did it on a whim... The King of Graycastle wants to turn Coldwind Ridge into an outpost for attacking the Holy City, so we can't be blamed for launching a counterattack in advance.”
“This is a groundless accusation!” Kevon shook his head repeatedly. “I didn't do these things at all, and the king never sent messengers to Coldwind Ridge, let alone proactively attack Hermes!”
“It doesn't matter if you don't admit it, His Holiness the Pope naturally has a way to find out the news he wants from your head, but it won't do you any good when that step comes, so you'd better confess everything you know now.”
“I-I really haven't done these things, you can't wrong me!” His corpulent body shrank back, “I am the lord of Coldwind Ridge, the Earl of the Kingdom of Graycastle! Your actions have violated the Evil Moon Covenant!”
“Enough, you brought this on yourself.”
Soli.Dahl waved his hand impatiently, and the Judgment Warrior immediately dragged him out of the room.
After the Archbishop sat down in the lord's seat, he vaguely felt that something was wrong. The lord had clearly been crushed by fear, so why was he still stubbornly refusing to confess? Could it be that he was so loyal to Roland.Wimbledon that he would rather be sent to the Holy City for questioning than reveal the king's plan?
At this moment, a Judgement Chief walked into the room, "Bishop, Pissos has sealed off the granary, but..."
“But what?”
“There is not much grain stored inside, probably only enough for the townspeople to eat for a month or two, it is impossible to support a large army.”
“Are you sure?” Soli frowned immediately.
“Pissos searched the granary all over, and also asked the warehouse keeper. They said that no large quantities of grain had been transported in recently, and the wheat stored in the warehouse was still from last year's harvest,” the Judgement Chief reported in detail.
“Then what's the matter with the news of high-priced grain purchases spreading from the town?” He pondered for a moment, “Go find those merchants and ask about the situation.”
“Yes.” The other party nodded in response. “In addition, we also searched all the garrison camps in the west of the city, and most of them were empty rooms—according to the surrendered knight, since the border army was completely wiped out in Hermes, it has not been effectively replenished.”
In other words, Coldwind Ridge was not prepared for war at all? This is also very different from the information provided by Jieluo. The Archbishop's brow furrowed even deeper. After a long silence, he ordered, “There must be believers of the Church in this town. Gather them together and ask in detail about the changes in Coldwind Ridge in the past two months. Also, those who voluntarily join the Church, as well as the local rats, should also be questioned. I want to understand what is going on immediately!”
The Judgement Chief clasped his fist to his chest, "I will do it now."
Soli leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath. Attacking Graycastle was a plan that had been decided long ago. The process and spoils were not important, but he didn't like this feeling of surprise at all.
Where exactly did things go wrong?
The next day, the Judgement Chief handed the collected information to the Archbishop's desk.
Soli opened the first page and quickly scanned the confessions of the crowd, "Two local merchants are purchasing grain in large quantities, and the amount of wheat stockpiled is as much as a thousand斛?"
“That's what the merchants say,” the Judgement Chief said in a deep voice. “After learning about this, I immediately searched the residences of these two people. There was indeed a lot of grain inside, but that was only for individuals—the total stacked in the basement was no more than twenty斛. And there was no one in the house, they should have fled shortly after the beacon was lit.”
“You mean... collusion?” The Bishop quickly understood what the other party meant.
“Yes, my lord, only by colluding with foreign merchants to pretend to trade, transferring from the left hand to the right hand, and then smuggling back to the left hand from the right hand, can such an illusion be created.”
“Where are those merchants from?”
“Various towns in the Northern Region, Silent Valley Town, Evernight City, Crosswind Stronghold... High-priced purchases started a month ago. At first, not many people paid attention, but as the quantity increased later, it attracted the attention of merchants. We have imprisoned all the merchants in the town, but we have not found those guys who transported the grain.”
If it was really a collusion between the two parties, then the chance of catching them is slim. But... what is the purpose of the other party doing this? Just to attract the Holy City's attention and let His Holiness the Pope launch an invasion as soon as possible?
Soli flipped to the next few pages of the report in confusion, and another piece of information caught his eye.
“The patrolmen in charge of the beacon tower... are dead?”