Helen's letter was very long. Her handwriting was elegant but also had a hint of dominance. Her words were calm, and there was a sense of a heart-to-heart talk.
"Wu Lai, we haven't seen each other for many years. Now we are facing each other. Looking back on the past, I can't help but feel a lot of emotion..."
"You once said that in most world affairs, those in power are confused, while those who are on the sidelines can judge. Since the founding of my country, I have won battles one after another, not entirely by force. If you observe it with an open mind and calmness, it is not difficult to see that the reason for the defeat of Kimmos, Hurlit, and Assyria is that they stick to the old ways and are not familiar with changes..."
"…You are the bravest among the three armies, and your talent is extraordinary. If you can serve the favor of heaven, make great achievements, and be crowned as a king, with red wheels and golden wheels, and flags flying thousands of miles, why do you need to be like this today?"
"If you can submit to the favor of Heaven, I will not only ensure your great prosperity, but also follow your wishes, abolish slavery, improve people's livelihood, let those who till the land have their own land, those who live in the house have their own house, enrich the people and protect the country..."
"If you insist on doing what you want, and are obsessed with it, and are determined to destroy the lives of the people, I have nothing to say. I will stop here and wait for your response."
The signature is Helenpetra, the first emperor of the Tianjuan Empire.
After reading the letter, Wu Lai sighed softly, folded the letter again and put it back into the envelope.
"High Priest, this letter..." Seeing that Wu Lai's face didn't look good, Sales asked hurriedly.
"I tried to persuade him to surrender." Wu Lai smiled bitterly and shook his head, thinking to himself, he had misjudged me. Am I the kind of person who would surrender?
"This Emperor Tianjuan is really bold. Not to mention, she is really good. In just a few years, she has accomplished what the people of Tianjuan have been thinking about for dozens of generations." Sales said with a smile.
"Yes, she is very good. In addition to her own reasons, the system inherited from Tianjuan Territory also made her successful. I have taught you that the combination of politics and religion has a great advantage in cohesion when compared with the separation of powers." Wu Lai smiled slightly, "However, she is advancing too fast and too smoothly, which is obviously not good."
Sareth nodded.
Woolley did not reply to Helen. After going through so much, how could he still believe in or care about anything? In his opinion, abolishing slavery, developing people's livelihood, and promoting civilization and progress were things that he should do himself instead of entrusting others to do it.
To Woolley, Helen now is just the leader of the invaders, a dictator, an enemy who destroys order and peace, nothing more.
Therefore, he asked Sares to send a message to Tianjuan's messenger: "Fight, don't talk nonsense."
The next day, the Tianjuan Army moved again. More than 200,000 people marched quickly for half a day, and did not stop to set up camp until they arrived twelve miles in front of the North and South Peaks. However, they did not gather together like they did last night. Instead, they followed Helen's new arrangement and kept a distance from each other, with the closest distance to the North and South Peaks being less than nine miles.
The camping site Helen chose for Tianjuan was the flattest and most open area within dozens of miles around, with abundant water resources and no strategic locations to defend. The reason why they dared to camp in such an area was that Helen was sure that Wu Lai would only defend and not attack - he was short of soldiers. If not, how could the defeated armies of Tianjuan wait for the arrival of the army? But Helen was still very cautious, so the four armies divided into left and right, first and second, and the central army where she was, started to build fences and trenches around the camp while setting up camp, and various sentries and arrow towers were set up one by one...
After reporting these situations to Wu Lai, Sarres asked: "High Priest, does the enemy intend to fight us for a long time?"
"No." Wu Lai waved his hand. "The enemy has sent out such a huge number of troops. Consumption is definitely their biggest burden. The people in the Assyrian territory are in dire straits and cannot be supplied locally. The supply lines from Hulit and Kimo are too long. Therefore, they cannot fight for a long time. Otherwise, there would be no need to send so many people."
"High Priest, what you mean is that they want to end the war quickly? Then why do they have to build so many fortifications?" Sales asked again.
"It's a precaution, and also a gesture to suppress the morale of our army." Wu Lai smiled slightly, "But they are wrong. Our soldiers are never afraid of being frightened."
After nodding, Sareth hesitated for a moment and said, "I still want to ask the High Priest to move to Speartania. The troops here at the pass may not be enough to resist the enemy's first wave of attack. I am worried..."
"Don't worry, the pass is not a place for us to fight." Wu Lai patted Sares on the shoulder, "Sares, compared with Putong, you are a little too cautious. If the two of you can neutralize each other, it will be perfect."
Sares was stunned for a moment, then he started laughing. Yes, Pu Tong has always been bolder than anyone else, and has more tricks than anyone else.
"Let's go. The enemy won't attack for at least two days. Let's go to the artillery fort and cheer those guys up." Wu Lai laughed and waved his sleeves and went out...
…
In a classroom of Salt Marsh City School, Puya was teaching a class, but the hundred or so people listening to the class were not students, but citizens of Lunvington City who had "taken refuge" in Salt Marsh City.
Today is already the fifth class. Yesterday's class was held outdoors - visiting the convoy of spoils brought into the city by the First and Second Regiments, and of course including the dejected Tianjuan Army prisoners...
This visit had a huge impact on these refugee citizens. Since the Tianjuan Empire launched military operations, Kimo, Hurlit and most of Assyria had fallen one after another, which made them think that the Tianjuan Army was invincible, especially after hearing the rumor that the Tianjuan Army had surrendered.
But Salt Marsh City showed them with facts that the Tianjuan Army could not only defeat them, but also make them lose miserably...
Pu Ya used yesterday's visit as the opening remarks for today's lesson: "You all saw it yesterday. In one ambush, we wiped out more than 10,000 soldiers of the Tianjuan Army. The rest were all captured. The ox carts filled with spoils were lined up for more than ten miles. I want to ask everyone, why were we able to achieve such a victory? Who can answer?"
"That's because the high priest's army is brave!" someone stood up and answered.
"I heard that it's because the high priest has weapons that are far more powerful than those of the Tianjuan Army!" someone else answered.
A citizen hesitated for a moment, then stood up and said, "I think that such a great victory is inseparable from the strategic planning of the Grand Priest Saint Wulai and the bravery of the soldiers."
"The Tianjuan Army is unfamiliar with the terrain, and our army is fighting bravely..."
Pu Ya nodded in affirmation for each answer. After a while, seeing that no new answers appeared, she smiled and waved her hand to signal everyone to be quiet, and then said: "Everyone has a point. Do you remember what our first class was about?"
"Visit the Government House." Everyone answered.
"Then I would like to ask, among people working in the government office, are there any distinctions between high and low levels besides their job levels?" Pu Ya asked again.
"No."
"I also want to tell you today that not only in the government office, but also in the entire Salt Marsh City and Grindo Island, everyone is equal. There are no slaves, no citizen nobles, and everyone has the same rights and obligations. Only in this way can we gather everyone's strength, build our homeland, and resist foreign humiliation..."
"… Abolishing slavery and abolishing citizen aristocracy does not mean taking away the property of citizen aristocrats. You can continue to keep your wealth and residences, and continue to use your wisdom and abilities to earn more wealth…"
Puya kept talking, and all the citizens listened attentively and thought about it...
…
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Wei Huo completed the reorganization of Duncan's army and Renvington's army. After retiring the old, weak and sick who were no longer suitable for military service, there were still more than 61,000 troops left.
These people were quickly disbanded and reorganized into twenty regiments, divided into four divisions. Except for the weakest Fifth Division, which was commanded by Gulu as a mobile force to maintain local peace, the other three divisions were all commanded by Wei Huo. At the same time, the two artillery battalions and forty small-caliber artillery pieces that Gulu brought from Greendo Island were also put under Wei Huo's command.
The three large regiments of Oddo and others also became a division - the First Division of Lunvington, and together with the four divisions under the command of Weihuo and Gulu, they were collectively called the "Lunvington Army Group". They each had their own responsibilities, but also cooperated with each other.
The next day after the reorganization was completed, Wei Huo led his army to set out, not to fight, but to stop in an area 17 miles beyond the town of Prada, and then destroyed the horse road and built beacon towers and city wall checkpoints. This area is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with complex terrain. After a little renovation, its effectiveness can definitely be comparable to the pass 20 miles outside the city of Lunvington.
At the same time, Ye Jianwu was still anxiously waiting for the response from the Southern Camp Army...
Gulu and Deleng were also busy. At that time, nine out of ten citizen families in the city of Lunvington were deserted, and those who remained were mostly small nobles whose financial resources and appeal were equally declining. They could not cause any interference to Gulu's drastic reforms.
What Gulu had to do was what Woolley had done in Mauritania—abolish slavery, eliminate the citizen class, establish an elected government, and carry out land reforms...
Compared with Woolley, the land reform in Lunvington is more difficult, because Mauritania is considered a private territory of the Shuman family. The Shuman family has unparalleled appeal there. As long as the Shuman family nods, everyone else will do the same.
But this is not the case in Lunvington. Although the Duncan family also has absolute say in Lunvington, there are many citizens in Lunvington and they belong to many families. The amount of land they own is several times more than that of the Duncan family. When it comes to the issue of land, even the Duncan family cannot guarantee that they will obey.
But land reform must be done, and it must be done not only well but also quickly.
Woolley once told Guru that although the current land reform targets only general farmland, it is a controversial social arrangement or reform. The ultimate goal is not only to allow cultivators to own land, but also to enable the government to manage the possession and use of land.
"No matter at any time, people's dissatisfaction with land-related issues has always been the most common factor inciting chaos and unrest. Citizens own a lot of land and also have a lot of privileges. They have encroached on part or even most of the output of farmland. This is one of the important manifestations of inequality between classes. So when the time comes, we must first find ways and make efforts to change this." Wu Lai once said this to Guru, Puya and others.
Wu Lai was also troubled about how to carry out land reform. Whether it was the Assyrian territory or other territories, the citizen aristocracy had occupied a large amount of land and profited from it for countless generations. The concept had long been deeply rooted. If it was forcibly confiscated and then redistributed, it would cause widespread dissatisfaction...
However, without taking this step, how can Assyria and even the entire continent be pushed forward?
Fortunately, there is always a way, but we still have to take it step by step. For example, we can "trick" these citizen nobles to Salt Marsh City and Grindo Island, and then teach them a lesson, so that they will voluntarily hand over the land for compensation...
But this does not mean that Wu Lai is always gentle. Before the expedition, he told Puya and Guru, who were going to lead the work, that they must strike hard and ruthlessly at the small group of people who were stubborn and tried to sabotage...
…
Shortly after nightfall, Woolley once again led Sarres and Bailey to the North Peak Battery.
Pointing to the enemy camp with a faint red glow on the horizon, Wu Lai said with a smile, "The enemy will probably start a war tomorrow. Although I don't know how long it will last, I think that once we win this war, this victory alone will be enough for you two to brag about for the rest of your lives."
Sarez and Bailey looked at each other and smiled.
"But I think Putin will definitely brag more than both of you combined. You see, he is that kind of person. He can fight and he can brag as well," Wu Lai added.
"The lord is right, but I'm still a little worried. The enemy's strength is ten times that of mine. If they rush up all at once, the artillery on the North and South Peaks and the pass will be difficult to stop them." Bailey was not saying this to discourage people. He was speaking the truth. If the enemy rushed forward regardless of the consequences and even used corpses to build stairs to climb the pass, it would be hard to say whether the pass could be safe and sound.
Wu Lai smiled slightly: "You are right to worry. I told you that you should be optimistic but also cautious. However, I guess the enemy can't rush in all at once. What's more, a rush in all at once may not be a bad thing for us..."