Chapter 696 — History Marches On

The Iron Throne's exposure had been an accident—and the battlefield itself was never short of accidents—but according to General Philip, the Iron Throne's exposure might have had something to do with the Typhonian commander conducting targeted reconnaissance out of caution. This made Maggie involuntarily recall how his carefully devised "deception tactics" had been seen through.

He chuckled softly, shaking his head. "That 'little wolf'... lives up to her reputation."

"General," the adjutant Payne said, coming up onto the wall to stand beside Maggie, "word from the Iron Throne: they have ceased firing, and their preliminary judgment is that the Typhonian force has not been left behind."

"...This time, fate favored the Typhonians," Maggie said after a moment's silence, his tone calm. "Compile the intelligence and send it to His Majesty. How the situation develops from here... is no longer our concern."

"Yes, General."

The rain stopped without anyone noticing. A crisp but cold autumn wind swept across the city wall; the dark clouds in the sky quietly dispersed, and the drama that had run from afternoon into night ended along with the wind and rain. Starlight spilled through the gaps in the clouds onto the earth, clear and cold.

"A truly fine rain..." Maggie said in a low voice. "It came at just the right moment, and stopped at just the right moment."

……

Intelligence from the eastern frontier was relayed to Saint Sunil at the first opportunity. In his study at the Silver Citadel, Gao Yang summoned his three great regents.

"Our border is secure—at least in the east," Gao Yang said without preamble. "The Iron Throne has reached the frontier, and after a dramatic confrontation, the Typhonians have withdrawn behind their lines."

"Here is the detailed report." Amber's figure emerged beside Gao Yang. She held several copied documents and distributed them one by one to the three great regents.

Victoria took the intelligence and first skimmed through it hurriedly. Though the language of the report was terse, it was enough to explain all that had happened. After a cursory read, the Duke of Ice and Snow could not help but sigh softly: "Opportunity slipped past everyone."

"That is only fair," Baiyu Franklin laid down the printed sheets. "Whatever one says, the Typhonians have realized the Longwind Keep line has been reestablished. They should quiet down now."

Gao Yang shook his head and cautioned: "Temporarily quiet. An empire that has entered the industrial age has no such virtue as 'moderate restraint.' But at least whether to fight or make peace is no longer for them alone to decide. Hedy, what did you want to say?"

Hedy, who had not spoken a word until now, raised her head and looked at Gao Yang: "Ancestor, Minister Norris has already led the Ministry of Agriculture's expert group into the contaminated zone of the Holy Spirit Plain to evaluate the agricultural reconstruction plan there. From a long-term perspective, we truly need to rest and recuperate."

Facing Hedy's earnest, slightly grave gaze, Gao Yan nodded: "Correct. We do indeed need to rest and recuperate... especially the reconstruction of agriculture."

The situation appeared to be going smoothly. The Empire had been established; the coronation ceremony had greatly lifted the morale of every stratum of society; order in the royal capital had been restored; nobles everywhere had signed one after another to express support for the restructuring; the mighty Cecil war machine had thwarted the Typhonians' scheme at the border and had even once held the upper hand. All of this seemed capable of producing an illusion—a radical optimist might even feel that the Cecil Empire was already a powerful giant, ready to sweep the world. But everyone in this room knew that such "smoothness" was merely surface.

It was successive victories that had lifted hearts, temporary redistribution of interests that had masked the inner emptiness. Beneath the surface, the fact was that half of the Holy Spirit Plain's grain-producing region had been destroyed, vast numbers of refugees needed resettlement, and the cities and countryside needed rebuilding after the war...

If the earlier war had been what made this ancient, sunken kingdom rise reborn from the fire, carving away the rotten flesh, then what the Cecil Empire needed now was not to sweep the world, but to grow new flesh where the rot had been cut away.

Among these, grain was the priority. According to the emergency census just completed, the Cecil Empire currently faced grain shortages almost everywhere except the Southern and Western Regions. Even if all national grain reserves were mobilized, they could barely hold out until the next harvest season. To prevent a large-scale famine, Duke Baiyu had already begun contact with the August Federation to the west to discuss purchasing grain. Under such circumstances, the Empire had to rest and recuperate.

"I also agree with Great Regent Hedy's opinion, but the key question is how Typhon will react," Duke Baiyu first affirmed Hedy, then frowned. "The 'confrontation' on the Longwind Keep line came very close to open war—it simply did not turn into full legionary melee. Everyone walked along the cliff's edge... and that walk can be explained any number of ways."

"It was they who approached the military zone on their own initiative; by the principle of righteousness, the Typhonians hold no advantage. Our disadvantage lies in failing to keep that unit—we have insufficient evidence on hand. Such is the present situation, and for both nations, so long as the evidence is insufficient, everything can be denied," Gao Dai said. "On the other hand, judging by willingness to fight, after today Typhon should be more inclined to sit down and talk with us properly... Today's Typhon is no longer what it once was."

Hedy frowned: "Because of their industrial and economic transformation?"

Gao Yang glanced at Hedy, a hint of approval in his eyes: "Exactly. They have a new 'cake,' and now those minor and middling nobles harmed by the restructuring are busy redistributing the interests. One of the greatest internal pressures on Typhon has been temporarily eased. Before they encounter their next bottleneck, Luo Yan Augustus has no need to keep stubbornly pushing for war. His present focus should be controlling the course of industrial and economic transformation, preventing his empire from spinning out of control in the process..."

"Then..." Baiyu Franklin pinched his temples. "Your Majesty, we should send Typhon a signal."

"Of course," Gao Rong rose and looked toward Hedy. "Notify Padrick at once—place a new batch of orders with Typhon. And then... we simply wait patiently for Luo Yan Augustus's response."