Chapter 411 — The Day History Moves Forward
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 3
Of course, a compromise could be considered: after taking the Holy Frost Cathedral, require all priests to accept Cecil's law and cut off contact with the Nether Luminary Church headquarters on the Holy Spirit Plain, and after that gradually replace, purify, and remake the entire priestly order. But the results of such a course could not be guaranteed, and there might well be hidden dangers...
Since he had already begun to take over the Southern Region, he had to start thinking about these practical questions as its ruler.
Philip and Byron could see that Gao Yang was turning something over in his mind, so they said nothing to disturb him and waited quietly at his side — and then they heard him tap his fingers lightly on the table and say, as though to himself, "Must there be a Luminary Church...?"
Philip did not catch it: "What?"
"Nothing," Gao Yang shook his head. "We will settle the matter of the Holy Frost Cathedral, but for now we can let those priests and Church knights go on trembling inside their great cathedral a while longer. And those nobles shut up in the various prison camps — let them sit there too for the time being, and let them take a good look at the situation before them. It will help them cooperate with Cecil's law later on. But before we settle the Holy Frost Cathedral and reshape the order of the Southern Region, there is something else we ought to do first..."
Byron and Philip said in unison: "Something else?"
"The Southern Region must become 'our Southern Region,'" Gao Yang rose from behind his desk and came to the great map hanging on the wall. His gaze fell on Bedrock Fortress, the northernmost gateway of the Southern Region. "We can't very well hand the key to our own front door to outsiders."
Following his gaze, Philip and Byron saw that gateway fortress of special significance as well.
Philip's expression turned grave, while Byron could not help but give a whistle: "Whew — now that's a hell of a target."
"It certainly is," Gao Yang nodded. "Bedrock Fortress is nothing like those weakly defended stone forts elsewhere in the Southern Region. Its entire wall is enchanted — it's practically as if an extra layer of magical shield covers the fortress at all times. And the troops stationed in Bedrock Fortress are all elite. Count Pompeii is its theoretical owner, but the garrison is trained and controlled directly by the royal family. A single Bedrock Fortress is stronger than all seventy thousand of the rabble Count Horsman scraped together."
Byron chuckled. "Well, it was built to seal off the whole Southern Region, after all."
"So we may need to fire a great many shells before we take that fortress," Gao Yang laughed as well. "But however you look at it, take it we must... and then hold that door in our own hands."
After that, how the fighting on the Holy Spirit Plain unfolded had little to do with him anymore; he could settle his mind and set the Southern Region in order — the Holy Light priests hiding in the Church of the Holy Frost, for instance, or the noble captives still shut away in their cells.
"When do you mean to launch the attack?" Byron put away his usual flippant grin and asked, his face utterly serious. "We are at the very peak of our morale right now..."
"No hurry," Gao Yang waved a hand, gazing quietly at the map before him. "I am waiting for news..."
"Waiting for news?"
"For a reason to attack Bedrock Fortress, for the moment to strike, for fresh intelligence," Gao Dai said. "And these... may come very soon."