Chapter 427 — The War Machine Turns Again
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 5
The terrain of Rock Fortress and its surroundings appeared clearly "before his eyes." He saw the Dolgon River rushing south all the way from Spirit Plain, splitting in two at the mountain pass before Rock Fortress: one branch flowed into the mountains, the other poured into the southern marches and became the Southern Region's artery of life—the Whitewater River.
Gaoyang turned back and looked at Rebecca. "Perhaps we should broaden our thinking. The heat dissipation problem need not be so hard to solve…"
Rebecca did not follow at once—her geography teacher had been lax in martial arts, and so her geography marks had never been good, and naturally she could not guess what Gaoyang had in mind. "You have an idea?"
"We can use river water to cool the device. I have seen Camille's prototype and discussed it with him somewhat. This approach should be feasible."
Rebecca was taken aback for a moment, then her eyes slowly lit up. "Oh! That is a good idea! I will go back and discuss it with Master Camille!"
Gaoyang smiled, then placed his hands on the table before him and let his gaze sweep slowly over each person present. "There is one more thing—this time I will go to the front myself."
At those words, the people present exchanged glances. Clearly they had truly not expected this.
To be sure, in this era it was the norm for noble lords to take the field in person, yet Gaoyang had been absent from the battlefields of the Gravel Ridge bombardment and the Whitewater River interception. Only when the aberrations had attacked the city earlier had Gaoyang personally gone to war, twice. In other words, except when defending the homeland, Gaoyang had no habit of leaving his domain. His attitude and self-definition on this point had always been clear: a ruler should sit firmly in the rear, and charging into battle at the front should be kept to a minimum.
So everyone had habitually assumed that the Mystic Vein Sect would remain in the rear this time as well, and none had imagined Gaoyang intended to go to war in person.
"A mature and functioning civil administration can maintain order during a lord's brief absence, and I trust Hetty to look after the rear while I am gone, and the troops left at home to defend against the threat of the Dark Mountains," Gaoyang explained his reasoning. "The attack on Rock Fortress will be a battle of great importance—more important, even, than dealing with Count Horsman's seventy thousand ragtag troops. It determines whether we can secure a stable and undisturbed base of operations. In any case, I will not permit any mishap in this campaign, so I will be there in person to oversee it."
Gaoyang paused, then continued: "And there is a significance even greater than that—the original purpose for which Rock Fortress was built, as all of you surely know."
Hetty looked at her ancestor, her tone complicated. "To lock the Cecil family away in the Southern Region…"
"So when Rock Fortress falls, I must be on the battlefield."
Symbolic meaning and outward display—Gaoyang himself could care less about such things, but the basic rules and public opinion of this era cared very much.
That being so, on an occasion of such importance, Gaoyang did not mind making a bit of "symbolic meaning" himself.
The pre-battle meeting lasted deep into the night. By the time it finally ended, Amber was yawning again and again. Looking at Gaoyang, who still seemed full of energy, she could not help curling her lip. "I really do not know what your brain is made of, always coming up with so many ideas…"
"I'll take that as a compliment," Gaolan said, then rose and walked toward the door. "Next I'm going to have a talk with Tyre. Coming along?"
Amber blinked. "You're going to call on her in the middle of the night? Is that really appropriate? She's bound to be asleep..."