Chapter 608 Cold Wind Ridge

...

Satisfied, Solly Dahl stepped through the broken castle gate and walked into the castle of Coldwind Town.

Take Cold Wind Ridge in three days? Aside from the two days spent on the road, it only took him half an hour to break through the city wall of the town—of course, it is still a question of whether the mud fence that is only one person high counts as a city wall. There were very few guards standing guard, and after being cut down by the Judgment Army, they dispersed in a herd, almost without any formal resistance.

This is the town guarding the frontier?

The Kingdom of Graycastle is nothing more than that.

The only thing that made him dissatisfied was that when the church army was still halfway up the mountain, thick smoke rose from the beacon tower under his feet, as if he had guessed that they were coming to attack the town.

Although it would be a matter of time before the other territories in the north saw the alarm, this lack of awe still made him a little annoyed - treating the Holy City team as an enemy in advance meant that they had already intended to prosecute. He has sent a small team of judges to the Beacon Tower, intending to capture these people for questioning before sending them to the gallows.

"This way, my lord," said the knight leading the way in a trembling voice. When the long swords were on the necks of this group of people, the knights did not show the righteousness of protecting the lord without fear of sacrifice, but immediately knelt down and surrendered, declaring their allegiance to the church.

This is the ugliness, cowardice, and helplessness of people without faith. It is nothing compared to the trial warriors who fight for the gods.

After beheading several personal guards along the way, the Judgment Army broke into the lord's study and blocked any possible escape windows—although Solly felt that the other party did not have the courage to jump out of the window to escape. He slowly stepped into the room, watching the pale Lord of Cold Wind Ridge slump slightly on the chair.

"Good afternoon, Lord Kevan Marton."

"You, how dare you venture into Cold Wind Ridge... The holy city is difficult, do you want to openly make an enemy of Graycastle?"

He's finished, Solly thought, fear robbing him of his will. After decades of defending against evil beasts on the Hermes defense line, the archbishop has honed a unique ability, which is to taste fear. Some people can turn fear into a desire to survive, while others will only be swallowed by fear. The former is a necessary quality for a trial warrior to be promoted to God's Punishment Army, while the latter will be eliminated by endless bloody battles.

Kevan is clearly the latter.

"That's right, didn't you already know this?"

"What? No! I don't understand what you mean by—"

"It's too late to regret it now, my lord," Solly interrupted, "Buying grain at a high price and banning merchants from going to the Holy City, don't tell me you just did this on a whim... The King of Graycastle wants to turn Coldwind Ridge into a In order to attack the outposts of the holy city, we can't blame us for launching a counterattack in advance."

"You are making groundless accusations!" Kevan shook his head repeatedly, "I never did these things at all, and the king never sent envoys to Coldwind Ridge, let alone attacking Hermes!"

"It doesn't matter if you don't admit it. His Majesty the Pope naturally has a way to find out the information he wants from your head, but it will not do you any good when you get to that point, so you should confess everything you know now. Better."

"I, I really didn't do this, you can't wrong me!" His fat body shrank back again, "I am the lord of Coldwind Ridge, the Earl of the Kingdom of Graycastle! Your behavior has violated the evil moon Convention!"

"Enough, you asked for it."

Solly Dahl waved his hand in annoyance, and the trial warrior immediately dragged him out of the study.

After the archbishop sat down on the lord's seat, he vaguely felt that something was wrong. The lord is clearly crushed by fear, why is he still biting his tongue? Could it be that he is so oriented towards Roland Wimbledon, that he would rather be taken to the holy city for interrogation than reveal the king's plan?

At this moment, a presiding judge walked into the room, "My lord, Pithos has sealed off the granary, but..."

"Just what?"

"There is not much food in there. It is estimated that there is only enough food for the townspeople for a month or two. It is impossible to support a large army."

"Are you sure?" Solly frowned suddenly.

"Pisos searched the granary and asked the keeper. They said that there was not a large amount of grain brought in recently, and the wheat in the warehouse was still last year's stock." The presiding judge reported in detail. .

"Then what's the story of the high-priced grain purchases in the town?" He thought for a moment, "You go to those merchants and ask about the situation."

"Yes." The other party nodded in response, "In addition, we searched all the garrison camps in the west of the city, and most of them were empty. According to the surrendered knights, since the border army was completely annihilated in Hermes After that, it has not been able to be effectively supplemented.”

In other words, Cold Wind Ridge is not ready for war at all? This is too different from the information provided by Zero. The gap between the archbishop's brows deepened. After a long silence, he gave an order, "There must be believers of the church in this town. Gather them together and inquire about the changes in Coldwind Ridge in the past two months. And those who voluntarily took refuge in People from the church, as well as the local mouse, also questioned, I want to find out what is going on right away!"

The presiding judge clenched his fists, "I'll do it now."

Solly leaned back in his chair and breathed a sigh of relief. The attack on Graycastle was a long-established plan, and the process and capture were not important, but he didn't like this unexpected feeling at all.

Where did I go wrong?

On the second day, the presiding judge handed over the collected information to the archbishop's desk.

Soli turned to the first page and quickly scanned everyone's confessions, "It's two local businessmen who wantonly bought grain, and the hoarded wheat is as much as a thousand hu?"

"That's what the merchants said," the presiding judge said in a deep voice. "I immediately searched the houses of these two people after learning about this. The total is no more than 20 hu. And there is no one in the house, and 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 buy and sell, pouring from left hand to right hand, and then smuggling from right hand back to left hand, can we create such an illusion."

"Where are those merchants coming from?"

"The various towns in the North Land, Yougu Town, Eternal Night City, Hengfeng Fort... The high-priced acquisitions started a month ago, and not many people paid attention to them at the beginning. It was not until the number became larger and larger that it aroused the interest of the merchants. Pay attention. We have imprisoned all the merchants in the town, but we haven't found the guys who delivered the food."

If the two parties really colluded, then the chances of catching them are slim to none. It's just... what is the purpose of the other party doing this? Just to attract the attention of the Holy City, so that His Majesty the Pope can launch an early invasion?

Solly turned to the back few pages of the report in bewilderment, and another piece of news came into his eyes.

"The patrol member in charge of the Beacon Tower...is dead?"