The aura of war is approaching, but for the current Cecil Empire, it is indeed not the best time to engage in war.

Changfeng Fortress, the towering city walls stand between hills and plains. The bastion walls that stretch for dozens of kilometers face the increasingly cold autumn wind. A layer of light golden glow is shining in the bright sunshine cast by the huge sun. The rune stone bricks inlaid on the city walls are slightly flashing with magic halos, which makes the entire fortress shrouded in a layer of vague energy shields. The alert soldiers stand on the city walls and the towers, staring at the direction of the Tifeng Empire.

Inside the fortress, a team of newly-entered soldiers were walking through the barracks in a loose formation. The instructor of the Cecil Legion, who was responsible for training the new recruits, stood beside the road with meticulous expressions. However, on the city wall not far away, a veteran of the fortress in the new recruits could not help but shake his head: "These soldiers cannot fight at all... It's okay to deal with bandits in China. Fighting with the Tifeng people here? It's not enough to tie a piece of seven or eight people to death."

"The Cecil's legion's rituals can quickly make these recruits come in handy - at least let them know the orders." Another veteran said from the side.

"That's going to take some training time. I'm afraid these recruits were holding hoes and pitchforks the day before yesterday..."

Maryland, dressed in military uniform, walked across the city wall with a sword, and the veterans' conversations fell into his ears, and the performances of the new recruits fell into his eyes.

After completing the inspection, the fortress commander returned to the command post in the castle area, where his adjutant, a black-haired, brown-eyed, smart and capable young man, was already waiting.

"General," the adjutant stepped forward to salute, "the scout sent back the intelligence."

"Yeah," Maryland nodded, "Tifengren is moving again?"

"A group of engineering mages are building additional walls and stables in the hilly land west of Winter Wolf Castle. The barracks are of great size. It is not clear how many people they can accommodate, but it is certain that they have opened at least four new wells."

"...The Black Steel Knights or the Iron River Knights are coming. They are all troops who are good at heavy assault attacks and attacking the fortresses," Maryland said in a deep voice. "The Tifeng people should not have been waiting for too long."

The young adjutant said nothing, was neither afraid nor wavering, and his face was calm.

Maryland secretly praised the young adjutant's reaction, then turned around and came to the table, picked up the report on the table and took a look.

"...The last batch of private soldiers who can be brought together nearby have also come to the defense line..." The fortress commander sighed softly, "After them, the entire Eastern Region may not be able to get a team of thousands of people."

The current situation is worrying, but the fact is the fact-the soldiers are short of their limits, and there are only so many garrison forces in Changfeng Fortress.

The Empire had just experienced a year-long civil war and a disaster that swept half of the Holy Spirit Plain. The original main forces of the Kingdom were exhausted in succession of battles. Now, except for a few surviving elites, the only ones that could be used in the South were the Cecil Legion in the South. However, at least half of these troops had to stay at home to maintain post-war order. The number of soldiers who could be sent to the Changfeng Fortress was limited. The superiors had sent all the most elite troops and the most powerful weapons that could be mobilized, but Maryland knew that these were not enough.

The Tifeng people are also increasing their troops, and they are constantly increasing their troops in the form of magicians, knights, and extraordinary corps. These armies are not ordinary people who can easily be defeated by ordinary heat-energy ray guns and a few medium-caliber fortress cannons. To deal with them, either the elite defenders of Changfeng Fortress will double or the Iron Throne will be transported to the defense line.

But neither of these - Maryland did its best to mobilize the private soldiers of the nobles in the East, and the small number of mountain corps supported by the North, could only fill the loopholes in the defense line, but as long as they were subjected to a strong impact, these loopholes might be broken within two days.

He must find a way to strengthen the garrison of the fortress.

Maryland's eyes moved on the combat map next to it, and slowly swept across the buffer zone of the borders between the two countries, swept through the Winter Wolf Castle of the Tifeng people and several outposts that have been discovered.

The primary standard of defense is to protect yourself, and there are many ways to protect yourself, either make yourself invulnerable, or eliminate threats before being hurt, or... make the enemy dare not attack.

The garrison power of Changfeng Fortress may not be increased, but he can try to make the Tifeng people mistakenly think that the fortress's defenders are still increasing.

A bold idea gradually took shape during some contemplation. Maryland raised his head and looked at his adjutant: "Let the reserve corps of the Mountain Corps disguised as merchants and civilians, secretly brought their banners and equipment, and left the city in batches within two days, and gathered in the northwest of the Karon Valley."

The adjutant was stunned for a moment, and a little confused for a moment: "What about?"

"Then change back to the equipment of the mountain corps and enter the city from the north gate of the fortress - make the noise more important when entering the city, don't make it too exaggerated."

Two seconds later, the adjutant realized Maryland's intention. The young man showed a sudden enlightenment expression, and then looked at the general with admiration: "Yes - you are such a good idea! I'll make arrangements now!"

"This is not enough. You have to do the full set of plays," Maryland added immediately. "Didn't the Tifeng people build barracks near Winter Wolf Castle? We also build camps in two north and south of the fortress, digging wells, and transfer some of the recruits to the new camps, and let them open fire and cook there. In addition, send people to Count Robert's territory and borrow his carriage convoy to transport 'food'."

"Yes!" The adjutant stood up and saluted, but before leaving, he suddenly became a little worried, "But General, can you really hide the Tifeng people?"

"If you can scare for a while, they will definitely react afterwards, but it doesn't matter. As long as they can postpone their attack, it's enough," Maryland said slowly, but his eyes fell on the map next to him. "The engineering team behind is working overtime to lay temporary railways, and the Iron Throne is about to be restored. As long as the Feng people hesitate for a while... they can't eat the Changfeng Fortress."

...

Cecil Empire, Saint Sunil City.

Large-scale migration work has begun to be prepared, and work reports on the capital are increasingly piled up on Gao Wen's desk.

The coronation ceremony has ended, the signing and handover of the nobles' signature and the command power of the old royal knights, guards, royal shadow guards and other troops have also been completed. After a period of running-in and adaptation, the newly established Government Affairs Office has started to get on track and controlled the situation in San Sunil. The mission of the Provisional Government has now ended. According to Gao Wen's initial plan, the migration work should be started next.

Saint Sunil's surface is magnificent, but in fact the infrastructure is backward and the old forces have a deep influence. More importantly, the communication system is weak and the slow command of the Cecil Legion is not a good place to control the operation of the empire. However, moving the capital is a big deal after all, and it is not a matter of packaging and bringing relevant personnel and materials to the new place even if it is done - even if it starts from now on, it may take a whole year to completely complete the transfer and reconstruction of the ruling function.

Moreover, in this process, Gao Wen must also consider the temporary chaos caused by the transfer of the dominant function, and prevent this chaos from causing a chain reaction, giving Tifeng an opportunity to take advantage of it.

In the velvet study room of Silver Castle, Gao Wenzheng put the finished report on his desk, and in addition to him, there were also his three great consuls sitting in the study room.

"Aiden Alfred rejected the position in the Government Affairs Department, right?" Gao Wen raised his head and looked at Victoria Wilder sitting opposite him.

"Yes, he also resigned from the court position and honorary titles of false office," replied Victoria, "he said he thanked you for your solicitation, but he was old and hoped to go home and recuperate."

Aiden Alfred, former Imperial Prime Minister of Francis II and a loyal old minister of the Ansu Kingdom, his family has been loyal to the Moen royal family since the First Dynasty and has worked diligently to serve this country for hundreds of years.

The talent of this former prime minister made Gao Wen want to recruit him out of order, but his choice to refuse to take office was not beyond Gao Wen's expectations.

"Respect his choice," Gao Wen nodded slightly, "In addition, ask him if he would like to take office as the director of the San Sunil Library - this is not a position in the Government Affairs Department, and he can still keep his original royal collection. If he still doesn't want to... let the old man go home, and the Government Affairs Department will pay him a monthly pension."

Victoria nodded: "You thought it through very carefully, and he probably wouldn't refuse this position."

"Let's talk about the capital moving," Gao Wen adjusted his sitting posture. "After I returned to Cecil, the affairs of Saint Sunil were temporarily managed by Victoria and Bedwin. You are responsible for completing the follow-up work, especially the magic network from Saint Sunil to the north and west, to ensure the establishment of communications. In addition, all the nobles of the capital, depending on the size of the family, need to send a certain proportion of family members to the southern border to settle. This should be no problem?"

"Yes, they were mentally prepared when the order to move the capital was issued," Berdevin Franklin nodded, and then chuckled, "using hostages for survival is also one of the laws of survival of traditional nobles."

"This is not a simple 'hostage', it is a necessary part of the dismantling and transformation of the old noble forces... Of course, they don't understand now, it's normal," Gao Wen shook his head, "It doesn't matter, go step by step. Hetty, how are the renovation project of Kingdom Avenue being prepared?"

"Godden has brought people to Pompeii, and the materials and personnel in the early stages have been in place. Construction will start after the soil survey is completed."

“Very good – this part of the work is important, prioritizing financial support.” “Yes.”

Gao Wen breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that another job was on the right track.

The feudal kingdom can be lords and separatist, but the empire does not allow all places to be isolated. For a centralized empire, ensuring transportation is a prerequisite for ensuring ruling order, especially for the Cecil Empire, which is now in ruins and urgently needs to rebuild order. The reason why Gao Wen dared to migrate the state's ruling organs from the central area is because modern transportation technology can ignore this physical distance, and building a modern road is an important part of allowing new vehicles to fully exert their effectiveness.

From Saint-Sunil to the southern border, there is a Gorgon River as a transportation artery, and a Kingdom Avenue serves as a land trunk. Since last year, Victoria and the then Ansu royal family have been focusing on repairing the Kingdom Avenue, allowing this abandoned road that has been abandoned for nearly a hundred years to initially restore its functions. However, the Kingdom Avenue repaired according to the old standards is not enough to withstand the traffic pressure of the new era. At the same time, the previous Crystal Cluster War also caused some damage to the Kingdom Avenue located on the east bank of the Gorgon River. Therefore, based on reality, Gao Wen decided to send an engineering team in the southern border to rebuild a road connecting the north and south of the empire on the basis of the old Kingdom Avenue.

There is a "Imperial Avenue" in Tifeng, and Cecil will also have one in the future.

While building this "Imperial Avenue", Gao Wen also plans to build a railway line connecting the north and south on the west bank of the Gorgon River, and with Saint-Sunil as the center, the railway line will branch and expand in the east and west directions to form a new "cross artery".

Of course, this will be a huge, time-consuming project, and it will take a long time to complete, but no matter how much it consumes, the cross artery must be established - this will be the starting point of the century-old foundation of the empire.

Don’t consider how long it will take for the new cross artery to be completed. The railway connecting the north and south territory should be completed quickly due to the short distance. At that time, from the south to the "old capital", there will be three major transportation lines from the south and rivers, highways and railways. From Saint-Sunil to the north and north, there will be roads and railways connected. The transportation between the north and south of the empire will become extremely convenient. On the one hand, national security and stability will be ensured. On the other hand, the rich mineral veins from the northern mountains can also be quickly transported and exported to meet the growth of the hungry industrial behemoth of the Cecil Empire.

As for now, although there are no railways and highways between the southern border and San Sunil, due to the convenience of the Gorgon River and the efficiency of new mechanical ships, there is no need to worry too much about transportation issues. The development of the Gorgon River transportation is also one of the reasons why Gao Wen dared to start moving the capital at this time.

"One more thing," after reporting on the progress of the road construction project, Hetty spoke again, "Ancestor, the Iron Throne has been restored."
Chapter completed!