When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#660 - Heading south to Black Snake Bay

Ice formed frost patterns on the glass, while the warmth from the copper pipes created a hazy mist.

With the recruit camp on holiday, Jeanne had nothing to do and spent her days loitering in Horn's Stag Room at the Holy See.

She sat by the window, licking her fingers as she flipped through the newly released Witch Hunter novel.

This new style of Witch Hunter novel from the Holy See was different from the old ones, using colloquial language and slang throughout, and focusing more on adventure and exploring ancient ruins than on hunting witches.

However, she would occasionally let out duck-like cackles from her throat, which, while invigorating Horn, who was immersed in his documents, also made his eyes darken.

"According to Lurose, I thought it wouldn't pass until around the New Year, but it passed now." Looking at the schedule in his hand, Horn crossed out two items. "I thought Red Leaf Hill was going to make a move, but it turned out to be Lilac Corridor."

"Red Leaf Hill is too close to us after all; they have some concerns." Pettier smiled as he presented the second schedule to Horn for review.

This schedule was for Horn's southern tour next month.

Horn had two goals in going to Black Serpent Bay this time: first, to persuade most of the Secret Parties to unite; and second, to hope that Black Serpent Bay would join the Holy Axis as a whole.

In theory, Black Serpent Bay was a huge treasure trove, with a vast amount of alchemical technology that had been sealed away for thousands of years due to imperial suppression.

The mere existence of orichalcum gave Horn the foundation to defeat Prince Condé and the Decree Legion.

Even without this advanced structure and organization, Black Serpent Bay, if not defeating Prince Condé, could still drive out most of the Witch Hunters and Knights Templar through local warfare.

However, in the current Black Serpent Bay, a large amount of land was still occupied by the Church and Witch Hunter organizations, like a dense net pressing down on the heads of the Black Serpent Bay Secret Parties.

The biggest reason they were currently in a defensive or even lingering state was their disorganized structure.

Horn believed there were two reasons for this situation:

First, many of the Black Serpent Bay Secret Parties were formed by fugitives, bandits, robbers, barbarian tribes, and secret organizations, and they had a natural tendency towards anarchism.

Second, the Church's periodic purges would reshuffle the power in Black Serpent Bay, making it impossible to develop in one place for a long time, leading to a nomadic and dispersed survival habit.

But this dispersed state was clearly not in line with the times, and what Horn had to do was to merge and unite the large and small Secret Parties, and ultimately form a Black Serpent Bay national entity.

Otherwise, Black Serpent Bay would not only not be an asset but a burden.

Given the current internal and external troubles in Black Serpent Bay, both Horn and the Privy Council felt this was a good opportunity.

After the first goal was completed, Horn's second goal was to have Black Serpent Bay join the Holy Axis Monarchy.

Currently, the Holy Axis was a federal organization established mainly by the Holy Father Society to resist the Church, and its main purpose was to defend against Church invasions.

But this federal organization currently had only one member state, the Holy Monarchy of Thousand River Valley.

Horn had two identities: he was both the Patriarch of Thousand River Valley and the Pope of the Holy Axis.

He certainly hoped that Black Serpent Bay and Thousand River Valley would form a stable and close alliance, and even turn it into the Holy Axis through customs unions and military assistance.

As the Pope of the Holy Axis, Horn had always felt that vassalage was a higher form of alliance.

In addition, through the Holy Axis's customs union policy, Horn's tentacles could reach the Green Dragon Forest and the mouth of the Ibe River.

After breaking through the Green Dragon Forest and Lilac Corridor, Horn's merchant ships could sail all the way down to the Griffinhorn Territory.

He could even bypass the Nauan River route and directly go to sea for trade.

By integrating Black Serpent Bay, the scale and strength of Horn's Holy Axis could be further expanded, thereby consolidating the defense against the Church.

At the same time, by using the banner of the Holy Axis, Horn could gradually expand his power from the customs union.

In other words, Horn could annex Black Serpent Bay in a relatively peaceful way, and his southern tour was to be able to persuade these groups face to face.

The only problem was that the prerequisite for joining the Holy Axis was to recognize Horn as Pope.

"Brother Horn, are you sure you can convince them?" Jeanne, as Horn's bodyguard for this southern tour, raised her head and couldn't help but ask, "Will these Black Serpent Bay people really listen to you?"

"Not sure, but as long as we can play our cards right, I have a 70% chance of success."

"Why only 70%?"

"70% is enough. If the Lilac Corridor hadn't launched a purge ahead of schedule for sugar and spices, I probably wouldn't even have 70%."

After accepting the invitation of the Witch Council, before Horn went, Joan's party and the Meggett Trading Company's lobbying group entered Black Serpent Bay in advance.

But Horn was not only relying on the lobbying group; his real trump cards were "sugar and grain trade" and "military assistance."

The sugar and grain trade would solve the internal poverty and hunger of Black Serpent Bay, while military assistance could solve the external military threats of Black Serpent Bay.

If the Black Serpent Bay Secret Parties could see the current situation clearly and wanted to get rid of this endless cycle, they would definitely lean towards Horn.

Hearing about military matters, Jeanne perked up immediately: "Then when will we send troops to attack the Church and those hypocritical Templar Knights?"

"Don't rush, don't rush, let's play with them." With a chuckle, Horn looked down at the schedule. "We can send a batch of officers and soldiers to Black Serpent Bay to participate in the war as private mercenaries."

Based on the attitude shown by the Witch Council, they still hadn't corrected their mentality.

Before, Horn and the others needed the assistance of Black Serpent Bay because they had consumed a lot of power in the Thousand River Valley civil war, which didn't mean that Horn's power was weaker than Black Serpent Bay.

But Black Serpent Bay still regarded Horn as a younger brother who had succeeded with their support, rather than an equal.

That's why he wanted Black Serpent Bay to see the coffin first, shed some tears, and then take action.

Thinking of this, Horn turned his head and asked Pettier, who was beside him: "How is the construction of the Ibe River pier progressing?"

"Four simple piers have been built and can be navigated, although they are not yet completed." Pettier paused. "Three of these four piers have been contracted by the Ibe Foundation, and their construction speed is very fast."

The so-called Kush Foundation was the organization created by Grandmother Vivian, the ancestor of the Arco.

When Horn first heard about this foundation, he couldn't help but admire the unity of the Ibe Knights.

The essence of this Kush Foundation was that the Kush Knights of North County and Ibe Plain contributed money and effort to concentrate resources to contract Horn's infrastructure projects.

A large number of Kush Knights transformed into contractors, taking their family's relatives from their own manor to build roads, bridges, and engineering projects.

These Kush Knights not only brought people to work, but sometimes rolled up their sleeves and did it themselves. With their extraordinary knight's endurance and strength, their efficiency was astonishing.

Most importantly, because the ancestor was privately raising funds, it had to be guaranteed.

In order to secure more projects, the ancestor mortgaged a large amount of manor land ownership.

And in order to maximize profits, a large amount of raised cash flow was invested in construction.

In other words, the Kush Knights couldn't see any return money for a long time, and even needed to work for nothing and pay out of their own pockets.

However, the Kush Knights were still able to work diligently, and Horn couldn't help but admire the ancestor's methods and the family style of unity and sacrifice of the knights.

After all, if they were not united, sacrificed, and trusted, they would have been assimilated and eliminated in the Church's oppression.

The Kush Foundation was one of the few things that Horn felt conflicted about because, on the one hand, it could speed up infrastructure construction and concentrate resources to do big things, but on the other hand, it could easily create local factions in the Ibe area.

The most classic example was that simple small towns had already formed next to the several Ibe River piers that had been built.

In this small town, almost 90% were Kush Knights and their peasant relatives.

After thinking for a long time, Horn waved his quill and added a note to the itinerary.

"Before going to Black Serpent Bay this time, let's meet with that ancestor."