Chapter 2279: Far East Massacre

As an overseas subject of the empire, Joan should have been hostile to the Kolasburg rebel group and gloated at the assassination of the head of the rebel party.
However, his personal experience during his travels in the Far East made him have to admit that the governance level of Kolas and his sons and his cabinet ministers is more than one grade better than the conservative, bloated, and dull imperial bureaucracy. Under the new government, the people of the Far East generally live and work in peace and contentment, and it is reasonable to support the Kolas government.
Under the current situation, if the imperial authorities send troops to the east, it will indeed occupy the righteous name of quelling the rebellion and regaining lost ground in legal theory, but in fact it will bring heavy disasters to the people of the Far East who have just lived a good life for a few days.
For this question, Qiao An's mentality is very contradictory.
Out of patriotism, he should support the empire to send troops to counter the rebellion, and from the interests of ordinary people, he should support Rudolf I, who is far more wise than the emperor.
The same ambivalence is also reflected in his identity as a resident of the empire's overseas colonies.
If he believes that the central power of the imperial government is higher than the autonomy of overseas colonies, he should oppose the colonial independence movement that has been rampant in recent years.
However, he was born and raised in a colony after all, and he is very unfamiliar with the inland of the empire far away from the ocean. He is still emotionally directed to the colonial people in his hometown. If independence can give the colonial residents tangible benefits, he should support independence. .
"Royalist" and "Secessionist", Qiao An has not yet decided which side to stand, in fact, he hopes to remain neutral. However, he knew in his heart that as the struggle between the "royalists" and the "separatists" became more acute, "fencers" like himself would have nowhere to stand, and eventually they would be forced by the opposing parties to point their guns at their heads. He clearly stands in line, otherwise he will be attacked by both sides at the same time.
Putting his worries aside for the time being, Qiao Ann returned his eyes to the newspaper and hurriedly scanned the headlines. Unfortunately, the report was too brief and did not explain the details of Rudolf Kolas's assassination.
Qiao An put down the newspaper, closed his eyes and meditated, linking to "cloud network".
Based on past experience, this kind of news that occurs abroad is always exposed by local people on the "cloud network" forums. Both the timeliness and the authenticity of the news are more reliable than the news published in the newspapers.
Qiao An noticed an unusual change in the first second of entering the cloud network interface.
The entire page is grayed out.
It can be seen that the news that Rudolph I was assassinated is true, otherwise the "cloud network" operating organization set up in Colasburg would not express condolences in this way.
On the other hand, Qiao An also noticed the forbearance and restraint of the Kolasburg authorities, but only changed the color of the page, and did not publish an announcement on the matter, and seemed not to attract too much attention.
Qiao An expertly entered the forum and immediately saw the topic discussion post about the New Year's Eve tragedy.
He went in and took a look, and the content of the news made him speechless.
As a monarch, Rudolf I must be surrounded by a large group of guards. In addition, he himself is also a legendary powerhouse. Ordinary assassins have no chance to approach him, let alone succeed in assassination.
According to Qiao An's expectation, the assassins were mostly a professional team composed of a small number of quasi-legendary or legendary masters. Taking advantage of the opportunity of Rudolph I to attend the New Year's celebration, they mixed with ordinary people and launched the assassination by surprise.
However, the facts were completely different from his expectations.
When Rudolf was assassinated, he did not leave the palace at all, and when the bell rang on New Year's Eve, the enchantment of the mysterious lock covering the entire Kolasburg will be completed, and a grand opening ceremony of the mysterious lock will be held.
At the moment when the mystery enchantment had not been fully opened, an artifact-class floating fortress named "Scaly Armored Sky" was suddenly teleported to the night sky directly above Kola Fort. Hundreds of fortress cannons fired at the same time. Focus through a network of twenty negative energy ice prisms, and concentrate on bombarding the Palace of Kolasburg!
Under such a terrifying bombardment, the main building of the palace evaporated instantly, not to mention that Rudolph I was just a legendary powerhouse, even a demigod must die there!
This kind of blatant shelling, Qiao An really cannot be equated with the word "assassination", more like a premeditated terrorist attack.
The subsequent revelations confirmed his speculation.
The "Scaly Sky" that struck Kolasburg on the New Year's Eve belonged to an organization called "Dragon Eyes", which is said to be a Far Eastern cult that worships Tiamat, the "Evil Dragon Mother".
In addition, an organization called the "Naraku Cult" also participated in this conspiracy. The members are mostly necromancers, death priests, and undead. It is also a textbook-standard cult group.
These two cults alone are not enough to challenge the Kingdom of Kolas, and the boss who provides funding behind the scenes is said to be closely related to the royal family of the Holy Ashen Empire.
If the top empire is indeed the mastermind of this conspiracy, then it is not surprising that the Kolasburg tragedy is just an "appetizer." Dangerous moment.
Qiao An had a foreboding that the international landscape of the Varese world was about to usher in a drastic change. However, judging from the wind direction on the cloud network forum, the vast majority of local cloud network users in the Far East were indeed sad and angry for the loss of the founding king, and towards the motherland. The future is not pessimistic.
The Far Easterners on the cloud network are mainly spellcasters and generally hold such a view:
The assassination of His Majesty Rudolph is indeed a huge loss for the Chinese government. This hatred must be paid for by blood. But fortunately, Prince Roland is safe and sound. Our leader has successors. Under the leadership of His Royal Highness, the nation's subjects will surely win the final victory!
Qiao An has not directly dealt with the Far East prince, but they have common friends, such as the three brothers and sisters of the Canaan royal family, and Ms. Ertaran from Yinkong. Judging from their evaluations, the prince Roland’s ability to govern is even better than that of his father Rudolph I. No wonder he is widely loved by the domestic people.
However, as an outsider, it is difficult for Qiao An to be optimistic about Prince Roland's prospects.
Since his enemies dared to drive the floating fortress to openly bombard the capital of the Kingdom of Kolas and murder the prince of a country in public, he would not be merciful to let go of the wise and famous prince.
Whether assassinating leaders or terrorist attacks, these despicable methods with small costs and huge benefits are precisely the housekeeping skills of cult groups!
If the assassination is successful once, there will be a second time. How long will Prince Roland live? I am afraid there will be a question mark.
From this perspective, Qiao An sympathizes with Prince Roland's difficult situation. At the same time, he also vaguely feels that the Far Easterners on the Internet are too optimistic about the prospects of their own country.