Chapter 233 I am a special commissioner
The Ionia branch of the Leaders Association was established without Levi's knowledge.
After a few more days of sailing, "Branch President " Riven finally returned to their hometown with "Vice President" Fia and a group of sailors who followed Fia to join the Leader and became "official members."
This is the Ionian province of Baru.
Ionia is a kingdom of islands, and the province of Baru is a relatively small island within it.
Because the resources of the Baruo Province are relatively scarce and its strategic significance is limited, and the neighboring Navoli Province is the spiritual totem and core territory of Ionia, it helped to attract most of the firepower of the Noxian Empire.
So fortunately, the war has not yet reached here.
Well... at least before Fia went out to sea, in her opinion, the Barue Province was still safe.
"It's finally here..." As she was about to return to her hometown, to the land of Ionia, Fia's eyes couldn't help but light up again.
She asked Riven expectantly, "Orianna, no...President Orianna."
"Once we have landed and gained a foothold, what should we do next?"
Now that the branch organization has been established, it is necessary to confirm the long-term and short-term goals of the organization.
The long-term goal is naturally to realize the ideals of a leader in Ionia.
But how to achieve the liberation of people in this special place? Riven has no answer to this question at the moment.
So what Feiya asked about was actually the organization’s short-term goals.
A very direct question: what will these leaders do next? What will they pursue?
"Uh..." Riven stood blankly at the bow, feeling the sea breeze, her face seemed to be stiffened by the wind.
What to do next?
She doesn't know!
Three weeks ago, she was a criminal that the Leaders Association named to be arrested and tried. How come she has become the president of the association now for no apparent reason?
She had never thought about what she would do after arriving in Ionia. She just wanted to survive.
"President Oriana?" Fia trembled her cat ears expectantly and looked at her with her big watery eyes: "You haven't told us your plan yet. Are you preparing for some secret operation?"
She did not forget that Riven was the Leader's "special envoy" and might have some important tasks entrusted to her by the organization.
"Uh..." Riven was even more embarrassed: "No, I don't have such a task."
"So what do we do next?" Feiya asked again.
Riven remained silent for a long time.
Suddenly, her expression changed and she murmured, "Noxus."
"Noxus?" Fia thought thoughtfully.
"I understand!" Then her cat ears stood up, her eyes lit up, and she figured out the truth from the words of "President Orianna": "President, what you mean is..."
"The main conflict in Ionia right now is actually between the invaded Ionia and Noxian imperialism."
"So what we need to do now is to temporarily leave the internal problems as secondary conflicts for later resolution, and focus on helping Ionia fight against the Noxian invaders?"
Riven: “…”
What Feiya said made a lot of sense. After hearing what Feiya said, she seemed to finally know what she should do now.
But... Riven doesn't have time to study theories and strategies with Fia right now.
She blurted out "Noxus" just now because she used her extraordinary vision, which was comparable to a telescope, to see something very familiar:
"Run, that's a Noxian warship!"
…
Of course, Fia's merchant ships could not outrun the warships of the Noxian Empire.
Not long after, their merchant ship was surrounded by several large imperial warships at sea, and was ordered to return to port for inspection.
Riven originally wanted to try to break out by force, but when she saw more and more Noxian warships appearing in front of her on the sea, with their ships stretching for thousands of miles and their flags covering the sky, she knew that it was too late to do anything.
"Ten escort warships, plus so many troop transports, this is at least a second-class regiment-sized force..."
"Fia, cooperate with them and don't show any intention of resistance." Riven said with a grim expression.
"Okay, okay..." Feiya turned pale with fright.
She looked at the dense gun barrels of the warships that were locked on her from afar. Even though she was extremely reluctant, she had to obediently follow the instructions sent by the Noxians via flag signals, lowered the sails, and followed the fleet into the port for inspection.
"Wait, entering the port for inspection?"
Feiya trembled stupidly again, and stood there in a daze as if struck by lightning:
Which port should she enter? There was only one port nearby, and that was her hometown, the Yipu River Port in the Balue Province.
In the past few years, this place has never been affected by the war. And now, the Noxians are actually asking her to enter the port for inspection like the owner of this place?
Could it be that...
"Your hometown may have been occupied." Riven was a little afraid to look into Fia's eyes.
She looked at the sea that was almost obscured by the Noxian flag and said with a complicated expression: "There are only a large number of troop transports here, but no landing craft. This means that the landing operation has ended, and the Empire has won."
"What we are seeing now is just Noxus sending more troops in - and just these reinforcements we have seen alone have the strength of a complete second-class regiment."
"It is not difficult to imagine that in the previous landing operation, at least one regiment of troops successfully landed and occupied Yipu River Port."
In other words, Riven and his team are now facing two full battle groups, or possibly even more.
What are so many people doing in such a small port city?
"They should want to use this Yipu River Port as a landing point and forward base to further take over the entire Barue Province." Riven concluded helplessly.
"And with the strength of the Barue Province..."
Riven thought about how she had once been a reserve force for the invasion of Ionia, and the relevant intelligence she had learned in the military camp in advance.
Although Noxus has never come to the province of Baru, it does not mean that the War Masons' spies have not come here to investigate.
In fact, the Empire's espionage work on Ionia had been carried out in secret long before the war began.
While many Ionians may never leave the village where they were born, the War Masons have already traveled to every corner of Ionia.
This even led to a very absurd phenomenon - the most accurately restored map of Ionia was not made by any Ionian, but was a painstaking masterpiece created by Noxian war stonemasons for the invasion.
So Riven is relatively familiar with the situation in Ionia, including the province of Baru where she is now.
The Province of Baru is arguably the weakest province in Ionia.
No matter how poor other provinces are, they are still protected by various powerful sects and religions. But what about Barue, which has a small population and a small area?
There is only one famous Wuji Sword Sect.
When the Wuji sword sect was first founded, it regarded itself as aloof and sage. Their swordsmanship could not stand the corrupt world, let alone be stained with blood - so for hundreds of years, Wuji has always been isolated from the world, blooming alone, and no outsider has ever seen it.
To put it simply, they are a bunch of "otakus".
In theory, whether the people living down the mountain live or die has nothing to do with these masters. Their entire sect has become immortal, and there is nothing else in their minds except swordsmanship.
If these Wuji masters were not slapped directly in the face, they would probably never come down the mountain to resist Noxus in their entire lives.
If the sect masters are unreliable, then can the clan armed forces and landlord militias be trusted?
It's also unreliable.
It costs a lot to organize militia. No one came to fight in the province of Barou for several years, so the landlords had no use for organizing militia.
The Ionians were accustomed to the "bulk" structure of city-states that were autonomous and self-governing, and most of them had no ambition to take advantage of this chaotic time to become king and unify the world.
As a result, the folk militia in Barue disappeared while it was still in operation.
"Baru can't stop Noxus."
"According to the internal operational assessment of the Imperial Army, once the conquest of the province of Barou officially begins, Barou can be completely occupied within a month at the earliest."
"How, how could this happen?" Feiya felt like the sky was falling.
She just went out to sea, and when she came back home, she was gone?
Feiya had thought about the arrival of this day, but she didn't expect it to come so suddenly.
She didn't even have the chance to put up a resistance like she had imagined, as her hometown fell and she herself became a prisoner of the Noxian warship.
"What will they do to us..." Feiya was so frightened that she lost her mind.
The sailors were more nervous than each other.
Because they had more or less heard about the brutality of Noxus from refugees from the neighboring Navoli province. In the stories of those war refugees, the image of Noxus was not much different from those cannibal demons.
"Don't be afraid." Although Riven was also very nervous, she still tried to comfort him.
"Noxians are bloodthirsty but not indiscriminate, um..." Except for a few people. Riven thought of Amystan.
If you encounter a psychopath like this who enjoys killing people, you're really doomed.
"In short, most Noxian generals are smart. Now that they have successfully occupied the Yipu River Port, there is no need to kill civilians indiscriminately."
"As long as everyone is careful and cooperates, we should be able to save our lives." Riven's calm analysis was a reassurance to everyone.
The sailors finally calmed down.
They couldn't help but look at Riven with gratitude and admiration: "President Orianna, you know so much!"
"How did you manage to understand the internal military situation of Noxus?"
"I..." Riven was slightly stunned.
She suddenly seemed to be awakened from a beautiful dream, and stood there in a daze for a long time, unable to speak.
"Idiot!" Fia said to the sailor, "Orianna is a special envoy who came to Ionia to save us—"
"Of course the special envoy must know himself and the enemy, and understand the enemy better than anyone else!"
"Hmm..." Riven came back to life in a trance: "Yes..."
She murmured with mixed feelings: "I am Orianna, I am... a special envoy."
