Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 242 Final preparations
There are currently nearly two hundred people in the Crusaders, of which only a little over a hundred have completed training and are officially participating in combat.

If the enrollment is expanded tenfold, it will be a thousand people.

The entire population of Castel is less than 10, and the military accounts for more than %, which is an extremely exaggerated proportion. To put it simply, it is almost like everyone is a soldier.

Ten times is also the limit of the carrying capacity of the Skitarii. Alexi will break up the original Skitarii and use them as the backbone of the new Skitarii.

With this conscription ratio, almost all of Castell's eligible men will enter the army, and the rest will need to work in factories.

Generally speaking, this is the limit of mobilization. To go further, people over 50 years old or children under 16 years old must be brought in to fill the gap - this is extremely inefficient. After all, Castres is already an industrial country and an industrial island. These precious populations are of little use on the battlefield, but can be used in factories.

Hearing this number, most people took a breath and were shocked by Zeus's courage. The empire has been at war for many years, and the people here have some common sense about war. This is putting everything on the line!

Come to think of it, the sea level is constantly rising. If we can't find a way out quickly, everyone will die.

Alexei swallowed and forced himself to suppress the excitement in his heart. People in the north were never afraid of war. He had studied in the Empire's Army Academy for a long time and had a natural yearning for the battlefield.

He turned to look at Chloe, and there was a hint of fanaticism in both of their eyes.

The storm was coming, and everyone was busy in the next few days, even Hughes was busy working around the clock.

Commands were issued one after another, and under the precise instructions, the huge machine of Castel ran at maximum horsepower.

From factories to the Crusaders, people were preaching and mobilizing everywhere. The people of Castel knew about the impending disaster and also saw their companions standing with them.

What surprised Hughes was that people did not feel despair after hearing the news. Instead, they quickly became motivated. It took him a long time to realize that perhaps what people feared was not sacrifice, but worthless death.

Guarding your home, with your loved ones behind you, and looking at Castel built by everyone together, there is no better mobilization order than this.

The Fire Moths were incorporated into the Crusaders. This group of people had rich combat experience. They had been causing trouble for the Candlelight Society in the Empire for many years. They were best at boosting morale and maintaining organization when facing powerful enemies.

In fact, he is also very good at inciting the people to rebel against the Holy See, but I won’t mention that.

After discussing, Alexei and Chloe decided to let them temporarily take over the position of political commissar, with the right to make suggestions on battlefield tactics, while the command would still belong to the original system of the army.

The Banshees were not assigned to the Skitarii, but fought as an independent squad. Wearing heavy armor, they advanced quickly on the battlefield, while the Skitarii cooperated with them in the subsequent harvest.

As for the extraordinary people of the Fire Moths, also known as nymphs, they will not go to the front line of the battlefield. Their unique high-altitude perspective destined them to become the best battlefield staff.

With both Banshees and Nymphs in the command post, and with the mental link and full map vision, the battlefield commander has an overwhelming advantage in this era - no, even on Blue Star.

The rifled rifles in the hands of the Crusaders were also replaced with bolt-action rifles. The most difficult part of the bullet had been solved. Hughes directly took out several ready-made drawings and delivered them to the factory for production.

Although the failure rate of the gun is slightly higher due to the limitations of the overall processing technology, its excellent shooting accuracy and power make up for this. The bolt design also makes it easy to eliminate jams and other faults, and most importantly, it is finally no longer a muzzle-loading gun.

The biggest advantage of fixed-load copper-jacketed bullets wasn't accuracy, but the simplified firing process. It eliminated the steps of tearing open the paper shell, pouring gunpowder, inserting the bullet, pulling out the cleaning rod, compacting it with the cleaning rod, and then pulling the cleaning rod out. Instead, it became a simple cycle of pulling the bolt—inserting the bullet—pulling the bolt. This made firing efficiency overwhelming.

Hughes actually wanted to try to manufacture automatic firearms, but the level of metal processing has always been a big problem. The processing precision is not high and the air tightness of the firearms is not good. The most direct reaction is the high failure rate.

A continuous-fire firearm that keeps jamming is no match for a bolt-action rifle that fires steadily. After weighing the pros and cons, Hughes chose to give up.

It's not good to take steps that are too big.

The expansion and restructuring of the Crusaders were almost complete, and conscription was going quite smoothly. If they didn't fight hard, we would all be doomed. Under the immense pressure, Castel had become united as one.

In comparison, the armor of the banshees arrived much later. The difficulty of manufacturing this kind of armor was really not low. In the end, it was completed by Nini using fossils to rub some key components for Mud Hands.

Although difficult to manufacture, the finished product is quite stunning.

When Ash put on a full set of armor and appeared in the cathedral, the entire church was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The huge and heavy shape shocked everyone. It took a long time for people to react. They looked up at Ash, marveling and whispering.

Ash was already tall, nearly three meters tall with his helmet on. When he stood still, he looked like a wall, a wall of steel and iron.

When she charged quickly across the training ground, it was as if a huge steel fortress was rushing towards her. The overwhelming sense of oppression was truly breathtaking.

Zeus watched it once and felt his heart beating faster. He felt that the shock was not as great as a stroke of luck. He was a modern man who had been bombarded with information. When the Crusaders saw Ash charging head-on, they didn't even make a move to escape. They stood there in a daze and didn't come to their senses until a long time later.

The feeling of overwhelming power and the cold, hard, and heavy feeling of metal armor are all fascinating.

This kind of race is born to be warriors, they are the banshees on the battlefield.

The Crusaders gradually recovered, and when their frozen brains gradually understood that such a powerful warrior was their ally, their original fear turned into fanaticism.

Soldiers naturally yearn to be strong.

Many soldiers subconsciously began to recite the holy scriptures and praise Castel.

This was Hughes' idea, to downplay the existence of religion and shift the object of faith from people or objects to love for Castel itself.

Loving the land that gave birth to us and sacrificing our blood to protect it is more sacred than religion and gods.

The number of monsters attacking the fortress did not increase, and the frequency even decreased, but people were not careless. More and more monsters were piling up in the distance, and they could even be observed with the naked eye.

Finally, after working day and night, the three new airships were completed.

(End of this chapter)