Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 530 The Final Choice

Chapter 530 The Final Choice
For the people of Deburg, it was a magical day.

At first, when the piercing alarm sounded, the people of Deburg were terrified. They hid in their homes in fear and anxiety, waiting for the war to begin.

But... after waiting a day, what the people of Deburg received was not war, but the news that the Empire had occupied Deburg!
The bewildered residents of Deburg stepped out of their homes and were astonished to find that the soldiers and chimeras that once belonged to the Kingdom of Krant had vanished from the streets. Only cold mechs and armed Imperial soldiers patrolled the streets, and the Kingdom of Krant flag that had been fluttering above Deburg had been replaced by the Imperial flag!
No, what's going on here?!
The residents of Deburg felt as if they were in a dream. When they woke up in the morning, they were still Krants. How did they become Imperials before it even got dark?
Soon, the questions of these Deburg residents were answered—the Empire had broken through the three lines of defense that Krant had set up in front of Delai Port, and the two army groups had been completely defeated!

Upon hearing this news, the residents of Deburg were utterly incredulous and couldn't comprehend it at all. Before this, the newspapers in Krant had been praising these three lines of defense to the skies, claiming that even if the Empire managed to breach them, it would be exhausted and nothing to fear.

So now... what exactly happened?

The Empire did not hide this news. The day after the Empire captured Deburg, all the newspapers in the Empire reported the news on their front page.

Furthermore, in the news, the Empire directly stated that the reason they were able to break through Krant's defenses was simple: the Empire had developed a brand-new type of shell called—the missile!
The range of this missile is about 100 kilometers!

At the same time, the news report also included photos taken by Levi's Sky Eye showing missile attacks on Krant's army positions. Even ordinary people with little common sense would be shocked to see these photos.

After all, there is no such thing as photo forgery in this world. In everyone's eyes, since it is a photo taken, it must be real!
For the Krant and Sasha alliance, this was devastating news!
"What on earth is going on?!"

Wilhelm II slammed his fist on the table, angrily reaching out and tearing the newspaper in front of him to shreds, then looked at the old general before him.

"The Empire created such a terrifying weapon, and you didn't even notice?!"

Although Wilhelm II was mediocre, he wasn't stupid. Any sane person who read the reports would know that the Empire was destined to win this time. Missiles with a range of 100 kilometers and such great power—just a few missiles could destroy an entire army's position. This meant that in the future, when the Empire fought against others, it wouldn't need to engage in direct combat. It could simply launch a few missiles from afar, and the rest would be just cleaning up the battlefield!

How do we fight this?
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty, it was a mistake in our intelligence gathering..."

The old general had his own unspoken grievances. In fact, the Krant General Staff had indeed received information that the Empire was developing new types of artillery shells with longer ranges. However, at the time, they did not take this intelligence to heart. In the General Staff's view, no matter how long the range of an artillery shell was, it was still just an artillery shell.

Moreover, just like in Jules Verne's novels, the longer the range of a shell, the larger the cannon barrel needs to be. From the perspective of the rationality of the battle, the Krant General Staff did not think that the Empire could develop shells with a very long range.

After all, if the distance is too far, accuracy becomes an issue.

This is why Li Wei never corrected the terminology; after all, when most people hear "cannonball," their first thought is that it comes from a cannon barrel. If the premise is wrong, they won't be able to understand the rest no matter how hard they try.

However, they did not expect that the empire's newly developed missile could be fired directly without a cannon barrel, and that it had a terrifying range of 100 kilometers and such great power!

How do we fight this?
What should they do if the other side wants to attack Delin?
They can't possibly carry the entire Delin on their shoulders and run away, can they?
That's right, now the Krant General Staff has to consider whether they should surrender if the Empire wants to attack Delin!
Because there's really no way to fight this!
That's a range of 100 kilometers! Krant's army of chimeras might not even have reached the battlefield before the enemy's missiles have already turned the entire Delin into ruins!

"The Empire just delivered an ultimatum to me."

Hearing Wilhelm II's angry tone, the old general's heart trembled.

Just what I feared most came to pass.

"The Empire demands our immediate, unconditional surrender and return to its embrace! What a joke!"

With that, Wilhelm II slammed his fist heavily on the table, making a loud thud.

"Imperial rule was hundreds of years ago! They actually want to take Krant back now? Don't even dream about it!"

At this moment, Wilhelm II's eyes were bloodshot, like a cornered wolf, glaring fiercely at the old general. Wilhelm II himself was under immense pressure. Just recently, when the Crown annexed Francis, everyone praised Wilhelm II as a wise ruler, saying that the Crown had ushered in its most glorious period under his rule.

Wilhelm II was extremely pleased with himself at the time.

However, to his surprise, his triumph lasted only a few days. First, problems arose in Huadu, resulting in significant losses for the Krant army. Then, the Empire swiftly defeated two army groups stationed in Port Dreyfus and successfully captured Deburg.

Public opinion immediately reversed.

The losses of two army groups, in particular, made Wilhelm II a target of criticism.

That's 300,000 people! Not 300,000 pigs!

Of course, strictly speaking, the Empire's missiles didn't wipe out all 300,000 people; after all, they were missiles, not nuclear bombs. Although the core forces of these two army groups were destroyed, some people still survived for various reasons.

These soldiers also escaped back to the rear and told their comrades and reporters about their experiences.

Through these soldiers' accounts, people learned about the even more terrifying aspects of missiles.

According to the survivors, they were completely unaware of the missile attack until it landed and exploded, at which point they realized something was wrong.

Of course, by then it would be too late.

This cast a shadow over everyone's hearts. They couldn't find, couldn't even perceive, and couldn't escape such a terrifying weapon... How were they supposed to deal with it?

The surviving soldiers were furious because Krant had not told them at all that the Empire possessed such weapons!

If they had known the Empire possessed such weapons, they would never have fought the Empire. This wouldn't have been a battle; it would have been suicide!

Many journalists then began to criticize Krant for provoking the Empire in the first place, and their arguments were quite reasonable—the Empire had not signed an alliance agreement with Francis or the Western European Empire, but rather with the Duchy of Tiris. Krant shouldn't have risked angering the Empire by attacking the Duchy of Tiris.

In particular, when Krant finally defeated Francis, he bypassed Francis's defenses through a tunnel. From this perspective, the decision to attack the Duchy of Tiris yielded no benefits whatsoever, except for dragging the Empire into the conflict and declaring war on Krant.

This even caused Krant to lose Port Dre, giving the Empire an opportunity to intervene. If Krant hadn't been so foolish as to try to detour through the Duchy of Tiris via Francis, he wouldn't have offended the Empire!

Although Krant also strengthened its defenses and imprisoned the soldiers who had fled back from the front lines, tens of thousands of soldiers from the two army groups still managed to escape, and it was even rumored that some of them had simply surrendered to the Empire.

Having personally experienced the bombing by that kind of weapon, no one would want to try it again.

This time I was lucky to escape unscathed, but next time it might be different.

Moreover, it must be admitted that the Empire's historical claims did indeed play a significant role in the surrender of Krant's soldiers.

That's right. Krant was once part of the Empire, and the people of Krant were once part of the Empire. We're all one family, so why fight and kill over such trivial matters?
Once I thought about it, I understood, and once I understood, everything was fine.

So you see, as long as you hold the truth in your hands, the other party will become all smiles and laughter.

"I will never surrender, and Krant is no coward!"

Wilhelm II clearly would not accept this outcome. Just a short time ago, he was the restorer of the Crown Kingdom, and now he was about to become the ruler of a fallen nation.
The difference is just too big!

"You must come up with a way to deal with the Empire. No matter what, we absolutely cannot let them succeed! Do everything in our power to protect Delin! I don't want to see those Imperials' arrogant faces again!"

"yes……………"

"roll!"

Accompanied by Wilhelm II's angry roar, the old general turned and slunk away. Although His Majesty had asked him to come up with a solution... what solution could he possibly come up with?

He never expected that the Empire would come up with such an outrageous weapon—it's practically cheating!
Watching the old general leave, Wilhelm II sat back down in his chair, panting. Just then, a voice suddenly appeared in his ear.

"This is truly disappointing."

Upon hearing the voice, Wilhelm II frowned, then stood up and walked to the full-length mirror beside him. He then saw his reflection in the mirror, but unlike the furious Wilhelm II outside, the Wilhelm II in the mirror looked arrogant and domineering.

"You actually let the Empire be reduced to this state?"

"You have no idea how powerful the Empire is!"

"A machine is, in the end, just a machine."

Wilhelm II in the mirror snorted coldly, completely unconcerned.

"Are you admitting defeat?"

"I haven't given up!"

"very good."

Upon hearing Wilhelm II's reply from outside the mirror, the reflection in the mirror revealed a smile.

"In that case, I can lend you a hand."

"help me?"

"Yes."

As he spoke, the reflection in the mirror looked at Wilhelm II outside the mirror.