I became a witch, but I started the industrial revolution

Unexpectedly, the other party finally took the initiative to come to the door and came all the way from the headquarters in the capital of Ovinia.

Medea was very annoyed, but still asked the guards to invite the Pope and his entourage in for a meeting.

After the polite greetings, the Pope, with a kind and amiable face, told Medea the purpose of his visit.

There is no doubt that they were coming for the four earls of the kingdom who were escorted to Astar.

He hoped that Medea could pardon the crimes of the four earl families and that the goddess would bless her with safety and health.

The above sentence is a joke. The correct statement is that the Pope promised that the Church would ignore her rebellion and not participate or discuss it.

Medea hesitated for a while, and finally shook his head and gave his answer:

"I'm sorry, Your Holiness. Their crimes will be judged as they should be under the watchful eyes of the general public. I can assure you that there will be no false charges or wrongful convictions. Those who are innocent will be released immediately and will not be held accountable."

The Pope's smiling face froze. Isn't this nonsense? Why is he here if he is not guilty?

He said patiently, "There is no precedent for the Count being tried for his crimes in another country. If the crime is to be punished, it should be done by the Kingdom of Ovenia, not Astaire. Am I right, Miss Medea?"

"No! Only their former subjects are qualified to judge their merits and demerits, not you, me, or the Kingdom of Ovinia. I am merely upholding the basic principle of fairness and impartiality."

He put away his smile and said, "But if you really do this, you will shake the stability of the nobles of the seven countries. The negative impact it will bring will be devastating. By then, the continent will be devastated."

"And the huge sin of killing you have committed will never be forgiven by the goddess. After death, your soul will fall into hell and there will be no liberation forever!"

"As the goddess's spokesperson on this continent, I cannot bear to see the people fall into war again. Please put aside your grudges and return peace to this world."

Medea raised her eyebrows when she heard this, picked up the military cap beside the table, stood up and put it on, turned around and looked at the Pope who had been staring at her and said:

"You don't seem to understand the logic. As long as they are alive, the oppression of the people will not stop, and then we have to continue fighting. This is the greatest sin of killing! Where is the peace and tranquility?"

The Pope paused and said, “As long as you have a kind heart, you can find it everywhere.”

Medea tilted her head and said, "No. I can't sleep unless they die."

The saint beside the Pope could no longer bear it and stepped forward to glare at Medea: "You! You disrespect the teachings of the goddess, disrespect the Pope, and blaspheme the goddess. You are a heretic!"

Medea put her hands behind her back and waved, "Your Holiness and the Saint must be tired from the journey. Let's send them to rest."

"Lord Medea, you seem to have a strong prejudice against the nobles, but don't forget that you are also a noble. If the devil in people's hearts is released, you will not be immune."

The Pope made a final effort to try to "persuade" Medea to return.

"I am no longer a noble. King Ovinia revoked my noble honors. I am now just an ordinary commoner."

Medea shrugged. "If the day comes when the fire burns me and people start to question my identity, I will be very happy."

"Because I in that world must be the last obstacle that stands in their way, and you...are all my companions."

I'm afraid you'll label me? What a joke!

Chapter 25 You die or I die? Please die.

The Pope basically used all the means he had, even using force to coerce people, but in the end he failed to make Medea surrender and release the people.

It's not that she is not afraid of the power of the Holy See, but there is no other way. This involves the fundamental principles of her establishment of a new ideology.

What both sides are fighting for is the leadership of the grassroots people. If the Vatican takes people away today, will they disband the non-commissioned officers who are doing ideological work and let the priests in tomorrow? If they take one step back, they will take all the steps back.

"I hope you won't force me..."

Looking at the backs of the Pope and his entourage leaving angrily, Medea said in his heart.

She did have a countermeasure to deal with theocracy, which was to establish a cult of personality to offset the influence of theocracy, but she was a little hesitant to start this, as it would be easy to get things out of hand.

But if the Vatican insists on doing something, she doesn't mind doing so...

Several people walked to the window and looked down. The guillotine below was ready. The gendarmerie guards brought hundreds of people, big and small, to stand on the stage and begin the trial.

The commander's mansion where they were staying was a new building made of cement and steel bars. Although it only had three floors, it was much more sturdy than traditional buildings.

Setting up an execution ground in front of the Commander's Mansion is to clearly show their position to the public and give them the confidence to judge all injustices.

It is also telling them that the commander and the ordinary people are of the same mind.

"Miss...I am a little confused."

"Huh? Tell me."

Anna looked at the group of men, women, young and old, tied up with ropes and shackles and wearing ragged clothes. A trace of pity flashed in her eyes, and she was a little confused: "Is it really a life-and-death struggle between us and them? Is there no other way out?"

Medea leaned on the railing with both hands and looked at the noisy crowd below. Her long white hair fluttered in the wind and her eyes became deep:

"A fight to the death? Who are they you are talking about? The nobles on the stage? Why are they nobles? Who doesn't want to be a noble? Don't these commoners want to be nobles?"

"Which poor person doesn't want to become rich and noble? The nobles are even more afraid of being poor."

"In order to get rich, the poor work hard, cultivate their fields, use their tools, and everyone is doing their best for themselves."

"Except for a very few, like my grandfather, who could seize the opportunity to fight on the battlefield and rise to prominence."

"Most other people don't even have this opportunity and are still living in hardship and poverty, struggling to even have enough to eat."

"Is it because they don't work hard? Is it because they don't make progress?"

Medea shook her head and gave an affirmative answer: "No! It's not."

"It's because the nobles today are unwilling and will not allow the poor to have the opportunity to prosper, and are even less willing to share their luxurious lives with them."

When the first evidence had been read out to the end and the execution was about to begin, Count Boli Sivias knelt on the ground crying and begged the onlookers and the executioner.

He begged them to spare his only son, who was only ten years old and whose hands were stained with the blood of slaves.

"They regard poverty as a shame and they are afraid of it, so they spare no effort to exploit the poor and accumulate wealth in order to maintain this prosperity forever and bless their descendants."

"In their eyes, the so-called people in the world are not as important as the little bit of money and status at their fingertips."

"They believe in the survival of the fittest. If you can't beat them, you deserve to die. If you can, you'll die. Isn't this a life-and-death drama? Is there any way out for the poor?"

Watching the little brat crying and screaming for his parents as he was pinned to the guillotine by the military police, the spurting blood and the cheers of the people complemented each other.

Medea then turned around and looked at this naive friend who had grown up with her, who was called a maid but was actually a playmate and had never suffered any hardship:

"This group of nobles wanted to play a survival game in which whoever occupies the resources deserves to live. They came up with this binary choice question of life and death from the beginning."

"Since you've started the game, there's no such thing as quitting midway. We'll just return the same things they did before, that's all."

"...I'm sorry Miss, I understand!"

"It's okay, you don't need to apologize, just understand."

"Your thoughts are also a microcosm of some ordinary people. They feel that all the suffering is over, and now they just want to live their own lives peacefully, without fighting or competing. This is a good thing."

"But we are fighting outside precisely to allow them to live in peace. I want to leave this ideological work to you."

Ana's eyes widened when she heard that, and she pointed at herself in surprise, "Ah! Me?!"

"Yes, you, when the time comes, you will report to the non-commissioned officer department in the military headquarters, and I will help you arrange it."

Anna waved her hands quickly: "I...I can't do it!"

"Why not? Your previous comfortable thinking is now spreading, and you happen to be able to understand the thoughts of both sides and can empathize. So it is very appropriate for you to do this ideological work."

"The people in our Astaire territory have been a little slack recently. It is very important that everyone understands why we continue to fight."

Their lives are better now, but don’t forget the people in other areas that have not yet been liberated by us. Their lives are still dark.”

"Only when we unite more people can we become stronger, so strong that no one dares to bully us, and we can live our lives better."

Anna rubbed her hands for a while and whispered: "I...If the lady needs me, I am willing to go!"

Mitia hugged her and touched her little head and said with a smile: "Be good, don't be afraid. There is no danger in doing ideological work. It's more about going to the villages and communicating with the people."

"You've been by my side for so long, and you know me best. I need you to understand their thoughts and needs, and to tell them my thoughts in more detail."

"Ok!"

Anna, who felt dizzy after being rubbed by Medea, nodded randomly and accepted the task given to her by Medea, and went back obediently to prepare.

Looking at her retreating figure, Medea showed a wicked smile on his face: "Let your sympathy overflow."

Early the next morning, Anna packed her things and was led to school for the exam by the soldiers called by Medea.

Mitia gave her the privilege of applying for the exam quickly, which allowed her to jump the queue and take the final exam together with the students of that year.

After all, she has been with Medea for many years, so Anna is not unfamiliar with the content of these exams. Instead, she is very familiar with them.

The new-style schools had been in operation for several years and had trained a large number of young men and women who had learned new ideas. They were the political and ideological non-commissioned officers of the Median army, who were transferred to the companies.

The army is now expanding rapidly and there is a huge gap in non-commissioned officers.

There are two types of non-commissioned officers. One type applies for military transfer after passing the political and ideological examination to train with the recruits, and finally forms a company when they are assigned to a company.

This type of people are mostly men because it is easy for them to make achievements.

The other type is women with weak constitutions like Anna, who, after passing the examination, did not apply to transfer to the military but instead transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

After simple military training, these new recruits will be assigned to villages and towns.

Responsible for checking the degree of implementation of specific policies, and providing answers and popular science to ordinary people who cannot read or understand the new policies. Women will be more approachable in doing this kind of work.

By the time Anna had finished her exams and received training to start work, Medea was also issuing new decrees, asking them to explain the interests involved to the villagers.

Chapter 26 The Kingdom’s Nobles Seeking Their Own Death

The expansion of the territory made Medea increasingly busy. At least her daily afternoon tea time had been cancelled for a long time.

Following the full-name census by the non-commissioned officer, the total population of the five territories easily exceeded two million. Controlling such a large territory and population was also a brand new attempt for Medea.

The training of the new army and the production of weapons cannot be relaxed. The basic factories in the four territories have been built and put into operation one after another, and have initially acquired a certain production capacity.

The statistics and secondary distribution of land have also been basically completed, and new fertilizer factories are working overtime to produce fertilizer for farming.

The cleanup and reorganization of the nobles also went smoothly. After all, if things went wrong, we could just use muskets to clear the way, and naturally it would go smoothly.

In general, everything is moving in a good direction, and Medea has remained extremely vigilant about the movements of the Kingdom of Ovinia, and has sent out a number of agents one after another, most of whom entered Ovinia in the form of caravan merchants.

That’s right, caravan!

Nowadays, Medea still maintains a certain tacit understanding with the Kingdom of Ovinia. She has not established a country and formally declared independence, and it is still at the level of internal rebellion.

Therefore, even though the two sides are fighting to the death, there is no prohibition on the caravan kingdom. Instead, the nobles of Ovinia have shown great interest in the rise of Astar.

Medea also "accidentally" missed a batch of steam machine tools, which were secretly transported out by "treacherous" merchants and sold to the nobles of Ovinia.