I became a witch, but I started the industrial revolution

The vibrations were getting closer, along with a growing noise, and he could hear the chaotic footsteps of the guards watching over them.

"Quick! Get your guns! Astar's army is coming soon!"

"Sir, we only have a few dozen people in total, which is not enough! And can we win..."

"I told you to win? I told you to hold on! If you can't, we'll all die! I'm a noble, I don't want to die in this dirty mine, do you understand?!"

"No one? If no one is there, gather those slaves! Let them serve as human shields to protect me from bullets! Go! I will negotiate terms of surrender only if they can't get in. Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes, sir..."

"Oh!"

A loud explosion echoed throughout the mine. Barros only heard bursts of gunfire and screams. His companions were all awakened and huddled together in confusion and fear.

The screams were accompanied by a burst of dense and orderly footsteps. The sound was getting closer and closer to them. Barros stared at the iron gate and couldn't help swallowing.

A gunshot was heard from the door, and the crowd huddled together couldn't help but scream. They saw a foot kicking open the iron door, and then a group of people rushed in and pointed guns at them.

The crowd suddenly burst into tears and shouts, pushing each other to hide in the innermost part.

"no, do not want!"

"Don't kill us! We can work! We won't eat!"

In the chaotic crowd, Barros looked at the unfamiliar emblem on the other person's head and thought to himself, is this the Astar army that the noble just mentioned?

Harlin reloaded the bullet and fired another shot into the air. After he had the situation under control, he smiled and said, "Congratulations, you are free!"

"?"

A group of slave laborers, covered in black dust and with only a piece of black cloth covering their private parts, looked at each other, none of them understood what Harlem meant.

Harlin sighed and asked his team members to lead them out of the dark and damp prison and into the bright and spacious guard rest area.

The slave laborers followed them out obediently, and they became even more silent when they passed by the dead bodies scattered all over the ground.

Speaking of the mine owner who was only shot in the leg but was lying on the ground pretending to be dead, Harlin gave him a few beatings and then ordered his men to tie him up and make him kneel on the ground.

"Do to him what he did to you. Tell us his crimes and beat up the victim. If he kills us, Astaire will be responsible!"

"This place has been occupied by us, Astar. This is our place, and you will become our people. Everyone is equal, and everyone is fair and just. This is the core concept of us, Astar."

"..."

"I! I have a grievance!"

After a period of silence, someone finally stood up. Barros looked at the mine owner, whose face was swollen like a pig's head, with hatred on his face:

"He raped my wife who came to the mine to bring me food. I went to the city to report to the police, but the soldiers knocked me out and sent me back here. They beat me half to death and forced me to sign a slave contract. I never left here again. I don't know whether it was a month or two."

"God damn it! I have a lovely daughter waiting for me outside. So many days have passed. How could she survive when she was so young? Damn it!!!"

As he said that, he rushed forward and started punching and kicking the mine owner. After a while, two soldiers came up and pulled him away. Baros refused to let go and bit the mine owner's ear hard, and a violent scream was rang out.

The two men pretended not to hear and pulled hard. A heart-wrenching cry like a pig being slaughtered, accompanied by Barros leaving with blood dripping from his mouth, echoed throughout the mine.

This scene made the expressions on the faces of the other miners more vivid. One after another, some of them stood up to cry and complain, and then took some gifts from the mine owner. More and more people stood up, and the whole mine was filled with crying and cursing.

Looking at the mine owner who was no longer in human form on the ground, Harlin's thoughts went back to the lesson he had heard in Commander Medea's class when he was studying at the military academy.

"Many slaves actually don't understand the meaning of freedom. They even think that the greatest freedom is that they can own slaves."

“So freedom is not absolute, equality and justice are more precious. Justice is the goal we strive for. And equality is a will that can be accepted from the bottom of the heart by people who have been enslaved to the point of mental numbness, and its meaning will not be misinterpreted at all.”

"It is a word that is both gentle and powerful. You and I have equal status, equal rights, and equal personality. You can do anything that I can do, and you can't do anything that I can't do."

"So, when you encounter a situation that is difficult to handle, make the culprit who harmed them kneel before their eyes! Let the privileged appear in front of them in the ugliest posture to break the shackles in their hearts."

“Let them stand in the sunshine and conduct a thorough public trial of the wicked from the perspective of equality! Let them cry, hate, and vent! Let them say goodbye to their past selves once and for all.”

"After you're done, I suggest you hang the damned guy from a stake. That's the best place for him."

Chapter 41 Winning or Not Doesn't Matter

"Hmm? Aunt An, why is the light still on in the living room?"

The initial busy period of transporting materials had just passed, and Medea, who was persuaded by his subordinates to come back and rest, looked at the light in the living room with some confusion.

Anjie, who came out to greet him, said helplessly, "Madam can't sleep. It has been going on for several days."

Mitia nodded: "I'll go see her, you don't have to be busy, go and have a rest."

She gently pushed open the door and walked into the bright living room. Alyssa stood up immediately after hearing the voice. Medea stood there obediently. Sure enough, the next second Alyssa turned her around like a doll, stroking and glancing at her from top to bottom.

Smoothing her messy silver hair, Mitia comforted her, "Mom, don't worry. It won't be my turn to help unless the situation is extremely difficult."

"I know, but I always have to see it with my own eyes to feel at ease."

Her coat and hat were taken away, and she had to listen to Elisa's nagging and get hit on the head from time to time. She had to wash, take a shower, and change clothes, and Medea was pushed around.

It turns out that no matter how powerful you are outside, once you get home you have to be obedient.

After taking a shower, she changed into pajamas and went to the living room and lay directly on the sofa. Alyssa just came out of the restaurant with a bowl of porridge and put it in front of her: “Just use it as a cushion.”

"Um...."

Seeing Medea leaning against the sofa with her eyes closed, Alyssa sat down beside her, hugged her head and put it on her lap. Medea twisted and lay in a comfortable position.

"Aren't you being too hasty now?"

Alyssa touched her long silver hair. When she was a child, Medea liked to rest in her arms like this. Her little mouth was slightly open and her round cheeks rose and fell with the rhythm of her breathing, which was extremely cute.

Ever since her hair color changed, the two of them have never gotten along like this again.

"It was too hasty. The reform of the nobility was very hasty at the beginning."

Hearing that Medea had changed her words, Alyssa, who was ready to listen to her reasoning and be convinced, became curious: “Then why do you still do that?”

"Mom, tell me, if I had listened to you step by step from the beginning and followed the route you arranged, what would I become? The best result should be to become a great magician respected by everyone on the continent."

"It's just that in the process of realization, relatives will become family affection, and finally become blood. The people are just ordinary people, and finally ants."

Medea rubbed her thigh:

"By then, I don't know if I will still have the motivation to do what I am doing now. Times change, and the long years will smooth out everyone's edges."

"I want to do something while I still don't consider myself a real marquis or a so-called wizard, instead of just talking about what I will do in the future."

"But we are not strong enough... It was OK before, just a small fight, but now the war is expanding, and the enemies you will face will become stronger and stronger..."

"It doesn't matter. I never thought I could win."

"what?"

Climbing up and taking a sip of Alyssa's teacup, Mitia looked at her shocked eyes and smiled: "It is indeed difficult to win, but there is still room for negotiation. However, the premise is that we have to prove our strength, and then both sides have the possibility of returning to the negotiation table."

"The reason why I and the military decided to start the war in winter is for this reason. We forced them to fight us in winter, and then we would end the war with war and promote peace with war."

Medea smiled confidently:

"The snow in winter will greatly slow down the march of the Vatican and Kingdom armies. Heavy snow and muddy roads after the snow melts will make it very difficult to supply food. Now all the food is stored, so if we eat a little, we will have less."

"They can easily organize a large army, but can they feed and clothe so many people during the long and cold winter?"

"The army is huge, which is not a good thing in the cold winter~"

Especially today when gunpowder guns are becoming increasingly popular, powdered substances are extremely delicate.

In such a cold and humid environment in winter, it is a question whether their old-fashioned flintlock rifles that use powder and cleaning rods to load powder in front of the barrel can fire.

And what Medea predicted actually happened.

The first was the ragtag army assembled by the church. After Media declared war without declaration, the remaining Vatican troops that were still in the organizing stage had to march to the designated area as quickly as possible under the mandatory order of the church.

The structure of the Median army and its railway delivery capabilities meant that her first wave of attack would be her strongest.

Because the fighting distance was close enough to Astar and the supply speed was extremely fast, the front-line soldiers did not feel any pain in using artillery fire and wooden-handled grenades.

This brought misfortune to the first wave of enemy troops, even though they had gathered a large number of troops on the front line due to the joint orders of the Kingdom and the Church.

However, facing Astar's covering fire bombing tactics where only shells can be seen but no people can be seen, the only option is to be bombed to collapse.

As they retreated, all the large amounts of supplies that had been gathered in preparation for the spring battle were happily accepted by Astar.

Progress on several fronts was very smooth, except for Hendak, which encountered stubborn resistance when attacking the enemy's capital.

As a veteran who has been fighting on the border for many years, Marquis Hendak's defense is impeccable, but the support of Astar's two divisions is on the way.

The front line was attacked, the dispatch in the rear was in chaos, and the Holy See made a huge strategic misjudgment.

Previously, they let the bishops of their respective dioceses be responsible for commanding the army. However, it’s okay to ask the bishops to pray, but who can understand how to lead an army into battle?

In addition, the Christian soldiers were originally illiterate farmers and bankrupt small workshop owners, not professional soldiers.

The Church wasted a lot of time just teaching them how to use muskets, and they were urged to set out for the front line before other training even began.

One can imagine what the military discipline was like. There were not many supplies, and people froze to death every day.

In order to survive, every time they passed through an earldom, a large number of Christian soldiers carrying church symbols would enter villages and towns to rob and wreak havoc. Only the families of the Protestant soldiers who were ready to join them could escape.

In order to protect themselves, ordinary civilians who did not want to get involved in this matter had no choice but to tie a church logo on their hands and go on the Crusade.

The bishop did not impose many restrictions and was happy to let them solve their own supply problems to reduce the pressure on logistics. This would also help them get more soldiers, so why not do it?

Upon seeing this, the nobles, both large and small, who were responsible for providing them with supplies along the way, pulled back the supplies they were about to send out, leaving only some exquisite gifts for the church leaders.

Anyway, you don't dare to rob me, you are just robbing the lowly people under my command. It's up to you, as long as you don't make me bleed.

The life and death of their subordinates is not something they consider. It's like this every winter anyway, so what's the difference between dying at home and dying on the road?

Amid the indifference of the middle and upper classes on both sides, a vicious cycle of terror began.

Those who did not participate in the robbery were jealous of the property on the robbers. They felt too much psychological gap for their poor fellow villagers to have become rich farmers, so they joined in the robbery when they moved to the next village.

At the beginning, families in villages and towns along the way could still escape disaster by sending a man from their family to join the Eastern Expedition. Later, as the number of the Eastern Expedition troops grew larger and larger, this trick no longer worked. Wherever they passed, only ruins were left.

Chapter 42 Welcome Master Wang

Having a lot of people and being able to fight are two different things. Many people only look at the data on paper but ignore the key role that leaders can play in it.

A group of lions led by a sheep cannot defeat a group of sheep led by a lion.

The Vatican is not clear about this simple point of view, or it is clear but does not want to do it. The Pope would feel more at ease if his confidants were in charge of the troops rather than having capable people do so.