I became a witch, but I started the industrial revolution

Videl suppressed his fear of the unknown and stood where he was, staring blankly at the huge monster as its head passed over them and rumbled past them, with the boxes behind it constantly passing in front of them.

"Woo!"

Medea looked at the departing car with satisfaction. What was burning was not coal but magic crystals arranged in a matrix. Therefore, there was no thick smoke produced by burning coal, but high-pressure steam released due to excessive water vapor pressure.

To put it simply, a steam locomotive is just a steam engine with a water tank placed horizontally and moving repeatedly horizontally.

The technical difficulty is not how to install the steam engine into the train

Rather, the question was how the rails could support the heavy weight of fully loaded trains. So when the quality of steel reached the standard, steam locomotives were naturally manufactured without any difficulty.

But this is not the end yet. The familiar rumbling sound was heard again. This time, the speed of the train was obviously slower than before, and the cabin at the rear also looked different.

When they got close, Videl and the others discovered that the track it was traveling on was the one closest to them, giving them the opportunity to observe it up close.

As the other party slowed down, everyone was surprised to find that the carriage behind it was full of people! And the people sitting or standing in the carriage also noticed the people outside.

The sharp-eyed soldier immediately got up and straightened his clothes after seeing Medea. Finally, the train slowly stopped and all the people on it jumped off immediately.

They quickly lined up in front of Medea under the command of the team captains, holding the long tubular objects vertically on their shoulders with the thin ends facing the sky.

"Reporting to His Excellency the Commander, the entire 602st Charleville Infantry Regiment should have 602 men! The actual number is ! Please review!"

Mitia nodded in satisfaction: "Very good, retreat and switch defense with the brothers' team."

"Yes! Everyone! Turn right!"

Seeing hundreds of people lined up in an orderly manner, even running in an orderly manner, Videl was stunned.

Chapter 12: Who should suffer, yourself or others?

"These...are these your soldiers? How did you train them?! And why are their weapons a little strange? I've never seen them before. Are those wooden sticks magic staffs? They don't look like magic."

Not to mention Videl's surprise, the officers behind him were almost drooling.

Neat movements, upright postures, and no noise at all during assembly. This kind of troop appearance is definitely elite no matter where they are!

Mitia nodded and admitted, "It is indeed my army, but they are also the army of the civilians of the entire Astar Territory. These soldiers are their children and husbands."

As for the questions about training and weapons, Medea chose to keep silent. Firearms cannot be explained clearly with words alone. The flame ejected from the muzzle is more useful than any explanation.

A new generation of percussion cap-type rifles produced by military factories are now being formally deployed in large numbers by the troops. The paper shell bullets they are equipped with can easily penetrate the armor of traditional cavalry. In the case of multiple hits, even magic shields cannot withstand it.

Of course, cannons were also made, which were even simpler than muskets, but the material technology was still not up to standard, and what was made were all horse-drawn heavy cannons with very low mobility.

目前米蒂亚的军队编制，一个排由9-12人组成。4个排组成一个连，约40-50人。

4个连组成一个营，约150-200人。3个营组成一个团，约600-800人。

Three regiments plus a cavalry regiment and an artillery regiment make up a division, with about 3-5000 people.

The current total size of Media's army is exactly four divisions, two of which have been newly added and have not yet completed their training and weapons replacement.

A standing army of 20,000 is the limit of what Astar can bear in peacetime.

Five years have brought tremendous changes to the Astar Territory.

The first is the distribution of land. The goals that Medea had set could not be fully achieved.

The first step was to nationalize all the land, which became the property of Lord Astar. However, she encountered difficulties when distributing it for the second time.

Who will be given the land? Who will get it first? Who gets the better land and who gets the worse land?

The acquisition of land is certainly not unlimited, but the population growth is exponential. If it is divided equally, there will inevitably be unequal distribution in the future, and there will be a time when there is nothing left to divide.

Therefore, she chose to strictly control the distribution of land from the beginning. Only those who had military service in the family would be given land, and no matter their rank, they would only be given one piece of land. The upper limit for direct relatives serving in the military was three pieces of land, and they were tax-free for twenty years.

Ordinary civilians rent land from the territory to engage in productive labor. The tax rent is dynamically extracted from the output of the land, and there is also a quantity limit. A normal family of three is only eligible to rent one piece of land, and a family of six is ​​eligible to rent two, up to the upper limit of three.

There are no rewards involving land, only honor and money.

The limitation and nationalization of land is to prevent annexation, and the distribution of land is also determined according to the minimum living standard of a family after obtaining the output of the land. This is the life guarantee she leaves for ordinary people.

The upstream fertilizer production and grain purchasing agencies are directly operated by the government to achieve a monopoly, and individual businessmen are not allowed to engage in related industries.

It is not very difficult to feed a family of several people on a piece of land with soil-sulfur fertilizer, bone meal base fertilizer and crop rotation system. At most, there will be little storage, but survival will definitely not be a problem.

If you want to get rich, don't even think about food and land. Even civilians are the same. You have to do other things, such as joining the army or working in a factory.

Five years later, Astar's industrial transformation has been very successful due to its self-sufficient ore reserves, and a large number of factories can provide jobs.

After several years of sedimentation and experimentation, the porcelain industry chain has produced various types of porcelain that are popular among the upper class nobles in neighboring countries, and pottery has also entered thousands of households in the territory.

Steam textile machine factories powered by large steam engines were also built one after another, creating new jobs for women in the territory.

Unlike the porcelain industry which is a high-end market, the textile industry is a lower-level market that affects all aspects and involves the most basic livelihood issues in the kingdom.

Once the supply of raw materials such as cotton is determined, the large-scale steam-woven fabrics in the Astar Territory will quickly overwhelm related industries in the kingdom.

If your life gets better, others' will get worse. The total amount of resources is constant, so others are destined to suffer. So by then, war between them is inevitable.

She knew very well that the motivations for fighting for one's own interests and rights were completely different from those for fighting for the lord's ideals and wealth.

Therefore, Medea has been stacking buffs on them in an orderly manner. Train transportation has opened up Astar's transportation lines. Now Astar is a war machine that has not yet been started.

She only needed to hold on to the title system and watch how things developed, waiting for the other lords of Ovinia to be unable to bear it any longer and start a war, and waiting for them to give her a legitimate excuse.

However, there is still a hidden danger before that, that is Videl and his 3,000-man army.

That's why she came to Uruk to see him today.

"..."

"This feeling... is really wonderful. You are also very scary!"

Videl and Medea sat alone in the specially designed carriage, quietly listening to the rhythmic tapping sound of the train wheels rolling over the connection of the rails.

At the same time, I looked through the glass at the scenery outside the window and the dozen or so containers connected to the rear of the carriage.

After a long while, Videl finally sighed. He only now felt the significance of the existence of this huge creature.

It can carry both people and goods, with an extremely terrifying loading capacity and a fast speed. Coupled with the skill that Medea showed him at the beginning of transporting a whole group of goods, he also felt fearful.

The girl opposite put down her teacup and straightened her silver hair: "Grandpa Weidel, I am just protecting myself. The Ovenia royal family has no trust in me at all."

"Heh, so you want your troops to call you the commander, commander-in-chief?"

Videl chuckled, and looking at the other party's calm purple pupils, he became a little bored:

"You should have guessed it from your actions."

"Your grandfather was indeed forced to die by the old king. He was too young, very smart, and very charismatic. His army was invincible, but the old king didn't have much time left..."

"The old king personally instructed us to treat his descendants well, so... forget it, Medea."

"What about those people who were in the army led by my father and Astaire? Why didn't they survive?"

"I remember the Kingdom's war report saying that my grandfather was surrounded and killed while leading a lone army deep into the enemy's territory. Then what about the army led by my father? If the young soldiers were not strong enough, the Astair Territory would have been breached at that time."

Facing Videl's hesitant and somewhat guilty look, Medea immediately understood.

She even saw that deep down in her heart, Videl supported the old king's actions.

The veins on Medea's hand that was placed next to the teacup bulged, and she silently crushed the cup into powder. She slammed the table hard, and the deep red tea with the addition of animal milk immediately splashed all over the table.

She had always known that there might be some hidden reason why Ackerman gave up the city's defensive advantage and took the initiative to attack Palia, but she had never expected that his methods would be so disgusting.

What a great way to treat your descendants, to the point of leaving behind orphans and widows, right?

Medea could now vaguely sense her grandfather's anger and sadness, and couldn't help but laugh out of anger:

"I know what you mean, but you don't seem to understand one thing. If my grandfather has rebellious intentions, you can't influence the thoughts of a quasi-saint-level mage at all!"

"These despicable methods only work on loyal subjects, so do good people deserve to be pointed at by the staff?!"

The soldiers from both sides in the other two carriages rushed in after hearing the noise, staring at each other.

However, the reaction of the Median soldiers was a bit strange. They all pointed at them with something that looked like a wooden stick.

One of the non-commissioned officers on Videl's side seemed to want to show off. He secretly took out the staff he carried with him and tried to chant a spell to cast a spell.

Before he could finish the second sentence, a man behind Medea pulled the trigger.

"Ding!"

The metal hammer with a small magic crystal wrapped around the wooden stick hit it. The crisp knocking sound could be heard clearly in the quiet car, and then a wave of elemental fluctuations suddenly erupted.

"boom!"

Chapter 13 Start a war? Then fight!

Fired at extremely close range, the metal bullet's initial velocity reached over a thousand meters per second, and no one could see its trajectory at all.

In the next second, the magic shield on the Sergeant Chief on Videl's side was instantly shattered, and his body fell to the ground as if hit by something.

When everyone looked closely, they saw that a huge bloody hole had appeared on his forehead, and scarlet and bluish-white unknown objects were slowly flowing out, but he still held the staff tightly in his hand, maintaining the posture of casting spells before his death.

"!!!"

The remaining people in Videl's army only realized at this time how terrifying the weapons in the hands of Medea's men were.

"Anyone who dares to offend the commander again will die!"

"Don't move! Everyone kneel down!"

Medea watched the development of the situation coldly until her subordinates had the situation under control, then she wiped her tea-stained hands with a silk scarf, stood up, and threw it in front of Videl.

"How does the bullet taste?"

Anna, who had been waiting next door, came forward, gently took Medea's hand, and slowly helped her put on black lace gloves.

Videl lowered his head and said nothing, but sweat slowly seeped out of his forehead.

The other people who were pointed at by the black muzzles of guns trembled uncontrollably, and the atmosphere at the scene reached freezing point.

"I thought too highly of you, Grandpa Videl. Perhaps time really can change a person's heart. You are not the Videl that my grandfather once knew."

Signaling the soldiers to step forward and disarm all of Videl's men, Medea sneered:

"I will let you walk out of Astaire alive. I need you to tell them. Aren't you worried that we might rebel? Then congratulations, you guessed it right."

Videl suddenly raised her head, surprised and puzzled:

"Then wouldn't the sacrifices your grandfather made for you be in vain? It's been so long since the incident happened. If you do this, the whole country will be plunged into chaos again, and the Astaire family will be doomed!"