"It's not really an embarrassing thing... It's just that the God I believe in, my light - has had his power stolen by the God of Light.
Just like you, you did your best to do something for the Roman Empire, but a thief named God of Light stabbed him in the back and took everything he had. Well, that's the story."
"Um."
"What about you? You've done so much for the Roman Empire. Do you still want to go back? Do you want to become their saint or great man?"
"No, I don't want to go back anymore." Yang Hao also kissed her forehead.
"Saints, great men... No, I have seen through them. I don't want to be a saint, nor do I want to be a great man. I just want to live with you in a peaceful place, whether it is the Elven Kingdom or any civilized place... I just want to live with you. Arguing about what to eat for three meals a day, worrying about what to do in winter. That's all."
"I see. Although the elves prefer to eat vegetarian food, the Elf Kingdom is pretty good."
"Then let's head towards the Elf Kingdom."
"But we don't have much food left." Theresa curled her lips and slightly changed her position in Yang Hao's arms.
"We have to find a way, my good man - of course, I will help. But I am just a little nun, don't expect me to do much..."
I'm tired...
After leaving these three words, Theresa fell asleep peacefully in Yang Hao's arms.
While hugging the most important woman in front of him, Yang Hao recalled everything he had done for the Roman Empire, and turned around to throw a few more firewood into the fire circle.
Under the threat of the common enemies "barbarians" and "Khan" at the time, the human tribes within the territory of the Roman Empire united under his integration and fought together to overthrow the Khan's rule.
At that time, no matter whether they were warlords or nobles, landlords or religious leaders, or even the Roman royal family who were struggling to survive in the former abandoned capital, now the royal capital, everyone was working hard to overthrow the Khan's rule.
Many people died during this period.
Yang Hao's sworn brother, the father of the next empress, died on the battlefield.
Before he died, he entrusted his little daughter to Yang Hao. Yang Hao thought he had lived up to his trust, but why...
No.
If you think about it carefully, the little queen is full of problems.
She was a lively and lovely child... Every time I came back, she would happily explain to me the changes in the capital, and would also timidly ask me how the outside world had changed.
The letters she sent out every day always flooded Yang Hao's desk. She was very shy and would cry loudly every time she saw those ferocious generals.
This always made Yang Hao very worried. But he never worried that the little empress would lead the new empire into darkness. Never.
How could such a lovely child become so silent when she was heading to the parish... No.
Did he "not say a word at all"
Even when she was facing the general she feared the most, even when her face was filled with fear and she was about to shed tears...
Why didn't she say a word? Why didn't she even open her mouth
He had tried his best to avoid recalling his sad memories over the past year, but when he thought about it carefully, there were problems with all of this.
But what does it matter? What if I go back to the past
He sighed and threw several more pieces of firewood into the fire circle. The firewood collected today should barely last until tomorrow morning, when the snow stopped and they could continue on their journey.
After losing the common enemy, the Khan, the division within the Roman Empire was inevitable.
The leaders and warlords forced him to gain the right to autonomy, the nobles and landlords wanted to take back their former estates at all costs, and even the royal family was full of suspicion of him.
If you get close to the religious leaders and warlords, you will die gloriously in less than two years. If you get close to the nobles and landlords, the poisoned wine of the royal family will be delivered to your door in less than two years.
Completely directed to the royal family? This is a good idea - then the four parties will join forces to "punish the treacherous ministers".
Everyone was not of the same mind to begin with. They were forced together only because of the enemy, the Khan. To a certain extent, they were all suspicious of themselves because of jealousy, envy, conspiracy, and the tribal mentality of just wanting to fight.
In desperation, Yang Hao at that time could only place his hopes on the civilians and the national army he trained.
Because there is no place for him to stay in these five places. Although the civilians have no power, he can find ways to train them.
Although the National Army can only obey the orders of the Empress and the Royal Family in name, they should support me because of their leadership and salary.
And then? And then there was nothing. He saw the true nature of the people of this country. Since they didn't need others to lead them to a better life, they just wanted to continue to starve to death in the first year of famine, just wanted to continue to freeze to death in winter, and just wanted to continue to lick the toenails of the big shots.
Let them continue like this. Yang Hao gave up completely. No one had ever asked him to help them become better, so let it be.
He wanted to maintain the balance of interests as much as possible by making the pie bigger and buy himself some time.
But in order to gain the support of the common people, he must publicly promise to give them corresponding rights and wealth.
Who would do this without the power? But he had no choice but to do this. Otherwise, he would be impeached and removed from office in 003 due to various reasons, let alone the trial in 004 of the Imperial Calendar.
In the choice between "dying now" or "delaying death and struggling like a locust", Yang Hao chose the latter. It was at that time that his long-term plan to gain the support of the Saint fell through.
"You don't need to say more, Yang Hao. My faith in the God of Light is supreme. Before you choose to accept the baptism of my Lord, before you decide to become a supreme couple with me under the witness of God, before you ask me to be your guide and messenger, I will not listen to even a word you say.
Remember, God is real, and the believers in the parish feel fulfilled because of God. Isn't this better than you wasting state funds to let them see how ugly the outside world is? "
Thinking of this, he sighed again. The girl behind him murmured in dissatisfaction in her sleep and hugged him tightly, making him feel tired.
He just wanted to make this new empire better, so that people could have a better life, at least not living in mud houses, but in wooden houses.
He just didn't want anyone to starve to death in the first year of the famine, or to freeze to death in the winter. He just wanted that.
Why did it turn out like this
He turned around and hugged Theresa's warm body tightly.
Perhaps he shouldn't have left the village to become the superior person back then.
…
Amid the sudden snow, the warmth provided by the fire ring in the cave was not enough for the star-crossed pair of mandarin ducks to survive until dawn the next day.
Perhaps they already knew it, and just wanted to give each other confidence and warmth on the last night out of a clear conscience - but they didn't expect that the smoke from the fire circle would attract the natives of the Monster Forest.
It was a woman with antlers on her head, and she was followed by a giant "golem" made of stone and mud, and she was wearing clothes made of tree bark and animal skin.
The woman looked at the smoke filling the cave, and simply controlled the golems behind her to dig a path, then pulled out the two people who were hugging each other tightly inside.
The woman carefully looked at the two people who were unable to wake up due to the cold in the golem's hands, and then she said to herself:
"It's not the Kagad people who kidnapped my Ling people... Who are they? Children, prepare hot water and fur clothes in the tribe... I want to bring them back."
The antlers on her head flashed a strange green light as she spoke. She covered the two people with the animal skin she was wearing, then walked into the cave, grabbed the clothes, blankets, backpacks, etc. in her hands, and left.
…
That is, shortly after the antler woman and her golems left, Priscilla's team, which had tracked them all the way to the Monster Forest, finally gave up the pursuit.
No traces could be seen in the sudden snow, and going deeper would be futile except for causing unnecessary casualties.
"Let's go to the Earldom of Kagad and use the portal there to go back and repair."
Priscilla murmured tiredly to herself, and then used magic to take a look in the dim light at a cave in the distance where there seemed to be wild beasts. Then she led the team away.
Chapter 16: Isgard's New Rifle
…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the sea.
The daughter of the President of Isgard was inspecting the progress of the modification of the new rifle accompanied by the generals.
"Bang-"
With a crisp sound, the wooden barrel target placed two hundred meters away flew up and spun, finally shaking out the smashed pieces of meat inside before falling back to the ground.
The president's daughter, who was holding the new rifle, blinked, pulled the bolt with an awkward hand, and then ejected the shells from the chamber. She turned around and said to her generals and scientists:
"It's a good weapon. It's more powerful than a crossbow. It doesn't require long-term training like a bow, nor does it need to be bulky and difficult to carry like a crossbow. Its direct-fire accuracy far exceeds the weapons we have equipped now. The only question is - is it afraid of thunderstorms and strong winds?"
The current standard weapons of Ishgard are mainly bows and crossbows, with almost no melee arms, and they pursue the long-range shooting method of "long-range killing".
But whether it's a bow or a crossbow, they are particularly afraid of rainy or windy days.
The former may cause problems with the bowstring and bow arm due to the continuous rain and moisture, affecting the power. The latter will directly blow away the rain of arrows flying in the sky, causing them to deviate from their original targets.
Therefore, the President's daughter paid special attention to the impact of these two weather factors, but the scientists in Isgard said that this was not a problem.
"This is an improvement on our experimental weapon, the muzzle-loading rifle. Considering our country's industrial standard production line, we decided to load the gunpowder and then directly combine it with the bullet to finally make such a weapon.
Because it uses a two-in-one bullet, this rifle uses the trigger to pull the firing pin to ignite the primer, so there is no need to worry about the gunpowder getting wet in thunderstorms, or the gunpowder and fuse being blown out in windy weather.
The only problem is the cost.”
The scientist shook his head and sighed heavily:
"It's expensive, Miss President. Very expensive. One new rifle now costs as much as a whole team of twelve archers, and that's not even counting the bullets!
But the advantage is also obvious - at a distance of 200 meters, a well-trained shooter can probably kill the archers and destroy their morale before they reach the combat position. But bullets are not like bows and arrows that can be "captured" locally, so..."
"Then increase production and improve our lathes. There's no reason for us to give up such a good weapon - eh? Any questions?"
"Our existing factories have absolutely no capacity to mass-produce new rifles, and we still need to produce them manually."
"I knew it..."
Hearing this, the President's daughter sighed and handed the new rifle in her hand to the general beside her.
Isgard is an industrial powerhouse—a nation the Presidentess is proud of.
But even as an industrial power, Isgard's industry is not strong at present.
Their factories are still low-end, the environmental pollution caused by steel production has not been solved, and even the products that can be industrially produced seem to be monotonous.
It can be said that they are able to mass-produce standard armor and iron sticks and swords that have become police equipment, but they still cannot produce the "barrels" and "springs" needed for new rifles with high precision requirements.
Because there is no way to industrially produce these necessary parts, this directly leads to the cost and production time of the new rifle reaching a level that Ishgard cannot accept...
The president's daughter thought about it, gritted her teeth, and turned back to the general who had learned how to operate the new rifle in less than five minutes and said:
"My General, tell me, if we fully field these weapons, what can you do?"
The general thought for a few minutes, clumsily loaded a bullet into the new rifle, then, under the guidance of a scholar beside him, he aimed with the correct posture, and then shot the target three hundred meters away.
"We can unify the Elucia continent where the Roman Empire is located and establish a powerful transoceanic empire - provided that our finances do not collapse directly due to the full deployment of new rifles."
The benefits of the new rifle are obvious.
A general who came from a peasant family and had never been exposed to a new rifle learned the three steps of how to load, how to aim, and how to fire in just five minutes.
Even the dumbest recruits could learn the necessary knowledge to operate the new rifles in a day and could go to the front line to kill the enemy on the same day.
What's more, the new rifle brought about revolutionary tactical changes.
Originally, Ishgard was known for its bows and crossbows. They were good at firing rain of arrows at the enemy from a distance, and then when the ammunition was exhausted, they would directly take out the spare weapons and launch a charge towards the chaotic enemy.
But if these new rifles can be put into service, then why bother to charge? If the enemy can be killed before they come over from a distance, who would hate this kind of war that is like shooting at a target
This new tactic can directly reduce the casualty rate of the Ishugard army by ten percentage points!
that is…
this…
It’s really too expensive.
The general sighed and handed the rifle over to the scientists.
The recruitment fee for a team of twelve archers is enough to buy a new rifle.
The money earned from recruiting twelve archers was enough to support a month of luxurious living in the capital of Isgard.
If no solution to the cost problem could be found, it would take more than a year for Isgard to equip these weapons - it would be a huge expense that would take several years or even decades to complete.
What should I do
They looked at each other, and finally the vampire president's daughter brought the general to the conference room of the test site.
Here, she summoned all her staff. In less than six hours, before the sky turned from bright to dark, everyone came here and sat upright, and they had already understood the headaches faced by the president's daughter.
Before the president's daughter could speak, the Minister of Industry stood up and said that it was almost impossible to upgrade the current domestic industry, because after all, Isgard's "industrial power" was relative. Their industrial base was very weak among industrial countries. The best way to solve this problem was to... introduce foreign technology.
"But where can I find other industrial countries?"
The president's daughter was very puzzled, and at this moment, the Minister of Commerce, who was in charge of commercial circulation, stood up:
"Ms. President, the Roman Empire's steam factories, according to the descriptions of those escaped scholars, can meet our production needs for new rifles and further improve our country's productivity. The only problem is that the Roman Empire is probably unwilling to let our people enter the factory for "inspection."
"Don't those scholars know the structure of the factory? No, I mean - the structure of the lathes and related equipment?"
"Ms. President, we ourselves cannot leak such secrets, let alone the empire across the sea. They are probably guarding this factory advocated by the regent very strictly."