Free Web NovelChapter 352: Chapter 349: The Real Beginning
The Valois Kingdom’s disastrous retreat was as farcical as its declaration of war had been severe and its goals grandiose. While the northern Empire rejoiced, its southern regions had little to celebrate.
Not only was trade between the southern states and the Holy Kingdom almost completely cut off, but the Marlin Kingdom was also using its railways to project power to the front lines at an unprecedented speed.
Furthermore, someone had to be held responsible for the enemy’s deep incursions in the early stages of the war. This was despite the fact that "a Lord holding fast in his fortress against a large enemy force" was once considered the textbook move. freёweɓnovel.com
Some noble commanders were demoted or even executed, and not even a few Town Mages were spared. Richard was one of the men carrying out these sentences. Many old veterans had underestimated the young man; not until the moment of their deaths did they realize Richard had just been promoted to Middle Level Mage, as they were defeated by him in a magical duel.
After the military tribunals purged the local powers and good-for-nothings, the military’s chain of command became more efficient than ever. With the Duma River Alliance now existing in name only, the Empire had transformed from a Federation held together by gentlemen’s agreements and a council into an entity with the Emperor as its absolute authority.
"The Empire has achieved unprecedented unity in victory!" a newspaper from the Imperial Capital proclaimed. But the Bayern people reading it felt uneasy.
Bayern had once been a loosely affiliated state, on par with the Marlin Kingdom. But now that its smaller vassals had all submitted to the might of the Imperial Capital, the Bayern Kingdom occupied an awkward position within the "unprecedentedly unified" Empire—a discordant note threatening to disrupt the harmony.
Under pressure, Bayern’s two legions were fully integrated and designated as the Southern Army’s Bayern First and Second Legions. However, the Royal Family pulled a clever trick—it drew one-third of the core personnel from both legions to form a new reserve legion that would also serve as a garrison force.
Although the veteran legions were now supported by the Empire’s unified logistics system, Bayern had to handle the recruitment and outfitting of the new force itself, which meant an equipment shortfall.
Someone took on the military supply orders in the name of the Balderom Chamber of Commerce. Of course, he had no intention of keeping all the profits for himself; he planned to subcontract the work.
At that very moment, this person was leading a large delegation on a tour of his industrial estate.
"This is the pilot plant currently in operation. It can produce about two hundred kilograms of ammonia per hour," Rorschach said, introducing the facility he had supervised with Andre. Someone did a quick calculation and exclaimed, "If it runs day and night, that’s... that’s over seventeen hundred tons a year..."
’It’s not even ten thousand tons. What’s so amazing about that?’ Rorschach thought. He explained to the astonished man, "However, factoring in maintenance time, it can only operate about three hundred days a year, for an annual output of just over fourteen hundred tons. And this is only the pilot plant. Our goal for Phase One is an annual output of ten thousand tons. To support this, we’ll also need a five-thousand-ton urea production line, a ten-thousand-ton nitric acid production line, and a thousand-ton-class high-explosives production line."
"Oh, impressive, very impressive..." Although most of the audience didn’t understand the specifics of what Rorschach was saying, the sheer scale of the numbers was enough to leave them in awe.
For a single industrial park, this was likely the limit of what Rorschach could currently achieve. Even so, it meant the Metallurgy Guild would receive an order of unprecedented size, and the Bayern Kingdom’s coal production would have to quadruple to meet the demand for raw materials.
Forget about using the coal as a primary energy source. Aside from using waste heat from the coking process to create steam for low-temperature needs—150 degrees or less—any higher temperatures required a special heating apparatus Rorschach had developed based on the [Burning Hand] and [Molten Beam] spells. He had also considered adding a boiler heated by the Fire Elemental Plane, but scrapped the idea for fear that Fire Elementals might escape.
The visitors touring the massive construction site today were all representatives from various trade guilds, each a leader of one of Bayern’s foremost industries. These magnates, normally incredibly busy, had been brought to the small city of Lansite in carriages bearing the Royal Family’s insignia.
They were now looking at the factory under construction. The original food processing plant needed to be expanded to produce military rations, so a new plot of land had been cordoned off to relocate the equipment. Without Rorschach’s Demonic Puppets and his experimental nitroglycerin dynamite, simply clearing the land would have been a monumental task. As it was, the relocation was already nearing completion.
All across the vast construction site, the representatives saw an architectural style unlike any they had ever encountered. Gray steel was everywhere, exposed to the elements and coated only in a layer of tung oil paint. Aside from reaction vessels large enough to house a delegate’s entire family, everything else consisted of latticed steel frames and pipes.
Flickering glimmers of Magic Power shone amidst these bizarre steel forests. For the average person, it was like plunging headfirst into R’lyeh—incomprehensible and unimaginable. All they could do was stare. Even as Rorschach and an accompanying Andre explained at length, the delegates could only nod in response.
Towering Earth Demonic Puppets moved through the site carrying materials, their footsteps causing the ground to tremble with a low RUMBLE. The hearts of the visitors thumped in rhythm with their steps.
"Excuse me, what is this... tower?" asked the representative from the Metallurgy Guild, his curiosity piqued by the structure in the center of the site. It was constructed entirely from riveted, triangular steel beams, and its height was comparable to a Town Mage Tower.
He, and indeed the entire Metallurgy Guild, found the sight both familiar and strange. They had smelted, hydro-forged, or stamped some of these steel components themselves, but they had never imagined they would be used to assemble such a... brutish-looking complex.
Rorschach glanced at the tower, a miniature replica of a famous iron tower from his past life. It was actually a "signal tower," similar in concept to the Starlight Torch Tower, but Rorschach couldn’t afford a Secret Silver Pillar tens of meters high. It was these towers, amplifying signals from a "wisdom core," that would allow the "sky cavalry" to be paged anywhere in the entire Kingdom of Bayern.
Besides, he hadn’t given up on radio.
Of course, he wouldn’t tell the delegates any of this. He offered them a gentle smile. "My apologies, but I cannot answer that question. Honored guests, forgive my rudeness, but I must emphasize again that everything you have witnessed today is confidential. Please do not spread word of what you have seen and heard." He then pulled out a gaudy, golden pocket watch that clashed with his demeanor. "Oh, look at the time. If everyone would please make their way to the conference hall."
"I’m sure you’ve all heard the news: the Valois army that invaded the Empire has been successfully repelled." Rorschach was the youngest person present, but that didn’t stop him from speaking from his position at the head of the table.
"But this is not the end of the war. Without a doubt, the Empire will now march on the Holy Kingdom. Some of you might still believe the coming conflict will be like the wars of old, a mere game between Lords. But any person of insight can see that the Empire is waging this war with the intent to destroy the kingdom’s institutions, its people, its means of production... to destroy everything about it. The Empire is preparing for just such a total war, and accordingly, it will mobilize every last resource from across its vast territory.
"As a part of the Empire, Bayern will be dragged into this war, whether we like it or not. For everyone here, however, this is not entirely a bad thing. In fact, our Kingdom has placed massive orders. Every one of us in this room has a responsibility to make sure that the boys on the front lines are well-fed, warmly clothed, and have a weapon to wield."
Responsibility, not charity. Supplying the military, after all, was a profitable business.
Eager expressions appeared on the faces of the delegates, especially those from the Wool Guild, the Dyeing and Weaving Guild, and the Metallurgy Guild with its subordinate Forging Furnace Federation.
However, Rorschach’s next words made them catch their breath. "Data from the Logistics Guild shows that the Valois Kingdom, as well as the industrial cities in the northern Empire, each have the capacity to produce one hundred thousand rifles a year. Can you?"
