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The armored vehicles rushed to the front row, and the roar of machine guns quickly disintegrated the guards who attempted to resist. The musketeers following in the back row were only responsible for capturing prisoners.
In fact, there were very few people who had the courage to resist. Most of the guards laid down their weapons the moment they saw the steel gate being broken down.
The battle started and ended so quickly that many citizens in the Iron City had no idea what was going on before they saw armored vehicles equipped with machine guns rushing into the city.
The doors and houses on the streets were locked, and the civilians stranded on the streets fled in panic, and a stampede soon occurred. Those who did not have time to escape knelt and huddled on the ground, their faces full of panic and fear.
Looking at this scene, Lin En couldn't help sighing as he thought about the people's extreme panic and even spontaneous resistance during the process of recovering lost territory.
It can only be said that the influence of the church's hundreds of years of propaganda and brainwashing is deeply rooted, and wizards have almost been equated with evil within the empire!
"Let's send some people to rescue the wounded!" Lin En looked at Redel and suggested. "But be careful of those fanatics hiding in the crowd and launching suicide attacks."
Redel nodded and immediately led a team of musketeers and several wizards proficient in herbology to rescue people.
Not long after the convoy entered the city, they were blocked.
Thousands of city guards knelt down in unison on an open space not far from the city gate. The scene was very spectacular!
Ulysses and his group of nobles in the front row were covered in blood, holding heavy human heads in their hands.
This is the head of the church pastors!
When the archbishop was killed and the priests who had cast the spell were facing backlash, Ulysses chose to turn against them without hesitation and led his personal guards to start a massacre... This was their token of allegiance!
As a noble, observing people's words and expressions is naturally the most basic ability. Ulysses saw who was the one in charge at a glance, and he was like seeing his long-lost father. Ignoring the musketeers' obstruction, he rushed to Lynn and cried tearfully that he was held hostage by the bishop of the church and that was why he did not obey the call of the new kingdom!
In fact, he has been secretly accumulating strength these days, waiting day and night for the moment when the king's master returns!
"Is that so? Sir Hansen?" Lynn shouted behind him with interest.
Several border lords, under the 'protection' of the Royal Guards, walked up to him humbly and spoke quickly. "Master Wizard, Ulysses is trying to lie to you. He is a lackey of the church and a believer of the false god. He was the first to propose sending the information of the capital back to the empire. There is a letter to prove it!"
Having said that, Count Hansen couldn't help but look at Ulysses.
You didn't expect that we have already reported you!
Ulysses was so angry that he finally understood why he only received the news when the army of tens of thousands of people was right under his nose.
It turned out that these border lords didn't resist at all and surrendered directly!
It is obvious that I am the one who is giving my allegiance to the cause!
Chapter 404: This is the only thing that can fight against faith!
Ulysses, who was unable to defend himself, was soon tied up by a group of ferocious musketeers.
As a blood knight, Ulysses had every confidence that he could instantly kill those untouchables who were arresting him at such a close distance. However, with the black muzzle of a gun pointing at him and two unfathomable wizards in front of him, he finally knew the situation and did not resist.
After the lord of the Steel City surrendered voluntarily, Lin En captured this important city without much effort.
Seltod is the largest iron ore producing area in the entire kingdom, and is also one of the two places that must be captured in this counterattack!
Steel is the foundation of industry. Its importance is self-evident and it is used almost everywhere!
Although many new steel workshops were built inside the royal capital, the output was still far from enough. This was why they had developed many new weapons but had not put them into service on a large scale.
In fact, the power of magic played a vital role in the manufacture of armored vehicles and battleships, otherwise they would not even be able to produce qualified steel!
But there are only so many official wizards, and it would be a waste to use such high-level talents on such a trivial matter as steelmaking. So after they defeat the Holy See this time, they have to establish the entire industrial chain as soon as possible.
The legion, which had been attacking for several days and nights, took a temporary rest in the city of Seltod and resumed the drama of beating the landlords and dividing the land.
Those musketeers who came from poor backgrounds were more excited than each other. They rushed into the luxurious manors of the nobles, knocked down the guards, and began to count the finances.
Lin En has always been very strict with discipline. Once he finds someone hiding money or wantonly killing the poor, he will definitely dismiss that person from his post or even severely punish him!
To develop good military discipline often requires day-to-day training, but sometimes the collapse of military discipline only requires one or two times of indulgence.
As for the money that was looted and the land that was cleared and measured, they were distributed to the poor who were oppressed by the nobility and the church.
Distributing land, distributing wealth, criticizing and rescuing the wounded are their four major methods to change the impression of the poor!
This tangible benefit is also the only thing that can counter faith!
Although most of the poor people have no education, they are not really stupid. At least every person with normal IQ should know that once they return to the rule of the Holy See, everything they have gained will be taken back.
Raphael watched boxes of treasure being distributed and tens of thousands of shining gold coins being given directly to the poor. He couldn't help but be amazed at the generosity of this magic star.
Even the wizards of the Iyeta School had some complaints, unable to understand why someone would spend money so lavishly.
"Only money that is circulated can be called money!" Lin En saw the confusion among the crowd and began to explain.
The value of money itself is artificially given and can only be reflected when it is exchanged for commodities.
No matter how much imperial gold you have, you can't buy an airship, let alone a fighter jet, because the empire doesn't have that kind of thing.
Therefore, the goods produced are the truly valuable things, and money is just a tool for exchange and measuring the value of goods. If you have money but cannot buy anything, then you are no different from a pauper.
These poor people can be transformed into workers, commodity producers, and consumers. If nothing unexpected happens, the gold and silver distributed to the poor will return to their hands through the purchase of various novel commodities, and they will distribute the money through wages, forming a positive cycle...
In this process, the poor got jobs, the economy developed, and a large number of goods were produced.
Lynn explained some basic economic theories, but Raphael and others were confused. They really didn't understand why giving money to the poor would improve the economy.
"You are minions of the devil, shameful scum. The great Lord will surely cast you into hell, and burn your souls in the fire of the abyss..." The arrested and detained noble sons watched helplessly as their treasures were confiscated and distributed to the lowly poor, and they roared with their eyes wide open in anger.
"Since they miss that false god so much, let's send them to heaven!" Lin En waved his hand and asked several elite guards to escort these nobles away.
"Traitor, shameful scum, disgrace to the nobility!" Before being dragged away, the noble children of Seltod were still cursing madly, but this time they were directed at Hansen and others.
Compared to the wizards who were "born evil", these traitors who were also nobles were obviously more hateful...
Count Hansen turned a deaf ear to these shouts. He believed that if given the chance, these nobility children who were shouting so happily would sell themselves out without hesitation in exchange for a chance to survive!
It's just a question of who comes first and who comes later...
As time was running out, they had to recover as much territory of the kingdom as possible before the Vatican army arrived. Lin En and others had no intention of staying in this steel city for long. They only rested for three days, but they did a lot of things.
The first were the nobles in the city. After an investigation, those who had committed serious crimes were all beheaded and their bodies hung on the city gates. Those who had committed minor crimes were sent to mine and build roads. Only a few nobles with good reputations managed to save their lives and property, but their noble status was stripped.
As for gang leaders and the like, they were all dealt with and arrested and shot.
After this wave of iron-blooded killing, coupled with the previous conciliatory policy of distributing land and wealth, they initially controlled this steel city in just three days and won the favor of some people.
Another advantage is that now that this land is no longer constrained by the nobles, we can develop industry with confidence in the future.
After dealing with these trivial matters, Lynn left behind three wizards and two hundred musketeers, and built a security team of two thousand people based on the poor people who had been rescued to guard against those fanatics who might cause trouble, and then prepared to set off again.
"Is everything going well with the two Speakers?" Before leaving, Lin En called Raphael, who was in charge of the communication, and asked.
In the last war, they almost lost due to the lack of long-distance communication means. If Aurora had not led the fleet and ran into the Empire's expeditionary fleet, their hometown would probably have been wiped out by the time they finished the Kingdom War.
Therefore, Lin En learned from his mistakes and used the most basic wireless communication technology. This way, if the several armies heading to retake the kingdom found any unexpected situations, they could contact each other to avoid repeating the same mistakes...
Chapter 405: The power of God, the first major defeat, bad news from the empire!
There are many so-called wireless communication technologies, but generally speaking, they use electromagnetic waves for communication.
For wizards who can sense and influence electric and magnetic fields to a certain extent, it is not difficult to do this with magic. At least simply sending a signal is no problem.
Taking into account that the electromagnetic waves created by the wizards' current strength have a limited propagation distance after attenuation, Lin En used one hundred airships patrolling various places to build a temporary signal base station covering half of the kingdom.
There is a wizard who is proficient in thunder magic on each airship. After receiving the weak electromagnetic wave signal, they will send it again and convey the message to the entire kingdom in a short time through relay.
Although Lynn has a simpler communication method, which is to connect with those wizards whose mental powers have been cracked through the magic network, this is still a secret for the time being. He has only demonstrated similar abilities in front of Anthony and Redel.
After all, no wizard would like others to be able to easily enter his brain. Without absolute strength to suppress others, exposing this is tantamount to seeking death.
"According to the signals we have received in the past few days, the other two legions have made smooth progress in recovering the kingdom's territory and have not encountered any strong obstacles. Speaker Harov has now entered the territory of the empire and should be capturing Mist Territory!"
Mist Territory is located in the west of the empire and is a border territory bordering the kingdom. Vittorio had previously discovered a lot of useful information from the minds of captured priests, such as that this place is the source of oil.
This major counterattack also requires the capture of one of the two important territories!
"I hope everything goes well..."
Lynn nodded, but still felt something was wrong.
Now, more than two months have passed since the end of the Royal Capital War, and the Empire and the Church are so quiet that the airships they sent to investigate found no signs of the entry of the army.
This abnormality made Lynn somewhat uneasy.
"In my opinion, the Holy City is probably in chaos now. They will definitely not be able to take care of the kingdom's affairs in the short term." Raphael said optimistically.
The punitive army sent by the Holy See had just suffered two disastrous defeats, and it was not easy to regroup.
As Raphael was thinking, the electromagnetic wave signal receiving device in his arms suddenly lit up.
"It seems that Speaker Harof has already captured Mist County." Raphael said as he placed the receiving device on the table.
Lin En also looked over. The research on the magical application of electromagnetic wave technology was still in its early stages. Although the wizards who controlled thunder magic had learned how to send signals, they still needed to rely on this special receiving device to detect the subtle electromagnetic fluctuations.
The ticking sounds continued to echo in the room.
Raphael took a Morse code combination and began to translate.
This first generation of electromagnetic wave receiver had very simple functions and would only make two ticking sounds after receiving electromagnetic waves of two different frequencies.
When Lin En took out this thing, Raphael was extremely disappointed. This is indeed an effective long-distance communication method, but the information that can be conveyed is really limited.
They can only use ticks to represent victory and taps to represent defeat, giving them a rough idea of the battle situation.
However, the imagination of this magic star is obviously beyond their reach. Through different arrangements of long and short sounds, he can derive almost countless combinations and send out whatever he wants to say.
It can also prevent the other party from eavesdropping on the signal or capturing the person transmitting the message and thereby obtaining the information.
Because the information is encrypted, only people with the code book can decipher it!
The only problem is that it is difficult to translate.
"Mist Territory, great defeat..." Raphael read slowly according to the information given in the code book.
Has the enemy been defeated?
Raphael thought so, but soon discovered that the text combination of the last signal seemed to be...
"Rescue!" Lin En immediately stood up from his seat with a solemn look on his face. He translated the whole sentence faster than Raphael without looking at the translation. "We suffered a great defeat in Mist Territory. We need rescue, immediately!"
Raphael just felt his brain confused for a moment. As he had mastered the code book, he knew that there was no mistake in Lin En's translation!