When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1192 Holy Alliance Military Reform
The gun firing range of the Mechanical Palace is hidden to the east of the Gun Research Institute, not far from the Mechanical Palace.

It was a wide-open space enclosed by high walls.

At one end of the open space stood a dense array of steel targets, many of which still had old bullet holes in their cores, tinged with oxidized rust.

The ground at the other end was paved with smooth bluestone slabs, and there was a guide rail where trolleys would transport larger and more massive firearms to the test site.

Ever since the ether clock provided these gunsmiths with a massive amount of energy, they've gone mad with the use of clockwork.

All sorts of bizarre and amazing firearms kept appearing, some of which caught Horn's eye.

Unfortunately, these firearms could not be used outside the Holy Machine Court because each one required a clock tuner; otherwise, even winding the mainspring would be a major problem.

When Horn led the group into the shooting range, two armorers in gray overalls were already waiting.

"Let's test the Blood Pact Gun first." Horn walked to the table where the Blood Pact Gun was placed and gently tapped the barrel with his fingers.

The gun barrel was cold, with a faint blood-red hue, and the bottle was engraved with fine patterns.

An elder from the Soridor clan came over, bent down, and fiddled with the trigger of the Blood Pact Gun: "Let me handle this."

As he spoke, he wrapped the blood-sucking vine around his arm, and blood immediately flowed into the blood bottle along this natural conduit.

This is actually a drawback of the Blood Pact Gun—just like the matchlock gun's matchlock, operating the vampire vine is an extremely troublesome thing.

These vampire vines are living things and require careful and constant care. If they are placed too close together, they will fight each other.

Therefore, the formation cannot be as dense as Horn's.

Elder Soridor was already used to the loss of blood, and only frowned slightly.

"Ready?" Horn gestured with his chin toward the steel target.

The elder nodded, picked up the Blood Pact Gun, and braced his shoulder against the butt.

This gun is much heavier than the muzzle-loading Canned Dee; a human can lift it, but it's very strenuous.

But for vampires, this weight, though heavy, is actually not too bad.

As the finger pulled the trigger, a muffled thud suddenly echoed through the shooting range.

Horn was listening closely, so he could hear a sticky "plop" instead of the crisp "bang" of a clockwork gun.

Like a ripe fruit bursting open, a cloud of dark red blood mist sprayed out of the gun barrel.

The pungent, fishy smell immediately spread and lingered on the bluestone slabs for a long time.

Everyone instinctively took a half step back, but Monica, who was already used to the smell, remained calm.

Looking at the steel plate target again, the lead bullet hit the edge of the target, and the steel plate around the bullet hole was shaken open with a ring of small cracks.

As expected, it also possesses armor-piercing capabilities.

Elder Soridor fired four or five more shots before finally lowering the Blood Pact Gun, his face pale.

"What is the range?" A privy council officer immediately pulled out parchment and a charcoal pencil, the tip of which hovered over the paper.

"Maximum kill distance is 200 meters, and effective kill distance is between 100 and 150 meters," an armorer immediately reported.

“It’s much better than the one Danio brought before.” Horn crouched down, looking at the traces of blood mist on the ground. “Serfaye’s gun technology is improving very quickly.”

“Yes,” the elder of the Soridor clan said, with a mixture of pride and helplessness, “she is a genius that our clan sees only once in a hundred years.”

“Isn’t it that person’s wisdom?” Horn pointed to the sky with his finger.

The elder of the Soridor clan shook his head: "Your Majesty, you may have misunderstood, but even that one is subject to the limitations of the physical body."

At most, she's reached the limit of a vampire genius. If she truly regains her true soul, that would be wisdom that transcends all others.

The conversation between the two left everyone else confused, but Sylvie, who was accompanying them, seemed to be deep in thought.

Horn didn't continue the conversation, but instead asked Bernardo, who was standing to the side, "What do the privy council members think?"

"Your Majesty, we must admit that despite its flaws, the Blood Pact Gun is still a formidable foe to us."

"why?"

"Leaving aside their rate of evolution, just one point is enough," Bernardo said, holding up a finger. "Previously, our enemies never used firearms, but now..."

That hits the nail on the head. The enemies the Holy Alliance has faced have always been generationally different.

In other words, the Holy Alliance's military technology represents the early stages of the development of emerging productive forces, while the Empire's military technology represents the stage where old productive forces have reached their limits.

At the beginning, the two sides were evenly matched.

However, as the war progresses, the overwhelming advantage of emerging productive forces will become apparent. The Holy Alliance can maintain its dominant position on the battlefield; they will only face temporary pressure, not sustained pressure.

But things changed after the royal court appeared with the Blood Pact Gun.

Just as Horn's military revolution included the clockwork gun, Serfaye's revolution included the blood pact gun.

Putting aside other aspects, the clockwork gun is currently superior to the blood pact gun, but the Royal Court has far more soldiers who can use the blood pact gun than the Holy Alliance.

To date, the Holy Alliance may have hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of followers nationwide.

A large portion of them were used for industrial production, and the number of people who could be squeezed out to become soldiers was not as large as one might imagine.

However, it is foreseeable that this number will increase significantly in the next few years.

Because Fran completely lifted the restrictions on monster meat, he frantically traded monster meat for Holy Favor Seeds to form the Fran Royal Gun Corps.

But the royal court has at least 20 million vampires who can use the Blood Pact Gun, and basically there is no difference in combat ability between male and female vampires.

Even if Serfaye could mobilize one-tenth of the two million vampires, that would still be ten times the theoretical value of the Holy Alliance.

There is no doubt that the Blood Pact Gun was inferior to the Clockwork Gun, but it was still a technology from the same era as the Clockwork Gun.

In addition, Wang Ting has accumulated a very solid foundation over the years.

With Serfaye unifying the fragmented royal court, this immense sense of oppression once again descended upon every member of the empire.

As for the Empire, Horn didn't want to say anything.

It is foreseeable that without cooperating with the Empire, the Royal Court cannot be defeated.

Cooperating with the Empire would once again bring Horn's overwhelming sense of being an insect to his head.

While explaining to everyone, Horn snapped his fingers.

Many privy monks emerged from both sides and began handing out plans to the high monks present.

"Now that we are facing a new mode of warfare, the military must naturally adapt and adjust."

"The old forms of combat and battle modes need to be changed to a certain extent. For example, we can eliminate spearmen to a certain extent."

Looking at the report in their hands, the high monks suddenly realized that His Majesty had come prepared and was launching a sneak attack.

"From this confrontation, we can also see that as supernatural powers become more widespread, cutting-edge supernatural powers are becoming less important."

Simply put, as the military's offensive capabilities increase, it inevitably leads to a larger and more professional army.

The essence of this issue is that the armor isn't enough to compensate for the lack of health.

So who will replenish this health bar? The only solution is large-scale conscription.

On the battlefield, human life is like a health bar.

If we don't want the children of Thousand River Valley to have to continue shedding blood that never seems to end after just a few good days.

That would require breakthroughs in military miracles, and the organization and tactics of the army would also need to evolve.

Horn originally intended to wait for them to evolve on their own; forcing them to grow faster than they could have done was not a good thing.

The Holy Alliance was actually the result of his forced growth, and it was full of hidden dangers and compromises.

In his opinion, he would rather have more arguments with the Cardinals than things like this.

Perhaps it was because he was right too many times, won too many times, and the Holy Alliance had been managed by Horn since its infancy.

However, can Horn easily break free from this authoritarian control?
I'm afraid not.

The Holy Alliance today retains many systems that Horn considers outdated.

In many places, nobles and gentry landlords have survived as prominent local families and are still highly regarded.

Many industrial and commercial nobles also considered themselves superior to other merchants and had their own small groups.

A typical example is the Kush Foundation, founded by Vivian's grandmother.

The Holy Alliance has moved too fast; we need to wait for its time to come.

Unfortunately, time was of the essence, and Horn had no choice but to invoke the name of the Holy Grandson once again.

"I'm going to launch military reforms! I want to focus my energy on the military!"

(End of this chapter)