Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 639 "Dirty Work"

The airship hovering in the sky slowly descended into Rilke City. Dozens of battle mages who stepped out of the gondola all wore expressions of displeasure... Despite being the first to arrive over the battlefield, they were ordered by their commander to refrain from bombing, leaving them suspended in the air to indulge in the thrill of being observers.

Vaughn led a group of officers into the city along the mountain road. They hurried to the church square in the upper city, where the fighting was most intense. Looking up at the towering bell tower, they discovered that the building, which represented the glory of the Papacy's faith, had had its spire sheared off by dense artillery fire at some point, leaving only a few shaky pillars teetering on the brink of collapse amidst the embers of flames.

Although airships were not deployed in the battle, Rilke, having already been subjected to artillery fire, still could not escape destruction. The lower city, which was not originally within the bombing range, was deliberately demolished by the city's garrison and Papal knights, leaving behind a large number of collapsed buildings that were used to erect roadblocks to block the streets.

The Shangcheng District, which suffered the most damage, especially the area with the hidden troop caves built along the mountain cliffs, was subjected to a double baptism of long-range heavy artillery and portable artillery. Even though the impact points were relatively concentrated, it was still inevitably razed to the ground.

Against these natural cave shelters, the medium-range close-range strikes of portable artillery are far more effective than blind firing from heavy artillery from miles away. With just a slight adjustment of the firing range, the pointed shells can spin and crash into the cave, killing the enemy hiding inside.

Moreover, portable artillery has the advantage of being lightweight and easy to assemble... It can be towed without the need for alchemical vehicles and can also be used for rapid marches on foot. Its projectile characteristics allow it to bypass obstacles and attack targets behind cover, making it an essential weapon for urban warfare.

With multiple technological improvements made to the Royal Capital's military factories, almost all of the most cumbersome magic-powered cannons in the original artillery array have been recalled and recast. Only a few are still used as city defense cannons in some cities in the southern part of the kingdom. At present, the Northern Army's external operations are almost entirely left with only two types of firepower: long-range heavy artillery and portable artillery. Depending on the battlefield situation, they use two types of shells: magic-infused solid shot and dragon flame exploding shells. With flexible rotation, they can bring devastating blows to any enemy.

However, upon closer examination, the manpower and ammunition costs required to capture a mountain city with little to no resource gain and purely strategic value are staggering. Vaughn is well aware of the exact cost of a single enchanted cannonball. Even though most of the raw materials are produced in the kingdom, it still costs nearly a hundred gold coins to produce it successfully. This means that the lightning siege that lasted only two hours has already cost nearly 100,000 gold coins. Even if Starfire City's gold coin printing press were running at full capacity, it would still take a long time to print them.

No wonder His Majesty always tells them that war in the new era is a money-burning game of competing for resources and financial strength.

Of course, the issue of burning through military funds was not his primary concern... Such troublesome matters were left to the General Staff and Logistics Department to handle in relation to finance. As the commander of the western front, his only task was to capture cities for His Majesty and win every battle.

……

Leading officers and staff on a patrol along the streets, they discovered that on the main battlefield in the church square, a large number of fallen soldiers lay on the ground, their faces and skin a strange purplish-red color. Even though they had completely died, the protruding blood vessels were still spread across their bodies like a spider web, a truly chilling sight.

"It's probably another poison concocted by the Divine Punishment Faction, just like the plague in the old capital... treating the lives of innocent civilians as cannon fodder." With the help of soldiers, Ivan, the military staff officer, casually examined a few corpses and couldn't help but curse.

Vaughn's heart skipped a beat, and he asked his adjutant, "How many civilians and captured soldiers have survived by sheer luck?"

The adjutant pulled out the statistical report that had just been handed to him from his pocket and said hesitantly, "There are still nearly three thousand civilians who survived. They have been gathered up and driven to the hidden troop cave for unified guard. The church knights and the Earl of Westwind's subordinates... there are less than five hundred prisoners. Most of the rest were killed directly in the charge in the square."

Wayne said in a deep voice, "The soldiers found many strange pills on the civilians, probably distributed by the church... Those who took the pills during battle would become incredibly strong for a short time, and charge at us fearlessly, impervious to pain. We tortured several prisoners and learned that they call this stuff a holy medicine." Waughne nodded and ordered in a low voice, "Give the confiscated pills to the medics; Minister Egno will definitely be very interested in them..."

The adjutant paused for a moment, then muttered under his breath, "The medical team just sent someone to inquire... whether the wounded among the surrendered prisoners should be treated?"

Vaughn didn't answer, but walked ahead on his own. Wayne and Ivan turned around with strange expressions and glared at the adjutant as if he were an idiot, scaring the honest adjutant into silence.

Many of the new recruits brought from Wangshan County, under the supervision of their veteran instructors, took on the dirty work of cleaning up the battlefield—mechanically raising the bayonets attached to the front of their rifles and repeatedly stabbing each enemy corpse lying on the ground.

Duff arrived weary from his journey and, furious, complained to his colleagues, “Among the captured knights were a few minor nobles who led us to identify the corpses of Earl of Zephyr, riddled with machine gun fire, and Burns, the chief judge of the Divine Punishment faction… Hmph, these guys thought they could get something out of surrendering, and they actually offered to pay ransom and land in exchange for their freedom.”

The military judge coughed and said blankly, "According to the laws of the kingdom established by His Majesty, only nobles of the country have the right to pay a ransom to reduce their sentence based on the severity of their crimes... There are currently no corresponding laws or regulations for nobles of other countries to refer to."

The meaning was clear as soon as he said that it was entirely up to Commander Vaughn to make the decision, without any need for reporting up the chain of command, and the Department of Justice was too lazy to bother with it.

Staff officer Ivan glanced meaningfully at Vaughn and said calmly, "Most of the people in Rilke are devout believers of the church, and the captured noble knights and the Inquisition Army... are absolute supporters of the Divine Punishment faction. They are very likely to be hiding a lot of those so-called holy medicines. Once they are incited to create chaos, given that their numbers already outnumber our forces, they could easily cause considerable trouble."

Their troops wouldn't stay in Rilke for long. They would need to move south to Arid to wipe out the escaped remnants of the Papacy's Divine Punishment faction, and at the same time, they would need to send troops to monitor the nearly 10,000 Papacy "prisoners" in the Holy City. If they didn't clean up the remaining issues here, it would be difficult to start the reconstruction work once the logistics engineers who came to take over arrived.

Vaughn pondered for a moment, then turned to Wayne and casually ordered, "There's no need to bring those noble prisoners to see me. Drive them and the believers and civilians into the hidden bunker for unified guard... Tell the medical team not to waste precious medical resources on the prisoners."

The order seemed to have no effect on the problem Ivan had raised, but Wayne, who always understood the commander, immediately understood that he had been chosen to clean up the mess. He gave a sinister laugh and turned away with light steps.

……

As night fell, a squad of soldiers suddenly appeared outside the hidden bunker, operating alchemical vehicles piled high with black water jugs of lizardmen seized from the holy city of Goris.

This stuff... it ignites instantly upon contact with fire and is extremely difficult to extinguish; it is a terrifying accelerant.

(End of this chapter)