Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 750 Army Physician
Dozens of military vehicles traveled in a long procession across the northern wilderness, constantly startling birds and wild animals in the dense forest along the way.

Using the dirt roads that the alchemists had simply cleared in the primitive wilderness, even military vehicles equipped with six pairs of road wheels and metal tracks struggled to move forward with extreme difficulty and bumps.

Simmons, clutching his standard-issue medical backpack, looked cramped as he squeezed into a closed military vehicle with the others, constantly peering out the window.

These priests and clerics, forcibly recruited from the holy city of Goris, had completed their basic medical training course more than half a month ago. They were immediately disbanded from their original teams and assigned to various logistics and medical groups in batches.

High Priest Donovan was quite old, but fortunately the officials in charge of the assignments were reasonable enough to arrange for him to be stationed at the river valley outpost nearby. According to the agreement reached between the Emperor and the Holy City, all of them could choose to voluntarily join the United Kingdom as a real professional military doctor after serving for five years in Saint Valen... or return to the Holy City of Goreth as free men.

Young priests like Simmons, unsurprisingly, were transferred to the far reaches of the wilderness... where the people of Saint Valen were said to be fighting a calamity from the north.

When the moment finally arrived that he was being sent to the battlefield, the heavy weight that had been hanging over Simmons's mind was finally lifted.

The High Priest is right. As practitioners of the faith in the gods, these priests of the Holy See should go to the front lines and shoulder the sacred duty of guarding the southern border together with the soldiers who are also fighting on the front lines.

After studying at the combat medical center for some time, the priests and clerics, including him, have come to realize that saving lives on the battlefield is just as important as directly fighting off alien enemies.

The medical backpack he was holding contained a complete set of medical supplies for battlefield first aid... from hemostatic bandages and emergency medicines to surgical instruments, all of which were available, allowing military doctors to treat the wounded with their experience and skills even in the harshest trenches.

Simmons' medical team consisted of more than 30 military doctors, along with a medical team of nearly 100 people. Once they arrived at the front line, it meant that they would have to take on a comprehensive task of emergency treatment, transfer of the wounded, and triage of patients, leaving no room for carelessness.

"Dr. Simmons?"

While Simmons was lost in thought due to the violent jolting of the vehicle, he was suddenly gently nudged by his colleague next to him, and he instantly snapped back to reality.

The military doctor sitting next to him was a few years younger than him. He had graduated from the field medical center in his early twenties and become a field doctor with a real military rank.

"Dr. Vilan... what's wrong?"

The young military doctor, Vilan, chuckled and leaned closer to strike up a conversation, "Does Dr. Simmons know where we're headed? And what our mission is?"

Simmons chuckled and shook his head, saying self-deprecatingly, "Doesn't Dr. Vilan know my identity? People like us... like me... who used to be priests of the Vatican, what authority or qualification do we have to know about the army's operations? We just do whatever they tell us to do."

Vilan paused for a moment before realizing the sensitive identity of his colleague as a "former priest of the Vatican," and said somewhat awkwardly in a low voice, "Hey... look at my memory, I guess I ruined my brain from memorizing medical exams before we left."

Although he was a "legitimate" Saint Valen from Grizzly Bear Fortress, Vilan did not look down on Simmons's church affiliation. In addition, Simmons was a bit older and had performed exceptionally well in his training at the medical center, which made people feel more trusting of him. "This matter is not included in the confidentiality agreement... Dr. Simmons, you may not know, but our destination is a place called Yanshan."

Yanshan?

Simmons looked confused, repeated it softly, and then immediately understood, "Not to any of the existing military bases in the wasteland... but the actual open field battlefield?"

“Not bad.” Vilan nodded, then said with a bitter face, “The first time I went on a military expedition, it was such a difficult task… We couldn’t enjoy the ready-made field medical stations in the garrison bases, so we had to build a field hospital ourselves on the battlefield.”

No wonder their team carried so many medical supplies, including more than ten medical alchemical beasts for surgery. They also unusually did not use the mainland teleportation array, but instead formed a convoy to follow the Northern Army ahead, traveling a long distance to the designated area.

The battlefield in the field means that the army has no permanent fortifications to rely on. In addition to the soldiers fighting on the front line, these logistics and medical personnel need to take greater risks to assist in the battle, and the danger level naturally increases exponentially.

Simmons looked around and found that the young military doctors traveling in the same vehicle did not show any fear or worry. They were either resting with their eyes closed or studying medical manuals with a calm attitude. Only a few people who were severely motion sick were still pale and nauseous after taking motion sickness medicine.

"You all know the specifics of this operation? This is your first time going on a military expedition, aren't you afraid?"

After much deliberation, Simmons finally couldn't help but ask.

Vilan shrugged, seemingly unconcerned, and said, "Of course I'm afraid... I'm afraid I don't have enough practical experience and won't be able to save more wounded soldiers on the battlefield. You know, back in the medical center, we didn't have many opportunities to get hands-on experience."

Simmons was aware of this... Although the country and capital were established by spellcasters, most people did not act as heretical and blasphemous as one might imagine. At least the rumors he had initially speculated about using living people for healing magic experiments were completely unfounded.

Like the National Medical Center, the field medical center extensively used orc prisoners captured from the wasteland for surgical training and live dissection... These human subspecies are almost identical to humans in terms of physical structure, so there is not much psychological burden in using them for live experiments.

Wiran's words made Simmons fall into deep thought.

Since arriving in the capital city of Starfire, he has discovered that the people of Saint Valen seem to have an almost blind trust and worship in the strength of this newly established nation. This leads them to believe that the army is invincible and therefore they are not afraid to go to the battlefield.

What was clearly a dangerous place, a battlefield where life and death hung in the balance, was treated like an ordinary job by these young people... Could this be the place that the academic supervisor had casually mentioned to them during their studies...?

"National pride" and "sense of ownership"?
(End of this chapter)