Doctor, I'm really strong!

"It used to be."

It is an open secret that there are a large number of Yan people in the immigrant cities in the eastern part of the community. In some cities, more than 90% of the people are immigrants from Yan. They may be refugees, displaced people, or enslaved tenants, but no matter what their status was before, they will be given a chance to be human again after coming here.

Ke Qing realized that this was a good opportunity to understand the views of ordinary people on the two countries, so she followed up by asking, "Can you tell me about your lives in the past?"

"There's not much to talk about in the past, it was just a tough time, so tough that even my memories of it are a bit blurry."

The human brain automatically filters out painful memories, which is a form of self-protection and also illustrates how unbearable past memories can be, numbing us to them.

What's truly terrifying is not the pain itself, but the numbness—the numbness that leads to complete resignation.

From Ke Qing's perspective, this means that the mother in front of her has absolutely no goodwill towards Yan Kingdom, and may even hate it more.

Imagine how terrifying it would be if most of the people in a country wished for the country to collapse.

Afterwards, the two arrived at a nearby park, where Ke Qing discovered a cemetery. Strangely, this cemetery was completely different from a mass grave or mausoleum. It didn't feel eerie at all; instead, many people were playing and frolicking there, a scene that Ke Qing found very difficult to understand.

Respect for the dead? Is this how you show respect to the deceased?

The little boy's mother noticed Keqing's change in mood and said, "This is a martyrs' cemetery."

"Martyrs' Cemetery?"

"Yes, it is the place where people's heroes are buried."

Why such a place?

"Isn't it solemn and sacred enough?"

"Ah."

"Because this is what they truly wanted to see: playful children, energetic students, and adults exercising. Their bloodshed and sacrifice were for the peace and prosperity we enjoy today. This scene is enough to comfort their spirits."

Ke Qing frowned, but for some reason felt that what he said made a lot of sense.

She saw several children playing hide-and-seek in the martyrs' cemetery, and their innocent laughter was the most beautiful music in the world.

Adults are very tolerant of children's behavior. Only when a naughty child deliberately causes damage will an adult step forward to seriously stop them. If it's just ordinary play, everyone around thinks it's normal.

It is a place for burying the dead, yet it blends in perfectly with its surroundings, as if they were originally one with each other.

Standing in front of the martyrs' cemetery, Ke Qing seemed to understand something, and her fear of the community doubled.

But behind the fear, there was also a sense of agreement.

During the ensuing conversation, Keqing learned that the mother's husband had died during a disaster relief effort. It was the last Originium disaster before the Community's energy harvesting tower was fully deployed, and her husband tragically fell before dawn.

But while she was heartbroken, she also felt honored by her husband's sacrifice and expressed her understanding.

“My husband was pulled out of the ruins of the Originium Cataclysm by the Red Guards. If it weren’t for the help of those kind people, I would have died on the street long ago. From that day on, I understood that there are no omnipotent heroes in the world, only ordinary people who step forward. Each of us can become that kind of person.”

After saying goodbye to the mother and son, Keqing returned to People's Heroes Street and looked at the statue in front of her again. Keqing seemed to understand the foundation of this country.

She became even more curious.

Section 356: September 1108

Teyvat, Winter Kingdom Royal Palace

"Tenri has come to visit in person. Is there something you need?"

"I hope you're prepared and won't let me down at the crucial moment."

"You don't need to worry about that."

"That would be for the best. The reason we allow you to explore the ruins of Kanria and possess forbidden technology is that we hope you can come in handy at crucial moments. Don't forget what you're supposed to do."

"Of course, after all, time is running out in this world."

September 1108 in Terra, a month destined to be recorded in history.

On September 1, Colombia, Victoria, Bolivar, and Casimir announced the formation of the Originium Industrial Community. They originally wanted to bring Rembiton along, but the latter refused.

They were already right at the entrance to the Community, and now they're joining an organization that's clearly targeting the Community. Are they worried they won't die fast enough? Besides, Rembiton's biggest partner right now is the Community. Apart from the Community, there's no other country on the Terra continent that has such huge demands for all kinds of resources.

Moreover, it's a gold standard currency, which is much more reliable than other credit currencies backed by national credit. Furthermore, the community allows free exchange of precious metals, meaning that every dollar of the Labor Coin is worth its weight in gold.

Moreover, Labor Coins are the most reliable currency on Terra, and they are impossible to counterfeit. The difficulty in manufacturing just one of the processing materials is enough to give Colombia's national-level laboratory a headache. Heaven knows how the Community developed this kind of physical currency that is somewhere between plant fiber and the stable state of Originium crystals.

It's actually quite simple. As long as the stability during processing can be guaranteed, then an unbreakable point can be found in a slight equilibrium, and that's how the current labor currency came about.

Backed by gold and possessing a currency that no other country can replicate, the Labor Coin has replaced the Lungmen Dollar as the mainstream universal trade currency on the continent of Terra.

Another major reason is that Terra's top-tier products and inexpensive industrial goods are all produced by the Community. Faced with this terrifying super-productivity entity, other countries simply cannot compete for the international market unless they resort to underhanded tactics.

Then you will understand what it means to be a "top-level power that even the underworld fears".

Such a large community isn't something you get for free with a phone plan; it's brimming with martial spirit.

As for the economic alliance that Colombia has created, it is essentially an alliance between Colombia and Vitória, with Casimir as an add-on and Bolívar as a concubine.

They did try to win over Sherag, but the latter clearly showed little interest.

Although this country has a unique geographical location, situated at the intersection of four countries, it is too small in size, with a total population of less than ten million. Moreover, it is located in the southwest of Kazimierz. If Kerrig joins this alliance, and the incompetent Kazimierz is overthrown by the Community, Kerrig might be the next one to be overthrown. Currently, more than 80% of Kerrig's import and export trade is related to the Community, and the industrialization reforms that SilverAsh wants to promote all rely on equipment and technology imported from the Community.

Colombia only wants economic colonies, while the Community wants a prosperous market covering the entire continent of Terra.

Therefore, if SilverAsh wants to modernize Kjerag, he must choose the Community, because only the Community is willing to export its industrial system and turn other countries into industrialized nations.

Only industrialized countries can match the consumption power of industrialization and form a healthy and advanced market environment. Can Equatorial Guinea's consumption power compare with that of South Africa?

As for the issue of other countries rising up and challenging the community's industrial development.

Firstly, even if they worked themselves to death, they couldn't compete with the Community on cost. Secondly, they weren't large enough; they didn't even have the potential to develop into a major power. To become an independent and sovereign major power, you need to have a few hundred thousand square kilometers of land and hundreds of millions of people. If you apply that standard to the entire continent of Terra, you can count the number of countries that can achieve it on one hand.

The practice of draining the pond to catch all the fish is the most foolish. Even if the practice of draining the pond to catch all the fish is sustainable, it is nothing more than turning something inhuman into something anthropomorphic.

Only a thriving forest can produce abundant resources; setting fire to a mountain will only yield charcoal.

Other countries not only fail to understand this principle, but unfortunately, those who want to do this are not in power in these countries and have no say at all. One or two people plant trees while others cut them down every day, and all their efforts are in vain.

Just as turmoil began to rise on the continent of Terra, the Community was busy making mobilizations.

The annual troop rotation training is, frankly speaking, a way to improve the army's mobility. Because the community conducts it every year, the surrounding countries have long been numb to it. At first, they were very worried, but over time, people get used to it and subconsciously ignore it. And the deadliest things often lie in the things we ignore.

The community was conducting troop rotation training, but a large number of experienced main forces were concentrated on the eastern front, assembling along the border between the community and Yan State, which were under the actual control of the Yan State. One force even entered the northwestern region of Yan State (which was under the actual control of the community), but Yan State still did not react.

Over the years, Yan's border troops have been thoroughly infiltrated. If a war were to break out, no one would know whether there would be more rebels or deserters. As for those who resist, they could be ignored.

The soldiers who would truly resist were the retainers of the powerful and wealthy, their private armies. Although the Yan Kingdom did not allow the powerful and wealthy to have private armies, they could have bodyguards. As long as they didn't go too far, a mere hundred or so men wouldn't be a concern. But now, even if the powerful and wealthy of the Yan Kingdom assembled a retainer of thousands of elite soldiers, the court wouldn't care.

Because both sides belong to the same class of comrades-in-arms, and are enemies who will fight the Red Army to the death on the battlefield, even if they fight for the throne in the future, it will be an internal class conflict. But the community is a class enemy that will hang them all.

Class struggle is effective the moment it's started. This applies equally to both our own people and our enemies.

Faced with immense pressure from the community, after the ancestor of the Yan royal family emerged from seclusion, the entire ruling class of Yan Kingdom was completely united around the court nobles centered on the Yan Emperor, because the community would not allow them to surrender.

Liu Jiuli wanted a clean and tidy Yan Kingdom, which meant that they would all surely die.

They cannot be exiled; exiling these people would only bring disaster. They must be eradicated completely, from the root of the problem, ideally at the DNA level. Only then can they be considered safe.

Although the community's various forms of cover were very well done, and the KGB's intelligence control capabilities made the enemy despair, the tense atmosphere before the great battle would gradually spread. The lower-level people might not be able to detect it, but the higher-ups and some people with excellent intuition would still realize that something was wrong. Therefore, Yan Country also began to make preparations in full swing.

Under the leadership of the royal ancestor Wei Renmin, over 100,000 elite troops were quickly armed to guard the capital. Yan State also secretly began a nationwide mobilization, with a military force exceeding five million.

It sounds scary, doesn't it? But this is just data on paper.

Reserves, manpower, reserve troops, and main forces are not forces that can be immediately deployed in war. The forces that truly engage in continuous artillery fire are always the vanguard troops on the front lines. With the air force, airborne troops must also be added. The mobilization of the remaining armed forces takes time. Rapid reaction forces can move at any time, but the next ones take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to move, then a week to a month, and finally, it's not worth calculating. Using militia would constitute a total war, a world war.

Furthermore, the size and standard of the vanguard vary depending on the strength of the enemy's forces. If an enemy light infantry division comes, a rapid-response armored brigade can break through it. But if the enemy sends in an armored unit, you can't use cannon fodder to hold them off, unless they are county brigades or district squads from 1949. In that case, they would indeed fight to the death to hold off the enemy. Small-scale conflicts can be handled by a brigade, while large-scale conflicts require a combat division. And for even larger ones... should we consider declaring war?

Therefore, the astonishingly large force that Yan Kingdom has fully mobilized, capable of rapidly deploying to the front lines and holding its combat positions amidst the hail of bullets from the common enemy, is at most a few hundred thousand people, roughly the size of an army corps. The rest are filler divisions, which were previously part of the battlefield atmosphere group and the armed police forces in the occupied territories.

These troops also have to face a terrifying fact—they have no air superiority.

The Commonwealth's air force is recognized as the strongest and largest in Terra. Currently, the aerospace technology of various countries is copied from the Commonwealth. For example, Rhine Lab's recent "launch plan" is practically plagiarism written all over its face.

But what can you do about it?

Not to mention that they can't see the internal structure and layout, even if they were given an unmodified original rocket, they wouldn't be able to mass-produce it. Yes, that's right, the community has already set up a rocket factory and started mass-producing rockets to launch satellites.

Since its establishment, the community’s three satellite launch bases have been launching satellites. At its most frequent, they launched as many as 32 rockets a day, deploying BeiDou satellites over a region.

The products that Colombia and Victoria can create in the laboratory with all their might are just mass-produced goods on the Community's assembly line. The Community has even recently stopped using rockets to launch satellites and started using launch orbits instead, which is much more efficient, like firing a cannon.

It can even be automatically loaded and launched, and can deploy multiple orbits for launch simultaneously.

For Colombia, this is something they can learn but can't afford to learn.

The community has room-temperature superconducting materials, and their mass production price is even cheaper than that of high-voltage transmission lines.

It's a pity that Columbia and Victoria, two hegemons of the old and new eras, have scientists who have only just begun to grasp the basics of superconductor technology, while the community is already using superconductor materials in its staffs.

Because it is cheaper and has better energy conduction than copper or silver wire.

They're just using technology to bully you. Even if you understand it and can learn how to build it, you still can't afford to build it, which will infuriate you.

Colombia and Victoria have encountered this type of problem many times before.

For example, the AK series rifles that are sold everywhere in the community are not difficult to manufacture at all. Even small workshops can imitate them, but they run into trouble when it comes to mass production, especially bullets. The composition of the propellant, the manufacturing of the detonator, and the mass production technology are all hurdles.

Not-so-unfamiliar fact: There are only a handful of countries in the world that can manufacture bullets.

Of course, there are things to learn from this, such as the etching technique used by the community. That's Originium Arts, and any professionally trained mage can understand it. But if you want to mass-produce it, once you start doing the math, you'll realize that this is impossible.

The stability issues of Originium Arts processing, the number of skilled artisans, and the equipment issues in the factory directly block the path to mass production. Even if these technical issues are resolved, there is still the issue of personnel compensation. You are hiring professionally trained Originium Arts artists who work for you in the factory. How much money do you have to pay for that?

Knowing they can't compete with the community on this track, capable countries are now looking for alternative paths.

For example, the guns used by the Iberian judges are quite valuable for reference, since a living person can't die of thirst from urination.

After understanding all this, looking at the Yan Kingdom again, it seems somewhat overconfident.

However, Emperor Yan was full of confidence because his ancestors had provided him with world-destroying weapons, and these weapons could also defend against enemies thousands of miles away on a launch vehicle called Dongfeng. This was the key to Yan's victory.

Since the community isn't giving us a way out anyway, let's just go down together and see who's more ruthless!

To boost morale, the people of Wei suggested that Emperor Yan organize a military parade in the capital to showcase their trump cards.

Maybe it can scare the community into not daring to take action.

To be honest, Emperor Yan didn't want to reveal this trump card, but the thought that major cities of Yan Kingdom would definitely be attacked after the war started made the deal too costly. It would be better to scare the community from the beginning.

So he agreed.