Yes, Madam Prime Minister

After leaving the church, Elena took Canaan to a fancy restaurant for dinner.

"Your Seven Saints Sect is quite interesting, especially the second half of your scriptures, it's very interesting."

"Canaan said."

The first half of the Seven Saints Sect's scriptures is not fundamentally different from other monotheistic sects; it tells the story of an omniscient and omnipotent god who created the world. The latter part consists of some mystical and fantastical stories, which can be summarized in one sentence: those who believe in me will have good days ahead, while those who do not will go to hell.

The second half is a collection of dialogues between the Holy Son and his six incarnations. Of course, different sects have different views or interpretations of the identities of the other six.

In the dialogue, the Holy Son can be said to have a mentor-student relationship with the other six people. The six people are Leibis, the son of the "Hero" General; Coridi, the "Good Man" Prince; Euler, the "Traveler" Wandering Doctor; Triga, the "Sage" Librarian; Osiris, the "Philosopher" Priest Candidate; and Lüdit, the "Recorder" Merchant, who is the only one among the six whose image is not so positive.

“I haven’t read much of the scriptures, so you don’t need to tell me that.”

Elena had no interest in discussing the Seven Saints Cult.

"Huh?" Canaan was surprised again.

“I’m not a member of the Seven Saints Cult,” Elena said. “Alright, I’m hungry, let’s eat.”

After finishing their dinner and leaving the grand hotel, Canaan realized something: they hadn't paid for their food.

"I'd like to give it to them, but they might not dare to accept it," Elena said. Who told her to suddenly become the head of the underworld in Xinhai City? The people in the small restaurant might not know her, but that was a big restaurant, and the owner happened to be there. If she went to give him money, the owner would probably give her money instead.

After spending the night in White Star City, Elena took Canaan to the Magic Academy the next day.

The purpose was to take her to see the test machine.

The testing machine works by assisting meditation to determine whether a person has and how much of a talent for absorbing magical energy.

Therefore, the testing machine itself can extract and store magic, but the amount is very small.

To date, no one has developed a machine capable of extracting and storing magic power in large quantities over long periods of time.

"Your first task is to figure out this principle and then create a miniaturized machine for extracting and storing magic."

Elena said.

“Nothing other than a human can store a large amount of magic power for a long time,” Canaan said with certainty. “At least, I don’t know how to achieve this effect.”

“No need for long-term storage,” Elena said, waving her hand.

Canaan's conflicted expression relaxed. "Then we can give it a try."

"I'm leaving. If you have any questions, go find Carl, the head of the academic affairs department here."

After saying that, Elena turned and left; her mission was complete.

Two months later, Canaan's research was completed, or more precisely, her and Hannah's research was completed. They created a very small device, although its effect became much weaker, but that did not matter.

Hannah is Karl's fiancée. Although she is a 24-year-old single woman who is 1.8 meters tall and always carries a giant sword, she looks violent. However, she is actually a gentle and rational woman, a mathematical researcher, engineer, and expert in magical artifacts. Karl has complained to Ronan more than once that he and Hannah are really incompatible, but there is nothing he can do. A nobleman like him cannot decide his own marriage.

Two weeks later, the two made what Ronan wanted: a revolver that used magic as bullets.

This thing relies on a small device that extracts, stores, and converts magic power, and compared to a real revolver, it also has the function of rapid reloading.

It's certainly not suitable as military equipment because it lacks sufficient power.

However, in the city, this portable, rapid-fire, stable, and short-range accurate magic pistol is definitely superior to a flintlock musket.

Ronan hoped to develop this device so that it could be readily provided to the accompanying novice mages upon arriving in the New World, enabling them to carry out small-scale operations.

“You are free,” Ronan said to Canaan, taking out a bag of silver coins. “I heard you learned some magic from Karl, and now you are a full-fledged mage. With this money, you can go wherever you want. With your abilities, you can live quite well.”

Canaan shook his head. "I want to become a citizen and follow her."

After several months, she had figured out who Dinia was and who Ronan was, and she didn't want to leave.

“You probably know some of the details, but you may not know how dangerous it is to follow us. With your strength, you could die,” Ronan said.

Canaan replied nonchalantly, "I've even been a pirate, what am I afraid of?"

“Once you’re on this ship, you won’t be able to get off,” Ronan solemnly reminded him again.

"I know, why do you talk so much?" Canaan said impatiently.

Ronan looked at the little girl; her illness had relapsed after two months of not being treated.

“Okay, I agree. You can stay at my place for now,” Ronan said.

"Huh?" Canaan was surprised, but a hint of fear showed through her. Although she hadn't seen Elena for two months, she was still afraid.

"I'm leaving. Talk to Elena if you need anything." With that, Ronan left.

He had an important meeting that evening; he had to meet that general who wasn't exactly a famous general.

If you can recruit them, then recruit them; if not, then forget about it.

Chapter 198 Qualification Theory: Delusion, Don't Let Me Down

That night, Ronan entered Ambrina's "restaurant" once again. This time, besides Ambrina, there was also the so-called famous general.

This man named Raven was nearly sixty, but his face looked only fifty. He was neither tall nor strong, neither fat nor thin, with a full beard and some graying sideburns. He had a lot of baldness on both sides of his forehead and wore a pair of small round glasses. If it weren't for the scar on his jaw and the missing piece of his left ear, he would look more like a watchmaker.

When he saw Ronan, he didn't greet him, but just tapped his plate with his fork without eating a single bite.

Ronan never treated impolite people with courtesy. "You were once very famous, but you are destined not to become a famous general in history, not because you lost, but because a commander who cannot even control his own army is undoubtedly not a qualified commander."

Raven looked at Ronan, "Do you know anything about military affairs?"

“You don’t understand, but you can’t cook either, so you’re not qualified to comment on food, are you?” Ronan retorted.

“That makes sense.” LaVine replied calmly.

Ronan continued, “You have won many battles in small and medium-sized operations with soldiers you are familiar with, but you lost the first battle when commanding a large army you are unfamiliar with. However, a qualified commander should be able to command unqualified soldiers.”

“That’s true, but I’ve heard it far too many times,” Raven said. “Let’s get down to business.”

"The reality is, a chance to turn your life around is now in front of you," Ronan said bluntly. "You've been waiting for this opportunity for ten years, haven't you?"

"The opportunity is to lead a few hundred men to fight the natives, or those two useless men under the earls?" Raven said, laughing at himself. "Leading a few hundred men to fight is something I did when I was twenty."

“Many people dream of going back to their youth and reliving it all. You have that opportunity, isn’t that great?” Ronan joked.

“I’m sixty years old,” Raven said.

“If you feel old, then go ahead.” Ronan said, making a gesture that indicated you were free to leave at any time.

"Haha." Raven suddenly laughed, then took off his glasses, revealing a sharp gaze. "Since we're going back to being twenty, we should do things we didn't do at twenty. I need you to prepare some native boys for me. I plan to train them into a qualified army, not just a lackey army that can only go forward when a gun is pointed at it, but a qualified army."

"Agree to this condition, and I'll go to the New World with you."

The old man's words almost made Ronan burst out laughing. "I must say, you have a lot of dreams."

"I'm a twenty-year-old young man now, shouldn't I have dreams?" the old man retorted.

Before Ronan could reply, the old man continued eating and talking, “For ten years, I have never forgotten that defeat. It’s not that I can’t accept the defeat, but I’ve been thinking about why those experienced, honored, well-paid officers and soldiers with families to care for, who were used as bait, couldn’t withstand the blow and surrendered directly, while those students who had nothing and knew nothing fought to the last moment.”

"Later, I understood that it was hope. Only those who have hope will not easily give up."

"But this is just wishful thinking on my part as a failed old man. Maybe I'm way off, but I want to test it out."

As he spoke, the old man put down his knife and fork and looked at Ronan again.

"If I may ask, once you go to the New World, how do you plan to verify your delusions?" Ronan asked.

"Reform, new army." The old man only said two words.

"Hahaha." Ronan laughed. "May I ask again, where do you intend to innovate?"

"Anyway, it'll come down to those two," Raven said. "Someone wants them to go to heaven and start a new life, doesn't he?"

“Okay, I agree to this condition.” Ronan agreed; this failed old man was surprisingly interesting.

The old man didn't show any joy or excitement; instead, he lowered his head and continued eating.

At this point, Ronan spoke again, "Let me ask a question that goes unrelated to the main topic. Did you already know Princess Isabel and the young officers she recommended?"

The old man's hand holding the fork suddenly froze in mid-air. After a long pause, he finally put the meat from the fork into his mouth, chewed and swallowed, then sighed deeply, "So, I really hate people like you. Are you planning to back out?"

Ronan smiled, took Ambrina's hand, and looked at her face. "A true king can embrace different factions, right?"

“Without a doubt,” Ambrina said firmly.

Old man Raven didn't say anything, ate several large mouthfuls of meat, wiped his mouth, and then stood up, saying, "Farewell, young men."

With that, the old man left, his back ramrod straight, not at all like an old man.

After the old man left, Ambrina and Ronan talked about what happened next.

She told Ronan that the transfer order would arrive around the end of the year, and that Ronan, Dinia, and the others would set sail for the New World around March.

Dinia's position at that time will naturally be governor. However, the territory she can currently manage, as well as the personnel under the governor's office, are far less than those of the two counts.

But this time, Ronan was no longer her secretary, or even her subordinate.

Ronan's position was tax liaison officer, an old-fashioned post that had been abolished a century ago.

Two hundred years ago, a tax farming system was implemented in some peripheral areas of the kingdom, and the liaison officer was responsible for contacting the tax farmers. However, the liaison officer was not an ordinary civil servant. After all, in those days, collecting taxes in peripheral areas was not something that ordinary civil servants could do.

Tax liaison officers often resort to violence to collect taxes; if you don't pay, they threaten to kill your entire family.

Therefore, Ronan can now legitimately and legally control armed forces.

Ambrina held Ronan's hand tightly. "Ronan, I believe you can do it." She didn't want Ronan to leave, but she didn't show it.

As the heir to the throne and Ronan's lover, all she could say was words of encouragement.

Ronan naturally understood Ambrina's feelings and gently patted the back of her hand. "Anli, I initially thought two years was a bit tight, but now it seems that it might not necessarily take two years."

"Really?" Ambrina's eyes welled up with tears of surprise.

“Of course, the original plan was just to stir up some conflict, secretly find out their crimes, then spread rumors to force them to rebel, and finally launch a surprise attack to take them down,” Ronan explained. “But now it seems we can go a little bigger.”

Ambrina didn't know what Ronan was up to, but she trusted him to be absolutely right.

Ding-a-ling, the bell rang.

Ronan stood up. "It's time. See you tomorrow."

Soon, Ronan disappeared.

With the plans changed, the preparations also had to be changed. It's already December, the New Year is just around the corner, and he'll be setting sail next March.

The next few months will be busy.

But Ronan didn't find it troublesome at all. This time, he was going to "civilize" the natives, and just thinking about it made him incredibly excited.

Looking at the night sky outside the window, Ronan murmured, "America, don't let me down."

Chapter 199 Colonies, Focus, Follow-up Plans

For the indigenous people, America was in a better situation than Ronan's original timeline in the late 16th century.

There wasn't that much land that was colonized, and not that many people died, but the entire east coast of North America was still occupied.

The entire east coast of North America is mainly divided among three countries: the Kingdom of Wieland in the north, which is the British in this timeline; the Kingdom of Fas in the middle, which is the one that is constantly being humiliated; and the Kingdom of Bilia in the south, which is Spain in this timeline.

In terms of territory, the three are about the same size.

In terms of strength, Villa is undoubtedly the strongest. After all, they arrived earlier and have amassed a great deal of gold and silver over the decades. They have plenty of guns, an invincible fleet, and the southern part of the east coast is more suitable for farming. Furthermore, the true core area of ​​their colonies is in Central America further south. Overall, their colonial scale far surpasses that of the other two.

Secondly, there's Weyland. Weyland's fleet isn't bad either. If it were the original Ronan from the original timeline, they would have defeated the Invincible Fleet in a few years and started their comeback. But in this timeline, it's hard to say.

The Kingdom of Phos ranked last, no wonder, its fleet was terrible.

The colonizers in this world employed more sustainable methods, with less rampant slaughter and plunder. Of course, this may also be because the native inhabitants of this world were not as weak.

In contrast, Ronan's homeland, France, included two counts' fiefdoms, and the governor's office had civil servants dispatched from the mainland.

In the French colonies, the indigenous people were generally divided into three groups.

In the major trading ports along the coast, some of the indigenous people had been completely incorporated into the rule. Many of the descendants of these "good citizens" went to church primary schools. Of course, further education was impossible. The colonists only needed to be able to understand their language, read and write, and be able to help manage the slaves and laborers.

Further west were numerous tribes of varying sizes. These tribes originally belonged to indigenous regimes, but the first thing the colonists did upon arrival was to destroy their kingdoms, then scatter them and continuously weaken them.

These tribes were in a semi-submissive state, with their chiefs having a certain degree of autonomy. Rebellion was out of the question, since being the colonizers' lackeys was incredibly lucrative.

Further west, in the Midwest, the land is now entirely inhabited by indigenous people, but in the eyes of the colonists, these people were not considered human.

Colonists would support semi-submissive tribes, plunder their wealth and people, and then split the spoils 90/10.

But if large-scale immigration begins in the future, these semi-submissive people may no longer be considered human. At that time, it will simply be said that this is the Promised Land, belonging to them, the children of God.

After all, God is dead, and morality is dead; only humans are alive, and especially flexible, particularly colonists.

Ronan's focus was on two groups living in the heart of the colony, on the coast.

One type is the indigenous laborers, who were originally low-ranking warriors in the indigenous regimes that had taken up residence here. Now they are workers, of course, but their treatment is very different from that of the native laborers. The native laborers are, after all, human beings, but they are not entirely human beings. They are only slightly better off than slaves who have been deprived of all their rights.