What's wrong with building a steel torrent in a dungeon?

"When that time comes, whoever has the logistics will win the world! Of course, battlefield experience is still very important! But as wars become more and more sophisticated, it is simply impossible to adapt to the current war by exploring experience as before. The most important thing is to regularize! Institutionalize! And the scale of officers, how to make soldiers quickly form a battle force?

Fighting power, how to manage the army in an orderly manner. "

"That's why I think it doesn't matter if the city lord only sends a few officers as staff officers. Only a general like Count Tilly, who sticks to the previous rules, would mind so much." Wallenstein said.

"What the Earl said makes so much sense!" Fran said with a smile.

Although Fran's appearance remained calm at the moment, her heart was actually in turmoil.

Because she knew that what Wallenstein said was very correct. In the future, the importance of logistics will become more and more prominent.

Even more than logistics, this is a battle between two systems, involving peacetime production capacity, population size, and war mobilization and execution capabilities.

I know this by standing on the shoulders of my predecessors, but Wallenstein...

It's really that terrifying.

Afterwards, Fran and Wallenstein finalized the details of renting muskets and the number of officers to be sent. Finally, the two smiled at each other and shook hands to express their pleasure in cooperation.

Fran watched Wallenstein leave, and the smile in her eyes slowly cooled.

"It's rare to see a look like this in my sister's eyes." Christina said at the side: "It seems that you have regarded Wallenstein as an opponent."

"Yes." Fran said, "And she is an opponent worth fearing. I just don't know if she is qualified to sit at the poker table and become a poker player. Margaret is really a waste of talent! How great it would be if she could be under my command...

"But... since Wallenstein is so smart, why would he easily express these thoughts and ideas?" Christina said.

"I think it may be because he is not appreciated for his talent." Fran put away the wine on the table and said, "Under Margaret's command, this theory is destined to be unpopular. At least before Margaret suffered, she trusted traditional commanders like Earl Tilly more than the businessman like Valence.

She finally found someone who shared her aspirations, so of course she wanted to pour out her troubles to him. "

"Plus, you look so innocent that people naturally want to let down their guard," Christina added.

"Yes, that's right!" Fran admitted shamelessly.

"But after all, these are 1,600 muskets, and you just handed them over to her. Aren't you afraid that she will default on the debt?" Christina asked.

"If she really refuses to pay, it means that she has no more than this kind of vision." Fran said, "More than a thousand second-hand muskets are nothing to me. It's not expensive to use them to see a person's character."

"What if she can't pay after the war?" Christina said, "Even if she can pay, how can she explain such a large expense to Margaret?"

"No." Fran smiled and said, "Wallenstein is a shrewd businessman. How could a shrewd businessman not know how to balance accounts?"

"Settling the accounts?"

"In war, there will always be losses," Fran said. "But how much of the losses and how many weapons were lost are all very interesting. And unlike the last war, this war involves more forces and lasts longer. Firearms are highly consumable. Margaret will have to buy more from us.

Ammunition and new muskets, all of which were handled by Wallenstein. I believe that she can keep the account books beautifully and even privately accumulate a lot of muskets for her troops."

"Okay..." Christina was almost confused by one term after another, and she had to admit that she had no talent in this area.

Afterwards, Fran secretly handed over 1,600 muskets to Wallenstein as agreed, and also stuffed more than a dozen human officers into Wallenstein's troops.

Soon, the first battle broke out, and Margaret easily drew the first blood. After all, apart from Fran and Margaret, how many forces could afford to equip so many muskets?

However, this great victory alerted the forces around Vienna, who were afraid that Margaret would take down the entire anti-Vienna alliance and move on to the next target. So they gathered together and shouted at each other, trying to stop Margaret from continuing the war.

But soon, a heavyweight force joined the battlefield. It was the undisputed first duchy of the entire Holy Roll Empire - the Duchy of Hastings.

The fate of the Duchy of Hastings made everyone realize one thing clearly - Margaret's target could not be that small anti-Vienna alliance, but the entire Holy Roll Empire! So they directly cut off the possibility of negotiations and vowed to fight the emperor to the death.

If they win, they can still keep their own fiefdoms. If they lose, they will be left with only an empty title like the three grand dukes before them, or even the outcome may be worse.

Not only that, the Crazy Sand Empire and the Feruman Empire in the north of the Holy Roll Empire also quietly perished.

For them, a fragmented Holy Roll Empire is a good empire. They certainly can't sit back and watch Margaret integrate the Holy Roll Empire!

Seeing that so many forces had joined the siege against Margaret, Venice and Genoa, who had old grudges against each other, also became restless and began to deploy troops on the border, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

Of course, none of this had anything to do with Fran. Since Margaret didn't call on him, he could just sit back and watch the fight, and sell some arms or something.

But just as she put out the beer and drinks and was about to start eating melons, watching the show and selling toys, a letter from the Dwarf Empire was sent to Christina.

The Holy Alliance Conference, which was originally scheduled to be held in half a year, was unexpectedly brought forward.

Not only that, they also called on the Shinra Church, which had never been qualified to participate before.

Chapter 116: Holy Alliance

In order to deal with the aggressive invasion of the demon world, almost all the forces of the entire plane were gathered together.

This was the forerunner of the Holy Alliance.

At that time, every well-known force on the continent had a god behind it, so the so-called Holy Alliance was more like a meeting of the agents of the gods in the planes.

Or in other words, it's called a conference of charlatans.

Originally, the Shinra Church was one of the first members of the Holy Alliance. At that time, the Twelve Pillar Gods frequently showed miracles, and the Roll Empire occupied half of the Calradia continent. It was powerful and should not be underestimated.

Of all the forces at that time, the most powerful was the elves. Therefore, the elves and the god Shiloh behind them became the undisputed leaders of the Holy Alliance until now.

After an unprecedented war, the demons were driven back to the demon world. But without a common enemy, there was no common goal, so the Holy Alliance soon began to fall apart.

However, the elves as leaders obviously did not want this organization to disappear from the stage of history, so they tried every means to transform it into an elf-centered organization.

After the war, the elves, as the backbone, grew rapidly in strength and soon became the hegemon of the world. Under the powerful intervention of the elves, the Holy Alliance gradually became a tool of the elves' rule, and any opinions that went against the will of the elves would be sanctioned in the name of the Holy Alliance.

This soon brought a lot of benefits to the elves. The continent of Calradia, which was closest to the Elf Continent, completely became a colony of the elves. There were even rumors that the elves wanted to take humans as a subordinate race.

But such hegemonic rule also had negative effects. The status and image of the elves plummeted, and everyone hated and feared the elves, and no longer had the respect they had for leading the various races to resist the demons.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance.

On the Volsas Plain at the other end of the Endless Sea, the old empire of the Dwarves finally got out of the quagmire of war with the Orcs. The two sides shook hands and made peace. After that, the Dwarves expanded rapidly through a series of South Sea expansions and the development of various machines, and soon they were able to challenge the Elves.

One mountain cannot tolerate two tigers

The elves obviously did not allow anyone in their organization to threaten their existence, so they used all means to suppress the dwarves. However, the world had suffered from the elves for a long time, and many races stood on the side of the dwarves, including humans who were ruled by the elves.

The two sides fought openly and secretly for many times, and finally fought an unprecedented naval battle on the Endless Sea.

Without the support of the forest, the strength of the elves was greatly reduced. Coupled with their underestimation of the enemy, the elves were defeated miserably. The dwarf fleet even sailed to the vicinity of the elven continent.

After this, the world changed from being dominated by the elves to being in a confrontation between the elves and the dwarves. Although in terms of overall strength, the elves still surpassed the dwarves in all aspects, after all, the two sides had reached the same level, and neither side could destroy the other.

After the tragic defeat, the elves learned from their mistakes and stopped exploiting other races as they did before. Instead, they adopted a gentler approach. They put aside their attitude and used their cultural advantages to sell expensive luxury goods to the nobles of various forces in Calradia, fostered agents, exported culture, and finally restored the elves.

prestige.

When the time was right, the elves united with a group of allies to form a Northern Alliance, referred to as the Northern Alliance.

At the same time, the dwarves relied on their strong manufacturing capabilities to attract surrounding races to join their large-scale production division of labor and achieve common prosperity. After seeing the elves establish the Northern Alliance, they united with these races and signed an alliance in the dwarf capital of Wal, referred to as the Hua Alliance.

(It’s just a coincidence, please don’t take it as a dialogue with real history (w''"))

The two alliances fought each other openly and secretly, there was cooperation, disputes, surrender to the enemy, and infernal affairs. In short, it was extremely chaotic and exciting.

However, although the two actual alliances have been in dispute for hundreds of years, the Holy Alliance has not been abolished. On the surface, everyone is still united in this world alliance. In order to show fairness, the meeting place of the Holy Alliance is switched between the elves and the dwarves in turn.

By the way, because the Holy Roel Empire is too weak and too chaotic internally, the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance have no interest in including it in their alliance. So the Holy Roel Empire has become a middle party caught between the two sides.

This year the meeting place is the dwarves' turn, and the location is in the dwarven city of Wall.

Originally, the Holy Alliance meeting would not invite the Holy Roman Empire to attend, but it was not known whether it was because of Christina's strength or because of the Vienna Alliance incident that she invited the Holy Roman Empire for the first time.

This was indeed a very honorable thing for the Holy Roman Empire, and Christina naturally had no reason to refuse. Fran had just agreed with her to go to the Volsas Plain together, so they could take a boat together.

Because they had made enough preparations before, Fran's new ship was built very quickly. When the group arrived at the port, the ocean-going fleet had basically been completed, and the workers were painting the name of the ship on the hull.

"The Saint?" Christina immediately recognized the letters on the hull and said, "This is your ship. It's not good to use my title."

"Since it's my ship, I have the final say on what to ship!" Fran said, "If I hadn't considered the impact, I would even want to name it the Saint Red Lips."

After hearing this, Christina rolled her eyes at Fran and said, "If you really call me that, those clergymen will kill you if they don't."

"You're kidding, sister." Fran said, "After all, this trip is in your name, so the relevant details are naturally based on the Shinra Church. Look at those main sails, they are all painted with the Shinra Church's symbols."

"My sister is thoughtful. But... Christina asked curiously: "Didn't you say before that the main power comes from the big wheels on the side of the ship? Why does it look like it's powered by sails?"

"Isn't it because the big wheels are not powerful enough? Sometimes we need the help of wind. And... Fran said: "Steam engines need coal to burn. If the fuel runs out and there is no timely replenishment, it will not float on the ocean like a coffin."

"Puh, puh, puh!" Christina quickly stopped Fran and said, "I heard there are a lot of rules on the ship! You can't say unlucky words."

"This is all superstition!" Fran said quickly. But she thought about whether her words were a bit strange. As a saint, Christina was the person closest to superstition.

Finally, Fran said, "In short, we must believe in technology and understand it. We can't be like the dwarves. They guard the technology given by God but dare not research it. As a result, they have to burn incense and pray every time before running the machine. It's too weird."

"Forget it, I can't argue with you!" Christina has become accustomed to Fran's various outrageous arguments.

"Don't worry, sister! Generally speaking, there won't be a problem of insufficient fuel!" Fran said, "I have prepared three steam-powered ships for this purpose, and they are all fully loaded with coal. Let's go, sister! Let's go to the ship and take a look! Believe me! There will be absolutely no problems! It is guaranteed to be foolproof! When you come back safely, we will have a barbecue together!"

"Sister, please stop talking. I really don't want to die in the sea."

They strolled to the deck. The blue sea was endless and the sea breeze was mixed with the smell of sea water, which was very much like the fragrance of a young girl.

Looking at the vast sea, Fran couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion in her heart, so she raised her hands high and shouted to the sea: "I am Fran! I want to be the woman of the Pirate King!"

Who is One Piece?

Christina on the side scratched her head in confusion.

Chapter 117: Going to the Sea!

With great ambition, Fran embarked on a long journey to conquer the sea.

However, the next day, Fran was so seasick that she vomited and could only cry in Christina's arms.

What One Piece, what conquering the sea, they were all vomited out by her.

On the deck, Vanessa, a sailor, was wiping the mast and checking various facilities like everyone else.

After selecting the first batch of sailors, Fran always felt that something was missing. After careful thinking, she found that Vanessa was missing.

In order to get in-depth with the first group of sailors and gain their experience and intelligence, Vanessa once again changed from a tailor to a sailor.

As a vampire from the demon world, she had never been on a boat before. As a result, she vomited like Fran at the beginning of the training, and her previous problems of syncing her hands and feet and not being able to tell left from right were also exposed. After a period of arduous training, she barely adapted to life on the boat.

However, Vanessa's sailor career did not last long, and she received a new task - elementary school class teacher.

This time, Fran not only brought sailors, but also selected a group of outstanding children from the academy to take them out to see the world. As one of the few female sailors on the warship, Vanessa had to temporarily change her job and take care of these children.

"Sister Vanessa, what is this white bird?"

"Sister Vanessa, why are there waves on the sea?"

"Sister Vanessa...when will we reach the Volsas continent?"

It was the first time for the children to go to sea, so they were naturally very excited. As a result, Vanessa's ears were bombarded with various questions every day. Fortunately, these children had received strict training from the academy, so they were not as likely to run around and make trouble as real naughty children.

But their thirst for knowledge is just too strong.

However, among the many children, Vanessa found one child who was quite unique: Gustav.

She did not act as excited as the other children. Instead, she quietly observed every detail of the ship by herself. She even drew a proportional bird's-eye view of the entire ship. No one knew what she was doing.

This made Vanessa like Gustave more and she was also curious about her.

One day, Vanessa saw Gustave looking up at the towering chimney, so she walked over and said, "Little Gustave, what are you looking at? If you don't understand anything, you can ask the teacher. Don't be shy."

"I'm calculating how much black gas this chimney can emit per minute." Gustave said, "Teacher, what do you think the formula for calculating this should be?"

Ah... ugh!

Vanessa was speechless for a moment. What formula? What emission? She couldn't even understand what Gustave was talking about.

Fortunately, another child came over and asked, "Teacher, what is this big chimney for? Why is it that our ship has this big chimney but other ships we see in the harbor don't have it?"

How would I know!!

Vanessa was immediately stumped by this question, but in order to show her authority as a teacher, she racked her brains to find something, and then said: "This is probably using the power of the backward smoke to push the ship forward!"

Yes! That must be the case...otherwise why would Fran bring that steam engine up here?

Steam engine! As the name suggests, it is a machine that produces steam! The smoke and steam should be the same thing!! So it must be like this.

After Vanessa finished speaking, Gustave looked at her strangely, and then said: "This is the smoke produced by burning coal. Coal is used to boil water to produce steam, which drives the steam engine, and then drives the wheels on both sides of the ship."

"So that's how it is!" Vanessa blurted out immediately.

But then she remembered that there were other children around.

“Is the teacher like this?”

"Teacher, who is right?"