Volume 1: The Rise of Elanhill Chapter 0006: Four Wars
When the smoke cleared, Des saw clearly how much damage his shell had caused. This terrible power was only mentioned in some books recording magicians...
Living in a world with magic, Des had heard of more powerful powers before, but it was shocking that such a devastating force could be emitted from a small iron pipe designed and made by mortals.
At this moment, Des was completely speechless. He had chosen the target himself, and he had lit the cannon himself. There was almost no possibility of fraud. He was now certain of one fact: what he saw before his eyes was the true power of the cannon!
With this weapon, the enemy's solid castles are almost no different from gravel: as long as this kind of artillery can be produced on a large scale, human fortifications will be completely useless.
If there are enough of these weapons, they will play a decisive role in field battles. After all, they can fire outside the enemy's range and take the lead in launching ultra-long-range strikes on the enemy's battle formation.
Just relying on this leap, the Lord Mayor of Seris City in front of him can conquer all directions and win every battle.
Thinking of this, Des once again recalled the story Chris had told him before: How many times can one make a profit by investing in the monarch of a country?
What Chris lacks now is capital and time to accumulate initial capital. Once he really rises, there will be no profit to join in at that time.
Thinking of this, the condition Chris proposed before, "The Longtate family will become the richest family in the world, no doubt about it; and there is only one voice in this family, and that is your voice!" immediately became extremely tempting.
"Gudong..." Feeling a little thirsty, Des swallowed and handed the torch to Wageron beside him.
He walked up to Chris step by step, raised his head and looked at Chris who was much taller than him: "If... you can really do... what you said... the Longtate family will stand by you! Always loyal to you!"
"Now, how much money are you willing to pay for the position of the richest man in the world?" Chris looked at Des and asked with a smile.
Des thought about it seriously, looked at the two cannons in the distance, and then answered solemnly: "1.976 billion gold coins!"
"It looks a bit like that!" Chris nodded and smiled with satisfaction, "I won't let your investment go to waste... Happy cooperation."
"It's a pleasure to work with you! I'm leaving now. I'll buy food, steel, and everything else you need and come back here in ten days." Des said impatiently, "You don't have to worry about paying your taxes. I'll pay 1,000 gold coins for you directly in the Alante Empire. In addition, the 2,000 gold coins I brought with me this time will stay here!"
"Thank you!" Chris smiled and nodded, ending the conversation.
Looking at Des going away, Deans said with some concern: "Money can move people's hearts... Sir, can he be trusted?"
"As long as he is wise, or as long as he is not stupid, he will not easily have bad ideas." Chris answered confidently: "He won't get more benefits by killing Ceris, but he will have one more enemy... This is not a good deal."
"So what should we do next?" Wagron asked, standing behind Chris, holding his sword.
"Leave your trusted confidant here to keep a close eye on him." Chris ordered, "Let's go back to the castle. We must come up with a defense plan to ensure our own safety."
"What do you mean?" Wageron asked with a heavy face.
"Now we have to think about how to protect ourselves!" Chris looked at the two cannons and said confidently.
The group quickly returned to the castle of Seris City, took out a detailed map and placed it on the round table in the conference room.
The city of Seris that the Ailanhill family took over was a major transportation hub, prosperous and had abundant resources to utilize.
Such places are often prosperous in peacetime, but they are vulnerable in war. The city of Seris is a battleground for military strategists, but it is also an unlucky place that is at war on all sides.
"We must get rid of this situation where we are attacked from all sides." Chris crossed his arms over his chest and frowned as he said, "Fighting on multiple fronts is a taboo in military strategy."
Chris knew very well that any country involved in fighting on multiple fronts, no matter how powerful, would eventually get into trouble or even be completely defeated.
France, which had the great Napoleon, fought on two fronts in Spain and Tsarist Russia, and eventually fell apart and lost its hegemony.
Germany, a country with many brilliant generals and extraordinary fighting power, was caught in the dilemma of fighting on two fronts in the two world wars and suffered the bitter fruit of failure twice.
With so many examples in front of him, Chris felt that he had to end the situation in the Four War Lands in order to be invincible after he started the war for hegemony.
"To the north of us is the earthen fort." Wageron pointed to the north of Seris City and introduced it to Chris: "There are seven more lords further north. They have more cavalry than us and are very powerful. Further north is the Kingdom of the Frost Wind... The territory is very huge."
Chris looked in the direction he pointed, frowning and saying nothing. Attacking northward was obviously not a good option, at least not at the moment.
"Comparatively speaking, we face the greatest defense pressure from the north. Those lords are greedy and powerful." Wageron said somewhat depressedly: "Usually, we have the most soldiers deployed in the north."
"To our west is the Higgs Kingdom, which is also quite large and has a strong military force." Deans pointed to the west of Seris and introduced: "The Higgs Kingdom borders the Holy Demon Empire and is very powerful... It is also a thorn in the side of the Alante Empire."
Such a country has a lot of variables and requires a lot of energy to defend. In fact, the Alante Empire has placed lords like Chris on the border, which is itself a cordon and firewall.
"Then there are only the south and the east." Chris looked at the map, pressed his hand on the south, and said, "To our south is the Alante Empire. We are paying taxes to them, so our safety is guaranteed for the time being."
The only targets left now were the two castles in the east. Wagron placed his hands on the two castles and said, "The situation in the east is relatively simple. There is Maine City and Ferry City."
"Maine is an agricultural territory, but the terrain is very rugged. The threat from this direction is the smallest, and we have deployed the fewest troops here." He introduced the two cities and brought some useful information: "Ferry City is a port. They are backed by the Sea of Nothingness. The geographical advantage is great, but there is only one way to the inland, which is through our Seris."
Chris finally nodded and said, "What we need to do now is to expand our military strength and make ourselves stronger!"
"The military expansion plan will require an additional 700 gold coins to be spent. We need to increase the number of soldiers in the territory to 2,000."
"The cavalry will be increased to 500 people, and the infantry will be divided into two groups. One is the city guards who guard Seris City, and the other is the infantry responsible for field battles."
"In addition, we will allocate 1,000 gold coins to improve the salaries of all active soldiers! We need to intensify training to guard against enemies from several directions." Chris spent almost all the gold coins left by Des.
"Sir, should we... wait a little longer..." Deans considered his words and advised, "If we spend so much money to prepare for a war that may not break out, the development of Seris will be seriously slowed down..."
"Yes, I know!" Chris nodded and acknowledged Deans's statement: "But our current situation is very dangerous. If we fail militarily, then we are finished, right?"
"War may not necessarily break out, sir..." Deans looked at Chris, hoping that his city lord could be more rational: "Should we reconsider it?"
"There's no time to think about it!" Chris waved his hand and looked at Wageron: "So what we have to think about now is - how to win in a possible war!"
"There's really no time to think about it." Having figured out the key, Strid reacted and said to Deans beside him, "We'll be targeted soon!"
After he said that, Deans also reacted: woodworking machinery and cheap woodworking products will soon be popular in the surrounding areas, and then Ceris will become a piece of fat meat.
"Okay! It seems that we must prepare our defenses before others treat us as fat meat." Considering this, Deans had to admit that strengthening the defense now was the right choice.
"Don't panic! Haven't the experiments on the machines I developed been completed? Let's put them into production!" Chris confidently comforted his men: "Can't we just find a way to earn back the gold coins we spent?"
He patted Deans on the shoulder and said, "You will soon find that gold coins are just a number to us."
On the same day, the 30 recruited women passed the training and began to use the new loom designed by Chris. The price of cloth production in Seris dropped by more than 90%.
What's even more frightening is that because they use the printing and dyeing formula provided by Chris, the colors of these fabrics are very beautiful and the price is twice as much as that of fabrics purchased from other places.
Soon the city of Seris became wealthy, and the gold coins Chris had spent on his military expansion plan returned to his hands almost instantly.
On the other hand, the improvement in forging technology also shocked the blacksmiths of Seris: the new furnace could raise the temperature to an incredible height, making the forging of various metals easier and increasing the production speed of gun barrels exponentially.
Because of the increase in job opportunities, every civilian in Seris City has a smile on his face. Everyone knows that Seris has risen and will become a rich land!
