I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Chapter 44: The Nobles’ Preventive Work

Evening, inside a textile factory in Marquis Hendak’s territory

The cold weather outside could not take away the heat inside the factory.

The steam engine spewed thick smoke as the belts drove countless gears spinning at high speed, producing an ear-piercing noise.

The cramped and narrow space was filled with workers and densely arranged machines, among them darting figures of child laborers.

The machines ran at an extremely fast pace, requiring people to watch them closely for long periods of time, with their hands moving quickly, endlessly repeating the same motions without pause.

Yet there were no complaints in the factory, because in such poor conditions, they desperately needed this job to feed their families.

Even more miserable than them were the slaves in the boiler room.

Working in pairs, they strained to throw charcoal, wood, and magic crystal fragments into the blazing furnaces.

All around, slave laborers hurried about transporting fuel.

Since Hendak’s coal production was limited, textile factories like this one could not secure much, and could only rely on adding manpower to raise efficiency.

But the factory owner had his methods.

By cutting down the food given to slaves and forcing them to work more, the costs ended up being nearly the same as before.

No one knew how long it lasted before the bell for the end of work finally rang out, accompanied by the overseers’ shouts.

Many workers in front of the textile machines let out a long sigh of relief, moving their bodies to ease the soreness in their joints.

More people, however, just sat there blank-faced.

Working from dawn till dusk every day had left them utterly exhausted, with no thoughts in their minds other than to go home quickly and get some sleep.

When people left the factory in small groups, putting on their clothes, they were surprised to find a stall set up at the factory gate, piled high with black bread.

The overseers urged them to hurry and line up.

Each person could receive one piece as supper.

A collective gasp of amazement rose from the crowd, and visibly, the workers came alive.

Everyone who received bread was overjoyed.

In a time of food shortage, even this black bread mixed with sawdust was extremely precious.

In front of the stall stood two men.

One was a corpulent nobleman dressed in splendid attire, while the other, dressed like a butler, handed out bread as he shouted loudly:

“You’d better listen! This is a reward from the master for your hard work. Every night after finishing work, there will be bread! The master gives you food to eat, so you must remember his kindness and work hard!”

“Thank you, master!!!”

“Thank you, master! Thank you, master!”

The workers bowed deeply toward the noble-looking fat man, faces full of gratitude and tears.

The fat noble merely lowered and raised his chin faintly to indicate acceptance.

When his small eyes glanced at this group of workers, a trace of disdain and disgust flickered in them.

If not for hearing about how the Astal territory stirred up these commoners...

At the frontlines at this moment

“Rat-tat-tat…”

Two heavy machine guns crossed their fire, frenziedly pouring bullets into the darkness ahead.

Under the sweeping beams of searchlights, one could see soldiers scattering forward to attack.

Batch after batch fell, yet more rushed in behind them.

Through the firelight and moonlight, faintly visible on their bodies were various insignias of the Church.

They were the first wave of the Church’s Eastern Expedition Army.

At the very rear of the battlefield, a bishop of the Goddess Church, bathed in white light, loudly proclaimed doctrine, guiding the believers to launch assaults against the Astal line.

Two days earlier, the Astal army had been firmly pinned at Hendak’s borders, unable to advance an inch, forcing Lawrence, the commander of this front, to turn from offense to defense.

Among these, the fearless Church troops from Hendak gave Lawrence endless headaches.

Especially after they joined forces with the Church troops crossing from Memlotorh into Hendak territory, their fighting spirit became terrifying.

Shouting strange slogans, they pressed against the firepower net and forced the battle line forward.

Fortunately, when the stalemate came, Lawrence had prudently arranged defensive positions in the rear, narrowly avoiding being dragged into a war of attrition.

Every night, the Church army organized massive charges against the Astal defenses, for at night the Astal artillery could not deliver effective support.

Although the Church never broke through the Maxim guns’ firepower net, the ammunition consumption on Lawrence’s side was equally frightening.

The fighting dragged on from evening until early morning.

Exhausted frontline defenders were rotated back to rest by their comrades.

Meanwhile, Hendak’s side had already organized attack formations—squares of twenty to thirty men, forming dozens of such squares.

At the officers’ command, they marched numbly across blood-soaked ground and corpses toward the Astal defense lines.

These were Hendak’s soldiers.

Around their formations ran cavalry musket squads, acting as enforcers.

Anyone leaving formation would be executed on the spot.

Like wolves driving sheep, they herded their soldiers forward.

“Boom, boom, boom!”

A dense barrage of shells erupted, explosions tearing through the soldier ranks.

Amid flying flesh and blood, the formations still held firm, charging toward the barbed wire.

Numerous formations spread apart, attacking the Astal defense line from different angles.

As long as they survived the killing field and reached musket range, their volleys would claim the lives of many Astal soldiers.

Their assaults even forced Astal to lower its quadruple-barreled anti-air machine guns, meant for mage patrols, to sweep the defenses clean.

Both sides had turned this place into a bloody meat grinder.

Though Hendak’s situation was somewhat unexpected, it was not beyond Mitia’s anticipation.

After all, sooner or later they would clash with the Church army.

Fortunately, the distance was not far.

Mitia deployed a large number of truck units to deliver supplies to Lawrence.

Though unable to break through, holding the line posed no problem.

The only drawback was that it reduced the industrial transport capacity available to support the two armies advancing into the Kingdom of Paria.

The territories they had captured earlier were already undergoing rapid reforms.

Large amounts of confiscated old muskets gave Mitia the chance to quickly arm secondary troops.

The recruitment posters she had her people print were very straightforward: after all the new policies were implemented, they called on the people to take up arms to protect what was now theirs.

Enlistment came with land allocation priority, tax exemptions, priority access to relief supplies, and pardons for those who had participated in previous wars.

By relying on the surrendered veterans to train the recruits, Mitia needed only a small core of main forces to maintain stability.

The rest of the troops encircled from both sides, swallowing the plains between Alos and Yospata, then began concentrating toward Pue Lalor City.

There, sixty percent of Astal’s main force and half of its heavy weapons would gather, while the rest would be sent to Hendak.

Once they captured it and Hendak, the entire Kingdom of Ovinia’s forces would fall into a temporary vacuum, unable to support the Church army.

The situation would then enter the stalemate phase of Mitia’s defensive counterattack.