Chapter 459: The Old and the New

Chapter 453 – The Battle Between the Old and the New
“Master Eugene, according to your judgment, is the productivity of the other side above the Northern Pass Border City Alliance?” Cross pinched his brow hard to calm down and continued to ask.

“According to the intelligence you have gathered, as early as thirty years ago, some sort of gigantic alchemy machinery appeared in the North City for farming.” Master Eugene knew what Cross wanted to ask, so he summarized and continued.

“I had thought that this was a toy used by some boring alchemist to cajole those noble lords, but I was wrong, this is ushering in the future, using alchemy machinery to produce machinery.” Master Eugene said with eagerness, and now Cross felt his head explode as he had to worry about whether or not the Alliance’s only Legendary Alchemist would defect while facing a succession of bad news.

“Doesn’t the Alliance do the same?” Cross who knew what Master Eugene meant and tried to salvage something said so, and it wasn’t a lie, the Alliance also had the same alchemy machinery used for production, otherwise where would the weapons for arming hundreds of thousands of armies come from, especially the firearms, it was simply not possible to build them all by hand, even if an alchemist was utilized.

Hand rubbing hundreds of thousands of gun barrels, this is forcing them to quit the craft work at the same time to life into despair, so the North Pass Border City Alliance also made alchemy machinery for the production of gun barrels and other labor-intensive and time-consuming parts.

“No, you don’t understand.” Master Eugene said quietly, but without explanation.

What Cross didn’t understand was the difference in circumstances, or rather he was pretending not to understand, Master Eugene however knew very well that it wasn’t that the Northern Pass Border City Alliance didn’t have the ability to make more advanced alchemy machinery, it was that they weren’t allowed to.

The potential threat posed by guns alone made the Alliance’s group of professionals fidgety, and even the most enthusiastic alchemists and mages showed great scruples about whether or not to let go of this opening, as they always had the feeling that they would let loose a monster that would destroy itself.

Therefore, the Northern Pass Border City Alliance can produce amazing weapons that are like works of art, but they are always reluctant to mass produce lower level weapons, such as the single shot rifle and the bronze rear mounted artillery are just the product of many compromises, not the true level of the Alliance’s manufacturing.

There is no way, ten years as one day hard exercise of a hundred enemy knights, years of study and accumulated knowledge can release the fireball mage, the damage they cause is not even compared to an open fire bronze artillery, and the latter as long as the productivity goes up, as much as possible, and then professionals will lose the advantage of force and the position of the supreme, in addition to being reduced to the laborer, there is no other way to go.

It can be said that at the moment of the emergence of guns and cannons, the sense of crisis of being replaced exists in the heart of all professionals.

This is also the reason why firearms were short-lived in the empire, because the pressure from all walks of life was too great.

However, this kind of suppression also led to the main world obviously having all the bases for the development of science and technology, but always maintaining the medieval state of life and social structure, because the professionals who mastered swords and magic needed this kind of social environment to maintain their own status, even if many professionals did not realize this, they still instinctively exclude science and technology and machinery, leading to the empire has always maintained a backward appearance.

But not all professionals are so stubborn, for example, Master Eugene is very interested in the industrialization of alchemy machinery, that will create a new era, but his idea is not even accepted by his fellow alchemists.

When ordinary people were able to manufacture various qualified products in batches through alchemy machinery after a short period of training, then what was their value?
When ordinary people can grasp the power to destroy the sky and the earth with the move of a finger, what will happen to the professionals.

Therefore even as the only Legendary Alchemist of the Alliance, the pressure Master Eugene had to face was not small, which was why he was interested in the Northern Glory Alliance and was willing to participate in this expedition, even with a bit of a pilgrimage mentality.

After sending Master Eugene away, Cross didn’t even know if he was right or wrong to invite the other party.

However, this war would inevitably come into contact with the Northern Glory Alliance, so it was just a matter of sooner or later, and there was no point in thinking more about it, it was better to think about how to fight this battle.

Originally, he had planned to use the strength advantage to level the field with a dignified division, but now it seemed that he would need lots and lots of cannon fodder to consume the other side’s ammunition, as well as deep trenches to use for defense, so that the soldiers could make up for the gap in firepower between the two sides with their precise shooting. But no matter how Cross projected it, his side’s chances of winning were not high, and for that reason he had to put his chips on the Professionals Corps.

Because of the promotion of guns, originally as the trump card of the trump card of the professional corps status has been greatly reduced, for example, originally able to tear the enemy formation of the Knights, now in the face of the trench and guns are equally powerless, as for the mage corps, power is good, but compared to as long as there are enough shells can continue to shoot the artillery, mage corps of the endurance of the people is difficult to accept.

But this does not mean that the professional corps is outdated, in fact, if utilized well, the gun and artillery corps without professional guards will be very powerless in the face of professional enemies at specific times, such as night raids.

In the night, even if there are lighting facilities, it is difficult to resist the pervasive professional raid, and a successful raid can cause not only kill and set fire to the morale of the equally serious blow, a few successful sneak attack is enough to make an army was forced to retreat.

This is also the reason why the old faction in the North Pass Border City Alliance has been able to suppress the new faction. In addition to the guns and cannons that the new faction relies on, which need to be produced by professionals, even the war needs the support of professionals on the side.

However, the battlefield was never one where a handful of aces could determine victory or defeat, not to mention that ordinary soldiers equipped with guns and cannons already had the strength to fight professionals head on.

In the end, the old school gave way and let the regiments of ordinary people be the main force of the war, but the regiments of professionals still retained their establishment and had a great deal of influence.

The war will not be smooth sailing, which Cross has already prepared in his heart, but once the use of professional corps, is undoubtedly a kind of denial of their own ability, not to mention in the war has not really begun.

However, compared to his personal reputation and the frustration of the new faction’s implementation, Cross was more concerned about winning or losing this war, because they couldn’t afford to lose.

This northern expedition used nearly half of the alliance’s troops, and after needing to watch out for the Hundred Cities Alliance in the south, as well as their own defense needs, this was already the upper limit of maximum troop mobilization.

Therefore once the battle was lost, the perfect military system of the Northern Expedition Border City Alliance would have irreparable holes, which could not be remedied by enlisting more reserve regiments.

Once the possibility of defeat appeared in Cross’s mind, the strategy of this war changed along with it, and he needed to consider what needed to be done in case of a real defeat.

Sabotage, that was the only way Cross could think of.

In the event that failure was unavoidable, destroy some of this place, slaughter the entire population, minimize the production and war potential of this place, and turn it into a dead land.

This was the only way to prevent the victors from gaining enough here to use it to grow and become a force to attack the Northern Pass Border City Alliance.

Nonetheless, one cannot just come up and directly massacre them, as this would only push the Northland Noble Alliance completely towards the Northern Glory Alliance, which is already regarded as a great enemy by Cross.

(End of chapter)