I, transformed into a vampire girl, sparked the Industrial Revolution.

Chapter 115 National Mobilization Act

In July 655, during the hottest time of the year, even in a high-latitude region like Trian, the weather was scorching. The Trian railway hub, as the busiest railway hub in the entire country, connects the northern border with the Ruhr economic development zone, where countless goods converge, either heading north or south.

Now, there are several times more trains loaded with industrial raw materials than before, the National Mobilization Act promulgated by the Provisional Government of Amerlane has officially come into effect, the national mobilization system has begun to operate, and the economy has fully transitioned to war preparedness.

The number of workers heading north increased several times over, while those heading south to the Ruhr and Trian received a steady increase in industrial raw materials. Heavy trains traveled north and south, bringing ores, workers, and industrial goods.

"TR car, you can start now."

A loudspeaker was installed inside the hub, and commands echoed throughout the entire dispatch hub. Steam gantry cranes roared as they moved along the tracks, steel cables pulling goods, and trains constantly passed through these gantry cranes. Transport workers and dispatchers copied records or moved goods in this vast hub.

The trains whistled shrilly as they slowly moved toward their destinations; this was just an ordinary scene on the nation's industrial artery.

Inside the massive factory, loudspeakers repeatedly announced the start of national defense mobilization. The nation began to pour resources into military-related industries, and many machinery manufacturing plants began to shift production to military-related products, such as ammunition and soldiers' equipment. Stamping workshops were stamping out M35 steel helmets, much like stamping cans. The M-65 field combat uniform, which had been tested and improved after the Battle of Las Vegas, used the latest olive green herringbone twill pure cotton fabric, also known as HBT. However, for cost reasons, the Amerlane Military Equipment Department did not adopt camouflage-style combat uniforms but instead used OD, or olive green, as the color of the combat uniforms. Compared to the first-generation gray combat uniforms that were widely used, the new combat uniforms had a better concealment effect in the field.

Except for the Navy, which adopted sailor suits and dark blue M-65 uniforms, all branches of the armed forces began to adopt the new combat uniforms. The newly issued equipment was similar to the Type 63 breastplate, with a canvas body and metal buckles. Leather equipment was only used by the honor guard.

"Keep up!"

The Southern Theater Command's forces were rapidly expanded, with many main forces incorporated into it, including Alice's 1st Guards Division. New combat weapons, including 81mm regimental mortars and 60mm platoon-level mortars, began to be deployed, and RDX-charged grenades also entered the Southern Theater Command on a large scale.

Brussels, Lessen, and the dividing line between north and south are the three lakes and the central lake group. The three lakes are the largest saltwater lakes in the entire Demon Kingdom, covering a vast area and are also natural salt areas. From the capture of Blacksen until the establishment of the Southern War Zone, the Amelansi troops continued to advance in the lakes until the southern rebels withdrew from the three lakes.

However, there is also the Central Lakes Group. Compared to the three major lake regions, the main feature of the Central Lakes Group is that it is full of lakes and rivers. This region is not suitable for large-scale troop deployments and has been the dividing line between north and south since ancient times. The hills and forests that are scattered throughout the region are countless. This Central Lakes Group, which is 150 kilometers long from north to south, has been continuously built by the southern forces over the years, forming a defensive line that is hundreds of kilometers long from east to west.

The Southern Theater Command conducted long-term simulations of this defensive line. It must be said that although Ekwich was not much in other aspects, its military investment was still enormous. It not only constructed several stone brick fortifications, but also built several fortresses. These fortresses relied on lakes and rivers for cover, were equipped with cannons, and had many traps and simple landmines. There were also many magicians among them.

The magicians in the south are far more powerful than those in the desolate north. With enough magic crystals, southern magicians can unleash small fireballs in succession. As the technology spread from the north, the infiltration team encountered automatic fire attacks during several armed reconnaissance missions. In the most recent reconnaissance mission, the infiltration team captured a war mage and seized his magical artifact—an automatic magic projection device.

The Magic Automatic Projection Device is a rifle-like device. Its internal inscriptions allow the mage to cast a simple, extremely basic number of fireballs. These fireballs do not move and are not very powerful. Their main function is to act as a firing pin. The inscriptions conduct the mage's magic power to release the fireballs inside the device, thereby igniting the magic crystal black powder and firing the cardboard bullets. This projection device uses a magazine feed system, with 20 cardboard bullets held on the side by a metal magazine, achieving a rapid-fire effect.

The bullets still use round lead bullets, but their close-range lethality should not be underestimated. Moreover, with the adoption of breech loading, this weapon, named the Magic Machine Gun, also uses a hexagonal prism barrel, which allows the fired bullets to have a certain accuracy range.

This weapon was not actually produced in the south. Many of its components came from factories in the Hesse economic development zone. Its receiver was cast in a factory within Hesse and exported under the guise of "construction components," while the barrel was transported to the port of Hila under the pretext of "water pipes," and then exported from there. Secret intelligence agents traced the shipment of pipes to the Republic of Britannia, where they were received by a shell company and recently smuggled into rebel-held territory in the south.

When the origin of the magic machine guns was traced, the secret intelligence agency discovered that these items had been exported in four batches, each batch costing thousands of dollars. Not only that, a large number of retired Minié rifles were also secretly sold and smuggled, and even pirates in the Western Ocean were found to possess Minié rifles.

In short, Alice had to face the fact that the technology she possessed was spreading faster than she had imagined, and that there were more parasites in the country than she had thought. However, this was not surprising, as this generation of citizens did not have much awareness of confidentiality or the rule of law, nor did they have much understanding of the country as a whole.

This is why she had to enact the National Defense Mobilization Act, which required the entire nation to be on high alert as a fully industrialized nation in the event of a complete solution to the South.

It should be understood that the South is still an agricultural society. Although there are many excellent magicians, productivity is severely insufficient. The National Defense Mobilization Act will allow the entire country to destroy the backward society of the South in an industrial manner.