Struggle in the Steam Age

Lawrence had seen the riots of the Vindobona Guards in the newspapers of the White Eagle Federation before. After all, those newspapers in the Federation liked to publish negative news from various countries in the Old Continent to reflect their own excellence. . For example, the rioting behavior of these imperial guards since a year ago has been interpreted by the tabloids as a harbinger of the imminent end of a decaying and decaying empire.

But the actual situation is not the case, although an ancient country like the Holy Visby Empire has always accumulated various problems, and there are various internal contradictions. But now it is far from facing a crisis of national subjugation.

It was even the opposite, because after the industrial revolution liberated the productive forces, the entire empire embarked on a fast track of development: the industrialized army successfully pushed the national border southward and eastward by more than 2,000 kilometers, and successfully recovered from the wilderness and barbarism. Civilization has retaken large areas of territory.

In doing so, on the one hand, it successfully pushed the front line to the natural dangers of the Dacian Mountains and the Danubes River, and built a complete defense system with the help of these natural dangers, avoiding the destruction of the entire country after being attacked by the enemy every once in a while. Spectacular losses on all fronts.

On the other hand, most of these newly acquired lands are flat lands with relatively good hydrothermal conditions, and there are also a large number of mines in the Dacia Mountains. In this case, through the correct policy guidance and the wide application of various machinery driven by a large number of steam engines, the empire has allowed these wastelands to be illuminated by the light of civilization again through construction in the past 30 years.

Those efforts to civilize the wasteland are worthwhile. The empire obtained a large amount of food and various other resources from these newly recovered lands, making the Holy Visby Empire change from a mountain country that needed to import food before the Restoration War broke out. It became a country with enough grain to feed its entire population, and even enough grain to export.

Also because of this round of pioneering actions, the royal family of the empire has obtained the largest share of the harvest after pioneering. And successfully took advantage of the opportunity to greatly expand their own strength. Then, with the help of such power, the country was reformed step by step, and the country was slowly transformed from an ancient country formed by royal marriages to a modern country.

However, it is different from the time when the wilderness was opened up before, when this kind of reform opened up the wilderness. Although the royal family and ordinary people have benefited from it, it has affected the interests of the nobles. Even though the aristocrats had gained a lot of benefits from opening up the wilderness, they were still very dissatisfied with the royal reform.

It's not that these nobles don't know that this country must reform if it wants to have a future, but not only do they not want to give up the interests they already hold, they even want to get more. This, of course, runs counter to the goals of reform.

So since the reform began, the conflicts created by these nobles have become more and more. They are trying to show their strength in this way and use it to hinder the further progress of reform.

Under such circumstances, as the horse emperor who led the army to seize most of the country from those wilderness races and their human lackeys when he was young, Joseph I naturally knew how important it was to have an army directly under his own armed forces under such circumstances.

But what he didn't expect was that the Janissary, which he established with his own hands, was the most modern, most effective and made great contributions to the expansion of the empire. After more than 30 years of peace, it completely degenerated into An arena thoroughly infiltrated by nobles and used as a power struggle. This naturally puts a big question mark on the reliability of the Imperial Guard

In addition, this army was basically abolished because it was stationed in Wendobona, the most prosperous capital of the empire, all year round. This is especially true after most of the veterans who experienced bloody battles retired and a few became senior officers of the army.

At the same time, in these decades, it can be said that mankind has progressed at the fastest rate since the dark ages. Take the army as an example. The army has evolved from the era of using flintlock guns to line up and shoot 30 years ago to the era of using rear-loading paper shells or even metal shell rifles to fight skirmishes.

But all of this has nothing to do with the Guards, although they can be assigned the most advanced weapons every time they change weapons. But under the current situation, let’s not say that the middle will be drifted. It’s just that the army’s increasingly backward tactics and tactics, as well as the declining personal quality of the soldiers, have almost lost the original pride of the army. Its combat effectiveness may even be inferior to those policemen who often have to face some evil creatures hiding in sewers or dark places.

For this reason, Emperor Joseph I naturally hoped to use the new field army with citizen soldiers at its core as his new capital garrison to protect his own security and promote further reforms. Because after the formation of these field armies, they showed strong combat effectiveness and heartfelt loyalty to the empire in many civilization expeditions.

After all, these citizen soldiers are all composed of people who have benefited from the reform, so they are naturally inclined to the emperor who promotes the reform, and hate those nobles who try to deprive them of their current benefits for their own enjoyment .

The large-scale protest of the Praetorian Guards this time was precisely because the emperor mobilized a division of troops from the defense line into the capital and awarded them a flag with the prefix of the Guards. Even if the emperor proposed before that if the imperial guards were willing to fight on the front line, they would be granted the same honor and allowed them to continue guarding the capital, but these rotten imperial guards still firmly refused to do so, and tried to use various Protests and even armed marches were used to force the emperor to reclaim his previous fate.

But these cannot frighten His Majesty the emperor who has been through the war for a long time, let alone shake his determination. Therefore, after he received a report from the trial court that the senior officers of the Imperial Guard were involved in this conspiracy to control the nobles by using evil and depraved spells, and even assassinate the nobles sent by the emperor, he keenly realized that this might be a way to weaken or even disband the Imperial Guard. opportunity for the army.

So after receiving the news at dinner, he only thought for a few seconds before decisively dispatching his bodyguards and the personnel of the court to arrest the officers involved. But what I didn't expect was that shortly after the team from that tribe set off to catch people, His Majesty the Emperor who was waiting for the result in the office suddenly passed out without warning.

Seeing this, the on-site imperial doctor, royal mage, and spell casters from the court immediately surrounded him to rescue him. They quickly judged that it was because of the curse. Fortunately, the emperor himself had enough strength, and at the same time, the palace and the emperor also had a lot of magic defenses that could be used to weaken these evil magic. Therefore, this magic only made the emperor lose consciousness temporarily.

Of course, any loss of consciousness is very dangerous for the emperor. So the mages and doctors present gave first aid immediately. Fortunately, according to their judgment, the curse can be lifted without any sequelae and His Majesty the Emperor can be awakened in as little as 12 hours.

After hearing the test results, everyone in the office showed relaxed expressions. But at this moment there was another hasty knock on the door of the office.

"What's going on?" A guard walked to the door and slightly opened a crack to stick his head out and asked, while blocking everything in the room with his body.

"The Queen ordered me to inform His Majesty of an important matter, and I must meet His Majesty." The maid outside the door said.

"Sorry, His Majesty is currently discussing some confidential matters, and cannot meet outsiders. If you have anything to tell me directly."

"—Okay, Your Majesty's eldest prince, third prince and two princesses who are currently in the palace all fell into a coma just now. So the Queen sent me here to ask Your Majesty what to do next?

"What?" After hearing this sentence, the guard immediately showed a surprised expression. This kind of situation where the whole family fainted together is really too bad.