I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution Chapter 77

The Pontiff poured out his grievances to Unica, explaining the causes and consequences in detail.

Unica’s forehead twitched with a vein popping out: “Are you a pig!”

“A long-distance winter expedition across thousands of miles, with each diocese responsible for its own logistics—who the hell taught you that?”

Pontiff: “......The soil of the subcontinent is soft, rainfall is abundant, and aside from winter, it is even more difficult to march during other seasons.”

The Pontiff had his own considerations—he really had not launched the attack out of mere hot-headedness.

Once winter passed, the rotting road system would make transportation of supplies even harder, and the humid and hot environment would cause food to spoil and grow damp.

In comparison, the advantages of marching in winter outweighed the disadvantages.

Unfortunately, such a massive mobilization was beyond his precise control, so he had no choice but to delegate authority downward.

Yet, when the bishops under him carried out his orders, they added too many things that never should have been there...

Of course, at the end of the day, the most important reason was still that he had lost.

If he had won, naturally everything could be explained away~

After venting her anger, Unica calmed down and no longer dwelled on the blame of the past.

The pressing matter now was to confirm how the Saint Spirit had fallen into corruption, and whether it could be salvaged.

If it could not be salvaged, then naturally the Pontiff would have to step down on the spot and return with her to the continental headquarters to receive punishment.

As for the question of corruption, the Pontiff himself did not know, because Hendak had fallen too quickly, and the area had been sealed off.

He only learned of the Church’s enormous loss in Hendak through the Goddess’s oracle.

And to recover it...

the former site of Hendak had already become the capital of Ceres.

Could Unica really storm into someone else’s capital and slaughter at will? It was not impossible.

However, when Unica learned that the Empress of Ceres was a witchling, she immediately abandoned that thought.

Unlike the isolated natives of the subcontinent, she knew very well how troublesome the witch race was.

Relying on their absurdly high talent, they went mad everywhere, wreaking havoc however they pleased.

The Saintesses and Saint Sons sent by the Church could not defeat them.

In principle, the Saint Spirit was a highly talented elemental spokesperson, whereas witches were mutated products brought about by a quantitative leap in affinity with the Saint Spirit, resulting in a qualitative change.

In terms of rank, they were naturally a head above the Saint Spirits.

Even if one managed to win against them, the witches could still call in their elders to seek revenge.

They were petty, protective, had no fixed territory, and preferred to act alone.

Win, and there was no benefit.

Lose, and one’s side would be destroyed.

No matter how the fight went, the result was always loss.

They were truly the most toxic race on the main continent.

Therefore, if possible, she preferred to sneak in, capture the person, and leave, avoiding excessive contact with the other side.

Meanwhile, Mitia—who was the one being cursed at and thought about—did not sense this malice.

At this time, Astal Territory was welcoming the first heavy rainfall of spring.

Mitia had already ordered her people to erect tall wooden stakes on the open ground.

The upper parts of the stakes were wrapped with coiled copper wires, secured using tree resin, around cast-iron blocks encased in porcelain shells.

As she closed her eyes and used her spiritual power to guide the lightning from the clouds, she shouted: “Lord of Thunder, aid me!”

A blinding flash of lightning was drawn from the depths of the clouds, striking down upon the wooden stakes.

The electric current entered from the exposed end of the copper wire at the top, flowed rapidly through the coiled wires, and finally passed into the ground through the copper wire connected to earth.

One round after another, lightning crackled and struck down crazily upon the stakes, melting the copper wires and porcelain pieces, causing the cast-iron blocks inside to fall to the ground.

But at this moment, they were no longer cast-iron blocks.

They had become strongly magnetized magnets.

And the purpose of making them was to manufacture the first generators.

With strong magnets and coils, generators could be built using electromagnetic induction.

With generators, wired telephones and telegraphs could finally be put on the agenda.

However, for the main machines, Mitia did not plan to use copper coils.

Copper reserves were not abundant, and the high-purity copper required was not easy to refine.

She planned to use gold wires for the coils at first, then switch to silver once widespread, and finally to copper depending on the situation.

In fact, she could have built chemical generators much earlier, but she had not given it much thought.

With a small territory and mages available, there had been no need to push for telegraphs.

Only now, with expanded territory, did the importance of long-distance communication become apparent.

Now that the chemical industry had advanced enough to produce lead dioxide, she could finally begin the first steps toward electrification.

Pure lead plates and lead dioxide plates placed in a sulfuric acid solution at a 1:3 ratio formed the most basic electrolyte battery structure.

The principle of the battery was that two different metals reacted chemically to convert chemical energy into electrical energy.

But the greatest function of chemical batteries was to provide excitation current to the rotor of the alternating current generator.

Once the system was fully started, it would become self-excited, and the chemical battery would essentially no longer be needed.

After that, by controlling the rotation speed, frequency, and excitation, the desired voltage could be output.

Only then would electrification truly become practically useful.

As for wires, they were simple—not necessarily copper; thicker iron wires could also achieve a similar effect~

However, for electricity to enter every household, the current power of the generators was still insufficient.

Parallel setups were too costly and not worthwhile.

For now, the focus of electrification was still wired telephones and telegraphs, allowing Mitia to establish a basic communication platform nationwide, easing the demand for mages in various regions.

At the same time, with portable batteries powering wired telephones, combined with radios and local command posts, Ceres would be able to mobilize its army more flexibly and quickly.

But in order to keep up with the pace of equipment updates, the Ceres military also needed a complete reorganization.

For this purpose, in the capital of the Federation, a separate office building would be built for the military headquarters.

Almost at the very moment this idea emerged, she had already envisioned the specific layout of the building—it would be a large pentagonal building~

As the name suggested, the pentagon would be a regular five-sided office building.

It would be divided into an army office area, a navy office area, and a reserved air force office area.

The inner ring of the pentagon would be interconnected, collectively referred to as the joint office area, which would also serve as the Federation’s highest military command.

At the very center would be a reserved area for anti-aircraft weaponry.

The military system also needed new reorganization.

From lowest to highest, it was as follows:

【Squad: 10 people, consisting of a squad leader and a sergeant, a three-man machine gun team, five infantrymen, and equipped with two Cat-type All-terrain Vehicles.】

【Infantry Platoon: 50 people, consisting of a 6-man platoon command, 4 infantry squads, a mortar team, and 2 heavy supply trucks.】

【Infantry Company: 201 people, consisting of an 11-man company command, 3 infantry platoons, a recoilless cannon team, and logistics personnel.】

【Infantry Battalion: 860 people, consisting of a 32-man battalion command (including command squad, communications team, and engineer squad), 3 infantry companies, 1 heavy mortar fire support company, and combat teams.】

【Infantry Regiment: 3,100 people, consisting of a 50-man regimental command, 3 infantry battalions, 1 field artillery company, 1 recoilless cannon company, a reconnaissance platoon, an engineer platoon, and a communications platoon.】

【Infantry Division: 17,200 people, consisting of a 160-man divisional command (including command squad, guard company, and cartography platoon), 3 infantry regiments, 1 artillery regiment, division-level direct units, a recoilless cannon battalion, a communications battalion, a reconnaissance engineer battalion, supply and medical units, and a reinforcement battalion.】