The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Traveling in the old continent is not a pleasant thing. Unlike the new continent, there are relatively developed railways connecting most cities together.

Most of the land here belongs to fief nobles. It is very difficult to let a railway pass through the territory of these nobles. The railway passes through the territory in a short period of time and reaches the interior, which is enough for those nobles to give up those benefits.

The countries and city-states near the sea are not bad, because the coastline is too long to defend, so they have their own set of early warning and defense systems, and they don’t need to worry that the railway will send the enemy directly to their hinterland. Even if these kingdoms and city-states built railways, they were only scattered small sections of railways that were not completely connected.

However, recently, the Fortune Church seems to be very interested in connecting these railways to form a continental railway, and is sending people to lobby these countries and city-states, and has achieved certain results.

But even if they are as powerful as the Church of Fortune, they don't have the slightest confidence that they can successfully lobby the inland kingdoms to accept the proposal of railways running through their country, so the inland kingdoms still use the most primitive animal power method for transportation.

However, there are also some countries that are extremely difficult to build railways even if they are willing to build railways because of their special geographical environment, and even cost ten or even dozens of times more than building railways in other places. For example, the Kingdom of Teresa is such a country. It was the first to advocate the benefits of railways, and the royal family and royal nobles were also willing to build railways, but so far there is no country with a real railway.

The Kingdom of Teresa is located in a mountainous area. The whole kingdom is not only surrounded by high mountains inside, but also surrounded by mountains on the outside. These mountains are like a natural barrier to protect the Kingdom of Teresa from outside invasion. From Teresa Since the founding of the Kingdom, there has only been one case where the enemy invaded the hinterland of the Kingdom, and that case was at the beginning of the founding of the Kingdom, when the military equipment was not perfect, and the invading army did not leave the mountains of Theresa Kingdom in the end.

After the Kingdom of Teresa regained the surrounding countries and became dependent countries, it became the most stable country in the entire Old Continent.

In the past, in the chaotic era of the Old Continent, those people who were in the midst of the war all tried their best to pass through the barriers and came to settle in the Kingdom of Teresa, so this place has the title of a peaceful place.

For these outsiders, the Teresa Kingdom did not reject them like other kingdoms, but accepted them, and even gave these people the status of normal citizens.

As for the behavior of the Kingdom of Teresa, the churches of the true gods gave a very high evaluation to her, and said that they would never let the chaos of war disturb this peaceful place, so as long as there is a war involving the church in the future, it will basically not Will spread to Teresa Kingdom.

However, not all kingdoms like Teresa Kingdom, and many kingdoms are jealous of Teresa Kingdom's stable situation, and want to create some troubles for Teresa Kingdom, but they dare not attack Teresa directly because of the promise of the church. Theresa Kingdom, and they have no confidence that they can rely on their own strength to break through the mountain defenses of Theresa Kingdom.

So, they thought of a bad move. Since the Teresa Kingdom is willing to accept those fleeing from the war, they will take the initiative to help the Teresa Kingdom transport these refugees. At the same time, they also use various methods they can think of. To restrict the delivery of food to the Theresa Kingdom, trying to use this method to artificially create a famine within the Theresa Kingdom, causing conflicts between the refugees and Theresa's own people, and finally tearing away the last piece of pure land in Theresa Continent mask.

This approach did cause a lot of trouble for the Kingdom of Teresa at the beginning, forcing the Kingdom of Teresa to use the treasury reserves to buy high-priced grain, but it is not known whether the Kingdom of Teresa was lucky or they got With the blessing of the gods, after a period of difficulty, they discovered a food crop that is suitable for growing in the mountains and has a very high yield, which has increased the grain production of Theresa Kingdom dozens of times, which is completely achievable. Self-sufficient, easily resolved this crisis.

This crop caused quite a stir in the entire Old Continent at that time, and even caused the wars in the Old Continent to stop for a period of time. Both the church and the country sent people to the Kingdom of Teresa, wanting to Find out if it's true, and if it's true, then they all want to be able to get the seeds of that food crop to plant in their own country.

It is a pity that it is disappointing that after a joint inspection by several churches of the natural pantheon, it was found that this kind of crop can only grow normally in the special environment of Mount Teresa. Once it is transplanted to other places, except for a few environments and special Except for the similar places in the Leisa Mountains, no other places could be transplanted successfully.

After the turmoil caused by this high-yield crop subsided, the mainland returned to a state of war. As for the countries that plotted against the Kingdom of Teresa, the Kingdom of Teresa did not let them go after stabilizing the domestic situation. A large number of people from The mercenaries of the Kingdom of Teresa entered the hostile countries around these kingdoms, and joined the military system of these hostile countries to help these hostile countries attack the city. In the end, in just two years, the countries that plotted against the Kingdom of Teresa were killed. It was annexed and divided by the surrounding hostile countries.

The demise of the country was not a particularly big thing at that time. Except for some caring people who discovered the role played by the Kingdom of Teresa in this incident, no one was concerned about the demise of these kingdoms. Too much attention has been invested, but in the eyes of some caring people, the Kingdom of Teresa has also been marked with a dangerous label.

Over the years, a large number of refugees have moved to the Kingdom of Teresa, and among these refugees are some open-minded scholars, and some people who touch taboo knowledge and are accused of heresy.

Because the influence of the Church of True God in the Kingdom of Teresa is not very great, after these people settle down, they don’t have to worry that the knights of the church will smash their houses down that day, drag them out of their beds, and hang them from the trees on the street. The stable life also enables them to concentrate on their own research.

The Kingdom of Teresa gathered these scholars together very early on, opened the earliest academy in the world, and with the continuous expansion of the academy, it was finally built into an academic city, but the church prefers to call it the The city of heresy.

Although the church is unwilling to admit it, anyone with a discerning eye can see that whether it is the church's house of prayer or the academies built by other kingdom city-states, they are imitating the academic city of Theresa Kingdom, and even some academies The codes are copied from the codes of the academic city.

The academic city of the Kingdom of Teresa is willing to send its own scholars to the academies of other kingdoms and city-states for exchange and study, and is also willing to absorb outstanding students from these academies to study in the academic city. This kind of exchange was only a few scattered and spontaneous behaviors at first. , did not rise to the official level, but with the increase in the number of exchanges and the increase in the number of academic subjects involved, the number of personnel exchanges also doubled. In the end, led by the academic city, a more standardized agreement was formulated with the academies of various kingdoms and city-states. And efficient personnel exchange program.

According to the arrangement of the plan, two exchange seasons are arranged in a year, and the two exchange seasons are staggered and separated. In the spring exchange season, the academic city will send its own tutors to other countries and city-states for academic exchanges. They will not leave and return to the academic city until the autumn exchange season comes, and take away the outstanding students they value from these colleges to go to the academic city for further studies. The completed students will follow the team of exchange tutors back to their respective colleges, and these students will generally become tutors of their respective colleges in the end.

Through this exchange program, the academic city of the Kingdom of Teresa has continuously increased its influence, and the Kingdom of Teresa has also benefited from this, and through these scholars who have studied in the academic city, they indirectly influence the culture and thinking of their country and politics.

Therefore, although the Kingdom of Teresa cannot compare with those big countries in terms of land area, and even among medium-sized countries, its land area is also in a lower position, but its influence is not inferior to those countries at all. A big country, no matter in terms of culture, politics, or even military, it has considerable influence on most countries in the mainland.

It is precisely because of the strength of the Teresa Kingdom that the Teresa people are more confident and proud than the people of other kingdoms in their words and deeds. It is particularly eye-catching, which makes this a special label on them.

There is a joke that the best way to spot a Theresa in a crowd of strangers is to shout Long Live the Kingdom of Theresa.

Although this joke is a bit exaggerated, it is not completely fictional. At least Delkan Bellucci is such a Teresan who will involuntarily show pride when he hears the name of the Kingdom of Teresa.

Delkan Bellucci's ancestors came from an extremely chaotic country in the eastern part of the mainland. They migrated to the Teresa Kingdom with their family after hearing the legend that the Teresa Kingdom is the only pure land in the mainland. They died during the migration. Many people, but less than half of them reached their destination alive in the end.

After they settled down in the Teresa Kingdom, they lived a stable life, and Delkan's generation is already the sixth generation, so he can be said to be a native of Teresa.

Like the vast majority of refugee families, their family also took the route of mercenary military exploits to gain a foothold in the Kingdom of Theresa. I have been wondering for a long time whether this admission notice is fake.

It's a pity that the members of their family are indeed not suitable for studying. After the outlier of Delkan, no one from the family can be admitted to the city of academics, even if he has become a formal scholar and subject tutor. Guanxi helps members of the family get better education, but it still cannot change the overall military-dominated atmosphere of the family.

Or maybe it was because the family's desire to discover talents was not satisfied, so Delkan began to shift his focus to discover outstanding students from other colleges. He completed his research subjects a few years ago and successfully became an official tutor Afterwards, he took the initiative to apply to be transferred to the exchange season team as a recruiting tutor, and went to colleges in different cities with the exchange team of the Academic City, and found outstanding students from those colleges to bring back to the Academic City for further study.

It has to be said that Delkan is very good at this matter. Although he has not been a recruiting instructor for a long time, the number of outstanding students he has discovered has reached as many as one hundred. Some tutors in the city were directly promoted to subject assistants, and they could directly become subject tutors without the ability assessment after completing their normal studies.

For this reason, Delkan received high-level praise from the academic city, and a related award was awarded last year. At the same time, Delkan was given more recruitment rights, and the number of students he was allowed to recruit at one time was also increased to fifty. .

With the right in his hands, Delkan naturally wouldn't let it go to waste, so at the beginning of the autumn exchange season, he directly recruited fifty outstanding students from the exchange academy to go to the academic city. A quarter of the students were recruited, and the dean of the college waited until the exchange team left, his face was so gloomy that he could drip water.

"You've gone too far!" On the way back to Teresa's Kingdom, the head instructor of the exchange team specifically found him for a conversation, and said, "Although I have no right to intervene in the admissions matters, your behavior has already affected the exchange season. It is a normal matter, so I still need to tell you, I hope you can use your rights carefully next time."

Facing the reprimand from the head mentor, Delkan could only bow his head and admit his mistake, but it is not known whether he will restrain himself next time. After all, the head mentor who will lead the team next time may not be the current person.

The country that the exchange team went to this time is a small principality, not too far from the Kingdom of Teresa, separated by several friendly countries and the subordinate countries of the Kingdom of Theresa, there are not only hires hired by the exchange team on the way The Corps provides protection, and the countries and regions passing by will also send their own troops to protect the exchange team when they pass through the border, so there is no problem in terms of safety.

However, it was not easy for them to travel, because these countries are mountainous countries, and most of the roads they traveled were rugged mountain roads, which were very difficult, and the team had to hurry because they needed the first snowfall to arrive at Trey. Before the Kingdom of Sha, they had to climb over the High Wall Mountains, otherwise, after the heavy snow season came, the High Wall Mountains would be covered with snow, and it would be much more dangerous to walk the mountain roads in this situation.

If calculated according to the usual distance, the exchange team can completely cross the mountains before the arrival of the first snow, but this time the number of team members is a bit beyond the standard, not only many more students, but also a few Teresan caravans , making the speed of travel a lot slower, and when they arrived at Dashu Town at the foot of the High Wall Mountain Range, the first snow had already fallen.