The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

"Is there too little request for cooperation from us?" After leaving the temporary residence where the Queen and the Duke stayed, Leo asked with some doubts. The reason why he felt this way was entirely because of Queen Teresa just now. It was so easy to agree to their request.

"Of course not." Sylvia shook her head and said, "I think we want too much. Don't forget, the formula of gunpowder is from the Academy City. They will know sooner or later. As for the healing potion, it is only discarded by you. In terms of value, the recipes we brought out are not particularly precious. The reason why she readily agreed to our two cooperation requests is because these two things just filled the gaps in Teresa Kingdom. , let her lose her ability to judge for a while, and she will regret it when she recovers after a while,"

Leo nodded when he heard the words, then looked at Sylvia, and said with emotion: "However, it can be seen that this Queen Teresa is very ambitious."

Sylvia also agreed: "Indeed, isn't this exactly in line with our guess about the Kingdom of Teresa?"

In fact, on the way to the Kingdom of Theresa, they had already discussed and analyzed the strange state system of the Kingdom of Teresa, because the current Kingdom of Theresa is so weird that it is so weird in Hill According to Via, a practical politician, this system should not be the way it is now after so many years of development.

In the ancient world of Velen, there were not no countries where all the people were soldiers. The early First Dynasty of France was a country where all the people were soldiers, which was very similar to the Kingdom of Theresa. It is also a country where all the people are soldiers, and as the ruler of such a country, Sylvia knows very well that after the development of this kind of country reaches a certain level, it will inevitably go on the road of outward expansion. This situation is irreversible. It will not be up to the rulers to decide.

However, the current Kingdom of Teresa seems very strange. They are all soldiers, and they can even be called militaristic. There are as many as twelve thousand legions standing in the country, and their military strength alone is enough to sweep the entire Old Continent. Because it is a mountainous area, there is very little suitable arable land, and most of the food needs to be imported from neighboring countries. The money spent on this every year should account for more than half of the kingdom's national tax.

With a strong and huge army, the domestic thirst for food and arable land, the strength of the surrounding countries is very average, and they are still vassal states that have been eroded by the kingdom. In this case, the Kingdom of Teresa should have annexed other kingdoms long ago. Yes, it shouldn't be still huddled in Teresa Mountain like it is now.

This question was not discussed on the road. It was not until they came to the Academy City and saw a research material similar to the census in the library of the Academy City that the question was solved.

It is not that the Kingdom of Teresa does not want to expand. It can be seen from his continuous use of military power and cultural power to erode neighboring countries and turn them into vassal states. , but the reality is that two huge flaws, one inside and one outside, have restricted the normal development of the Kingdom of Teresa, so that the kingdom system has become as deformed and weird as it is now.

Among these two defects, the internal defect is mainly population. Although the Teresa Kingdom seems to have a large population, in fact about one-third of the population are refugees who escaped from the war. They just came to the Teresa Kingdom to settle down. , have not completely turned into Teresa people. Once the Kingdom of Teresa launches an expansion war, the loyalty and combat power of these people cannot be guaranteed, and they may even become the key points and weaknesses of the kingdom's military operations.

In addition, in addition to the refugees, there are also a large number of businessmen, scholars, and uncontrolled cultists. These people are either incapable of fighting, not loyal, or will become a scourge at any time. In short, the real Theresa people in this country The proportion of the population has only reached more than half, and this has always been the case. Even though the previous rulers of the kingdom issued various decrees to promote the birth of the domestic population, because of the mercenary system of all the people, the birth population and war The death population is almost flat, and there is no improvement in the improvement of the domestic population.

Under such circumstances, if the Kingdom of Teresa launches an expansion war, there will inevitably be huge casualties on the battlefield, and the population will also drop sharply. The country also does not have enough troops to defend the results, and may even be defeated one by one due to the dispersion of troops.

If people are not sent to guard the occupied kingdoms and regions, then these kingdoms and regions will inevitably be occupied by other forces, and the Kingdom of Teresa will eventually fall into an embarrassing situation that is thankless.

Obviously, the former rulers of the Teresa Kingdom should have seen the disadvantages, so they have been subtly promoting the population growth of the real Theresa people, and there are more than 50 related decrees.

Although the healing medicine that Leo took out now cannot promote a large population increase in the Kingdom of Teresa in a short period of time, it can help the Kingdom of Teresa to minimize battlefield casualties after the war starts, and increase the population in disguise. Number of Teresa.

Moreover, the healing potion can also make those refugees who have not fully integrated into the Theresa Kingdom and are extremely afraid of war no longer afraid of war, and even become more warlike. After all, if a person knows that even if he is fatally injured, he can survive. And fighting can bring him huge wealth and a higher status, so no matter how cowardly this person was before, he will become extremely brave.

Therefore, Leo's healing potion is definitely the most desired item of the Kingdom of Teresa for so many years. This item alone is enough for Queen Teresa to agree to most of Leo's cooperation requests.

As for the improved repeating pistol and gunpowder formula, it is just a cooperation product that Sylvia saw as a gift from the same family, and this cooperation product was not randomly taken out. After another flaw, deliberately picked.

And another reason they analyzed that affected the expansion of Teresa's kingdom was the Church of True God.

Whether it is because of the city of academics or the system of the Kingdom of Teresa, the relationship between the Church of True God and the Kingdom of Theresa is very average, and sometimes they are even in a state of hostility.

Under such circumstances, the Church of True God will naturally not allow the Kingdom of Teresa to grow, and the Church of True God will not be willing to see the reappearance of a powerful capital like the ancient Middle Kingdom in the Old Continent that can influence the church.

So on the surface, the Church of True God did not prevent the Kingdom of Teresa from accepting neighboring countries as its affiliated countries, but in fact, in those affiliated countries, each Church of True God has arranged a knight order led by paladins and assisted by bishops Stationed in the church sanctuaries of these dependent countries, these knight orders are like nails, nailing the Kingdom of Teresa to the Teresa Mountain.

If it was just a knight order dominated by paladins, or a crusader dominated by bishops, the Kingdom of Teresa would not care about them. Any of the kingdom's twelve legions could easily wipe them out.

But if the two are combined, then such a church armed force is almost invincible in a cold weapon war. After being blessed by various magical powers, a paladin can activate some special divine powers exclusive to different churches of true God. Under the influence of God, any church knight, knight attendant, or even ordinary soldier in the knight order can become a monster with infinite strength and fearless life and death.

Although the army of the Kingdom of Teresa is powerful, it is still a bit difficult to face this kind of monster knights. China's military power still dare not expand outward easily.

However, the repeating pistol and gunpowder formula that Leo took out completely rewrote the rules of war in the old continent, making the cold weapon war a thing of the past, just like the Otter Federation in the new continent.

The use of hot weapons by the Otter Federation has always been an object of study for countries in the Old Continent, because the Otter Federation has fought several wars with the Church of True God without losing the wind, allowing these countries to see the hope of getting rid of the control of the Church of True God.

It's just that due to the eyes and ears of the Church of True God, countries dare not learn blatantly, and can only do some research secretly. The Kingdom of Teresa is no exception, but its situation is much better than those countries controlled by the church. At least it can Rowell's research on gunpowder is one of such research conducted in the city of learning.

It's a pity that due to the influence of the divine law, the laws of physics in the old continent have been distorted. The thermal weapons that can be used normally in the new continent are completely dumb in the old continent. Even if they can be used, they are not good enough Stable, so the form of war in the Old Continent is still the ancient cold weapon war.

And now that this powerful and stable gunpowder formula appears, it will inevitably make Teresa Kingdom change the use of weapons in a short period of time, making it the second Otter Federation, and it has been the result of the war between the Outer Federation and the Church of True God. From the looks of it, as long as the gods don't end up in person, even if the Church of True God forms a holy war army, it will be difficult to suppress the Teresa army who uses hot weapons.

In this way, the expansion of the Teresa Kingdom will be unstoppable, and the situation will only change when the armed forces of the Church of True God begin to use hot weapons, but at that time, the Teresa Kingdom may have become the Theresa Empire, and other countries will also If they compete to follow suit, it will be difficult for the Churches of True God to devote all their energy to the Kingdom of Teresa, and the final result can only accept the expansion of the Kingdom of Teresa.

Queen Teresa was able to stand out from the many members of the royal family and become the ruler of the kingdom. Naturally, she also possessed a lot of wisdom. After knowing the purpose of the two cooperative objects, she could immediately think of the importance of these two objects. The importance of the kingdom, in this case, even if Leo puts forward more excessive demands, she will definitely agree, after all, this is related to Teresa Kingdom's long-cherished wish to expand for so many years.

What's more, from a certain point of view, the two requirements raised by Leo are not particularly excessive, and it can even be said to be a win-win requirement.

These two requirements are very simple. The first is to open all research projects on the remains of prehistoric civilization to them, and the second is to give them all the items related to the gods in the kingdom's possession for research.

These two requests seem excessive, because these two things have already involved the core secrets of Teresa Kingdom, and it is impossible for Teresa people who are not absolutely loyal to have access to these two things, so Leo proposed When asking, Sylvia had already considered persuasive rhetoric.

However, what they didn't expect was that after hearing these two requests, Queen Teresa readily agreed after only thinking for a moment, making Leo doubt whether the two requests he made were too small , I even think that Queen Teresa has plans to break the contract.

Now it seems that the two things that Leo and the others took out are too important to the Teresa Kingdom. , this imbalance of importance will continue.

In the next few days, Queen Teresa and Duke Belmont did not meet with Leo and Silvia again, and Leo and the others seemed to have forgotten what happened that day, and they were still conducting various researches according to their own pace and rhythm. , to collect various data.

Thomas, the dean of the Outer Academy, also learned about the meeting between Leo and the others with Queen Teresa and the Duke of Belmont at that time, and began to let Leo and the others get in touch with the relics of prehistoric civilization that the academy possessed.

It's just that he didn't immediately invite Leo and Sylvia to join the research team as agreed in advance, and directly contact the relics of prehistoric civilization. Instead, he found an excuse to avoid criticism and postponed the invitation to Leo and the others. , and took out some items related to the relics of prehistoric civilization and handed them to Leo and Sylvia for research, saying that after the two of them had researched some results, he would be able to invite them as a matter of course.

During this process, Dean Thomas hinted, saying that this decision was not his original intention, but was influenced by external forces.

As for which external force was affected, it can be guessed without much thought. Now in the academic city, the only person who can influence the decision-making of an outer court dean is Queen Teresa.

After that, Leo inquired about the news and learned that what they expected had happened. When Queen Teresa inspected various research projects invested by the royal family, she discovered the stable gunpowder formula developed by Rowell and Leo's cooperation item. The gunpowder formula is exactly the same, and then it is natural to know that Leo and Sylvia actually took her things to make a collaboration and talked to her about cooperation.

Although the modification method of the bursting pistol paired with this gunpowder can save a lot of time required for related research, and the healing potion is indeed an important item needed by the kingdom, Queen Teresa still feels the atmosphere.

Although she cannot do things like break the contract, it is still possible to create some small obstacles in the process of implementing the cooperation agreement.

It's a pity that this kind of small obstacle is nothing to Leo. On the night Dean Thomas handed over the prehistoric civilization items to him for research, the complete research report was placed on Dean Thomas's desk, and the Dean Thomas The chief ignored the queen's request and directly signed the invitation for the research project of Leo and Sylvia.