"Now, I'm going to tell the quartermaster: I'm sorry, the mode of war has changed completely, I can't give you more and better horses, but I can give you the most advanced magic car! You don't need to prepare a delicate and cumbersome feed for your car, a small piece of magic crystal can make it run thousands of miles without stopping! It doesn't get frightened, it doesn't get sick, it doesn't bleed, it doesn't even get tired! Its traction and gravity are dozens of times that of a horse, and it can carry thirty heavily armed soldiers on a tireless long-distance run, and it can also tow a cannon for 40 miles per hour! With such an 'iron horse', what more military horses do you want! ”

His Majesty's bold speech elicited a round of applause in the chamber. Even the most stubborn people now realize the huge strategic value of the magic guide car, and this is worthy of the Far East government to formulate an industrial policy and devote all resources to vigorously promote the production and improvement of the magic guide car.

Roland listened to his father's words, and suddenly remembered an anecdote he had heard before crossing over. At the beginning of the 20th century, Henry Ford, the American automobile king, was very disdainful of the popular theory of "demand determines supply" in the academic circles at that time, and once publicly said such a passage:

"If I initially ask consumers what they want, they'll tell me, 'I want a faster horse'! If I had gone along with them, there would have been no Ford cars now. ”

……

His Majesty the King personally led the Cabinet unanimously to approve the bill to focus on promoting the "magic car" industry, with the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of National Defense and the Central Bank cooperating to provide the necessary resources. To put it bluntly, this is the meaning of "giving the green light all the way", with the strength of the whole country, we must make the related industries of the magic car stronger and bigger as soon as possible at all costs!

In all of these sectors, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Finance are the most critical. The Ministry of Defense provides military orders for the manufacturers of the Magic Guide, and the Ministry of Finance gives special subsidies, and of course, it is the central bank that pays in the end.

Matvey's meaning is to first build a magic car factory on Koras Island, trial production of a batch of vehicles, and then slowly expand the scale of production. His Majesty Rudolph suggested that the steps should be taken a little bigger, and that it would be better to build factories at the same time in the Karon Industrial Zone, Icewind Valley, and Koras Island, with factories 1, 2, and 3 starting at the same time, and now in September 1624, with the aim of bringing the total production of magic cars to 30,000 by the end of 1625 - a number that would basically meet the defense needs of the Far East.

Matvey felt that this kind of aggressive approach was too big an investment and too risky, and he could not afford to be held responsible if something went wrong.

In the past, whenever his father showed a tendency to rejoice in his achievements, Roland would always dissuade him at the right time, but today, contrary to the norm, not only did not dissuade his father, but immediately expressed his approval of his father's attitude of "working fast and seizing the day", and promised to use the royal fund to provide an interest-free loan of no less than 40 million gold tales for the magic automobile industry, as the start-up capital of the three factories, and this is exactly all the income he earned by speculating on the empire's gold money.

40,000,000 gold talers is a huge number even in the eyes of well-informed cabinet ministers! In the four years since the founding of the Far East, no such large start-up capital has been invested in a particular industry, which shows that not only His Majesty attaches great importance to the magic automobile industry, but His Royal Highness is also optimistic about the bright prospects of this industry.

Having money and easy things to do, Matvey immediately changed his attitude, patted his chest and promised to fulfill the great trust of His Majesty the King and His Royal Highness the Prince, personally preside over the automobile industry, and ensure that no less than 30,000 magic cars will be provided to the military by the end of next year, and the mechanization of the Far Eastern Army will be initially realized. Of course, the military not only provides orders, but also deeply participates in the magic guide automobile industry, such as training officers and soldiers in the technology of driving magic cars, such as setting up a new technical unit to be responsible for the maintenance and care of magic cars, all of which need to cooperate with the factory side.

In the following time, the atmosphere of the meeting became more and more enthusiastic. His Majesty Rudolph, with many years of actual combat experience in the army, proposed that the magic guide car could be further improved, such as strengthening the armor thickness of the vehicle and transforming it into an armored personnel carrier, such as combining the magic guide car with the magic crystal heavy artillery to create an automatic cannon that can run while fighting!

Others may think that His Majesty's fanciful ideas are too absurd to be feasible. Roland's feelings, on the contrary, were amazed by his father's foresight. The history of wars on the earth is enough to prove the indispensable position of armored vehicles on the battlefield, and the "magic car + cannon" envisioned by Rudolph is actually "self-propelled artillery", which is the direction of future artillery development.

At the end of the meeting, the ministers realized that His Royal Highness had been too aggressive on the issue of the magic car, but they were inconvenient to inquire why this was so, so they had to hide their confusion in their hearts.

It wasn't until the afternoon of the same day that news reached Krasborough from the holy city of Assan, and people suddenly woke up to the fact that the empire had changed. It is precisely because Roland learned of this important news one day in advance that he will take a more positive attitude towards rearmament and warfare, and the installation of magic cars as soon as possible is the key link in strengthening the defense forces of the Far East.

……

On September 1, 1624, the political scene of the empire underwent a drastic change. Prime Minister Muller submitted his resignation to His Majesty the Emperor, and all his cabinet members stepped down in disgrace. The new prime minister who replaced Count Müller in the form of a cabinet is none other than Cardinal Claude of the Holy City District.

Roland learned of the change of the Imperial Cabinet in advance through the Fogel family, and immediately had a premonition that a catastrophe was coming. The coming to power of Prime Minister Claude not only means that the "conservatives" in the imperial political arena have prevailed over the "reformers", but also that the military has made great efforts behind it. The new prime minister, in gratitude for the support of the radical wing of the military, is likely to abandon the staunch opposition to the Crusades of the Mill era, and for Far Easterners, military pressure from the West could turn from a threat to outright aggression at any time. Of course, perhaps in the eyes of Claude's cabinet and even most of the people of the empire, the crusade was a reconquest of lost territory and the suppression of rebellions, which had a natural righteousness.

Anthony also revealed to Roland a recent anecdote that has been circulating in the Holy City: John Lauer, Frank's most important thinker, the designer and promoter of the imperial currency reform, has been criticized by public opinion for single-handedly causing the financial crisis that has affected the whole country. Unable to bear the blow of falling from the altar to hell, John Lauer hastily ended his life at the age of thirty in a monastery on the outskirts of the holy city of Asia.

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is .. Literature Museum mobile version reading website: m.