Utopia - The lubricant that promotes technological revolution - the rise of the hegemon of the old continent
The new calendar era has been using the year recently. The month has been using the day recently. That is, the Eri United Kingdom has been using the calendar of origin recently. As the first human country in the east of the old continent and the first empire among human countries, the Iron Fist Empire has gone through a change of dynasties and finally cleared up all the problems caused by the demon forces that were causing chaos in the country. Therefore, in order to develop its own national strength, the Iron Fist Empire formally agreed to the industrial development plan proposal put forward by the Holy Church, which worships the power of the gods.
However, the Iron Fist Empire itself is a backward agricultural country based on agriculture. In order to provide the first huge investment funds for the development of industry, the Imperial Congress, with the consent of His Majesty the Emperor, on the one hand, counted the domestic military, people, and financial conditions, and on the other hand, cast its sights on the various “disobedient and unspoken” human countries, independent city-states, and nomadic tribes in the west, which may even assist the demons in invading their own countries.
Therefore, the human countries located to the west of the Iron Fist Empire and bordering it, as well as a considerable number of human tribal city-states, have realized the ambitions of the Iron Fist Empire and started to prepare for war, trying to intimidate the Iron Fist Empire through military alliances, so that the Iron Fist Empire would give up the idea of invading.
However, after the Iron Fist Empire changed dynasties and implemented the parliamentary constitutional monarchy law, although the emperor of the Iron Fist Empire was a mascot who ruled but did not govern, the influence of the royal family forced the parliament to agree to the emperor’s proposal to dismember the alliance.
In addition, the Iron Fist Empire’s army was equipped with advanced weapons and equipment such as Mauser rotary rifles, cold-front submachine guns, and Wengang general-purpose machine guns developed by the Holy Church (actually designed by the gods), and the army had been resting for more than 30 years and was ready to move. In contrast, at that time, including the Eldar and Demon forces, as well as the vast majority of human countries, relied on cold weapons to fight, and the Iron Fist Empire’s military technology was advanced, which was unique in the Old Continent.
Even on this basis, under the instruction of the gods, the Holy Church also sent a team of priests who knew magic to accompany the army to face various dangerous situations with the front-line members of the army.
As a result, the army of the Iron Fist Empire officially went to war in the name of other countries’ propaganda of heresy and plotting to split the border areas of the empire, and conquered one backward city-state and tribe after another who had no time to sign the alliance with the advanced weapons developed by the Holy Church.
In addition, for the purpose of long-term stability, the Congress of the Iron Fist Empire and His Majesty the Emperor also forced all the conquered city-states and tribal survivors to abandon their original beliefs and learn and use the written language and legal currency of the Iron Fist Empire.
At the same time, these priests accompanied the army to completely ensure that there was no heresy in every conquered area, that is, to destroy all the text carriers in the conquered areas that did not conform to the canons and the culture of the Holy Church. Although this caused criticism from the Western Human National Alliance, it was difficult for the countries to continue to speak harsh words in the face of the Iron Fist Empire army, which was in full swing.
So in just nine years, the Iron Fist Empire destroyed 27 city-states and tribal forces, obtained or built a total of 103 cities, plus more than 1.47 million prisoners of war, as well as a huge amount of gold, silver and jewelry that the empire could not imagine, plus countless livestock resources such as pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese. The Iron Fist Empire, which suddenly enjoyed the fact that it was not short of money, not only continued to capture the fleeing soldiers and refugees, but also openly started the enclosure development project without the consent of any country.
During this period, the human countries in the west also assisted the invaded city-states and tribes in the name of mercenaries many times. However, the Iron Fist Empire’s army completely crushed the mercenaries who were still using cold weapons in terms of equipment. At the same time, these countries, without exception, were extremely afraid of the Iron Fist Empire’s army’s epoch-making advanced weapons and equipment, as well as its excellent stabbing and close combat level and first-class swordsmanship.
Obviously, even though the Iron Fist Empire was originally a backward serfdom that used cold weapons, under the influence of the Holy Church, which taught it what modernization is, the imperial army, which has always maintained its martial arts tradition, did not abandon the modern weapons and equipment in its hands. On the contrary, the imperial army is increasingly pursuing practical martial arts that can kill with one blow. Therefore, some mercenaries who fell into the Iron Fist Empire’s prisoner-of-war camps suddenly became a diplomatic handle for the Iron Fist Empire and an important source of external income that can be used to exchange for ransom.
However, after a round of conquests, the Iron Fist Empire did not continue to make a big move. On the contrary, the Iron Fist Empire, which was ready to stop, established large-scale rail transportation lines and strengthened the construction of domestic highway networks. At the same time, this also led to the Iron Fist Empire having extremely good logistics and transportation lines in the country. Once a crisis occurs or troops need to be recruited, such a line network can send a large number of troops to the front-line areas in a short time.
More importantly, as the Iron Fist Empire’s military equipment is modernized, the amount of ammunition consumed is increasing. Especially with the appearance of rifle grenades fired by machine guns and rifles, the Western Human Alliance Army no longer dared to launch intensive counterattacks in front of machine guns. Fortunately, however, the rifle bullets used by the Iron Fist Empire’s army can be used for both rifles and machine guns, which greatly reduces the pressure on logistics.
The slave prisoners who were only responsible for front-line construction workers were just as everyone expected. Most of the 470,000 prisoners were building roads until the last moment of their lives. Only less than one thousandth of the members were able to return to their hometown alive because the Western human countries were willing to provide high ransoms.
However, at this time, with the gradual improvement of railway lines and highway lines, the transportation of people and goods in the Iron Fist Empire has made great progress. In addition, under the guidance of the plan, Congress continued to invest in various domestic industries and commerce, and the historical period known as the “Golden Age” by later generations was officially born in the Iron Fist Empire.
In the next 20 years, the Western Human National Alliance did not suffer from the invasion of the Iron Fist Empire. However, due to the differences in development within the alliance, some countries could not bear the high cost of maintaining the army and there was unrest.
For this reason, the Iron Fist Empire, which established a railway transportation system, once again set its sights on the West. However, compared with the previous large-scale military invasion with guns and cannons, the Iron Fist Empire Congress sent diplomats to various Western human countries that were in turmoil.
After the first round of diplomatic activities, five countries in the Western Human National Offensive and Defensive Alliance secretly withdrew and agreed to trade with the Iron Fist Empire to ease the domestic riots caused by military preparations and extortion on this basis.
However, the perfidious behavior of these five countries was the type that could not be covered up, and soon other Western countries criticized them. However, the five countries needed economic assistance from the Iron Fist Empire, and they also needed the Iron Fist Empire to connect railways and highways to their own countries to ensure that they could enjoy the benefits of the Iron Fist Empire’s golden age.
In such negotiations, the Iron Fist Empire, which was enjoying the “golden age”, constantly delegated its domestic merchant group forces to the five countries, causing the people of the five countries to live more and more superiorly and gradually lose their vigilance. However, as long as the domestic economic situation of other Western human countries was not good, they began to be distracted and even wanted to send troops to the five countries to grab a handful.
Therefore, after three years, the Western Human National Alliance finally broke out a military crusade against the five countries. As a result, the five countries, who believed that their economic situation had improved and the domestic situation had eased, naturally did not rely on the assistance of the Iron Fist Empire at all. They firmly believed that they had the ability to resist the invasion of opponents who also used cold weapons alone, and launched defensive operations.
Of course, the Iron Fist Empire at this time would also be straightforward. It directly recalled all the caravans it sent to the five countries in the name of foreign danger and being in a state of war. As a result, after the five countries lost the economic assistance of the Iron Fist Empire, all of them, without exception, persisted for ten years and were directly destroyed.
In the end, the few refugees from the five countries who fled to the border of the Iron Fist Empire were trying to seek help. However, the Iron Fist Empire was not as enthusiastic as before. It completely regarded these refugees as spies who tried to invade their country and arrested them, and turned them all into free slaves to enslave them to death.
[To be honest, I have been using it recently, both Android and Apple are available. 】
After the demise of the five countries, the jubilant invaders did not even have time to sit down and divide the spoils. The Iron Fist Empire army, which came along the railroad tracks by train, was all dressed in plain clothes. They also began to encircle and suppress the invading army of the five countries as mercenaries hired by the refugees of the five countries with their territories as capital.
After the end of this six-month war, the territories of the five countries and all the resources on the territories became the property of the Iron Fist Empire. And the remaining more than 150,000 soldiers of the army sent by the western human countries were all slaves without exception. As a result, the Iron Fist Empire, which had 121 more cities, soon attracted the joint attack of the remaining western human countries.
However, as the prime minister of the Iron Fist Empire was replaced due to illness, a new conquest plan was approved by a group of officials in Congress. So on the basis of the original five countries, five subordinate kingdoms that surrendered to the Iron Fist Empire were established. At the same time, the newly appointed prime minister also obtained the consent of His Majesty the Emperor and announced that the meritorious soldiers who participated in the war could be divided into land in the subordinate countries, and even become officials of the subordinate countries.
After the declaration reached the ears of the soldiers through various channels, it immediately caused a huge sensation, so that the alliance forces suffered many tragic defeats at the hands of the Iron Fist Empire’s army, which was extremely brave and had an increasing number of cannons. As a result, after a year, the Western Human National Alliance could not even defeat the newly formed armies of the five vassal states, and finally had to sit down and negotiate in front of the cannons developed by the Iron Fist Empire.
In view of the fact that some member states within the alliance could not bear the serious civil riots caused by the past preparations for war, the continuous imposition of heavy taxes to maintain military expenses, and the huge gap in national strength, they had to voluntarily become vassal states of the Iron Fist Empire, share a piece of the Iron Fist Empire in its golden age, and accept the protection and maintenance of public order of the Iron Fist Empire. As a result, the Iron Fist Empire directly harvested a large area of land in its golden age, and together with the small forces that directly surrendered in the early years, a total of 36 vassal states paid money and even handed over people on a regular basis (providing troops to fight, or arresting disobedient thugs in the country as slaves) and accepted the protection of the garrison.
In the following thirty years, the Iron Fist Empire officially completed the industrial revolution with the large number of slaves and protection fees provided by its vassal states, and directly became a modern industrial power. At the same time, as the Holy Church established branches in its vassal states, the transformation of its vassal states became increasingly smooth under the leadership of the Iron Fist Empire’s leaders and officials.
Even the few western human countries that did not sign unequal treaties and ended the war peacefully later tried to establish resistance forces within the affiliated countries. However, this not only ushered in brutal military suppression, but also made the officials of the affiliated countries jointly concoct administrative orders to force the change of customs.
From then on, all the people of the affiliated countries who were unwilling to accept the standard Chinese language of the Iron Fist Empire, and even more unwilling to accept the name of the Iron Fist Empire, and unwilling to accept the beliefs of the Iron Fist Empire, were killed or executed on the spot, and all became slaves who worked hard all their lives until the day of death.
By the advent of the 25th day of the new calendar era, the western human countries that could migrate westward basically fled to other places. The Iron Fist Empire, which completely established itself as the first overlord in the East of the Old Continent, has since completely squeezed the blood and sweat of millions of slaves and stepped on their corpses to complete a more advanced power revolution.
However, it was also at this time that the slaves of the Iron Fist Empire had become a major problem of the empire by making trouble from time to time. At the same time, as the number of slaves increased, the blood of slaves gradually integrated into the people of the Iron Fist Empire. In this regard, the Iron Fist Empire Congress also faced a crossroads choice.
However, due to the circulation of radio technology and other more advanced technologies at this time, the Iron Fist Empire Congress had a new political faction of big capitalists with abolition as its slogan. As the ruling party, the traditional political faction of big landlords who supported the slave system did not agree with the proposition of abolishing slaves, and even specially formulated bloodline theory documents to clarify what kind of physical characteristics the people of the Iron Fist Empire should have.
While these two factions were fighting in parliament, a large number of workers were born in the Iron Fist Empire because of the two industrial revolutions. As the most basic representative force of the people of the empire, the union, a non-governmental organization formed by workers, officially appeared in various parts of the empire. Moreover, the union and the chamber of commerce that was born a few years after the establishment of the Iron Fist Empire, the existence of the two gradually became the development vane of the Iron Fist Empire.
So much so that later, different political parties in the Imperial Congress wooed trade unions and chambers of commerce from all over the country, and proposed various favorable projects and promises to add more confidence to their election.
Of course, compared to the various open and covert struggles among the nobles in the upper echelons of the empire, the lower classes of the Iron Fist Empire are more sympathetic to the slaves who have been working hard for the empire for generations. The civilian class, who are also exploited, do not mind the so-called status gap, and many marriages between civilians and slaves have begun to appear.
Despite this behavior, it has been despised and rejected by senior members of the Holy Church from the beginning. However, at this time, the slaves have basically completely forgotten the language and culture of their ancestors. In addition to the obvious difference in appearance from the traditional people of the Iron Fist Empire, millions of slaves have basically become not much different from the civilians of the empire in the baptism of generations.
So much so that some civilians look like slaves with blond hair and blue eyes, but they are just the descendants of redeemed slaves, and are definitely not slaves with a black cross mark on their foreheads.
In response, the Holy Church, which controls the education, medical care, and some military resources of the Iron Fist Empire, also began to seek enlightenment from the gods they believe in. As a result, under the advice of the gods, the Holy Church, which continues to maintain non-interference in politics, no longer makes any type of racial discrimination remarks to the outside world. After all, compared with the conflicts between different races, the integration and conflicts between human races are not worth mentioning at all.
In addition, the underground society that believes in the demons has reappeared in the Iron Fist Empire, and the Eldar forces from the southwest, namely the spy forces of the United Kingdom of Eri. It is difficult to say too much, and it is even more difficult to express its position. The Holy Church finally maintained its original investment in various public welfare undertakings such as culture, education and medical care to unite the power of all human races as much as possible.
After a long time, on July 4, 256 of the New Calendar Era, another round of parliamentary elections in the Imperial Congress ended. The political faction representing the traditionalists finally retained most of the positions in the Iron Fist Empire Congress and the prime minister’s throne, which was above ten thousand people, in a limited compromise.
However, as a compromise condition, the prime minister representing the pro-slavery forces had to make the slave redemption regulations written by the abolitionists public through newspapers and radio channels. Since then, the frequency of slave rebellions in the Iron Fist Empire has decreased, and some wealthy and powerful families no longer need to be sneaky to redeem their slaves for various reasons.
Especially for slaves with professional skills, such as making vinegar, sauce, and wine, some families will marry them and make them part of their family. Although such behavior is more likely to be despised in the upper class, compared to reputation, practical interests always come first.
It is because of these free slaves that the Iron Fist Empire has made considerable progress in food and even industry and commerce. Some forces that later became new aristocratic groups made their fortunes by relying on the skills of slaves, and eventually they were able to establish their own business groups and influence the political direction of the empire.
At the same time, these traditional officials who temporarily retained their seats also kept a hand and created more regulations in the law that could cause criminals to have a black cross mark representing slaves on their foreheads.
As a result, ten years later, the number of slaves in the Iron Fist Empire remained above 3.6 million. In order to ensure the continuation of the Golden Age, the ruling class of the Iron Fist Empire never missed any opportunity to exploit slaves.
How many slaves are buried under every railroad track, every road, and every mine in the empire? This has never been a question that the imperial nobles need to take the initiative to care about. Even the former abolitionists realized that without slaves, the golden age of the empire could not be continued.
Especially the next stage of technological revolution, the research on practical magic technology, which also requires huge investment. In addition, the abolitionists are faced with lobbying by representatives of vassal states who rely on slaves to maintain their own slavery system. Therefore, with the money and even beauty bombs of the vassal states, as well as the “help” of some black materials, the abolitionists of the Iron Fist Empire can only shut their mouths in the end.
Unfortunately, with the resurgence of the demon cult forces in the Iron Fist Empire on May 9, New Era 284, a new round of armed resistance by slaves was launched. No matter how much the abolitionists persuaded, the old aristocratic group representing the traditional conservatives did not hesitate to suppress them by force.
Afterwards, there were less than two million slaves left in the Iron Fist Empire. The Iron Fist Empire, whose population exceeded 200 million for the first time, vigorously developed the border areas to prevent the cultists from taking advantage of the weak rule in the border areas to establish their base camps.
In order to ensure that the abolitionists would no longer talk too much and block their performances on various stages, the conservative traditional nobles directly seized the abolitionists for accepting bribes and suspected of tipping off slaves, and other charges that were not known to be false, and tried to overthrow them one by one.
Since then, the slaves of the Iron Fist Empire have become a very famous synonym for pity on the Old Continent. After most of the abolitionists were overthrown, the civilians of the Iron Fist Empire did not feel much, compared to the traditional conservative nobles who cheered in their homes.
The reason is that the vast majority of civilians in the empire are indifferent to the political struggles of the upper class, and even have a considerable degree of unfamiliarity. Only the soldiers in service have a certain interest, after all, many soldiers in the imperial army have been won over by traditional conservatives through marriage.
What makes the soldiers in the army less resistant is that the conservative forces in power will take the initiative to send female slaves. Especially for some outstanding and meritorious generals, conservative nobles not only offered their own women for marriage, but even sent female slaves to warm their beds.
In this way, except for a few who were able to develop themselves and complete some technological revolutions, the vassal states basically took the slave trade as the foundation of their own country. On the one hand, they made profits by reselling slaves to the empire, and on the other hand, they were eager for the empire’s assistance and protection, which further fueled the arrogance of the human forces in the East of the Old Continent that were difficult to abolish slavery.
However, as the northern neighbor of the Iron Fist Empire, the Jingnan Federal Republic, which completely implemented monogamy, successfully established one women’s college after another, and one after another female wizards with powerful magic power appeared. The attitude towards slaves and the trend of gender equality in the Iron Fist Empire was divided again. The abolitionists, who should have disappeared, reappeared on the political stage of the empire with the support of the federal forces.
Especially after the New Calendar Era 3 had been used for two years, the golden age finally bid farewell to the Iron Fist Empire. When the Iron Fist Empire began to experience economic decline, triggering a wave of unemployment that could not be ignored…