I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Chapter 97: King Ovinia III’s Happy Platform

When Seris’s army joined forces with Tina’s troops, everything had already been decided.

The supply line at the rear was completely severed.

The high nobles, gripped by panic and fear, lost their composure, and any attempt to suppress information became impossible.

Once the defenders of Lalor City realized they were completely trapped, bombarded without respite, and that no reinforcements would ever come, their morale plummeted instantly.

Several small-scale mutinies even broke out within the army.

As Seris’s troops continuously fired cannons while distributing leaflets of persuasion—along with letters from the soldiers’ family members urging them to surrender—it took less than a week for the heavily fortified Lalor, which had resisted Seris’s offensive since Mitia’s uprising, to crumble from within.

White flags rose, and the gates opened in surrender.

As for the nobles of the Queen Consort’s faction—some committed suicide, others fled under false names, disappearing entirely from history.

King Ovinia III fared even worse.

Everyone had lost faith in him, including his own royal guards.

He was bound and delivered by the people of the Royal Capital to the gates outside the city.

Thus, the Kingdom of Ovinia was completely liberated and incorporated into the territory of the Seris Federation.

As for the rebel Nizaljar, his uprising made no ripple at all—Tina’s workers’ and peasants’ army easily breached and occupied his city.

Apart from slightly inferior weaponry and equipment, the combat strength and resolve of Tina’s army were in no way inferior to the regular forces of Seris.

The veteran soldiers, tempered by war, were a force to be reckoned with.

Mitia herself traveled to the old capital of Ovinia to meet with Tina.

Before the people of the Royal Capital, the assembled generals, and Seris’s officials,the transition of military command was formally completed, and Tina’s army was officially placed under the Empress’s command.

A month later, through the newly established national wired broadcast network, the Empress of Seris assured the people that all policies Tina had promised would be faithfully implemented.

Furthermore, due to the delay of spring planting caused by the war, the government would distribute seeds free of charge and open granaries to release standardized relief rations to ease the widespread food shortage.

At the same time, in the old capital, a week-long public trial was held for King Ovinia III, the Queen Consort, and their entire family line.

They were all sentenced to death.

When the rope was cut and the guillotine blade fell cleanly, the old king’s reign ended amid the cheers of the people.

And with that, the nation was reborn.

Miwei, as the Saintess of the Holy Light Church, accompanied the Empress to the old capital.

Within the newly annexed territories, remnants of the Church still existed.

With the Pontiff’s disappearance, panic spread, leaving the clergy leaderless.

Under the “assistance” of Tina’s local forces, Miwei successfully reabsorbed all verified believers into the Holy Light Church with little resistance.

As for the fanatics of the Goddess Church...

they had long been decimated in the series of wars.

The remaining few, unable to hide due to their faith insignias, were sent to “reunite with their Goddess.”

“Holy Light is an element, a companion—not a god. To save and aid others is the Church’s core tenet.”

As long as the final right of interpretation remained in the Empress’s hands, she allowed the Church’s expansion freely.

Now, aside from the medical soldiers within the army, large numbers of healers from the Church also joined in treating Seris’s wounded soldiers.

She had already realized—this world was not her previous one.

The true path forward lay in fusing both sides’ strengths according to local conditions.

With the nation finally unified, Seris could now turn its attention to the Kingdom of Alesia.

The Alesian Kingdom had no idea what kind of power it had provoked.

To this opportunistic kingdom seeking to profit from Seris’s turmoil, Mitia had only one thing to say—“serves them right.”

They had delivered the pretext into her hands themselves: tens of thousands of Alesian soldiers captured along the border were evidence enough of their invasion. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ noⅴelfire.net

In the name of the Empress, a counteroffensive was declared—

the “righteous” army’s iron fist would strike down upon the feudal nobles.

Perhaps they had grown too complacent, never imagining how vast a peasant uprising could become once it spread.

The conscripted men, the farmers who could no longer survive in the countryside and joined the workers’ and peasants’ army—even Mitia herself no longer knew the total number of troops; the estimate reached several million.

It was effectively the second phase of national war mobilization—nearly all able-bodied young adults were serving in the army, and morale, lifted by victory, reached its peak.

For now, Mitia chose not to screen the workers’ and peasants’ army.

Instead, she redeployed the regular Seris forces to the Alesian border to launch a counter-invasion.

And the military operation plan bore the bold title—“Liberation of Alesia.”

The Gringol Army Group launched an hour-long massive artillery bombardment toward Alesia’s fortress city in the Zhalad direction, unleashing nearly ten thousand shells of all types.

When the vanguard units encircled the city from three sides, the enemy, overjoyed, threw down their rifles, raised their hands, and ran out to surrender.

Some even clung to Seris soldiers’ legs in tears, wailing that they had done nothing wrong in their lives and asking why the Lord of Thunder wanted to strike them down.

The Seris regular army acted as the spearhead of the breakthrough, while the workers’ and peasants’ army handled the prisoners, occupied territories, and ensured logistical support and transport of supplies.

It was the first time Seris had ever fought such a “rich” war—ample manpower allowed the mechanized divisions to advance swiftly and fearlessly, piercing deep into the heart of the kingdom with multi-pronged attacks.

The infantry divisions followed behind to secure the corridors carved out by the mechanized forces, process prisoners, and persuade the small and medium fiefs to surrender.

The Kingdom of Alesia had never anticipated the situation would deteriorate so rapidly.

Emergency-deployed troops, upon encountering Seris’s regular army head-on, were shattered after a single round of bombardment.

Each newly mobilized force, often before even departing, was bombed and surrounded by Seris’s advancing mechanized units.

Entire formations surrendered wholesale, accomplishing nothing—as if the Kingdom of Alesia were willingly delivering its soldiers into Seris’s hands.

Those lucky enough not to encounter the mechanized divisions were pinned down by the workers’ and peasants’ infantry, then swiftly crushed in pincer attacks when reinforcements arrived.

Although the workers’ and peasants’ army lacked some of the Seris regulars’ equipment, they had been allocated slower-moving tracked self-propelled howitzers.

Their heavy firepower was not far behind.

Meanwhile, the kingdom’s muddy roads became a major obstacle to their own military movements—wagons and horses could barely move, and soldiers marched entirely on foot.

Wherever the workers’ and peasants’ army arrived, they immediately convened public trials, opened granaries, distributed land, and organized farmers’ associations—a triple strike that dismantled the kingdom’s grassroots governance completely.

Once a territory was lost, it was lost for good; deprived of their base among the common people, the nobles could no longer muster any effective resistance.

They couldn’t even negotiate peace with Seris before half of their kingdom had already fallen.

In less than two months of war, the Kingdom of Alesia had already found itself on the brink of destruction.