I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Just as everyone felt there was a sense of an impending storm between the two continents, a group of guests whom no one had expected arrived at Sendegas Harbor: a papal diplomatic mission from the Dmitria Church led by a red-robed archbishop.

What they proposed was also very curious — they wanted to discuss establishing formal diplomatic relations with the Seris Federation.

At a time when troops from both sides were clashing on the battlefield? Establish diplomatic ties?

When Mitia saw the report her face was full of doubt. One moment the meeting of the alliance had ended in discord, and the next the other side was sending people to talk about diplomatic relations — she had never seen such a tactic.

Then again—

judging by when the Dmitria diplomatic delegation had set out, it was clear the diplomatic mission had departed first; the disputes at the alliance meeting had arisen afterward.

In any case, Mitia had no reason to refuse a formal diplomatic audience, but establishing diplomatic relations was impossible.

Still, many government officials in the Upper House felt establishing relations might not be a bad idea; after all, the strength of the Dmitria Church was plain to see, and if it could be avoided it was better not to provoke such an external enemy.

When the envoys of the Church arrived they even brought a gift from the Pontiff for the Empress, and indeed proposed that the two sides establish normal state-to-state diplomatic relations.

There was, however, a prerequisite: the Seris Federation must no longer interfere with the Church’s aid operations in the Kingdom of Paria.

On hearing the condition Mitia snorted coldly:

“The Empress of Seris will not accept his gift. We hope the Dmitria Church will guard its own borders and not interfere in wars between the nations of the subcontinent. Our affairs should be resolved by ourselves!”

The archbishop, looking up at the woman seated high on the throne, looked very displeased: You are instigating a war that could have been avoided!

“As long as your Church withdraws its troops from the subcontinent, then all disputes will vanish.”

Mitia’s words left the Church no face and no room for maneuver; the Church delegation swept their sleeves and left.

Although no one opposed Mitia’s series of targeted measures against the Church, some expressed a bit of puzzlement — wasn’t now the time to develop the economy and build the nation?

The Seris Federation was already strong enough.

The country had been founded only a few years; to say it had much to rebuild was no exaggeration — many infrastructure projects were under construction or planned, and internal demand for various resources was immense.

Continual foreign warfare would inevitably squeeze the Federation’s resource allocations.

That way of thinking was quite normal — no one did not want to live in a peaceful, stable society.

Being able to live well and make modest contributions to the state was enough.

No one questioned the Empress’s authority, but that did not prevent people who worked in their posts from thinking other thoughts at the same time.

Mitia did not intend to change her mind, but she did not act overly harshly either; with power already in her hands, she need not be stingy with softer means.

She explained her thinking to the assembly with a short speech: “That terrorist attack on the Federation capital proved beyond doubt that they are our enemy, so whatever an enemy wants, we must not let them have it.”

“And if, after being violated, one still accepted an olive branch from the enemy, it would only prove one’s weakness.”

“The strong are respected; the weak only invite invasion and humiliation.”

......

In the large Empress’s Palace sitting room, Mitia and Anna took advantage of some idle time to play a game of chess.

Meanwhile, the navy fleet that had escorted the ocean-going freighters far away at Bonwich had already completed resupply and maintenance at the Sendegas naval port.

It had now been incorporated into the newly rebuilt Sendegas fleet to form the Federation First United Fleet.

After years of maturation and modular assembly, the Zhiyuan-class cruiser force had reached a scale of thirty ships, and it was also equipped with hundreds of small torpedo boats.

Larger-tonnage battleships were still in the experimental research stage. Mitia’s view of the navy’s role was to first leverage industrial mass-production advantages to quickly assemble a navy with respectable combat power.

Then they would transition to larger, super-large capital ships, such as battleships and aircraft carriers. She had little interest in armored cruisers or ironclads as secondary derivatives.

Grand construction was tempting, but it was time-consuming, labor-intensive, and required vast resources — such super-projects were better undertaken once the nation reached a relatively stable period.

The torpedo boats were fitted with a 20 mm high-elevation dual-purpose autocannon, which provided anti-air capability while being effective against small targets; of course, their most important role remained launching torpedoes.

The long-range compressed-air propelled torpedo ran at 17 km per hour with an effective range of 1 km.

It was a purely mechanical design, full of mechanical aesthetics (not really) — mainly still early in development; small-engine manufacturing was somewhat difficult.

Before launch, high-pressure air was injected into the mid-section of the torpedo by a high-pressure air injector. The compressed air drove a compound oscillating engine to perform work and propel the torpedo.

The principle of the compressed-air engine was also very simple — essentially the same family as internal combustion engines, but instead of a fuel-air explosion ignition stroke it used compressed air to drive two piston strokes that turned a central drive shaft to do work and drive the propeller.

This torpedo was a transitional weapon; the second generation would jump directly to thermal-powered torpedo development, but that would not be simple in the short term.

Anna placed a piece on the board: “Our response will make the Church feel that the Pontiff has been gravely humiliated. Milady, will we win this war?”

Mitia’s mouth curved slightly: “Unless I did not want to win, no one could make me lose.”

Her slender, long fingers placed a piece; the black rook continued to press Anna’s white king, making Anna pout.

Anna could not take that black rook — as long as Mitia did not make a mistake the game would be a draw, which meant Anna would be forced to a draw.

Mitia’s purpose in forming the combined fleet was naturally to cut off the Dmitria Church’s ongoing transoceanic troop transports.

If the Church mobilized a large fleet, such a movement could not stay hidden from other nations.

The General Staff, upon receiving intelligence, had immediately submitted it for her review and had written many conjectures.

In the end, all clues pointed to their transoceanic troop deployment.

This undeniably revealed to Mitia a brilliant opportunity. She would say she could win on land, but the cost would likely be terrible; at sea—

On paper the Zhiyuan-class cruiser’s speed of 22 knots did not sound impressive.

The other side’s wooden sailing ships would be thrilled to manage ten knots, and even with magical assistance they absolutely could not break fifteen knots.

That meant the Seris Federation’s navy enjoyed the advantage — she intended to give the Church a lesson.

Although the Church’s fleet in the Kingdom of Paria already numbered nearly five hundred ships in total, claiming to be an invincible armada, she still had absolute confidence in her own fleet.

When both sides’ firepower was comparable, advantages in speed and fire control would decide victory or defeat.

With airships serving as high-altitude reconnaissance and with professional range-finding and fire-control, she would show the Church what it meant that

“Sir~ the times have changed!”