"Originally, only mages can use magic crystals. However, when the number of magicians is not large, most of the magic crystals that are not 'flawless' will be discarded. Therefore, various places have

The magic crystal itself will not be mined in large quantities...but now, we have entered the era of elemental machines."

"If you want to run the elemental machine, you need a lot of magic crystals. After several battles between us and the Blue Bay Empire, things like elemental guns must have spread throughout the empire. The number of people who want to obtain this mineral material

It will definitely rise...even Hanhai City itself may be a big buyer."

"If we can sell these magic crystals at this time and exchange them for various resources... the base can continue to be maintained, leaving us enough time to reorganize and develop..."

Tesla beside him couldn't stand listening anymore and said: "President, as you say...are you going to contact our enemies? Do business with our enemies...and then sell our mineral deposits to them,

Then let them work hard to build elemental guns, and finally attack us in turn?"

Ariel smiled, reached out and patted Tesla on the shoulder again, and said: "After all, weapons need people to use them. Moreover, how can we convert magic crystals into usable elemental guns so fast? We

It would take three days to make a mediocre elemental cannon."

Having said this, Ariel smiled and faced the people in front of her. After scanning her eyes, she nodded lightly——

"If there is no problem, then everyone should rest now. We should be very busy starting tomorrow. Although it is not a battle, you still need to make corresponding preparations."

The meeting was dismissed and everyone began to return to their dormitories to rest.

After leaving the conference room, Ariel went to Suta's rest area and checked on the children who were injured and could not follow the islanders to take on the work of "explorers". Afterwards, she talked to Suta for a while, and so did she.

Went back to the room to rest.

————

Although she said it lightly, Ariel knew that the current situation was not easy at all.

Even though Jelly had already discussed with the soldiers how to solve the sixth encirclement and suppression at hand, he still had to spend a lot of time planning various plans if he wanted to successfully defeat the opponent.

Ariel was not idle before the action began.

She spent almost six days visiting all fifty-two villages, large and small, on the Qiongshen Mountain. She personally visited the local villagers to learn about their situation, and then offered to hire them to work with them.

Come out and build the element factory.

Ariel knew that it was useless to just talk about fairness. Only by allowing the villagers here to truly benefit from the actions of the mermaid army could they gather to the side of the mermaid army, and then

Can tell them how to create that beautiful world.

To put it more simply, if the lives of these villagers are made easier, then even if the Imperial Army takes the initiative to send troops to threaten them, even if they do not take the initiative to fight on the side of the Mermaid Army, they will remain neutral.

Among the villages on Qiong Shen Mountain, the total population is about three to four thousand people, ranging from a hundred people to a dozen people. The number of Mermaid Army soldiers currently staying in Qiu Shen Mountain is about the same.

There are three thousand people, so it is absolutely not enough for the villagers to provide food for the mermaid army.

For this reason, it is necessary to trade with the wealthy areas outside the mountains.

Fortunately, the sixth siege and suppression of the base area that was originally planned to be launched during the Holy Night Festival did not happen for some reason.

The reason why it didn't happen was because the city lord was unwilling to send out troops during the festival. The private soldiers also hoped to spend a good year and wait until three days before launching an attack.

In this case, the mermaid army cannot help but take action.

At eleven o'clock in the evening on December 31, 1307, while the imperial army was still celebrating the arrival of the Holy Night Festival and fireworks were being set off in the city, the elemental cannon also exploded at this time, taking advantage of the explosion of the fireworks.

The elemental cannon, which could only fire one round, exploded at the same time as the barrel of the cannon exploded, sending the shell far into the city from the top of the distant hill. With a loud bang, the towering tower where the city lord lived was

It was also under the bombardment of artillery shells that the most brilliant sparks of the night bloomed.

The people in the city who were still cheering for the Holy Night Festival just now almost saw with their own eyes the bolide instantly destroying the sand wall that belonged to the era of sword and magic, and then saw fire coming out of the tower. Immediately afterwards, the members of the vampire clan

At night, he carried the soldiers of the Mermaid Army on his back and sent them into the city one by one, and asked these soldiers to set fire everywhere in the city.

The battle lasted until the early morning of January 1, 1308.

In fact, the battle in the first half of the night went smoothly. After the mermaid army set fire to disrupt the entire city, the residents of the city hindered the imperial army's actions in panic and confusion.

But not long after, the imperial army led by the city lord began to forcibly suppress the residents of the entire city, killing anyone who dared to run around on the streets without mercy.

Under the bloody suppression, the imperial army quickly maintained order in the city. Then they soon discovered the whereabouts of the mermaid army, and the two sides started a street battle in the city.

Both sides were carrying elemental guns, and the sound of gunfire was loud for a while. After all, the mermaid army was not as familiar with the situation in the city as the imperial army. They suffered a certain degree of losses and had to retreat to the rear.

It was not until early in the morning that the mermaid army finally withdrew completely from the city. The city lord was probably afraid that the mermaid army's retreat would be deceitful, so he did not lead the army out of the city to attack, and was completely huddled in the city.

In this battle, twelve soldiers from the Mermaid Army died, and thirty-one were injured.

As for the casualties on the Imperial Army side, I'm afraid the casualties would be about the same in a short period of time, and there was no need for Ariel to investigate.

While she lamented that it was still difficult to capture such a city in one go, she was also pleased that the campaign goal had been achieved.

Throughout January of 1307, Ariel was finalizing the infrastructure construction work of the villagers. The land on Qiongshan Mountain was as hard as iron, just like the name of the mountain. Even cultivation was so difficult and full of various problems.

A variety of saline-alkali land where no plants grow.

For this reason, Ariel ordered the element factory to quickly produce an element vehicle that could be used on such mountain roads, or a small element reclamation tool that could be portable and used to facilitate land reclamation.

Before the completion of the ten element factories at the end of January, Ariel wrote a letter to the city lord based on the intelligence sent back from the front line, expressing her hope that the two parties could negotiate peace and do business together.

Of course, such a request would be regarded as a provocation and thrown back directly, but it didn't matter. Ariel continued to write letters in the second month, and also started further financial consolidation work...

————

"Huh...this continuous rainy day finally seems to be over."

Early in the morning, Ariel got up amidst the non-stop rumbling sounds of the elemental machines. After briefly freshening up, she put on a hat, gathered her blond hair, and walked out of the room.

After entering the canteen, like other soldiers, she took a small piece of hard bread and a sip of water. She smiled at the other soldiers who paid attention to her and asked everyone to continue eating. Then she took a bite of bread and a sip of water.

He walked towards the soldiers who were squatting on the ground or sitting on the rocks.

"Madam Marquis."

The soldiers saw her coming and stood up quickly. Ariel smiled, took another bite of bread, and squatted on the ground like the soldiers. She raised the earthen bowl in her hand and took a sip of water, and said: "Al

Fred, have you discussed anything about the plan we discussed yesterday?"

A soldier nearby quickly put down the earthen bowl in his hand, wiped his hands, took out a crumpled piece of paper from his arms, and said: "Ms. Marquis, we have thought about it and think this method is feasible. But if it is really

If you do this, there may be some trouble later."

Ariel took another bite of bread: "What's the trouble?"

The soldier said: "According to the process we agreed on yesterday, this is how things will be handled. First of all, there are those hand-held cultivators. This kind of cultivator is really good, very small, not as huge as the plow hanging on the element vehicle, with two hands

It can be operated, and the operation is quite simple. It is just right for use on this kind of mountain, and it is very convenient.”

"We show these farmers this handheld cultivator, and then distribute the cultivator to them and let them plow the land. After they plow the land and harvest the crops, they give us food as taxes."

"But Madam Marquis, there is a very important point in this. We brothers have calculated that if we really give the cultivators directly to the farmers, on the one hand, our production capacity is limited and we cannot make so many.

Secondly, the cost is too high for us."

Ariel frowned, put all the bread in her hand into her mouth, chewed a few mouthfuls, swallowed, and glanced at the other soldiers: "Is the cost really that high? Our city lord is like this

For a month, we didn't even dare to leave the city, and we didn't dare to mention the encirclement and suppression of us at all. I thought we could contact more wealthy towns down the mountain."

The soldiers said: "Ms. Marquis, we... do have little education, and we did learn some basic mathematical knowledge from you. But no matter how we calculate it, these costs are too high. If possible,

How about we turn all those farmers into miners? Digging more magic crystals is more convenient than farming."

Ariel rubbed her forehead, and after thinking for a moment, she looked at the other soldier and said, "Bulton, when we were discussing two days ago, you once proposed an idea. What was that idea?"

Another soldier was stunned for a moment, and then said shyly: "Ms. Marquis, um... my proposal is to provide loans to farmers, let them borrow money from us, and then pay it back after they make money...

…But……"

His eyes flickered for a moment, and he glanced timidly at everyone around him——

"However, this method is the method used by the landlords to destroy my family... I was just obsessed with it for a while, and I thought this method was really quick to make money, so I proposed it... I don't really want us to become landlords again.

The old way of collecting rent! Madam Marquis!"

The soldiers nearby saw this soldier getting nervous and said one after another: "Ms. Marquis, please forgive him. He just lost his head for a moment..."

Ariel waved her hands quickly, shook her head vigorously and said: "No, no, no, I'm not blaming you. I just think we don't need to make things so deadly. Indeed, the landlord has used this method to harm many people, but the method

It won't harm people in itself, but what really harms people is the landlord's desire for more money. Well... we can use a more flexible method to handle this matter, so that things don't become so rigid."

After thinking for a moment, Ariel clapped her hands and said, "What do you think of this? We will also set up a bank to lend money out, and then let the villagers borrow money..."

Before Ariel finished speaking, a little warrior stood up suddenly, his face flushed, and said angrily: "Ms. Marquis! Why do you still use this method?! I knew you would never deceive us people like this,

I just joined the Mermaid Army! Why do you want to lend money now?!"

Seeing that the little warrior was getting excited, Ariel did not speak. The soldiers nearby quickly comforted the little warrior and asked him to squat down again, but they also looked at the leader with their eyes, seeking answers.

Ariel smiled and said: "Please listen to me. I just said that the method itself is not good or bad. The person who uses the method is the key to determining the effect of the method."

"Although it is said to be a bank, and it is indeed used to lend money to the villagers. But our bank, lending money to the villagers requires the villagers to sign a contract."

As soon as they heard the word "sign a contract", some soldiers reflexively broke into cold sweat on their backs, and some couldn't sit still.

Ariel didn't care and continued -

"In this contract, we wrote this. It stipulates that the villagers who borrowed the money can only use the money to purchase small cultivators produced in our element factory!"

"After buying these cultivators back, they must pay us grain during the summer harvest, which is almost a quarter of the price of the small cultivators. In this way, after two harvests, the summer harvest and the autumn harvest, next year's autumn harvest will

They should be able to pay off the debt. The cultivator can also be owned by them at this time."
To be continued...