The next two years.

Zhou Ming entered a busy and busy state.

On the one hand, he personally led people to open a test field for nearly 100 kinds of plant seeds such as watermelon, grapes, rice, corn, bread fruit, cotton, rubber, etc. that he brought from the New World. After spring, he planted some of these plant seeds in the field.

On the other hand, the various weapons and iron smelting workshops in the Granling Workshop area also increased their resources and scientific research efforts based on the original basis, and made great progress in about half a year.

For example, the Iron and Steel Floor, Zhou Ming designed a new steelmaking blast furnace with a height of 5 meters and a capacity of more than 10 cubic meters, safe, efficient, energy-saving and environmentally friendly based on the engineering drawings of the [Junior Steel Factory] in his mind. It can produce low-carbon steel with high strength and toughness at a rate of one furnace a day. A blast furnace such as this one has almost the same steel output as the entire Iron Fort Kingdom.

For example, according to the engineering drawings of the [Junior Industrial Machine Tool] in mind, Zhou Ming built several new weapons workshops in his construction, with the efforts of high-quality steel and excellent craftsmen, in the upstream of the river made of snow-capped mountains, which are rich in water. These weapons workshops use various types of industrial machine tools driven by hydraulic power, such as punching machines, drilling machines, cutting machines, boring machines, etc. - relying on these machine tools with high precision, uniform strength and smooth control, the output of various sword armor produced has been greatly improved, not only has the quality been improved at several levels.

There are also [steam engine] and [match gun].

The principles of these two things are not complicated. Zhou Ming developed them with craftsmen several years ago, but the poor airtightness and lubricity have always made the steam engine less efficient and difficult to promote and use. As for the combs, Zhou Ming, who was seriously lacking in gunpowder (he saved two or three tons a year), only asked the craftsmen to build more than a dozen poles there, and occasionally took them out and used them when they went out to hunt.

However, this time, after returning from the New World, Zhou Ming, who was full of confidence, decided to increase his investment and strive to create hundreds of steam engines and tens of thousands of mesh guns within three to five years, and strive to enter the era of steam roar and queues within ten years.

Industry, agriculture, and Zhou Ming are all trying to implement his plans, but they are not the focus of all his work.

In the past two years, most of Zhou Ming's work has focused on one thing.

Training and preparing for war!

The civil war between the Iron Fort Kingdom has been fighting for more than a year. Prince Lawrence, who occupied the eastern part of the Iron Fort Kingdom, supported by 20 earl corpses, and Duke Milton, who occupied the western part and supported by 16 earl corpses, was indistinguishable, with tens of thousands of casualties.

In this civil war, Prince Lawrence in the east undoubtedly had a great advantage. His right to inherit the throne was unquestionable. The 20 earl corpses who supported him controlled most of the iron ore resources of the Iron Fort Kingdom, and their population was almost twice as much as that of Duke Milton in the west. He had more money, more people and more soldiers, and there was no reason not to defeat those "poor guys".

Yes, similar to the "North-South Battle" of the Kingdom of Warris, the upper class of the Iron Fort Kingdom was divided into two factions according to the distribution of iron ore resources in the east: the "poor man" in the eyes of the east and the "Iron Man" in the eyes of the people on the west. The two factions dislike each other. In the noble parliament, they often fight against each other.

But the "poor guys" in the west are indeed poor. Money, people, and soldiers are not as good as the "iron guys" in the east who have countless iron ore. In addition, the king's butt often sits on the side of the "iron guys", so the king's butt is all done by the "poor guys", and the "iron guys" stand aside and give advice, and sneer from time to time, how can the "poor guys" bear it?

Therefore, when Duke Milton, who learned that he was wise and powerful, was to fight for the throne of the Iron Fort King from the young, ignorant, arrogant and rude Prince Lawrence and often enjoyed humiliating the "poor man", the "poor man" who had been bullied to the brink of the outbreak for hundreds of years without hesitation, collectively supported Duke Milton and took on the banner of rebellion of "Queen Yin is unrestrained and Lawrence is not the son of the king". Under the rising momentum, in the early stage of the uprising, the group of "iron men" were defeated step by step. Not only did he occupy more than a dozen iron mines, but he almost captured the Iron Fortress City, which was 50 meters high and the city walls were made of millions of iron ingots.

If the reinforcements of the "Iron Man" had not arrived in time, the Iron Man Castle City, which claimed to be "never falling", would have really fallen into the hands of those "poor men" who had never seen the world.

Lawrence, who had just been on the throne for a few days, was furious and wanted to peel and cramp the "poor guys" who provoked his royal power and authority one by one and grind them into pieces.

Therefore, after struggling to repel the attack of the "poor guys", Lawrence personally led the army and killed the blood on the territory of the "poor guys". Not to mention hanging the nobles, even ordinary farmers did not let go.

The killing was fierce, and the eyes of both factions turned red, so the situation naturally continued to die.

...

Like all the forces that gloat, when they saw this situation, the happier Zhou Ming, who was standing outside the street, was the more he stepped up the time to train his troops. The more he was in a warring position, the weaker or weaker he was, he sent a caravan to transport weapons to the disadvantaged party at a relatively preferential price, and then when both parties lacked their payment ability, he could also exchange population or iron ingots for exchange...

Relying on these opportunistic methods, Zhou Ming weakened his opponent's strength while strengthening his teeth.

After all, if the teeth are not hard and the strength is not strong, it is like a snake swallowing an elephant. Even if the snake swallows the elephant into its stomach, the stomach will not be enough, and it will either be difficult to digest or will be able to survive.

Therefore, in two years, Zhou Ming built a huge army with a population of nearly 20,000.

This army of nearly 20,000 people mainly consists of four aspects.

One, the permanent military force of the Gran Territory, including 10 knights, expanded to 150 lieutenants, and in the later period, in order to facilitate the management of the Gran Territory's nearly 100,000 permanent or migrant population, Zhou Ming had to add a "leader" class under the "leaders" who mainly recruited urban freelancers, did not allocate land, but gave generous salaries. He led the troops under the command of the Gran Territory, recruited 1,500 people and was incorporated into the "Guards".

The two were established in the name of the security patrol, including father-in-law Baron Sean, Baron Howard, Baron Romon and the new lord of Bordo, Baron Irving. The four most economically developed territories in the surrounding area were established by Zhou Ming. The knights and corpses of these territories were organized together to establish a security patrol in the name of maintaining public order and defending thieves.

In addition to Glen, this patrol team had a total of 42 knights and 420 troopers. They imitated the Glen's leadership system and also expanded to a "leader" class, recruited 4,200 troopers, and were incorporated into the "territorial army".

Three, after the founding of the Mercenary Union, Zhou Ming formed a mercenary group ('Business Group') with armed protection and transportation of merchants as its main business. After more than three years of development, the number of business and business scope have been continuously expanded. The group members have increased from the initial 5,000 people, after multiple expansions and absorbing elite forces, the number of members has increased to 10,000 people. From these 10,000 people, after several layers of screening, Zhou Ming picked out 5,000 people and organized them into the "Shang Alliance Army".

Four are Zhou Ming issued a recruitment task at the Mercenary Union. Through various channels, he recruited "mercenary" teams specially for war, which existed specifically for war by various countries. From those mercenary teams that were recruited, Zhou Ming selected some mercenary teams with good reputation, good obedience and strong combat effectiveness, and hired them with heavy gold and promised to provide excellent military armor. He spent millions of gold coins and finally created a "mercenary" with a number of 8,000 people and a certain combat effectiveness.

These four types of armies have "territorial army" that does not completely obey their own orders, "Shang Alliance Army" with certain organization but not uniform quality, and "mercenaries" who have certain combat effectiveness but only believe that money cannot bear large casualties...

The only army that Zhou Ming can reuse, ensures absolute loyalty, and entrusts all his wealth and life, is the only "guards" he created.

The number of people is only 1,660.

Therefore, before the era of hot weapons being lined up to kill, in order to improve the winning rate of the war, Zhou Ming provided generous salaries and provided excellent weapons and equipment, and before launching the war, he conducted military training for more than a year of not strict but obvious results on the three military forces, namely the "Terminal Army", the "Shang Alliance Army", and the "mercenary Army", which was not strict but also effective. After all the means, Zhou Ming finally had a military force that could be fought.

This military force, Zhou Ming called it the "Conquest Legion".

Not long after, in the third year after the civil war broke out in the Iron Fort Kingdom, among the neighboring countries of the Iron Fort Kingdom, the powerful Tongshan Kingdom couldn't help but start first and sent an army of over 30,000 people to the Iron Fort Kingdom Dongjing and heading for a territory rich in iron ore.

It seemed that it triggered a chain reaction. After watching the Tongshan Kingdom, several other small countries that had already been on the verge of military service on the border were launched, fearing that they would fall behind.

Even the Kingdom of Arino, which had only six earls, pieced together a military force of 3,000 people to join the feast.

On the side of the Kingdom of Voris, the fast horses running out of the capital of Vords sent the king's conscript orders issued by the king to various territories of the kingdom through the hand of the commander.

...

Glenling Castle.

On the terrace outside the tall city wall, a group of lords in gorgeous clothes stood on the walls and looked at them with their swords.

"The king sent an edict asking all the troops in the north to gather in the capital. If they did not arrive within seven days, they would deprive all their titles and territory." Holding a note in his hand, an earl recited the words on it.

"Don't Your Majesty the King and those Nanbos, what else do we want us to do?" a count complained.

"If you don't go, even if you help Herien capture more land in the south, you will not be as good as those of us as the selves." One person said in a rebellious manner.

Woo ~

A melodious horn sounded.

"Dear Counts, the army has been inspected and the military parade has begun." Baron Connor, who was standing aside, reminded.

Everyone was shocked, and then they heard a neat step on the ground, which even caused the castle to tremble slightly.

Everyone approached the walls and looked down. On the flat grass below the castle, they saw an unforgettable picture.

Several silver cavalry phalanxes were advanced; dozens of black and shiny leaders led the phalanxes, like ant colony; hundreds of colorful mercenary mercenaries of different heights, taking neat steps, like tofu blocks, slowly moving south on the flat ground.

The breeze is blowing, the flags are waving, the armor is bright, the steel spear is shining, and the momentum is like a rainbow!
Chapter completed!