I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Because of the burden of arranging jobs for twenty thousand Kingdom citizens, Wokingmeh Company’s stock had developed very poorly at the beginning, from the establishment of the stock exchange to its normal opening for purchase.

In less than a month, Wokingmeh Company’s stock had fallen to half of its opening price, which was rather awkward.

A large number of young nobles who had already felt displeased watching John Rawls steal the limelight spared no effort in mocking him wantonly at banquets, and at the same time this shook his “star” image to a certain extent.

In response, John merely smiled faintly and did not take it to heart. At the very beginning of the second month, John announced an unexpected piece of news to the public.

That was the 【Stock Buyback】 plan. John declared that six months later he would repurchase Wokingmeh Company’s shares at the original issue price, with a limited amount.

In other words, buying Wokingmeh stock at its current halved price meant that after six months, once John bought it back, the stock would definitely generate profit.

Almost the moment the announcement was made, large numbers of civilians and minor nobles who smelled the scent of gold swarmed toward the stock exchange.

The exchange, which had originally been deserted, was instantly packed to bursting. Countless people squeezed inside, waving paper notes and bills, eager to buy a few shares of Wokingmeh Company stock.

At the same time, John also announced that he had signed an exclusive overseas agency agreement for the tobacco monopoly with the Seris Alliance, further driving the stock market into frenzy.

At present, tobacco could only be cultivated on the Subcontinent. Its growth conditions seemed to require an environment where Magical Elements were suppressed.

The smoke it produced itself carried a certain magic-suppressing effect. In the past, alchemists had purified its raw materials and used them as alchemical agents to poison mages, causing them to temporarily lose their magical power.

Mitia had recognized what it was the moment she first saw it, and thus developed the source of all evil—tobacco.

It was precisely because of this unrivaled tobacco monopoly that Mitia had the confidence to support the families of martyrs and the descendants of meritorious contributors.

Apart from daily necessities, only tobacco and alcohol could truly be considered evergreen necessities.

Strictly speaking, alcohol did not quite count, but Mitia had consciously shaped two high-end alcohol brands: one grain liquor, and the other wine.

Foreign merchants who wished to negotiate cooperation with the Seris people, as well as banquets held between governments, had to use these specially supplied branded liquors—promotion carried out directly at the official level.

Following her plan, once Seris developed at high speed in the future, these two types of alcohol would remain enduringly popular across most of the Pan-Seris region.

Whether it tasted good or not was unimportant. What mattered was whether you had prepared two boxes in your car trunk to give as gifts!

In addition to securing the tobacco monopoly rights with the Seris Alliance, John had also used the method of shell branding Suria to “smuggle” large quantities of military weapons from the Alliance.

Moreover, this was something both the Kingdom and the Church were happy to see, because while smuggling weapons, the Church also continuously used various domestic raw materials through Wokingmeh Company to exchange with the Seris Alliance for the “silver coins” it urgently needed.

Wokingmeh used the “silver coins” obtained from the Seris Alliance’s fixed large-scale transactions as reserve funds for United Bank to continue issuing new paper currency.

The increasing quantities of standardized “silver coins” entering the vaults indirectly boosted the Kingdom’s civilians’ confidence in paper money. Together with Wokingmeh Company’s continuous acquisition of precious metals and the re-“minting” of various silver and gold coins, the value of paper currency continued to rise further.

Behind the scenes, Mitia used contacts between smuggling fleets and Wokingmeh merchant caravans to exchange printed counterfeit common silver coins for the Church’s genuine precious metals and raw materials. Increasing amounts of worthless Glory Silver Coins and common silver coins filled United Bank’s vaults.

At the same time, bolt-action rifles phased out through re-equipment, stockpiled medium mortars, Maxim heavy machine guns, Hotchkiss heavy machine guns, light tanks, and the like were continuously sold off and converted into cash.

These items had already lost almost all value to the Alliance. The light tanks, lacking additional newly researched explosive reactive armor and magitech packs, could be said to have nothing particularly valuable except for their cannons.

The Church State might not have been unaware that these things were originally sold to them by the Alliance itself, but they truly needed these weapons, because they were genuinely effective.

A soldier proficient with a bolt-action rifle only needed about three months of training to be battlefield-ready, and the most valuable thing on him was merely the rifle in his hands.

A mature mechanical soldier, on the other hand, not only required long-term training to master operation, but also demanded a relatively high magical level, and the procurement cost of the mechanical body itself was extremely high.

Calculated by cost, equipping one qualified mechanical soldier was enough for the Church to arm a force of roughly three hundred musketeers, and that was under the condition that everyone carried a firearm with a full load of ammunition.

If they were only to be used as cannon fodder, distributing three hundred rifles and ammunition among different soldiers to raise a thousand-man force was not impossible.

And no matter how powerful a mechanical soldier was, it was impossible for one to fight a hundred alone. The Pontiff understood this calculation very clearly.

What they were best at was inciting believers to rush forward as cannon fodder. Cannon fodder with guns in hand was far more useful than those who had previously charged forward holding knives to their deaths~

Relying on this equipment, the Church rapidly organized reserve legions one after another, began training them, and pondered combat methods of their own.

The Tsarist Nation of Roshek was not foolish either. Watching the Church frantically expand its military preparations, they relied on the fleet they later assembled and crossed the ocean themselves to purchase supplies at Alliance ports.

They lavishly spent money to buy various types of weapons, while also hiring a thousand-man-level training and instruction corps, ordering light tanks configured for two Tank Divisions, as well as large quantities of logistical support vehicles, transport vehicles, and so on.

It could be said that Seris sold weapons to both sides and fanned the flames on both fronts, afraid that the fighting might not be brutal enough.

Did these weapons pose a threat to Seris’s own military? Certainly they did—but even if they were not leaked out, threats would still exist.

Rather than waiting for the opponent to one day iterate new magical weapons not inferior in technology, it was better to let the Alliance take the lead and proactively push the weaponry of the Main Continent into a new generation.

As the saying went, pull your opponent into the same level as yourself, and then use your rich experience to defeat him!

Without a systematic industrial base, even if specific weapon manufacturing methods were reverse-engineered and copied, she did not care. What she was betting on was that the Alliance’s industrial future would never go astray—other countries might not be so lucky~

So now, apart from air force equipment, as long as someone dared to buy sea and land weapons, Mitia dared to sell them!

At present, the Alliance’s fully realized “Sherman” had already been produced and manufactured, entering the final stage of mass-production standardization.

The light tanks that had originally been equipped in large numbers would only end up being sealed in storage if not sold off, so it was better to dump them on other countries to lighten their own burden.

In her previous life, great powers, aside from active-service weapons, would always seal large amounts of surplus stock in various strategic warehouses for contingencies. Naturally, the Alliance was no exception.

But Mitia did not want to stockpile inferior weapons. After dumping these old models, brand-new new-generation equipment would roll off the production lines and be sealed into storage.

For example, bare chassis of the new-model Sherman medium tank, 20mm autocannons, automatic rifles, fragmentation grenades, anti-tank recoilless cannons, military mechanical bodies—universally applicable weapons that would never go out of date.

After completing the army-wide equipment replacement, the military factories would not shut down. Part of them would continue manufacturing old models for foreign trade exports to earn money.

Another part would manufacture new weapons in batches and send them into strategic warehouses hidden deep in mountain valleys for storage.

While the three countries bustled with money-making, weapon-buying, and equipment accumulation, John had not been idle within Church territory either.

Wokingmeh Company’s stock had already risen to the point where it was nearly impossible to obtain even a single share. He still did not stop, instead hosting a grand banquet and inviting all nobles, great and small, from within the Church State.

Aside from inviting them to eat, drink, and enjoy themselves, at the very end he finally revealed his true purpose, selling 【Annuity Bonds】 to these nobles.

Annuity bonds, as the name suggested, meant depositing money into a designated account at United Bank, which would then pay out a portion of high interest at fixed times every year.

United Bank was now also one of Wokingmeh Enterprise’s shareholders, responsible for providing it with a steady stream of cash flow and loans behind the scenes.

In his capacity as a banker, John promised nobles high annuity interest. The annualized interest rate offered by United Bank was 20%.

If nobles took the money they deposited in United Bank and used it to buy United Bank’s annuity bonds, United Bank would then pool these bonds and invest them as shares in Wokingmeh Enterprise.

That meant United Bank used Wokingmeh—this Church State’s super enterprise’s future development prospects—as collateral backing for high profit growth.

During the first five years after purchasing annuity bonds, full cash withdrawal was not permitted; only ten percent of the total amount could be withdrawn.

The remaining principal and profits earned from Wokingmeh Enterprise would continue to purchase Wokingmeh Enterprise stock for further appreciation~

Most of the nobles present were dazzled by the starting 20% profit.

Their money would be deposited in the bank anyway. Depositing it to buy bonds still meant the principal remained in the bank. The money stayed there, yet gained an additional 20% profit growth. They had absolutely no reason to refuse~

This banquet was held with tremendous success. John secured massive savings from small and medium nobles. The continuous inflow of precious metals allowed United Bank to keep increasing the printing volume of paper currency.

At the same time, with large numbers of nobles purchasing annuity bonds, it was equivalent to binding them onto the same ship as Wokingmeh Enterprise. John and Wokingmeh Enterprise together entered their peak period.

Once the news spread, it immediately shook the entire country. Wokingmeh Enterprise’s stock once again soared violently. At this point, compared to the original issue price, it had already increased more than fortyfold.

Within the Church State, reservations for public carriages and buses traveling to the Royal Capital were booked out two months in advance, and outside the hotel John most liked to stay at, youthful and beautiful girls queued up every day.

Whenever John entered or exited the hotel, cries for help from collapsing girls rang out. Each looked at him pitifully, letting him pluck and taste at will.

What they desired was nothing more than a bit of Wokingmeh Enterprise stock~

Watching all this unfold from behind the scenes, Mitia saw that things had reached this point and immediately told John to suppress the hype. At present, Wokingmeh Enterprise’s stock was still within a reasonable appreciation range.

A super enterprise that controlled banking, public finance, noble privileges, the military, colonies, and tobacco seeing its market value increase fortyfold was absolutely not outrageous. More importantly, on the surface, the precious metal reserves were still sufficient to support it.

Next, what John needed to do was steer this invincible giant vessel—Wokingmeh Enterprise, which was vaguely becoming the representative of all social classes in the Kingdom—straight into the face of the Tsarist Nation of Roshek and crush it!

To ignite a large-scale war, plunder more colonies, more land and population resources for the entire Dmitria Kingdom, and keep this war machine running.

At the same time, Mitia also needed to use this war to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the Main Continent’s warfare models, tactics, war magic, and war alchemical technologies.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the Britian Empire and the Empire of Mantogore were also frequently clashing and sparking conflicts along their border.

During this period, the reason the Britian Empire did not intervene in the Subcontinent situation had much to do with chaos erupting within its own borders.

The Empire’s young prince had been frantically expelling all races other than pure humans within his own fief, causing extremely恶劣 consequences.

Within the Empire, non-human races were filled with grievances, and localized bloodshed, conflicts, and rebellions even erupted. The imperial royal family was busy suppressing uprisings everywhere and cleaning up after the young prince.

As a people long standing at the pinnacle of the human race, the Britians had never held much respect for the Mantogore beastmen. Even with internal chaos, they still fought skirmishes with the beast race at the border whenever possible.

The Beastmen Empire held a similar mindset. Their territory was only about two-thirds the size of Britian’s, excluding roughly 35% of uninhabitable desert wasteland.

Yet even so, they could fight Britian—whose land was fertile and whose population was enormous—to a near standstill. In terms of military force, the Mantogore beastmen absolutely held the advantage.

Strictly speaking, the Mantogore beastmen were far stronger than that, but their minds were not particularly sharp. They often suffered losses at the decision-making level, being locally encircled by Britian with superior forces and defeated piecemeal.

Years of overt and covert struggle had basically ended with Britian emerging victorious.

However, this time, with border frictions flaring up, Mitia did not view the Britian Empire favorably, because in the past many witches from the Witch Race had chosen to assist the Britian Empire.

It was not because of the human race itself, but because compared to other countries, Britian’s policies had been relatively more open.

But now things were different. Since the Witch Race had chosen to place its bet on the Seris Alliance, it would naturally not invest any effort into the Britian Empire—even if there was a reincarnated king within its borders.

In fact, because of this reincarnated king, the Witch Race’s internal evaluation of the Britian Empire had actually declined.

This reincarnated king was a thoroughgoing adult human supremacist.

What he advocated was “all land under heaven belongs to the king.” Every time a new territory was conquered, all races other than humans would be expelled.

To call him cruel—he did not physically annihilate non-human races, only expelled them.

To call him kind—he left them to fend for themselves in the wilderness.

The Britian Empire’s territory was rich in water and grasslands, and this was inseparable from the great death migrations of the past.

So many refugee races on the Subcontinent could be gathered together, and this king’s policy of “those not of my race” bore the most direct responsibility—though a considerable number of humanoid races had also been absorbed by the Britian Empire.

Thus, after years of development, the Britian Empire had already shown the prelude of embracing all rivers.

Unfortunately, that reincarnated king who had once died had returned~

With great probability, everything would revert back to the starting point.