I, transformed into a vampire girl, sparked the Industrial Revolution.

Chapter 349 When Alice Steps Home

The Western Ocean, since the founding of this civilization, has witnessed the storms and changes of this western ocean of the continent.

A ship, a military landing ship, is heading towards Hilla Port. Long ago, Hilla Port was an obscure northern port in the northern part of the Demon Kingdom, but now it has become an international metropolis with skyscrapers standing side by side.

Only one Amerlane flag flew on the ship, and standing on it was Alice Delalaye. Facing the sea breeze, she looked at the troops on the 30,000-ton landing ship. Most of them were soldiers recruited from Amerlane by the Universal Star Group. Now, they were embarking on their journey home again. For some of them, it felt like a lifetime had passed.

Alice remained silent, wearing a cap and an old Amelancy suit. The soldiers made way for her—Amelancy was now under the iron hooves of Lucy Snow's Empire, and they firmly believed that Alice would lead Amelancy to rise again.

Coast Guard vessels questioned the warship, discovering it was not registered with the Amerlane National Navy. Several escort ships immediately approached. While Amerlane boasts a powerful navy, a navy is still a navy; it cannot operate ashore.

Meanwhile, after the Lucy Empire invaded the Northern Territory, it deployed a considerable number of surface-to-surface tactical missiles there, using saturation attacks to destroy several warships of the Northern Fleet.

Therefore, at this moment, in Hilla Harbor, the Northern Fleet only has one Belnap-class destroyer leader and four Fletcher-class destroyers belonging to the Northern Coast Guard. Most of the other warships, including the active Cleveland-class guided-missile cruisers, have moved south, away from the range of Lucy Snow Empire's anti-ship land-based missiles in the north.

"Warship 421, Warship 421, our ship has not received your ship's deployment order or affiliation. We are inquiring about your ship's deployment order and affiliation."

"This is warship 421. Commander-in-Chief Alice Delalaye, we have come to fight the enemy."

Alice took the communication device and spoke to the other party. After a long silence, the Fletcher-class destroyer drew closer and closer, and then the other party said, "This ship will escort your ship."

Ship 421 is a Type 071 dock landing ship built by the Qunxing City Automated Dock. After entering service, it participated in the Portland Port landing mission and made great contributions to various personnel transportation missions of the Huanyu Qunxing Group.

The warship, weighing tens of thousands of tons, is currently being escorted by two Fletcher-class destroyers to Hilla Harbor.

Alice stood on the bridge as the captains and crew of the two Fletcher-class destroyers walked onto the deck.

Alice, Alice, now the West Coast Guard of Amelia consists of more than half retired naval officers. Many of them participated in Operation Overlord, which was planned and personally commanded by Alice. It was that operation that laid the foundation for the rise of the new nation—establishing the stable Republic of Brittany, and subsequently creating today's international financial center.

At this moment, although those businessmen, financiers, and capitalists displeased them, these veterans deeply missed Alice's era. From the news, they learned that Alice had reappeared in the Colombian civil war across the ocean, and once again, she had rallied a force.

Therefore, they believed, firmly believed, that Alice could also lead them back to that era.

Of course, Alice herself was feeling increasingly exhausted. She understood that after Columbia, Amelansi's predicament needed to be resolved quickly. The invasion of Amelansi by the Lucy Empire was not so extreme, and there were no reports of large-scale murders, kidnappings, or tortures from the cities occupied by the imperial army.

This is not because the Lucy Empire is benevolent. On the contrary, Yeka learned a trick from Alice: instead of harming the locals in the occupied territories, it is better to win them over. The former will provoke a strong backlash and eventually cause widespread chaos, while the latter, if guided properly, will certainly have far less backlash than the former.

This has already been proven in the Las Vegas region. When Amerlanci dismembered Las Vegas, he did not outwardly harm any Las Vegas civilians. In fact, because of Amerlanci, the local standard of living became closer and closer to Amerlanci's.

However, the cost was that during those decades, all the activists, politicians, and warlords in Lasvia who called for reunification were secretly executed or assassinated. As a result, the massive casualties caused by Lasvia's own civil war were even more brutal than the direct invasion by Amerlansi. Even so, the people of Lasvia still have a good impression of Amerlansi, the culprit, and even today, two Lasvia countries that are closely aligned with Amerlansi have accepted a large number of people from them.

The masses are blind; sometimes they don't know what they want or what they can get. Yeka invaded the North, and the agents of the Imperial Special Branch bribed the officials of the North. Under the command of the Imperial army, they assassinated the governor of the North region and installed the deputy governor as the so-called "Grand Duke of Nordland," thus declaring the establishment of the so-called "Grand Duke of Nordland."

Now, the central government of Amelia has fallen, and the war and political chaos are eroding the country's strength. Of course, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the northern theater are putting up a fierce resistance, while the northern guerrillas are traversing the snowfields and forests, fighting against invaders and traitors.

At that moment, Alice's ship approached Hilla Harbor. A Type 726/A hovercraft was slowly approaching the shore. On the shore, the troops stationed in Hilla Harbor were urgently summoned. Several officers discovered this warship, which was not registered with them, and the mysterious ship they had never seen before.

"Battle alert! How did this ship, and all these things, get here?"

"Raise your guns! Contact reinforcements, contact General Charles Dessler!"

Several armored vehicles rushed into the port area, and the soldiers aimed their guns at the hovercraft they had never seen before. The ship slowly approached the shore, and tensions were high between the two sides. But they knew that the giant ship, and the ships that came off it, had not fired a single shot.

At the bow of the hovercraft, when the bulletproof plates were lowered, they saw eighty well-dressed soldiers, but even those elite soldiers couldn't compare to the figure standing at the very front.

Alice Delalaye wore an old Amerlancy uniform, the first Amerlancy dress she had commissioned to be designed. The uniform was worn but crisp, and she wore a traditional Amerlancy tricorn hat with a tricolor paper flower, a symbol of Amerlancy, pinned to the brim.

She slowly stepped off the boat and walked forward, her hands behind her back, facing rifles, pistols, machine guns, and even machine guns.

She recognized the insignia on the armored vehicle; it was one she had designed herself—the insignia of the 1st Marine Brigade, consisting of an anchor, three concentric paper flowers in three colors, a musket, and a saber.

"Quickly! Arrest her!"

Someone shouted, but everyone looked at each other, unable to pull the trigger on the person in front of them. Alice, Alice, some of them grew up listening to stories about this fairy tale, some of them had even taken Alice's class in school.

Now, Alice, travel-worn, stood still and opened her arms—

"Soldiers, officers, and people of Amelancy! I am Alice Delalaye. If you want to fire your guns, if you want to fire your guns at the one who led you to stand up and led you to create this country, then come on!"

No one dared to move again; the scene was deathly silent. More reinforcements, even tanks, arrived, but they only watched—they saw that petite yet undeniable white figure.

Alice, Alice, why did I point a gun at her? How could I dare to point a gun at her? The soldier asked himself, that Alice. If it weren't for Alice, how could they have the life they have today? Even if our homeland fell, she would surely have led us to fight the enemy! How could I do this?

A soldier trembled at the thought, his rifle fell from his hand, and then everything went black as he collapsed. Then more people lowered their guns.

"Long live President Alice de la Leyer!"

"Long live Alice, Lady Alice!"

More and more people rushed toward Alice, surrounding her and cheering. As news of Alice's landing at Hilla Harbor spread, more and more troops began heading toward the port—one, two, three. Alice landed with 80 men, but by the time she stepped out of the port and onto the streets of Hilla Harbor, tens of thousands of citizens and soldiers had followed her. More and more troops left their camps and joined Alice's ranks.

The tricolor flag fluttered in the wind. At the request of the officers and soldiers, Alice stood on a Centurion MK13 tank, took the tricolor flag, and stood.

And Alice's photograph will inspire every citizen of Amelancy in every moment to come—they will rise from defeat.