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

Chapter 191 The Industrialization Wave

"It's turned! It's turned!"

On the coast of the Caliphate Desert Empire, in a factory in the port of Caliphate, steam roared, driving mechanical gears. The Caliphate Desert Empire's first self-produced steam-powered machine began its first commercial operation, pulling an entire production line of Emeranian.

The Amerlane is now easing its export ban on old production equipment, which is expensive and does not come with technical support. Moreover, for quasi-enemies such as the Caliphate or the Church, the price is much higher than for other countries.

These countries were surprised that the other party was willing to sell, and immediately spent huge sums of money to buy it. Only now are these imported machines being put to use in their countries for the first time. The power machinery has driven the industrial mother machine, and the first batch of early engineers who understand the principles of mechanics have finally replicated the first generation of steam power equipment.

From the desert to the sacred peninsula, it was the same: priests holding crosses aloft dipped some holy water from a golden vessel held up to the side and sprinkled it into the steam-powered machinery, with prayers of blessing echoing throughout the factory, like a standard sacrificial ceremony.

In the latest round of debates about the Sacred Codex, the voices within the Church advocating for industrial development have completely overwhelmed the conservatives. In the war against the demon nation, they have learned about industry, and even the most conservative priests have to admit that only roaring machines can make the goddess's glory shine again, and only larger-caliber cannons and more powerful warships can make heretics and pagans understand the holiness of the doctrine.

The old paladins were eliminated, and retired and active army officers recruited at great expense from small countries in the Lasvia region were injected into the old titles with new organizational structures. Modeled after the Amerlane army organizational system and further doctrinalized, the church began to reorganize the old army, and a new army quickly took shape.

The hero gathered all his followers and established a so-called "Knights Order" loyal to him. However, the Church's military reforms no longer needed such a figure. In fact, they were extremely disappointed with Bai Ling. The hero had neither won them victory nor foreseen the future. Instead, an unknown figure played a decisive role in this reform.

The baptism of the "saint" was not a common knowledge within the entire church, and the world never knew that he had defied public opinion to send students to Amerlane to purchase machinery in Brittany and continue trading with the devil's kingdom as designated in the scriptures.

Within the church, after the hero's first clash with the "saints," the hero cleanly and decisively relinquished all power and influence. As the "loser," the hero Bai Ling was allowed to create this so-called knightly order, effectively exiled to an archipelago far from the church.

The wave of industrialization swept from Trian to countries around the world. The exotic Seres elves purchased advanced weapons from the dwarves to fuel their internal conflicts, which further strengthened the dwarves' already solid industrial base. The advanced industrial technology they learned from Amelansi, in turn, enhanced their industrial strength.

In the cold, icy north of the continent, the dwarves built factories, collective farms, mines, and cities, smelting hard steel in fiery blast furnaces. The dwarves' land possessed unimaginable resources. They exported steel to the southwestern Amelanse, exported coal, and imported industrial products, machinery, and everything else of interest to them.

Their vast territory, stretching from east to west, also made the dwarves intermediaries connecting the Elven Seris Empire and the Amerlan West Federal Republic.

The cycle of division and unification seems to be a well-tested recurrence. The elves are not the embodiment of natural peace as in mythology. On the contrary, they are a race that efficiently utilizes natural resources and is willing to fight for their land. The land called Seris is not as peaceful as outsiders speculate. It is indeed more ancient than the civilization of the western continent, but it has also been tempered by war.

In the latest round of conflict, the elves discovered the rifle, a new type of weapon, and became obsessed with it. They purchased large quantities of firearms from the dwarves' lands, spurring the development of the dwarven weapons industry. Mountain elves, Central Plains elves, sea elves... all fought each other under the banner of Seris, each side wanting to seize the banner that is called Seris.

The elves soon discovered that a single battle could deplete the ammunition they had traded with the dwarves. Some factions then began to introduce basic industrial equipment, and soon they found that their opponents were also equipped with firearms.

Today, nothing can stop the spread of industry. Regardless of whether the rulers of various countries favor these cold, man-made objects or prefer guns and cannons, they have to admit that guns and cannons shattered the violence of the past, and industrial machinery has changed their world.

Without firearms, war cannot be won; without industry, there are no firearms, no bullets, no money, and nothing of value.

The old small-scale agricultural economy was soon disrupted by the arrival of goods from Amerlane by ship. Steel behemoths and wooden ships crossed the ocean and entered the port, selling cheap and decent industrial products to local consumers and quickly taking over the market.

Soon, the entire country's handicraft industry will go bankrupt, losing its artisans, and all the products they depend on for survival will be controlled by a distant country or a country that controls the sea routes.

Small countries need not worry, but those large regional powers with territories stretching across the country from east to west cannot be ignored.

Some countries opened their arms and struggled to industrialize amid the pain of market shocks, while others closed their coastlines and refused the dumping of industrial goods.

Many other countries simply did nothing because they couldn't do anything. Amerinsil's industrial products flooded their small lands, and their limited population couldn't even manage the land. The entry of Amerinsil's industrial products into their markets actually became a good thing, as production determines consumption, and at least their variety of consumer goods expanded.

All of this was both unexpected and expected for Alice. While her country was beginning to develop steadily, her international rivals were rapidly moving towards industrialization rather than rejecting this so-called "ingenious skill."

If that's the case, the intensity of the war would likely increase dramatically when the first global war breaks out.