Chapter 357 Epilogue: The story after that (1/2)

Chapter 357 Epilogue: The story after the war

War zone.

No, it should be said that the former war zone.

The war is over, but the soldiers may not be able to return to their hometowns.

The noble class will not retain extra emotions for these recruited militia/soldiers - they only symbolically give these recruited soldiers a little money and leave.

They also take away most of the resources left by the advance team.

The knight class and the mage class are unwilling to stay in this frontier for a long time. They would rather return to their comfort zone, the prosperous and thriving city.

These people who have been wandering around in their hometowns all their lives and have never left the village and town were abandoned by the nobles.

Nearly 70,000 recruited troops were left in their hometowns like this, and the nobles who recruited them did not waste their own money to send these recruited people home.

Winter, autumn and then winter.

Some people left, following the footsteps of the nobles, leaving the war-torn land and embarking on a long journey home.

Even those who helped them said that there would be no more invasions here, and they were still unwilling to stay on the border for a long time.

But more people could not find their way home, and they chose to inherit the outposts built by the advance team here and make it their home.

It was difficult to open up settlements and build roads in the forest, but the battle between the advance team and them almost turned this difficult-to-open up land into an area that could be developed.

The trees were burned, and the ashes left behind nourished the people, and the life that was immersed in the people made the soil more fertile in the coming year.

The town was built, and the outposts built by the advance team had complete infrastructure, and the people who stayed here only needed a little improvement to get a habitable area.

The advance teams brought seeds and resources, and their mission was to cultivate the land and plant crops.

As a step to open up the frontier, to prepare for the subsequent ones.

One step, one step.

They failed, and all the pioneering equipment was left to the Ming Dynasty when they evacuated, seeds, resources, and wealth.

Ji Lin hesitated and only took one engineering machine as a sample, and handed over most of the pioneering equipment to the army organized by the Ming Dynasty-and buried all the spare parts in it. If they really decided to settle here in the future, these parts would help them a lot.

The nobles dismantled all the detachable and lightweight engineering machines, and left with the products that exuded runes and magical auras.

This was enough to prove that they had defeated the enemy, and boasting about their own resumes was far better than sending these conscripted people back to their hometowns.

As for the heavy engineering machinery that was difficult to carry away, it was abandoned in the camp.

Large-scale human mobility, perfect infrastructure construction, and auxiliary development engineering equipment made it possible for this place to become a town.

Some people say, do it.

There will be no robbers to stop their construction, no lords to collect their taxes, and no nobles who regard life as worthless.

They really shed blood for this land, and they also suffered heavy casualties to contain the enemy.

The conscripted soldiers and farmers struggled to swing shovels in this frontier, count resources, and concentrate.

In the first year, they spent a difficult winter.

After the end of autumn, there was too little time for them to prepare for winter. After the short late autumn, there was the cold winter that followed.

Many people died.

There was a shortage of food and energy in the camp, and they needed to leave enough crops for next spring.

If the crops could not be eaten, they would starve to death, and they could not move the crops. Without crops, there was no way to complete the sowing in the spring, and there was no way to live here for a long time.

Ten thousand people, it was really a big number, so big that the food supplies left by the entire advance team were not enough for them to consume.

The prey that the hunters went to the mountains to hunt was just a drop in the bucket under this number.

Only a few cool snowflakes occasionally fell from the sky. They learned through hardship to convert the warehouse into a large house for centralized heating to keep these ten thousand people alive, and learned to pile wood together for centralized heating to reduce heat loss.

Tens of thousands of people huddled in the portal camp. The area was large enough and had enough houses to accommodate tens of thousands of people.

They were forced to learn to cooperate and allocate resources in a cruel winter.

There were only apprentices and low-level mages in the camp. They had no help from the mages, and the conscripted militia could only learn to operate the war equipment and engineering equipment left by the advance team.

Use these engineering equipment and learn the design of these engineering equipment.

Then imitate and then manufacture.

They read the books that the advance team did not take away in the cold winter. The fantasy stories comforted them in the cold night. There were more books about the complete magic and rune system left by the advance team. This knowledge was not high-end and elegant enough.

But it built a complete route.

These books were in great supply, even if one was taken away by Ji Lin and one was taken away by the nobles.

The remaining large number of books is enough to meet the reading needs of the people who stayed, and the system quietly implanted a temporary Chinese module in these settlers - allowing them to understand Chinese characters from other worlds.

Knowledge will not be shelved, but will be passed on to these people rolling in the mud.

The quantity of books alone is far from enough.

In spring, the snow water turns into spring mud.

After cultivating the soil and sowing seeds, the conscripted soldiers put down their magic rifles and turned over the tools left by the advance team to start farming.

In order to make the advance team self-sufficient, the team carried high-quality seeds carefully selected by mages and elves, and these high-quality seeds finally reached the Ming Dynasty.

The nobles put all their attention on visible wealth, on magic technology, and on the drawing of talismans. These seeds were put aside in disgust by them, and eventually they all found their way into the soldiers who were abandoned here.

Fertile soil, good seeds, and steadfast flocks.

Pieces of soil were turned into farmland. The conscripts of the former farmers allowed the seeds brought by the advance team to germinate and sowed seeds full of vitality.

Wheat, potatoes, rice.

One winter, one spring.

The remaining 10,000 people spent two difficult springs and two winters.

Along the road to the camp, the battlefield was used as farmland. The arcane energy and lost lives that once surged on it finally nourished the land - they got an area that was flat and without obstacles, and the soil was fertile.

Digging canals to divert water and farming intensively.

It was not until the third year that a perfect production system was established, and food began to circulate normally to support these thousands of 그껙, and the 그 finally did not have to tighten their belts to survive the difficult autumn and winter.

The first child was born.

Fifth, the first fixed construction machinery produced entirely by this city was put into operation. They combined the mechanical structure they had seen from the steam structure with the technology left by the Magic Empire's advance team to create Machines that can assist them.

There were too few of them and too much work to be done.

Seventh, the first bionic engineering machinery landed. Its body was mostly made of wood, mixed with a small amount of steel components, and it moved quite funny - and they had no way to make these things move automatically. , only some joysticks can be left for people to sit in.

These shambling creatures are clumsy and slow, lifting materials with arms that combine steel and wood.

On the tenth day, on track, the border city organized a caravan and walked out with the resources and products they produced. People were surprised that a town with a large number of people unexpectedly appeared here.

The caravan transported the resources produced by the city and brought back various handicrafts that were not produced by the city.

On the eleventh day, news of the mainland war reached their borderland through couriers.

The industries in 께 City are becoming more and more prosperous, and the food they have developed is enough for them to make some processed products, and there is even some leftovers for export to other cities.

On the 18th, many refugees came through the passage to their hometown, and the population of this border city exceeded 200,000 for the first time.

A prosperous town.

"Uncle Yas, look!"

The crystal in the child's hand reflects a light purple light in the sunlight, and the broken prisms are bright and elegant.

"I picked it up in the woods next to you."

Yas took the crystal from the child's hand and put it under the sun, with a trace of nostalgia in his eyes.

"You should also pay attention to safety when you go out to play."

Yas, or the former recruit, touched the child's head and handed the broken crystal on the arcane focuser back to the child's hands.

"The remains of this magic crystal are really rare... There shouldn't be many such crystals obtained from damaged arcane generators."

On this battlefield that has been cleaned countless times, someone can always dig out the relics left over from the war twenty-five years ago.

A broken rifle, several broken crystal blocks, and bones buried in the pit. A broken notebook, some broken staffs, and raw materials that have begun to sprout.

They used to have scavenger teams to recover viable wood and iron blocks from the battlefield, but now the scavenger teams have also been disbanded.

The traces of war will be erased by rain, snow, wind and frost, and then disappear from people's memories - technology will be integrated into the process of civilization as it develops.

But there are very few people who can remember the stories of the past.

Compared with the distant war that almost disappeared in each of their minds, the suffering when opening up the land was more unforgettable for them.

Those soldiers who actually set foot on the battlefield and come into contact with the enemy are still only a handful.

They only have half the time to fight the enemy, but they have a full twenty-five 뎃, or the entire rest of their lives to fight against nature.

Everyone arriving at the border is struggling against nature.

"Give it to your Grandpa Snow, he should like it."

Yas smiled and pointed to the tavern not far away. The veteran also spent twenty-five days with this border city.

With one hand broken, he gained higher prestige in the eyes of everyone. As the city gradually developed, he opened a tavern.

Quitting smoking, drinking has become his new pleasure.

The veteran hung the things collected on the battlefield on the tavern. In the center was the rifle he had used. With this rifle, he killed more than a dozen soldiers from the advance team.

The child stuck out his tongue and held the bright broken crystal in his hand.

"Grandpa Snow will take my crystal and hang it on the wall. I don't want it. I want to keep it for myself!"

Yas laughed and cursed, watching the child running further and further down the stone road.

"What a ghost."

The new recruit leaned against the tree, his eyes falling on the shade of the tree that was shedding some light. He vaguely felt that he was back in the afternoon when he swung the rune sword at the tree.

————

Twenty-five days seemed a long time for the elves.

Some human mages had passed away, and the remaining ones had gray hair.

Twenty-five days, one-third to one-fourth of human life.

The human mage walked out from behind Eno, and his eyes also fell on the door-shaped stone frame in the distance. He remembered the high-spirited advance team twenty-five days ago, which passed through the door with resources and arrived in another world.

"Grandmage, I think our meeting should not be today."

The elf commander turned around and looked at the human mage with a large number of mechanical auxiliary components on his body.

"The auxiliary machinery you created allows people with low magic talent to cast spells, and the Imperial Central Council also agrees to let you have a seat in the House of Commons."

"You don't need to praise me like this. It's just the self-rescue of a group of people whose magic talents have been abolished."

The human mage smiled and rejected his compliment... It's just the last struggle of a group of people who no longer have talents. They have understood and manipulated spells and felt the surge of fingertips.

"Human life is still short, but it's good to be able to do something at the end of life."

Eno sighed.

"Actually, I want to go to the other side of the door again."

They are waiting for the portal to reopen, but as the human commander said to him when they parted, the door will not reopen in their lifetime.

"Are you still waiting for the next war?"

The human mage said, and Eno could hear the faint sarcasm in his tone.

They are all losers in that war, and fate did not give them a second chance.

Eno didn't speak, his eyes fell on the setting sun that was slowly sinking into the horizon.

Over-expansion tore the empire apart, and the failure of the war almost destroyed the advance team he led, but they learned a lot.

Many, many things.

But after all, they had no way to find their original enemy to compete.

"I invited you here this time in the hope of promoting the improvement bill of the empire's colonial areas. The current model of the empire will only cause more and more disasters..."

No matter theirs, it's still ours.

Eno looked at the portal that might never open, and put away his thoughts.

The setting sun shed its glory, but they all knew that the sun would rise as usual tomorrow.