According to the original owner’s hazy memories, the Kingdom of Aragon had fallen into an “otherworldly Spanish Civil War” that had arrived decades early, likely over issues of royal succession and the nation’s developmental path.
The “National Army” supported by the Saxon Empire was no match in the civil war for the “Royal Army,” which had the backing of the Holy Britannian Empire, and was being forced into retreat again and again.
There was also more and more intelligence indicating that the Holy Britannian Empire’s troops had landed by sea in territory controlled by the “Royal Army,” preparing to personally enter the fray and bring this civil war to an end.
Seeing that its interests within the Kingdom of Aragon were about to be damaged, Emperor Albert II of the Saxon Empire could no longer sit still.
He immediately used the pretext of “assisting an ally in stabilizing the situation” and ordered the General Staff to draw six brigades, totaling twelve infantry regiments, from various units and send them into the Kingdom of Aragon ahead of the rest.
Even more division-level units began partial mobilization one after another, ready to enter the Kingdom of Aragon at any moment and “provide a backstop” for the National Army.
In this world, the Kingdom of Aragon had a large extra stretch of territory near the Mediterranean compared with the Spain in Mo Lin’s memories.
And it was precisely because of this additional territory that the Saxon Empire and the Kingdom of Aragon successfully shared a border.
The 16th Infantry Brigade to which Mo Lin had been assigned, along with its two subordinate infantry regiments, was one of the units drawn by the General Staff.
So by the time Mo Lin received his transfer order, the 33rd Infantry Regiment he was supposed to report to had already boarded a military train and departed.
In the end, Mo Lin could only follow the station staff’s suggestion and wait for the next military train heading directly to the Kingdom of Aragon.
Fate was a wondrous thing.
The passengers aboard that military train happened to be the military observation mission led by Lieutenant General Mackensen.
Even more wondrously, when the old man saw Mo Lin’s familiar figure boarding through the window, the telegram that had been delivered to his desk the previous day—requesting that Mo Lin be looked after and transferred to the rear—was still sitting in his pocket.
Perhaps he had thought of his dear friend who had already passed away. Perhaps he wanted to inherit that friend’s last wish and train his descendant into an “iron-blooded soldier” possessing the traditions of Saxony.
Lieutenant General Mackensen immediately decided that he would give Mo Lin a proper tempering.
After the military train arrived at its destination, he directly seized Mo Lin into the observation mission, making him follow the mission as a “senior orderly” and only report to his assigned unit after everything was over.
And the Saxon Empire’s capabilities in intelligence work did not surprise Mo Lin either.
There had been a huge problem in their grasp of the movements of the Holy Britannian Empire’s landing forces and the “Royal Army.”
Thus, through a freak combination of circumstances, Mo Lin ended up being caught in that ambush against the military observation mission on the outskirts of Seville, and was captured together with Lieutenant General Mackensen.
As for why an army lieutenant general would bring such a large group of officers to an unknown area in a foreign land to conduct observations—
That could only be called a certain military tradition of the Saxon Empire.
This empire, brimming with martial vigor, had practically been built through one continuous war after another.
“Senior officers personally visiting the front lines for reconnaissance” was already one of the relatively normal practices among this empire’s many reckless-as-hell military traditions.
Moreover, since Lieutenant General Mackensen had intended to conduct what he described in his own words as “a quick, flexible, and discreet front-line reconnaissance operation without alerting the enemy,”
he had not even brought along the somewhat cumbersome “general’s guard” in his eyes—that is, those superhuman tin cans who had previously rushed into the cellar to rescue them.
What puzzled Mo Lin, however, was that the movements of a military observation mission of this level and mode of operation ought to have been kept strictly confidential. In theory, they should not have encountered such a well-prepared ambush.
Therefore, he had reason to suspect that there was most likely a mole on the empire’s side who had leaked information about the military observation mission in advance!
As for the possibility that the Holy Britannian Empire had simply done an excellent job in intelligence work—
Mo Lin remained skeptical when it came to this country that was clearly “Great Britain reincarnated.”
However, before Mo Lin could figure out why Albert II was in such a hurry to provide a backstop for the National Army, this relatively leisurely period came to an end.
Because he saw more than ten soldiers with leather document satchels slung diagonally across their bodies—looking like orderlies or messengers—jogging into the tent where Mackensen was.
Before long, these soldiers left the tent again, then ran toward the edge of the camp at an even faster speed.
One of the messengers, after seeing Mo Lin standing there all alone, ran straight up to him, halted, and saluted him.
“May I ask if you are Second Lieutenant Mo Lin?”
“That’s right. That’s me.”
Mo Lin nodded, looking somewhat puzzled at the messenger before him, who was clearly quite young. In the end, he gave the other man a polite smile.
Seeing his expression, the young messenger also revealed a somewhat inexperienced smile.
“Second Lieutenant Mo Lin, please come with me. I’m going to the encampment area of the 1st Battalion, 33rd Infantry Regiment to convey regimental headquarters’ orders. The general instructed me to take you along to report in.”
The 16th Infantry Brigade had not yet formally entered combat, and this area was also within the “National Army’s” sphere of control, so the entire brigade’s encampment was relatively concentrated.
The regimental headquarters of its two subordinate infantry regiments, together with the headquarters of the 16th Brigade, as well as an artillery regiment and a cavalry regiment reinforced to the brigade, were all stationed in the camp from earlier.
As for the two regiments that served as the main combat force, totaling six infantry battalions, they were arranged in a half-arc in the direction of Seville from this large camp, forming a screen.
At present, it seemed that regimental-level units in the Saxon Empire were not yet equipped with wired telephones, so orders from regimental headquarters were still transmitted by messengers delivering them in person.
After Mo Lin followed this young messenger out of the brigade headquarters’ camp area, they could only rely on the moonlight to make their way through the darkness toward the position of the 1st Battalion, 33rd Infantry Regiment.
“Second Lieutenant, after you got off the train, you were originally supposed to report to regimental headquarters and then proceed directly to your assigned company.”
“But who would have thought you’d be taken away directly by the military observation mission on the same train, and then run into something like that? Thank heaven you still came back safe and sound!”
“Everyone at regimental headquarters is saying that you’re General Mackensen’s relative, and that’s why he let a second lieutenant like you accompany the military observation mission.”
“Is General Mackensen really your adoptive father?”
The young messenger named Schmidt was clearly a talkative sort, and he possessed the distinctive vigor and vitality of youth.
So after Mo Lin exchanged a few words with him and let him discover that this second lieutenant who had “survived a great disaster” did not put on any airs, the messenger immediately opened the floodgates.
However, when the “gossip” from the other man’s mouth began to grow more and more outrageous, Mo Lin promptly interrupted him.
“Ahem… The more you talk, the more ridiculous it gets. If Lieutenant General Mackensen really were my adoptive father, how could I possibly still be here?”
“That does make sense. But why would the general have you, Second Lieutenant, accompany the military observation mission?” Messenger Schmidt asked with some puzzlement.
“Er, His Excellency the General does indeed have some connection with me…”
“See! I knew you weren’t an ordinary person.”
Schmidt waved his fist excitedly, as though he had discovered something incredible.
Mo Lin could only look at the back of the other man’s head and smile helplessly. Then, after pondering for a moment, he asked curiously,
“Schmidt, have you ever thought about why we came to the Kingdom of Aragon?”
“Of course I know! We’re here to break the energy monopoly brought by the Britannians, so that all countries can share in the progress of industrial technology!”
Schmidt answered without the slightest hesitation, which actually caught Mo Lin off guard and made him pause.
Listen to that. Was this something a rank-and-file soldier in an imperial state could say?
Mo Lin had originally thought that this young messenger would only give answers like “obeying orders from superiors” or “this is a soldier’s duty.”
But the other party’s answer clearly exceeded the perspective a messenger ought to have.
This indicated that the Saxon Empire had definitely carried out propaganda in this regard, and had at least popularized this line of propaganda down to the enlisted men and junior officers in the army.
“Break the energy monopoly, share technological progress…”
Mo Lin savored the key parts of the young messenger’s words. He felt as if he had grasped a loose thread regarding why, under this strange worldview, a group like the “International Brigades” would appear.
[Current information collection rate: 15%]
As his “golden finger” continuously increased the information collection rate, Mo Lin’s understanding of this world began to grow clearer and clearer in his mind.
This world, which was extremely similar to the early twentieth century of his previous life, was currently at what appeared to be a crucial historical juncture.
Unlike the world Mo Lin was familiar with, this world truly had “magic,” or rather, magitech.
When those tin can-like “general’s guards” had charged into the cellar to rescue them earlier, they had relied on the “enchantments” on their armor and shields to block bullets fired at close range.
The Saxon Empire, in a certain sense, could not be considered an old-established magitech power. This country held more of an advantage in the mechanical and conventional heavy industries Mo Lin was familiar with.
The true magitech powers of this world, based on the information obtained from “intelligence” at present, were mainly the Holy Britannian Empire, which possessed vast colonies across the world, and the Republic of Gaul, which had long competed with the former over colonies.
In other words, the otherworldly version of the “centuries-old Anglo-French feud.”
It was precisely because this world’s magitech was all built upon “magic crystal mines.”
And “magic crystal ore” was, in reality, extraterrestrial meteorites that had struck this planet many times in ancient times. Its distribution was not particularly concentrated.
That was why Britannia and Gaul, these two old colonial empires, had used their advantage in mining all over the world to rise rapidly and become hegemon-level nations.
For the Saxon Empire, what made matters worse was that the “magic crystal mines” in Europa had basically all fallen within the territories of Britannia and Gaul. There were only a few scattered scraps within the Saxon Empire’s borders.
This also gave this otherworldly “Second Reich” a natural disadvantage in the development of magitech.
Fortunately, the joke law that “German science is the best in the world” seemed to apply in this world as well.
And so the Saxons had forcefully opened up a thorny path along the route of conventional technology with which Mo Lin was more familiar.
It was just that, unlike the fuel technology route Mo Lin knew, the “diesel” of this world was not refined from underground petroleum.
Instead, it came from another ore unique to this world—radiant crystal ore.
Although Mo Lin had no idea how the Saxons turned ore into fuel, all he needed to know was that radiant crystal ore was equivalent to petroleum in this world.
Perhaps it was destiny at work, but within the territory of the Saxon Empire, as well as in the Lorraine and Alsace regions acquired from the Republic of Gaul, large amounts of radiant crystal ore were buried.
This was also one of the important reasons why the Saxon Empire had pulled far ahead along this technological route.
Over the years, although the countries represented by these two technological lines had experienced constant conflicts, no large-scale clashes had occurred.
Unfortunately, in the year Mo Lin’s soul had transmigrated here, the situation underwent a “slight” change.
“Second Lieutenant Mo Lin, we’re here!”
“Ah?”
Just as Mo Lin was immersed in his own world and thinking through a crucial point, Messenger Schmidt interrupted him.
Mo Lin came back to his senses and looked up. In the open ground in the distance was a vast stretch of tents.
This was the temporary encampment of the 1st Battalion, 33rd Infantry Regiment.