Volume 1: The Rise of Elanhill Chapter 0021 Request
Lawrence is now temporarily acting as the manager of the Ferry City. Originally the commander of the naval fleet, he no longer cares about those three shabby sailing ships.
He is now leading his soldiers and conscripted civilians to build something called a salt field according to the blueprints.
Chris thought that this kind of thing could help Ferry City make a profit, so Lawrence became a temporary contractor.
"Gods above... these damn pits and these inexplicable mineral powders, can they really turn the bitter sea water into salt?" Lawrence held his sword, looked at the scorching sun above his head, and complained while wiping the sweat off his face.
In fact, he believed Chris's words in his heart, because after he saw Chris's cannon in person that day, he believed in what Chris said. A person with absolute military power will not lie to his subordinates.
At least, the other party would not make boring deceptions on such meaningless things. This is a logical problem, and Lawrence thought it through very clearly.
Late yesterday, a cavalryman from Seris City delivered a letter, which told Lawrence about the establishment of the Principality of Ailan Hill and told him that he had now become the naval commander of the Principality...
In fact, he was still only managing those broken ships, but Lawrence was really promoted. He was promoted to the commander-in-chief of a country's navy, which seemed very impressive.
He had no time to be happy, as he had to go back to work producing sea salt today. This was really a ridiculous thing, at least that's what Lawrence himself thought.
"Although those warships are a bit tattered, it's a bit too much to let them go out to sea to fish and replenish the food reserves of Ferry City..." The adjutant who came over with his hands fanning the cool breeze complained to Lawrence with a helpless look on his face: "We are sailors. It's really shameful to be fishermen."
"What are you going to lose? When they were recruited, who weren't fishermen?" Lawrence grinned, squinted his eyes and sighed under the scorching sun: "Just do whatever the higher-ups tell us to do. We are all retainers of Ailan Hill. What's the point of saying this now?"
"Sir! Sir!" A middle-aged woman with tanned skin ran over excitedly, her face looking as excited as if she had just slept with a handsome guy. She swayed her plump hips along the way, with a fierce aura of a seaside woman.
As she came closer, the woman grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth. The wrinkles on her face blossomed into a beautiful flower. "Sir, the salt pan we used in the experiment has produced something! Look!"
After that, she raised her right hand and spread her palm in front of Lawrence, with an expression as if offering a treasure: "It was made exactly according to the process. We tasted it just now, and it doesn't have any bitter taste at all!"
"Really?" The adjutant looked unconvinced. He poked his finger into the center of his dirty palm, picked up a little shiny gray sea salt, and put it in his mouth to taste it.
A burst of salty taste rushed straight to his taste buds and blossomed on his tongue, bringing with it an incomparable joy and fragrance, causing his brows to relax all of a sudden: "Mm! Sir! Salty!"
Hearing the adjutant's shout, Lawrence also became curious, and pinched a pinch of sea salt from the woman's palm and stuffed it into his mouth. Instantly, he also felt the salty and fresh taste, and his face became bright.
"Good! Good!" He looked at the remaining broken salt in the woman's hand and laughed, "Hahahaha, with these salts, Ferry City can earn at least thousands of gold coins this year!"
In this world, sea salt has always been inedible because of its peculiar smell. Because of this, the price of salt in this world is very high. In many places, eating a mouthful of salty food is an extremely luxurious enjoyment.
For example, Tubao, the Northern County and the Prairie Empire to the north were all big consumers of salt, and they basically bought as much as they could get. With these sea salts, at least a lot of money could be made from these northerners.
Even for the sake of salt, these northerners are willing to exchange strategic resources such as war horses - it can be imagined that the Principality of Elanhill will soon have a large number of cavalry, and of the highest quality.
"Let everyone speed up the construction! The faster these salt fields are built, the higher our income will be!" After reveling in himself for a few seconds, Lawrence immediately gave the order.
Seeing the results, the civilians in Ferry City also sped up their work. This was closely related to their income, and naturally it was the project that everyone put the most effort into. Even under the scorching sun, the construction progress of the salt field was visibly accelerated.
In fact, this world has a certain industrial foundation. For example, there are many special metals in this world that can improve the various properties of common metals. The pyroxene that is abundant in Seris is one of them.
The alloy with the addition of this ferroxene can have better strength and is lighter in weight - better and more perfect than aluminum alloy, it is simply a cheap version of super titanium alloy.
Because they had to face the possibility of more powerful attacks, metallurgical processes such as casting and calcination were also very advanced, even more advanced than the early levels that Chris was familiar with. This was also the reason why Chris was able to produce cannons immediately - the people here only lacked a systematic scientific framework, not the corresponding application level.
At the same time, alchemy is also popular in this world. Many alchemists have basic knowledge of chemistry and are not surprised by some chemical reactions. They can easily accept the advanced chemical results provided by Chris.
But even so, Chris still couldn't become a big man in one bite. He could only build his territory little by little, allowing industry to penetrate every corner. Now in the city of Seris, the civilians have become accustomed to all kinds of new things, and have become accustomed to the outrageously cheap textiles and daily necessities.
Thanks to the huge amount of financial support brought by Desel, the return of Strid, and Gurlo's talent in planning and development, Seris's industrial process is orderly and is growing little by little.
At this moment, a team of knights appeared outside the Seris Castle. They were carrying the green royal flag representing the Alante Empire, wearing shining helmets and armor, and they looked at the merchants from all over the world with curiosity.
"We are the special envoys of General Zorn, the commander of the Alante Empire's military, and we are here to convey General Zorn's orders." Without dismounting, the leading officer raised his chin and said, looking down at the soldiers standing guard at the city gate.
The soldiers on duty also knew that the envoys from the empire could not be neglected, so they immediately ordered someone to pass on the message. He ordered the soldiers to let them pass immediately, and he personally led a few people in front to lead the way, and led these knights to the castle of Seris.
Chris has been relatively free these days because the planning has been completed and many equipments have to be abandoned because the technology is not yet mature. He no longer has the trouble of drawing blueprints and can go to the barracks to see how the new recruits are training.
However, he did not go to the barracks today, but read in the castle to get a deeper understanding of this magical world. In his opinion, many books in this world are similar to strange novels, so he can read them with great interest.
For example, the book he was holding now described the life of the wizard Glemel III. This great wizard actually used a giant dragon that could speak as a mount and founded a powerful magic kingdom alone...
If this book was set in the world before Chris traveled through time, it would definitely be a best-selling Western fantasy magic novel. While Chris admired the wonderful story in it, he imagined the impact that modern civilization might have on this world.
"Your Majesty! Envoys from the Alante Empire have come to visit unexpectedly... They request to see you and convey the orders of the Imperial General Zorn." A waiter pushed open Chris's door and stood at the door, reporting respectfully with his head lowered.
"Hmm?" Chris had no idea what these sudden envoys were talking about. He closed the book in confusion, put it on a pile of drawings about generators, stood up and did two chest expansion exercises: "I'll go meet them now..."
Walking all the way to the reception hall, Chris saw the armored messenger from the Alante Empire. The other party was also looking at Chris when Chris looked at him. After the two looked at each other for a few times, they started talking.
"I don't know...you...have come all the way here to deliver some orders." Chris didn't know how to address the other party. After hesitating for a moment, he spoke first, asking seriously and stammeringly.
The other party pulled out a piece of letter paper with a red seal from the leather mailbox on his waist and handed it directly to Chris: "Grand Duke Ailan Hill, General Zorn orders you to present all the new weapons in your hands to the Alante Empire."
"What?" Chris heard the other party's words clearly, but he really couldn't believe his ears - he was desperately expanding his army to protect himself, and someone actually came over and asked for the weapons that he relied on to save his life with just a few sweet words...
"Grand Duke Ailanhill, since you are still a vassal of the Alante Empire, you'd better obey the orders of the empire and hand over those new weapons." The other party had a faint sneer on his face and repeated his order: "You'd better understand that disobeying the orders of the Alante Empire will do you no good."
"I also bought my weapons with money, Your Excellency." Chris calculated carefully and answered, "If the weapons can be converted into taxes and tributes according to their actual prices, then I can hand them over to the imperial military."
He felt that now was not the time to turn hostile. He could find an excuse to delay and then go to Des and others to discuss countermeasures.
