Chapter 280 Gem Bay
The most important thing for industry is population. Without people, other things will actually have little effect on Castel at the moment. Although Zeus asked Ash to take the banshees to explore, the main goal is still to get some ships.
Zeus didn't hold out much hope for Gem Bay. According to Chloe, the Pirate King dragged the entire Gem Bay [into a dream], and there was a high probability that there were no living people left there.
People may not be able to obtain it, but treasures are likely to be indispensable.
The word "pirate" in the Pirate Court is not written casually. They must have accumulated a lot of wealth. Moreover, the pirates in Gem Bay are blockaded by the Empire, so even if they have money, they can't spend it.
This is wonderful.
I guess all the treasures plundered by the Black Sail Fleet went to Castel.
Hughes had gone to great lengths to get in touch with Beatrice, just to find a way to sell goods through the Rhine and make some money.
After all, Castel is too small an island, with too small a population and very limited spending power, so it is difficult to maintain an economic cycle in the long term. If it had not been for the war with monsters and the entry into rationing mode, Zeus would probably have started issuing bonds by now.
These treasures can solve these practical problems very well.
In addition to the treasure, Gem Bay itself is a treasure trove.
Castel does not produce coal, nor did it produce saltpeter before. Although a rich saltpeter mine was obtained in that space, it will eventually be mined out.
But there are saltpeter mines in Gem Bay.
An important channel for obtaining saltpeter is biological feces. If you are inland, you can make saltpeter in pig pens and horse pens.
On the islands, there is an even more magical way: guano.
Many islands are fixed resting places for migratory birds, and large amounts of bird droppings accumulate over the years.
Don't underestimate the bird droppings, they are actually very valuable resources. The United States even enacted the "Guano Island Act" specifically to seize the islands in the Pacific that are full of bird droppings.
Many islands produced saltpeter, which was needed to make explosives, but the guano had an even more important use.
These guano that have accumulated over the years can become extremely high-quality fertilizer with a little processing. They often exist in the form of phosphates. As long as Castel can control these islands, there will be no shortage of food on the islands.
Fertilizer has a qualitative impact on grain output. With a large amount of high-quality fertilizer, large-scale farms can be developed. Castres happened to have a high level of industrialization, so it was not difficult to produce agricultural machinery.
One of Castres’ biggest shortcomings is the lack of coal mines. Coal is the foundation of industry, and without fuel there is naturally no industry to speak of - this is made up for by pollution.
Another shortcoming is food shortage.
There is not enough food, far from enough food. Whether it is fishing in the sea or farming, the efficiency is very low. Before the technology tree of trawlers and chemical industry reaches the stage of fertilizers, there is almost no good solution.
Even if Nini can use herding fish magic to feed thousands of people, what will happen if there are more people in the future? There is only one Nini. Even if she has six hands, there is a limit to her magic. Moreover, fish cannot completely replace the staple food. After all, it is still farming.
Although fertilizers are simple to talk about, they are actually a very late product of the chemical industry chain. The ability to independently produce fertilizers is often a symbol of an industrial country. Castels current industrial foundation is quite weak and extremely biased, and there is still a long way to go to solve this problem.
But this bird droppings is different.
With these readily available phosphates, producing fertilizers only requires simple steps, and coupled with the large-scale application of agricultural machinery, Castres will soon be able to achieve food freedom.
With food freedom, fuel freedom, and an independent territory deep in the ocean, Castel will never be controlled by anyone again.
Therefore, Gem Bay was something that Xius must obtain. In comparison, the treasure was just a bonus.
In fact, ever since the war ended and Castel returned to the real world, Hughes knew that nothing could stop Castel's rise.
The most difficult part of industrialization is going from zero to one. Once it is successfully on the right track, any enemy that blocks the progress of this steel behemoth will be crushed.
Ash received the order and left. The banshees could swim directly across the sea. Although the range of the mental connection returned to its original state after Monica was stripped of the soul of Poseidon and could no longer affect the entire sea, the banshees' movement speed in the sea was already very fast, and it would only take a few hours to go back and forth to Gem Bay.
Adding the time for exploration, we can get preliminary results in a day or two.
In addition, Hughes also planned to send people to find the Black Pearl.
Jeremiah and Ken accepted Beatrice's advice and did not stay in Blood Harbor, but decided to head north. Hughes had to send someone to intercept them in advance.
Theoretically, this shouldn't be a big problem. After all, a Banshee is much faster than a ship in the sea, but it is very difficult to operate in practice.
To put it simply, the sea is too big.
Even if all the Banshees were sent out, a hundred Banshees would not be enough in the entire Storm Ocean. Without the specific location of the Black Pearl, finding it would be as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack.
Therefore, Zeus decided to return first, and then descend into the body of the worker Zeus to take a look and roughly determine where the Black Pearl is.
With a general direction, it should be much easier to find them. You can also listen to their conversation. Maybe Jeremiah and Ken will tell you their location themselves.
Hughes locked himself in the office again.
On the other side, Ash led more than thirty banshees out of the sea from Castel.
This number is close to one-third of the Banshees. Ash brought so many people with him on one hand for safety reasons, and on the other hand he also planned to explore the area thoroughly.
They came from the sea under the eastern caves. Originally, the banshees entered the sea from the caves under the manor, but the webway leading to that side had not been cleared in time, so they finally chose to walk directly to the seaside.
The banshees jumped into the sea from the cliff of the cave, making a crackling sound like dumplings being dropped into the sea. After entering the sea, the banshees couldn't help swimming around and laughing and playing.
Ash did not stop her people. These banshees had been trapped on the island since the war entered the second half. The sea was full of pollution and monsters, and they had no chance to enter the water. These banshees almost thought they were creatures on land.
After swimming happily for a while, the banshees followed Ash to the Gem Bay.
These curious banshees couldn't wait to see what treasures the Pirate King had.
(End of this chapter)
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