Chapter 729: Sailing on Dry Land
Nini thought for a while before slowly raising her head.
"Boss, I have one last question. The banshees are controlled by a symbiotic contract and cannot be separated too far. How do you plan to solve this problem?"
Ash, who was standing by, also looked over when he heard this.
Hughes has always been a man who plans before acting. When he comes up with an idea, he has usually thought it over carefully.
It's impossible that he hadn't thought of such a simple thing, which means he already has a solution.
But no matter how hard Nini thought, she couldn't figure out how to solve this problem.
Unlike the attack on the North, the Rhine is a completely landlocked country and the banshees cannot swim across the sea.
Does the Lord intend to move all the banshees to the front lines and go to the Rhine himself?
To be honest, this is a bit unrealistic. This time is different from the past. When fighting with the North, Castel still relied mainly on the strength of the main island. Blood Harbor was just an enclave and could provide extremely limited support for the expedition.
Now, the industrial system centered on Blood Harbor, Castel, and the North has been basically completed. Castel is responsible for the research and development of cutting-edge technology, Blood Harbor is the main production base and transit point for production capacity output, and the North provides population and resources.
Under this system, the focus of military expansion is not the military, but the terrifying production capacity.
To put it simply, Zeus and the banshees stationed in Castel and Blood Harbor create far greater value than going to the front lines to fight.
Due to the characteristics of their mental connection and their abundant energy, most banshees have some achievements in scientific research. More than a hundred banshees can easily lead several industrial zones in production, which is equivalent to tens of thousands of people.
But on the battlefield, the firepower density of one hundred six-armed banshees is only three times that of humans. Moreover, with the equivalent worship of the Crusaders, the firepower would have overflowed long ago.
Ash and Nini both looked at Hughes, their eyes sharp as they waited for him to explain.
Hughes smiled softly: "There's no sea in the Rhine, so why don't we just build one?"
Nini: “???”
Ash: “???”
Hughes picked up a map from the side, spread it out on the table, pointed at Blood Harbor, and then pointed at the Rhine.
"What's the straight-line distance between Blood Harbor and the Rhine?"
"Well, it shouldn't be too far."
Rhine is the capital of the empire, located slightly to the east, and is not far from the Principality of Tis.
The North is relatively far away, and when the banshees went to the North, they had to go around a big circle on the sea, which meant they had to walk a lot further.
"But even though the Rhine is close, there's no waterway connecting it!"
Nini lay on the table and studied it for a long time, but still shook her head.
Banshees can move quickly in the water because they have a natural ability. Once they are on land, their movement speed is not much faster than that of humans on two legs.
"Look at these traces. These are the old river courses. Originally, there should have been many rivers flowing into the sea, but later they all dried up for some unknown reason." Zeus pointed on the map.
This map was specially made. In addition to the basic landmarks, it also marked the approximate contour lines, and you can see that there are indeed several river valleys along the way.
Nini scratched her head. "So we're going to dig a canal? That's theoretically possible, but if I may be frank, the workload is simply too enormous."
Although laying a railway to the north is a long way off, it is not difficult. To put it simply, it is just two rails and sleepers, and the main work is laying the roadbed.
But it is different when going to the Rhine. If you want to dig a canal, you must use large-scale machinery. Otherwise, it will be impossible to do it even if Emperor Yang of Sui is alive because of manpower carrying it on shoulders and hands.
Castell has no problem producing large machinery, but it is difficult to dig such a long canal.
It might take decades before we reach the Rhine.
Looking at the two's bewildered expressions, Xiu Si nodded with satisfaction. He pulled out a scroll of documents from the side and said, "Do you remember the sea drying up before?"
"That seems to be because the Pirate King can use the power of the Sea God to a certain extent?"
"That's right. At that time, the seawater flowed into the kingdom of the Sea God. It was not until we completely destroyed it that we successfully left. In other words, the Sea God has the power to control the seawater."
Nini and Ash took a deep breath, and they vaguely guessed what Hughes was going to do.
But is this really possible?
"Our storm generator was originally built using the storm-raising rituals of the Sea God Church. Besides summoning storms, the Sea God Church can also summon tsunamis."
"Castel has also made some modifications to this. They can't trigger a tsunami yet, but they can control the tides."
"Then, isn't that invincible?!" Nini jumped up excitedly and hit the ceiling.
Although Zeus' office was raised to make it easier for the banshees to enter and exit, there was only enough space for them to stand upright.
Nini was so excited that she jumped through the floor and her head got stuck on the ceiling.
Xiu Si looked at Nini who was stuck on the wall speechlessly, sighed, and ignored her and continued speaking:
"I plan to use a tsunami generator to flood the river with seawater. I've already sent people to survey the route, and the altitude difference along the way isn't that great. As long as enough seawater pours in, the riverbed will be filled with water again, creating a waterway from Castel to the Rhine!"
"This way, not only can the Banshees quickly reach the Rhine, but the ironclads can also pass through!"
Speaking of this, Xius also became excited.
"Then we'll use our ship-borne artillery to bombard the Rhine! Tata's ram ship might even be able to land. Just imagine, we could use the ship's ram to break through the Rhine's walls. Ha, that would be awesome!"
Sailing on dry land may sound outrageous, but it does not seem impossible.
Ash stood there for a long time, thinking, and then hesitantly said, "It sounds like there's no problem, but why are these rivers empty?"
Xius fell silent after hearing this. Indeed, this matter was a bit strange.
These waterways were once rivers, but are now empty.
It's not like the Rhine doesn't rain, so where does the rain go? Why does the river just disappear?
Besides, even if the river dries up, there will still be water accumulation after it rains.
"Anyway, let's give it a try. The tsunami generator currently requires the use of a stellar furnace. We can first flood the river channel in the Principality of Tis with seawater. Even if it can't reach the Rhine, it can still provide a certain amount of shipping capacity."
This time, Castel is not the main attacker. Isabella will organize the army to attack. In theory, Hughes is mainly responsible for logistics and can try to backflow seawater.
(End of this chapter)
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