“We didn’t reveal anything of value,” Roland said, while tapping on the table, “Besides learning about the long striking range and the incredible power, he won’t be able to learn the principle, so he won’t be able to manufacture it for himself.” As long as the level of industrialization remains at the current era’s, he won’t be able to resist even if he’s already aware of it. Hot weapons are just too overwhelmingly superior to cold weapons. Even with a strong will, good tactics, and a large number of people, it will still be nearly impossible to reverse the situation. “Also, those people will also send him a warning letter.”
“Warning Letter?”
“That’s right, the letter will be a notice containing the date and time of an attack. I plan to attack King’s City on that day.” The Prince calmly said, thoroughly emphasizing each word.
“…” For a long time Iron Axe merely kept on staring at Roland, his mouth hanging wide open in shock. Then by the time he came back to himself, he solemnly and respectfully stood at attention, gave a salute, and said, “As long as you order it, I will give my life for victory!”
“Relax, I’m not thinking about sending you out to die,” Roland gave a reassuring smile. “My plan does not need the First Army to participate; the witches will do it on their own.”
How is it possible to make Timothy afraid of the Western Territory? I don’t think anything less than a direct attack against the palace would ever shake him to his roots. All thoughts of dispatching troops should vanish, after he realizes that there is no place where he will ever be safe.
Roland envisioned the dropping of leaflets out of planes during later generations. However, instead of delivering leaflets, Roland intended to send Timothy two bombs — the so-called surprise attack of a bomb dropping from the sky. The possibility of directly killing the new King with it was minuscule, but as long as it could play a deterring role, it could still be considered as a successful mission.
However, whether the other side would stop insisting on launching a large-scale attack because of this would be very difficult to determine.
Roland was clearly aware of the fact that the pattern of the Battle for the Throne had changed. He was no longer so weak that he needed to disguise himself and hide, as he did at first after crossing over. It was now finally time for him to show his hand. Step by step he was climbing up to Graycastle’s political stage, finally making the people of the Kingdom pay attention to his existence — this had nothing to do with any desire to show off, rather it was intended to propagandize the power of his territory.
It was useless to obtain a kingdom in ruins, and fields that were plastered with corpses. He hoped that with this declaration, even more people would be motivated to travel to the Western Territory and stand by his side.
As the sun sunk behind the mountains, Roland opened the windows of his office. The evening breeze brushing past his face, no longer was it burning hot, instead it contained a trace of chill.
Autumn was approaching.
Chapter 283 Hydrogen Balloon delivery
On the third day after the start of fall, the fleet from Margaret’s Chamber of Commerce docked at Border Town’s pier.
This time, the size of the fleet had already returned to the scale of the past, ten sailboats laid in a row, firmly docked at the side of the pier.
“Most Honorable Prince, we meet once again,” Gammon the merchant from the Crescent Moon Bay said while he bowed in greeting, “According to Miss Margaret, the transformation of the first steam powered ship has been completed.”
“That’s true,” Roland acknowledged laughingly, “However, in order to ensure the quality of the goods, it is still required to go through a three to four days sea trial. So that we can test its reliability and power of the system.”
“I am really looking forward to seeing it in action,” Margaret said while happily clapping her hands. “That’s about the time we will have to wait for the fleet to unload anyway, so we will stay here and wait for it. May I ask if it is possible to go about and look around during the sea trial?”
“Of course. It is, after all, an entirely new kind of ship. Its handling is completely different from any sailboat in the past, so I will have to show you how to operate it anyway. However, according to the schedule, this will only happen tomorrow.” Roland gave them the signal to follow and said, “For now the most important matter is for you to relax your tired bodies, have you had any lunch yet? I have a sumptuous banquet prepared in the castle hall.”
“Every time we come to visit you here, there is a very satisfying meal for us to enjoy,” Margaret covered her smile and confessed, “By now I am really hungry, and my stomach is already crying out loud — those wheat cakes and pieces of dried meat are as hard as stones, and also very difficult to swallow.”
During this era, there was still not any reliable food preserving technology, therefore, if it was called ‘dry food’ it would be very dry and hard. Which inevitably had made Roland think of canned food. When the light industry was fully developed, manufacturing all kinds of delicious and convenient canned food which was suitable for long-distance traveling and sailing merchants would absolutely be the best choice.
…
When the feast came to an end, Hogg patted his belly with a satisfied smile on his face and said, “This bowl of mushroom soup made me unable to stop my tongue from swallowing. I also seemed to have tasted some seafood, it also had the flavor of stewed chicken and pig bones, the skills of your court chef is truly quite excellent.”
“I much prefer the dessert that was served after the dinner, which is called ice cream… correct?” Margaret said. “I’m guessing that you made it out of milk and honey, then froze it using saltpeter into its current state of crystalline ice.”
“You also have to add some butter and egg white. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get the soft and waxy texture,” Roland added, “How much saltpeter is there this time?”
“Still only one vessel,” the business woman shook her head. “The Alchemist Association is still wantonly purchasing saltpeter; the Imperial Prime Minister even sent out the patrol to help plunder the saltpeter fields. Even though that group is carrying the mighty name of sage; there is still no difference between them, and a gang of robbers, this one ship of saltpeter also came from Redwater City.”
“So, this month’s goods are for the largest part washing stones?”
“That’s right,” Hogg drained the cup of white spirit in one gulp and then poured himself another before saying, “Although the amount may be a little too much this time, it is still deeply engraved within my heart, that you told me to get as many as possible last time. In addition to washing stones, there are also the best iron ingots and lead ingots. Recently, apart from you here, there are very few cities and towns which need this stuff,” he sighed, ”The mining business is getting worse and worse.”
This is the effect brought on by the civil war, Roland thought to himself, the purchasing power is progressively declining in all parts of the country. In case that this continues for the next two to three years, the food price will go up tremendous and there will be starving people everywhere.
“Oh, that’s right, what kind of problems have recently occurred in the Western Territory?” Margaret suddenly asked.
“What happened?”
“When the fleet was on its way to Border Town, we met a lot of… well,” she paused for a moment, considering the words she should use, “a lot of ‘floating corpses’. They were dressed in rags and were mushy from rotting. Furthermore, there were so many of them floating that they covered the whole river channel from one side to the other. Apart from the corpse, there were also some broken planks and ropes that were floating on the water surface. It looked as if a ship had hit a reef, sunk, and thus ceased to exist. However, there is no reef in the river, so I thought…”