"His Majesty!"

Looking back at Owen suddenly, Hughes asked excitedly: "That is to say, as long as it is treated, the large land south of Red Sand Fortress can also be cultivated, right?"

"Well, yes."

Owen gave an affirmative answer and did not forget to remind: "However, this place has been too severely affected by the curse of Kazitu. It will take time to restore life. I can't decide when I can start farming."

“Having hope is better than having nothing at all!”

The problems that have plagued Red Sand Fortress for many years are expected to be solved. How can Hughes not be excited?

Owen understood his mood at this moment, smiled slightly, and agreed: "Indeed."

Hire water bearers to improve the land, and when the land is ready for planting, you can distribute it to them for farming, so you don't have to worry about your future life.

In addition, Owen has other measures, such as building a factory in Fengsuicheng, which can also attract many people to work.

All in all, as long as he is not lazy and is willing to work, the water bearer's future life will at least be guaranteed.

Next, it was time to inspect the next place, and Hughes led Owen and his group there.

On the way, Owen saw two soldiers not far away carrying supplies on wooden carts.

One person was pulling the car in front, and the other was pushing hard from behind. The car contained several wooden barrels filled with black liquid.

"Eh?"

As we were walking, the wooden cart suddenly stopped moving. It turned out that a stone was blocking the path of the right wheel of the wooden cart.

The soldier pulling the cart in front couldn't move it no matter how hard he pulled it, so he turned around and shouted: "The cart can't move, push harder!"

"Got it!" the soldier behind responded.

"One, two—hey!"

After shouting the slogan, the two of them exerted force at the same time. When the wooden cart moved forward, the body tilted slightly, and the wooden wheel was successfully pushed onto the stone.

Just as the wooden cart was about to cross the obstacle, an accident happened. The right wheel suddenly fell off the axle and rolled to other places.

"Fuck! The wheels fell off!" The soldier pushing the cart behind couldn't help but yell.

Suddenly the support of the right wheel was lost. The two soldiers could not control the heavy wooden cart, and the entire body fell to the right.

"What?"

The soldier pulling the cart in front said urgently: "Steady! Steady! Hey, hey -"

After all, the two couldn't control it, and the wooden cart completely tipped over. All the barrels carried on the cart were overturned, and the black liquid inside spilled all over the floor.

Seeing this, Hughes hurried over and asked worriedly: "Are you two injured?"

He was more concerned about the safety of the soldiers than the supplies carried on the wooden cart. After all, every soldier was a valuable fighting force against undead monsters.

"We're fine."

Looking at the black liquid on the ground, the two soldiers lowered their heads in guilt.

"Sorry, Lord Benjel, we messed up."

"You should be more careful next time and clean up the black oil on the ground later."

This was an accident. Hughes had no intention of punishing them, he just told them to clean up the place.

"Yes!" they both responded in unison.

"Huh? This is it?"

Owen, who came over later, was extremely interested in the black liquid on the ground. He squatted down, dipped a little of it with his fingers, and rubbed it between his fingers a few times. It felt sticky and oily.

[Alfa, could this be...]

[Yes, Master, this is petroleum crude oil, and the quality seems to be very good.] Alpha gave an affirmative answer.

"Your Majesty, is there anything wrong with this black oil?"

Seeing Owen actually checking the black oil on the ground with his hands, Hughes came over and handed over a clean cloth.

Taking the cloth, Owen wiped the hands that had just touched the oil clean.

"You call it black oil?"

"Yes." Hughes nodded, "This liquid is very dark and feels a bit like oil to the touch, so we call it black oil."

"The real name of this thing is oil."

Owen corrected: "It is a very important industrial raw material, known as the 'blood of industry'."

"Is that so?"

Hughes didn't understand what industry was, but judging from the way Owen attached great importance to it, he could guess that this oil must be a very important thing.

"But we only use it to make fire for cooking, lighting, heating, and to add flame burning effects to the stones used in the trebuchet."

"You are just taking advantage of the flammability of oil. In fact, oil has various uses."

There is actually oil here. Owen asked impatiently: "Knight Commander Benjier, where did you find the oil?"

"Just east of the fortress, the oil you mentioned is flowing on the surface, like a black river." Hughes said.

That's really incredible. It is estimated that geological movements have caused underground oil to be affected by formation pressure and continue to seep out to the surface along cracks.

In this way, wouldn't the task of collecting oil be much more convenient?

"Take me there quickly and have a look."

Owen suddenly changed his mind and went to check out the oil producing area.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Hughes nodded.

Since we are leaving the fortress, we naturally need to bring some guards.

Owen and his group hurried to the east of Red Sand Fortress and arrived at the oil production area.

Sure enough, as Hughes said, there are many cracks here where oil is gurgling out of the ground. These black liquids are flowing on the surface, converging into a winding "black river."

This situation and scene are extremely shocking.

Even Owen couldn't help but sigh when he saw it, how much oil is buried underground? It's too exaggerated!

There is no doubt that it is a certainty to allow the Red Sand Fortress to exploit oil.

There is also a railway construction plan from Dawn City to Red Sand Fortress. The construction speed must be accelerated absolutely!

As the center of development, Dawn City's industrial development speed is bound to be stronger than other parts of the kingdom, so the oil here is more needed.

After wandering around for a while, Owen and the others returned to the fortress and continued to inspect other places.

Afterwards, Irving stayed in the Red Sand Fortress for several days and negotiated with Hughes about weapons supply, construction of water pipelines, oil extraction and many other matters.

During their stay, all the water used by Owen, Mapel and Viscount Jarvis - including water for cooking - was provided by water magicians using magic.

This just shows that the knight captain is very careful to entertain the king and the high-status people accompanying him.

You know, there are not many magicians in Red Sand Fortress.

After all, the living conditions here are too difficult. If there is a good place to go, they usually won't come here. Many magicians are forced to come here because they have committed crimes.

Because Hughes was worried that the three of them wouldn't be able to get used to the water in the reservoir, and they might have physical problems.

The water generated by magic is very clean, does not contain any microorganisms and impurities, and there is 100% chance of nothing happening if you consume it.
Chapter completed!