After geological investigation, we can learn that Theramore Island was once part of Dustwallow Marsh. In fact, even now, Theramore is not far from the land. The narrowest section of the sea between the island and Dustwallow Marsh is only more than 200 meters long.
rice.
But this short period of more than two hundred meters has added huge problems to people.
There is not enough stone on Theramore Island. If you want to build a naval base, you have to go several kilometers into Dustwallow Swamp to mine stone.
The environment of Dustwallow Swamp is harsh, and the giant lizards used as pack animals are not adapted to it. In addition, the short distance of more than 200 meters has doubled the transportation cost for no reason.
Li De and Dai Lin stood on the deck of the warship and docked the ship in the bay between Theramore and Dustwallow Marsh. They couldn't help but look at each other and sighed.
The strategic location here is too important, but the construction cost is too high.
"We need a bridge."
Li De said firmly and looked at Van Cleef, who was also in the inspection group.
"The sea bridge over 300 meters... to be honest, it's really difficult."
Whether it was Port of Hope or New Gadgetzan, Van Cleef completed the task very well, but at this moment he still encountered difficulties. The shortest distance of the bay is only more than 200 meters, but to build a bridge, additional steps must be taken.
Consider some distance.
"Our naval base can only start construction if we build a bridge first. How to build this bridge, I will give you a month to design a plan."
When he said this, Li De himself felt a little unkind. But there was no way, because of Dalaran's mistakes, Gul'dan's head was stolen, and the Portal of Darkness would be opened again.
Time waits for no one. If many things are not planned now, there may never be a chance in the future.
"Don't worry, we guarantee to complete the task!"
Van Cleef and Birgwitz felt the pressure instantly, but these two are excellent architects and engineers. They are never afraid of challenges, and pressure will become their motivation.
"We can't build a complete base with stone in a short time, but the frame still needs to be erected. If the stone can't be transported, we will build a house with wood first and take root here."
Dustwallow Swamp is actually not lacking. In addition to the excellent stone that can be produced in the northern mountains, there is also a considerable amount of wood. However, it is too difficult to develop this swamp terrain.
"First of all, establish a maritime academy in Theramore, send our engineers, students, and the Proudmoore family's academy here, and let the base be built for their study and research.
Gastin, starting today, you will be transferred to the navy under Anderson to train a team to protect our researchers."
Justin Burnham, who once belonged to the Elite Ten, gave Li De a standard military salute and expressed his firm obedience to the mission.
Gastin has a talent for being a navy, and he performed well in naval battles when he sent troops to the Kingdom of China. At that time, Li De thought about officially transferring him to the navy, but at that time, the Hanhai Protectorate was short of manpower in all aspects.
The matter was delayed.
Now it's better. Hanhai Protector has trained a group of reserve cadres. The appointments that were originally made out of necessity due to manpower shortage can be changed to use them according to their talents.
"The lizards don't have enough carrying capacity, and we won't be able to use them for transportation after the bridge is built. We still need to open up a route to Desolation and introduce the giant kodos there to transport stones for us."
Hearing Li De mention the Desolate Land again, Dai Lin remembered what Nogfogg had said about the difficulties and obstacles on the way to the Desolate Land.
Back then, the salt business was dispensable, and Dai Lin refused to explore the other side of the continent. Now Li De has brought up the old matter again, but it is related to the fate of Theramore.
"The cost of organizing a large-scale voyage is not cheap...are we putting the cart before the horse?"
Hearing Dai Lin say this, Li De shook his head.
"I have decided to shelve the plan to explore the other side of the continent at sea for the time being. I have decided to use land exploration as a first step. If everything goes well, we will consider whether to open a sea route in the future."
When Li De said this, Dai Lin showed a thoughtful expression.
"Is it your elf friend?"
"Why are you kidding me?"
Li De showed a helpless expression, but then he admitted it.
"Before Shandris left, she gave me a map of Feralas. The map shows that you can reach Desolation by taking the land route from Feralas.
As long as we can successfully get through the Thousand Needles behind the Shining Plains, we can reach Feralas and consider introducing kodo beasts from Desolace."
Hearing that he could travel overland without losing his ship, Dai Lin smiled. However, only those who were familiar with Thousand Needles, such as Bigwitz and Van Cleef, had indescribable expressions on their faces.
The Thousand Needles Stone Forest is right next to the Hanhai Protectorate. How could they not inspect the Thousand Needles Stone Forest?
The topography of Thousand Needles Stone Forest is complex and belongs to the weathered valley terrain. Several epochs ago, it and the Shining Plains belonged to a huge river system. The impact and erosion of the water flow formed huge stone pillars on the river bed.
Later, with the drift of the continent, the water in the Shining Plain dried up and turned into a salt plain, and the Thousand Needles Stone Forest became the natural wonder it is today.
The valley that stretches for hundreds of kilometers is made up of stone pillars that are thick at the top and tens of meters in diameter at the bottom. This makes it difficult to see sunlight at the bottom of the valley. In that dimly lit barren land, a group of hyenas, wild dogs and hyenas live.
Fighting each other in that harsh environment.
In addition to the loose wolves and dogs in the area, there are also mysterious wind snakes living there.
In the culture of Kalimdor, the wind serpent is called a mysterious creature. Until now, researchers are not sure whether it originally belonged to this world or came from another world.
Even for a long time, researchers couldn't figure out how wind snakes reproduce and how their young grow.
After a long period of research, I finally came up with a conjecture that every wind snake is a natural caster, and they can freely travel between the void and the physical world.
Their larvae may have been born in the plane of nothingness, and by traveling between the entity and nothingness, in the process they may even have completed traveling around the world in nothingness, and finally returned to their origin as mature bodies.
Although the number of mysterious wind snakes is not as large as that of various canines, they are quite troublesome. Wind snakes have powerful attack power, and may also master some dizzy toxins and frightening spells. At the same time, they are timid and sensitive.
A large group of people passing through the Shining Plains can easily scare the wind snakes and cause them to attack.
In addition to the messy canines and sensitive wind snakes, there are even earth elemental creatures active in the Shining Plains.
If the flesh and blood wind snakes are a trouble, then these elemental creatures made of a pile of stones and earth are a nightmare.
Flesh and blood creatures have living habits, feelings and emotions. As long as we find the rules, it is not impossible to avoid them or live in harmony.
But elemental creatures are different. Their magic and bodies composed of inorganic elements cause them to have no thoughts and perceptions. They just move aimlessly in Thousand Needles Forest and will use magic to attack all life forms they encounter.
In such an outrageous area, it is simply wishful thinking for a large group of people to pass through it smoothly.
Of course, this is not absolute. A few months ago, the venture capital company sent an army composed of desperadoes, and successfully passed through the Thousand Needles Stone Forest to sneak attack on the Hanhai Protector.
After defeating them, the Governor of Hanhai interrogated the prisoners, but almost no useful information was obtained.
From the mouths of the captives, it can only be known that the venture capital company seems to have mastered a special technology that can make some beasts stay friendly with them. Therefore, when these gangsters are traveling, they mainly consider how to avoid the wind snake.
But they still need to avoid those elemental creatures. They lost a lot of people because of those elemental creatures.
Apart from these, the Hanhai Protector did not get anything useful from the prisoners. The venture capital company always relied on interests to bribe its thugs, and a lot of core information would not be disclosed to the outside thugs.
It was because of this incident that Van Cleef almost regretted his death later. The commander of the venture capital company was killed by him. If he knew that the other party might have important information, Van Cleef would never kill him so simply.
But the matter has come to this, and there is no point in regretting it. Instead, others comforted Van Cleef not to worry.
Regarding this matter, after returning to Gadgetzan, Li De came to the conclusion after everyone's discussion:
Since the venture capital company dares to send a team of more than 800 people, it means that this technology is mature in the venture capital company, so relevant information can definitely be obtained from the venture capital company.
You can form a powerful team to travel through Thousand Needles, from Feralas to Desolation, and find a way to obtain this technology from the venture capital company.
Li De planned to lead the team himself, but this proposal was unanimously opposed by everyone.
His importance to the Protectorate of the Vast Sea is self-evident. As a leader, he is not suitable to always act as an explorer and lead a small team on outings.
Since everyone is opposing it, Li De can only shelve the proposal for the time being.
The resistance mainly comes from Nogfogg, who wants to keep Lid in Gadgetzan because there are many more important things to deal with.
The most important issue in building Theramore is not the minutiae of animal power, the most critical issue is money.
Theramore is on an island hundreds of kilometers away, and its construction cost is much higher than that of Port of Hope and Gadgetzan. First of all, a logistical problem is enough to overwhelm the Hanhai Protector.
In order to provide stable logistical support, Hanhai Protectorate requires a huge amount of money.
Industrialized textiles are indeed hugely profitable, but after such a long time, the market has also become saturated.
The yarn output of Hanhai Duhu is too large, but the problem is that in the step of spinning the yarn into cloth, Kezan Market still uses very backward traditional technology.
Compared with spinning machines, the technological innovation of looms is actually much simpler.
After conquering the Jenny machine, it didn't take long for Bigwitz and his friends to create a more efficient shuttle loom.
It is precisely because of the shuttle loom that Hanhai Protector can quickly weave the large amount of yarn he produces into cloth. It is precisely because of this that Bores lost so much in the cloth battle in the Kingdom of Stormwind.
thorough.
Nogfogg now needs to ask Li De to make a major decision to allow Hanhai Protector's cloth to enter the Kezan market.
After conquering the loom technology, Nogfogg decided not to put new looms into mass production for the time being.
Because the cheap yarn has offended the Bilgewater Cartel, the Bilgewater Cartel is now gradually shifting its business to the next step in the textile industry.
If the finished cloth is released again, it will not only drive away the Bilgewater Cartel, but also offend other traditional giants in the finished cloth industry.
Now, in order to build Theramore, the Protectorate of the Vast Sea needs a lot of money. It is still too slow to accumulate wealth through the yarn business alone, so Nogfogg suggested that it be better to move to the next link in the industrial chain.
Noggenfogg is indeed a pure goblin. As a member of the Protector of the Vast Sea, in order to realize the protector's and his own ambitions, it can be said that he has no regard for his own kind.
With Kezan Island as the core, it radiates to dozens of surrounding islands and a small half of the Kalimdor continent. The entire traditional industrial chain of the textile industry is handled internally by the goblins.
Hot Sand is responsible for raw materials, Rusty Water is initially processed into yarn, and several other large chaebols are responsible for downstream industries.
Now that Hanhai Protector and Rusty Water have fallen out over the yarn business, if they continue to engage in downstream industries, it can be said that they are completely on the opposite side of the goblins.
"Minister Nogfogg, you want me to start an all-out war with the Kozan goblins."
Li De said with a wry smile, while overturning Nogfogg's proposal.
"Aren't we building Theramore just to prevent a possible break with Kezan in the future? In order to build Theramore now, we must first break with Kezan. If this is the case, I don't think Kezan will give us the chance to build Theramore.
Already."
After hearing this, Noggenfogg was ashamed. He only thought about making money, but forgot that doing so was putting the cart before the horse.
"However, it is not impossible to put the loom into production, but it cannot be too urgent, and the mainstream market cannot be approved."
Reed reminded Nogfogg and signaled him to open up his mind.
In the current Azeroth, excluding the night elves, high elves, Zandalari trolls and other mysterious countries with little external exchanges, the mainstream economic centers are two large urban agglomerations: Kezan in the west and Lordaeron in the east.
When the Kezan market in the west is saturated, a large amount of finished cloth enters the market, and the goblins who will be shocked will unanimously report to the outside world.
But Lordaeron in the east is different: the Skull of Gul'dan has been stolen, the Dark Portal will be opened again, and there will soon be another war in the Eastern Kingdom.
As long as it is a war, even if the scale is not large, it is still a waste of money.
During the Second Orc War, the war spread across the entire continent, almost emptying out the inventories of most industries, and cloth was one of them.
This is why Dailin can buy a compromise from the leaders of various countries through a batch of yarn in the negotiations to deal with the orc captives.
Now that the war is about to begin again, even if the scale is much smaller, the demand for military rations and clothing is quite astonishing.
It is difficult to replenish the emptied inventory in the Kingdom Continent, and now the Hanhai Protector's goods are the best opportunity to replenish it.