Under the guidance of the pilot, the huge fleet bypassed the whirlpools and reefs and slowly sailed towards Hope Island. The outline of Hope Island was also revealed in front of Hilo little by little.
After being away from home for a long time, Hilo was filled with joy when he saw this familiar island again, and the expression on his face could not conceal his joy.
From a distance, Shiloh saw a small boat sailing out from the dock and heading towards the crowd.
After the boat approached, Shiloh stood on the bow of the boat and took a look. The most conspicuous person standing on the boat, with a hideous scar on his face, was none other than Luo Wen.
"Quick, put down the rope ladder and pick up Rowan."
The sailors on the boat immediately followed the orders, slowed down the boat, and threw down the rope ladder. Rowan couldn't wait for it. He was so tall that he didn't wait for the boat to stop, grabbed his body, and climbed up with agility.
When the loyal captain who had not seen him for a long time appeared in front of Shiloh again, Shiloh couldn't help but stepped forward and hugged Rowan, saying: "Rowan, I have worked hard for you these past few months."
Rowan smiled heartily and said: "It is my honor to protect Stormwind City for His Highness!" Then his face straightened, he knelt down and saluted.
"My subordinates respectfully welcome His Highness back to his base!"
Shiloh grabbed Rowan's arm and said with a smile: "No need to be polite, I've been away for so long and I'm finally home."
He looked at Luo Wen carefully and found that this man who had been wandering on the sea for half his life was still as strong as before, but his face looked a little haggard for some unknown reason.
He glanced at the people brought by Rowan, and found that most of them looked familiar. These people looked at Shiloh in awe. When they saw Shiloh's eyes glancing at him, they immediately knelt down and saluted: "Meet your highness!"
Shiloh felt something was wrong and asked: "Rowan, where are Mahmoud and his desert mercenaries? Why are they missing?"
Rowan's expression suddenly changed, as if he thought of something bad. He glanced around and whispered: "Your Highness, I want to report this matter to you. About a month ago, something happened on Hope Island.
Got it!"
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In the cabin of the Golden Deer, Shiloh frowned and sat in the front seat. Beside him, Connor and Old Joel stood on the left and right, while Rowan sat under Shiloh, telling the story of Hope Island.
what happened on.
Back in time one month ago, it was the day when Shiloh left the royal capital and headed to the Demon Fortress with the eldest prince.
On Hope Island, it was in full swing, and Rowan started another day of routine.
He tidied up his clothes and walked out of the ruling hall in high spirits. At this time, the ruling hall had been renovated, the area had nearly doubled, and the whole had become a small manor style made of pure stone, although there was nothing special about it.
There are many decorations and sculptures, but the entire executive hall looks natural and seems to be emitting a faint shimmer all the time, which is quite magical.
The workers who renovated the executive hall were the architects who claimed to be Tiangong, and they were also good helpers left by Shiloh to Rowan. The entire construction of Hope Island was basically supervised by them.
The ruling hall has now been transformed into a three-story manor, with a layer of walls built around the perimeter using stones and mirage, finally giving it the feeling of a lord living there.
And outside the ruling court, there is still the center of the entire Stormwind City, the small square.
Now it can no longer be called a small square. It is quite large and can accommodate a thousand people. There is also a pool built in the center. It is built with colorful stones and shells selected from the beach and the sea. It looks extremely beautiful.
In the center of the pool, there is a statue of a man carved out of stone. He is riding a horse and pulling out the long sword from his waist to make a charge. He is very heroic. However, the statue looks like Hilo who has lost weight. If Hilo sees him with his own eyes,
The statue of was erected in the city center, and it would probably make people blush with shame.
Continuing to look outward, outside the square are rebuilt residential houses, which are built with a mixture of wood and stone. The current residential buildings are no longer the temporary mixed dormitories of the past, but have different levels and luxury systems. They are basically second-class.
The noble class like knights basically own one building per person. According to the law, they can also hire housekeepers and servants from civilians to take care of their lives. Of course, the labor fees need to be borne by the knights themselves.
As for ordinary craftsmen and civilians, several people can rent a luxurious house together. The first floor is a living room, dining room, and kitchen, and the second floor is several rooms. Living there is extremely convenient and comfortable.
Now Stormwind City can fully maintain a normal life for 3,000 people.
Only now did Rowan understand why Shiloh had to pay everyone under his command. Since these magical peons, laborers, construction workers, and sky workers rebuilt Stormwind City at an extremely fast speed, basically all civilians
They would all choose to rent a private house together with others. Most of the gold coins went around and returned to Herod's pocket, and the work enthusiasm of these civilians was also greatly improved.
Who doesn’t want to live a better life? In the past, on the mainland, everyone was just a servant of the nobles. They lived in dilapidated houses, and more than half of their income would be taken away by the nobles. They could only barely survive. Now here we are.
On Hope Island, everyone sees the path to a better life and is naturally full of enthusiasm.
In the center of the residences, there are also two major shops, east and west, selling food, meat, salt and various daily necessities. These supplies are still sold by Rowan. According to Herod's plan, civilians will gradually be attracted to participate in the future.
, establish a healthy market system.
Further outside, there are some defense systems, such as arrow towers, surveillance towers, and a large number of anti-horses. The trained Stormtrooper soldiers will patrol every night to protect the safety of Stormwind City.
Rowan followed the spacious road and inspected every place in the city. There was a faint scent of coconut in the air, which made people feel refreshed. Over the past few months, he had developed this habit, and in
All the citizens of Stormwind City who see him will salute him respectfully and thank him for bringing a better life to everyone.
This habit has been going on for three full months since Shiloh left.
According to Herod's plan, the land outside the city has also been developed. A large amount of farmland has been cultivated and seeds have been sown, waiting to harvest the fruits of labor. The first batch of planted crops is about to reach the harvest period, and the farmers are smiling.
, after the harvest, half of the food will belong to them, in exchange for gold coins, allowing them to start a family on Hope Island and spread their branches.
The royal knights and desert mercenaries continued to maintain the daily training of the Storm Army in the military camp. Within three months, they recruited 50 people from slaves to join the army. At this time, they were sweating in the training designated by Hilo.
More slaves are trying to transform themselves from slaves into workers through their own efforts and accumulation of wages. Little Jack, a ghostly elf, has become more and more mature since he took charge of the mine on Gold Coin Island. He made it public in advance.
He passed the law that slaves can become workers, and also specially selected a few slaves with good performance to appoint them as workers in advance, eliminating the slave status. This greatly increased the enthusiasm of the slaves, and the mining and excavation project on the Gold Coin Island was incomparable.
It went well, almost all the accumulated iron ore was liquidated, causing little Jack to ask three times a day when he would start trading with the mainland again.
It can be said that Gold Coin Island is now ready to conduct trade at any time and earn hundreds of thousands of gold coins for Hilo.
In addition, Gold Coin Island has also built a large number of blacksmith shops in conjunction with the settings of the mines, where refined iron can be smelted - Rowan plans to completely build Gold Coin Island into an "alchemy factory" - at least in Herod.
This is how it is described in the notes.
In addition to Gold Coin Island, Mahmoud also led his desert mercenaries to explore other scattered islands. There are no powerful monsters on these islands. The biggest challenge experienced by the desert mercenaries is an island with hundreds of them.
The tribe of murlocs, but these poor murlocs were not even small insects in front of the brave and skilled desert mercenaries, so they were wiped out by Mahmoud through various tactics.
There are many scattered islands that have been occupied, and most of them are isolated islands that have no value at all. At most, some outposts are set up to monitor threats from the sea. However, there are also some islands that are rich in resources. For example, there is an island with black land. There is a way to
There are huge reserves of burning black stones. After learning about them, Rowan ordered people to build a mining field on them and transport these black stones to Gold Coin Island to facilitate the opening of the blacksmith shop.
There are also some islands with flat land, which is very suitable for growing crops. Now farms have been built, and sowing has begun with columbuses.
As for other islands, Rowan waved his hand and after confirming that there was no threat, he asked some farmers to go raise poultry and livestock. Every day, sailors would sail the Bloris to patrol near these islands to ensure their safety.
The hard laborers, laborers, builders and architects that Shiloh exchanged for before he left were simply useless in terms of construction. They were a great help to Rowan. The houses they built were not only strong and beautiful, but also well-planned.
It's impeccable, and even a few special buildings were built... No matter from any point of view, the development of the Gulfstream Island Chain is on the right track, and Rowan's work is also flawless.
Everything is developing towards a prosperous situation.
However, such peaceful construction and development only lasted for just three months. On this morning, when Rowan had just inspected the border of Stormwind City, he suddenly felt the ground beneath his feet shake, and then he saw a scene from the center of Hope Island.
, deep underground, a layer of pitch-black barrier stretched out, instantly surrounding the entire Hope Island. Suddenly, the sight of the entire Hope Island became extremely dim, as if it suddenly fell into darkness.
The sudden change suddenly broke the originally peaceful and peaceful life. Fortunately, Rowan and Mahmoud were both on Hope Island at this time. The Storm Army and Desert Mercenaries responded in time and rescued all the farmers who were still working outside the city.
They were all taken back to the city, and everyone was prepared to prepare for any changes that might occur in the future.
When Rowan talked about this, Shiloh interrupted him with a solemn expression and said: "Is it... that the lizard people from the underground have come out?"
Luo Wen immediately nodded and said: "Your Highness is very knowledgeable about things. It is true. Ever since the black barrier appeared, the ground has been shaking. About an hour later, a large number of collapsed caves appeared in the center of Hope Island. The number is extremely large."
Many lizardmen emerged from the ground and launched an attack on Stormwind City."
After hearing Rowan's answer, Shiloh immediately realized that this change might be caused by the secrets hidden in the Gulf Stream Island Chain. It can be said that it was not until now that they truly faced the danger of the Gulf Stream Island Chain.
"Approximately how many lizardmen are there?"
"There were only a few hundred in number at the beginning, and the barrier didn't last long, only half a day. Once the barrier disappeared, the lizard people who didn't retreat underground would have their skin ulcerate and die. It's because of this that we can
Successfully defend Stormwind City."
"Then the barrier will disappear? In that case, it's easy to deal with."
"Your Highness, at first I thought the same thing as you. I thought it must be caused by the underground lizard people. I also thought that the enchantment only lasted for half a day. However, a week later, the enchantment appeared again and lasted for a long time.
A full half day!
After that, it appears once every five days and lasts for most of the day, and after that, it appears once every three days and lasts for the whole day!"
"Since the mutation appeared a month ago, we have resisted six lizard-men attacks. The longest one lasted for more than a day! And the number of these lizard-men is also increasing, from hundreds to
Thousands, then thousands. In order to resist these crazy lizardmen, we have dug trenches outside Stormwind City, put the flammable black stones into them and ignited them to form a ring of fire, burning the hunters on the Blolis.
Take down the whale crossbow for defense...Only in this way can we barely block them!"
Hearing Rowan's report, Shiloh clenched his fist tightly. He did not expect that he would face such an urgent war just after returning to Hope Island.
"How come there are so many lizard people? Hope Island is not that big. Where did they come from?"
Rowan shook his head and sighed: "Mahmoud and I have also studied the origins of these lizard people. After examining the corpses, we found that there are some differences in the varieties of these lizard people. Some are strong and have amazing vitality, and some are agile and dexterous.
, use venomous snakes to kill people, and some are like completely crazy beasts, with red eyes and difficult to deal with. They should not be from the same group.
In order to investigate the origins of these lizard people, Mahmoud once tried to lead a small team to rush into those caves to find out. However, they were surrounded and killed by a large number of lizard people. In the end, they escaped back and suffered heavy losses. Even he himself suffered.
It’s a serious injury and I’m recovering now.”
"If Your Highness hadn't come back in time, we might have had to evacuate Hope Island before the next lizard-men attack."
Having said this, Luo Wen looked ashamed, knelt down on the ground, and said, "This subordinate is incompetent, please punish me!"
Shiloh did not speak. He was silent for a moment and said: "The current strength of the Storm Army is indeed not enough. With these people, you have done a good job in resisting the Lizardmen for a month.
Now that I'm back, I can't stop the lizardmen from running wild on Hope Island!"
"Rowan, based on your experience, when will these lizardmen attack next?"
Rowan hurriedly replied: "Tomorrow night, they will take advantage of the darkness to attack, and then use the barrier to block the sun at the beginning of dawn, so that they can fight for more than 36 hours."
Shiloh nodded silently, looked at Connor, and said with murderous intent: "Connor, it's time for these beasts to feel the true strength of Stormwind City."
Connor nodded. At this moment, the war on Hope Island rekindled!