"The Northern Route is the most dangerous of the common routes currently being developed." As a Viscount of Surrey who has been in the Northern Islands for several generations, he naturally knows what is going on here.
"Not to mention the various monsters that have a strong urge to attack anything floating on the water, the constant ice and snow in that area all year round is enough to make it difficult for a large number of ordinary ships to pass."
"Before the birth of these ships mainly made of steel, if you wanted to travel on the northern route on a daily basis, you could only rely on some extraordinary beings on the ship or simply magical ships to travel safely."
"It sounds like this route was difficult to travel in those days." Lawrence shrugged.
"Of course, the cost of a sufficient level of transcendent or magic ship to travel once is not low." Viscount Surrey said.
"Therefore, even 50 years ago, there was only one ship per month on average going to our side, which is not as convenient as it is now."
In addition to these passive defense measures, the North Wind has some active defense measures. For example, there are armored lugs on the lower decks on both sides of the ship's side, and each lut has a gun that can rotate 180 degrees.
Magic cannon.
In addition, the ship also has six state-of-the-art 76mm barreled guns on each side of the lower deck.
"Actually, at the beginning, the ship was even more armed than this." Baron Surrey explained as Lawrence stared curiously at the armored version of the 120mm cannon protruding from the gun barrel on the turret.
"In addition to the current armament, there were ten 76mm artillery pieces on the upper deck where we were at that time, but they were later removed."
"Removed? Is this because this route is safer than in the past?" Lawrence looked at the artillery below curiously and asked Baron Surrey.
"Absolutely. At least this route is indeed safer than in the past." After being asked by Lawrence, Baron Surrey was stunned for a moment and then said.
"Because just 7 years ago, there was a kingdom of northern Triton people who had to abandon their homeland because the submarine volcano extinguished. And the new home they found happened to be on this route."
"So we quickly contacted them and asked them to help provide adequate cover for a large part of the Northern Route at the expense of providing the various supplies they needed."
"And the development of my territory is also related to the migration of this underwater country. It is precisely because of the existence of this fishman kingdom that the territory I am in has development value."
"Understood." Lawrence nodded. He knew that this territory called Surrey produced coal, a commodity with a very low unit value after all. If it was like in the past, it could only be done by high-level extraordinary beings or magic ships.
As for the route, the cost will offset all the advantages of this coal mine.
"However, there is actually another important reason for the reduction of the ship's artillery. That is that when the ship is traveling on the northern route, the waves on the deck are too serious." Viscount Surrey pointed to the dismantled cannon on the upper deck.
Bit explained.
"In those sea areas where the sea conditions are relatively bad, a large amount of seawater will rush up to the deck and freeze when the ship is moving. In this way, the artillery on the upper deck is no different from the decoration."
"Therefore, after more than a year of testing, the shipping company simply canceled the upper-level artillery and supporting ammunition depots. This not only allows more supplies to be transported, but also lowers the center of gravity to make the ship more stable."
"The most important thing is that this will reduce the total displacement of the ship, which can increase the speed by nearly one knot compared to the past. This is more conducive to the safety of ship navigation."
Just when Lawrence and the others were talking about something about the ship, a whistle sounded. Then the steam sailing ship called the North Wind drove out of the port area, pushed by a port steam barge.
After leaving the port, the North Wind quickly ignited the steam engine and raised the sails, and then drove towards the east like an arrow leaving the string.
When traveling on lakes and rivers, the boat was only half-sailed for safety reasons, and the boiler was not turned on to maximum power.
However, when the entire ship left the mouth of the Hudson River and sailed into the northern seas, the North Wind immediately filled the sails and turned the ship's steam engine to maximum power.
"How long does it take for us to get to our destination?" Lawrence asked the Viscount of Surrey next to him as he watched the large amount of waves brought by the fast sailing vessel break up at the bow of the ship and form piles of white foam.
"If everything goes well, only three days will be enough." The Viscount said softly. "Because this ship can sail at high power throughout the whole journey, and our wind direction is downwind, it should be able to reach me in the shortest time.
That territory."
Because the temperature was really low this season, Lawrence mainly discussed various details about his territory with Mr. Viscount during the rest of the voyage.
In just three days, the two people compiled more than 30 pages of documents about this territory.
"I finally know how you almost completely changed your island in less than a year." While standing on the bow of the ship and already able to see the target island, Viscount Surrey packed up the documents.
While saying to Lawrence.
"To be honest, the details we sorted out in the past three days are almost the same as the details about the territory that I sorted out in the previous three years."
"The most important thing is that you also proposed several directions that are very important to the territory, but I have never considered them before. To be honest, at this point, it reminded me that I still have many obvious problems as a lord.
defect."
"This is actually caused by our different origins." Lawrence shrugged and said, "So when we look at the problem, we naturally have different views on the same thing, and then we will draw different insights from different angles.
.”
"For example, regarding the next development of your island, you have indeed considered the issue of sustainable development. But you have ignored the ordinary people's thoughts on your plan."
"Yes, as nobles we have the right to issue orders to our subjects. But at least I think it is best to let them know roughly what we are going to do next when formulating policies related to them, so that we can do it
Government orders can flow smoothly up and down, and at the same time, unnecessary obstacles can be reduced as much as possible."
The gap between nobles and nobles even exceeds the overall gap between nobles and ordinary people. Some nobles exploit their own people regardless of life and death, but there are also some who think that leading their people to live a good life is the responsibility of a noble.
Core Responsibilities.
The Viscount of Surrey is naturally the latter, but because of his background, he has too much idealism when facing difficulties in this area, so there are naturally some loopholes in the plan. Therefore, Lawrence put forward some of his own opinions.
Always showing excitement.
"But these are just minor questions. The real core is whether you have that intention." Lawrence said to Viscount Surrey with a smile.
"For example, I don't really understand the industrial layout on my island, but I can definitely go to the Agricultural Church to help me complete such a similar plan."
"You are right, but members of the Agricultural Church are not so easy to hire -" Viscount Surrey smiled bitterly. Although he is a noble, this kind of marginalized noble really lacks enough connections, so it is difficult to find someone.
Some church members helped.
In particular, his territory itself is not very good at developing agriculture, which further increases the difficulty of inviting agricultural church members.
"I can help you with that." Lawrence shrugged and said, "At least I have a very good relationship with the Agricultural Church. I should be able to help you invite a work team from the Agricultural Church to come to your place."