Roland was sitting at his desk and was thinking about how to attack the Royal Palace by air when suddenly there was a knocking sound from the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him.
Looking back, I saw Lightning lying on the window with a panicked face, while Maisie squatted on top of her head and quickly pecked at the window.
As soon as Nightingale opened the window, the little girl flew into Roland's arms.
"What's the matter," he hesitated, "what happened?"
"Black stone goo! Huge snowy mountain goo!" Maisie landed on the table, flapping her wings and reporting.
"what?"
"Neither," Lightning muffled, "it's the devil, I see the devil!"
"What?" Roland's expression became serious, and he touched the other's head to calm her down, "Don't panic, speak slowly."
After a while, Lightning lifted his head from the prince's arms, his short golden hair was messy, and there were two circles of light red marks around the eye sockets, which were obviously pulled out by the windshield while flying at high speed, "I'm going to When the borderline of the hidden forest was drawn, I followed the Chishui River to the west, and then I found a big mountain..."
After listening to her describe in detail what she saw and heard, Roland couldn't help but widen his eyes. The red mist that the devil relies on is behind the snowy mountains, and it is only more than 200 kilometers away from the western border
He glanced at Nightingale, who nodded, "I'll go and call the other sisters too."
An emergency meeting was immediately held in the castle office.
After Roland recounted what Lightning had discovered to everyone, the group of witches who had experienced the night of killing all showed uneasy expressions, especially Ye Zi, who killed two devils with her own hands and covered her mouth. Low exhale.
"His Royal Highness, I suggest further exploration of the land covered by the red mist," Scroll said first, "After all, the lightning just glanced at a very long distance, and it is not certain that the devil must be entrenched under the red mist. If this is confirmed, we will also investigate whether they will cross the mountains by the sea and arrive at the mainland of the kingdom along the coastline."
"I agree with the Scroll's point of view," Wendy nodded. "Although they are very powerful, it is better to have a prepared defense than to catch them."
As the two oldest witches in the mutual aid society, Scroll and Wendy have always been the backbone of many sisters' hearts. Although the others are still a little scared, no one wants to sit still like this.
Roland is also inclined to this countermeasure. Seeing that no one has expressed any objection, the matter is basically settled like this. The key is how to implement it.
"Use a hot air balloon to scout," Anna suggested. "Cover the Yaowang with camouflage in the sky, and use the clouds as cover to fly over the sea."
"You can also bring Sylvie," Nightingale said. "Her ability to deal with this situation is perfect."
"Well," Roland nodded, "Besides... I'm going too."
"His Royal Highness!" Wendy, Scroll and Nightingale stopped at the same time, "You can't take this risk yourself!"
"It's not an adventure," Roland waved his hand. "If they had the ability to leap over the sea or mountains, they should have spread across the four kingdoms long ago. The reason why they are still gathered in the extreme west shows that the devil is not as scary as imagined. "
There is another reason he didn't say. He has more experience than anyone else in judging the development of a different civilization. If he can see the devil and their cities with his own eyes, it will be of great help in formulating the development direction and countermeasures in the future. help.
"But..." Wendy hesitated.
"Don't worry, just look at it from a distance," the prince smiled. "If it is dangerous to even stay in the distance to investigate, I will not agree to let you go."
"That's fine, but you have to take me with you," Nightingale was the first to change her tune, seeing that the persuasion was ineffective.
Looking at the serious look cast by the other party, Roland knew that he could not refuse her, and after thinking for a while, he announced: "Then apart from me, the people on this trip are Anna, Wendy, Soraya, and Sylvie. , Nightingale, Lightning and Maisie."
"A week after the departure time, in addition to the necessary food preparation, I will give each of you a revolver. Practice it well for a week, so that even non-combat witches have the ability to fight back against any enemy. "
The flight speed of a hot air balloon is far less than that of lightning. It may take a whole day to fly for a distance of more than 200 kilometers. Therefore, everyone needs to camp in the wild for one night to complete the reconnaissance. Taking this into account, dry food, tents and weapons are all must-haves. .
"Yes, Your Highness," said the witches in unison.
After everyone left, Roland had time to check the black ore brought back by Lightning.
"You said this kind of stone is everywhere on the edge of the forest?"
"Well," now the lightning has calmed down, sitting at the mahogany table, shaking his feet, his cheeks are still a little blush, "and the closer you get to the foot of the mountain, the more you get. If you look at it from the air, the ground covered by black stones will be about less than the size of the ground. Border Town is more than ten times larger."
Roland put it in his hand and weighed it, his heart skipping a beat.
In terms of weight, it is much lighter than ordinary stone, and it is unlikely to be a metallic ore. The exterior is hard and light, reflecting the metallic luster, and it is exposed on the surface... Could it be that this is a coal mine
Thinking of this, he hurriedly called Anna back.
Under the burning of the black fire, the stone quickly turned red and translucent, looking very much like iron ore in a smelting furnace, but it did not dissolve. Even if the black fire is withdrawn, the orange light it emits has not weakened in the slightest, and a slight bluish-blue flame can be seen on the surface.
Roland confirmed his guess that this was indeed a piece of high-quality anthracite.
"It turns out that coal mines look like this," Lightning said in surprise. "I thought they were all fragile and brittle like charcoal, and there was a lot of powder, and a slight touch would make your palms dirty."
"It's briquettes and briquettes that have been pulverized and mixed with water," Roland laughed. "Most coal mines are like stones when they are mined. Of course, the higher the quality of raw coal, the harder it is, and in the end it will be like these stones. Again, the surface can even reflect gloss."
This unexpected discovery made him extremely happy.
Coal is not a rarity in Graycastle. There are coal mines in both Zhuolongling and Yinguang City, and most of them are used for kiln burning and heating. But in fact it is extremely versatile. Before the internal combustion engine became popular, it was the burning coal that propped up half of the sky for steam power. Coking coal can replace charcoal to smelt iron and steel, which is much more environmentally friendly than cutting down trees. Even after entering the electrical age, coal can be used to refine gas, hydrogen and asphalt, and can also be used to generate electricity. Excellent fuel.
It is obviously much better to have an open pit coal mine in hand than to rely on imports. The only question is, how to develop it
Roland moved his gaze to Lightning's newly drawn map.
It seems imperative to build more inland steam cement ships. (., Your support is my biggest motivation.)