The cold wind blows from the direction of the sea, rolling the imperial flag flying high on the coast. Under the emblem of sword and plow with gold pattern on the blue background, soldiers and technical craftsmen are connecting today's third fixed stake with the The steel frame was welded together and the unencapsulated magic net rune shone with a slight halo on the ground not far away. When the heat beam swept across the steel, the sparks splashed and fell on the ground that had just hardened not long ago, more than ten meters high. Inside the metal frame, some copper pipes and heat conduction fins have been fixed in specific positions, just waiting to be connected with the rest of the heat pipes.
This huge device is part of the "waste heat recovery center". Through the alchemical solution circulating in the pipeline, this device will convert several nearby facilities including an alchemical reaction tower, a rune casting factory and an ooze monster waste incineration center. The released waste heat is collected and distributed through high-efficiency heat exchangers to the camp's heating system, which is used to heat parts of the west side of the coast.
To survive in the cold northern region for a long time, similar technology is essential. It is far cleaner and more efficient than cutting down the slow-growing cold zone trees at the foot of the mountain and burning them for heating, and it can also avoid affecting the lives of local residents to the greatest extent. Live, and one day in the future, these facilities can even be used to heat nearby settlements. Of course, that will be a long time later.
And farther away, on the open and flat ground near the Beigang coast, large and small simple houses, military tents, towers, and some newly built brick and tile houses have been scattered, and the materials on the material storage yard are piled up like mountains. The large-scale construction machinery that has arrived at the construction site recently is busy. A temporary trestle extending towards the sea has been built. Near the trestle is a planned large area that will be used for the construction of dry docks in the future.
The temporary trestle was not fixed on the seabed offshore by fixed piles or the like, nor did it use a floating bridge, but was built on several huge ice piles. Those ice piles were as thick as a bell tower, frozen from the bottom of the sea and extended all the way. When reaching the surface of the sea, there are a large number of branched icicles piercing deeply into the bottom of the sea, and the whole is extremely solid.
Standing on a large rock near the temporary trestle, Byron smiled happily against the sea breeze. He couldn't help but said to the Grand Consul of Victoria beside him: "Your ice spells are really amazing. I've heard that before. The Wilder family has studied the skill of ice magic to the extreme, but never thought it could be so powerful... When you raise twelve ice 'pillars' in the ocean, that scene is almost art. "
"You've praised me, this is just a rough use of magic power," Victoria shook her head indifferently. In the cold wind, the "Queen of the North" was still wearing a long skirt, and the flying fine ice and snow were like a barrier "And I never imagined that one day I would use these magical skills to... build things. It's a novel experience, and I'm glad I didn't screw up the first time I tried it."
"Magic is a convenient thing. Using it to improve life or advance technological development is far more cost-effective than wasting the strength of mages on the battlefield. This is not what I said, but what His Majesty said," Byron said with a smile "Although I don't know much about the magic field, I always highly agree with His Majesty's words, because at least after Princess Rebecca used her strength in the laboratory, inexplicable explosions and fire accidents elsewhere Much less…”
Victoria thought for a while, and said seriously: "But in my opinion, Her Royal Highness Rebecca's magical talent is actually far higher than everyone imagined, and her ability to shape the fireball into a statue of His Majesty is the real 'art of magic' '. It's just that I can't understand the principle... If there is a chance, I really want to study the mysteries of the evocation field with her... "
The Grand Duke of Ice would always get serious in strange places, and Byron was no stranger to this. He didn't let this weird (and seemingly suspected of slandering the royal family) topic continue, but casually mentioned another thing: "As Ruler of the northern border, is it really okay for you to stay in Beigang every so often?"
"The ruler of the northern border is the government affairs department of the northern provinces, and the authority of the Grand Consul is only a part of the government affairs department," Victoria said lightly, "As for the North Port... North Port is currently one of the most important projects in the entire northern region. The eyes from the imperial capital are always watching this side, and I often come here to show up... also to show the attitude of the Wilder family on this matter."
Byron shook his head: "I hope that those families in the north will understand your kindness one day. You are doing your best to prevent them from being included in the 'list'."
Victoria didn't speak, she just stood there quietly, her cold gaze slowly sweeping across the entire coastline and the rolling mountains beyond the coastline.
The "Northern Construction Corps" led by Byron has been stationed on this cold coastline for a month. For more than 60 days, engineering equipment has been working day and night, and a steady stream of supplies has been sent from the rear. Under the dual impetus of the government, a large-scale prototype of a seaport is rapidly taking shape, which is undoubtedly exciting.
However, this massive construction activity and the huge construction corps have also attracted many attentions without any surprise.
This is the northern border, the cold and stubborn northern border, far away from every civil war in the kingdom, far away from every political reshuffle, and the northern border far away from the magic industry. In the depths of this frozen mountain, the ancient families and these families The spirit of bravery and stubbornness soaked in the blood is the same as it was centuries ago, and it has hardly changed.
They instinctively refuse anyone to "do something" on the land where their ancestors lived, even if these people are here to help them build this land, even if the traditional rulers of this land have publicly expressed their attitude and issued warnings, There are still many people who secretly resist the Beigang project.
People here have not yet developed the concept of "the empire is a whole", and it is useless to tell them what national planning is.
Although Victoria once expressed her position to Byron, she made it clear that she would support the construction of North Port, and she didn't mind "beating" those local families who didn't know the current affairs, but in the final analysis, she didn't want to see too many people hanged in North Port. Too many flagpoles in one port are not "beautiful" for the whole North.
So she, the "Grand Duke of the North", can only choose to show up here a few more times in the early days of the North Port Project, at least... the majesty of the Wilder family still works in this land.
Byron looked at the distant sea. On this clear and cloudless day, a transcendent can look far, far away. With the shimmering bubbles, the "sea peninsula" of the Holy Dragon Principality and part of the border of the Violet Kingdom can be vaguely seen, but farther away, there is only a vast expanse of whiteness.
That is a distance that is difficult to reach even with the eyesight of an extraordinary person. You need to rely on powerful magic items or additional spell effects to see that far.
"The direction of the storm circle..." Victoria noticed the direction Byron was looking at, and she nodded slightly, "On rare days, the weather is clear enough, and the scale of the storm just expands, so you can observe it visually. I know, but it should be invisible during this period of time. The storm circle in the northern sea will shrink in summer, and the outermost cloud wall is farther away from the land than usual, and it cannot be observed with the naked eye under normal circumstances. However, there is a large The mage's eye device, it can see the opposite side of the peninsula into the sea in any season, and I occasionally use it to observe the storm."
Byron glanced at Victoria curiously: "Did you find anything tricky?"
"Aside from confirming that it really won't dissipate, and confirming its cycle of change, I haven't found anything," Victoria shook her head, "The ocean is not calm, and it has reached an area where humans cannot set foot, and the legendary strong will also Die at sea outside the storm circle No one knows how that layer of storms formed, let alone determine its internal structure."
"Your Majesty seems to think that it is one of the defense systems of the dragon kingdom 'Talrond', and beyond the storm is the territory of the dragon," Byron said casually, "If I ask you, he can directly contact the person who often visits Miss Julong...it seems to be Meili or something, talk to that Miss Julong, maybe you can find out something."
Victoria said blankly: "...there are many legends about dragons in the northern region, and most of them come from the Holy Dragon Principality. From our point of view, dragons are not easy characters to deal with."
Byron heyed noncommittally, and then slowly said thoughtfully while looking at the sea: "It's not easy to deal with... But according to this trend, when we step out of this land and send ships to the far sea, sooner or later something will happen. Races have to deal with... ”
Victoria glanced at Byron, and opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but before she could speak, a faint commotion came from the south of the camp, interrupting what she wanted to say.
Following the prestige, she saw that a large group of people had gathered near the checkpoint in the south of the camp at some point. The people outside the isolation line were all dressed in civilian clothes, and the soldiers at the checkpoint had already gone to maintain order. Shouting voices came from there from time to time, mixed with a strong northern dialect.
Victoria's brows immediately frowned. She vaguely guessed what was going on over there. The ice and snow around her instantly condensed and swirled in the air like cold ice knives. Her tone was as cold as winter: "I am here Here, there are still people... "
Before the duchess finished speaking, Byron suddenly raised his hand to interrupt her. The imperial general who was born as a mercenary just glanced over there and knew what was going on, with a strange smile on his face: "Don't So excited, Archon, those are just civilians, and they are some familiar faces. You have missed some things recently, but I know what the situation is, not like you imagined, this is a small problem."
While speaking, Byron jumped to the ground and walked towards the checkpoint. At the same time, he said to Victoria who was following up: "Don't show up later, they may be too nervous and watch me deal with it."
Victoria nodded in bewilderment, and released a curved light force field to cover her figure. She and Byron came to the checkpoint in the south of the camp, and the nearly 100 civilians gathered here were already standing in a clear line from the soldiers at the checkpoint. up two rows.
"The general is here... The general is here..."
Someone in the crowd saw Byron's figure, whispered reminders one after another, the soldiers made way for a passage, and the gathered civilians took two steps back neatly.
Victoria, who used the curved light field to hide her figure, immediately focused on the civilians. They were wearing coarse old clothes, but the clothes were clean and warm. Judging from their expressions, these people lived nearby and worked all year round. The most interesting thing about the mountain people is that there are not only strong men, but also women and children here.
While Victoria was guessing which family incited the gathered civilians, Byron had already walked a few steps in front of the crowd.
Those dressed in coarse linen looked at the heavily armed, tall and majestic imperial general in awe, but they did not back away.
Byron glanced at them and said casually, "What are you gathering here for?"
His tone was flat and natural, as if he had already gotten used to it.
A few men stood up from the crowd. They looked back subconsciously, and then boldly came to Byron: "General, we have something to say..."
Byron raised his eyebrows: "It's still the same as before?"
"Yes," several men nodded one after another, then took a breath, and shouted with a gong-like voice, "Southerners don't touch our land! You are digging our mine veins and water sources!!"
The civilians gathered behind them also shouted, and the scattered shouts lasted for a few seconds before they all stopped.
The leading man looked at Byron with a hint of expectation, and the latter curled his lips and waved his hand casually: "You heard it, arrest these people, send the men to the West District to dig gutters, and the women to process potatoes and dried meat, The child also goes to help in the kitchen, and after that, he has to take an hour of literacy class... Who brought this one who looks less than five years old!?"
A tall and thin man emerged from the crowd, with an embarrassed smile: "I, it's my son... He's so smart! And he's almost seven years old, but he looks thin..."
"I'm not blind yet. If he can be five and a half years old, I'll be your son!" Byron glared at the tall and thin man, then waved his hand angrily, "Go in, watch the kid, don't bring it in tomorrow .”
A group of civilians in front of the checkpoint immediately walked forward beamingly, accepted the inspection and body search of the soldiers very cooperatively, and then walked towards the camp under the leadership of several soldiers. When the man who took the lead passed by Byron He paused for a while, and smiled flatteringly: "General, is it better to end the day?"
"Otherwise?" Byron glared at the other party, "The soldiers of the empire will never deceive the people, saying that the end of the day is the end of the day!"
"Okay, that's good..."
The man nodded happily, quickly followed the team that had already gone far, and entered the camp.
Victoria watched dumbfounded.