Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

After Chapter 434, he became a permanent resident of Bloodharbor.
Hughes was also somewhat troubled by the existence of the Banshee.

When the Church of the Mother Goddess rebelled, Hughes joined the Banshee's squad without hesitation in order to save the Guardians of the Church and the Secret Order, and they effectively saved Bloodharbor.

However, since the event happened suddenly, without any prior publicity or preparation, and the banshees just appeared directly, most people found it hard to accept at first.

After all, Bloodharbor is different from Castells. The Candlelight Church has been preaching here for many years. Although the entire Tisslands is now effectively an enemy of the Church, many prejudices have long been deeply ingrained in people's hearts.

Perhaps the people of Blood Harbor will eventually accept the existence of the Banshee, but that will take time to heal.

Fortunately, the prince used forceful measures to silence all dissenting voices. Regardless of what people thought, at least on the surface, things remained peaceful.

Speaking of the prince's series of actions, Hughes was truly impressed by him.

Hughes had initially thought the prince was skilled in leading troops into battle, but he was recently surprised to discover that the prince was also quite capable in construction.

Blood Harbor is in chaos, and the people are in turmoil. To make matters worse, there are very few nobles left under the prince's command. Any normal lord would be overwhelmed just dealing with these issues.

The prince didn't even spend much effort on this, yet he quickly gained the loyalty of his men, and his foresight in industrial development sometimes surprised even Hughes.

For example, he put a lot of effort into infrastructure construction.

Hughes hadn't explained the importance of infrastructure to him, but the prince seemed to have an innate understanding, immediately starting to discuss with Hughes how to build roads and other infrastructure.

Reflecting on the prince's experiences, he didn't seem to have much experience in personally managing his territory, yet his methods were so skillful.
Hughes even doubted whether he was a time traveler.

The investigation into the prince's identity was proving quite troublesome. Castel didn't have much influence in either the Empire or the Tiss Territory, so the investigation was temporarily put on hold. Even if the prince had an evil god inside him, Hughes wouldn't mind too much; as long as the prince could help advance the industrial process, that was enough.

It's not like we haven't seen evil gods before; there's even one in the furnace. They're all here to make Castel shine.

Hughes now lives in Blood Harbor. Everything in Castel is on track, and there's not much for him to manage. On the contrary, the banshees are causing trouble all the time, and Tata's ships are getting bigger and bigger. Hughes is feeling quite exhausted, so he simply went to Blood Harbor.

This is where we finally feel like we're doing some serious construction.

The prince was a little too enthusiastic. When he heard that Hughes was coming, he even offered to give him his mansion, but Hughes thought about it and refused.

The Upper Town is located in the heart of Blood Harbor and is situated on relatively high ground. It may be suitable as a residential area, but it is not suitable for being designated as an industrial zone.

He set up a temporary office right here at the dock, and moved a lot of the work here. It's not far from the literacy classes, so he can also check on the progress.

The recruitment of the expeditionary force from Bloodharbor is still far from being finalized. After all, cognitive interference in this world is too troublesome, and universal education is almost necessary before industrial development can begin. This cannot be rushed.

But laying railways was different. Most of the first batch of expeditionary troops were engineers. Literacy classes were being held, docks were being built, factories were being laid, and the railway was progressing in parallel.

The current railway construction speed is not too fast; more emphasis is placed on accumulating experience. After all, an expedition is a major project that cannot be completed in a day or two.

Hughes's plan was to spend six months to a year laying the railway to the north, then deal with all the troubles along the way, and finally gather his forces to fight a decisive battle with the dukes in the four northern territories. His original idea was to send some soldiers to support them first, but after discussion, everyone agreed that the refugees would have a hard time surviving, so Hughes simply proceeded step by step.

Since he was going to take revenge, he was determined to eliminate the root of the problem. Hughes had already made up his mind.

His goal was not to defeat Bazel's army, but to cleanse the entire northern region.

Just like what the prince did at Bloodharbor, he changed the entire North under a new master. The prince only cleansed up one city; he only needs to clean up four duchies.

Nora's chains couldn't make them repent, so Hughes decided to send them to see Nora. Hmm, something doesn't seem right.

In short, if we are to exact revenge, we must lay a solid foundation step by step. Wherever the railway is laid, the expedition will proceed.

For this reason, Hughes even slowed down the large-scale development plan in the eastern part of Gem Bay. Anyway, the northern border already had all the necessary mines. As they pushed forward, factories and machine guns were set up along the way, and there would still be no shortage of raw materials.

Hughes finished signing the documents in his hand, called Connor to deliver them to the various departments, stretched, and went outside.

He wasn't too worried about his safety. Although Bloodharbor was chaotic, there weren't many forces that could really threaten him.

The prince's decrees did not extend to the lower city, and this power vacuum was originally filled by various gangs. However, after the Mother Goddess's rebellion, the power dynamics of Bloodharbor changed.

Gangs do have some cohesion among the lower classes, but they are still inferior to cults. Blood Harbor easily solved its gang problem by introducing cult members.

Most of the evil god worshippers lost their lives in the rebellion of the Church of the Mother Goddess, while a small number escaped and disappeared on their own.

This was actually Gwen's doing; she simply took advantage of her free time to clean up all the secret societies.

Hughes had his suspicions, but ultimately attributed them to infighting between these sects. He sent many extraordinary individuals to investigate, but to no avail.

Speaking of superhumans, the old woman who had been staying in Bloodharbor secretly left, and Hughes sent her to the North to gather intelligence.

He had sent Isaac to the North to organize an intelligence network a long time ago, but there had been no news since. This time, he wanted to see if he could find any clues.

To be honest, Hughes was rather pessimistic. Given the Moths' intelligence transmission methods, they had probably met with misfortune after being out of contact for so long. But even if they couldn't contact the Ash Alliance, it would still be good to get some information about the North.

Hughes now relies almost entirely on the prince for intelligence about the North. However, due to the limitations of the times, the prince's intelligence transmission is quite delayed. He only has detailed information from about six months ago, as well as scattered news from the last few months.

This is because the prince and the North were once allied, but now that they have broken the alliance, it is even more difficult to transmit messages, so they have to rely on extraordinary people like the old woman to think of a solution.

Hughes's purpose in going out this time was to attend Josh's secret retreat.

Although the Secret Order no longer theoretically worships him as a god, many still secretly worship him. After he arrived at Bloodharbor, they even formed a guard to protect him in secret.

(End of this chapter)