Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 562 You've seen aerial bombs before, right?
The two gazed at the distant lighthouse, and it was Alvarez who spoke first.

He tapped the ground beneath his cane: "Look, that lighthouse is very similar to the road we're walking on, at least in color. There aren't many stones of this color. You mentioned earlier that this material is..."

"Concrete".

How much do you know about this material?

"It can be kneaded like mud, but once solidified, it has amazing strength. You saw the fortress at the Northern Station when we came here, right? It survived monster attacks and even bombs from airships, but it still maintained considerable integrity. You haven't forgotten the power of bombs, have you?"

Alvarez knew, of course, that not all his vassals followed suit after he surrendered. Several lords, relying on the strong walls and castles in their territories, planned to put up a stubborn resistance. The expeditionary force dragged him along to persuade them to surrender.

Therefore, he watched the entire siege by the expeditionary force.

The soldiers had no intention of charging forward; they simply set up machine guns leisurely on nearby high ground and then called in airships to bombard the area.

The soldiers beside him had already lay down on the ground and urged him to lie down as well. Alvarez looked at the distant city walls and really didn't know what the point of doing so was.

He didn't want to lie on the muddy ground, so he asked if it would be okay to stand up.

The expeditionary force hesitated for a moment, then told him that the problem wasn't serious, so he didn't lie down.

He could only watch helplessly as the airship slowly approached from the sky, found its position, and dropped a bomb.

There was only one bomb, and it landed on the solid stone walls.
A flash of red light, followed by a massive burst of fire that instantly shattered the walls and the air.

Then a huge fireball, a mixture of orange-red and black, surged upwards and exploded in all directions.

Then the air seemed to blur for a moment, and everything around the point of impact was engulfed in flames, with thick smoke covering everything from top to bottom.

The explosion then began to spread, and the soldiers lying nearby lowered their heads, turning their helmets toward the direction of the explosion.

Alvarez vaguely sensed something was wrong. Everything seemed to slow down. He wanted to lie down quickly, but his body was as sluggish as a frog crawling.

He saw the explosion first, followed by a moment of intense blast, and then a gust of wind like a tsunami crashed down on him.

There was no wind disaster in the North, and Alvarez never imagined that air could be solidified.

He felt himself being slapped hard, but luckily he was far enough away that the shockwave had lost most of its force, and he just fell to the ground.

Ignoring the pain, Alvarez raised his head and the first thing he did was look up at the distant city walls.

City wall?

There are no city walls left.

The place where the bomb landed had become a deep crater, and everything around it had collapsed in a strikingly dramatic way. Alvarez couldn't even estimate how many people were killed or injured—he didn't see any bodies, and there was nothing within the blast radius except for a layer of ground that had been scraped off.

An expeditionary soldier next to him patted him on the shoulder: "Mr. Alvarez, we're counting on you."

"what?"

"Please go and try to persuade them to surrender again, tell them what will happen if they don't."

He pointed to the airship.

Alvarez followed his finger and saw that the airship's bomb bay was now open, revealing neatly arranged bombs. "It's alright, no rush, just shout a few times. The brothers on the airship are eager to drop a few more. Damn it!"

The expeditionary soldier instantly lost his composure. Looking at the white flag flying over the distant city wall, he stood up in a fit of rage: "How could they surrender so easily?!"

Alvarez gave a wry smile. Forgot? How could he forget? The burst of fire that erupted in that instant dimmed even the blazing sun, as if that were the real sun.

He will never forget it, even if he dies.

"Can a concrete fortress withstand the explosion of an aerial bomb?"

"The bombs weren't dropped directly on the fortress, but it was close. The airships were dropping bombs almost right next to the outer walls of the fortress, and the concrete blocked them all."

"Oh my god."

Alvarez looked at the distant lighthouse in shock. Why did they build such a sturdy lighthouse? Did someone think they could hit it from the sea?

"This is such a waste! Such sturdy material is being used to build a lighthouse. Wouldn't it be better to use it to build more fortresses?"

“Waste.” Hunter gave a wry smile, glanced around casually, and pointed to the pipes above the street: “Look at that.”

Alvarez looked closely and saw that the pipes stretched out on both sides of the street, close to the houses and extending in all directions. Every so often, they would branch off into thinner pipes that led into the houses: "What are those...?"

"In Blood Harbor, steam pipelines run underground while gas pipelines run overhead, with separate and independent supply lines to prevent interference in case of problems."

"Gas pipe. Gas pipe," Alvarez muttered several times, his brow furrowing. "Wouldn't this kind of thing be dangerous? Since it can be used for lighting, it should be very easy to catch fire, right?"

"It's not just a fire; when gas mixes with air, it can explode if it comes into contact with an open flame!"

"Then, how can we let them get so close to us?!"

Hunt pulled Alvarez a few steps forward: "Uncle, look at that."

Alvarez looked up and saw that this section of the pipe seemed to end here, with the other side of the pipe joined together by a raised circle and secured with a ring of bolts.

"This is a flange, which is the connection between two pipe sections. Look at the thickness."

Alvarez held out his hand to demonstrate, and was surprised to find that it was several times thicker than the heaviest plate armor.

Hunter casually picked up a small pebble and threw it over. The pebble made a crisp sound as it hit the pipe, and Alvarez's eyes widened suddenly.

"This, this is, this is steel?" he stammered.

"Of course, these exposed pipes are all thickened. You've used a musket before, right? I dare say if you took a musket and fired a few shots at it, there might not even be a mark on the pipe."

The greatest advantage of muskets is their armor-piercing capability. Although their range is short, they can penetrate the plate armor of knights from the front, which completely changed the nature of warfare.

And the pipes overhead
Alvarez looked up at the pipes above his head, then across the street, and looked ahead down the street.

The streets of Blood Harbor are densely packed like a spider web, while the pipes overhead are even denser than the streets.

"How much steel would that take?"

(End of this chapter)