What's wrong with building a steel torrent in a dungeon?

The elves had no way to retreat, and there were only two options before them. Either start a war, destroy the city of Aurora directly, and send Fran to see the god Xiluo, then there would be no more rumors. Do you think Fran did a good job, or do you want to go to heaven to accompany Fran?

It’s just a pity that after the last war, there was a lot of opposition to war within the Elf Empire, and it is impossible to mobilize another foreign war of aggression in a short period of time.

If the first way doesn't work, then they can only take the second way - play with Fran! Let's see which side has stronger infrastructure capabilities!

Chapter 226: The Elf King's Loyalty

The capital of the Elf Empire - Green Miracle.

Grand Chancellor McMahon, who served as the Queen's Hand, wore a solemn dress and quietly waited for the arrival of the guests.

Not long after, a strong sound of footsteps was heard in the hall, followed by an elf with a crown on his head and silver hair walking in.

"King Ainsdil! Welcome to the Green Miracle." McMahon bowed slightly to the elf in front of him.

Ainsdir was El'Arendil's grandfather and the actual leader of the three great elven kings in the south. It was he who single-handedly guarded the south of the Elf Empire, making the Troll Empire surrender to the powerful military strength of the elves and not dare to make any rash moves.

"Forget the greeting poems." Aiensdil said, "I have been fighting outside all my life, and I have long forgotten many of the poems."

"How dare I show off my shallow literary attainments in front of a true hero?" McMahon said, "I invited King Xinye here today because I actually have an important matter to discuss with you."

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister, please feel free to speak."

"You know that recently, Her Majesty the Queen's strategic focus has been on Calradia. We have made a considerable investment in that continent!" McMahon said, "Especially recently, we have a new breakthrough, the Queen of the Holy Roel Empire - Margaret. We have reached a new deal with that woman."

"Prime Minister, are you referring to New Vienna?" A smile appeared unconsciously on the corner of Aiensdil's mouth, and then he said, "I never thought that we were fighting with her some time ago, and now we have to help her build a new capital."

"There are no eternal friends or eternal enemies, only eternal interests!" McMahon said, "But recently, we have discovered a small problem."

"Oh?" Ainsdill adjusted his sitting position and looked at McMahon quietly.

"As you know, it has always been Her Majesty the Queen who has been assisting the Feruman Empire. But this has involved too many of Her Majesty's resources and energy, and she cannot take care of the other side at the same time." McMahon said, "So, Her Majesty the Queen asked me to ask you if you are willing to let the three kings of the South help Her Majesty share her worries."

"It is an honor for the three of us to share Her Majesty the Queen's worries." Aiensdil said, "However, we still have to take care of the war with the trolls, and I am afraid it will be difficult to continue. Prime Minister, you also know that in the previous war, our southern faction... I mean, our three southern kings suffered heavy losses."

"Everyone has suffered heavy losses." McMahon said, "Now the monsters in Orila City are growing stronger day by day, and we have to be on guard. That's why we have to put aside our grudges with Margaret and turn this former enemy into our agent to fight for the Elf Empire."

"Your Majesty is really smart! How come I didn't think of such a plan?! But this is not something I can decide alone." Aiensdil's face was dark, and then he said: "I will go and discuss it with my two old friends and try my best to convince them. As long as there is any news, I will immediately inform them.

Prime Minister, please inform me, how is it?"

Having said that, Ainsdil stood up, turned around and was about to leave.

"Wait a moment!" McMahon said, "Respected King Xinye, Her Majesty the Queen has something else for me to tell you about your granddaughter."

"Aarendil?" Ainsdil said.

"Her Majesty the Queen believes that General Elendil performed well in the previous war. Under the wave of the Scourge, she not only led more than 20,000 people to break through the danger alone, but also brought them back to the empire safely! She prevented the elven army from being annihilated, and her contribution was great! Therefore, she wants to award her the God of War Badge."

After hearing this, Aiensdil immediately showed a faint smile on his face, and then said: "That's great, then I will thank the respected and wise Queen on behalf of Aiensdil!"

"Also... Her Majesty the Queen also said before that if the New Leaf King can undertake the construction of the New Vienna City, she will appoint you as the Governor of Holy Roll. At that time, all matters of New Vienna, including but not limited to taxation, consular judgment, construction and production, will be personally responsible by you! This will better help Her Majesty the Queen solve her problems.

difficult.

McMahon's addition immediately made Ainsdill show a satisfied expression.

"Her Majesty is so considerate of her subordinates. As the Elf King appointed by her, I should do my best to shoulder the responsibility for Her Majesty!" Aiensdil said, "Don't worry, Prime Minister! Even if my two old friends disagree! Our New Leaf Kingdom will definitely take up the responsibility and help the Queen build a grand new kingdom.

Come to the city of Yena."

As he spoke, Ainsdil extended his hand first.

"Great!" McMahon said, "The Elf Empire is lucky to have you, the Elf King!"

The two held hands tightly together.

After the conversation, McMahon personally escorted Ainsdill out of the hall.

After watching the New Leaf King disappear from his sight, the smile on McMahon's face froze instantly. He let out a long sigh and looked into the distance.

The streets of the green miracle were bustling with people, a scene of prosperity. The nobles were dressed in gorgeous clothes, calling their friends and indulging themselves in music and sex. Teams of patrolling soldiers were wearing exquisite armor and marching in neat steps. In the distance, countless exquisite buildings were neatly lined up in the distance, and the whole city looked solemn and majestic.

As the sun sets, the city is covered with an elegant coat.

However, for some reason, looking down at this bustling city, he no longer had the passionate mood he had in his youth. Instead, he felt exhausted and depressed.

Am I really old?

After a while, tree ships set out from the Elf Empire, crossed the Saint Selux Sea and arrived at the Calradia continent. These tree ships were loaded with elves, manpower, and various supplies and building materials. All of these things would be delivered to the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River.

In response to the construction progress leaked by Fulan, the elves really proposed a more ambitious plan. They would build twelve cities on the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River. Each city would be named after the first twelve elf kings. These cities would run through the entire east bank of the Soul-Guiding River, forming a constellation corresponding to the sky.

Except that it is not clear why these cities are arranged into constellations, the overall design is magnificent, exquisite and elegant, while also being practical. It can be said to be full of elf artistic atmosphere.

Not only that, the elves also formulated an ambitious road construction plan to connect these twelve cities, and then use these twelve cities as a basis to spread the roads outward like a network until a huge road map is formed.

In terms of length alone, these roads will be ten times longer than the railway in Fran.

Chapter 227 Infrastructure Competition

The west bank of the Soul-Guiding River was still in full swing, and the elves were no less active.

The Elf Empire is indeed the largest empire in the world, with strong mobilization capabilities. They mobilized 100,000 laborers in one go for the first time, most of whom were local middle and lower-level elves.

When these elves arrived, they quickly entered the construction site and built twelve cities named after the titles of the Elf Kings.

Although the elves' bodies look weak, they are blessed with divine magic! A huge tree of life is erected at every construction site to provide physical strength for the elves below. Not only that, the elves' divine magicians can also drive small tree people to help carry various infrastructure.

It was also with the help of the tree people that the elves' project progress was significantly improved.

After knowing this, Fran couldn't help but marvel at it. No wonder the elves dared to take up her challenge. They really had something to be proud of! Divine arts were really useful. At least compared to the Holy Roel Empire, this construction speed was already amazing.

It’s a pity that they are not facing the Holy Roll Empire, but the initially industrialized Fran.

No matter how powerful the blessing of divine magic is, it has its limits after all! The most important thing is that divine magicians are a scarce profession, so how can they be dispatched in large numbers to build houses? Most of the work still has to be done by manpower.

On the Fran side, everyone was also working very hard. Originally, the local Ferumans had always been suppressed by the elves, and they had no way to complain. Now, not only did they have the opportunity to compete on the same stage, but they might even surpass the elves, so they all held their breath and worked extra hard.

The most important thing is that the elves are helping others build, but they are actually building their own home. Every pile they drive and every inch of road they lay will become part of the prosperity of their home. This feeling is not something the elf workers on the other side can understand.

A few months later, the southern half of the railway on the west bank of the Yinhun River was completed, which meant that the time and manpower required to transport building materials would be greatly reduced, and the excess manpower was quickly used in the construction.

Unlike the elves who were ambitious and wanted to build twelve cities at the same time, Fran did not adopt this multi-point approach. She focused on the ports and cities close to the Holy Roel Empire. More precisely, the focus of construction would be shifted to where the railway was laid.

Under such circumstances, their construction efficiency not only did not slow down, but became faster and faster.

Moreover, the European Railway Bureau has its own construction schedule, and it will not easily change itself because of the progress of the elves, and executes orders in an orderly manner. After all, their focus is construction, and competition comes second.

But the elves were different. Every time they saw progress on Fran's side, they would frantically change the construction period, add fortifications, and even temporarily modify the design drawings. For them, construction was secondary, and competition was the main focus! Everything was aligned with competition.

Since competition is the main thing, the elves will definitely choose projects that are easier to produce results - urban construction. They are not so concerned about road construction. The result of this is that the transportation of materials and the flow of people are not smooth, which further reduces efficiency.

The elf in charge of the front line naturally understood that if he wanted to improve efficiency, he had to build roads first. He wrote many letters hoping that the roads could be built first, and then consider large-scale city construction, or even connect the roads like Fran did, and then build the city.

Unfortunately, however, such pragmatic requests were basically all rejected.

It's fine if you want to build the road first! I fully agree with it! But you can't delay the progress of urban construction! Under this premise, you must try every possible way to ensure that the road can be unobstructed and the construction period is not delayed! Can't you do it at the same time?

After receiving this reply, the elf leaders on the front line were so angry that they tore up the letter.

More haste, less speed. Soon the upper elves found in despair that no matter how they compressed the construction period or increased the manpower, they could not catch up with the construction progress of Fran.

They did not think about the problem from other perspectives, but thought that the people below were lazy! So they laid off a large number of front-line workers and replaced them with their own confidants. After several rotations, the efficiency did not increase. In desperation, they could only use the last solution - increasing manpower.

Then, they mobilized another 100,000 people within the empire and even sent some second-line troops to fill in. Unfortunately, the effect was not good and even caused complaints at home.

It became increasingly difficult to recruit laborers domestically, so the elves could only look to the Northern Alliance. They then recruited about 100,000 laborers from various countries in the Northern Alliance, and even resorted to using slaves (the Elf Empire had abolished slavery a hundred years ago).

The construction of a project that required the forced conscription of 300,000 people is a unique event in the entire main plane.

But as Fran said before, some things are not the more people there are, the higher the work efficiency. When the number of people reaches a certain level, management capabilities and project coordination need to be further improved, but these elf nobles obviously do not have this ability.

Soon the entire east bank of the Soul-Guiding River was in chaos. A large-scale rebellion broke out at one construction site due to food shortages, and another construction site had to stop work for two weeks due to lack of building materials. A mountain of supplies was piled up at the port, while the workers on the banks of the Soul-Guiding River were like ducks crying for food.

Work was suspended today for lack of food, and tomorrow for lack of necessary materials.

Not only that, the quality of the newly recruited laborers was uneven, which made management more difficult. The Baisha Jie people had to worship in the afternoon, the Green people had food taboos, and the accent of the Northerners was difficult for the elves to understand. These various problems were like a tangled mess that could not be cut or sorted out.

With the completion of the railway trunk road on the west bank of the Soul-Guiding River, the gap in work efficiency between the two sides has widened further. You know, the number of laborers recruited by Fran is only 100,000, which is only one-third of the elves! Such a result makes the elves a little embarrassed.

But now it was too late to back down, and the elves had no choice but to grit their teeth and persevere. The entire east bank of the Soul-Guiding River was like a huge bottomless pit, forcing the elves to invest a huge amount of resources, but they could not hear any response. Countless elves left their homes and built a seemingly gorgeous city in this harsh land, enduring hunger, disease and banditry.

A feeling of resentment slowly rose on the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River.

This is a complaint that is more terrifying than war. But no one knows when it will completely break out.

That day, Fran once again visited Galannodir.

After listening to Fran's advice, Galannodir did not rush back to his country to organize supporters to rebel against the upper elves. Instead, he stayed in New Gondolin and became the high priest of the Fruman district, commanding the clergy in this area. With the help of Fran, he secretly cultivated and educated the elves who shared the same ideals with her.

Fran knew that now was the time for Galannodiel to come into play.

Chapter 228 Black Tea and Sugar

"Welcome the city lord to the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River!" Seeing his old friend and comrade-in-arms, Galanodil showed a peaceful smile.

The elf high priestess was still as beautiful as ever, and didn't seem to be bothered by the mess outside. She looked calm.

"Why did you move the sacrificial hall outside New Gondolin?" Fran asked curiously.

Their meeting place was not in the city of New Gondolin, but in a nearby town.

Judging from the appearance of this church and the lush sacred trees surrounding it, it is obvious that Galannodir did not intend to use this place as a temporary base, but wanted to live here for a long time.

"New Gondolin is in chaos now." Galanodir said helplessly: "In order to renovate the city, my compatriots completely overturned it! Now there are ruins and rubble everywhere. I suggested that they should not rush and give the people in the city some buffer time, but unfortunately they would not listen to my orders, so I can only find another place."

Having said that, Galanodier looked around and said, "Of course, there is another reason for choosing this place. During the Undead Scourge, we used this place as a temporary base and supported ourselves here for a full half month. This place also has great significance to us."

"It's better here! No noise, no disputes." Fran sat on the chair made of branches. Although Galanodier was praised as a great hero and received many honors, she was actually stripped of her power. She no longer presided over the sacrificial hall, but became the chief priest on the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River, without any real power.

"Is only black tea ok?" Galannodil took out a few white cups and poured the fragrant black tea into the cups.

"thanks!"

"Oh, I remembered that the city lord likes to add sugar." She carefully added a few sugar cubes for her, and then said, "I can buy good quality and cheap sugar cubes and tea here, thanks to you, the city lord."

"We still have to thank the Eagle Empire! They processed the sugar, and I'm just nature's porter." Fran said with a smile.

The Eagle Empire is rich in sugar, but due to limited local manpower and processing efficiency, as well as the long-term blockade of them by the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance, this advantage has never been brought into play.

But now it is different. With Allende signing a trade agreement with herself, Fran invested in building two new sugar factories in the local area, and the sugar production has skyrocketed since then.

However, these sugars are only supplied to the jurisdiction of Fulan for the time being, and are not dumped to other places. After all, the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance have intentionally or unintentionally targeted the trade of the Vienna Alliance. But Fulan has a large market, which is enough to digest these products by itself.

This caused the price of sugar to continue to fall from Vienna to Gondolin, and civilians had the opportunity to consume large amounts of sugar, which was an absolute luxury in the past.

Although the elves and the Vienna Alliance are in a state of infrastructure competition, they still trade when it is time to trade. As a free trade zone, Gondolin has a large number of chambers of commerce from the Northern Alliance coming to purchase every day. Especially after a large number of workers moved in recently, the demand has increased greatly, which has made trade (smuggling) more prosperous.

The goods shipped from the Elven Empire are so cheap and good that they are not as good as those here. If it were not for the elves' upper echelons' clear ban, the supervisors of these construction sites would rather go to Gondolin to purchase supplies.

Of course, the elves' upper echelons can manage the collective level but not individuals. For ordinary workers, they obviously prefer to buy things in Gondolin! The variety of goods here is prosperous, even more than that in the Elf Empire, and the price is an order of magnitude cheaper.

In this case, only a fool would choose the elf's products.

The Northern Alliance had been trying hard to keep the products of the Vienna Alliance out of the border, but they didn't expect that this infrastructure competition would give Fran a huge market! A full 300,000 young and middle-aged people, a high-spending group with some spare money in their pockets!

After a few months, even ordinary elves can recognize all the brands of Orela candy and can open cans of luncheon meat skillfully.

Such infiltration is obviously not what the noble elves want to see, but they dare not ban goods from Gondolin! After all, the resentment at various construction sites has accumulated high enough, and if a riot really breaks out, it will undoubtedly make their progress worse.

More importantly, these upper-class elves also made a lot of money through smuggling. Otherwise, how could the Orila Chamber of Commerce, without a pass, fill the entire east of the Soul-Guiding River with goods?

"The city lord is here this time! You didn't come just to chat and drink tea with me, did you?" Galanodier handed another piece of candy to Fran, and then said: "You are much busier now than me, the sidelined chief priest."

"I do have something to ask you!" Fran said, "and it's a good thing for you."

"Oh? Please tell me, Lord." Galanodier said, "I haven't received any good news for a long time since I came here."

"This matter has to start from the academy I opened in Gondolin." Fran said: "The chief priest should have sent elves to study there."

"Yes..." Galanodier said, "I recommended many elves to study there. They also wanted to give more opportunities to ordinary people like me. They praised the training there! And they deeply agreed with the views on exploitation and class. Of course, there are also the songs you taught them! Now they sing every night.

They would all sing in unison in the town square.”

The song that Galanodil was talking about was the Internationale that Fran had taught them on a whim. Fran had not expected that it would quickly become popular in the Gondolin Academy. It seems that some human emotional appeals can resonate even in different worlds.

"Don't you think, Chief Priest, that now is a good opportunity to expand the team? Today, the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River is full of oppressed workers. I believe they can relate to the ideas you propose." Fran said.

"You mean? Go to the construction site of the Twelve Kings City to expand our team?" said Galannodier.

"Yes! Don't you think it's appropriate?" Fran said, "The workers there are suffering from the oppression of the nobles. They work hard all day but can only get a meager salary! They are full of complaints but can only endure the humiliation. Many elves died in a foreign land because they couldn't stand the harsh environment and high-intensity labor."