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

"I admit that you are right." Duke Habsburg said, "But what does this have to do with whether I open the border or not?"

"Because if Your Excellency the Duke does not open the border and continues to remain isolated, he will soon be excluded from the large-scale production system of Calradia, and all kinds of productivity will lag behind," said Catalina.

"How is that possible!" Duke Habsburg said, "For thousands of years, we have been isolated from these two. We have not been isolated from this either."

"Things have changed outside! Everyone is trying to integrate into the mass production sequence, and each region is playing to its own strengths! But the Grand Duke is instinctively rejecting it according to the past tradition, which will be a huge loss for the principality! In the near future, the prosperity of the entire Holy Roll Empire will not be able to radiate into my brother's fiefdom, and the entire Habsburg Principality will remain poor."

"Stay poor forever? You're exaggerating, sister."

"My brother is interested in traveling to the northern part of the principality."

"Northern part of the Principality? Where to?"

"Before the Soul-Guiding River flows out of the Feruman Empire, there is a small town called Soul's End Town. Brother, you still remember it, right?"

"I know that town!" Duke Habsburg said, "Because it is located on the border between two countries, it is often baptized by war. The town is very poor. I wonder why my sister wants to take me there?"

"When you get there, you will understand what I mean."

Chapter 240 It’s too late if you’re late

A few days later, the group finally arrived at Soul's End Town.

However, what surprised the Duke of Habsburg was that the dilapidated scene was completely gone, replaced by a prosperous town. City walls, new buildings, wide streets, and endless caravans and fleets! Such a prosperous scene was something that even the capital of the Principality of Habsburg had never seen.

Is this really the same Soul's End Town?

When they arrived in the town, Duke Habsburg was immediately surprised by the wide variety of goods in the shops. The residents on the street were all wearing pretty good clothes, and all kinds of shouting sounds could be heard on the street.

"This... How is this possible! How could this place become so prosperous in just over a year?" Duke Habsburg opened his mouth in surprise.

"This used to be the first stop of the Soul-Guiding River entering Feruman, and now it is the first stop of the Soul-Guiding River railway. Various goods will be transferred to rail transport here, and then transported to the entire Feruman area, and even to the hometowns of various forces on the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River."

"But this...is changing too fast!" The Habsburg officers who were traveling with them could not imagine the scene before them. When they arrived at the store, they found that the goods inside were not particularly expensive. Sugar and tea, which were considered luxury goods in the Habsburg Principality, could be sold here at a fair price.

"Brother, this is the power of mass production!" Catalina said, "No matter how high the city walls are, you can't resist this power! Because people will not give up cheap and good products, and will not resist the dazzling shelves! The city walls may be able to resist it for a while, but not forever."

The group walked around the town, and soon the pockets of the officers from the Principality of Habsburg were filled with all kinds of goods. It was not for anything else, but because there were too many goods here and the prices were cheap enough!

Duke Habsburg saw all of this and said, "In such a short period of time, Lord Fran was able to create such a surging productivity. If our Principality of Habsburg follows suit, perhaps we can do the same."

"Impossible!" Catalina rejected the Duke of Habsburg outright, and then said, "Now in the Holy Role Empire, the number of people engaged in the textile industry alone has exceeded the number of standing troops under my brother! Building various factories requires manpower! In the Principality of Habsburg, where everyone is a soldier, how much manpower can you squeeze out to build a new production line?"

Duke Habsburg was completely silent by this question.

"If you want to produce on a large scale, you need a lot of manpower and resources! This is definitely not something that can be created behind closed doors. You must integrate other forces! City Lord Fran is very clear about this, so from the establishment of the first spinning mill to now, she has been constantly opening up herself and the city of Orila."

The Habsburg Principality suddenly remembered that after fighting the first war with Margaret, she was eager to shake hands with the other side and open up to each other at all costs.

"The prosperous scene here originally belonged to the Habsburg Principality. When the north-south railway is connected, the capital of the Habsburg Principality should take over the task of north-south transportation. A large number of cheap goods will flow into the principality, and the principality will abandon those inefficient and expensive backward productivity and free those who are bound to low-end jobs.

"It's a good thing for the Principality to focus your energy on the aspect you are interested in."

"But doesn't this also mean that all kinds of supplies are in the hands of the city of Aurora?" said an officer.

"Aren't these supplies in the hands of Aurora City?" Catalina retorted, "Brother, you are not only a great general, but also a smart businessman. You should know that the reason why the Habsburg Principality was able to build such a large army before was not only because of our special system.

In addition, more importantly, the Habsburg Principality controls the north-south water and land trade routes! You earn a lot of money through this route, and then use this money to buy supplies, and finally use extraordinary force to make the surrounding forces pay a certain amount of protection fees to the principality to maintain regional stability. But now, these incomes will be gone. "

With Fran controlling the north and south of the Habsburg Principality, and with the help of the railway, the channel originally controlled by the Habsburg Principality has become worthless. In the past six months, the travel fees charged for this channel have been reduced by 30%. If Fran had not used a large amount of water power to transport supplies in the early stages, the Habsburg Principality's income this year would have been very ugly.

However, with the completion of the north-south railway lines, water transportation is not as good as land transportation. At that time, the income that the Habsburg Principality relies on will be completely cut off! As for protection fees! With the land reform carried out by Margaret, almost all the fiefs of the surrounding nobles were deprived and nationalized. There were no disputes between the principalities, so naturally they would no longer pay protection fees.

By that time, I'm afraid the Habsburg Principality will not even be able to maintain its current military size, let alone have more energy to develop production lines such as food and steel.

They had to outsource the military, save money, and then look for new industries and profits.

At this time, the military system had a huge problem! As the leader of the army, he had to seek benefits for the army at all times. In this case, reducing the size of the army was harder than climbing to the sky! All he could do was to slowly reduce the size of the army and release the excess population to develop other industries.

But this era won't give him enough time.

Thinking of this, Duke Habsburg finally understood the purpose of Catalina bringing him here.

The changes brought about by Fran are like a galloping carriage! The weak body of the Principality of Habsburg is simply unable to stop it. It must either board this carriage or be ruthlessly crushed by it and disappear in the long river of history.

Duke Habsburg thought he had mastered advanced military power, and even understood the changes of the times. But now it seems that he is the one who has lost sight of the important and pursued the trivial.

Catalina seemed to have noticed the relaxation in Duke Habsburg's eyes, and continued, "Brother, it's not too late! The longer you delay, the greater the gap between us and the surrounding towns will be. If the city lord sees that you are still unwilling to open the border and makes up his mind to connect the north-south railway around the principality, then everything will be too late!"

"late?"

"If my brother disagrees, Lord Fran will not force you to open it! We will create prosperous cities one after another along the railway. They will attract civilians from the Principality of Habsburg with high-quality life until all the young people are attracted. By then, along the entire prosperous railway, only the Principality of Habsburg in the middle will be

It's a barren land. You can't even afford firearms! Without ammunition, what's the use of elite soldiers? Are you going to return to the era of cold weapons? "

Hearing this, Duke Habsburg smiled bitterly. By then, not only would they not be able to afford firearms, they would probably not even have many soldiers left.

When the gap between the two sides becomes too big, her principality will fall apart without Fran having to do anything.

"Sister!" Duke Habsburg sighed, and then said, "I want to see Vienna, the underground world, and Biesund Harbor! This world is changing too fast. I have only been recuperating in my fiefdom for a year, and how come this world has become so strange."

"I'd love to! In that case, why don't we take the train back to Vienna!" Caterina immediately smiled faintly, and then said, "Brother hasn't been back to Vienna for a long time."

"Okay! I want to see how magical this thing called a train is."

Chapter 241 Reconciliation

The last time Fran took a train, the European Railway Bureau had never thought about using trains to transport people, so the freight train almost shook Fran to pieces. After that, the European Railway Bureau learned from the pain and designed a carriage specifically for transporting people. Although it was much worse than the passenger train Fran remembered, at least she wouldn't vomit all the way.

Unexpectedly, this type of passenger train, as soon as it came out, immediately triggered a tourism craze. Countless people from the north and the south took the train and spent more than ten hours to travel to places they would never have been able to reach in their lifetime.

Thanks to the speed of the train, Catalina and her group arrived in Vienna very quickly!

Vienna at this time was no longer the Vienna that Duke Habsburg remembered. The originally dirty and messy slums had been cleared out, replaced by rows of neat houses, and the former King's Road had been widened by twice as much. The shops on both sides were dense and numerous, and the goods from all over the main plane were displayed in them.

The exquisite beef of the orcs, the special desserts of the Inya continent, the sculptures of the dwarves, the silk clothes of the elves. In the past, even the nobles could rarely enjoy these things, but now they have penetrated into the lives of the people. The people are no longer as pale and thin as before, they look much stronger, and they are wearing new clothes.

In the southeast corner of Vienna, this was originally a notorious street of slaves and prostitutes, where the dirtiest transactions took place every day. Now, this place has been replaced by clothing factories, and the original prostitutes have been replaced and transformed. The girls in them have also been reemployed and become self-reliant female workers, and the clothes they produce will be sold to various forces in the main plane.

The whole of Vienna can be said to be brand new.

Later, at Fran's invitation, Duke Habsburg visited the underground world again. When he saw the rows of factories in front of him, he was completely shocked!

The metal ingots produced from the underground world every day alone can catch up with the annual output of the Habsburg Principality! Not to mention other products. In the face of such powerful productivity, he could not compete with Fran at all.

Katrina was absolutely right.

Now it is not Fran begging the Duke of Habsburg to open the border, but the Principality of Habsburg begging Fran to join his large-scale production sequence. Only in this way can they stand firm in this turbulent wave and not disappear directly in the long river of history like other nobles.

At the arsenal, Duke Habsburg saw brand new guns being taken down from the assembly line and piled into the overflowing warehouse. At the granary, Duke Habsburg saw carts of food being piled up, waiting to be shipped to all parts of the country. At the port of Biesund, countless huge ships came and went, and their tonnage was so large that Duke Habsburg could not even imagine it.

The shocks Duke Habsburg had experienced in his life were never as great as those he had experienced today.

Compared with Fran's explosive productivity, the entire Habsburg Principality is really like an ant!

Duke Habsburg was a brave man. He once faced enemies from the Feruman Empire that were ten times stronger than him. At that time, he was not as frightened and scared as he is today, and he would still wave his saber to attack the enemy.

At that time, the Feruman Empire was ten times larger than the Habsburg Principality in terms of territory, population and size, but he still dared to confront the Feruman Empire and forced the other side to surrender.

But even during the most difficult times of the war with the Feruman Empire, he had never felt as desperate and insignificant as he did now.

If it weren't for Fran's friendship with the Duke of Habsburg, the Principality of Habsburg would have been submerged in Fran's iron torrent long ago, without any room for resistance.

In this way, Duke Habsburg ended his shocking journey. After returning to his fiefdom, he locked himself in his room for three days and three nights. When he came out, he officially expressed his willingness to open the border and allow the railway to run through the north and south. At the same time, he would embrace everything in Fran and integrate it with the large-scale production of Orila City.

At this point, the north-south railway officially runs through, which is a great thing for both the city of Aurora and the Principality of Habsburg.

Of course, Fran will not forget the number one contributor to this incident—Katarina.

After this great achievement, Katarina was immediately recruited by Fran to join the staff. Afterwards, Fran secretly wrote a letter to Margaret in New Vienna about Katarina's situation, hoping that she would pardon Katarina for her sake.

Margaret simply replied with a few words: All affairs in Vienna will be decided by Fran, which was considered as tacit approval of Fran's request.

In this way, Catalina became Fran's diplomat and was in charge of diplomatic affairs, and Fran could also get out of the complicated diplomatic affairs and concentrate on practicing with her sister. No! She concentrated on guiding industrial production.

The first thing Margaret did after taking office was to find the elven ambassador and prepare to ease relations with the Elf Empire.

Margaret told the elves that the two countries have invested too many resources in the Feruman area, resulting in a huge waste (at least it has caused a huge waste on the elves' side), which is harmful to both countries and has no benefit.

Aurora City has never wanted to interfere with the traditional power of the elves in Calradia. In fact, they have indeed restrained themselves in the past year and have not crossed the line. She said that the strategic focus of the elves and Aurora City should not be on Calradia, but on Inya!

Compared to the bitter and cold Calradia continent with its complicated forces, the Inya continent is a rich land full of milk and honey. Now, because the two countries are consuming each other in this bitter and cold land, the power of the dwarves has expanded rapidly in the Inya continent.

Even if the elves finally got the entire Feruman Empire, she would lose the entire Inya continent. In this case, the elves would not be able to compete with the Huameng at all.

Catalina said that the city of Orila was willing to take a step back and reduce its competitive investment in the Feruman area (Fran also planned to reduce its investment and focus on the sea anyway), and hoped that the elves would not always point their spearheads at the city of Orila.

At first the elves naturally disagreed, but at this time Katarina threw out another clan data. The Hua League, led by the dwarves, has expanded wildly in the past year. Now the Hua League has occupied 70% of the trade rights in the Endless Ocean, and has conquered cities on the Inya continent, greatly expanding the number of Hua League members.

Therefore, the two countries should help and support each other and jointly resist the aggressive expansion and hegemony of the Huameng Alliance.

At first, the elves were naturally unwilling to admit that they had lost in the battle with the dwarves. However, when Catalina compared the current situation in the Indian continent, the elves immediately became timid. After all, no matter how proud they were, no matter how much they emphasized their level of civilization, they could not change the established facts! Especially they could not deceive themselves.

In the more than one year since the Scourge, the dwarves' expansion momentum is too fierce! The severely injured Northern Alliance did not even have time to bandage its wounds, and naturally had no power to stop the dwarves' expansion. If no measures are taken, it will not be long before the dwarves' ships openly enter the Saint Seloux Sea. In the end, the proud elves lowered their heads and expressed their willingness to cooperate with the city of Aurora in secret to reduce the meaningless internal friction between the two countries and slowly focus on the hegemony of the Inya continent.

After reaching this consensus, the subsequent cooperation agreement between the two parties was signed very easily.

The elves demanded that the city of Aurora admit defeat in the infrastructure competition, but at the same time they would gradually withdraw their troops from the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River and allow goods to flow freely into the east bank of the Soul-Guiding River.

Fran naturally agreed to this! It was not shameful for the city of Orila to lose to the traditional hegemonic empire of the elves! Compared to face, she hoped to gain tangible benefits!

Soon after, Fran reached a crucial trade agreement with the elves. The elves would no longer maliciously obstruct the products produced in Orila City, especially not doing the evil thing of burning Orila products in Lingang. In return, all the goods entering the Elf Empire must be represented by the local Chamber of Commerce of the Elf.

In other words, Fran bribed the elven nobles by giving up a large part of her profits, allowing her products to enter the vast elven empire in a different way, which not only saved the face of the elven empire, but also made the upper elves rich. It can be said that as long as you sit in the port and wait for Fran to ship the goods over, you can make a lot of money by simply reselling them.

As for the local handicrafts and the life of the lower elves, they are not concerned about it. As upper elves, they should continue to develop music, poetry and divine arts!

The people of Orila City also had some complaints about this practice. After all, these products were produced by them with great effort, so why should they give most of the profits to the elf nobles?

But Fran knew very well that sometimes cheap things are the most expensive.

She sold the goods to the elves for civilians. Although the prices of these industrial products increased a lot after the upper elves changed hands, they were still more expensive than the local elves' handicraft workshops. A large number of handicraftsmen would be unemployed! At the same time, countless wealth would flow from the civilian class to the upper elves.

However, these elves will neither spend their money on these cheap and soulless industrial products, nor invest in reproduction, nor distribute them to civilians.

When money cannot flow, it is just rusting metal in a warehouse and meaningless numbers in an account book.

By then, the polarization of elves' wealth will become more and more serious. The upper elves rely on Fran's industrial products to continuously absorb the blood of civilians, and lie on the gold mountain every day worrying about how to live a more extravagant life. The lower elves are too poor to buy anything. They will no longer consume and cannot produce.

At that time, there were only two options before them: either lie down and die, or...

Of course, this should be many years later.

After temporarily reaching a resolution with the old enemy, the elves, Fran can now focus on fighting the enemy across the sea!

Tata open!!

Chapter 242: Dark Clouds on the Sea

Just a few days after easing relations with the elves, the dwarves publicly condemned Fran, saying that Fran was in cahoots with the Feather Tribe to disrupt the safety of the waterway and undermine the stability of the trade routes, and demanded that Fran hand over the Feather Tribe, otherwise the entire Chinese Alliance was ready to sanction Fran.

Regardless of whether Fran wins or loses this Feather Tribe crisis, it means that the dispute between them and the dwarves is inevitable!

It seems that such a vast endless ocean cannot tolerate the coexistence of two forces.

After learning of Fran's tough attitude, the dwarves assembled their fleet the next day and began preparing for the next naval battle.

The Dwarf Empire possesses the most powerful naval force in the world. It has four fleets under its jurisdiction, the Endless Ocean Fleet, the South Sea Fleet, the Saint Selux Fleet and the India Fleet, which respectively deal with battles in the four oceans. Except for the Saint Selux Ocean, the other three fleets are basically invincible in their respective waters.

In the eyes of the dwarves, it is obviously not necessary to gather all the dwarves' strength to deal with a force like Fran. Only the Endless Ocean Fleet is enough!

Then the warships of the Endless Ocean Fleet gathered in Wall Harbor and began the military parade, which on the one hand demonstrated the might and majesty of the Dwarf Navy, and on the other hand expressed the Dwarfs' determination to everyone.

There are three main types of Dwarven warships.

The first type is the most powerful Ares-class battleship. This type of battleship is covered with thick iron armor and equipped with huge city crossbows. These city crossbows are all driven by mechanical cores, and their power and range far exceed Fran's artillery.

Of course, the number of such warships is extremely rare. There are only five Ares-class warships in the entire Endless Ocean Fleet.

The second type is the Iron Wall-class warships, which are only equipped with iron armor in key positions and a few crossbows. However, these warships are much faster than the Ares-class warships, so they serve as the backbone of the entire fleet. They are responsible for escort, patrol, and vigilance.

The cost of the Ironwall class is also much lower than that of the Ares class, and there are as many as twenty-five of them in the fleet.

In the war with the elves, the Ironwall-class battleships were used to hold back the elves' tree ships and break up the formation of the elven battleships. Then the Ares-class battleships lined up in a row, continuously bombarding the tree ships, and ultimately won the victory.

The third type is the javelin-class warship. This type of warship has no armor and is only equipped with a crossbow at the bow. Because of its light weight and small tonnage, combined with the thrust of the mechanical core, the javelin-class warship is extremely fast, even comparable to the lightest Yukikaze-class warship of Fran.

The Javelin-class warships often approach important enemy ships at lightning speed, use their speed advantage to attract firepower, and then use their only crossbow to launch fatal attacks on the warship's weaknesses. When necessary, they can also launch a desperate charge to ram the enemy warship, or use boarding combat.

The cost of this type of battleship is quite cheap compared to the first two types of battleships! The most important thing about the entire ship is the mechanical core that serves as the power! This also makes the number of Javelin-class battleships in the fleet very large. Currently, the number in the Endless Ocean Fleet is even as high as about fifty.

Nowadays, except for the elves, no other forces in the world can compete with the dwarves at sea. To deal with the opposing forces, the dwarves don't even need to use the Ares-class and Ironwall-class warships. They can destroy all the enemy's sailing warships by relying on the flexible Javelin-class warships.