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

As time went by, Fran's expansion in the Inya continent was extremely rapid, and soon swept across the entire southwest of the Inya continent (which had not been touched by the dwarves for the time being). Every day, countless ships loaded with raw materials and semi-finished products set out for the port of Bieson, and then exchanged them for various necessary goods before returning.

In terms of the occupied sea area, overseas military bases, and the number of colonial puppet states, Fran is obviously far inferior to the two old imperialists, the elves and the dwarves. However, Fran has something that they don’t have - the main plane’s trade and financial center - Bieson Port!!

Bieson Port is all about fairness and justice. There is no forced buying and selling by imperial hegemony, nor is there fraud under the banner of civilization. Everything is clearly marked with prices, and there is no need to worry about the goods being banned from sale (at least Fran has never done such a thing).

In contrast, Fran also gained a lot of benefits from the Port of Bieson. The income from platform fees and Orila coins alone was far beyond everyone's imagination. As long as the Port of Bieson existed, even if Fran could not control all trade routes, there would still be a steady stream of merchant ships coming here to trade and rest.

However, the impact of the rise of Biesund Port is more than just that.

The elves, dwarves, Venice and other trade (water) powers were jealous of the dividends brought by the Port of Biesund, and they followed suit and launched their own ports. The dwarves opened four consecutive good ports near the capital, Wall City, and the elves opened three trading ports at once, lifting the closed economy.

Not only that, they also changed their previous arrogance, humbled themselves, gave up their interests, and attracted other merchants to come and trade.

However, everyone knew that this change was definitely not because they had a change of heart, but simply because of the existence of Biesong Port. It was it that supported a new trade rule, which made those evil spirits dare not exploit them at will.

Therefore, no matter how much effort the elves and dwarves put in, they could not take away the status of Biesong Port. Not to mention, Biesong Port also spontaneously emerged in the insurance industry, venture capital industry, multinational partnership trading companies and other industries, which alone was irreplaceable in the entire main plane.

The elves and dwarves dream of taking away the financial center of Biesund Port! Since they can't take it away economically, they can only take it away by violence.

However, the dwarves have already tried the head-on confrontation method. Before they turn their own fleet into artillery, they can forget about taking the port of Bieson by force.

Since the frontal attack doesn't work, the only option is to stab them in the back.

After that, a large number of privateers appeared in the northern part of the Endless Sea. Although they flew the pirate flag, the various forces knew who was behind them. The pirates ignored the chaotic seas and came here to act recklessly under the powerful ships and guns of Fran. Unless they were crazy.

At the beginning, these privateers, with their small ships, did cause considerable trouble to Fran. Especially when Fran was competing with the dwarves at sea, she had no time to pay attention to these annoying flies.

But the pirates never expected that the dwarves would be defeated so quickly!

With her hands freed, Fran began to clean up the privateering pirates on a large scale.

Privateering is a problem that no maritime kingdom can completely solve. Even a powerful nation like the dwarves has not been able to completely resolve this problem with limited solutions.

But Fran has a trump card that they don't have - the Feather Tribe.

With the help of the Feather Tribe, the privateers had nowhere to hide. Once they were discovered, the powerful and fast Snow Wind would appear in their sight and blast them into pieces. As the commander-in-chief of the anti-bandit movement, Haverdan was honored by the pirates as the Butcher of the Sea because of his hatred of evil.

As the elimination of pirates progressed, the notorious Feather Tribe turned into the guardian of the sea. The caravans were too anxious to run away when they saw the Feather Tribe, but now they felt very relieved! They even invited them to rest.

The leader of the Feather Tribe, Peter Lexi, visited dozens of countries and pondered for decades but could not find a way to restore the image of the Feather Tribe. Unexpectedly, Fran did it in just over half a year. This made all the Feather Tribe grateful to Fran, and also attracted more Feather Tribe scattered in the Endless Ocean to join Fran.

Of course, to eradicate privateering pirates, it is useless to rely solely on fighting. The key is to remove the soil that breeds pirates. These pirates are often born in Venice and Genoa (the kind that were sucked dry by greedy merchants).

After Fran turned privateering into an extremely dangerous industry, she began to recruit sailors from some places to fill the staffing gap of the Jingxi Chamber of Commerce.

This trick really works

If they had a choice, most people would not want to work as pirates, which is a life of bloodshed and hunger. They had no choice before, but now they are given a new path, so they are naturally scrambling to come. In addition, the commander-in-chief of the navy of Orila City, Harald, is a Venetian, which makes them more eager.

heart of.

With the arrival of winter, the tension on the sea came to a temporary end. The entire main plane was divided into three distinct forces. The dwarves occupied the South Sea and half of the Endless Ocean, the elves occupied the Saint Seloux Sea, and Fran occupied the northern part of the Endless Ocean.

The dwarves, who had suffered a loss, soon began to brew a storm of reform within the clan. Valhalla approved the establishment of a firearms workshop to produce muskets and cannons, and a large number of cannons were transported to the warships. The elves were not far behind, and the originally green tree ships also had countless thick, black, hard and strong gun barrels.

As a result, the firepower of both sides is back to the same starting line (at least on the surface), but the elves' tree ships are blessed by the ancient trees of life, and the vines can also transform into tentacles to attack, making them basically invincible in close combat. The dwarves' warships benefit from the surging power - the mechanical core, which can be arbitrarily equipped with armor for the warships.

On the other hand, Fran has no blessing from gods, nor any black technology from gods. She relies entirely on the technology that ordinary people have researched and developed bit by bit!

As the dwarfs' first artillery ironclad ship was launched, everyone began to worry about Fran's safety.

I just don’t know who will have the last laugh in this new battle for supremacy at sea.

Chapter 272 Elf Guild

However, the elves and dwarves are still accumulating strength, and the sea is generally peaceful, so the dispute will not affect Fran for the time being.

After staying in the city for a few days, Galanodier and his men quietly arrived at Leopold City.

Galannodiel was still as elegant and beautiful as ever. She wore a linen robe and walked slowly in the white snow, which was simply the synonym of holiness.

"City Lord! Your Majesty, long time no see." Galannodiel bowed to several people.

"Thank you for your hard work, Master Priest." Seeing the delicate appearance of Galanodiel, Fran felt distressed. After all, it was a long journey from the Soul-Guiding River to Leopold.

Looking at our own country, which ostensibly claims to be a beacon of civilization, is in reality a bunch of rotten insects!

We also want to make our country like Aurora City!

As soon as this book came out, it was immediately sought after by the common people within the Elf Empire.

Although everyone was just curious at first and wanted to know what the city of Aurora looked like, they were soon shocked by the content of the book.

Of course, the elven nobles would obviously not allow such a book to appear in the empire, so they ordered it to be banned and the author was locked up and thrown into prison.

In this way, the guild successfully won over many low-level officers, and these officers will land in the New Vienna of the Holy Roll Empire in the next few months.

Of course, such a considerate person as Fran would not call Galanodier from far away, but after Galanodier heard about Fran's plan, he insisted on coming in person, and at the same time eagerly hoped to visit Fran's sphere of influence.

"You are too kind, Lord. With the train you invented, travel has become much more convenient." Galanodier said, "In my opinion, the miracle of the god Shiloh is inferior to this."

You are worthy of being an elf, you really know how to praise people! Say a little more.

Fran immediately immersed herself in the sweet dream of a beautiful woman praising her.

Boom!

Christina knocked on Fran imperceptibly to wake her up.

After everyone entered the hut, Galanodier said, "My Lords, please allow me to introduce you... This is my subordinate - Durrenni!"

After saying that, a tall elf man walked out and bowed to the people present.

I'm afraid it won't be that easy to catch Arthas."

Loyal to the elves, loyal to the Empire.

"I heard Zhu Chongba talk about you." After hearing this name, Fran immediately said, "After the undead disaster, you, Zhu Chongba, and Conde, the deputy commander of the Second Legion of the Holy Roel Empire, kept harassing the enemy behind the enemy lines, and finally even dared to launch a surprise attack on Minsk, the capital of the Feruman Empire. If it weren't for you, we would not have been able to defeat the enemy.

"This is the credit of all the soldiers." Durenni lowered his head shyly, and then asked: "I wonder if Zhu Chongba and Kong Dai are okay?"

"Conde is now traveling with me to New Vienna," Margaret said, "and when you get there, you can meet in private."

"But it may be difficult to meet Zhu Chongba." Fran said: "He is leading the troops to explore the underground world. It is usually difficult for me to meet him. But there will definitely be opportunities! After thwarting the conspiracy of the Northern Alliance, I will definitely arrange for you old comrades to meet."

"Please rest assured, City Lord!" Durenni said, "I will definitely complete the task."

Afterwards, Durrenni gave everyone a detailed introduction to the Elf Empire's reinforcement plan and their response.

Just as Fran guessed, those sent by the elves to support Margaret were indeed "grassroots" officers of humble birth, without family or backing.

However, the elves' upper echelons have apparently discovered and begun to pay attention to the existence of the guild. When selecting officers, they actually openly and secretly avoided the elves who had been to the eastern part of the Soul-Guiding River. Some important positions were also provided by the southern system of the Elf Empire.

The so-called Southern faction is composed of the three southern kings headed by El'Arendil's grandfather, King Newleaf. They have been fighting against the trolls in the southern part of the continent. Therefore, there are many officers in the army who have been baptized by the battlefield. Some of these officers are from famous families, while others are of humble birth. However, they all have one thing in common -

It is almost impossible to influence the officers of the Southern Faction, and Durenne has basically given up the idea of ​​taking action against them.

Under the strict defense of the elves' upper echelons, a large number of officers who joined the guild were unable to go to New Vienna, which indeed dealt a heavy blow to Fran's plan.

What the elves' upper echelons didn't expect was that the guild's infiltration was even more terrifying than they had imagined.

Because long before the guild, a large number of officers had been disappointed with the elven upper class and the nobles, and the seeds of resistance had already sprouted in their hearts. The guild simply united them and let them find an organization.

In fact, the origin of guild thought can be traced back to the Scourge of the Undead.

At that time, the elves disregarded national interests and, for the sake of the so-called face of the empire, forcibly dispatched more than 100,000 troops to interfere in the continent of Calradia.

After being annihilated by the Undead, they ignored the domestic sentiment and prepared to make peace with Arthas in exchange for the noble officers captured by Arthas. This made the Empire's army excited, and countless soldiers clamored to avenge their comrades. This was the short-lived pro-war faction within the Elf Empire.

Although the war faction quickly dispersed because they had no leader, this could not quell their anger. After obtaining the consent of the empire, these officers and soldiers boarded the ships to Orilagle.

According to Fran's statistics, there were a total of 3,426 elf warriors and 71 officers who went to Orilagle. In the end, 856 soldiers died in battle, and 19 officers died in battle. This heavy data shows that this group of passionate elf officers and soldiers fulfilled their promise.

After the war, these elf warriors stayed in the vicinity of Vienna for a long time, saw the "scenery" of the area under Fran's rule, and learned that in the "barbaric land" far away from the Elf Empire, there was such a magical force. It was composed of the vast majority of civilians, without nobles or clergy. Everyone earned money.

, most of the money can go into your own pocket without being endlessly exploited.

The elf warriors returned to the Elf Empire with such an ideal in mind, and also spread what they saw and heard in Orila City to the Elf Empire. One of the elf warriors even wrote a book - "Red Star Over China" (Oulila City is indeed west of the Elf Empire), introducing the growth history of Orila City, the power of Orila City, and the origin of the story.

The structure and class division can be said to be extremely detailed.

This was not enough to satisfy them, and in the end there was a large-scale purge, forcing the elven warriors who had participated in the defense of Orilagel to hide from place to place, or even simply leave the empire and go east of the Soul River to join Galannodir.

However, the actions of the elven nobles undoubtedly acknowledged that everything written in the book was true! As a result, the book was banned repeatedly but became even more popular.

This book pointed out the nature of the exploitation of the nobility and clergy (not just the elves), which made the lower-class elves indignant. So when the guild members quietly returned to their country to recruit members, they found that it was particularly smooth. Secret bases of the guild were quickly established in various cities.

The leaders of the guild also followed Galannodil's advice and kept a low profile! Keep a low profile! Keep a low profile!

Chapter 273 Mechanical Core

The elven officer has been found, but Galannodir is still worried.

She said, "Our plan this time probably won't be as smooth as it was in the Soul-Guiding River! Because our enemies include not only the Elf Empire, but also the Dwarves."

"Dwarves?" Margaret said, "If I remember correctly, they just provided some supplies this time. Well, if I must say, they seem to have built a few factories in the south of New Vienna. But these factories were built for New Vienna, so they shouldn't be a concern."

"Don't underestimate these factories." Durrenni also continued: "This time the dwarves have also invested heavily. They have transported nearly 200 mechanical cores from their homeland, accompanied by several teams of high-level divine magicians. You should all be familiar with the production efficiency of mechanical cores."

Everyone nodded. As the inventor of the steam engine, Fran understood the horror of the mechanical core.

Although the world is full of poverty and low productivity, the steam engine is not the only one in the world, because on the other side of the sea, there is the black technology mastered by the dwarves - the mechanical core.

If the heavy and bulky steam engine is a rough steel pipe, then the mechanical core is an exquisite piece of jewelry.

Whether in terms of size, power or weight, the mechanical core was far superior to Flan's steam engine. Even though Flan had gathered all the skilled craftsmen in the Holy Roel Empire, with a lot of money and basic science, the gap between them and the mechanical core was still as huge as a chasm.

Not only that, the Dwarf God also thoughtfully prepared different types of mechanical cores for the dwarves, so that they can choose power outputs of different intensities in different fields.

In the short term, Fran doesn't see the steam engine's production efficiency surpassing that of the mechanical core.

However, this is not the darkest technology.

The most advanced technology is that the mechanical core does not need to carry a large amount of fuel. When Fran thought of this, she was particularly jealous. After all, when the fleet of Orila City sailed, it had to carry several coal ships, and it also had to store coal at various bases during the voyage. This greatly increased the cost, and in future wars, it would become the weak point of the entire maritime force.

Fortunately, there are abundant coal resources under the city of Orila, otherwise they might have been choked by fuel.

There were several times when Fran encountered technical difficulties and she wished there was a god behind her who would worship her and then perform miracles to solve these problems.

But success is due to God, and failure is also due to God.

Mechanical cores do not require fuel, but this is also their shortcoming.

They are not perpetual motion machines. Every once in a while, they need to be recharged by dwarven divine magicians. However, divine magicians are rare in any country, even the lowest-level divine magicians. They are definitely rare.

This made the power of mechanical cores a rare commodity, and the dwarven warships and golems required a large number of mechanical cores. When the military and economy conflicted, the dwarves chose to ensure military development first, which made the mechanical cores allocated to production increasingly scarce.

This is why, although the dwarves have extremely high production efficiency, their products are not sold throughout the main plane. They only guarantee their own production, and the rest are learned from the elves and turned into expensive luxury goods. It can be said that they have taken a completely different path from Fran.

But even so, in an agricultural society with low production efficiency, this is enough to defeat other forces.

This time, the dwarves brought more than 200 mechanical cores at once, which is equivalent to more than 200 steam engines with extremely high production efficiency. It can be said that they invested a lot of money.

"What kind of factory do they want to build with so many mechanical cores? Are they planning to build a legion of golems here?" Christina asked curiously.

"That shouldn't be possible! The most valuable thing about the Golem Corps is not the Golem itself, but the driver who controls the Golem. There is no Golem Corps yet. According to my intelligence, only about 40% of these mechanical cores are used to help build New Vienna." Durren said, "The rest is unknown. But judging from the materials they transported, it is very likely that they are building firearms.

"firearm?"

Everyone present turned their eyes to Fran. After all, she was now the largest arms producer and seller in the entire main plane.

"Firearms? The dwarves want to compete with us in the production of firearms." Fran sneered.

"It should be impossible to replace the city lord in a short time." Durenni said, "But by maliciously lowering the price and disrupting the market, the city lord can still lose a lot of money. And don't forget that the dwarf is still the boss of the Huameng, and he can even force his younger brothers to buy his weapons."

It's something a dwarf can do.

"Some time ago, the dwarves started construction of a huge building in the most prosperous area of ​​New Vienna." Margaret said, "They are not planning to imitate Fran and hold a weapons exhibition."

"I think it's very likely." Galanodier said, "The dwarves' forging technology is unrivaled in the world. Before the rise of Orila City, the dwarves' ironware and machinery were sold all over the main plane. Since even the Venetians can imitate firearms, it will be even easier for them. At the same time, this is also a high-profile announcement to the world that they can also make firearms."

After hearing this, everyone looked worried.

After all, firearms are the biggest reliance of Orila City and the guarantee of Orila City’s huge wealth.

Without the advantage of firearms, how would they face the massive armies of the Northern Alliance and the Chinese Alliance in the future?

However, everyone discovered that Fran, the city lord, looked relaxed, as if what had just been said had nothing to do with her.

Fran smiled and said, "I have to admit that the dwarves' move was indeed brilliant. They created a lot of trouble at the lowest cost. But they thought the matter was too simple! The huge arms market cannot be stirred up by just a few factories!"

Fran paused, then added: "Money, it doesn't matter if I earn less. Anyway, I'm not short of money for the time being. For us, the core battlefield of this competition is the armies of both sides. Don't be confused by the details in other areas, lest you lose a lot and pick up a pair of Aces."

What a strange metaphor. Everyone was confused, but seeing Fran's confident look, they felt relieved.