Pawn Crossing the River

Among the four questions, the first and second questions can be attributed to the same problem, which requires entering Sophia's mansion to solve the problem.

However, once you enter Sofia's mansion, whether you take the secret key or destroy the secret key, you will alarm Sofia, which means there is no room for turning back and you must leave St. York immediately. Therefore, before sneaking into Sophia's mansion, Qi Xuansu must first solve the third problem and plan an evacuation route and at least one alternative plan.

There are many routes from St. York to the Southern Continent. The most convenient route is of course the sea route. St. York is a city located at the estuary. Richmond District is an island, completely facing the sea, and it is far away from the King District across the estuary. see. Midtown is to the north of the King District, and to the west is the Hudson River. You can go directly to the sea along the Hudson River.

After going out to sea, go all the way south along the coastline, pass Cape Hatteras, enter Onslow Bay, then go around the entire Florida Peninsula, pass through the Florida Straits between Andros and the Florida Keys, and enter the Olmec Bay, this sea area is where the northern continent and the southern continent meet. No matter how long Sophia's hand was, it would be impossible to reach here. Next, you can land directly on the Yucatan Peninsula, or you can pass through the Yucatan Channel and continue sailing south.

Of course you can fly over, but that would be too ostentatious and could easily expose your target.

Of course Qi Xuansu was not afraid of being alone. He even considered sinking the floating island with one palm and then taking the opportunity to escape. The key is that he brought Audrey with him. Although Audrey's body is very strong and should be more durable, she has little fighting power and is at most a less burdensome burden. Qi Xuansu had to consider this. It was best to reduce unnecessary battles.

But there is a problem here. It is true that the sea route is the most convenient. Sofia also understands this. Once an incident occurs, the sea route will be blocked immediately. Sophia's first reaction is to pursue along the sea route.

The best case scenario is that Qi Xuansu takes action on Friday without alerting anyone, and then leaves that night. Sofia knows nothing about it and continues to have fun on the island. It is not until she returns home on Sunday night that she discovers the abnormality. Two days The time was enough for Qi Xuansu and Audrey to escape quietly to the Southern Continent.

But this situation is too ideal.

Even if Qi Xuansu didn't have any problems, he managed to hide the truth. Audrey disappeared for two days, will she be discovered? Those people couldn't find Audrey and reported it directly to Sophia, which was exposed. Or maybe Sofia was in a bad mood, returned home halfway, and discovered in advance that something was wrong. This kind of uncontrollable variable is actually

There were too many, so Qi Xuansu couldn't count on everything going smoothly and had to make an alternative plan in advance.

The alternative was to evacuate by land.

The Northern Continent is very vast, and there are not many Westerners, so the land is sparsely populated and seems very empty. This is completely opposite to the situation in the Central Plains. There will not be so many densely populated areas, and it is not easy to expose the whereabouts.

Moreover, the Northern Continent also has a very developed railway system, and you can take steam trains. Although it is not as fast as flying, it is better than concealment. The key is that the railway system is controlled by the Steam Gospel, but Sophia's arrest of Audrey is her own private matter. It involves the Hell Apostles, and she may not dare to bring this matter to the table. Furthermore, she is the Speaker of St. York, not the Speaker of the entire Northern Continent. The states in the Northern Continent are relatively independent and coordinated by the Holy See. Sofia can suspend the railway in St. York, but she cannot extend her hands to other states. She can only Only the Holy Court has such power, so it is said that the Holy Court is the master of the Northern Continent.

Although Sofia and the Holy Court seem to be a family, they still have to share the pot. The huge economic losses caused by suspending the railway system are something that the Holy Court is unwilling to accept.

Ninety-nine percent of problems can be attributed to the economy. When the economy is good, everyone makes money and has a career, and you are good to me and everyone is good to you, which can cover up 99% of the contradictions. On the contrary, when you have no money or lose hope, all kinds of conflicts will arise, and even small things may develop into big conflicts.

The reason why the Holy Court gave up on the Southern Continent and sat back and watched Tawanting establish the country was not because the Holy Court thought it could not win, but because the Holy Court believed that the cost of war was too high. From the beginning to the end, the Holy Court attached great importance to the issue of money, so Qi Xuansu believed that The Holy See will not stop the railway system on a large scale because of Sofia.

If you leave St. York by land, there are more routes to choose from. After all, the railways are distributed in a network. After careful study, Qi Xuansu preferred to go to Harrisburg first, then go from Harrisburg to Cincinnati, then from Cincinnati to St. Louis, then pass through Springfield, Fort Smith and other places, and finally arrive at the San Antonio Mission, which is about 100 meters away from the border river. The Rio Grande is very close and there are more options, you can go from Del Rio, you can go from Laredo, you can go from McAllen.

Qi Xuansu made several alternative plans on this basis. The best option is to

Take the sea route by boat. If there is a problem with the sea route, you can land at the nearest land and take the land route. After all, the port city will inevitably have a supporting railway system to ensure the transportation of goods.

In fact, there are some railways in the Central Plains, but not many. Many people believe that building railways will destroy Feng Shui and are very resistant. They would rather build canals than railways. The underlying reason is that millions of water workers depended on their food and clothing. Since the Daqi Dynasty, a grand canal has connected the north and the south. Especially since the Wei Dynasty, the Grand Canal has carried transportation between the imperial capital and the south of the Yangtze River for more than 400 years and nearly 500 years. This can no longer be described as deep-rooted, but as a matter of course. It is difficult to abolish water transportation and replace it with sea transportation. Heavy, not to mention railroad.

When Qi Xuansu went to Bohai Mansion, he took a boat northward and took the Grand Canal instead of the railway.

There is water transportation in the north of the Yangtze River, and there is also a big river in the south of the Yangtze River. We have to admit that water transport is most suitable for large-scale cargo transportation, so coastal ports are often prosperous, while inland ports inevitably lag behind. This also objectively restricts the development of railways.

I have to admit that Westerners are ahead in this regard. There is no shame in admitting your shortcomings.

If the Westerners didn't have any real skills, they wouldn't be able to seize the Posas Islands and the New World. Although they spit out the East Possible Islands and the Southern Continent, the power of the Westerners cannot be denied.

Being cruel and cunning is one thing, being powerful is another, and there is no conflict between the two. Being strong or not has nothing to do with morality.

Qi Xuansu compared the map and finally determined a total of four routes.

In such a large northern continent, of course Strawney would not be the only chess piece, but would have a whole network. As the leader of Beichen Hall in the New World, Qi Xuansu can naturally use this network.

Beichen Hall calls these people on the network "hidden people". They have their own division of labor, such as Strawney. In fact, Beichen Hall will not use him rashly, nor assign him any daily tasks. One thing: be careful to hide your identity and stay patiently. Then he will be used at critical moments to obtain key intelligence. .??.

Therefore, Strawney's main responsibility is to obtain intelligence, but it is relatively high-end intelligence. There is also some low-end intelligence, such as observing the number of ships in the port, the pattern of ships leaving the port, the frequency of trains, the types of goods transported, etc. It is mainly statistical data, and then the data is reported and analyzed.

For example, the tavern at the port has been doing very well recently, and the customers are mainly navy.

The pattern of naval ships going to sea can be deduced from the pattern of good and bad business in taverns. If the sailors are family people, it is not difficult not to go to the pub. You can analyze it through the children's toy stores near the port, because each time they go to sea for several months or even longer, sailors will inevitably buy a lot of gifts when they return home. , including toys for children. A lot of toys were sold this month, indicating that many sailors have returned to Hong Kong, which determines the specific time.

Both examples are to analyze some information based on the market conditions of specific regions and specific businesses, which requires a lot of statistics and needs to be seen and memorized, rather than asking and communicating around the world.

These small pieces of information are then aggregated and spliced ​​together, and the context gradually becomes clear, and eventually it becomes the grasp of specific trends.

There is also a kind of "hidden son" who is responsible for doing some dirty work, such as assassination. This assassination is not necessarily aimed at the enemy. If some people defect to the northern continent with important information, the "hidden son" can be used to clean them up. This is Target the traitors.

Qi Xuansu contacted a secret agent who was dormant in St. York. His usual job was as a tavern waiter, but he was actually a non-staff member of Beichen Hall. His task was not to collect intelligence, but to handle some chores. Qi Xuansu did not ask him to assassinate anyone, but asked him to go through the underground black market and prepare two false identities and corresponding tickets.

Anzi completed the task easily. He only knew that Qi Xuansu was his superior, but did not know Qi Xuansu's identity.

Then Qi Xuansu contacted another Anzi with the same task, preparing two false identities and corresponding ferry tickets.

The four routes are the four secrets.

Even if someone is caught by mistake, Qi Xuansu's plan will not be fully exposed.

In terms of train and boat tickets, the specific time may not be very accurate, but tickets and boat tickets can be purchased according to the specific changes in the itinerary. This is not a problem.

With the manpower of the Holy Court in the Northern Continent, it is unable to build a strict organizational system. Not to mention the relative independence and autonomy of each state, some places do not even have a complete government or yamen. In the Central Plains, there is a household registration system. As long as it is not a troubled time, wanted people are very deterrent. But that's not the case in the Northern Continent. If you commit a crime in this state, you can just escape to another state. States do not communicate with each other and do not even recognize each other's various laws, which leaves room for loopholes.

After determining the route, it was time to prepare for Sophia's mansion.