Realm of Power

In late autumn, Austin in the north is filled with white smoke-like frost. The spiers of the majestic buildings on both sides of the confusing road are projected on the street. No one can be seen on the street. Everything seems so dead. The sun is slanting westward. From the houses, The narrow gap between them shone down, dragging out long shadows.

There were some messy footprints on the bare ground. The wanderers wandering here looked at the majestic reindeer cavalry coming from the street in the distance. All of them had already run away.

For these rebels who destroyed everything they had, the wanderers gnashed their teeth with hatred, and their hearts were also filled with fear.

What's more, in the middle of this team of Austin reindeer cavalry, a large carriage with a white thorn flower pattern printed on the outer wall was slowly passing through the largest street intersection in the main city. It can be seen from the nervous look on the reindeer cavalry that this vehicle There must be an extremely important person inside,

"Please stop?" A dull and cold voice came from inside the car. The queue of reindeer cavalry stopped and an Austin officer came from the front of the queue.

"What orders do you have, Mr. Special Envoy?" The officer bent down and looked at the carriage with eyes full of respect. It was a kind of respect from the heart.

Sitting in the car is the special envoy from the Southern Empire. He is the most respected guest who Duke Langla has repeatedly asked to need special care. There have been strict orders from above. As long as it can be given, it must be done with all its strength. However, The style displayed by this special envoy made it difficult for the Austin officer in charge of the reception to conceal his admiration.

With a background of a powerful empire, this envoy who controls the fate of the people of Austin still adheres to a simple and rigorous style. He rejected Duke Langla's arrangement of spending the night at the Palace of Austin, and instead simply chose to stay in the city. Staying in an ordinary hotel is unimaginably simple in the main city of Austin, which values ​​status and competition, but this does not affect the image of this special envoy. Qia Qian’s military demeanor vividly reminds him of

"If I remember correctly, these should be statues of Emperor Austin Kasli."

Belus, the Falcon Empire's special envoy who was sitting in the carriage, poked half of his head out of the carriage and glanced at the messy pile of rubble beside the fork in the road with a solemn gaze. A trace of surprise flashed in his eyes, and he asked the officer with a slight frown,

Along the way, he had been silently assessing the impact of this turmoil on the Austinites. The damage to the main city of the Austinites was profound and tragic.

Nearly 60,000 city residents seemed to have completely evaporated overnight, leaving only narrow, dark houses on both sides of the streets. And there are closed windows,

Belushi could feel that behind these windows, there were a pair of eyes full of vigilance, hesitation, and fear. If you walked through the street, you would feel the waves of frightening pain stabbing from your back. cold,

Although it is daytime. In some neighborhoods where turmoil once broke out, only the footsteps of patrols echoed deep in the streets, and the figures of homeless people appeared and disappeared among the ruins of the city.

The black smoke rising from the building was blown up by the cold wind, rising like a tornado into the gray dusk of the sky. Everything indicated that the unrest was still continuing.

The decaying city in front of him reminded him of his hometown. In the southern mountains of Vikia in the glorious late autumn, wild flowers all over the mountains and fields should have covered the ground.

The people living there should no longer feel the misery of the war. The good times are gone, and the tragic turmoil reminds people of the value of peace.

The Austin officer in front of him had no way of knowing what Belushi was thinking, so he could only respond respectfully, "The envoy is right, this is indeed the statue of the thief Austin Casli."

"A thief? Isn't Austin Kasli the pride of your country?" Belushi was stunned for a moment.

If I remember correctly. There should be a monument carved with precious marble here to commemorate the fourth king of Austin who originally built this main city, Emperor Austin Casili. This was once a famous monument in the main city of Austin. a mark,

Under the sculptor's exquisite and imaginative carving skills, Emperor Austin Kasili, wearing a heavy frost armor, like the legendary Poseidon, sits on a crystal chariot pulled by four strong reindeer. The statue, which has always been the pride of Austin people, has now become a thief in the eyes of Austin officers?

"If it weren't for this thief's wrong decision, our Austin clan would have dominated the Northland long ago." Officer Austin saw the confusion on Belushi's face and said with a look of shame and anger.

"The special envoy may not know that the leader of the Austin Kasli tribe is not a pure Austinite. His father was the leader of our tribe at that time, but his mother was a wanderer from the northern ice sea. ,

There are even rumors that Austin Casley’s biological mother is actually a female pirate galloping on the North Sea. Some people also say that she is a foreigner from across the ocean.

But one thing is unquestionable, that is, the mysterious woman who gave birth to Austin Kasli was a person who was passionate about the ocean. Her enthusiasm was also inherited by her son. It is said that Austin Kasli When Si Li was only four years old, he already went to sea with his mother.

The cold northern sea forged his beliefs as cold as thousand-year-old ice and his extremely strong body. When he was sixteen years old, he suddenly proposed the idea of ​​​​the ocean as an extension of tribal territory at the Austin court meeting.

In the end, our clan's attention was drawn to the ocean, while the most important aspect, land, was ignored. This was also the root of the weakness of our clan's army for hundreds of years. It was almost wiped out by foreign tribes several times. He is the sinner of our clan, Lang The Duke himself ordered the destruction of the statue of this sinner"

After hearing Officer Austin's words, Belushi remained silent. Only those who truly understand the value of the ocean will know how advanced and appropriate the decision-making of Austin's maritime strategy is.

In that era when no one had the concept of the sea, Austin Kasli's opinions were not taken seriously. Many nobles in the clan even openly laughed at this whimsical young prince at the banquet. But this man with the ice sea He is a tough young man, but he is a doer through and through.

At that time, the Austin clan could only be regarded as a medium-sized force in a remote coastal area. In the direction of its territory leading inland, there were several strong opponents of equal strength who were eyeing their country bumpkin neighbor from a remote area. ,

The cruel external environment and chaotic internal power structure are the problems that need to be solved most in front of Austin Kasli. In such a situation. Austin Kasli announced to the outside world that the Austin people had given up their plans to enter the inland, which was contrary to the original direction of the Austin people's development inland, and instead focused on the vast northern sea.

in the subsequent time. The great emperor Austin Kasli used all his wealth and taxes. At the most stringent time, he did not even buy a new piece of clothing for three years. He used all his financial resources to unswervingly carry out what many people thought at the time. is a crazy idea,

During his 18 years in power, he did not launch a single foreign war. Life is also a typical life of asceticism. He has almost no achievements to be proud of.

When he died of an inexplicable cold at the age of 39, what he left to his successors was an amazingly powerful kingdom, a powerful navy with more than a hundred warships, and a new power in the coastal area. There are hundreds of new territories, more than thirty coastal tribes that have been included in Austin's rule, and Austin's population has expanded several times.

He allowed Austinites to spend 18 rare and peaceful years in the midst of the war in the North. Because they resolutely implemented the maritime strategy, the Austinites, who were only a medium force at the beginning, cleverly avoided the bloody inland battles that were full of disputes at that time.

The Austin people retained considerable strength during the war, and the vast tracts of land along the coast and the rich fisheries brought by the vast ocean eventually established the Austin people's maritime dominance for hundreds of years.

Even the most powerful land opponents never thought they could conquer the Austinites, because the ocean belonged to Austin,

The leader who made this strategy undoubtedly led the Austin clan on the road to becoming a powerful country. If given time, unifying the Northland would not be a dream. This is a truly respectable hero who has a keen vision and is willing to implement it down-to-earth. He is the majestic swan song of that era.

But now, it's all a dream. They were all overthrown by the Austinites themselves. Belushi took a meaningful look at the ruins where the statue once stood, and sighed silently in his heart. Once the former overlord of the ocean, once he lost the ocean, would it really be like this? Are they fragile? These fragments of statues that were smashed into pieces seem to show that all the life and glory of Austin, a maritime nation, are gradually fading away like the deflected sunlight in front of them.

The dark sunlight swayed silently in the cold wind, and the deep twilight shrouded this ancient northern city. The carriage entered the main road leading to the palace in silence.

The scenery on both sides has also changed. The most common cedar forest in the main urban area of ​​Austin grows beside the road. Because there are red spots at the roots of the trunks, this cedar is also called Austin redwood.

In Austin, where we are used to seeing white and cold winter fog, and where the temperature is always below 10 degrees, the sudden appearance of such an overwhelming red color on both sides of the road will definitely shock anyone who comes here for the first time.

But Belous was already used to it. This is a very common vegetation planted in the Austin area. It is a plant with excellent cold resistance. For some reason, the northern cold areas that have always lacked vegetation coverage, once they enter the main area of ​​Austin, In the city area, you can find this kind of red fir trees in large tracts, like clusters of red brocade dotted on the white ground.

But at this time, Belushi's eyes seemed extremely heavy, with an inexplicable look in his eyes, looking towards a fiery red forest not far from the road,

The reason why Belushi suddenly wanted to take a look at this plant that is almost all over Austin was because of the top-secret information from the Navy Department he received last night.

Red, hard in texture, with a large amount of reserves. These conditions mentioned in the intelligence suddenly made Belushi's eyes serious.

"Could it be..." For some reason, he suddenly raised his head and stared straight at the red trees with tall branches densely arranged in the cold beside the road.

There, large areas of thick red tree trunks glowed with hard texture in the sun,

Because it has grown for many years, the huge tree trunk even requires several people to hug it together. It is densely packed like rows of sentinels standing nearby.

As the carriage moved forward, these red fir trees, like sheep being driven by a shepherd, quickly ran towards the back of the carriage. Different from the past, Belushi looked very excited at this moment.

"I never expected that the answer to the mystery would be this."

Belushi licked his chapped lips and murmured in a low voice. Although he has not yet determined whether his idea is correct, subconsciously, Belushi believes that he has found the real "goal"

Because of the frequent battles with the Austin Navy some time ago, Urcondo's North Sea Fleet suffered consecutive victories. Almost completely annihilated the Austin navy, and captured 5 Austinite North Sea sailing warships in the naval battle.

In order to know whether this sailing warship could be converted into an assault warship needed by the North Sea Fleet, Urcondo, who had always wanted a cold fleet, ordered the captured Austin North Sea sailing warship to be secretly returned to the At the Falcon Navy Headquarters in the south, the North Sea sailing warship is called the Kant. It was the largest of the five captured ships.

It has a full complement of 172 people, a speed of 38 knots, and a displacement tonnage of 110 tons. Compared with the Dragon Tooth Warship, which has a tonnage of 80 tons, a full complement of 50 people, and an average speed of only about 22 knots.

In addition to the disadvantage in firepower, this Kant is inferior. It is obviously better than Ryuga in all numerical values. In combat, the performance of the Kant was also quite eye-catching. The Falcon Navy focused fire on the side several times and had two masts blown off. However, the Kant still took advantage of its speed and tonnage to severely damage a Dragon Tooth warship.

Its strong defensive power and assault advantage made the angry Urcondo personally order to capture it instead of sink it. In the end, under the attack of three Dragon Tooth warships, the highly maneuverable Kande was hit because of its tail rudder. Broken and captured,

Urcando, who had found the treasure, immediately ordered it to be sent back to the main naval port and submitted an urgent report to the Navy Department.

It is hoped that through comparison by the technicians of the Navy Department, the advantages of the Dragon Tooth warship and the North Sea sailing warship can finally be combined to create a unique warship that can truly adapt to the cold northern seas.

The Navy Department also attached great importance to Urcondo's report.

The battle in the north is under the personal command of His Majesty Falcon. It is also the grand strategy that the empire is currently preparing. The North Sea War situation not only affects the Navy Ministry, but is also the focus of His Majesty Falcon.

Any slack will be met with not only rebuke, but even anger from His Majesty. No one dares to be careless. The second batch of fleets transferred to the Northern Sea has been assembled, and a large amount of needed food and supplies will soon be transferred to the north.

In a secret shipyard where the Dragon class was built by the Imperial Navy, hundreds of professional technicians mobilized from all over the country could only carefully compare and judge this unique warship sent from the north, from its internal structure to its hull frame.

After comparing the structure and applicability and impact resistance, the final conclusion was unexpected. It not only shocked the Admiralty, but also made Urcondo, the instigator, unexpected.

"No matter how you look at it, the structure of this sailing warship can only be regarded as medium, but the rigidity of its hull is almost as strong as the Storm Sea Serpent of the Lods.

But the most puzzling thing is its maneuverability. The unique wooden material reduces the impact of the texture on the heavy hull. If such wood can be obtained, appropriately modified and the tonnage can be increased, it can completely become a ship capable of high-intensity melee combat. Capabilities of the heavy assault gunship"

The chief technician of the Navy Department who was responsible for this matter wrote this final conclusion in a report submitted to the Navy Department, and extremely cautiously put forward a guess: "If this kind of wood can be used in the construction of the Dragon-class battleship, the Dragon-class battleship will Its mobility and resistance will be increased by one-third, becoming the pinnacle of military force that absolutely dominates the sea area."

The Imperial Navy was shocked by this conclusion and immediately ordered the Naval Intelligence Department to secretly find out where the wood for the Kant came from.

Carrying the wood specimens sawn into small sections, the Naval Intelligence Department pretended to be businessmen and asked many professional businessmen in wood. In the end, all eyes focused on a special kind of Northland redwood.

According to the businessman, this is a hard tree species that grows in cold areas.

Although it is not as hard and indestructible as the extremely precious diamond wood in the dense forests of the south, due to the growth environment and being exposed to wind and snow all year round, its texture is several times stronger than ordinary shipbuilding wood. If it can accumulate a certain tonnage, it will Producing an extremely terrifying impact ability that is not inferior to the level of the Storm Sea Serpent,

Obviously, due to the environment of the North Sea, the Austinites did not like to build large warships, so they did not realize that increasing the tonnage might bring about the characteristics of superior quality wood.

But the reason why the Austin Navy's sail assault warships are able to run rampant in the northern waters and use collisions as the main means of combat undoubtedly proves the existence of this kind of wood. This is the secret of the Austin Navy, and it is also the secret of Belushi this time. The mission of the investigation is,

Belushi was still having a headache because of this, but the redwood forest in front of him suddenly made him realize that perhaps the Austin people did not have the habit of keeping secrets at all. In fact, if you think about it, the Austin Navy has controlled the oceans for more than a hundred years and built many ships. There are no less than a thousand ships. Even if I had the habit of keeping secrets at first, I have forgotten it now.

How to obtain a large number of redwoods from the Austinites was a question that faced Belushi.

The carriage stopped in front of the steps of the Austin Palace Hall. An Austin nobleman who had been waiting here for a long time walked down the steps and opened the door of the carriage respectfully.

"Your Majesty the Special Envoy, Your Majesty the Duke has been waiting for a long time." The officer respectfully made a gesture of invitation.

Bright light shone in from outside the car door, but Belushi felt like an unknown door was slowly opening in front of him. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature. The novels will be better and updated faster!