Struggle in the Steam Age

A week later in Port Pula, Lawrence and Nora appeared in the port warehouse area of ​​this port city at the same time. As a port recaptured after the Restoration War decades ago, this port quickly became the largest and most prosperous port in the empire by virtue of its excellent geographical location and hydrological and geographical conditions in the port area.

At the same time, because there is a river passing by the urban area of ​​this port, and taking a boat with a maximum displacement of 3,500 tons from the pier beside this river, you can go all the way upstream to the capital Vendobona unimpeded.

Therefore, this port has naturally become the most prosperous place in the entire empire after the capital. Not only can you buy a large number of products from the empire itself, but you can also buy commodities from all over the world. There are countless businessmen, nobles and ordinary people chasing their wealth and dreams here.

Since Lawrence knew that he had obtained an island, he packed his bags and came here with Nora. Because after reading the information about the territory he belonged to, he found that if he followed his plan, he needed to bring more things with him.

According to the information that Lawrence checked before, the island has more than 60,000 square kilometers and has very good water, heat and vegetation conditions. This information is true. The empire did colonize it for more than 100 years. But the problem is that the development of more than 100 years has not allowed the empire to benefit from this island, and even lost a lot of money.

At the beginning, this was the territory directly under the empire, but the empire finally couldn't bear it after losing money for 30 years. So he tried to confer this land to the nobles. But no matter whether the whole piece of land was confiscated to the big nobles or it was divided into several pieces and confiscated to the small nobles, those nobles would not be able to carry it for too long.

According to the information collected by Lawrence, the nobles who were canonized here have not survived for ten years on average, and then tried their best to find the emperor Yifeng. So much so that today, the entire land was confiscated to Lawrence.

So, I can call you the great Earl of Scavengers. Nora's first reaction after seeing the specific situation of the island was to complain about Lawrence. Because this island really has no characteristics except for its size and good water and heat conditions, it is difficult to develop. Obviously, your emperor dumped this island to you as trash.

What you said makes sense. Lawrence shrugged helplessly, because he felt that the reason why the emperor gave him such a large family and at the same time granted him nearly independent rights was purely because he hoped that he would no longer be like the previous group. After a few years like that, the nobles ran back to make trouble again, and insisted on changing the territory again.

Otherwise, even if it is to block the mouth of the nobles and establish their own image. There was no need for the emperor to confer the land equivalent to the size of the duchy to Earl Lawrence.

After a few days of analysis, Lawrence found that this island was really difficult to develop. Because there are no mineral deposits on the island, no special extraordinary creatures, and no very expensive wood or special spices that can be sold, it is naturally impossible to attract people who want to get rich overnight.

On the other hand, although this island is located in the surrounding countries of the Sea of ​​Stars, it is some distance away from the mainland and the shipping routes, so it is impossible to develop as a trading hub like the New Hansa Islands that Lawrence went to before.

What's worse, even if you want to farm here safely, it is very difficult. Because the whole island has a large number of goblins for some reason, forcing the people on that island to reclaim land by the sea and in places that are easy to defend and difficult to attack. Therefore, there is not much area that can be planted by the public.

This is also the reason why the nobles gave up before. Although you can easily kill the goblins on the flat land by the sea, once you go deep into the island, you will find that the goblins use the dense jungle and natural and artificial caves in the middle of the island. Mountains and hills have created a terrain that is very suitable for their fighting style, and it is difficult for humans to fight goblins on such poor terrain.

Don't forget the Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. Nora said, I believe that the grass on this island will make the sound of goblins. It is difficult to clean them up, but if you don't clean them up Otherwise, the island will not be able to develop.”

You're right, and that's why we come to this place to purchase. Lawrence said, looking at the workers who were busy moving the things in the warehouse to the ship, and then said in a voice that only two people could hear explain. By the way, mix the things shipped from our place with this batch of goods.

The reason why Lawrence came to this seaport to purchase was to purchase a large amount of construction materials and tools and transport them to the island, and then reclaim a piece of land as quickly as possible to clean up the goblins on that land and build a fortress to guard that place. Finally, rely on this safe place to recruit people. After this land is stabilized, it will follow the same pattern to expand the sphere of influence to the next one.

According to the information he inquired, all the people who wanted to occupy this island before were greedy for perfection, and tried to clean up all the goblins on the island in one fell swoop in order to occupy the island in one fell swoop, but all ended in disastrous results. So this time Lawrence simply chose to fight steadily and steadily to eat away at it step by step.

Anyway, for him, if Bai Ze's blood can be continuously awakened, he can have a long lifespan. So the time he had was slowly wasted with the group of nasty goblins on the island. In addition, his father had disconnected most of the family's property in the Old Continent from other branches of the family, and now the core members of the entire family are just the two of them. So it's not as eager to cash in as the group of people who owned the island before.

Also after sending a large number of tools to the jackals of the astral plane and formulating a development plan, the productivity of the entire plane has been greatly improved. It can provide a lot of cheap building materials for this fortification and cannibalization plan.

Therefore, Lawrence is quite confident about the development of the island this time. Not to mention that his relatives and friends gave him great help. For example, his father is now organizing staff and followers in Shaw County to move to the island. Another example is that after sending a telegram to the Federation, a lot of friends are willing to go to the island to help him.

Among them, Fatina made it clear that she and Safir would rent a boat with her Ratman clan and move directly to the island at their own expense. If there were no accidents, they would arrive and start working earlier than Lawrence.

Considering that his actions were indeed a bit unkind, the emperor also signaled that the bank under the royal family gave Lawrence an interest-free loan equivalent to 10 million yuan from the White Eagle Federation, and allowed him to repay it slowly in ten years. In addition, the emperor also gave Lawrence a 600-ton ship with six 150mm cannons and two 120mm cannons, which was built only half a year ago, as a gift from the royal family to Lawrence.

When Lawrence came to this port, apart from using the loan to purchase, he also had another job to recruit people to drive away the warship, and at the same time, he arrived at the island with a group of subjects and retainers who followed him from the fief.

Fortunately, these things are not difficult to do, especially among the group of followers and family members, there are several retired officers who have been sailors, joined the navy, and even served as the first officer on a small warship. With these reliable manpower as the backbone, Lawrence easily gathered the manpower needed to start the ship.

In the past few days, the ship has been running-in and training in the offshore, ready to sail directly to the island as an escort warship after the departure of these merchant ships carrying cargo. And now the batch of cargo that Lawrence and the others are looking at is the last batch of cargo. If there are no accidents, they will set off tomorrow.