Struggle in the Steam Age

Great Sierra Region, North Frost Basin. The so-called Great Mountain Range area is not just a mountain range as the name suggests, but a collective name for a series of large areas composed of various complex terrains centered on a huge mountain range that runs through the north and south of the New World.

According to the oldest records left by the dragons and elves, the Great Mountain Range area was an ancient Mediterranean between two continents in the era before human civilization was born.

However, following the outbreak of a certain prehistoric war involving a large number of extraordinary forces, the two continents quickly moved closer together. In the end, not only did the ancient Mediterranean disappear, but even the terrain changed from a sunken ocean to a large mountain range with an average elevation of more than 3,000 meters. .

The human side also found a lot of examples of this record later on. For example, when Lawrence was in college, he heard that several natural history professors from his school had formed several scientific expedition teams to conduct scientific expeditions in the mountains. And found a large number of fossils of marine life from the mountains.

Also because this area was formed after the collision of two continents in the past, the area of ​​the entire area is not small. If you count the areas that are very close to these mountainous areas and are affected daily, there are about 1 million or nearly 2 million square kilometers.

And this only counts the surface area, not counting the complex laneways that lie below this rugged surface and the large number of permanently dark spaces that belong to the Underdark.

According to some lucky adventurers who have entered this area, they even saw a lake of 20,000 to 30,000 square kilometers and several bustling temples surrounding the lake at a distance of one thousand meters from the ground. City. The whole land looks no worse than some places on the ground.

However, compared with the giant underground caverns discovered in the Old World, the scale of the underground caverns in the New World known to civilized races can only be said to be insignificant.

For example, in the largest known cave below the Death Mountain that divides the east and west in the Old World, the largest lake in the interior of the cave has more than 30 nearly 400,000 square kilometers, and there are still spaces around it that are several times the size of the lake.

It is not so much a lake as it is a subterranean ocean. And under the nourishment of that underground ocean, several real countries were even formed near the waters instead of city-states or tribes called countries.

However, those underground spaces that belong to the dark region are not limited to this kind of giant cave halls whose internal terrain is similar to the surface. In addition to this large cave halls, there are also many slightly smaller deep places in the land under the large mountains in the Federation. cave hall.

For example, when the intelligent race first opened up the traffic line across the mountains, the dwarves of the seven families headed by the volcano family cleaned up and occupied a cave hall.

Although this cave hall is composed of several small and medium-sized cave halls, the total area is only more than 10,000 square kilometers, and it is always facing various attacks from the races in the Underdark.

But the various metal ores that are produced there alone are enough to make them a lot of money. Not to mention that many endemic flora and fauna that are popular on the surface can also be cultivated here.

Most importantly, after the intelligent race occupied this cave. The road that can pass through by a large number of wilderness races was cut off.

It is also because of this that the human countries located on both sides of the Northland Mountains in the New World were able to build the first land passage across the east and west coasts of the New World, which can be used all year round.

At the beginning, that passage was only a passage for various animal-drawn vehicles and human beings to pass through. But with hundreds of years of continuous renovations, the passage has become more and more smooth and prosperous.

Eventually it became what is now a transcontinental train. And this passage has also brought a lot of benefits to the countries on both sides of the great mountain range.

The goal of this civilization expedition is also the same, because the original passages are mainly located in the central and southern parts of the Northland of the New World. So if those northerners want to cross the big mountains, they have to go around a lot of roads. This naturally affected the development of the White Eagle Federation and the northern part of the New State Republic.

Therefore, after everyone's discussion, people finally decided to set the goal of this civilization expedition on the north of the big mountain range to establish a new road passage.

Of course, another undeniable point is that the industrial systems gradually established in the north are also eager to obtain a raw material production area closer to themselves.

At least Lawrence heard that the factory owners and farmers in Huguang City donated a lot of supplies and money to the Civilization Expeditionary Army on the way here.

Because as long as this war is won, they will be able to obtain a large amount of cheaper raw materials from the opened up mountain range area through water transportation.

What's more important is that the Great Mountains area is recognized as a barren land by the civilized race alliance, so naturally it also abides by the pioneering laws. That is to say, except for the transport route across the mountain range and the one kilometer area beside the road that cannot be moved, the other areas will be distributed as rewards to those forces that contribute to the expedition.

The White Eagle Federation and the New State Republic are also happy to see this situation, except for considering that doing so can gather more strength in the war. It is also very cost-effective for them to foster a series of small countries in these places to act as a buffer zone between the two big countries.

Under such circumstances, many forces, especially those within the White Eagle Federation and the New State Republic, have encircled and established a state in this area.

For example, the seven dwarf families headed by the volcano family established a small republic with a combined underground and surface area of ​​20,000 to 30,000 square kilometers after occupying the territory in the mountainous area with the support of the two great powers.

Of course, as landlords, the White Eagle Federation and the New State Republic can naturally obtain the land with the largest area and better comprehensive conditions. For example, the land on the outskirts of the large mountain range from Pine Valley all the way to the east and directly out of the mountain range can basically be determined to belong to the White Eagle Federation.

Even so, the current way of distributing the spoils has given the coalition forces of civilized races an extremely high morale, so the speed of the main force's advance after entering the mountain is naturally not slow. But in this way, the rapidly elongated supply line will naturally affect the logistics supply.

In addition, because the front is now gradually advancing to the depths of the mountains. The underground space has also become more complicated. The troops on the front line have to face attacks from all angles by enemies coming out of nowhere, so that the casualty rate has skyrocketed.

Lawrence felt this change the most at the field hospital in Pine Valley, because after they came here, they began to collect casualty records on the battlefield in order to be able to summarize some important data about battlefield rescue.

As a result, after summarizing the collected information, they easily discovered that the military's casualty rate increased significantly after going deep into the mountains.

There are many reasons for this, but the most important reason is that the guardians of the wilderness race changed their tactics.

Especially after the defense line set up in the hilly area outside the big mountain range was breached, they immediately gave up their original practice of building a solid position and then head-to-head. Terrain and underground passages form an extremely resilient line of defense in the mountains.

Under such circumstances, the army had to slow down its offensive pace and instead began to consolidate its rear. Especially after Nora and the others discovered the secret bases and passages built by the wilderness race behind their lines, the entire front immediately stopped advancing and began to shrink.

Soon, the war zones where the two sides came into contact calmed down because everyone was shrinking. Only scattered gunfire echoed over the battle line. But in this silence, both warring parties realized that a storm was coming.