Chapter 507: Repairing the Road as We Go

"At the beginning, I said that you were playing with fire. If you are not careful, you will burn yourself to ashes. What do you think? Do you believe it now? But it's too late. Dalauma has been offered to Lady Strategy by her. It has become a holy place for Lady Strategy. Once we send out large-scale troops, the followers of the Crimson Knights may join the ranks of our enemies. There are also many followers of Lady Strategy in our army, especially those middle and low-level commanders."

"I think this method is feasible. Since there is no way to curb the rise of Dalauma, we should provide her with convenience and let her grow further. By then, the dukes in the west will definitely be more anxious than us. After all, we still have the east as a buffer. , and their space will be compressed and smaller, and the conflict will intensify. We can just sit back and watch the show. "

"What Elder Fitch said makes a lot of sense. Expansion is much easier to destroy a person than suppression, especially for such a person without foundation. A failure may lead to her total collapse. Even if she is now a voter of Ms. Strategy, she cannot win every battle. This is something that the Goddess of Strategy cannot do. "

"I agree."

"I agree too."

"I object."

The elders of Saradas expressed their opinions in a flurry and fell into a new round of quarrels. This situation has become an inevitable situation for such meetings because they all have their own little calculations.

Conrad watched coldly and soon found that the few who held opposing opinions all had industries in the North Is Plain.

The majority of those who agreed had no connection with that place, and there was a trace of gloating that could not be concealed in their expressions, as if they were mocking the elders who had industries there.

When they made these decisions, were they based on the interests of the family? Or were they based on their own interests? I'm afraid they themselves couldn't be sure.

Francis was neither sad nor happy from beginning to end. Her eyes fell on Conrad, and there was not much father-son affection. It was like looking at a dead object or a tool. She slowly asked, "What do you think?"

Frances still had the power of a patriarch. As soon as he opened his mouth, the entire city council hall suddenly became quiet, and everyone's eyes fell on Conrad.

Conrad said with a terrified expression: "There are so many elders here, where is the room for me to express my opinion? I am willing to implement all the decisions of the family."

"Oh?" Francis's expression finally fluctuated a little, and there seemed to be other meanings in the depths of her eyes, "Even if you are asked to represent the family to sign an alliance with the Lord of Zalanda, you are willing?"

As Uncle Matthew guessed.

Although he had been mentally prepared for a long time and had his own plan.

When this proposal was put forward, especially by his biological father Francis himself, Conrad still had a sadness in his heart that he could not hide. This kind of family has no family affection at all.

Conrad forced himself to calm down, bowed and said: "As long as it is beneficial to the family, I am willing to represent the family to sign the covenant."

"Yes, why didn't I think of it earlier? We can send people to act according to the situation."

"The Duke is the Duke, and he grasped the key point in a blink of an eye."

"We..."

The elders present were all old foxes, and they thought of the wonderfulness of this proposal in a blink of an eye.

Francis waved her hand heavily, interrupting their praise, "I am tired, I believe you should be tired after fighting for so long, just follow the other party's proposal, I will personally sign a covenant with the other party, Conrad, although you have made contributions in this matter, it cannot offset your mistake of arbitrarily mobilizing the First Heavy Cavalry Corps. From today, your First Heavy Cavalry Corps will exchange guards with the Second Heavy Cavalry Corps and garrison Snow Rock Castle to prevent the monster group in the Snow Flake Mountains from sneaking into Omlalan."

After listening to Francis's order, Conrad was full of disbelief.

However, this disbelief was not the dissatisfaction with being exiled to the border as the family elders mistakenly thought.

Rather, the whole thing not only did not treat him as a discarded pawn, but even perfectly matched his plan to dominate the border and seize the supreme ruling power of Saradas in a roundabout way.

Guarding Snow Rock Castle is an absolute hard job for others. After all, it is located in the gap between the Omlalan Mountains and the Snowflake Mountains, and is often attacked by monster groups in the two mountains. Saradas only controls the largest gem mine and the strongest monster force in the Omlalan Mountains, and has not yet completely put it under his control.

The large area and complex terrain of the Snow Mountain Range are the main reasons that cannot be ignored. Another reason is that the mages with ulterior motives and the rulers of large cities along the Steam Lake are secretly doing bad things in the dark. Among them, the Minta City at the mouth of the Minta River is the most intense. They are also afraid that this military city of Tesser, which holds a large number of troops, will one day turn its troops against them.

But for Conrad, who had a new plan, this was an absolutely good job.

The emperor was far away, away from Saradas, away from the elders who only gave orders behind the scenes, he could do things according to his own will.

Could it be that Frances had changed her personality? Did she look at him differently?

Conrad looked up, and was still met with a pair of cold eyes without any emotional warmth. The little warmth that had just risen in his heart was instantly extinguished.

It was not that Frances looked at him differently, but that he had turned some unfavorable situations into advantages because of his change of ideas.

Even the fact that he personally signed a contract with the Lord of Zalanda, it was probably his calculation, but he just didn't think of the root cause.

After thinking it through, Conrad's face showed a perfect expression, with gratitude and a little grief, "Yes, sir."

Although Saradas has the Council of Elders, they only have the right to make suggestions, not the right to veto. Most of the power is still in the hands of Francis, the Duke. Once he makes the final decision, the whole thing is set in stone and cannot be changed unless he changes his mind.

Since Francis came in person, the matter became solemn and grand, full of ritual.

After all, the other party is the old Duke of Tesser, that is, the largest member of the noble warlords who are often scolded now.

When he left the city, there were nearly a hundred vehicles in the accompanying convoy alone.

The place where the covenant was signed was the place where Zalanda and Conrad had met before, which was the default dividing line between the two territories.

Gavin didn't know the specific process, because he had returned to the camp of the migrating army to make the final preparations.

Because they all knew that the Saradas family was stalling for time. If they wanted to sign the covenant, they had to wait until the migrating army really set out on the migration road and successfully left the territory of Tethyr and no longer posed a threat to the Saradas family.

Before that, they were discussing the details of the covenant, such as the clear dividing line between the two sides, the maximum number of garrison soldiers on the border, and whether there was a possibility of cooperation between the two sides in the future.

Another important purpose was to hold Zalanda hostage to prevent the migrating army led by Gavin from launching an invasion of Saradas City in the name of migration. The Is River was their bottom line, and the migrating army could only operate on the north bank of the Is River.

When the covenant between Dalaoma and Saradas was signed was not decided by the people here, but by the migrating army dozens of miles away. Countless eyes were watching the migrating army in the air and on the ground. Their every move affected the hearts of countless people.

August 28, 568 in the Tesser calendar, that is, August 28, 1359 in the Valley calendar.

This day is destined to leave a strong mark in the history of Dalaoma and Tesser.

At dawn, the sound of horns resounded throughout the suburbs of the east gate of Dalaoma. A flying warhorse knight flew over the huge camp and loudly conveyed the order, "Pack your luggage, prepare to set up camp, proceed in an orderly manner according to the predetermined order. The lord has ordered that the marching target today is 20 kilometers."

The first to drive out of the huge camp was not a van.

They were three tree men. Their bodies were outstanding even among tree men. They were all over 18 meters, close to the limit of giant bodies. Not only were they amazing in height, but also in thickness, especially in the lower body. They were like broken thorns. They were not human-like bodies, but animal bodies with four limbs on the ground. They looked like giant elephants. Their bodies were thick and round. Their four legs were like huge wooden stakes, each of which was at least as thick as two people hugging.

These three tree men were called giant elephant tree men. They were all enlightened by Gavin in Misnoel. They were born on the same hilltop. Under this hilltop, there was a giant elephant tomb from ancient times. Thousands of mammoths were buried under it. They absorbed the spirits of mammoths and had their current bodies.

The three giant elephant tree men were incorporated into the vanguard army of the sidecar as pioneers. However, they did not pull a sidecar, but a huge iron pillar.

This iron pillar is two meters in diameter and six meters in length. Together with the traction device outside, the weight of this thing reaches a terrifying 150 tons.

The power of the two giant elephant tree people is combined to drag this thing through the wilderness, so that the speed is not affected.

This is an alien version of a super-giant road roller.

The function is self-evident, of course, to open the road.

Hundreds of building-type chariots loaded with food and supplies are a considerable load even for the dirt road of the business road, not to mention the soft soil in the wilderness. Even with the assistance of tree people and enlightenment trees to drag, the speed will be very touching.

Simply passing through is not in line with Gavin's usual style of doing things, especially when such a huge amount of preparation has been made.

He not only wants to leave a name and a voice, but also a road, leaving a migration road from Tesser to the valley.

Once this thing is done, it will not be a one-time deal, but a continuous one. There will be more Tesser people who will set foot on the road to the valley along this migration road.

Even residents of Calimshan, Amn, and the Steam Lake may follow this road to the valley. Like Tethyr, they are all populous countries. Especially Calimshan still practices slavery, and slave uprisings and escaped slaves are frequent. As long as Gavin makes a name for himself, he will have a fatal attraction to them.

The weight of the giant elephant tree people is terrifying, and the combined weight is heavier than this iron road roller.

By stepping on and pressing, the soil where they pass is completely compacted, and even the flatness is improved to a certain extent. Before arriving at Retaven in Amn, there are plains all along the way. As long as the problem of relatively soft soil and easy to get stuck is solved, the road will not be difficult to walk on.

"March in step!" accompanied by an order.

The sound of two heavy footsteps turned into one sound, dust was flying, and the earth seemed to be trembling slightly. The huge special steel wire ropes were all stretched up, creaking and groaning, and the surprisingly heavy iron pillars of the road rolled and rumbled. Long started to move forward. The moving speed was not too fast, and it was definitely not slow. It was initially set at four kilometers per hour, which is the walking speed of a normal person.

Everything is still in a trial operation state and must be adjusted according to the actual situation. Now we seek stability rather than speed. Once the operation is normal, we will slowly increase the speed. This is not only the case for the giant elephant tree people, but also for the migrating army behind. .

This is the first stage of the migratory army - running-in. The main purpose of this stage is to make the entire migratory army operate smoothly and to allow the civilians to adapt to this state of continuous travel.

The giant tree man holding the iron pillar of the road was of course not walking randomly in the wilderness, but had a clear path, an eight-meter-wide black passage that exuded a faint smell of decay, stretching endlessly into the distance. , they just need to follow this mark.

This marked passage is naturally the result of Half-Moon Horse Luna.

This matter was not implemented after the plan was finalized with the Blood Claw Legion, but was already started after Luna obtained the Corruption Furnace and realized her advantage in opening roads.

There are still doubts about other sections of the road, but not the migration section in Tethyr. They have only one way to go, and that is to open a new road on the north bank of the Is River that leads directly to the city of Retawen in the Kingdom of Amn.

There is no directly connected trade road between the two cities, so Darauma has two ways to go to Ritavon.

One is the waterway, which goes upstream along the Is River. It is relatively smooth, but the road is a bit long, winding around a big bend, nearly 600 kilometers.

The other land route is to go to Saradas via the Zasa Road, and then transfer to the Sari Road. The former is 350 kilometers long, and the latter is 280 kilometers long. The total distance is even on land and water. above.

Another key issue is that most of these two roads are in the territory of Saradas.

Just the gathering of the migrating army made them all extremely nervous. How could they be allowed to use the road?

This is also the main reason why Darauma was stuck by the warlords and nobles. They originally relied too much on the Zasa Road and the Is River water transport. They were in the hinterland of Tessel. As soon as the road was stuck at both ends, they were immediately surrounded. .

Originally, Zalanda pinned its hope of breaking the situation on Gavin's Mys Noel, hoping to use it to divert the enemy and bypass Saradas' blockade.

But as the migration progressed, they discovered that where could it be faster and more convenient to take the opportunity to open a direct trade route to Shwetawen on the north bank of the Is River?

The straight-line distance between the two sides is 380 kilometers, and the road initially opened by Ban Yueju totals 410 kilometers, which is basically a straight line.

Following closely behind the Giant Elephant Tree Man was the vanguard army of vans.

It's just that these cavalrymen are not holding swords and shields, but working tools such as pickaxes, heads, shovels, and baskets. The captains and commanders who have just taken office are giving their final instructions.

“Our main tasks are to fill holes and level rocks.”

"When filling the hole, use local materials, mainly gravel, supplemented by soil, one layer of stone and one layer of soil, not flush, but higher than the surrounding road, in the shape of a bag of earth."

"The task of flattening rocks is given to casters who can use Soft Stone Technique. Those are soil and stones that have been casted with Soft Stone Technique. They are the best paving materials. I dug them all out and used them as repair and filler for other potholes. , give priority to the potholes that appear after the road roller passes, and also dig up the soil bags, and let the giant elephant tree man step on them. "

"A hole was found here and needs to be filled."

"One was also found here."

"A large area has collapsed here, and a lot of earth and rocks are needed. Quick, quick, quick, our sidecar convoy will be out soon."

Not only did these knights and mercenaries have no resistance to the newly arranged work, but they were also very interested because this road construction model completely subverted their cognition.

They split in two, with two-thirds in front, looking for obvious ravines along the way, filling them all in, and raising them slightly above the surrounding ground, waiting for the giant tree man rollers to come over and compact them flat.

One third is at the back, responsible for filling in the holes made by the giant tree man's steamroller, most of which are rodent burrows.

The operation method is exactly the same as before. The final compaction work is left to the extra giant elephant tree man, who uses his huge weight of more than fifty tons to forcefully compact it back and forth.

As always, ordinary means and magical means are used together, the former is the main method and the latter is the supplement.

Four kilometers per hour, if it is just used for traveling, it is really not amazing. An old man can even walk faster than this, but if you add road construction, it is no longer amazing, it is simply amazing, and this is just the beginning. Speed, not top speed.

This dirt road that was formed at one time was much stronger than expected, because there was a behemoth of more than fifty tons following behind it. After walking through it, there was no sign of deformation at all. Ordinary business roads may not be able to bear his load. After all, the power of a 150-ton press is definitely not something that can be blown out.

When the road construction team had gone nearly a kilometer, the vanguard vans slowly drove out, pulled by two strong horses. The strange thing was that these vans were not equipped with horsemen, but they moved forward in an orderly manner along the newly built road.