Roland was sitting at his desk, thinking about how to air raid the Imperial Palace, when he suddenly heard a knocking sound coming from the French window behind him.
Looking back, he saw Lightning leaning against the window, her face full of panic, while Maggie was squatting on top of her head, quickly pecking at the window.
Looking back, he saw Lightning leaning against the window, her face full of panic, while Maggie was squatting on top of her head, quickly pecking at the window.
As soon as Nightingale opened the window, the little girl flew into Roland's arms.
"What's wrong?" Roland was startled, "What happened?"
"Black stones coo, a huge snowy mountain coo!" Maggie landed on the table, flapping her wings and reporting.
"Ah!"
"None of them," Lightning said in a muffled voice, "It's the Devil, I saw the Devil."
"What?" Roland's expression became serious, he touched her head to calm her down, "Don't panic, tell me slowly."
After a while, Lightning raised her head from the Prince's arms, her short golden hair looked messy, and there were two circles of light red marks around her eyes, it was obvious that she had been squeezed by the windproof goggles during the high-speed flight. "I intended to draw the border of the Concealing Forest, so I followed the Redwater River to the west, and then I found a mountain."
After listening to her detailed description of what she had seen and heard, Roland couldn't help but stare. The Red Mist that the Devils relied on to survive was behind the snowy mountain, and it was only two hundred kilometers away from the Western Region.
He looked at Nightingale, who nodded, "I'll call the other sisters."
An emergency meeting was immediately held in the castle office.
After Roland repeated Lightning's discovery to the others, the group of witches who had experienced the night of killing all showed uneasy expressions, especially Leaf, as a witch who had personally killed two Devils, couldn't help but cover her mouth and let out a low cry.
"Your Highness, I suggest further exploration of the area covered by the Red Mist," Scroll was the first to speak, "After all, Lightning only looked at it from a very long distance, she can't be sure that the Devils are definitely entrenched under the Red Mist. In addition, even if we can confirm this, we still have to investigate whether they will cross the mountains near the sea and follow the coastline to the mainland of the kingdom. "
"I agree with Scroll's point of view." Vendy nodded. "Although they are very powerful, a well-prepared defense is always better than being captured without a fight."
As the two oldest witches in the Witch Cooperation Association, Scroll and Vendy had always been the backbone of many sisters' hearts. Although the others were still somewhat afraid, no one wanted to sit still and wait for death.
Roland was also inclined to this response. Seeing that no one had any objections, the matter was basically settled. The key was how to implement it.
"Let's use the hot air balloon to scout," Anna suggested. "Cover the Cloud Gazer with sky camouflage and use the clouds as cover to fly over the sea."
"We can also bring Sylvie along," Nightingale said. "Her ability is perfect for this kind of situation."
"Yes," Roland nodded. "In addition, I also want to go."
"Your Highness …" As soon as the words left his mouth, Vendy, Scroll and Nightingale all stopped him at the same time. "You can't take this risk yourself."
"It's not a risk," Roland waved his hand. "If they had the ability to fly over the sea or mountains, they would have already spread all over the Four Kingdoms. The reason why they are still gathered in the Far West is because the Devils aren't as terrible as imagined. "
There was also another reason he didn't say. When it came to judging the development of a different civilization, he was more experienced than anyone else. If he could see the Devils and their city with his own eyes, it would be of great help in developing a strategy for future development.
"But …" Vendy showed hesitation.
"Don't worry, it's just a look from a distance," the Prince smiled. "If it was dangerous to stay and scout from a distance, I wouldn't have agreed to let you go."
"That's fine, but you have to take me with you," seeing that her dissuasion was useless, Nightingale was the first to change her mind.
Looking at the serious look in the other's eyes, Roland knew that he couldn't refuse her. After thinking for a while, he announced: "Then, in addition to me, the members of this trip will be Anna, Vendy, Soroya, Sylvie, Nightingale, Lightning and Maggie."
"The departure time will be a week later. In addition to the necessary food preparation, I will give each of you a revolver. Practice it well for a week, so that even if you are a non-combat witch, you will still have the ability to fight back against any enemy. "
The flying speed of the hot air balloon was far inferior to that of Lightning, so it would probably take them a whole day to cover a distance of more than two hundred kilometers. Therefore, they still needed to camp in the wilderness for one night in order to complete their reconnaissance. Taking this into account, dry food, tents and weapons were all necessities.
"Yes, Your Highness," the witches answered in unison.
After everyone had left, Roland finally had the time to check the black ore that Lightning had brought back.
"You said that this kind of stone is everywhere at the edge of the forest?"
"Yes," Lightning had now regained her calm. She was sitting at the mahogany table, swinging her feet, her cheeks still somewhat flushed, "Moreover, the closer we get to the foot of the mountain, the more they appear. If you look down from the air, the black stone covering the ground is about ten times larger than Border Town."
Roland weighed it in his hand, his heart jumping slightly.
In terms of weight, it was much lighter than ordinary stones, so it was unlikely to be a metal ore. The surface was hard and light, it could reflect a metallic luster, and it was exposed to the surface, could it be that this was a coal mine?
Thinking of this, he hurriedly called Anna back.
Under the burning of the black fire, the stone quickly became bright red, it looked like iron ore in a smelting furnace, but it didn't dissolve. Even after withdrawing the black fire, the orange light it emitted didn't weaken in the slightest, and on the surface he could still see a slightly rising blue flame.
Roland confirmed his guess, this was indeed a piece of high-quality anthracite.
"So this is what a coal mine looks like," Lightning said in surprise, "I thought they were as fragile and fragile as charcoal, and there was a lot of powder, so touching them would dirty your hands."
"That's coal briquettes and coal cakes that have been crushed and mixed with water," Roland said with a smile, "Most coal mines are like stones when they are mined, of course, the higher the quality of the raw coal, the harder it is. In the end, just like these stones, the surface can even reflect a luster."
This unexpected discovery made him extremely happy.
Coal was not rare in Graycastle, Fallen Dragon Ridge and Silver City both produced coal, mostly used for kilns and heating. But in fact, it had a wide range of uses. Before the popularization of internal combustion engines, it was burning coal that propped up half of the sky of steam power. After coking coal could replace charcoal for smelting iron and steel, it was much more environmentally friendly than wantonly cutting down trees. Even after entering the electrical age, coal could still be refined into gas, hydrogen and asphalt, and could also be used to generate electricity, so it could be regarded as an excellent and inexpensive fuel.
It was obviously much better to hold an open-pit coal mine in his hands than to rely on imports. The only problem was, how to develop it?
Roland shifted his gaze to Lightning's newly drawn map.
It seemed that it was imperative to build more inland river steam-cement boats. To be continued. Your support is my greatest motivation.
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