Three days later, Roland received a positive reply from the eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family.
"I'm willing to continue to serve you, and so will the Honeysuckle Family." He bowed and said, "I'll convince my father that he's... different from the other families."
"Is that so?" Roland suddenly felt happy. "That's for the best."
"These days, I've witnessed the astonishing changes in your territory... Perhaps, this is the city I've been hoping for," Pérot said bluntly. "If Honeysuckle can become as prosperous as this, my father won't mind merging the family with the new city."
This sentence touched the prince a little. He had originally called him over for two reasons. One was that it would be more sincere to explain such an important matter face-to-face, and the other was to observe his attitude towards the transfer order. He did not expect it to have such an effect. He nodded. "Of course, as long as there's time, every piece of land in Graycastle can become a comfortable place for the people."
"Then I'll return to Stronghold as soon as possible and tell my father this news."
"And the other four families and all the nobles in the Western Region," Roland added. "As long as the families are willing to accept this condition, the new city will accept them regardless of the past. You can hold a banquet in Stronghold Castle and spread my words. "
"You mean, you want me to inform them?" Pérot was startled.
"That's right," the prince said with a smile. "This time... you'll be my ambassador."
"Yes, Your Highness." The eldest son of the Honeysuckle Family bowed with his hand on his chest.
Just as he was about to leave, Roland stopped him. "By the way, you've done a good job with the witches. Now there's no need to be secretive anymore. Now that universal education has been achieved, those who still have expectations for the church and refuse to come to their senses can all be removed from the Western Region. As for what to do, you decide. "
"Yes."
After Pérot Hull excused himself, Roland stretched himself and continued to look through the statistics of the various projects in City Hall.
Due to the heavy snow, the construction of the Kingdom Avenue had been halted, and the construction of the residential buildings had also slowed down. Basically, only some interior decoration work was carried out. Fortunately, Lotus had built a large number of caves before she left, which basically met the needs of the subsequent refugees. Even if the number of refugees continued to increase, they only needed to put more people into each cave — this was the advantage of using the heated kang.
According to the Ministry of Construction, at least 60% of the workers were currently idle, which made some temporary recruitment posts posted by City Hall popular, such as clearing the snow on the streets, transporting ore in the Furnace District, and so on. In other cities, it was already incredible that there were so many people working enthusiastically during the Months of Demons. Winter was the hardest for civilians. Most people stayed at home and relied on the food saved in the fall. However, in Roland's eyes, he was unwilling to see so many idle laborers. He thought that perhaps he should do something to make use of all of them.
After all, Margaret's Chamber of Commerce had towed away the last batch of steam engines for the year. The City Hall had plenty of money and food, so he had plenty of plans to implement.
Thinking of this, Roland asked his guards to summon the Minister of Construction, Carr Van Bate.
After explaining his idea, Carr could not help but widen his eyes. "You want stonemasons and masons to build a ship for you?"
He nodded and said seriously, "That's right. The location will be near the dock. We'll build a temporary factory out of wood and light a brazier indoors to ensure the temperature. After it's built, we can push it directly into the water."
"But Your Highness, how could they know how to make such a thing?"
"Of course, just like the construction of the Witch Building." Roland took out a piece of paper and drew a diagram. "Set up the formwork, lay the steel bars, pour the concrete … I'll guide you on how to build the first ship, and you'll be responsible for supervising the rest of the ships. This way, we can make use of all the workers."
Carr looked at the sketch in confusion. "This is … a basin?"
He couldn't help but smile. "That's right, a huge cement basin."
Since Carr did not participate in the construction of Littletown, it was not surprising that he had such an idea. In fact, during the long development of the ship, it had undergone several changes in form, and there were not many inheritances between the beginning and the end. Asking Roland to design a classical wooden ship with a keel, he naturally did not know anything about it. However, building a cement ship was essentially no different from molding a clay model, as long as it could float. The same was true for steel ships. Due to the advancement of welding technology, the majority of modern ships had abandoned the practice of laying keels. Instead, they were pieced together from steel boxes. The whole bottom was loaded, so there was no need to master the manufacturing method of the wooden ship in advance.
Regarding the new batch of cement ships, he had already considered it for a long time. Whether it was to mine the coal resources near the snowy mountains or to transport refugees, he needed a batch of inland river ships with a higher load to carry out the task. Therefore, a low-draft flat-bottom design was still the most suitable choice. Compared to the conservative design of Littletown, the new ship could be longer, ensuring the load and stability while increasing its speed. At the same time, in order to reduce the construction difficulty, Roland finally decided to use a paddle wheel propulsion system. This had already been tested on the wooden ship, so it would be easier for the craftsmen to get used to it.
"Your Highness, how many people do you plan to invest in building these... cement ships?" Carr asked, somewhat awkwardly.
"Gather all the idle workers. Just like building a residential building, we can start building several ships at once."
In this way, even if the newly assembled steam engine couldn't be sold, it would still have a place to be used. The furnace area could also continue to burn cement without stopping, which could be said to be killing many birds with one stone. In the coming year, if he could have a large-scale cement fleet, no matter where the First Army attacked, it would be equivalent to having a reliable logistical support.
After explaining this matter, Roland planned to go to the castle's back garden to have a look.
The olive trees and grapevines planted by Leaf provided shelter from the wind and snow. If there was no work on hand, the witches would generally practice their abilities in the garden, and the newcomer Paper should be no exception.
According to Vendy's report, her ability was neither temperature control nor material reduction. Apart from water, it had very little effect on other objects, which made Roland quite curious. Now that three days had passed, the little girl should not be as timid as she was when she first arrived, so it would be better to go and see for himself.
As soon as he entered the garden, Roland noticed something strange.
Within his line of sight, there was lush greenery, as if it was completely isolated from the snow-white world outside. The olive trees were evergreen, and there were vines intertwining between the branches, so it was not strange that the snowflakes could not drift in, but these plants were too full of vitality. Moreover, unlike the silent forest, there was no cold wind blowing, but the grass and trees were gently swaying, orderly and rhythmically.
He originally thought it was an illusion, but as he went deeper, he saw the branches of the olive trees droop, as if they were bowing to him, and the grass at his feet fell to one side, as if to welcome his arrival.
This feeling made Roland's hair stand on end, and goosebumps appeared on his back. He felt that he was not walking in a garden, but passing through the body of a giant creature.
The whole garden seemed to be breathing.
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