Chapter 290 Investigation Plan

Roland was sitting at his desk, thinking about how to air raid the Royal Palace, when there was a knocking sound from the French windows behind him.

Looking back, I saw Lightning laying on the window with a panicked expression, while Maggie squatted 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 the matter?" He was taken aback, "What happened?"

"Black stone coo! Huge snow mountain coo!" Maggie landed on the table and reported by flapping her wings.

"ah?"

"None," Lightning muffled, "It's the devil, I saw the devil!"

"What?" Roland's expression became serious. He patted the other person's head to calm her down. "Don't panic, just speak slowly."

After a while, Lightning raised his head from the prince's arms. His short golden hair was messy, and there were two circles of light red marks around his eyes, which were obviously strangled by the goggles during the high-speed flight. After drawing the boundary line of the Misty Forest, we headed west along the Chishui River, and found a big mountain..."

After listening to her recounting what she had seen and heard in detail, Roland couldn't help but widen his eyes. The red mist that devils live on is behind the snow-capped mountains, and it's only more than two hundred kilometers away from the western border?

He glanced at Nightingale, who nodded, "I'll call the other sisters over."

An emergency meeting was called immediately at the castle office.

After Roland recounted the situation discovered by Lightning to everyone, the group of witches who had experienced the killing night all showed uneasy expressions, especially Ye Zi, as the witch who personally killed two devils, couldn't help covering her mouth. He let out a low breath.

"Your Highness, I suggest further investigation of the land covered by the red mist," Scroll first said, "After all, the lightning just glanced at it from a very long distance, so it cannot be sure that the devil must be entrenched under the red mist. In addition, even if After confirming this, we also need to investigate whether they will cross the mountains near the sea and reach the mainland of the kingdom along the coastline."

"I agree with Scroll's point of view," Wendy nodded, "Although they are very powerful, it is better to have a prepared defense than to catch them without a fight."

As the two oldest witches of the Mutual Aid Society, Scroll and Wendy have always been the backbone of many sisters. Although the others are still a little scared, no one wants to just sit and wait for death.

Roland is also inclined to this countermeasure. Seeing that no one expressed any objection, the matter is basically settled in this way. The key is how to implement it.

"Use a hot air balloon to scout," Anna suggested, "cover the Remote Watch with sky camouflage, use the clouds as a cover, and fly over the sea."

"You can also take Sylvie with you," Nightingale said, "Her abilities are perfect for this situation."

"Well," Roland nodded, "Also...I'm going too."

"Your Highness!" As soon as he said that, Wendy, Shujuan and Nightingale stopped him at the same time, "You can't take this risk yourself!"

"It's not an adventure." Roland waved his hand. "If they had the ability to leap over the sea or mountains, they would have spread all over the four kingdoms long ago. The reason why they still gather in the Far West just shows that the devil is not as terrible as imagined. "

There is another reason he didn't say. He has more experience than anyone else in judging the development degree of a different civilization - if he can see the devil and their city with his own eyes, it will be very helpful for formulating the development direction and countermeasures in the future. big help.

"But..." Wendy hesitated.

"Don't worry, just take a look at it from a distance," the prince smiled. "If it's dangerous to stay in the distance to investigate, I will never agree to let you go."

"Okay then, but you have to take me with you," Nightingale was the first to change her words when the dissuasion was ineffective.

Looking at the serious look cast by the other party, Roland knew that it was impossible for him to refuse her, and after thinking about it, he announced: "Then other than me, the people on this trip are Anna, Wendy, Soraya, and Sylvie. , Nightingale, Lightning and Maisie."

"The departure time is one week later. In addition to the necessary food preparations, I will equip each of you with a revolver. Practice it for a week, so that even non-combat witches have the ability to fight back against any enemy. "

The flying speed of a hot air balloon is far inferior to that of lightning. It may take a whole day to fly a distance of more than 200 kilometers, so everyone needs to camp in the wild for one night to complete the investigation. Considering this, dry food, tents and weapons are all necessary .

"Yes, Your Highness," the witches replied in unison.

After everyone left, Roland had time to check the black ore brought back by Lightning.

"You say this kind of stone is everywhere on the edge of the forest?"

"Well," now that Lightning has returned to calm, sitting at the mahogany table shaking his feet, his cheeks are still a little flushed, "and the closer you get to the foot of the mountain, the more the ground will be covered by black stones. Border Town is more than ten times bigger."

Roland weighed it in his hand, his heart skipped a beat.

In terms of weight, it is much lighter than ordinary stones, and it is unlikely to be metal ore. The appearance is hard and light, it can reflect the metallic luster, and it is exposed on the surface... Could this be a coal mine?

Thinking of this, he hurriedly called Anna back.

Under the burning of the black fire, the stone quickly became bright red, looking very much like the iron ore in the smelting furnace, but it did not dissolve because of this. Even if the black fire was retracted, the orange light it emitted did not weaken at all, and the slightly rising blue flame could be seen on the surface.

Roland confirmed his guess, this is indeed a piece of high-quality anthracite.

"It turns out that coal mines look like this," Lightning said in surprise. "I thought they were all as fragile and brittle as charcoal, and there was a lot of powder. If you touch them a little, your palms will be dirty."

"It's briquettes and briquettes that have been crushed and processed with water," Roland said with a smile. "Most coal mines are like stones when they are mined. Of course, the better the raw coal, the harder it is, and in the end it looks like these stones." Likewise, the surface can even reflect gloss."

This unexpected discovery made him extremely happy.

Coal is not a rare commodity in Graycastle. There are coal mines in Falling Dragon Ridge and Silver Light City, most of which are used for kiln firing and heating. But in fact, it has a wide range of uses. Before the popularization of internal combustion engines, it was the burning coal that supported half the sky of steam power. Coking coal can replace charcoal to smelt iron and steel, which is much more environmentally friendly than cutting down trees. Even after entering the electrical age, coal can also be used to refine gas, hydrogen and asphalt, and can also be used to generate electricity. It is high quality and low price Excellent fuel.

Holding an open pit coal mine in your hands is obviously much better than relying on imports. The only question is, how to develop it?

Roland turned his attention to the newly drawn map of Lightning.

It seems imperative to build more inland steam cement ships.