Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 458 Nora's Weakness

"Oh, you misunderstood." Hughes ignored Nora, who was glaring at Monica.

"It's not this half of Nora, it's that half of Nora."

"what?"

Not only was Monica stunned, but everyone in the room was also stunned.

Hughes reluctantly recounted how Nora was still fighting.

"So, even though Nora is dead, it doesn't prevent her from continuing to fight?"

“It might even be stronger,” Monica interjected. “After all, it has one less weakness.”

As she spoke, she glanced at the weak point staring at her on the table.

"Ahem, let's put Nora aside for now. She is indeed a very important fighting force, but she won't affect the overall battle situation." Hughes called to everyone to look at the map together.

"The terrain of the North is mostly plains, which is one of the reasons why we chose to focus on the railway. It is easier to build and maintain."

Although the northern border of the empire is cold, it is not so cold that permafrost has formed. The Secret Order has many refugees who came from the north and have a detailed understanding of the situation along the way.

"While this terrain is advantageous for our gradual advance, it also presents a challenge for the resistance. They are finding it difficult to maneuver against the cavalry—Alexei, you are more familiar with this area, could you explain it to us?"

“Okay.” Alexei picked up the charcoal pencil on the table. “The North is not without mountains and forests, but they are relatively concentrated. For example, the Canary Mountains, although they are very long and covered with forests, are quite far from the surrounding towns. In other words, the resistance might be able to find a stronghold to hide in, but they would be easily surrounded by the Winter Wolves’ cavalry.”

"Could we take over a town?" Josh suddenly asked.

“It’s difficult.” Alexei circled a few spots on the map. “Look, these locations all look good, with convenient transportation. They would be good strongholds if they were on our side. But please remember one thing: this is the North.”

"The North has not experienced war for a long time."

The fact that Count Bazel was able to establish himself with just a cavalry unit speaks volumes. Compared to the empire, which was constantly waging wars in the east and west, the North was relatively peaceful.

“Josh, you have a lot of refugees from the North under your command. They should have seen those towns before. Why don’t you tell me what they’re like?”

Josh paused for a moment, then said after a brief recollection, “I have indeed heard them talk about it a lot. Unlike the White Raven Duchy, the towns in the North have almost no walls, and there aren’t even many soldiers stationed there. The land there is vast and sparsely populated, and the settlements are almost undefended.”

Alexei traced a line on the map with his finger: "This brings us back to the terrain of the North. The Canary Mountains blocked the flames of war from the White Ravens, and the barren land made this place not very prosperous. The Empire had little interest in this area, and the North was able to enjoy long-term peace. However, the overly flat and indefensible terrain made building city walls very inefficient. The lords chose to build castles in some important strongholds for defense, and as for the areas outside the castles, let them be."

"For the resistance, this was a disastrous start: they could hardly find a suitable stronghold, going into the forest would cut them off from the civilized world, and the heavy snow in winter would surely kill them, while going to the town would leave them vulnerable to cavalry raids, and to make matters worse, they had a lot of elderly, women and children, and even if they were to abandon these people, they could not outrun the cavalry on foot. The only truly defensible strongholds were large castles, which the resistance had no ability to conquer."

Everyone took a deep breath, their eyes filled with worry.

Hughes sighed: "That's why I urgently called this meeting because the resistance probably won't last much longer, even with the most optimistic estimate."

He looked at Alexei.

"Two weeks, my lord."

“If everything goes smoothly, they can only hold out for two weeks, and the information we received is from more than ten days ago.” The people in the room fell silent.

“Building the railway used to take at least half a year, and even for a superhuman like the Firemoth who is good at traveling, it would take a week. For ordinary people, it would take twice as long to ride a horse, and even if they took a boat to Riften and then traveled there, it would probably take more than twenty days.”

"All of this is done without any interference, which is actually impossible. The Candlelight Society and the blockade by the three Grand Dukes are all difficult to deal with."

"What do you think?"

The room was quiet for a moment, then Chloe's book pages stood up, and everyone looked over.

"Well, I do have some information. At least Isaac isn't dead yet. He's a fire-chasing moth recognized by the [Chrysalis]. His soul will return to the [Chrysalis] after death, and if a ritual was performed, he might even bring some information. Anyway, I haven't seen him inside the chrysalis."

That's good news, at least Isaac is alright.

However, given his dual-path superhuman status, killing him would be too difficult. Hughes had asked Isaac before, and there were many superhumans in the world who could kill him, but very few who would take the initiative to deal with him. As long as he didn't want to die and focused on escaping, almost nothing could threaten him.

Hughes suddenly had a thought: "Chloe, I'm a little curious, if he were dead, could he still use this diary?"

Of course not.

Come to think of it, this must be some kind of binding equipment for Chloe, Hughes thought to himself.

He couldn't beat me.

Hughes: "."

Tata also raised his hand.

Hughes hesitated for a moment, then nodded at him.

Although she always comes up with some outrageous ideas, Tata does have some skill.

Let's just hope his proposal this time isn't about adding an engine to Castel and driving the island over there.

"My lord, I have developed a new type of ship that perfectly solves all the shortcomings of the previous design. It should be useful."

"A perfect solution?" Hughes looked on with suspicion.

The aircraft carrier that was over a thousand meters long, equipped with rams, catapults, and Gatling guns, had given Hughes a huge shock last time, and he still hasn't recovered.

"Of course! Please believe me, my lord, my ship this time is not bulky at all, but rather quite compact. It also solves your previous request, as the dragon breath cannon can now be brought on board! Furthermore, the previous ships were not reliable enough and were prone to sinking, but my design for this ship completely eliminates that problem!"

Hughes' eyes lit up upon hearing this.

It's small in size, can carry a dragon breath cannon, and is reliable enough?

What dream ship? Is this really something Tata could design?
Honestly, if it could really meet his needs, even if the ship was designed to look like a coffin, Hughes would accept it without hesitation!

(End of this chapter)