Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 729: Sailing on Land
Nini thought for a while before slowly raising her head.

"Boss, I have one last question—the banshees are bound by a symbiotic contract and cannot be separated by too much distance. How do you plan to solve this problem?"

Ash, who was standing nearby, also looked over upon hearing this.

Hughes was always the type to plan carefully before acting; when he put forward an idea, it was usually after careful consideration.

He couldn't possibly have missed something so simple, which means he already had a solution.

No matter how hard she tried, Nini couldn't figure out how to solve the problem.

Unlike their invasion of the North, the Rhine is a completely landlocked country, and the Banshees cannot swim across the sea to reach it.

Does the lord intend to move all the banshees to the front lines and personally go to the Rhine?

To be honest, this is somewhat unrealistic. Things are different now. When fighting the North, Castells mainly relied on the forces of the island. Bloodharbor was just an enclave and could provide very limited support for the expedition.

Now, the industrial system centered on Bloodharbor, Castells, and the North has been basically completed. Castells is responsible for the research and development of cutting-edge technologies, Bloodharbor is the main production base and transit point for production capacity output, and the North provides population and resources.

In this system, the focus of military expansion is not military power, but rather terrifying production capacity.

Simply put, the value generated by Hughes and the banshees stationed in Castel and Bloodharbor far outweighs that of their campaigns on the front lines.

Due to their telepathic connection and boundless energy, most of the banshees are accomplished in scientific research. A hundred or so banshees can easily drive several industrial zones, equivalent to thousands of people.

However, on the battlefield, the firepower density of one hundred six-armed banshees is only three times that of humans, not to mention that with the sheer amount of worship of the Guardians of the Faith, their firepower would have already exceeded expectations.

Ash and Nini both looked at Hughes, their eyes fixed on him, waiting for his explanation.

Hughes chuckled softly: "There's no sea on the Rhine, so why don't we just build one?"

Nini: "???"

Ash: "???"

Hughes casually picked up a map from the side, spread it out on the table, pointed at Bloodharbor, and then pointed to the Rhine.

What is the straight-line distance between Blood Harbor and the Rhine?

"Hmm, it shouldn't be too far."

The Rhine is the capital of the empire, located slightly to the east, and is not far from the Duchy of Tiss.

The North is actually much farther away, and the banshees used to have to take a long detour by sea to get there, which added a lot of extra distance to their journey.

"But although the Rhine is close by, there is no waterway connecting them!"

Nini lay on the table studying it for a long time, but still shook her head.

The sirens can move quickly in the water because they have a natural ability, but once they are on land, their speed is not much faster than that of a human on two legs.

“Look at these traces. These are all former river channels. There should have been many rivers flowing into the sea, but for some reason they all dried up.” Hughes pointed on the map.

This map is specially made; in addition to basic landmarks, it also marks approximate contour lines, showing that there are indeed several river valleys running along the way.

Nini scratched her head as she listened: "So we're going to dig a canal? Theoretically it's feasible, but frankly, the amount of work is just too enormous." Laying a railway to the North is a long way off, but it's not that difficult. To put it simply, it's just two rails and sleepers. The main work is laying the roadbed.

But going to the Rhine is different. To dig a canal, large machinery must be used. Otherwise, even Emperor Yang of Sui could not have done it by carrying it by hand.

Castells had no problem producing large machinery, but digging such a long canal was a different story.
It might be decades before they reach the Rhineland.

Hughes looked at their bewildered expressions and nodded in satisfaction. As he pulled out a scroll from the side, he said, "You remember when the sea dried up, right?"

"That seems to be because the Pirate King can use the power of the Sea God to some extent?"

"That's right. At that time, seawater flowed into the sea god's kingdom, and we were only able to leave after we completely destroyed it. In other words, the sea god has the power to control the seawater."

Nini and Ash gasped, vaguely guessing what Hughes was planning to do.

But is that really possible?

"Our storm generator was originally created using the ritual of the Church of the Sea God to summon storms, and the Church of the Sea God can summon not only storms but also tsunamis."

"Castel has made some modifications to this, and while it can't currently trigger a tsunami, it can control the surging tides."

"Then, that means invincible!!" Nini jumped up excitedly and crashed into the ceiling.
Although Hughes' office was raised to make it easier for the banshees to come and go, it only provided enough space for them to stand upright.

Nini was so excited that she jumped and crashed through the floorboards, getting her head stuck in the ceiling.

Hughes looked speechlessly at Nini, who was stuck in the wall, sighed, and continued talking without paying her any attention:

"I plan to use a tsunami generator to flood the river with seawater. I have already sent people to survey the area. The elevation difference along the way is not significant. As long as enough seawater flows in, the riverbed will be filled with water again, creating a waterway from Castel to the Rhine!"

"This way, not only can the banshees quickly reach the Rhine, but the ironclad ships can also get there!"

At this point, Hughes also became excited.

"Then we'll use our ship-mounted cannons to bombard the Rhine! Tata's ram might even make it to the ground. Just imagine, we'll use the rams on our ships to break through the Rhine's walls, ha, that would be fantastic!"

Sailing on dry land sounds absurd, but it doesn't seem impossible.

Ash stood there for a long time, then hesitated before speaking, "It sounds like there's no problem, but why are these waterways empty?"

Hughes fell silent upon hearing this; indeed, the matter was rather strange.

These waterways were once rivers, but now they are empty.

It's not that the Rhine never rains, so where does all the rainwater go? How did the river just disappear?

Besides, even if the river dries up, there should still be standing water after it rains.

"Let's give it a try first. The tsunami generator can only be used with the star furnace at present. We can first backflow the river in this section of the Duchy of Tis into the sea. Even if we can't reach the Rhine, it can still provide some shipping capacity."

This time, Castells is not the main attacker. Isabella will organize the army to attack, while Hughes is theoretically mainly responsible for logistics. This is a good opportunity to try to reverse the flow of seawater.

(End of this chapter)