Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 730 The Establishment of Industrialized Nations
Over the next few days, Blood Harbor gradually became busier.

Isabella conscripted a large army, but unlike the previous armies, this time the conscripted soldiers not only needed to fight, but also had some cultural requirements.

Isabella's requirements were not high; being able to read and understand the tactics manual was enough.

In other places, this would be nothing short of a fantasy; sending literate people to the battlefield is an incomprehensible and enormous waste.

But in Blood Harbor, it's alright.

Castells spared no effort in promoting general education in Blood Harbor, sending all school-aged children to school free of charge.

Although the adults no longer provide free meals, anyone who wants to learn can definitely go.

Initially, Castells used schools as one of the relief measures, so that the disaster victims could have food and learn something, and a large number of refugees poured in.

In the most difficult times, they even set up a makeshift school in the open air.

But Castells's incredibly strong infrastructure capabilities quickly caught up, and schools were built before people even realized what was happening.

Zoe was a little worried that they might have built too many at once, since this batch of people should be the largest, and there would be space after they graduated.

But Hughes told the construction team to build as fast as they could, and only stopped when they were sure the school was fully adequate.

As it turned out, this decision was correct.

Blood Harbor's development speed far exceeded everyone's expectations. The scale effect of industry is like a snowball, getting faster and faster, and larger and larger.

Blood Harbor soon began to siphon off the population of the surrounding area. Refugees who had nowhere to go due to the war poured in, and Blood Harbor's solution was still to replace relief with schools.

The secret order even runs relief canteens in schools. Their holy water is not sacred, but people will pray devoutly in the canteens.

After these actions, Blood Harbor's literacy rate was brought to an extremely alarming level.

Not everyone is good at learning and can become a factory worker. For many older people or those with poor learning abilities, literacy is the limit.

This job in Blood Harbor is only enough to make a living.

Now, however, Grand Duke Tiss has given them a new path—to join the army and earn military merits.

Isabella may not be particularly kind, but she is certainly not stingy; the price she offers is extremely attractive, even if it's a price for risking one's life.

Moreover, as long as you join the army, you can go to school for study with a salary, and if you want to pursue further education, all expenses will be waived.

Many people don't like studying, but if they get paid for studying, they wouldn't be so averse to it.

Not only Tiss, but Castel is also recruiting soldiers.

Although Castells was theoretically only responsible for support, Hughes did not fantasize that he could completely ignore what was happening on the battlefield.

To put it another way, if Isabella conscripts soldiers while Castells only focuses on production, isn't that just like the neighbor hoarding guns while I hoard food?
Moreover, the young men of the Christian Guard wouldn't agree either. The young soldiers yearned for glory; to expect a group of people they idolized to love peace was far too idealistic.

Therefore, Hughes was also organizing an expeditionary force, but he wasn't in a hurry and was proceeding step by step.

This expeditionary force differs from the one heading to the North; it is not entirely composed of land forces, but also includes a significant portion of the navy and air force, with the main battlefield on land being Isabella.

Incidentally, to distinguish it from the expeditions to the North, this campaign against the Rhine was officially named the "Great Expedition".

Castells' military factory has now reached full capacity, and many of the idle production lines have finally been put to use. The steel mill, which was almost shut down before, has also started operating at full capacity.

Most of Castells' factories now rely on imported raw materials. While the islands still possess considerable mineral deposits, most have been sealed off for future considerations. Castells no longer lacks a supply of raw materials. The Northern Territory is vast, its area almost comparable to the Papacy-controlled empire.

Although its overall strength is inferior, its resources are extremely abundant.

Coal mines, iron ore mines, and various industrial resources can all be found here.

Previously, the North was sparsely populated and its resources lacked processing capacity, making it even more difficult to transport them out, thus remaining quite backward.

After Alexei took control of the North, he adopted Hughes's approach of prioritizing transportation development.

The first thing he did was to build roads.

At that time, many small cities in the North were still under the control of the old nobles, and the expeditionary force was short-handed and unable to conquer them all.

Alexei did not launch a forced attack, but instead chose to focus on infrastructure construction, building railways and opening up shipping routes.

At the same time, they also took Hunter and Alvarez and a few others to help handle affairs in the North.

To the surprise of the noble lords who were holding their castles, the battle they had expected did not come; instead, the railway arrived.

The expeditionary force brazenly built roads right in front of them, completely disregarding their opinions.

It wasn't that nobility didn't try to sabotage, but wherever the railway went, armored locomotives followed, and airships provided aerial surveillance.

Once enemy activity was detected, the engineers would put down their work and leisurely walk back to their vehicles to rest, leaving the nobles who had led their soldiers out of the city with no choice but to charge at the armored vehicles.

Ha, if you have something to say, go say it to the machine gun mount on my vehicle!

The nobles quickly abandoned their futile efforts and adopted a spectator mentality.

Go ahead and build the road if you want, do you think you can destroy my territory?

Hey, it really works.

When the expeditionary force first started building the road, the people in the territory were naturally terrified and dared not approach.

But as time went on, some people became bolder and approached to inquire about the news.

They discovered that these people were willing to hire people from Rio to do the work.

This is incredible! Leo can earn real money just by helping those expeditionary force lords dig foundations and carry some sleepers!
Payment made on the same day, no delays!
People were initially skeptical, but everything changed when the first person returned with Leo.

The lords were astonished to discover that their people had all fled to aid the enemy.

This infuriated them, and they immediately brought their knights, ready to teach these strange road-building freaks a lesson.

The result—what result was there? The expeditionary force simply refrained from attacking first, but now, under the pretext of protecting the workers, the soldiers charged forward faster than ever before.

The lords were then frustrated to find that their subjects were dwindling, and they were powerless to do anything about it.

While cities can close their gates, they can't keep them closed forever. It's not like we're at war; people need to eat, and food from outside the city needs to be brought in.

That would have been fine, but the real turning point came when a worker was injured on the construction site.

(End of this chapter)