Struggle in the Steam Age

After more than a month of busy work, Lawrence and the others finally completed the reclamation of the abandoned fields that were opened up in the past. In the process, they found that the previous several developments did not focus on developing farms in one place.

Especially in the recent pioneering work, because a large number of transcendents successfully annihilated most of the goblins on this plain, the pioneers at that time simply chose to go around the entire plain. The flowering tactics opened up many farms in one go.

Although these farms were later abandoned because of the increasing threat of the goblins, they even became the location of the goblin camp. But after this war, Lawrence and the others quickly restored those estates.

After all, for people who open up fields in tropical rainforest areas, the most complicated task is to cut down the dense native vegetation on the land, and then spend several times the effort to dig out the roots of the vegetation under the land. And even if there are plants on the land that has been cultivated before, the root system is not deep because it is new, so it is much easier to cultivate.

The most important thing is that a series of water conservancy facilities such as ponds and irrigation canals have been built in these areas. Even the group of people back then used a lot of stones to reinforce them because they had sufficient capital and manpower on their hands. So even if they are not taken care of for such a long time, they are easily cleaned out and restored to their original functions.

So this is why in just one month, Lawrence was able to reclaim 1,500 hectares of land with a labor force of about 3,000, hundreds of large animals, and a very limited number of steam machines. And rice is planted on most of the land.

Of course, this kind of rice planting must be extensive. Fortunately, the area is large enough, and the seeds of these rice have been improved, and the yield is large enough. So the harvest in one season and the supplements from the farms and fisheries just now can provide nearly 10,000 people on this land with a year's rations.

What surprised them even more was that although the food crops previously planted on this land could not survive the loss of human management, some suitable local cash crops have successfully taken root. For example, during the previous exploration process, they discovered several banana trees planted before, which made up for the lack of food.

In addition, there are many good-growing coconut trees on the beaches in the nearby area. According to the data collected by Lawrence, the most important products exported from this island before are ropes made of coconut dry and coconut husk fibers.

After meeting the most important demand for food, many people are free. And these people were quickly organized to build some important facilities.

One of the most important things is to build adequate defense measures, because of the information obtained from previous visits to neighbors. Although this generation does not have any large pirate gangs due to being too barren, there are always small pirate fleets composed of two or three ships or even single ships that occasionally circulate in this area.

So after the busy farming days passed, Lawrence built a small fort on the beach corresponding to the peninsula at the entrance of this natural bay to block the entire bay.

This is a small coastal defense fortress that can accommodate up to 150 people. The six 120mm coastal defense guns and six heavy mortars previously purchased are prepared inside. In addition, there are two hidden tunnels under the fortress. Release mines in wartime.

Due to the fact that many raw materials are difficult to buy for the time being, the materials used in this very modern fortress are indeed very classical. The low and heavy exterior walls are all made of mud, stones and logs. There are also blastholes for six heavy artillery pieces.

There are a large number of sharpened wooden piles on the periphery of the fortress as a defense. In addition, a large trench of five meters wide and three meters deep is dug around the fort against the wall. At the same time, a large number of wooden sticks were set up as obstacles at the bottom of the trench, and some explosives were also placed at the bottom of the trench during wartime.

Naturally, such highly specialized buildings cannot be designed by amateurs like Lawrence. Fortunately, the Knowledge Church has collected a lot of knowledge in this area and received education in this area.

Although it is certainly impossible for these semi-amateurs to design a large and medium-sized fortress with complex design, it is not particularly difficult for them to design such a small fortress and guide the construction. Therefore, the construction process of the entire fortress can be regarded as very smooth.

"Considering that it is difficult for us to purchase industrial products such as steel and concrete, I have chosen a large number of materials that can be found locally as a substitute." Priest Peter, who had been on the scene before, said, "For example, this kind of sandwich If the thick wall of rammed gravel and soil is reinforced with coconut trunks, as long as the thickness reaches a certain level, it will naturally be no worse than those real reinforced concrete walls."

Having said this, the young Priest Peter gave his friend an embarrassed smile, then scratched his head. "Of course, there are differences. For example, the lifespan of this kind of buildings will not exceed ten years in this hot and humid place. At the same time, they can easily be bombarded by layers of heavy artillery. The peeling is much worse than the one-piece cast reinforced concrete building—"

"This is good enough." Lawrence looked at the fortress that had revealed its rudiment with satisfaction. "Anyway, this fortress is only a temporary fortress in the plan. I guess it will take five or six years to be enough. As for the continuous heavy artillery Bombardment, I think our enemies are just pirates. They should not be able to prepare for long-term bombardment like the regular navy."

"You're right." Peter nodded in agreement. "A lot of things are the best for the best. There is no need to blindly pursue the best."

"Yes." Lawrence also nodded. "Especially we still need to build this fortress as quickly as possible, because according to the situation I asked before, there are murlocs in addition to pirates. The most important thing is that pirates only visit certain islands randomly, but Almost every island is facing murlocs."

"You can rest assured about this." Priest Peter said. "Because this area is far from the land and the whole is relatively barren, it basically exists in the form of small tribes~www.ltnovel.com~ I can guarantee that this fortress can block the main force of those guys."

What Peter said is not wrong, because the fish people cannot stay on the shore for too long due to physiological reasons, so they can basically only choose the shortest route to attack from the bay if they want to attack this horns plain. In this way, one must pass through the channel in front of the fortress.

Otherwise, whether it is climbing over the mountains on the steep peninsula, or landing on the beach in a further area and then crossing the jungle to attack the flanks of human settlements, those feet are webbed, good at swimming but not good at land. The walking fish people are very unfriendly.

Although some elite murlocs, especially the transcendents among the murlocs, can complete such difficult moves, it is impossible for these rare transcendents to pose a threat to the settlement alone.

After two acquaintances spoke for a while, suddenly a member of the guard ran over from the city and brought two news to Lawrence.

One of them is that a group of capybaras was sent by a boat from a neighbor I visited before, which happened to be able to be sent to the constructed farm to be raised to solve the current problem of insufficient meat. On the other hand, a strange guest was found at the outpost on the edge of the plain, and he is now sending to the port.