Struggle in the Steam Age

Large mountain range, northern frost basin. The so-called large mountain area is not just a mountain range as the name says, but a series of large areas composed of various complex topography with a huge mountain range running north and south of the New World as its core.

According to the oldest records left by dragons and elves, the Great Mountain Range was an ancient Mediterranean between two continents in the era before human civilization was born.

However, with the outbreak of a war involving a large number of extraordinary forces in prehistoric times, the two continents quickly moved closer, and in the end not only the ancient Mediterranean disappeared, but even the topography changed from a sunken ocean to a large mountain range with an average elevation of more than three kilometers. .

This record later also found a large number of examples on the human side. For example, when Lawrence was in college, he heard that several natural science professors from his school had formed multiple scientific expedition teams to enter the mountainous region for scientific expeditions. And found a large number of fossils of marine life from the mountains.

Because this region was formed after the collision of two continents in the past, the area of ​​the entire region is not small. If you count the areas that are close to these mountainous areas and are affected daily, there are probably more than 1 million and nearly 2 million square kilometers.

And this only counts the surface area of ​​the ground, not the complex roadways below this rugged surface, and the large amount of space that is permanently in the dark, which belongs to the dark region.

According to some adventurers who have been lucky enough to enter this area, they even saw a two to three thousand square kilometers lake and several prosperous surrounding that lake close to a kilometer from the ground. city. The whole land does not look any worse than some places on the ground.

But compared with the huge underground caverns discovered in the Old Continent, the scale of the underground caverns in the New Continent known to civilized races can only be said to be insignificant.

For example, under the Death Mountain, which divides the east and west of the Old World, the largest known lake with the most light inside is more than 300,000 square kilometers, and there is a space several times the area of ​​the lake.

It is not so much a lake as it is an ocean located underground. And under the nourishment of that underground ocean, several real countries were formed near the waters instead of the city-states or tribes known as countries.

However, those underground spaces belonging to the dark regions are not the only kind of giant cave halls with internal terrain similar to the surface. In addition to these large cave halls, there are also many slightly smaller depths of the earth under the large mountains in the Federation. The cave hall.

For example, when the intelligent race first opened up the traffic line through the large mountain range, the dwarves of the seven families headed by the Volcano family completely cleaned up and occupied a cave hall.

Although this cave hall is composed of several small and medium-sized cave halls, they add up to more than 10,000 square kilometers, and it is always facing various attacks from those dark territories.

But the various metal ores that are special there are enough to make them a fortune. Not to mention that many local and unique plants and animals that are popular on the ground can be cultivated here.

Most importantly, after the wisdom race occupied this cave hall. The road that could be used by the large number of wilderness races was cut off.

Because of this, the human nations located on both sides of the Northland Mountains of the New World were able to build the first land passage that spans the east and west coasts of the New World and can pass through all year round.

At the beginning, the passage was just a passage for various animal carts and humans. But with the continuous renovation for hundreds of years, the passage has become more and more smooth and more prosperous.

It finally became the current intercontinental train. And this passage has also brought a lot of benefits to the countries on both sides of the Great Mountain Range.

The goal of this civilized expedition is also the same, because the original passages are mainly located in the central and southern parts of the Northland of the New World. So those northerners who want to cross the great mountain range have to detour a lot. This naturally affected the development of the White Eagle Federation and the northern part of the NSW Republic.

Therefore, after everyone’s discussion, people finally decided to set the goal of this civilized expedition to the north of the great mountain range to establish a new road channel.

Of course, another thing that is undeniable is that the industrial systems gradually established in the north are also eager to obtain a raw material production area closer to itself.

At least Lawrence had heard that the factory owners and farmers in Huguang City had donated a lot of materials and money to the Civilized Expeditionary Army on the way before.

Because as long as this war is won, they will be able to obtain a large amount of raw materials cheaper than they are now from the opened up mountainous regions through water transportation.

What's more important is that the Great Mountain Range is recognized as a barren land by the civilized race, so naturally it also complies with the law of exploitation. In other words, with the exception of the transportation routes that traverse the large mountains and the one-kilometer roadside area that cannot be moved, other areas will be allocated as compensation to those forces that contribute to the expedition.

The White Eagle Federation and the New South Wales Republic are also very happy with this situation, apart from considering that this can gather more forces in the war. It is also very worthwhile for them to cultivate a series of small countries to serve as a buffer zone between the two big countries.

Under such circumstances, many forces, especially those within the White Eagle Federation and the New South Wales Republic, have established their country in this area.

For example, the seven dwarf families headed by the volcano family established a small republic with a total area of ​​20,000 to 30,000 square kilometers in the underground and surface areas with the support of the two major powers after the land occupied by the mountainous area.

Of course, as the landlords, the White Eagle Federation and the New South Wales Republic can naturally obtain the largest area and various comprehensive conditions of land. For example, now the land outside the large mountain range from the Pine Valley all the way to the east can be determined to belong to the White Eagle Federation.

Even so, the current way of distributing the spoils has given the coalition of civilized races extremely high morale, so now the main force is not slow to advance after entering the mountainous area. But in this way, the rapidly elongated supply line naturally affects the logistics supply.

In addition, because the front is now gradually advancing to the depths of the mountains. The underground space has also become complicated. The front-line army has to face all kinds of enemy attacks from all angles that do not know where they come from, so that the casualty rate has risen sharply.

Lawrence’s field hospital in Pine Valley can most feel this change ~ www.ltnovel.com~ because they began to collect casualties on the battlefield after they came here, in order to be able to summarize some important data about the battlefield rescue.

As a result, after summarizing the collected information, they easily discovered that the military's casualty rate increased significantly after going deep into the mountains.

There are many reasons for this, but the most important reason is that the guards of the wilderness race changed their tactics.

Especially after the defense line set up in the hilly area surrounding the Great Mountain Range was breached, they immediately abandoned the original practice of building a solid position and then head-on and head-on. Instead, they chose to shrink all their strength back to the mountains and rely on the local area’s strength. The terrain and underground passages form an extremely resilient line of defense in the mountainous area.

In this case, the army had to slow down the pace of the offensive, and instead began to consolidate its rear. Especially after Nora and the others discovered the secret base and passage built by the Wilderness Race behind their front, the entire front immediately stopped advancing and began to shrink.

Soon, those war zones that the two sides had contacted calmed down because everyone was shrinking. Only the scattered gunfire echoed above the battle line. But in this silence, both sides in the war realized that a storm was about to come.