Release that Witch

Roland sat at his desk and was wondering how to attack the Wangdu Palace. The floor-to-ceiling window behind him suddenly heard the knocking sound of the touch.

Looking back, I saw lightning flashing on the window, panic in the face, and McMug was on top of her head, slamming the window.

When the nightingale just opened the window, the little girl flew into Roland's arms.

"What's wrong," he groaned. "What happened?"

"Black stone 咕! Huge snowy mountain 咕!" Mai Hao fell on the table, flapping his wings and reporting.

"what?"

"No," said the lightning bolt. "It’s the devil, I saw the devil!"

"What?" Roland looked serious. He touched the other's head and stabilized her emotions. "Don't panic, you slowly said."

After a while, the lightning rose from the prince's arms. The golden short hair looked messy, and there were two light red marks around the eyelids. It was obviously pulled out by the windshield during high-speed flight. "I intend to put When the border of the fascinating forest was drawn, it went west along the Chishui River, and then found a mountain..."

After listening to her detailed explanations of what she saw and heard, Roland couldn't help but widen his eyes. The red mist on which the devil lives is behind the snow-capped mountains, and only two hundred kilometers away from the west.

He looked at the night, and the latter nodded. "I am going to call other sisters too."

An emergency meeting was held at the castle office.

After Roland retelled the situation of lightning discovery to the people, the witches who had experienced the night of the killings showed their uneasy feelings, especially the leaves. As a witch who killed two devils by hand, they couldn’t help but hold their mouths. Whispered low.

"His Highness, I suggest further exploration of the land covered by red fog," the book first said. "After all, lightning only looks at a very long distance, and it is not certain that the devil will be under the red fog. This is confirmed, and it is necessary to detect whether they will cross the mountains facing the sea and reach the mainland of the kingdom along the coastline."

"I agree with the book's point of view," Wendy nodded. "Although they are very powerful, it is better to have prepared defense than to get rid of it."

As the two oldest witches in the co-sponsorship, the scrolls and Wendy have always been the backbone of many sisters. Although others are still a little scared, no one wants to sit still.

Roland also tends to respond to this strategy. Seeing that everyone has not expressed any objection, things are basically settled. The key is how to implement it.

"Use a hot air balloon to investigate," Anna suggested. "Let the distant view cover the sky camouflage, cover the clouds and fly over the sea."

“You can also bring Sylvie,” said the Nightingale. “It’s a good fit for her ability to cope with this situation.”

“Well,” Roland nodded. “And... I have to go.”

"His Royal Highness!" His words were exported, and Wendy, the book and the nightingales both stopped the road. "You can't take this risk yourself!"

"It's not an adventure," Roland waved. "If they have the ability to leap into the sea or the mountains, they should have spread all over the four kingdoms. The reason why they still gather in the far west is that the devil is not as terrible as imagined. ”

There is another reason why he did not say it. He is more experienced than anyone in judging the development of a heterogeneous civilization. If you can see the devil and their cities with your own eyes, there will be great development of future development directions and strategies. help.

"But..." Wendy hesitated.

"Reassured, just look at it from a distance," the prince smiled. "If you are in danger of being in the distance, I will not promise to let you go."

"That's okay, but you must bring me," seeing the dissuasion is invalid, the nightingale is the first to change the way.

Looking at the serious eyes cast by the other side, Roland knew that she could not refuse her. After thinking about it, he announced: "There are people other than me, Anna, Wendy, Soroya, Sylvie. , nightingale, lightning and wheat."

"After a week's departure, in addition to the necessary food preparation, I will give each of you a revolver. Practice it in a week, so that even non-combat witches have the ability to fight back against any enemy. ”

The speed of the hot air balloon is far less than that of lightning. The distance of more than two hundred kilometers is likely to fly all day, so you still need to camp in the wild for one night to complete the investigation. Considering this, dry food, tents and weapons are essential. .

"Yes, Your Highness," the witches answered in unison.

After the people left, Roland had the time to look at the black ore brought back by the lightning.

"You said that this stone is everywhere on the edge of the forest?"

"Well," now the lightning has returned to calm, sitting on the red wooden table and shaking his feet, the cheeks are still a little red and not faded, "and the more you get closer to the foot of the mountain, the black stone covered ground is about Bianbu Town is a dozen times bigger."

Roland put it in his hand and snorted, and his heart jumped.

In terms of weight, it is much lighter than ordinary stone, and it is unlikely to be metal ore. The appearance is hard and light, can reflect the metallic luster, and is exposed to the surface... Is this a coal mine?

Thinking of this, he quickly called Anna back.

Under the burning of the black fire, the stone quickly became red and bright, and it looked like the iron ore in the smelting furnace, but it did not dissolve. Even if the black fire is recovered, the orange light it emits is not weakened, and the blue-blue flame that rises slightly can be seen on the surface.

Roland confirmed his guess that this is indeed a good quality anthracite.

“The original coal mine was like this,” said the lightning bolt. “I thought they were as fragile and fragile as wood carbon, and there was a lot of powder. If you touch it, you will get your hands dirty.”

“It’s a crushed, water-mixed briquettes and coal cakes,” Roland laughs. “Most coal mines are like stones when they are mined. Of course, the better the quality of the raw coal, the harder it is. In the end, it’s like these stones. Similarly, the surface can even reflect gloss."

This unexpected discovery made him happy.

Coal is not a rarity in the gray fort, and there are coal mines in both the Longling and Yinguangcheng, mostly used for kiln and heating. But in fact, its use is extremely extensive. Before the popularity of internal combustion engines, it was the burning coal that propped up the steam-powered half of the sky. After coking coal, it can replace charcoal iron and steelmaking. It is much more environmentally friendly than cutting trees in Datun. Even after entering the electrical era, coal can refine coal gas, hydrogen and asphalt, and can also be used to generate electricity, which is considered to be inexpensive. Excellent fuel.

Holding an open-pit mine in your hand is obviously much better than relying on imports. The only question is, how do you develop it?

Roland moved his gaze to the newly drawn map of lightning.

It seems that building more inland steam and cement ships is imperative. (To be continued. Your support is my biggest motivation.)