Struggle in the Steam Age

"Why don't you say those murlocs negotiated with us? They obviously have so much wealth." Safiel asked a little puzzled when he led the group of wounded to the rear warehouse. Although Safiel found nothing from those murloc warriors, the trophies captured by Lawrence made her realize that the murlocs were not as poor as she imagined.

"Do you think there has been no negotiation in human history?" Lawrence shrugged helplessly, "But ordinary murlocs are stronger than beasts, and other creatures are just moving meat in front of them. As their leader The Transcendents of that class don't want to get what they want through exchange..."

"Why?" Safiel was a little puzzled, "I just talked with those soldiers, and they told me that most of the things that the murlocs robbed were wood, steel, and various daily utensils and grains. Everything they see, you can exchange a lot of pearls here. I really can’t understand the thing of paying dozens of people’s lives for a pot.”

"You don't understand because the structure of murloc society is completely different from ours." Lawrence explained. "As the ruling class, the superhuman murlocs are like gods among murlocs. They don't regard ordinary murlocs as compatriots. In their eyes, these mindless guys are just their tools. It’s still free.”

"Therefore, it is a consensus among the leaders of those murlocs to exchange the extremely cheap lives of these ordinary murlocs for what they want. This is why they refuse to trade with us, because those who control the murlocs In the eyes of the extraordinary murlocs of the tribal power, why pay resources to buy things when they can get things by paying for some free tools."

"And those ordinary murlocs don't have the intelligence to express their needs at all, and can only simply follow those extraordinary murlocs blindly. Born in chaos, raised in chaos, and finally died in chaos, it is naturally impossible to respond to this situation. What's your opinion on the war. That's why we have to fight this group of murlocs year after year."

When it came to the end, Lawrence could only shake his head helplessly. Similar problems are not unique to murlocs. To be precise, this kind of problem is why many races are considered non-negotiable wilderness races.

Because they are the same as the murlocs, only the superhumans have the intelligence of human beings, and the vast majority of ordinary creatures are only slightly stronger than animals in this respect, and they are just slaves or even tools of these superhumans in their muddle.

Not long after Lawrence and the others sent the wounded back to the medical station, a temporary medical barge sailed from the canal behind the dock area to evacuate the wounded. At the same time, a young second lieutenant on board brought a new transfer order .

"The headquarters ordered us to return to the rear now?" After confirming their identities, Lawrence took over the transfer order and looked at it, then looked at the second lieutenant with some puzzlement. "I think we are just beginning to understand the new wartime rescue system. Is it too early to return now?"

"I personally think that the big shots in the headquarters are a little over-stressed." After knowing what happened here, the second lieutenant shrugged helplessly. He felt that the headquarters gave him a hot potato. "After all, after dark today, the group of damned stinky fish began to disperse a large number of small troops to bypass our detection network on the lake and attack various key points. Although very few actually succeeded, the command also hopes that people like you People were able to stay a little bit away from the front lines."

"We can obviously protect ourselves." Safir muttered when he boarded the boat, "We killed half a dozen murloc superhumans just now, if it wasn't for us, the guards here would probably have to run into the warehouse area Calling for reinforcements."

"Miss, what you said is indeed correct." The young second lieutenant smiled and said, "But the problem is that there are too few members of the Federal Academy of Sciences who are as capable as your companion. In their impression , the members of the Federal Academy of Sciences are all a group of very smart, but very ordinary middle-aged and elderly people."

"I can understand their caution." Lawrence, who was on the side, helped two paramedics carry the stretcher onto the ship and said to Safiel and the second lieutenant in front of him, "It's not a bad thing to choose a conservative plan at this time .”

"Ah, it's great that you can understand my job." After hearing Lawrence's words, the second lieutenant seemed to relax a lot. Although the second lieutenant who became a regular army at this age was still assigned to work in the headquarters, which showed that he still had a little background, but he was still in a weak position when facing a young member of the scientific association like Lawrence.

Before coming here, he had been worried that members of the Science Society like Lawrence might be young and energetic, and would not listen to the transfer of the command. In that case it would be a real pain in the ass for him to be caught between Lawrence and the command as the ordering officer. Fortunately, Lawrence was very reasonable, which made his previous hanging heart finally let go.

"Okay, let's go!" After all the seriously injured people who needed to be evacuated were sent to the cabin, the captain and a crew member pulled down the gangway, and then let the ship slowly leave the dock. Because the boiler was not extinguished when it was just moored, the air pressure in the boiler was kept at a relatively high level, so the ship quickly reached the highest speed.

The small steam barge was moving fast on the river channel with light mist. Just when the boat turned from the narrow artificial river channel to the main inland channel in the nearby city, a ball of flame suddenly shot from the distance between them. It popped up on the bank of the river not far away, and at the same time, there were messy gunshots.

"Where is it?" Looking at the flames on the shore ahead, Lawrence nervously asked the captain who was manipulating the ship beside him. "That's where the fire is now over there."

"If I'm not mistaken, it should be the Pearl District data center." The captain also looked a little nervous. "The most important difference engines in the city are there, responsible for calculating some very important data in the city. Damn, the fire there is so big now, there will be no problem, right? Just in case my tax records are burned It would be bad if I had to submit it all over again in the future.”

"The situation is not that bad." After seeing the flames, the second lieutenant was startled first, then took out his binoculars and looked in that direction. Soon he could probably see the specific situation of the fire point ahead through the thin fog. At the same time, he made a simple analysis using his own military knowledge.

"The place on fire is just the street trees outside the data center wall. It must be the group of murloc commandos who couldn't take down the key defenses and set fire to create chaos outside." Speaking of this, the officer turned his head and looked at the captain and said, "Here The flames will soon attract the nearby troops, and the murlocs will definitely run away before then. So I think we'd better find a place to hide nearby to avoid encountering the murloc commandos on the water."

"You're right." The captain came to his senses as soon as the officer reminded him. He first extinguished the whale oil lamp used for navigation above the wheelhouse, and then drove the boat to a place by the river where the air was filled with a faint stench. in the small harbor. "This is a small pier where the barges transporting garbage temporarily dock, and the surrounding area is where garbage is dumped. I believe those murlocs will not come here."

It has to be said that the location chosen by the captain as a local resident is indeed sufficiently hidden. Hiding on the boat, Lawrence and the others could even hear gunshots not far away and the crackling footsteps of the murlocs' webbed feet as they ran across the stone floor, but none of the murlocs came close.

Taking advantage of this time, Lawrence went to the cabin to check the wounded. Through the inspection, he found a very fortunate thing, that is, these wounded were basically injured with fractures or severe blood loss. After emergency treatment The injury has been completely stabilized, so they can wait here for a while.

"What's going on now?" After dealing with the wounded, Lawrence asked Safir who was standing on the top of the cab to investigate the surrounding situation.

"I haven't found anything for the time being." Safiel said, but as soon as she finished speaking, there was a unique sound of murloc flippers running across the stone floor on the road in the distance.