Struggle in the Steam Age

For economic development, adapting measures to local conditions is a very important thing. To give the simplest example, if you want to raise fish, you'd better go to the water's edge.

Of course, it is not impossible to dig pits on the mountain to raise fish if there are gangsters, but in that case, it will be twice the result and half the result from various perspectives.

Now it is a foolish approach to want to develop industries in the Viscount Surrey's territory. Considering the local population, it is basically not suitable for any industry development. At most, it is the limit to be able to do some simple handicrafts.

Moreover, unlike Lawrence's natural environment, the islands in this cold zone are actually worse in terms of development potential.

Although the original tropical rainforest island area is often called the green hell, it is much more difficult to develop than these islands located in the northern polar circle.

But once developed, the carrying capacity of people is far better than these cold islands that can't even grow large trees.

"If it's convenient, I'd like to visit your territory." After listening to the introduction, Lawrence said after thinking about it.

"You know, some things can only be judged correctly by going to the scene. Just listening to what you say here may make some unexpected mistakes."

After finishing speaking, Lawrence looked at the Viscount and his wife seriously and was ready to explain. After all, this sentence is prone to ambiguity, so he was a little worried that they might misunderstand the reason for saying this sentence.

"I understand what you mean." Obviously, these two are not those nobles who have always been aloof. But also has a wealth of social experience. So understand what Lawrence wants to express.

"If you just listen to my narration here, it is indeed difficult to formulate a suitable plan."

"Yes, on-site investigation is indispensable." Isabella also said on the other side.

"Let's not say that my husband is not a professional, and this kind of description may not be very accurate. Even if there is a comprehensive investigation report, it is necessary to go to the corresponding scene to take a serious look."

After finishing speaking, Isabella turned her head to look at Lawrence, who looked a little embarrassed and said. "But as a person with your own territory, I think you should be very busy, and you probably don't have much time—"

"Usually I'm quite busy, but these days are an exception." Lawrence waved his hand and said. "Some things are going on on my island recently, so I can't go back for the time being. Therefore, I have time to visit you, but I don't know if you welcome—"

"Of course, of course you are welcome." The Viscount Surrey opened his arms deliberately and said with a smile, then turned into a solemn expression and looked at Lawrence.

"It's just that it's much more boring over there than here, and maybe the only fun is going out to sea to fish. If you want to hunt, there are basically only a very small number of mice that can be used as shooting targets."

"But in my opinion, there is no worse than here, and it is even more interesting." Lawrence shrugged and said, his words were not polite, but from the bottom of his heart .

The reason why Lawrence chose Sword Bay as his travel destination is also very simple, because the introductions of the few travel brochures he saw once stated that this place is a good place for young couples or couples with a certain status to travel.

But after arriving here, Lawrence discovered that the various entertainment methods in this world and this era are completely different from his previous life.

For example, the city of Sword Bay is like this. The city is full of dance halls and banquet halls of various grades, as well as some interesting salons. It is indeed a good place to socialize and relax for people of this era.

However, neither Lawrence nor Safir is interested in such occasions. In their view, all such communication is very boring except for the necessary communication.

So when they were on New Sauer Island, they basically didn't take the initiative to do any communication work except for the communication that some nobles needed.

This also led to their lack of interest after learning about the specific situation in this area. Although there are some hunting activities here, for Lawrence and Safir, riding a horse and driving a hound to chase a rabbit is really not in the dense forest. Fun to kill those damn goblins.

So in this case, Lawrence and the others are naturally willing to go to the remote northern archipelago to have a look. At least compared to the boring urban scenery here, Lawrence thinks the harsh but more wild northern archipelago is obviously more interesting.

However, going to that place is not an easy task, especially when the Viscountess Isabella is still pregnant with a child, it is not an easy task to go to the north.

At the beginning, Lawrence also suggested that Isabella and her husband should rest here. But the Viscount Surrey naturally declined Lawrence's suggestion.

After all, Lawrence, as a guest, was willing to travel thousands of miles to the north to help them. It is naturally inappropriate for the lords of islands like them to stay here in the Bay of Swords.

Of course, there is another reason why the Viscount Surrey and his wife want to go back, and that is that they still have lingering fears after being ambushed in this place before. I hope that I can quickly return to my own safe territory so that I can relax.

This is the reason why Isabella is still willing to leave even if she is a pregnant woman, because compared with various material conditions, the sense of security in his heart is obviously more important to him.

So after enjoying a lunch, they said goodbye to each other and agreed to decide when to leave in the afternoon and find a way to inform each other.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Lawrence and the others received an invitation letter from Viscount Surrey.

It may be because he wants to find a future development direction for his island as quickly as possible, so he decided to take the earliest fast boat Beifeng to his territory tomorrow afternoon.

"Your Excellency the Viscount seems to be a little too excited." After receiving the invitation letter and the two first-class tickets for the Beifeng ship delivered in the invitation letter, Safiel raised his eyebrows and said.

"At least I think that under normal circumstances, it would be better for him to wait a day or two for this kind of invitation."

"If you want to stay here for two days, I can accompany you." After hearing Safir's words, Lawrence said with a smile and shook the envelope in his hand.

"After all, it is the viscount who has something to ask us, not us to ask him. So as long as we have something to say, I think we should be able to delay the time for a few days."

"No, no, no, he's Isabella's husband, and it's not appropriate for us to delay like this." Hearing what Lawrence said, Safiel waved his hand and said.

"And this place is really boring. I don't want to stay in this city for too long. So it should be a good thing if I can leave one day earlier."

Early the next morning, Lawrence and the Viscount Surrey's family rode to the pier in a carriage. Then climbed onto a steam sailboat painted with snow-white paint and inlaid with golden metal decorative belts.

As one of the top ocean-going sailing ships of the Federal Shipping Company, this steam sailing ship called the North Wind has a displacement of 3,700 tons. The internal skeleton structure is made of magic-strengthened steel. Wood has been changed to steel.

"This is the first batch of civilian ships in the Federation to adopt a steel frame and steel mast structure." After putting away his luggage, Viscount Surrey said to Lawrence who walked on the deck.

"This boat can run to 15 knots, but if it weren't for the reason for the embedded armor, then this boat might be able to run to 17 knots."

"Iron armor?" Lawrence asked curiously. "Why would a civilian ship have such a thing?"