Struggle in the Steam Age

"Hey, long time no see!" After the two boats full of ratmen docked on the temporary trestle, Fatina was the first to jump off the boat and hugged Lawrence who was greeted on the trestle. "After I received your telegram, I rushed over with my companions. After all, I rented these two boats from the clansmen on the Xingchenhai side. If you rent one more day, you will have to pay for an extra day."

"It's a big deal. I'll put the money up. After all, you are here to help me. You can't let you suffer. But sailing at night—" Lawrence smiled before he finished speaking. He remembered that the rat man was born with dark vision. Sailing is no different to them than during the day, and may even feel more comfortable.

"It's no problem to sail at night. Among the land races in this sea area, our ratman's night sailing ability is one of the best." Fatina raised her head proudly and said. "By the way, Safiel and the group of people she recruited for you will arrive at noon tomorrow, because they rented your human boat, and it is from the Federation. So I dare not rely on this place at night. Sailing a strange coastline."

"How many people have you come this time?" Looking at the ratmen who kept jumping off the deck, Lawrence seemed a little surprised, because Fatina's email to himself said that her clan had more than 160 people, but now it seems that at least Around 800 people.

"827." Fatina shrugged and said, "Didn't you say before that as long as the Ratmen are willing to come, you will be given the right to residency? So after telling the elders about your promise, the elders will directly send more than half of this year's new students. The Ratman clan threw it over."

"Well, as long as you are willing. After all, this place is not so safe." Lawrence shrugged his shoulders and said, he is not worried that the rat people will turn against customers, because the rat people like the dark and comfortable tunnel environment, and the economy is also based on production. The exchange of various metal products with other civilizations and the cultivation of various fungi mainly have no intersection with the human living environment, but can form a complementary and co-prosperous relationship.

"Don't worry, those goblins will definitely not be our opponents." Fatina spread her hands and said, "The cave is our home field, let alone the priest of the horned rat coming with us this time. In the horned rat Under the light, there is no creature that can fight and win the final victory with us ratmen in the tunnels."

"It would be great if that's the case." Lawrence nodded and said, and then made a request. "We're building a fortified camp, can you come over and help?"

"Of course no problem." Fatina nodded like Lawrence and then squeaked at the rat people behind her. Soon the Ratmen took all kinds of tools from the ship and entered the construction site under the leadership of some captains. With the help of these ratmen who are good at building, the speed of resident construction has been greatly accelerated

So at around 9:00 in the evening, a civil structure fortress that could accommodate most of the people was built around the small hill by the sea, which also represented the perfect completion of Lawrence's plan for the first day of landing.

Within the area surrounded by the city walls of civil structures, everyone quickly set up tents and arranged for everyone's accommodation. Because they were tired after a busy day, everyone went to rest after leaving the sentry on watch.

After a simple breakfast the next morning, Lawrence and his retainers gathered in the only wooden house on the hillside to discuss the next step. That is to eliminate the goblins gathered on this predetermined land.

"We will face more than 30,000 goblins on this land." Nora, who didn't sleep last night but went out to reconnaissance in the dark, floated up from her seat. Speaking of. "After we landed and wiped out a small goblin tribe, the largest goblin tribe alliance in the area has begun to summon their warriors to prepare to push us into the sea."

"After all, from a historical point of view, goblins have a very strong sense of territory. So when they gather enough numbers, they will definitely attack us, try to eliminate us or drive us away. Therefore, I think we should now Get ready for battle, they don't have much time left for us."

"You're right." Lawrence nodded at her and said seriously to the retainers sitting on both sides of the long table. "Now we have to be prepared to face the siege of tens of thousands of goblins. If there are no problems with the previous records, we will face the goblin frenzy in five days at the shortest, and ten days at the longest."

"It shouldn't be a big problem." Knight Joseph said, as the current supreme commander of the armed forces, he is quite confident in his own battle preparations. "Just give me three days, and we will be able to establish a defensive position that can resist at least 30,000 regular goblin tribe armed forces."

"That's good." Lawrence nodded, because according to his previous three inquiries about the reclamation records of the island's very good open space by the sea, the colonists did not encounter the first wave of blocking and defeating the swarm of goblins. How difficult it is, after all, under the attack of modern firepower, the numerical advantage that those goblins are proud of has been severely weakened.

"If we can keep this group of goblins here as much as possible this time, then we will gain a period of valuable development time." Lawrence looked at everyone present and said, "I think everyone should check the information. I know that it is impossible to support 30,000 to 40,000 young and middle-aged goblins who can fight just by relying on this seaside plain that is a little barren for goblins, so these goblins should also include the area near this small seaside plain. The mobile force of all the goblin tribes in this vast primeval jungle."

"But those goblins are best at dispersing and fleeing." Owen's deputy butler, who had served in the army, stood up and said helplessly. "We have too few people. It is not difficult to defeat those goblins with the help of fortifications and terrain injection, but it is a bit difficult to kill them as much as possible before they disperse and flee into the jungle or cave."

As he spoke, Owen's deputy housekeeper took out a notebook, then opened it and pointed to the form he had recorded before and said. "In this land, the first battle between humans and goblins was more than 300 years ago. At that time, more than 80,000 goblins were dispatched, and then they were defeated by humans with simple bastion and gunpowder weapons, but in the end they only fought About 17,000 goblins were killed on the battlefield."

"The second time was 120 years ago. Humans went from the era of mixing hot and cold weapons to the era of flintlock guns. It was also a defensive counterattack. As a result, about 70,000 goblins who came to attack still ran past about 50,000 .”

"The third and last time was 30 years ago. The Duke at that time purchased the most advanced rifled guns and hired a large number of extraordinary people. As a result, 50,000 goblins ran back to more than 10,000. Therefore, for us, The difficulty is not how to defeat the group of goblins who came to attack, but how to eliminate them as much as possible."

"This is indeed a problem." Butler Bayer frowned and said after thinking for a while. "Isn't it okay for cavalry to pursue? I remember that in wars, cavalry usually pursue at the last moment."

"Steward Bayer, most of the time the cavalry is right to pursue." Deputy Owen retorted. "But the biggest problem for us now is that although this land is a plain, it is covered with all kinds of trees. Although the previous three attacks made it no longer a dense tropical rainforest, those nearly 30 years The growing vegetation is enough to stop our cavalry from advancing."

"Rainforest, damn rainforest." Butler Bayer leaned back in his chair and began to tap the table with his right knuckles. "Now it seems that it is too late to clear up much space."

"I have prepared some things here," Lawrence said. "According to the plan, those things will be delivered tomorrow. If it's as I imagined, they should be able to solve part of the problem."