On the third day of autumn, the Margrie Chamber of Commerce arrived at the border town dock as scheduled.

This time, the carpentry resumed its previous size, and ten sailing ships lined up in line and docked steadily at the side of the trestle.

"Our Highness the Prince, we meet again," said Gamore, a merchant of the String Moon Bay, "and listen to what Ms. Marguerite said, 'The first steamboat has been renovated?'

“Indeed,” Roland laughed, “but in order to guarantee the quality of the commodity, it will need to be tested for three or four days in order to test the reliability of the power system.”

"It's really exciting," Marlan clapping, "it's almost as many days as the fleet needs to unload, and we can wait here."“Your Highness, can I board the steamboat to visit during the test voyage?”

"Of course, it is a brand new ship, and it is very different from the previous sailing ship, and I have to tell you how to operate it.But as planned, these are tomorrow's content."Roland made a gesture with me, "Now the most important thing is to relax your tired body, you have not eaten lunch yet?"I have prepared a rich feast in the castle's living room."

"Every time I come to you, there will be a good meal," said Marguerite, smiling; "I am indeed very hungry and screaming--the wheat cakes and the bruises are as hard as the stones, and it is hard to swallow."

In this era, there is no reliable preservation technology, so most of the dry food is really dry and hard, which makes Roland can think of canned.After the development of light industry, making a variety of delicious and convenient canned food is definitely the best choice for long-distance travel and sailing merchants.

...

When the feast was over, Hogg patted her belly with satisfaction, "This bowl of mushroom soup is about to let me swallow my tongue, as if I have tasted the taste of Haizhen, stewed chicken and pig bones at the same time, and your court cook is really skilled."

“I prefer the dessert after dinner, which is ice cream... right?”Marguerite said, "I guess it should be made of milk and honey, and then frozen into ice crystals with nitrite."

“I’ll have to add some butter and egg whites, or I won’t be able to make it so soft,” Roland added, “I don’t know what the volume of nitrites this time will be?”

“There’s still only one boat,” the businesswoman shook her head, “the Alchemist Association is still aggressively buying nitros, and the prime minister has even sent a patrol to help them scrape the cargo of the nitrate field.”A group of men who had the name of a wise man bought it and robbers, and the nitrites of the ship were brought from the Red Water City."

“So most of the goods shipped this month are washing stones?”

"Yes," Hogg drank the white wine in the glass, and filled himself, "although the number may be a little too much, but the last time you said it yourself, try to get as much as possible, but I remember it in my heart."In addition to the washing stone, there are also good iron ingots and lead ingots.“There are very few towns that need these things lately, except for you,” he sighed. “The mining business is getting worse and worse.”

This is the impact of the civil war, Roland thought, the purchasing power is gradually declining, if it lasts for two or three years, basically the pace of rising food prices and hunger everywhere.

“What happened to the West recently?”Marguerite suddenly asked.

“What happened?”

“On the way to town, the fleet met a whole bunch of... well,” she paused for a moment, as if to consider the wording, “a whole bunch of floating corpses.”They were dressed in tattered clothes, just floating on both sides of the river.In addition to the bodies, there are broken wooden boards and ropes on the water, as if a ship had sunk.But there are no rocks in the river, so I think...”

“Well, it was Tifeko’s army in the West,” Roland said in a treachery, telling the battle a week earlier, “they’ve got the punishment they deserve.”

In order to avoid clogging the channel and the spread of the disease, after cleaning the battlefield, he transferred Anna and Lily from the town, a ship responsible for burning the damaged, and a responsible for purifying the river water.The body that Marguerite saw should be the dead who had drifted far along the river before the end of the battle.

“So it is,” the businesswoman smiled.“It seems that there will be a wall on both sides of the tifeco.”

“Both sides?”

“And the port of Bishia – the latest news I have received is that the unknown looters who attacked the eastern cities before are under the hands of Garcia.After looting the seawinds and the city of Jinshou, the Black Sail fleet did not return to the harbour, but along the coastline all the way north, and no one knows where she had finally gone.”

“Go north,” Roland was surprised, “she’s out of the Greys?”

“It seems that the men of Tifeko have been empty in the port of Bishui, which is now an empty city.”Marguerite stated, “Because there were many rats in the people he brought with him, it was no secret in Black Street.In any case, he is now only one of you in his thorns, and the march on the West may become more and more frequent in the future."

“If you also want to leave Fort Grey, the Bay of Strings is always welcome,” Marlan said.

"Yes," Gamore patted his chest, "there's a small island in place enough for ten border towns, and we're willing to give it to you and your people for free."

But to hand over the technology of the steam engine and the Ming Steamship, right?Roland turned a white eye in his heart, even if the gray castle can not stay, the first choice to run should be Tily Wimbledon right.But on the surface he just smiled, "Yes, if there's such a day, I'll think about it."

"Yes," he then looked at Marguerite, "I have succeeded in building two of the last reconnaissance balloons you ordered."

“So fast?”The latter was pleasantly surprised, “Can you take me to see it?”

"Of course, come with me."Roland stood up and said.

...

In the backyard of the castle’s expanded backyard, a hydrogen ball that has been completely inflated is placed.

Its airbag is water droplet, the upper width and narrow, the top diameter of five meters, completely according to the size of the test, can carry an adult man into the air.Airbags and ropes are coated with sky camouflage, and with the camouflage of observers, you can minimize the recognition.

“Doesn’t it look like the balloon we were in last time?”Marguerite looked carefully at the new products.

"Because it can be used without a witch," Roland cleared his throat and began to tell the crowd how to use the reconnaissance balloon, "the end of the airbag has an active valve, which can be filled and released - it is precisely because this alchemy gas is filled with it that it can fly."The method of inflating is very simple, as long as the matching hose is connected to the gas storage tank, and then unscrew the valve on both ends.After saying that, he demonstrated the operation process of deflating and inflating in public.

“How many cylinders do you need to fill a reconnaissance balloon?”Marguerite quickly caught the point.

“Five or six bottles...” The question embarrassed Roland slightly, “not more than seven bottles at most.”The main reason is that the concentration of dilute sulfuric acid used in the bottle to produce hydrogen is difficult to control, and the distillation of sulfuric acid is purified to 98% and then diluted with water and is too wasteful of valuable labor in the laboratory, so it will be put down.

“This alchemy gas is expensive, isn’t it?”

“Indeed it is.It is difficult to preserve and fraught with danger ... I mean, inadvertent operation," Roland coughed twice, "so the gas canisters can only be stored for one year and must not be knocked on, disassembled or incinerated, otherwise there may be unpredictable and serious consequences."He paused, “although the price is somewhat expensive, but rest assured that when the first purchase of the balloon, the first batch of gas storage tanks is provided free of charge by the border town, and an additional sky camouflage reconnaissance suit can be obtained.”

(Unfinished).