Struggle in the Steam Age

The reason why Lawrence went to the rescue was, on the one hand, that although they had only been in contact for a few days before, the two sides had formed a good relationship, and they have kept in touch with each other since then. And think that the other party is your friend in the relationship. And if a friend is in trouble, it is an inevitable choice to have the ability to help.

From another utilitarian point of view, the Church of the Passion is the same as the Church of Knowledge and the Church of Agriculture. They all belong to the kind of churches that are rooted in the middle and lower classes to promote the development of the whole society, and at the same time, the main targets are ordinary people. Therefore, no matter whether this rescue is successful or not, it will gain the goodwill and favor of the Church of the Suffering, and this will be of great benefit to the construction of the territory.

Therefore, whether it is out of selfishness or justice, Lawrence will definitely participate in this rescue operation this time. Not to mention that he had planned to go out to explore before, the ship and all the supplies and personnel were ready, and the things on the island had also been arranged. Just make a decision and be on your way within hours.

But before we go, there are some things that need to be settled. The most important thing is to find out where the team disappeared. If it is on an island, the possibility of successful rescue will be greater, and if the ship is wrecked far from the coast, it is likely that the rescue is just a last-ditch effort for peace of mind.

"Even the church couldn't determine the missing location of the team. Because they disappeared suddenly, there was no warning before, and there was no sign at all. The church didn't receive any signal until the stipulated contact time came the next day. Only then did I realize that the situation was wrong." Lei Suo showed a bitter expression on his face. "The map they gave was only based on the location reported in the last contact and the ship they took to roughly circle a sea area."

"Is there a map?" Lawrence asked, Lei Suo immediately took out a rough map from his arms and handed it over, and said at the same time. "This is the map sent by the Church of the Passion to those of us who are willing to organize for rescue at the door of the church. Inside the red circle is the possible missing range of the team guessed based on a series of data."

After taking a look at the map, Lawrence realized that the search would be a huge project. Because the sea area drawn by the red circle on the map covers an area of ​​about 20,000 square kilometers, it will take a lot of time and energy to search all of this land.

But after taking a closer look, she found that the situation may not be that bad, because according to the list of things that the team brought when they set out, they did not carry any magic props or tools for underwater activities. , that is to say, their target this time is on land rather than underwater.

In this way, the scope of the required search is greatly reduced. Just focus on the surroundings of those islands, and the shipping lanes to those islands. After all, judging from their action goals, the probability of them going directly to the open sea is too small, so there is no need to expend too much energy.

Four hours later, Lawrence and Nora packed their bags and boarded the Enterprise. On board with them were Lei Suo who had come here to report the news, a human armed team and another tauren team of the same number. And Safir stood at the pier to see them off, with a somewhat unhappy look on his face.

Think about it, too, Safiel's character itself belongs to the kind of lively and outgoing. I really can't get excited about this kind of work of sitting at the edge of a desk and processing various documents. It's a pity that she is the only one on the island who can sign the series of documents instead of Lawrence, so she still has to do paperwork for a while.

Especially when Lawrence went to the tauren tribe before, she let Safir lead the team for a while. She thought that after Lawrence came back this time, she could take a good rest and go to the plains to lead the team to wipe out the goblins. Unexpectedly, less than a week after returning from the tauren tribe, Lawrence would slip away again.

But this time it should be better than the last time. After listening to Safir's talk after returning last time, Lawrence also realized that there is a problem with the island's management system. So during this week, in addition to those constructions related to black tea production, he also reformed the island's management system.

After the reform, Lawrence established a supervisory department that belonged only to him. At the same time, a large part of the approval authority for trivial matters has been delegated to various farms and institutions. In this way, it is possible to ensure that Lawrence himself can achieve overall command and reduce the workload by more than half, and at the same time improve the work efficiency on the current site.

Of course, the implementation and supervision system of this kind of power is very simple. Let alone comparing with those countries with a long history, there are various problems in comparison with those emerging countries in the New World. However, this is enough for the forces under Lawrence, who now rule only tens of thousands of people.

After all, the more advanced the better, the factory is like this, and so is the governance plan. Eat as much food as you want, and wear as many shoes as you have feet. Just thinking about eating a big fat man in one bite, regardless of the actual situation, forcibly raising any aspect will not achieve any good results, but will only create disasters.

Even so, Safiel needs to work four or five hours a day to sign these documents. Fortunately, Lawrence promised her that he would consider taking her out next time he encountered such a thing, and he finally persuaded her to allow her to voluntarily help him with government affairs for a period of time.

"I'll be back soon after I go out this time." Lawrence, who was standing on the side of the boat, waved his arms and shouted to Safiel, "Don't worry, I will definitely come back early this time. There won't be a lot of people in the middle like last time." Things won't come back for a long time."

The reason why Lawrence dared to make such a guarantee was that he was confident enough, because according to his analysis, the situation in the surrounding sea area and the various resources that the team carried at that time. They only need a week at most to search those key areas. As for other places, Lawrence thinks that even if they survived at first, the chances of Paladin John and the others surviving are not high.

When the pressure of the boiler reached the predetermined level, with the sound of a whistle, the propeller slowly stirred the sea water and pushed the Enterprise out of the port. After sailing out of the harbor, Lawrence returned to the room and took out the map to study with Lei Suo. Hoping to find out where the team is most likely to be if it survives.

"You mean that the ship they took when they set off was an ordinary 120-ton sloop, so they wouldn't have too many routes to choose from. After all, if it is too far away from the island, this small-tonnage ship It would have been extremely risky to sail. Obviously not worth it to that squad."

"But the problem is that there is a team of nearly ten extraordinary people on board. If these extraordinary people make a move, there will be no problem with small-tonnage ships going to those places." Lei Suo scratched his head and said, only to find that Lawrence and Nora They all looked at themselves with strange eyes.

"Why do they use small-tonnage ships? Especially when there are obviously large ships." Nora asked bluntly.

"For concealment—sorry, I was wrong." Just halfway through speaking, Lei Suo realized that this kind of church team's public actions were completely different from their usual single gangs. There was no need to consider concealment issues at all, and there was no need to choose that kind of boat.

That is to say, in the church's vision, the navigation and transportation part of this mission should be very simple, without any trouble, and at the same time, it is very close to the New Netherland Islands where the church is located. That's why a small boat was chosen to carry out the mission.

"It would be great if I knew their final destination." Lawrence tapped his index finger on the table and said, but Leto, who was next to him, shook his head regretfully. "There may be some secret elements in this operation of their church, so they didn't tell me the destination of this operation."