Struggle in the Steam Age

After staying on the ship for a full 12 days, the Shaw Island fleet with the Enterprise as its flagship finally docked at the wharf in Huguang City.

When they were off the coast of Eagle Fort before, the reinforcements sent by Vieques Island parted ways with Lawrence's fleet and entered Eagle Fort, and then organized with other reinforcements to go to the battlefield after a short training.

As for which battlefield they will be sent to, it depends on their luck. After all, after several civilizational expeditions, some kind of loose alliance has been formed among the wilderness races living in the mountains.

After discovering this, the civilized race also changed its tactics to launch an attack on the wilderness races in the entire mountain range area to distract those enemies.

In this case, insufficiently trained temporary troops such as the Vieques Island Army will be sent to other false attack locations as supplementary troops to the regular army, or they will be sent to the rear of the main attack location as guards or logistics for certain depots. Transport team escort on the transport line.

The medical team under Lawrence's command is obviously different from the miscellaneous soldiers sent by Vieques Island. It belongs to the kind of talents most needed on the front line. Therefore, they can give me enough priority to go west along the now saturated canal system, and rush to Huguang City at the fastest speed.

"According to the plan, we can rest here for at least three days." Lawrence said to the members of the medical team who ran to the deck after the ship docked on the wooden trestle.

"In the past few days we will be concentrated in a temporary camp in the dock area, but this does not mean that we can only stay in the camp."

This camp area is actually a temporary camp built not far away from the empty space used to store goods in the area. There are a large number of tents and temporary wooden houses neatly arranged on it.

Although it is not too close to Lawrence's berth. But because of its huge size, Lawrence and the others can see it even from the deck of the Enterprise.

As an important material production base and personnel and material distribution center behind the main attack direction, Huguang City has naturally made a lot of preparations for this war

. In addition to strengthening the production of various needed materials, a number of camps have also been opened for the temporary rest of the troops passing by.

Now, the camp that Lawrence and the others saw was the third largest camp among the dozen or so camps in the urban area of ​​Huguang City, and the first camp in terms of conditions. It is mainly used to receive some reinforcements that are more important to the command. For example, the temporary camp assigned by Lawrence and the others this time is here.

"Considering that we are about to enter the war zone, I think everyone can go out of the camp at this time and take a stroll in the urban area of ​​Huguang City." Lawrence naturally knows the importance of combining work and rest, especially after nearly half a month More attention should be paid to this aspect when the ship is going to be involved in an important war in a short time after the voyage.

"But everyone also knows that Huguang City is not as safe as our island, so I hope everyone can avoid going to certain dangerous places. At the same time, try to form a team with as many people as possible." Seeing everyone's faces showing After smiling, Lawrence reminded with a serious face.

"I think His Excellency's concern is very reasonable, so here are some regulations I hope everyone can abide by." Owen's deputy butler, who is also one of the main leaders of the medical team, came out to sing a white face at this time. "There are not many regulations, just two. One is that everyone must come back before 9 o'clock every night, and the other is that at least three people must form a group when going out."

"Understood." "Understood." "We will definitely obey." After listening to the instructions, the members of the medical team who ran onto the deck promised one after another. Then they lined up to exchange the money in their hands from Owen's deputy housekeeper into federal dollars of the White Eagle Federation, and then each formed a small team and went straight to the city to relax.

Over the course of the next five days, medical teams from Nova Sauer relaxed for the last time before launching their war in the city. On the other hand, Lawrence stayed in the camp with Nora and the others to communicate and sort out various matters related to supplies and material equipment, making final preparations for this expedition.

The supplies that need to be replenished in Huguang City are not small. In addition to the various conventional thermal supplies ordered and prepared by others, there are also many supplies that Lawrence finds useful.

For example, a series of heating stoves including emergency stoves that burn whale fat, and safety explosives that obviously exceed the normal demand.

In addition, Lawrence and Nora also went to Bofors Gunpowder and Metal Works to pick up the extra weapons and ammunition that the dwarf Eugene had called to prepare.

Because they had to bring a lot of medical supplies when they set off, in order to save tonnage, the soldiers only brought five rounds of ammunition each, and the mortars didn't even bring shells at all.

Although the headquarters will distribute ammunition to all armed personnel participating in the battle, non-combat units like the medical team under Lawrence can only supplement 1/3 of the ammunition for combat units at most.

Therefore, considering various reasons, Lawrence felt that it would be more appropriate for him to find a way to prepare some ammunition at his own expense.

For Lawrence, who had his own weapons factory, it was not too difficult to arm his troops at his own expense. Especially with the development and mergers and acquisitions during this period, the Bofors factory, which was originally just a small arms factory, has now become a medium-sized arms complex that mainly produces light artillery, light weapons and supporting ammunition.

After meeting the dwarf Eugene, who is currently in charge of the Bofors factory, the other party has already prepared what Lawrence and the others needed before. But in addition, he also showed Lawrence a series of new weapons he had recently developed. Obviously, the money earned from the factory was basically invested in weapons research.

"I haven't seen you for a few months, and now you have become an earl, and you have a piece of territory of your own, which is really great." Upon meeting, the dwarf Eugene happily patted Lawrence's waist and praised. "To be honest, if it weren't for your previous orders to our factory and the excuse of you to open up a lot of markets, our side would not be able to develop so fast."

"It mainly depends on you doing well here, otherwise, no matter how good the product is, the advertisement is useless." Lawrence said with a smile. "By the way, I read the telegram you sent me saying that several new weapons have been invented that may be used in this war. Can you let me see what they are?"

"Of course, of course." Eugene said, leading Lawrence and the others to a large warehouse, pushed open the big iron door forcefully, then turned a knob at the entrance, lit the gas lamp in the warehouse, pointed at the Those things said. "Look, this is the weapon I recently researched."

The weapon Eugene studied this time is much better than the last one. Obviously, he listened to Lawrence's emphasis on designing a weapon that requires a balance between the performance and cost of the weapon. It's just that it may be because of some nature of the dwarves, so these weapons are quite the style of the Germans in the previous life.

"This portable flamethrower is really good, but can you tell me how this pressurized fuel tank is made?" Lawrence picked up a flamethrower about the size of a fire extinguisher and asked after looking at it. "Why do I feel that this kind of fuel tank is not something that can be made by ordinary machines."

"You are on the right track, because this fuel tank was made by several senior dwarven craftsmen I invited." Ou Ren also looked helpless. "And this is the cheapest way we can think of. Otherwise, it would be more expensive to use some magic barriers to make this kind of high-pressure vessel."

"Yes, but since we can't use this thing as an individual weapon, why not use this thing as some kind of heavy weapon?" Lawrence gestured while holding the flamethrower. "For example, it can be used on a trolley like a heavy machine gun."