Chapter 249: Chapter 245 Death Valley
Lili came to Perfikot’s laboratory, the most revered and worshipped place in the entire Eagle’s Beak Cliff and even the whole Northern Territory, because it was where the Lord of the North resided.
After witnessing the mighty combat strength of the Northern Army, most of the native tribes in the Northern Territory had already submitted to Perfikot, and the visible changes she brought to each tribe with her policies earned her their respect.
Thus, when Lili entered the laboratory with a pilgrimage-like emotion, she felt a sense of idol-like excitement, which made her perform a grand gesture of respect before Perfikot.
"Hmm? Why such a grand gesture of respect? I don’t like people talking to me while kneeling, stand up." Looking at Lili almost prostrating herself, Perfikot felt a bit helpless.
The mindset of these native tribes is quite simple. They can be very hostile towards white people, but also directly worship those who bring them a better life. Their emotions are not that complex; they are even pure from certain perspectives.
Perfikot could feel the pure admiration from Lili, but she struggled to understand why these natives admired her so much.
People of the Empire worship her for understandable reasons; after all, she blew up the capitals of three powerful nations in one go, making the Empire the undisputed number one strong nation in the Old World. The adoration from the Empire’s citizens is normal.
But these natives? Did she bring any influence or change to these natives?
Conquest? Surely yes, her White Bear Knights have crushed the resisting native tribes on this land of the Northern Territory, and the remaining tribes mostly surrendered. Calling her a conqueror is surely correct.
Among these conquered tribes, there are some who worship strength and have Stockholm syndrome, transforming hostility into worship, which is not a hard-to-understand thing.
After all, after conquering these tribes, Perfikot did not levy heavily or oppress the native tribes; although she taxed them, demanding both manpower and resources, she did not deliberately oppress them.
Perfikot wants a stable Northern Territory, rather than stripping all natives and driving them into reservations.
Therefore, regarding the native tribes, Perfikot indeed plans to draw manpower from them to serve as workers for the Northern Territory’s future, and she also needs them to cultivate land for food production. But she has no intention of annihilating them; even from her perspective, as long as these natives are obedient and comply with her rule, she will protect them.
Perhaps this is why those natives have developed admiration for her? Perfikot feels somewhat unsure.
In fact, Perfikot did not know that after the native tribes submitted to the Northern Territory, the old steward dispatched trade caravans in the name of the Lord of the North and engaged in friendly trade exchanges with each tribe.
The goods carried by the caravans were mostly similar to what the Wild Mane Tribe initially needed, such as iron ingots, various labor tools, and furnaces capable of smelting steel.
While these things may not be considered much in the Northern Territory, for those tribes, they are precious tools capable of genuinely changing their lives.
Even in just a short period of less than a month since the beginning of spring, the standard of living in the native tribes that submitted to the Northern Territory has greatly improved, even to the point of revolutionizing change.
After all, in the past, they plowed fields using wooden or poor-quality wrought iron tools, but now they can use farming tools far superior to their former swords and axes to cultivate the land.
Moreover, the old steward also sold them more advanced farming tools and techniques, significantly boosting the efficiency of spring sowing for these native tribes.
In the eyes of these local natives, this is considered a divine blessing, a gift from the divine, and Perfikot, who brought about all these changes, is enough to be called the incarnation of the divine, hence the understandable worship of her by the native tribes.
Do not find this unbelievable, for these natives with limited knowledge, if a field previously took three days to plow and now can be done in one day, how can this not be called a miracle?
Not to mention, the changes brought by the Northern Territory’s trade caravans are far more than this.
However, Perfikot was largely unaware of this, as her focus during this period was more on the matter of the shield tunneling machine. She delegated most of the civil and administrative affairs to the old steward and the Northern Territory’s civil officials, only handling matters that required her personal attention.
Today, she had summoned Lili, mainly because there were some matters she wanted to ask her about.
"Lili, do you know where in the Northern Territory there is flammable black water?" Perfikot asked without much expectation, merely maintaining a ’hit or miss’ attitude.
Upon hearing Perfikot’s question, Lili was stunned for a moment, but quickly began to recall whether she had seen or heard of such things.
However, despite racking her brains, she could not recall where in the Northern Territory this flammable black water might be, nor could she understand how water could be flammable.
Ultimately, Lili could only shake her head with an apologetic expression: "Sorry, Lord, I have never heard of such flammable black water as you mentioned."
After hearing Lili’s words, Perfikot felt a bit disappointed but was not overly concerned, merely giving Lili a comforting smile: "I understand, it’s alright, no need to feel sorry. It seems Heaven doesn’t want me to succeed so easily."
Perfikot’s words made Lili feel increasingly guilty, realizing she couldn’t help Perfikot. She regretted not having seen this flammable black water; if she had, she could now assist the Lord!
Even if she hadn’t seen black water, any other flammable thing would be helpful!
Flammable things! Lili suddenly remembered something, hurriedly asking Perfikot: "Lord, I haven’t seen flammable black water, but could other flammable things do?"
"Other flammable things? What are they?" Perfikot asked with interest; there are many flammable things, and if there is no petroleum, discovering other things would also be beneficial.
"It’s a kind of gas emanating from underground!" Lili organized her thoughts, then explained to Perfikot: "There is a place in the Northern Territory called Death Valley. It has always been shrouded in a terrifying poisonous gas that kills any animal that dares to venture in quickly, and if humans go in, they will die with a blue complexion, which is why it’s called Death Valley.
Around Death Valley, there are sometimes fissures in the ground that release gas with a rotten egg smell, and if you ignite it with fire, it will ignite."