"I see," Nightingale pondered for a while. "It's much easier to build a complete railway, laying a hard road between two unconnected rivers. Moreover, building railways requires Anna and skilled workers, but anyone can build ordinary roads, even the newly arrived immigrants can handle it, which will save us a lot of time!"

"Exactly, that's another advantage," Roland said approvingly. "If planned properly, it can alleviate logistical pressure in at most one or two months, which is of great significance to us who are racing against time. It seems that you can occasionally think of the crux of the problem."

"Hehe, of course... no," Nightingale's upturned mouth quickly turned down again. "What do you mean occasionally! As long as I think seriously, I can do it too—whether it's helping you with official duties or dealing with exams..."

Although she said it confidently, the second half of her sentence was obviously lower than the first half.

Roland couldn't help but chuckle.

Perhaps for Nightingale, the prerequisite for thinking seriously is not falling asleep first.

He shifted his gaze back to the map on the table. If he wanted to connect the waterways of Graycastle and Dawn, the fastest way was to build a road straight to Evernight City at the eastern turning point of the Redwater River, and then go north all the way, passing through Dawn's Gale Territory, and connecting with the neighboring country's Glittering River.

This river originates from the Hermes Plateau, and the main channel divides into three in the old provincial capital. Its two wide tributaries run across Dawn from north to south, and finally merge into the sea. In order to further utilize shipping resources, the Moya family has opened up three east-west canals in the past century, which is equivalent to adding three horizontal lines to the two inverted Y-shaped tributaries. This greatly facilitates the commercial circulation within Dawn and provides Roland with a shortcut.

From the Glittering River across to the Mokbei River, and then build a road straight to Cage Mountain, the two places thousands of miles apart will have a "dedicated channel". Compared to the extremely expensive railway line, this plan only requires building two sections of hard road, totaling less than two hundred kilometers, and three supporting loading and unloading docks.

Considering the destructive power of heavy-duty trucks on the road surface, if only Lotus is used to pave the road and workers sprinkle gravel and compact it, it won't be long before people have to be sent to maintain and repair it, and it will collapse even faster in heavy rain. Therefore, Roland intends to take a step-by-step approach, using cement-stabilized sand as the hardening layer, the same specification as the roads in Neverwinter City.

Cement is no longer a rare thing for Neverwinter City, but transporting it thousands of miles to Dawn is still a time-consuming and laborious task. Instead of wasting transportation capacity, it is better to produce it locally, which is more convenient.

After sorting out the drawings, Roland wrote a letter to the acting king of the neighboring country, Andrea's father, Horford Quinn.

He decided to dispatch a group of technicians to Radiant City to teach the cement calcination formula and steam paddlewheel assembly technology to the three major families in the capital, so that they could build factories and repair roads to share the pressure of Neverwinter City.

He believed that those nobles would definitely see the potential and value of cement.

With these two technologies, Dawn's domestic transportation can be solved by themselves.

As for the steam engine itself, it is still provided by Neverwinter City—not that he is reluctant to spread the core technology, but that other cities simply do not have an industrial base other than Neverwinter. It is meaningless to have the technology but still need to transport raw materials, so it is better to send the finished product directly.

Roland was not worried that the other party would act against his orders or not put in enough effort. If the Red Mist had really appeared on the top of the Ends of the Earth Mountain Range, Horford should soon hear the relevant news. By then, he would naturally know what to do was the wise choice.

...

Two days later, Roland witnessed the arrival of the first batch of immigrants at the top of the Traces Building.

The long fleet was almost endless, and the black and white smoke columns seemed to form a high wall perpendicular to the river bank. The dense crowd stepped on the gangplank and entered the dock under the guidance of the police. For a time, the banks of the Redwater River were shoulder-to-shoulder, and colorful heads filled all the open space.

"A full 50,000 people... Your Majesty, you have emptied an entire city," Barov exclaimed with mixed feelings of worry and joy. "I never thought I would see ten thousand Wolfhearts or Eternal Winter people in the cities of Graycastle. If this momentum continues, I am not worried about the target of 200,000 annual growth at all, but about your treasury."

"There are also security and management issues," Chief Knight Carter also said with concern. "These foreigners probably know very little about your reputation. For the safety of the inner city, I suggest isolating them in a specific area, which is easier to control."

"That way they will never integrate into Graycastle," Roland shook his head. "If the police department is short of people, go to Barov for them. Punish those who violate the law severely, reward those who do outstanding work, and send those who repeatedly refuse to repent to the mines—what I need are workers, not a group of slaves being watched."

There is no doubt that the influx of a large number of foreign populations will significantly reduce the security environment of the capital, which is also one of the inevitable side effects of the crude population introduction plan. If there was enough time, he wouldn't want to do this either. But now the most lacking is time, even if the plan has various hidden dangers, he must implement it.

After all, compared to the benefits brought by population growth, these side effects become insignificant.

For example, if only 10,000 of the first batch of 50,000 people join the factory, the existing munitions production scale can be doubled, which means that the front line can obtain more weapons and ammunition, or other new equipment.

At this moment, manpower and technology are ready, and he can officially start the new generation of projects based on the Magic Cube power unit.

*******************

Where... is this?

When Valkyries woke up again, she found herself lying in a snow-white room. Both the ceiling and the walls were so bright that they were a little dazzling. A strange instrument next to her kept making a monotonous ticking sound, like some kind of timing device. A bag of transparent liquid hung above her head, dripping slowly through a tube. She noticed that the liquid seemed to be constantly flowing into her body.

A large amount of unfamiliar information poured into her mind, making it difficult for her to react effectively for a while. Everywhere were scenes she had never seen before, or rather, some things, even if she had seen them, were difficult to connect with the images in her memory.

For example, the white short clothes on her body were as fine as hair, completely different from any clothes she had seen before.

She closed her eyes and focused her attention on herself—no matter how strange it was, everything in front of her was just external objects. Since she was in a strange and bizarre place, the only thing she could rely on was her own powerful ability.

Then Valkyries' heart sank suddenly.

She found that this body did not belong to her at all.

Although it looked exactly the same, the magic stones embedded in her body were all gone. If this really happened, then she should die immediately.

But now, she didn't feel any discomfort.

Magic was still flowing slowly in her body—in an unheard-of way.

At the same time, she could no longer feel the whispers of the consciousness world.

No matter how Valkyries concentrated her mind, or even humiliated herself by calling out to the Lord of the Sky, she did not receive any response.

This meant that she was trapped here.