Struggle in the Steam Age

The arrival of these reinforcements is indeed very beneficial news for Lawrence, after all, although the troops under his command are well-equipped and well-trained. But a big problem is that the number of extraordinary people is really small.

Among the reinforcements Lawrence called, all the superhumans added up were not as many as Hammer's team called, and they were basically low-level officers, so it was impossible to go to the front line in non-emergency situations.

The arrival of reinforcements just made up for this problem, although they are not very good at that kind of group combat. But being an elite force on the second line of mobile maintenance is exactly what they do best.

More importantly, Lawrence saw several wanderers and a half-elf ranger with a bow and arrow in the reinforcements. These extraordinary people can just make up for the huge gap in detection ability left after Nora returned to the island to upgrade.

Soon, Lawrence brought this group of reinforcements to join his own army, and then began to discuss the next action plan.

But beyond Lawrence's expectation, after everyone's discussion, they proposed a plan that was very different from the previous one, and hoped that this plan could be implemented in the future.

"You mean we go by water?" Lawrence looked at the staff officer among the group of officers sent over this time and asked, "Can you tell me why?"

"It's like this. We just looked at the map carefully and found that the originally planned route along the woodland is inappropriate from various angles." The staff lieutenant who was elected as a representative said .

"Because when we were investigating just now, we found that some sneaky guys were following behind some nobles who were passing by on the road and heading towards the treasure."

"What's more important is that those stalkers will run to the woods to follow after a period of time on the road, so we are all worried that some guys may hide directly in the woods. In that case, it is very likely that we will march in the woods Found by some guy."

"So you decided to go to the front by water?" Lawrence asked. "What is the feasibility of this plan? Will there be too many detours?"

"It was a bit of a detour, but overall it was easier during the march." The staff lieutenant said. "If we advance in the woods, we will have to advance more than 30 kilometers, and the road in it is not very easy to walk, it may take more than a day."

"But if we take a boat by water, we only need a few hours. We can follow the lake shoreline to the east, and then follow an inland river upstream."

"More importantly, in this way, except for the last five or six kilometers, everyone can go by boat all the way, and everyone will not need to be extremely tired to face possible enemies like walking in the jungle. "

At this time, everyone realized that Lawrence's previous guesses were not just guesses. Otherwise, there wouldn't be some sneaky guys following behind those rich people.

Therefore, when this group of officers and extraordinary people considered the next actions, they naturally also considered the possibility of a battle once they entered the position.

"Do you think so too?" Lawrence looked at the people around him after listening to the lieutenant's words. After confirming that everyone has reached a consensus on this aspect, he nodded and said.

"If that's the case, let's transport it by water, but who of you knows how to solve the ship problem?"

"We may need your authorization for this." The lieutenant said to Lawrence with a serious face. "If I remember correctly, the ships that sent us here should not leave the port here in three hours. So if you send a telegram to that ship at this time, I think we—"

"Understood, let's report to them now." Before the lieutenant finished speaking, Lawrence nodded and said. After they finished sending the telegram, they led the entire army and began to walk towards the south shore of the lake.

After arriving at the shore of the lake and waiting for about 20 minutes, Lawrence and the others saw two flat-bottomed boats dragging black smoke approaching.

"Hurry up." Soon the two boats were moored less than 10 meters from the lake shoreline, and then a captain with a gray beard stood on the side of the boat and shouted. At the same time, a gangway on the side of the ship was lowered.

Seeing this, Lawrence and the others immediately waded to the side of the boat with their weapons in both hands, and then boarded the boat along the lowered springboard. After all the people boarded the boat, the two boats quickly put away the gangplank and started to move away from the lakeshore.

"We're going to this place next." Lawrence said to the map in the captain's cabin just as the boat left the lake shore.

"There may be enemies scouting us along the way, so let's see how we can avoid the sight of those scouts on the other side?"

"Looking at the map, it should be relatively easy to avoid the other party on most routes." The experienced captain looked at the map and said.

"Because the first part of the journey is basically all driving on the lake, so we can pretend to be an ordinary cargo ship as long as we stay away from the lake shore."

"But the upstream part is hard to hide from the other party, because there are no intelligent life settlements in the upper reaches of the river. It is obviously abnormal for the two boats to travel upstream from here." Speaking of here , the captain knocked on the location of the river mouth on the map and said.

"Before I retired, I was the captain of the customs anti-smuggling team for a long time, so I have many experiences of fighting those smugglers and even wilderness races on the sea. If I were that group of attackers, I would definitely not let them go." Cross this river that is visible to the naked eye within the range of the ambush."

"And in this case, I think the cheapest and most convenient way is to set up an observation post at the mouth of the river. Just a signal flare or even a smoke can make the sneak attack go bankrupt."

"Then what should we do?" Lawrence also seemed a little numb after hearing the news. After all, even though he didn't know anything about sailing, he still knew that the two boats he was on were all standard. Steam sailboats, and there is no decontamination equipment like those factories.

In this way, the whole ship will inevitably be billowing with smoke. As long as the other party's eyes are not blind, they can see their journey from a long distance.

"Then we can only change the plan a little bit and make a big circle." The staff lieutenant pointed to the map and said.

"I asked Captain Nemo just now. About 2,000 meters to the east of the estuary, the entire lake seems to protrude to the north, and there is a small port at the northernmost point of the entire bay."

"So when the time comes, we can directly pretend to be a small merchant ship going to that port and go straight north. When we reach the place where the observation post at the river mouth is blocked by the lake bank, we will turn off the boiler and send all the commandos to the shore with the sails."

"After going ashore, we can use the cover of the woods and a series of mounds to go all the way north, then reach the southeast direction of the target relic point, and then go northwest through a series of hills and woods to reach the destination."

"That is to say, if everything goes well, we will appear directly behind the target point." After hearing what the lieutenant said, Lawrence immediately began to draw on the map, and soon he realized the characteristics of the new route.

After looking at the route drawn by himself with a blue pencil on the map, Lawrence sat quietly in his seat and thought for a few seconds, then lightly threw the pencil on the map and said. "—Very well, let's do it."

After making the final decision, the two ships immediately drove at full speed along the traditional cargo route, heading for their destination in the east.