Chapter 1848: Chapter 605: His Majesty the King’s Strategic Deployment (Part 3)
“Thoughts?” Richard scratched his head while looking at the map, “I only see myself as the sole overlord on the southern shore of the wasteland.”
“Because there are as many bandits here as there are hairs on a cow. Most overlords of the kingdom don’t have enough armed forces to control this area. The lands the great nobles are granted are rich and safe. So what I see is an unlucky guy sobbing at the Sanggan River.” Despite everything having passed, Richard couldn’t help but grumble.
“Nonsense!” His Majesty Sal was both amused and annoyed, blurting out, “To think you’re an agent of divine authority with such little awareness! Open your eyes and see how strategically important Emerald is. The kingdom has entrusted the heaviest burden to you, representing absolute trust and expectation in you!”
“Why can’t I see that?”
“You fool! Do you know that the north and south banks of the Sanggan River are generally five arrows wide! How far is five arrows? At least four miles or so!”
“Even the God of War couldn’t build a bridge over this distance, so the traffic between the two banks of the Sanggan River has always relied on boats and ships!” His Majesty the King pointed at the Sanggan River on the map, spitting wildly as he spoke, “But not every place on the Sanggan River is navigable, do you know why? Because the river floods every year during the rainy season, and after the embankments are washed away, the drop from the riverbank to the water can reach a massive ten blades! Besides that, most parts of the Sanggan River Valley have extremely fast currents, with swirls and undercurrents densely packed below the water! Only areas with relatively moderate currents and sufficiently broad mudflats can accommodate boating!”
“I have a say in this,” Richard said, beaming, “Last year I built a ferry and made a small fortune off this geographical advantage.”
“Oblivious! I’m talking strategy, and you’re talking about making money!” His Majesty Sal smiled bitterly in disappointment, “Do you know how many mudflats suitable for ferries there are along the thousands of miles of the Sanggan River? Nine! Only nine in total!” Newest update provided by novel{f}ire.net
“I hadn’t counted that, I just know there’s another place suitable for a ferry about five hundred miles downstream from Emerald.” Richard shrugged, not bothering with this matter, as he didn’t plan on changing careers to become a boat captain.
“The ferry you mentioned has about the same traffic as the other seven ferries, but its mudflat area is far less than that of Emerald, and the one-blade drop from the riverbank greatly limits its navigability, with the swift currents allowing only one or two grasshopper boats to pass at a time!” His Majesty raised an eyebrow, “Haha, I’m very honored to inform you, my Lord Richard, that your Red Earth Highland in our Donau Wasteland has the best river ferry! Here, there is no drop from the riverbank, the mudflats are the largest, and because you’re close to the snow-melt source, the terrain is quite high, making the river’s flow the gentlest in the entire Sanggan River Valley. Plus, your south and north banks are the shortest distance apart, less than five hundred yards, so merchants have always crossed the river from Red Earth Highland every year!”
“And!” His Majesty turned around, stopping Daisy from speaking, “To cross the river and make boats, you need wood! But on our Donau Wasteland, only wild grass grows, with no trees. The tallest plants are just shrubs and berry bushes, which can’t be used to build boats!”
“Don’t we Beamon use vine boats made from wild grapevines? We don’t use wood at all!” Richard was puzzled.
“Wild grapevines must undergo nine rounds of oiling and sun exposure to make passenger-carrying vine boats. Besides us Beamon, who else has mastered this technology? And don’t forget, others have no clue about this secret!” His Majesty looked at Richard knowingly, “Let’s suppose, if someone wanted to find wood to build boats for crossing the river, which of the nine ferries would they choose?”
At this moment, everyone listening showed expressions of enlightenment.
“The other ferries, if one wanted to go to the forest to chop wood, the journey would be thousands of miles, and with the swift currents, only a few boats can pass at a time!” Richard understood what His Majesty meant, “Needless to say, it must be my Emerald! But I could set fire and burn the bamboo forest first and see what they have to make boats!”
“Even if you burn the bamboo forest, Emerald is still the closest to the snowy mountain conifer forest!” Helen smiled gently, “Actually, we don’t need to set the bamboo forest on fire at all, because unless they take Red Earth Highland, they won’t be able to step on the mudflat with their bamboo rafts to cross the river!”
“So, in the future, if the Demon Clan wants to attack the northern city and Witherspoon on the north bank of the Sanggan River, they’ll have to come to us at Emerald! Haha… Though the Demon Clan has a crystal teleportation array, they don’t have seven-degree gold rings, and with vacuum storage crystals alone, they can manage to transfer supplies on a large scale, but large-scale troop transfers can’t be done through the teleportation array!” Richard chuckled slyly, “Plus, the Demon Clan doesn’t have marine forces. To cross the river, they’ll need boats, but the other eight ferry ports have no wood and can’t accommodate an army! Haha… Looks like we’re in for some fun at Emerald!”
“Richard, you seem to have forgotten, the Demon Clan’s air force can fly over the Sanggan River, they don’t need to build boats to cross the river.” Daisy glared at Old Liu.