The army of Storm Castle began to mobilize frequently, and at the same time, Duke was constantly thinking about opening up a trade route to bypass Andorra City, and it was not very difficult to bypass Andorra City by land, after all, now that he had the territory of Alpine City, he could directly border other territories.

At present, the quality and reputation of Storm Castle goods on the continent are very good, and it is definitely not a problem for other territories to borrow money, after all, with the beginning of the turmoil of the French Empire, most of the lords are now trying to expand their strength frantically, and Andorra should not be arrogant enough to attack other territories, and this kind of enemy on all sides is only a fool would do.

But the consequences of this are also obvious, that is, everything that was previously done in Andorra la Vella will come to naught, and it will basically be a new start. In addition, the cost of detouring will increase greatly, no matter how powerful the storm carriage is, it is only a carriage with a load of more than one ton, which is far from being compared with the trains and sea wheels of later generations.

Even if it is placed in the future generations, hundreds of kilometers of detours will increase a lot of costs without a trace, and the whole era will be even more obvious. So another thing is imminent, and that is the opening of the Storm Castle sea route.

Stormcastle's seafaring trade routes can be said to be something that Duke has been planning since he came to this world not long ago. Because Duke knows that if he wants to truly widen the gap with other empires in this world and reach the level of a real war with the Holy See in the future, then the only way to start the Age of Exploration in advance and accumulate enough wealth and strength is to do so.

It's just that it's hard for a clever woman to cook without rice, the foundation of Storm Castle before was too poor, and the only thing Duke could do was to keep stockpiling some giant trees when digging Storm Mine, which could help Storm Castle's shipbuilding industry in the future. Moreover, Storm Fortress is actually a large dock, and now that the Shark Tribe has almost been suppressed, the shipbuilding industry that Storm Fortress has been preparing for a long time can finally start to put on the agenda.

For this kind of thing like shipbuilding, Duke has long been prepared, and this person is none other than Watt, which Duke dug up before. The reason why he was able to improve the steam engine and start the first industrial revolution is inseparable from his family heritage.

Watt's full name died as James Watt, and his father, Watt Sr., was a carpenter and shipwright, and even in Watt's hometown, Watt Sr. owned a small shipyard of his own. Storm Castle wants to start its own shipbuilding business, and it will definitely not work to cultivate it slowly, and Duke does not have the time to wait slowly.

So he has always set his eyes on old Watt, and has been communicating with Watt over the years, that is, to contact his father to see if he is willing to leave his homeland and move his shipyard to Storm Castle in its entirety, and start the future Storm Shipyard.

But the early stage was not very smooth, because the old Watt's family background was not bad, and he was even an official in the town, and Watt's mother was also born in a noble family, so there was no need for them to give up everything they had and follow Watt to a war-torn place like Storm Castle. And even if they were willing to come, it would be unrealistic to move the entire shipyard over, because the shipbuilders wouldn't necessarily want to.

Previously, Duke's finances were also relatively tight, and if he wanted to build a small ship with a displacement of hundreds of tons earlier, it might cost as much as tens of thousands of gold coins. And if you want to build a super giant ship with a displacement of hundreds of tons, the cost will increase several times, at least more than 100,000 gold coins, not including the cost of transforming it into a gun on a battleship.

And the ships of this era are generally between tens of tons and hundreds of tons, that is to say, if Duke wants to make a giant ship with a displacement of hundreds of tons, it may also need to pay a high research and development cost, which is much higher than a musket, a steam engine or something, shipbuilding is one of the highest industries in modern times, and it is even called the crown of industry, until it stepped further back, it was replaced by the aircraft industry.

But now it's time to have to do it, the takedown of the alpine territory marks the beginning of Duke's expansion, and the storm army he wants to build in the future is not the Andorran kingdom or the French empire that can provide financial resources, and even needs to absorb the financial resources of the entire Europa continent to compete with it, just like the Holy See!

However, what makes Duke happy is that with the change of the situation in Storm Castle and the spread of Storm Traders on the mainland, the reputation of Storm Castle has now improved I don't know how many times, and Duke also told Watt that he could tell his father to build the giant ship cannon of his dreams, and this has become the key to impressing Old Watt!

In every boy's dream, there has been a vision of a giant ship cannon, in fact, in a sense, in this era, there is already a similar existence of sea ship cannons, but this kind of ships exist in the Mediterranean territory, and only those empires along the coast have it, and the so-called cannons are not artillery, but mortars that fire stone projectiles!

Duke told Old Watt about the idea of a real giant ship cannon in his mind, which made Old Watt feel that his blood began to boil, and the impulse of his youth once again appeared in him, and his life had reached middle and old age, and if he didn't take risks again in this life, he would never have a chance.

Eventually, Watt Sr. was attracted by the description of Duke's cannon, and chose to relocate his family to Stormfort, where he was accompanied by his Watt shipyard. In order to show his attention, Duke even sent a hundred-man storm team to Watt's hometown of the French Empire to meet and carry shipbuilding tools.

But after all, they are all dragged by some families, and there are a lot of shipbuilding equipment and tools, and Duke estimates that it will be impossible to come to Storm Castle in less than a month or two. So all Duke can do is wait, and then try to optimize the trade routes as much as possible to minimize Andorra City's impact on Storm Commerce.

A month after the occupation of Alpine City, the news of the imperial capital also reached Duke's hands, just as Duke had imagined before, the French royal family did not show much anger, and even chose to keep a low profile in a sense, not allowing insiders to talk about Storm Castle and Alpine City, and what happened on this remote border was difficult to cause any major storm in the imperial capital.

Emperor Henry VII's handling method Duke guessed, the only thing that puzzled him was that he was waiting for the Andorran army, but the Prince of Andorra didn't know it, except for the seizure of the Storm Merchant House, there was no move, could it be that the Prince of Andorra was going to swallow this breath?