Duke didn't know how to answer Carl's question, in fact, he had always had a plan in his heart, that is, when the Fran Empire was in civil strife, it was when he tried to develop himself to seize the Fran Empire.

But many times the plan can't keep up with the changes, if Duke jumps out at this time to be the first rebel, then how will he face Princess Gina? At that time, the identities of the two people will go completely opposite, and Duke and Princess Gyna and the French Empire will become enemies.

So Duke can't be the first person, and he estimates that with the Marquis of Steven's announcement to expel the Imperial Army, as long as the Fran Empire doesn't react much, then other territories will follow suit, after all, in this kind of troubled times, nobles with a little strength will swell their ambitions to the maximum, no matter the prince, it is not worth mentioning in front of the title of emperor, this is the biggest difference between one person and ten thousand.

Of course, in fact, all emperors have a pope above them. But when the empire is strong enough, the Pope can't really start a war with the super empire, which will be a lose-lose arena for both sides, and it will also shake the foundation of the Holy See's thousand-year-old rule. You must know that the reason why the Holy See has been able to rule for so long is because there is not much direct connection with the world, and all hatred and resentment are not placed on them many times.

This is why empires change every once in a while, but religion has been a thing for thousands of years, and it is the most important thing to isolate from the world, or ostensibly from contact with the interests of the most ordinary people.

So everyone has ambitions, it just depends on how far the strength can support their ambitions. It is not an exaggeration to say that Duke's ambition is the first person in this world, but Duke's strength has not been able to support his ambition at all so far, so he can only choose to wait and see, and wait for the guy who thinks he is strong to jump out, and eventually this situation will become a common thing.

"Wait, we can't make a head now, we can only wait for the other territories of the French Empire to fully declare the expulsion of the Imperial Army or independence, and we can have our own actions. ”

Hearing Duke's words, the general of the storm army didn't say much, but the general of the dwarf army felt a little weak at this time, so Iron Hammer said: "Lord Lord, it has been four months since we conquered Alpine City before, and we have basically completely absorbed the Alpine Army and cavalry troops, and now our strength can be said to be the strongest in the lord's territory, I don't think there is any need to be so forbearing, let's take down Andorra City first, I have endured that Prince of Andorra for a long time!"

When Iron Hammer said the back, there was even a look of disdain and anger on his face, because of the occupation of Alpine City, the entire trade route of Storm Fort was cut off by Andorra City, basically all the goods of the Storm Merchant Bank now, they have to go around a large circle to be able to leave, resulting in a great increase in time and transportation costs, and it has a great impact on the commercial development of Storm Territory, if it is not for the development of Jenny Machine, so that Storm Fort can use dumping to obtain a large amount of profits to make up for the loss, such as equipping all members of the Sea Clan with Storm Armor and quickly absorbing the power of the armed Alpine Army, this is basically impossible。

And because of the blockade of the Prince of Andorra, the development of the storm market is now very limited. After all, the main reason for establishing the Storm Market in the first place was because he wanted to use the power of merchants from the entire continent to open up the market for Storm Castle's goods. Because relying on the ability of the Storm Trading House alone, it will never be possible to control all the commodity trade on the continent.

This is the case with any business, when you eat meat yourself, you must also give others the opportunity to drink a sip of soup, so that the market will expand and the cooperation will last for a long time. Moreover, the transportation cost has risen before, and Stormcastle can bear such costs, but other merchants come to buy Stormfort's goods and have to find a way to make a detour to be able to get out, which is unacceptable for their transportation costs.

Originally, Duke planned to build a giant storm new market after the year because the previous storm market was relatively remote, and the scale and expansion space were not very large. The addresses have been chosen in the vast area between Storm City and Alpine City. But now the development of this new market has been directly stopped, not to mention recruiting more merchants to come and do business, even some merchants in remote areas before, especially the merchants of the northern territory of the empire and the Hans Empire, because the detour is too far, resulting in the cost is unacceptable, and finally choose to suspend the transaction with the storm trading house.

Either they had to wait for the trade routes to open again, or they could be transported by the horse-drawn carriages of the Storm Merchants, so that they could accept the increase in costs. But there is no way to achieve these two plans at present, and the real opening of the trade route is basically the only option to kill the Prince of Andorra, but the French Empire has not yet fallen, and it is too exaggerated to start a war with the Prince of Andorra like this.

The next day is the storm wagon factory, even if it is desperate production, the current situation can still only meet the internal use and military procurement, after all, Duke still wants to create a "mechanized" army in this era, otherwise the maximum marching speed of thirty kilometers a day, and it cannot be maintained for a long time, this kind of support and marching speed Duke is unacceptable.

He set a minimum standard of transporting men and equipment in storm wagons, so that the daily march of the infantry could be stabilized at fifty kilometers a day. And a stable 50 kilometers a day is the limit of what the storm wagon can achieve by relying on animal power, and if you want to improve at one time, you can only rely on mechanical power, such as the steam locomotive that Duke is secretly salting now!

Watt's improved steam engine is basically at the level of the first industrial revolution on earth. It's just that there is a little bit of a contract in terms of stability and power output. For this point, Duke's requirements are not very high, because the volume requirements of the steam locomotive are not as strict as those of steam pumps or other neat products, and it is really not possible to build a larger size for the sake of power.

As long as the steam locomotive can meet the power standard, then the productivity of Storm Castle will really reach a qualitative change, you can imagine how many times the capacity and speed of the train will be as many times as the horse-drawn carriage? And there is no need to worry about any livestock problems, the cost will also show an astonishing decline, and then Storm Castle will not be a textile dumping, but a comprehensive dumping!