William smiled and gently put his arm around Charlumie's waist and let her lean against him. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info In this case, he couldn't say anything to comfort him lightly. I can only comfort her with practical actions.

After a dozen or so people were missing, there was quite a bit of vacancy on the sled. Thankfully, there were enough men left to control the remaining six sleds.

After bypassing the large crater created by the enemy and then checking the ground ahead, William's expedition continued on. Make your way to their destination, the dwarven village closest to the coastline.

After crushing the force of nearly two hundred men, William was no longer hindered. Neither a white bear nor a timberwolf, nor a dragon nor a vampire. They easily followed the snowy sleigh road to the dwarven village. Then stopped at the gate of the dwarven village.

After seeing the dwarven "village", William and his party were surprised.

The first feeling is "is this really a village", the second feeling is "the dwarves can really toss", and the third feeling is that these dwarves are unexpectedly rich. It is worthy of being a big dog who exploits the whole world by relying on science and technology and gets it for nothing.

This village is more of a fortress than a village.

The dwarves did not know where they got their way to make cement. At the same time, with their amazing imagination, they developed a further way of building on top of this. That is, reinforced concrete.

The dwarves with the world's most advanced knowledge of physics and mathematics have also made great achievements in chemistry. They easily solved the problem of cement cracking in a low temperature environment. On this basis, we have even developed a fast cement that can set quickly. Mixing cement, sand and pebbles together and driving a concrete mixer with a high-powered steam engine can create extremely strong and durable concrete.

Adding steel bars to these concrete centers would have taken the fortifications to the next level.

This is the dwarven village that William and his party saw—a fence of reinforced concrete more than three meters high and one meter wide, with watchtowers and shooting platforms on it. On the platform were dwarves in leather robes, with large-caliber smoothbore guns in their hands and round grenades. There are also six-pounder cannons made by the dwarves, as well as a double-stacked twenty-four-pipe organ cannon.

The village...... Well, let's call it a fortress from now on.

The fortress looks very strong, and in fact it is very strong. In this very strong fortress, there are hundreds of dwarves...... The vast majority are fighters.

Although the dwarves are surprised that there is no state, no complete social structure, and no system of government. But that doesn't mean the dwarves are scattered. William even suspected that the race that understood the meaning of unity in the world was the dwarves.

As the first stop for the dwarves in their confrontation with the outside world, this village is more of an outpost than a village...... With the strength of a village, it is impossible to build such a strong fortress and distribute so many weapons and equipment here. It's the result of the dwarves working together, all the dwarves working together.

The dwarves who live here do not need to do any productive activities...... Of course, there was hunting as a pastime and to improve their diets - but all else they needed were shared by the other dwarves, or dwarves as a whole.

There is only one thing they have to do, and that is to guard the gate, this vital level and gate to the human world.

William believed that there must have been many similar fortresses. Or on every road to the dwarven world, there is a "village" that is large or small, but absolutely strong, absolutely armed, and absolutely stationed with a large number of dwarven warriors.

This also represents the dwarves' perception and attitude towards the outside world.

These guys often benefit from the outside world - especially in cooperation with humans in various research and construction. But they never really trusted any race, including humans. Their hearts, like this heavily armed fortress, are strong and impregnable.

"What a bunch of stubborn guys. William thought to himself, and put another question mark on the feasibility of his plan.

The dwarves who stood guard in Rytjod were not as eloquent as their people who walked outside. In other words, the dwarves who walked outside more or less accommodated human society. The dwarves who live here have maintained their true nature.

It's like it is now.

"Who are you? Don't get closer, if you get closer, you'll shoot!"

After seeing William's group from a distance, the dwarves immediately pointed the organ cannons, six-pounder guns, and large-caliber smoothbore guns at William and his party.

"Really. ”

It's a pretty bad feeling to be being targeted at you by a guy. William couldn't help but frown. But I immediately endured it again. Now it's my own needs, so the dwarves are not very powerful, yes, the dwarves are very powerful. So since the dwarves are very powerful, it's not a big deal to soften your attitude a little here:

William himself wasn't the one who actually came forward anyway - he was sitting in the back, on the sleigh in the middle, and on the sleigh in the front, it was a Cheka agent who was negotiating with the dwarves.

As an agent, in addition to being agile and logical. The skills to communicate with people and gain affection are also necessary. If you don't do that, how can you get information?

And as the leader of William's actions, this Cheka agent is naturally more powerful, and he is born with a simple and honest face, which makes people subconsciously believe that his face is not spoken, and he is also very listening to his words. Even the dwarves who don't usually like to deal with people, and are as cold as the weather in Rieteryode, are somewhat relaxed after seeing this guy.

"Don't shoot! Dwarven friends, we are merchants from Russia! We have no ill will!"

"Businessman from Russia...... ......" The dwarves on the parapet looked at each other and muttered a discussion. Then he asked, "What did you bring with you?!"

Hearing these guys say this, William's party breathed a sigh of relief, it seems that the dwarves are not incapable of communicating - the local production of Rieteryod is not abundant......

Despite legend, there are a lot of minerals hidden deep beneath the ground, from traditional gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, to sulfur, saltpeter, and the most important coal mines of the industrial age. In addition, with the progress of the chemical industry, all kinds of non-ferrous metals are occasionally produced, and they are given various fantasy names by the dwarves, and then they are sold on a large scale.

But.

But this era does not mean that with minerals there is everything. Although in terms of economy, it is the general trend for industry to gradually catch up, or even catch up with agriculture. But if a country has no agriculture and only industry, then the country cannot be called a qualified country.

It's like dwarves...... Although these guys living in Ritjord have the resources that are said to be the most suitable for the development of heavy industry in the world, most of the other daily necessities still need to be imported in large quantities.

Grains, meats, seasonings, spices. Of course, there is also the most important table salt - one is no well salt and the other is no pool salt, and the Polotsk Sea claims to be the least salinous sea in the world. The cost of making salt is to death - and even more so in this era, there was no salt drying method, and all salt was boiled.

Iron pots for boiling salt aside, the dwarves living in the industrial age had enough iron to squander—but the firewood needed to boil salt was very hard to come by—not that it was hard to come by, but that firewood had a more important task in Ritjord than boiling salt, that is, heating......

After knowing this, William sighed a little. At the same time, I thought to myself, why don't the dwarves use honeycomb coal? They have the largest coal reserves in the world.

Moreover, the dwarves exploited the mines very quickly, and with the assistance of mechanical power, the dwarves had a high coal production. The quality is also very good. It is comparable to the world-famous Welsh white coal in William's previous life, that is, the highest grade anthracite. So why don't these guys use a stove and honeycomb coal? Well, maybe they can go a step further and use heating, or even underfloor heating.

All in all, William didn't know what the dwarves were thinking. Or they have great scientific abilities, but they are very poor at life. It's like the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Thinking about it this way, William understood.

And then there are the clothes......

Although it is said that the dwarves of this era knew how to tann leather, and they were highly skilled. In addition, the Retjord area is quite thick and warm for all kinds of furs...... However, it is impossible for a person to wear only a layer of leather for a year.

Cloth, cotton, wool, woolen ...... People living in the tropics can't imagine how passionate people living in the cold zone are for textiles.

In the end, it's luxury...... Although it is said that the dwarves advocate a hard and simple way of life. But so what, human beings themselves also advocate a hard and simple way of life. Even human Protestantism is dedicated to advocating hard work and simplicity. However, this did not stop the merchants, factory owners and capitalists from believing in Protestantism and living a drunken and drunken life......