Chapter 722: The Storm
The blizzard covered almost the entire northern territory, and even the New World colonies and dominions were greatly affected.
In such bad weather, all outdoor activities are naturally impossible.
No one would brave the extreme cold of dozens of degrees below zero and brave the strong winds of level 12 to stay outside.
In such bad weather, it can be said that as long as anyone dares to go out, it is almost a death sentence.
Strong winds and low temperatures will quickly take away the body's heat, causing the body to become hypothermic in a very short period of time. The body's functions will decline, and the mind will become dull. People will soon get lost in the bad weather and eventually freeze to death in the wind. In the snow, even the body could not be recovered.
In such extremely bad weather, even steam riders are not guaranteed to survive outdoors.
After all, even if it is protected by steel and can resist the cold, the low temperature will still cause the Steam Knight itself to not operate smoothly, and even the outer shell will be directly frozen.
Purficott did address these issues when he originally designed the Steam Knight Armor. There is a specially designed insulation layer between the outer shell and the inner layer of the entire Steam Knight to withstand the severe cold.
The output of the Steam Knight can also ensure that even if the outer shell freezes, as long as the whole body is not frozen standing in place for a long time, it will not have much impact on the Steam Knight.
But even Purficott, when he originally designed the Steam Rider, he only ensured that it could theoretically operate in the harsh environment of minus 70 degrees, rather than designing it to fight against such extremely cold snowstorms.
This has resulted in the entire northern territory now shrinking underground, with all transportation and various production activities disrupted.
"What's the damage situation in various places? Is there any summary?" In the underground office of Lord Chernobog's Mansion, Purficott was asking the officials who came to report the situation.
Although Purfico is now the imperial regent, she should theoretically be based in Beloberg.
However, due to various living habits and considerations, after Purficott completed the first phase of the layout and construction of the flying battleship plan, she set off back to Chernobog.
As her carefully managed nest, it was here that Perficott could better control the entire northern territory.
This time the entire Northern Territory was hit by a disaster, thanks to the telegraph network that Perficott had originally laid. She was still able to obtain timely information about the entire Northern Territory's situation.
"A preliminary summary has been completed. The economic losses in various places are quite serious. About 20 people died in this blizzard, more than 70 people are missing, and more than 300 people were injured because of this blizzard." Officials told Purficott submitted a detailed report.
After receiving the report, Purficott's hands couldn't help but tremble a little, and seeing the final statistics made her extremely heartbroken.
Those were her people, her territory, and she would still feel heartache even if she had suffered such a huge loss, no matter how hard-hearted she was.
But despite his heartache, Purficott was also thinking about how to break the situation.
It is obviously not enough to wait until after the snowstorm to send out forces for disaster relief. Although it is relatively safer, it will also make a considerable number of remote, small settlements with little pressure-bearing capacity lose hope of survival.
They themselves do not have much ability to cope with disasters and have already suffered huge losses in this sudden snowstorm.
If they wait until after the snowstorm to rescue them, they are likely to be in dire straits due to lack of food and fuel.
No one wants to see that situation.
"How are the material reserves in each settlement? Are there any settlements that need immediate support?" Although Purficott is very confident in the northern territory he has built, some problems are still unavoidable.
"Several relatively remote settlements have expressed the need for material support. The materials they have stored are not enough to support the current situation for a long time. Moreover, the locally produced coal mines are the core for maintaining the operation of settlements in the northern region. We need to do it as soon as possible. "Restoring settlements in this area." The officials reported the situation to Purficott and also informed them of the list.
Perficott remembers every settlement in the north very clearly and can quickly compare them on the map.
Therefore, as soon as the official said, she had roughly confirmed that the locations of these settlements in need of resources should be closer to the northwest of the Arctic Circle.
This area itself is remote and transportation is relatively difficult. In addition to an extended railway line, the usual supply of supplies in this area relies on airships that cruise regularly.
With the availability of airships, the supply of supplies in this generation is relatively stable, and local settlements are self-sufficient in various ways.
The main resource produced by the settlements in this area is fuel. The mined coal will be transported by special trains every other week or so. It can be said that it is one of the important sources of industrial blood in the north.
Just because the distribution of coal mines is relatively scattered, these settlements are also scattered throughout the mineral veins, and no large settlements have been formed.
Because the population is mainly miners, these settlements have little other production capacity themselves, and food mainly relies on external inputs, making it difficult to form food reserves themselves.
This led to the fact that in the face of the blizzard, the food in these settlements quickly fell into a state of tension and shortage, and they could only rely on the production of alchemical compressed biscuits to keep them from starving to death.
If it were not for the richer mineral resources near the Arctic Circle, the establishment of these settlements would seem quite unnecessary.
But now, Purficott had to worry about their existence.
In particular, in addition to sending people to support these settlements, Purficott also needs to transport the precious coal produced here to other places and restore this coal transportation route.
With the blizzards continuing, getting the railway line back up and running seems like a fantasy.
And if you want to dispatch an airship, weather like this is even more inviting.
Strong winds of up to Level 12 will tear apart anything that is not fixed, and things like airships that require wind power are even more likely to be destroyed.
Under such circumstances, it is very difficult even from Purficott's perspective to provide help to these disaster-stricken settlements.
You should know that when a strong wind of level 12 brings a blizzard, even a train loaded with coal will be shaken by the strong wind of level 12, and may even be at risk of capsizing.
——
"How to provide help to these settlements..." Purficott also fell into long thinking.
Encountering such bad weather, let alone this world, even in the original world before time travel, it seems impossible to maintain the operation of these settlements in the north under such bad weather. challenges.
And Purficott began to try to use the power of 'omniscience' to search for solutions to the problem.
There are solutions, of course, but overall they are still too far-fetched. There is no doubt that the first thing to face if you want to solve the problem is the transportation problem. You need a stable means of transportation that can withstand level 12 strong winds and blizzards.
This first request stumped everyone. Even if Bodie Carter personally came forward, he could only think of cobbling together a heavy armored train to cope with it.
As for the other questions that Purficott hadn't thought of, Omniscient couldn't search for answers on his own.
Apparently, Purficott was in a state of depletion of inspiration, leaving her unsure of how to solve the problem.
And another key issue is that what Purficott needs is an immediate solution to the problem, rather than a large project that requires a lot of time and resources.
This undoubtedly limits the answer to the problem to using the empire's existing technology, or even off-the-shelf products.
Within this narrow scope, there are very few options for solving the problem.
For now, Purficott prefers to mobilize a large team of robots, carry enough resources, and then travel through the blizzard.
From the original design intention, large robots are indeed more often prepared to deal with such extreme environments.
The previous caravan parades composed of large robots in the North could be said to be the response mode of large robots to extremely severe weather.
It's just that the wind and snow are now stronger than they have ever encountered before, which makes Purficott worried about whether the large robots can do the job.
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But right now, if he wants to solve the problem in the shortest possible time, the only option available to Purficott is large robots.
After careful consideration, she reluctantly chose a large robot, which was currently the only one that could travel through a blizzard.
——
Several large robots were temporarily strengthened and then formed a team. After testing to confirm that they could indeed withstand the wind and snow, these robots began to travel through the blizzard.
Watching the team set off against the wind and snow, Purficott felt mixed emotions, full of worry and anxiety.
This team is composed entirely of robots. There is no human being in the team. They will completely rely on the robot's own mechanical mind to make judgments, confirm its current status, and ultimately complete the task of supporting settlements in the northern region.
You must know that although Purficott used large robots to maintain resource transportation in the north before, there were still humans in every large robot caravan.
The staff accompanying the robot will correct the robot's actions when necessary so that it can cope with various emergencies.
This is equivalent to having a programmer sitting beside a program while it is running, and will immediately start taking a break as soon as there is a bug.
Under such circumstances, the robot caravan in the north still encountered endless emergencies, which posed severe tests to both the staff accompanying the team and the large robots themselves.
Fortunately, although the operation model of the robot caravan has encountered various problems over the years, overall it is still a very successful system.
It can be said that they made valuable contributions to the previous prosperity of the North.
However, now, Purficott not only needs a large robot to cross the wind and snow, but also does not even have a staff member to accompany the team.
It relies entirely on the various data accumulated by the mechanical mind of the large robot to respond to various problems with its autonomous operation.
It's not that Purficott deliberately didn't send staff to accompany him, but the harsh environment did not allow staff to accompany the large robots.
Extreme cold and strong winds can kill these workers, but the robots themselves are built to withstand this level of harshness.
It’s just that problems that were previously solved by team members now all depend on the robots themselves, which is also a huge test for these robots.
This also makes Purficott very worried, worried about whether these robots can successfully complete the task, and also worried about whether they can cope with various problems that they may encounter.
And the current problems have made Purficott more determined to build a floating city.
If there is a floating city, we can drive the floating city to provide help to the affected settlements. It will undoubtedly be much easier to use than now.
After all, it is a flying city that can effectively resist various problems that may be encountered.
Many problems that are completely unsolvable for individuals or autonomous robots can be said to be completely worthless in front of the floating city.
The only thing that needs to be considered may be the issue of cost-effectiveness. The cost of moving an entire city is not small at all.
But judging from the impact of the current situation, when it is necessary to move the floating city, cost-effectiveness is probably the last thing to consider.
——
Returning to the Lord's Mansion, Purficott locked himself in the laboratory again.
Although she knew that she should pay more attention to the problems encountered in various places in the North, she was full of worries but could not do anything at the moment and could only vent her energy in the laboratory.
"Hey, it would be great if there really was a floating city now!" Looking at the model hanging in his laboratory, Perfectcott couldn't help but sigh.
However, she does not have the floating city in her hands now.
If it were other people, it might be just a matter of words, but for Purficott, she was really seriously considering how to build a floating city.
"Perhaps I can dismantle the large floating city and build a small flying fortress?" A seemingly feasible idea suddenly appeared in Purficott's mind.
This inspiration inspired her. Building the floating city itself was too expensive. Even if the current northern territory was sold, it might not be able to get enough resources to build the floating city.
But if it is replaced by a small flying fortress, the cost will be relatively smaller.
After all, the size is here, and for a small flying fortress, many things can be simplified.
This can also verify the various technologies that need to be considered in building a floating city, and truly consider the various issues required to build and maintain the operation of a floating city, laying the foundation for truly building a floating city.
(End of chapter)