Chapter 897: Ten Million Troops Advance on Three Fronts, Sweeping Seventy Cities Across Three Kingdoms! (End)

Woo! Woo! Woo!

From the wide streets of Dorabi City came the blaring of noisy horns, the rumble of machines in motion, and the immense, orderly marching steps of Steel Warriors and Golems.

In the unusual calm of these two days in Dorabi City, the ordinary residents living here came to recognize the gap between the territories once ruled by those Nobility and the Golden Empire.

If the gap between commoners and Nobility in the Icaria World was like that between heaven and earth, then the gap between most other Nobility and the Golden Empire was like an impassable chasm.

In resources, in force of arms, in vision—indeed in almost every aspect, there was a vast difference.

Even the great civilian Civilian Labor Camps hauling supplies for the Golden Empire radiated a kind of vitality unlike that of other Civilized Realms in the Icaria World.

After training, those civilian laborers drove one giant steel transport machine after another, happily shuttling back and forth within and outside the city of Dobira, hauling supplies.

These gigantic steel transport machines, produced on a scale-assembly basis, were about sixteen meters long, eight meters wide, and eight meters high; their empty weight alone was two hundred tons, with a rated load capacity of three hundred and sixty tons.

These large loaders were originally developed by the Golden Empire Research Department as giant mining vehicles for high-quality ore extraction, possessing extremely high load capacity and a powerful power system.

The dual configuration of Magic Engine and heavy-oil engine allowed such colossal monsters to transport in a single trip on land more cargo than an entire convoy of packhorse teams.

Although their top speed was only sixty-four kilometers per hour, supported by eight rubber tires, even crossing the Divine Forsaken Mountain Range posed no difficulty.

And rubber was not uncommon within the Golden Empire’s territories, which were rich in rubber-producing regions.

The application of rubber required precise temperature control and accurate pressure regulation to ensure product quality and performance, yet even this could not stump the Golden Empire’s Magic Research Department and the auxiliary intelligent main-brains installed on the production lines.

Although steel trains were the ultimate form of land transport, the Golden Empire did not yet have the capacity to lay railways into the cities it had only just conquered.

Thus these steel machines of the Golden Empire became the busiest existences at present; because of their slow speed, they were nicknamed “Crawlers” by the citizens of the Golden Empire.

At first, besides being designed as high-quality mining vehicles for the Golden Empire, these steel machines were also intended to be refitted into tank-like war machines rampaging across the battlefield.

But after evaluation by the Imperial Research Department, it was concluded that developing Golem Legion technology was far more efficient and powerful than turning such steel constructs into war machines, so this batch of “Crawler” transporters was assigned as logistical war-preparation machines to haul Imperial Heavy Cannon, armaments, grain, and supplies.

“Hahaha, driving a machine like this is really impressive—second only to the feeling of soaring through the skies on a Flying Dragon or Dragon Beast,”

a young militia reservist sitting in the main driver’s seat of a “Crawler” transport machine said with a laugh to his assistant, as he watched the newly lively native residents of Dorabi City casting curious, astonished, and envious glances their way.

“This is nothing,” the other equally young assistant said, though he still puffed out his chest proudly. He told his companion, “I know a servant under the logistics chief who oversees the Civilian Labor Camp,”

“I once heard him say at a victory banquet that the Empire is still developing ultra-giant machines specifically for opening up large mineral deposits—those are the real behemoths.”

“It’s said that thing is called ‘Crawler’ by the logistics department, like a big iron box, a full forty meters long, thirty meters wide, and seven meters high, with its own weight close to three thousand tons!”

“Wow, if I could drive a monster like that, I’d be willing even if it meant I had to tame another Flying Dragon!”

“Pah, what nonsense are you dreaming about!”

As Dorabi City and the Marino Defense Line came completely under the control of the Golden Empire and the Alliance of Kings, scenes like this were playing out along every transport corridor of the Marino Defense Line.

The set objective of the Eight Kings Alliance was to sweep clean the entire Southern Noble Alliance, so they would not slow their advance.

The supplies and armaments captured after the defeat of those Noble Alliance Legions all had to be taken over and inventoried by the vast logistical transport Legions, then shipped to the next camp of the Allied Kings Army.

This was, in fact, a form of feeding war with war, resupplying on the spot.

However, even though industrialization in the Golden Empire already showed signs of full expansion, manufacturing such giant machines still required a long time, for countless industries within the Empire needed large amounts of manpower and productive capacity.

Although, once the war began, all productive capacity was given priority to supply the war effort, there were still only fifteen of these giant “Crawler” loaders in the Golden Empire.

The remaining means of transport were still quite primitive, relying on carts hauled by large species such as Demon Horned Rhinoceros, Dragon Beast, and Barbarian Dragon. Thus in these past few days, Dorabi City had become many times more bustling than at its most prosperous in the past.

Amid such lively busyness, there was no lack of blood to instill fear.

The Nobility had once stirred up small-scale resistance within the city, attempting to use street fighting to pin down the Golden Empire and the Kings for a time.

But such minor disturbances did not even require the main combat Legions of the Empire to act; the goblin and Kobold Firearms Soldiers garrisoned from the Golden Empire, working together with the Alchemy biological Legions, easily crushed whatever ripples had arisen.