The first award ceremony lasted until noon. Roland, who was also a commendor, commentator and host, was exhausted until the end. Fortunately, the ceremony finally concluded with the bell ringing at noon and the sound of cannon salutes. He returned to the castle with sweat and just stepped onto the third floor, and he saw Anna leaning against the office door with a smile on his face.

"What's wrong?"

"You'll know when you go in," she blinked her beautiful lake blue eyes.

It wasn't a prank show, right? Roland pushed open the door in confusion, and then stood there in a daze. The twelve witches stood neatly in two rows, and Shuju and Wendy were in the front. Seeing the prince appear, everyone lifted the corners of their skirts, bent their knees, and bowed to salute.

"Ahem, you guys are..."

The book was the first to speak, "Your Highness, your actions prove everything you said, and the sisters are deeply grateful for this. No words can describe our gratitude. Please let us continue to serve you in the future."

"So that's it," Roland breathed a sigh of relief, "I thought you were going to say goodbye together."

"Puchi," Wendy couldn't help laughing, "How is that possible, Your Highness, this is the holy mountain that the witch dreams of. As long as you don't drive us away, we hope to live here forever."

"And this is what I want to see... Actually, you don't have to do this. I'm not only helping you, but also helping myself. Don't be too serious, I prefer your relaxed and comfortable appearance."

"Hmph, I just said there is no need to be formal like this," Lily snorted, "Look, he thinks we are too serious."

"No way, did you agree just now?" Miyue muttered in a low voice, "Traitor!"

"Okay, let's go to the restaurant first. Your Highness will change his clothes," Shujuan held his forehead helplessly. "By the way, I heard from Miss Anna that you have slept very late recently? Please take care of yourself. You must not fall down before that goal is achieved."

"Don't worry," Roland smiled, "I'm in great shape."

After the witches came out one after another, he and Anna were the only ones left in the office.

"What, do you want to express your gratitude to me too?" Roland teased her.

"Well... I want to say the same as them," Anna raised her lips, ""No words can describe my gratitude."

"Then... hope to live in Border Town all the time?"

"That's not necessarily."

Roland was stunned, and his heart was shocked, "Why?"

"Because you won't stay here all the time," Anna said with her head tilted, "...and wherever you go, I will always follow you."

A warm current suddenly surged in his heart. Her thoughts had never changed since the day he met her. Whether it was the invitation from the Communist Party of China or the critical moment of fighting against the evil beasts, she chose to stand with herself.

At this moment, Anna suddenly took two steps forward and gently hugged him.

"Wait, there's sweat." Roland reminded.

The girl did not answer, but put her head on his chest, as if she wanted to write down the smell, and took a deep breath. He finally gave up pushing her away, put his hands around the other party's fair neck, and never let go for a long time.

...

After lunch, Roland took a cold shower and quickly got into work.

He called Carl Vanbert, spread out the detailed map of the border town, and pointed to the location of the Chishui River, "I want to build a bridge here."

"Isn't it a pontoon bridge?" Carl thought for a moment and said, "Please be honest, Your Highness, Chishui River is nearly a hundred meters wide, and it is almost impossible to build a stone bridge. Even an arch bridge can only cross one-third of the distance at most. The water flow of Chishui River is extremely high, and the piers cannot be settled. Even stone piles as thick as one person will be washed down... Except for the raft crossing and the pontoon bridge, there is no bridge on the entire river."

"It's not a stone bridge, but a steel bridge," Roland explained. "There are three spans in total, and there will be a witch in the middle of the bridge. You just need to set up its guide bridge in place in advance. But I asked to raise the entire bridge body at the bridgehead so that the inland sailboat will pass through, and the mast will not touch the bottom of the bridge."

"Didn't that put the bridge in the sky?" Carl said in surprise.

"It's just about six or seven meters above the ground," he casually drew a three-span iron bridge in the sketch. "In order to better develop the south bank and dock construction in the future, there must be a bridge on the river that does not affect the passage of the ship. Although the pontoon bridge is simple, it itself is equivalent to blocking the river channel, which is not conducive to subsequent development."

The First Army Expeditionary Team's trip to the capital gave Roland a lot of inspiration - he found that the rivers in Greyburg were well-connected, and major cities were basically built next to several major rivers. If domestic combat is launched in the future and several shallow water heavy artillery boats are definitely a weapon to provide fire support and siege the city and land - after all, the power of a naval gun, known for its caliber, is far from comparable to field guns. If he wants to build a ship, he must first have a dock, so the plan for a steel bridge came into being.

"But I don't have experience in building bridges like..." Carl seemed a little hesitant.

"Neither," Roland shrugged, "just be the first time you've been exploring slowly. You can set up a bridge on the shore for testing, and then move to the Chishui River when there's no problem," he instilled the construction concept of overall prefabricated and one-time hoisting into the other. "Just like installing a water tower, there's a hummingbird to reduce its weight, and your student Anna helps assemble and weld it, it won't be difficult."

"As for... your order, Your Highness." He nodded.

"In addition, there is a very important project to hand over to you," the prince moved his finger to the castle area. "I plan to expand the size of my backyard and enclose all the vacant land on the high ground, and build a three-story building here."

If everything goes well, Tilly's five witches will arrive in the border town next month, and there are no extra guest rooms in the castle. Although they can be temporarily changed to three people per room, there will always be more and more witches in the future, and it is impossible to keep making do with them. The superior living environment and various novel and comfortable experiences are also one of his strategies to retain witches. Whether it is the ancients' difficulty from luxury to frugality, or the modern theory of sugar-coated cannonballs, a beautiful and comfortable life can always make people obsessed with it.

"Three-story...brick house?"

"It's not entirely a brick house," Roland smiled. "Its name should be called a brick-concrete structure. The columns and roof beams are poured from reinforced concrete, just like human bones. This structure can make the house taller, and it will be fine to build it to four floors in the future, and there will be no problem with five floors."

"Rebar...concrete?" Carl repeated with a confused look on his face.

"It is the mixture of cement, sand and gravel, and steel bars are implanted in the middle to strengthen its bending resistance," he said. "Of course, the specific amount of each ingredient is mixed with, which requires strict testing. If the configuration is successful, it is even stronger than natural bluestone."

Theoretically, this kind of thing has a very large elastic space in quality. It is also concrete. It is all made of cement bought in rural areas and configured by itself, which is completely different from the measurement configuration of mixing stations. The same is true for steel bars... Some people even don’t put pebbles or use iron wire or bamboo instead of steel bars when building their own houses on homesteads. When Roland was in the countryside, he witnessed the process of several "country villas" rising from the ground.

He also planned to follow this example. After all, it was just a three-story house, and no matter how hard it was to cut corners, it would be difficult to collapse.

In addition, he hoped to let Carl master such building materials that can change shapes randomly and be as perfect as artificial stones through the Witch Residential Building Project. As one of the development directions of the construction industry, concrete accounts for almost half of the land. He is not proficient in architecture, and he knows the little fur he learned from the countryside. Therefore, it is the right way to broaden the horizons of stonemasons and lead them to the right path.

"Uh... did this also make me fumble slowly?" he asked.
Chapter completed!