Kao left 2 days later, after he'd ironed out all the details of the trade agreement with our ministers. While he agreed to help with the building of the academy as part of the agreement, much like our previous agreements, there were time frame restrictions after the war, such that the dwarves can focus on rebuilding their own homes first, which is plenty reasonable in my opinion. While not explicitly part of the trade agreement, trains were discussed to a degree. We didn't have a good demonstration set up to show him what to expect, but that didn't matter much based on the results of the discussion.

Basically, we simply agreed that they wouldn't restrict us from utilizing trains, and regional lords would be in charge of building out train tracks if they want them. They won't engage in some large scale infrastructure project to use rails for the time being, but we aren't being restricted from operating or selling them either. I'd expect that, if we can show the value of the trains to regional lords, especially those within central valleys, they'll gladly purchase the rails to build out the infrastructure into their regions, as long as they have trade they want to conduct. Many won't want to, but some will, and that's enough generally. We might even subsidize their construction as long as we're the operators collecting transport fees.

Before that, however, the new tanks are going to have machine guns attached, and we're sending along some crews to retrofit some of the tanks they already have with the new system. The next shipment to the mainland will involve a few dozen machine guns and a few thousand rounds of ammo. Moving forward that trend will continue until the war is over. Before the next shipment though, I need to train instructors who will go with the guns to teach the dwarves how to operate them effectively.

They'll be installed in the existing defensive positions. I've also sent along the design of a pillbox with narrow slits for the barrels of the machine guns. While it may not be as effective as on earth, simply due to individual power thanks to magic, it should make the machine gun nests more effective versus weaker enemies who can't easily break through stone and dirt. They should be cheaper to make than standing forts as well, while simultaneously being more effective, given the nature of machine gun fire. Shooting from above means a miss goes into the ground, shooting from body level means that a miss might continue and hit an enemy further back, thanks to bullets having such a high velocity.

The first shipment went out after 17 days. The second shipment went out after 16 days, and when it returned 11 days after it left, they had some bad news. A moderately sized army had flooded out from the capitol. That army was comprised almost entirely of medium and high level demons. The new defenses hadn't yet been installed, because it was so soon after the first delivery, and they've been rapidly reclaiming territory.

Normally, these larger demon armies were comprised largely of goblins. I'm still not entirely sure what conditions lead to the gecko and bark-covered demons that we saw during our initial invasion, but it seems that whatever condition it is, it isn't really present on the dwarven continent, as their armies are now largely comprised of the same sorts of individuals our are. In this particular instance, the lowest level demons were hobgoblins, with many ogres, trolls, and gorilla-type demons in the army.

What seems to have occurred is that the demons have realized that if they want to be able to face enemy armies head on, they actually need to be able to destroy a handful of tanks effectively. While I'm not certain how they amassed such a large army of higher level individuals, I do have a guess. Similar to how imps that are all summoned in one large pit fight to the death and gain levels faster as a result, it's possible that they're continuing that tradition with their goblins as well within the valleys around Par-Tor. The extra mana they have access to is letting them summon far more imps than they could otherwise, making more demons expendable.

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While using sheer numbers was how they were operating for a while, those numbers became less valuable with our tanks and artillery. What is valuable now is trading low level demons for a handful of high level ones. In a straight fight against humans, dwarves, and elves, this sort of tactic would be less useful, mostly because humanoids are generally higher level and better trained than demons, but because tanks with explosive rounds have made anything that can't survive an indirect hit exceptionally bad, they've had to adapt.

Without machine guns deployed on the front line, they've been losing tanks and soldiers in the fights, with a decently high casualty rate having been reported on both sides. The tanks are still capable of dealing with a decent number of enemies before going down, but it isn't enough to turn the tables completely. This enemy army likely represents at least a year, maybe more, of stockpiled leveling for the demons. It also represents enough power that the dwarves are going to have to lose territory in other places to reinforce their armies to slow the new demon offensive.

Personally, I think that the machine guns will probably help a lot. A bit problem with our grapeshot turrets on tanks currently is their slow rate of fire. If a demon gets hit by one ball from it and survives, then they have plenty of time to close the gap. With a machine gun though, fire can be targeted on individuals one at a time until they go down. The reload time on the machine guns is comparable to, if even a little faster than, the grapeshot turrets, meaning less downtime overall. I just hope they don't lose too much territory before the new tech can be effectively utilized.

In the mean time, I've been working on the new air separation facility by day, and drafting up ideas and plans for the academy on the other island by night. I had asked the other ministers to do a bunch of scouting previously, so I actually have some detailed maps and documents that I've been working off of as a result.

Thanks to those maps, I've been able to really pick out the best places for everything. Unlike Kembora, there isn't really a perfect singular location for everything on that island. That means that a decent amount of work will need to be completed to accommodate everything. Streams will need to be redirected, slopes modified, and extensive work will have to be done to allow effective shipping to the island, as it has no natural harbors or extended shallows.

Three more shipments to the mainland over the course of a total of 47 days have passed, each bringing back an update on the current situation of the war. We evacuated our workers on the first ship after we had gotten the news, and that seems to have been the right choice. This demon army is being quite smart, aiming to knock out the dwarven defensive towers, then retreating back up into the mountains where our ships can't hit them. After knocking out the defenses, the smaller demons begin filtering out from the interior, regaining control of those areas.

A large amount of the coast has been lost to these tactics. It isn't all bad news though. The high level demon army has been losing steam with each fight against a defensive position, and the dwarven armies have regrouped and avoided a direct conflict so far. The dwarves are preparing their own counter-offensive attack soon. They've split their combined forces in two, and are waiting in the two locations they expect the next attack to occur. Each of those armies have a dozen or so tanks which are now outfitted with machine guns. They've also retrofitted a handful of the remaining defensive positions with machine guns, and have kept multiple on hand with the intent of installing them as they reclaim territory.

If this counter offensive goes well, I expect that they'll likely decide to force the fight to reclaim the dwarven capitol and reclaim Par-Tor as a way to prevent this sort of army from being created again. Honestly, once the capitol falls and the demon lord Malagord is defeated, it'll still take quite some time before they can root out the demons from the various valleys. Even if they don't, though, they should be relatively scattered and uncoordinated, which means they shouldn't be able to do coordinate large attacks anymore, meaning the new defensive positions shouldn't fall before the army goes in and wipes them out.

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