Volume 1: The Rise of Elanhill Chapter 0015 Bottleneck of Development
"Uh... General Lawrence." Chris looked at Berman's body lying on the ground with some embarrassment and said, "I think your loyalty is not worth much..."
Lawrence laughed, his shoulders shrugged as if he had heard something particularly funny. When he stopped laughing, he said, " Everyone on the ship behind me can assure you that as long as you treat the people of Ferry City well, we will fight for you until our death!"
"Sounds good." Chris nodded: "I'll try my best."
"Then... I am yours." Lawrence looked like he was taking things as they come.
He glanced at the dense cavalry behind Chris, walked to the side of Chris's horse, looked up at Chris, and said in a chattering tone: "If you defeat Mayne, it means you have to pay 1,000 gold coins in taxes to that idiot Ensel, so I think that since you can afford 2,000 gold coins, you can definitely pay 3,000 gold coins."
"That's a reasonable analysis." Chris nodded. "I do have a way to get 3,000 gold coins."
"You are now the master of three castles, so you have to take on your responsibility - to help Ferry City pay taxes." After Lawrence finished speaking, he turned sideways and shouted loudly in the direction of the sailboat: "Okay! Everyone get off the boat! Ferry City is saved!"
"..." Chris didn't expect that the other party would be so single.
"In fact, I'm curious..." After Lawrence turned around, he did not continue the topic of taxes and tributes, but talked about the battle in the Eastern Forest: "How were you able to defeat Ensel so quickly and take over Mayne City almost at the same time?"
"Wagron and I split up into two groups. It's not hard to understand." Chris replied with a smile.
"What I can't understand is why you divided your troops into two groups and were able to win both..." Lawrence shook his head and said, "You have at most 600 people, and you are not heavy cavalry. How could you win a quick victory against 2,000 people?"
"Would you like to see my new weapons? I might be able to make your navy more presentable," Chris tempted, "But I want to take a closer look at your troops. I hope they are as reliable as you say."
Lawrence frowned and looked at Chris, but he didn't refuse Chris's solicitation in the end: "Okay! Take me to see it! As long as you can fulfill your promise to Ferry City, my life, Lawrence, will be yours!"
Chris did not say anything, pulled the reins and walked out of the city. He did not intend to hide the strength of his artillery, because it was impossible to hide it. Soon the news of the Battle of the Eastern Forest and the Battle of Ferry City would spread far and wide, and his weapons would become known to the world.
His real trump card is not these cannons, nor more powerful modern weapons. What can really make him powerful is the great modern industrial system that has begun to rise in Seris!
Therefore, Chris didn't mind letting Lawrence go to see his artillery unit, completely tame this sea dragon, and let this naval commander serve him wholeheartedly. At this time, Lawrence didn't know how powerful what he was about to see was!
…
"Clang! Clang!" In a shed built with wooden boards, a giant steel beast lay in the middle. At this moment, it was making a huge noise, driving a huge iron shaft to rotate.
"As long as the coal is burning... this device can keep turning like this! This is a machine that is more magical than magic!" Looking at his masterpiece, the craftsman Smith was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes. A month ago, he was just a blacksmith, but now, he is a great craftsman who has participated in creating a miracle.
For mortals who cannot practice magic, they can only live in a land without magic and will never see the glory of magic. However , the great city lord Ailan Hill Chris told them that even without magic, mortals can also control more powerful forces.
"Add coal! Add coal!" He stood next to this already very advanced steam engine and loudly ordered his apprentices.
Following his orders, two apprentices took shovels and added more coal into the combustion chamber, raising the temperature of the entire steam engine even higher.
Looking at the pressure gauge, Smith nodded with satisfaction. The internal pressure of the machine was now completely within the design value, and the output had reached the shooting requirements.
This steam engine is connected to 20 looms that have been arranged. In theory, as long as these looms are connected to the power train, they can keep working.
"Let the experiment begin!" Smith looked at the female workers standing nearby and loudly gave the order to start the test.
Dozens of female workers began to turn on the equipment according to their previous training, connecting the looms to the power of the steam engine.
"Wow!" The first loom began to operate frantically, and the finished cloth began to roll into the groove below and was automatically rolled into a roll.
The same thing happened to the second loom, then the third and the fourth. Soon, all 60 looms in the factory were working without any lag.
At this time, the boiler pressure was normal, the steam engine was still working stably, and various pressure gauges were fluctuating slightly within the normal value range.
Just as expected at the beginning, these female workers only need to follow the operating procedures and manually pull some shuttles to complete the entire processing work.
A well-trained female worker can manage three such looms, and the production speed of these three looms is ten times that of the previous primitive looms.
From today on, every family can use cheap cloth. As long as there are enough raw materials, the textile factories in Seris City can even provide enough cloth for the whole world!
This production speed is simply a crushing blow to the previous cloth production process. What's more frightening is that as the production speed increases, the production cost of cloth begins to drop madly.
The cloth that used to require 1,000 people to produce can now be produced by only 20 people. The saved production costs are enough to destroy the original cloth production ecosystem.
What's even more terrifying is that with the steam engine, such factories could continue to expand in scale, allowing workers who were not familiar with textiles to join in, making textile production easier and more widespread.
Soon, children and the elderly will join the production process. At that time, the fragile original material production model will be instantly wiped out, just like a snowflake evaporating in the sun, leaving nothing behind...
"The second and third steam engines have been put into use in the blacksmith shop, and there are ten more in the production process. I heard that three of them are specifically used to make new weapons." Smith handed the receipt report in his hand to another engineer beside him.
The supervising engineer signed his name on it, nodded and said, "The production capacity of the Seris City Steel Plant has almost reached its limit. We need new iron ore to support our production."
Today, the process of industrialization in Seris City is restricted by the lack of qualified engineers and the inability to meet the demand for raw steel. In order to increase production speed, Seris City has even begun to purchase steel from surrounding areas.
"The nearest iron mine is in Tubao, which is actually quite close to us." Smith seemed anxious to expand his business and suggested, "We have bought a lot of their ore recently, but the price is really too high."
"We can't do anything about it." Another engineer was very knowledgeable about current affairs. He shook his head and said unhappily, "Didn't the city lord go to attack Ferry City in person? If he doesn't come back victorious, how can we have the energy to move the earthen fortress..."
He paused and said, "Since you have this idea, the machinery factory should hurry up and increase the number of machine tools to produce more cannons."
"I think so too, but we need time." Looking at the constantly rotating steam engine, Smith said helplessly: "The current production speed is the fastest we can achieve."
Industrialization certainly cannot be completed in one day. Although there were many skilled blacksmiths and foundry workers in the original city of Seris, they could only complete the tasks at hand bit by bit.
Automated machine tools are not available yet, and steam engine parts are all produced by hand, with a high failure rate and poor precision. Therefore, steam engines are not only huge in size, but also not very powerful.
The scrap rate of parts remained high, and the machines designed by Chris could only be produced at a snail's pace. Even if the standards were relaxed, some machines could not operate smoothly, and most machine tools could only be driven by manpower.
Because he has complete industrial technology, detailed formulas, and completely accurate processing time data that does not require experiments, Chris is not promoting the development of technology in this world; he is actually pulling the technology forward.
Because magic existed in this world and alchemy was very common, the world was quick to accept Chris's bizarre new ideas. Almost no one questioned where Chris's technology came from, and everyone believed that this lord had received inspiration from God.
The reason is actually very simple. Since God has endowed wizards with powerful magic, it is only normal to leave some hope for mortals after thousands of years of suffering.
From a technical perspective, Chris is pulling rather than pushing forward the development of science and technology in the world. What constrains him is no longer the speed of technological accumulation and development, but the serious lack of production capacity and talent.
