frightfiction Chapter 16 The Roar of Machinery and Steel
Chapter 16 The Roar of Machinery and Steel
The news of the victory over Lord Kut did not cause much of a stir in Trian City. After all, the autumn harvest was the most important thing, and the traditional harvest festival had become a celebration instead of a celebration.
Alice led a platoon back to Trian, where they were greeted with a huge welcome as soon as they entered the city.
"Long live Her Royal Highness the Princess!"
"Long live the Royal Family!"
Long live the agricultural system!
Alice's new agricultural system was undoubtedly very popular. Farmers had land to cultivate, and the agricultural tools purchased by the government not only boosted agricultural development but also led to the development of blacksmith shops in Trian.
"Thank you everyone!"
Alice stood in front of the procession, with honor guards carrying the tricolor flag and military flag. The small town of Trian was gradually transforming into a prosperous metropolis.
Of course, to truly transform it into a great city, it will need some sufficiently disruptive inventions.
"Sains! Long time no see!"
Alice changed into a hunting outfit that allowed for easy movement. In the entire Red Hall, this was the only outfit she considered "for business purposes." The others were all heavy vampire gowns, or, to use a description from her previous life, "Lolita-style dresses."
"Your Highness Alice, um, it's been a long time."
Sainz's hair was covered in grease. Alice had built an entire experimental workshop for the Red Ridge Academy of Sciences right next to the government building. The research and administration complex centered on the Red Ridge Academy was gradually taking shape.
Sainz recruited a lot of people; the entire Red Ridge Academy of Sciences had three people working in its research lab, which was filled with formulas and symbols.
"how?"
Alice asked expectantly, because right now, this was exactly what she needed, along with the supporting facilities.
"The good news is that the reciprocating steam engine was indeed successful and was indeed made."
Sain brought Alice to a huge factory building with brick walls and a wooden roof. This was the earliest industrial laboratory of the Red Ridge Academy of Sciences.
A huge machine made of brass and steel sat there, next to a pile of coal, and several young workers were shoveling coal and throwing it into the machine.
"Has it met the design requirements? The parameters are clearly written on the design drawings I left behind."
Alice grabbed the form she was writing on; this triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine should be able to achieve the figure mentioned above.
"In fact, due to the issue of machining precision... the one we made weighed about 1 ton more."
Several machine tools are placed in the industrial laboratory. These hydraulic machine tools come from the hydraulic power plant on the banks of the Hongling River. The lack of stable power for processing has led to problems with processing accuracy and materials, making this machine somewhat rough.
"It's alright, it was just an experiment anyway, but now we have a stable power source..."
“Your Highness, please forgive my boldness, but I am a researcher of these machines, and I had even doubted their function before. But after seeing your manuscript, I understand what kind of changes machines can bring. Please allow me to pay my respects to you.”
"Used as a stable power source, it can replace manual labor to some extent. Finally, day and night, factories equipped with these machines will continuously produce products that we cannot match by hand."
Alice looked at the huge machine. Red Ridge had no shortage of ore, but it lacked rubber. That was the role of the Chamber of Commerce. More than half of the cargo on the merchant ships that docked every day was rubber.
"Imagine how different our lives would be if Red Ridge were filled with factories that produced food day and night?"
Alice had already manufactured hydraulic machinery in several factories, most of which were located along the Red Ridge River and were powered by the same water source. These factories included the Red Ridge No. 1 Textile Factory, the Red Ridge Steel Plant, the Trian Arms Factory, and the Trian Machinery Factory, which existed from before the war to the present.
These factories were powered by water turbines, which was one of Alice's early works. However, the power of water was limited by the flow of the Red Ridge River. Although the Red Ridge Reservoir was built, it was far from enough. The water power plants needed to divert the flow to maintain the high flow rate of the water turbines. So now, it was time for the steam engine to come into play.
The Trian Machine Manufacturing Plant and the Trian Arms Manufacturing Plant were located almost next to each other. The former was responsible for supplying machine tool parts to the latter. It was directly under the jurisdiction of the Red Ridge Academy of Sciences and was responsible for producing industrial machine tools, including lathes, planers, milling machines, drilling machines, grinding machines, boring machines, etc., and was also responsible for manufacturing steam engines.
In Alice's blueprint, these companion factories would not require independent power installations. According to the plan, the Trian Machine Works would manufacture six steam engines, which would be placed in a power workshop that would provide power to both factories.
Of course, after the on-site inspection, Alice decided to turn the power workshop into a power plant. Once the power machine was started, the machinery that worked day and night immediately demonstrated its role.
"Snowing."
As the first snowflake fell, Alice sat in the conference room again, looking at Dara Butt. Red Ridge's textile production speed was extremely fast, and Alice felt confident sitting there.
"Cloth... Your Highness, forgive my bluntness, but how much can you provide? Our merchant guild will take as much as you have. You know, winter is coming, and cloth is in short supply. Not everyone is as unafraid of the cold as the royal family."
"You can have as much as you want. I can provide you with 230 tons at once, and no less than 100 tons of textiles every month. The supply will gradually increase in the future."
“Excellent, Your Highness... What do you need?”
"We need cotton, coal, rubber, and—people, preferably craftsmen, as many as we need."
“These are all easy, Your Highness. You don’t know, there’s a famine in the south recently. That’s how it is during war. We can easily gather a lot of starving people, even humans.”
"go a head."
After seeing Dalabut off, Ange entered. The maid bowed to her and said, "Your Highness, your mother asked me to tell you that the entire territory of Kut has been pacified, and she hopes you will make plans as soon as possible."
The Kut Territory is located in the warmer south, but that doesn't mean it's more important. The Kut Territory's biggest advantage over the Redridge Territory in the north is simply its population and trade routes.
However, population is a critical problem. Trian's industry is severely lacking in people, that's for sure. Not only that, but it also lacks literate people, while the territory of Kut has a free city called Hilla Port.
Free cities emerged during the war of usurpation. The chain reaction caused by the lords taking sides made it unbearable for those developed cities. The citizens seized the autonomy of the cities through struggle and money. Usually, these cities were controlled by the city council, such as Hilla, although it had always been the stronghold of the Kut.