Chapter 656 The Steam Age

"Prophet, this steam train runs too slowly, the oxcart is faster than it!"

"It's okay, it will get faster slowly, just like our ships, it will get stronger and faster as it is upgraded generation after generation."

The craftsmen of Ironforge watched the first operation of the steam train with Lawrence.

Heidi invented the steam engine a long time ago, and later continued to improve it with the help of Lawrence.

During the use of the factory in Snow Mountain Castle, a newer generation of steam engines soon appeared.

Especially the use on ships and trucks, which has actually been studied for two or three years.

Lawrence looked at the iron car moving steadily forward. The cost of this iron head car was very high, almost the annual metal production of foreign countries.

The annual steel production in the Ice Land reached 40,000 tons, including Ironforge and the mining area, as well as several other newly built steel mills.

Ironforge is mainly responsible for research and development and improvement of technology. The place for large-scale iron and steel smelting has been transferred to the Dam City under Flying Fish Harbor, which has more abundant water resources.

In recent years, it has also begun to move towards the already stable Gran Province, where coal resources are abundant and there are a large number of idle populations available.

Kellyn, who had studied with Lawrence for many years, had been sent there to engage in production. With the continuous upgrading of steam engine power, the steel production will continue to increase in the future.

The powerful steel manufacturing capacity is mainly used in farm tools and weapons. The weapons have also changed from basic swords to iron cannons and steel cannons, as well as steel plates and iron plates that can defend against artillery.

The new generation of steamships has been built. Lawrence is currently giving the shipyard a holiday to prepare for the research of the eighth generation of ships.

The first generation ship, the three-masted sailing ship, is equipped with sailing technology.

The second generation ship, the Reese, is the first generation of warships in the true sense. It was designed as a tortoise shell structure suitable for landing on shallows. It added houses and other living and lookout buildings, and was fully strengthened for robbery and ramming and boarding.

The third generation ship, the Oak, is equipped with a rudder, iron ship board, refined sails, anchors and paddle power room, which fully armed the traditional warship.

The fourth generation ship, the Revenge, is the first artillery ship.

The fifth generation of ships represents the Cement. Although it is a failed and useless cement ship, it provides a lot of experience for the manufacture of super-large warships and lays the foundation for the era of heavy iron ships and boiler ships.

The sixth generation Skyline, a cruise ship in peacetime, is also a large fast ship used by Lawrence and envoys from various countries.

The seventh generation Steam, the first steam-powered ship, is also a warship equipped with iron armor and cannons.

The eighth generation of ships will be an evolution of the Steam. Lawrence needs a larger cargo ship to transport coal, metals and a large number of livestock and crops.

Because I don’t want to name it after a person, I plan to name it the Farmer.

Over the years, the main ships have been upgraded and transformed, and a lot of shipbuilding experience has been accumulated. These experiences have not only brought progress to the shipbuilding industry in the Ice Land, but also attracted many outside craftsmen to come to learn and exchange.

There is no atmosphere of complacency in the Ice Land. Whether it is ships or steam cars, Lawrence has set the tone for continuous updating and upgrading.

Being content with the status quo is not what technicians should do. The craftsmen who grew up with Lawrence all knew the character of the prophet and knew that the steam locomotive in front of them would continue to grow and improve!

Lawrence personally led the craftsmen to ride on Dom sheep and bird lizards and followed the train, watching the train climb the hill with seven iron carriages.

When climbing the hill, the speed of the train obviously dropped a lot, but it still successfully crossed the not-so-steep hill.

After crossing the hill, the train began to go downhill.

From Ironforge to the iron ore area, the track road is straight, and the speed of the train is very fast on this section of the road!

When going downhill, Dom sheep can't catch up with the train, and soon even the shadow of the train can't be seen.

When everyone spent half an hour to arrive at the iron ore area, the workers here were loading ore farm tools into the carriage.

Everyone set off to the town of Pumixiu in advance, and soon the steam locomotive behind them made a rumbling sound and passed by everyone.

The first steam train arrived at the town of Pumice earlier than the people riding the Dom sheep, and would head towards the farther Dum Port.

Lawrence quickly led his people back to the manor and held a banquet in the manor to reward the craftsmen of Ironforge.

The rewards for most people were not generous, only a few chickens and 20 kilograms of eggs.

These were grassroots craftsmen, and the rewards for several responsible persons and core craftsmen were much more generous, with 30 kilograms of wine and 10 kilograms of fat meat.

Because it was already late, Lawrence also ate and prayed with the nuns.

Sister Yian quickly reported to Lawrence that the shepherdess and Lana wanted to learn knowledge, and told her about her refusal to accept money.

"You did the right thing, Yian." Lawrence affirmed Yian's approach, "Knowledge is valuable, but the nuns in the monastery are all sisters of the same family. We should be tolerant and treat sisters equally."

"You can take one or two hours after dinner every day to tutor them in cultural courses. Twenty-five days a month is enough. After all, they need to rest sometimes."

"As a knowledge transmitter, I will give you fifty copper coins every month until they have learned enough."

Lawrence did not give rewards randomly. Over the years, whether it was the treatment of soldiers or the rewards of nobles, Lawrence had always been restrained, carefully studied and analyzed, and never randomly destroyed the system.

If a problem can be solved with money, he will not make any promises casually.

"Yes! Merciful prophet!" Yian liked the prophet's praise more than money.

Lawrence did not want to continue talking to Yian, and quickly let her leave, and then went to sleep.

When he was lying in bed alone, Lawrence began to think about the various troubles he encountered now.

After living in the manor monastery for a long time these days, some problems gradually surfaced, which made Lawrence worried.

It was not a problem with the train, nor a problem with the wizard, but a problem with the nuns.

Lawrence found that the proportion of beauties in the manor was very small these days! !

Beauty has always been a minority resource, and the proportion of beauties in the monastery has been declining over the years.

In the past, they went out to rob and only brought back beautiful ones.

In recent years, there have always been people with connections, many people have donated money to come in, and some barbarian orphans have come in because of their fathers' meritorious deeds, which has caused the proportion of beauties in the monastery to drop to less than one-third.

Compared with the degeneration of dynasty warriors and meritorious nobles, Lawrence is more worried about the quality of beauties in the monastery.

After all, as long as the promotion system is there for the army and meritorious nobles, there will be no problem, and he can manage it himself.

But the issue of the quality of beauties is already a very thorny issue.

As a prophet, Lawrence himself cannot discriminate against those nuns who are not good-looking, nor can he refuse these girls from entering the monastery to become loyal prophet nuns just because other people's daughters are not good-looking.

The monastery also has a pension attribute. The shepherdess is not the first woman to go in for pension, nor is she the last.

In the future, more and more old women will go there for pension.

Lawrence understands why ancient emperors are unhappy.

It seems to be a random choice, but in fact there is no choice.

The most terrible thing is that this problem will definitely become more and more serious. In the future, all kinds of ugly melons and jujubes will enter the monastery. The attribute of the monastery will soon change from a monastery dominated by young women to a closed monastery dominated by old nuns.

In the past, the monastery was a group of progressive and beautiful nuns, but within a few years, it will become a closed and conservative group.

This trend of change is a general trend, and it is also a very normal behavior of seeking benefits and avoiding harm.

Lawrence thought for several hours and finally gave up the change.

If you only choose beautiful women without considering other things, then the problem of loyalty will become a big problem, and it will definitely be even more unbearable at that time.

"Anyway, there are enough women now. In the future, wisdom, loyalty and talent will be the main focus, and beauty will only be an additional point."

Lawrence thought about it quickly and gave up the change to the monastery, but also made a new change.

"A talent class can be opened in the Saint's College to recruit young women with excellent performance in dance, folk art, cooking and housekeeping."

"In this way, the lustful ones are lustful, the talented ones are talented, and the powerful ones are powerful, separated from each other and do not affect each other."

Lawrence quickly fell asleep comfortably and was awakened by the barking of dogs in the manor the next day.

It was already daytime outside, and Lawrence started another day's work.

First, he exercised, then went to Ironforge to check the steam car that returned at night, checked the running status of the car, and asked the driver for his opinion.

After roughly handling various things, it was almost noon. Lawrence was about to take the rail car back to Oak City when he saw Yu Bao riding a dog to say hello.

Yu Bao rode on the dog's back and raised his right hand to greet Lawrence, while his left hand was holding the big dog to prevent it from falling.

"Wow~Wow~"

Lawrence walked over and looked at Yu Bao's posture.

"Yu Bao, your feet don't have a place to exert force. I have nothing to do recently, so I'll make you a footrest so that you can ride the big dog better."

Yu Bao thanked him happily after hearing it, "Ah~Ah~"

Lawrence smiled and said, "You're welcome. I've agreed with the driver that when you want to go to the sea in the future, you can take the steam train. You can leave in the morning and come back in the afternoon."

Yu Bao nodded happily when he heard that he could go to the beach.

Now with the steam train, it only takes two hours to get from the manor to Dum Port, and it takes more than five hours to go back and forth, because you need to climb the mountain when you come back, which is much slower.

During this period, you also have to unload and load goods in several places, and it takes a day to go back and forth.

When there is a steam train to pick up passengers in the future, the time will be shortened, but it will not be too fast anyway.

Lawrence thinks that Yubao is a sea creature and needs to go to the beach to swim regularly, and cannot always stay in the mountains.

In addition, the river is not as wide as the sea, and there are more obstacles and other troublesome things, which makes the speed of fish generally slower than that of marine fish.

Yubao often swims in such a small river, which is also a big problem for physical development.

The sea is Yubao's home.

Lawrence feels that Lana should not have been arranged in the mountain monastery, but Lana's personality is not suitable for the harbor monastery, and she doesn't want to go to the Ice Harbor Monastery and the Flying Fish Harbor Monastery.

The most suitable place for Lana is not suitable for Yubao.

Life is the same. Sometimes this problem also exists between family members. Everyone has their own choice.

Lawrence couldn't bear to see Yubao stay with Lana in the mountains for the rest of his life, but he didn't want to separate Yubao and Lana.

"It just so happens that I have nothing else to do these days. I'll come over next week and take you there by car. You should study hard with Lana these days. I'll come over five days later and take you to the beach to see the fishing grounds. You can come back after a day of playing, and bring back some sea vegetables and fish."

"The kelp on the beach is about to mature, and fresh ones are more delicious."

Yubao was even happier when he heard that Lawrence was going to take it out to play, "Howl~Howl~"

Usually, Yubao refused to separate from Lana, but if Lawrence took it out to play, Yubao had no objection.

In addition to Lana, Yubao was closest to Lawrence.

In terms of obedience, Yubao always felt that the prophet's words were more worthy of trust than Lana's words, and the prophet knew what was right better than Lana herself.

"Then it's settled. I'll go back first. You don't have to work too long. Go back to the bath and take a bath. Don't get sunburned."

"Woo~" Yubao went home to take a bath obediently. The bath here is a good place for Yubao to take a nap and cool off.

The emergence of steam cars not only improved the cargo transportation time in Dum Port and Ironforge, but also increased the attention of blacksmiths and merchants to steam cars and rails.

The emergence of steamships also heralded the end of the era of sailing warships.

Many warriors and sailors are aware of the development speed of the Ice Land.

It used to take one or two years to build an Oak, and now it also takes a year, but there are already more than one shipyard in the entire Ice Land.

Now hundreds of large ships can be launched every year, and they are exported overseas, and various orders are scheduled for more than ten years later.

After Lawrence built the first generation of steamships, it was not only the shipbuilding craftsmen in Dum Port who needed to improve, but the craftsmen in the Star Alliance outside also knew that this was an advanced technology that must be learned!

A new weathervane has emerged, and the nobles inside and outside the Star Alliance are blindly convinced of the prophet's guidance.

From the great nobles to the small merchants, everyone has begun to understand these latest technologies that can bring wealth.

For Lawrence, steam technology can be handed over to others to continue to study and explore. He has done what he should do. Now he only needs to continue to develop pig farming and cotton planting.

Some of the cotton seeds obtained last spring have been cultivated. After being ripened by elves and some wizards, 300 acres of cotton fields have been planted this year.

The first baby boom in the Ice Land will probably be in three years. By then, a large number of young people will give birth to the first batch of Ice People, and the clothing fabrics needed will also increase exponentially.

Three years is enough for Lawrence to increase the steam loom and cotton production. (End of this chapter)