Chapter 284
Before the mining of the Red Rubber Grass Salt Lake, the Harland Territory spent a large amount of gold coins every year to purchase salt from the Duke of Jonathan.
With the mining of salt lake mines, salt is now self-sufficient, which can be regarded as saving money for the territory. As for selling salt to other countries, it is still very difficult for the Haaland territory.
Because there are many Nolan nobles standing within the salt trade of every province.
Richard would not offend the big shots in the capital easily for some financial gain. Jeram was offended by the salt trade, which made the Haaland family very uncomfortable. At that time, the Harland family had just started, and they were not afraid of wearing shoes when they were barefoot. In order to protect their own interests, they were forced to compete with Jerram and others.
If Duke Brenner hadn't faked his death in order to seduce the legendary magician Irina of the Novenas family, which led to King Charles's misjudgment and changes in Nolan's political situation, life for the Harland family would have been difficult now.
If King Charles is in power and Prince Felix makes the decision, and he continues to hold back and do evil things in the royal capital of Nolan, Richard's many years of business might be ruined and the Harland family loses its territory.
Although these people are not successful enough, they are more than capable of doing bad things.
Although Richard looked down on such people in his heart and did not like to come into contact with the nobles of the royal capital, on the surface he would not break up with these people and go against them.
After suffering several hidden losses, Richard had already learned his lesson and would not easily touch the interests of the nobles of the royal capital and break out into conflicts with them.
As construction of the North Boundary Fort began, the Salt Lake County garrison basically left Salt Lake Fort and moved north.
Salt Lake County is the focus of the defense of Harland Territory. The Sixth and Seventh Brigades are stationed in the territory, and the number of regular troops exceeds 3,000. In addition, the training of auxiliary troops has been strengthened this year. It is expected that the winter training will last for three months and 800 reservists will be trained. Coupled with some second-line armed personnel to maintain law and order, the defense force in Salt Lake County exceeded 4,000.
The North Boundary Fort is located in the middle of the valley. Military strongholds have been built on the mountain ridges on both sides. Heavy trebuchets are installed in the military strongholds, and a large number of alchemical bombs are stored. There are three thousand defenders. Even if half of the orc army attacks, You will definitely get a bloody head and a disgraced face. The terrain here is more dangerous than Fort William.
If the orcs were smart, they would not attack such a stronghold with difficult terrain and heavy defenses.
Richard has been wandering around Salt Lake County for seven or eight days and has a good understanding of the situation below. He said to Bernard with a serious face: "Your county has a heavy construction task and insufficient material support. Life will be a little harder this year and next. Now the climate has turned cold and it will snow soon. You want to Pay attention to the construction of work sheds for indentured slaves, and don't freeze to death in winter. As a senior civil servant in the territory, you must understand that population is the most important resource of the territory. When managing daily affairs, you must have kind thoughts in your heart." What Richard personally told
, Bernard did not dare to neglect. The next day, he allocated some manpower and material resources, stopped some official projects, and started building camp sheds.
Although wooden houses are not very warm, their fire resistance is also poor. However, the materials are simple to use, the construction is quick, and the warmth retention is much better than that of a tent. In addition, there are coal stoves in Harland territory for heating, so ordinary people rarely freeze to death during the winter.
In the more than ten years since the establishment of Harland Territory, living standards have been greatly improved. Today's indentured slaves will basically not suffer from cold or hunger. Entering Harland's territory is like coming to heaven on earth for them.
Richard has traveled through twenty years and has brought some changes to the world.
After touring the territory, it was already September. Snow fell earlier in northern Xinjiang this year, and the first snow fell in Harland Territory on the third day of September.
Fortunately, the first snowfall was not very heavy, and the temperature rose again on the fifth day of September, so it did not cause too much difficulty to the Haaland territory.
Richard was a restless person. After returning to Fort William, he began to enter various research institutes and inquire about the development of various researches.
The Institute of Optics has produced a microscope with a magnification of more than 300 times. In conjunction with the magician's visual magnification spell, it has shown great power in research.
In recent years, the Institute of Optics has used the method of manual mirror grinding to produce dozens of microscopes. Through the accumulation of experience, the skills of mirror grinders have become better and better. Almost every official magician buys one.
Even though the price of the microscope is very high, with the internal price exceeding eighty gold coins, it cannot stop the enthusiasm of the wealthy magician. Even if you just become a magician and the salary is not high, buying a microscope requires you to save money for two years without eating or drinking.
Because microscopes are very useful for magicians and scientists to understand the world and summarize laws, the Harland Territory Intelligence Department has also set restrictions to prohibit the sale of high-power microscopes to outsiders.
Every high-power microscope manufactured by the Institute of Optics must be numbered, and it often faces spot checks by the intelligence department. After the mirror is worn, specialized personnel must destroy it.
Through high-power microscopes, the magicians of Harland Territory discovered hundreds of bacteria and viruses, which promoted the great development of biology. In recent years, doctors in the Harland Territory have written hundreds of papers on bacteria and viruses.
Although the Institute of Optics has developed rapidly, there have been no major discoveries in recent years. After listening to the report, Richard came out of the Optical Research Institute. Seeing that it was still early, he quickly entered the nearby Botany Research Institute.
As soon as he entered the door, Richard said to Cartman, the director of the Institute of Botany, "Some time ago, I heard that you made a big discovery?" Cartman's background was
very ordinary. He was the child of a serf. He entered the Harland Territory in 3255. It’s only been eleven years now. Thanks to his elder brother who joined the army and died in the war, Cartman became a freeman in 3257. With the support of his relatives, he attended Riverside Elementary School and was among the first batch of students at Riverside Elementary School.
Compared to other students of the same period, Cartman was seventeen years old when he went to school, almost an adult. He cherished the opportunity to go to school and change his destiny. He also worked very hard in school. He studied five years of primary school courses by himself in just one year and graduated from He'an Primary School at the age of eighteen.
After graduation, Cartman joined the just-prepared Institute of Botany and began collecting plant specimens outside and compiling a botanical book series.
In order to collect rare plants, Cartman even went deep into the Eagle Mountains and entered the Orc Empire twice, making outstanding contributions to the development of the Botanical Research Institute.
After the first former director of the Institute of Botany died of illness, Richard defied public opinion and promoted Cartman, who was only 21 years old, to take over as director.
Sure enough, in just a few years, Cartman lived up to expectations. This year he personally led a team to inspect and discovered a very important economic plant. If this plant is successfully planted in large quantities, it will greatly promote the industry in Harland Territory.
"You are right, dear Earl. We did find a special plant, red gum grass, in the western area of the Eagle Mountains. After our research, we found that this plant contains more than 25% gum. The extracted The red glue that comes out should be able to meet the requirements of the lord."
About ten years ago, when the Harland territory had just stabilized, Richard started pre-research on steam engines.
In the past ten years, money has been invested in this project. At the beginning, the steam engine research group had only two or three students, and the research process relied almost entirely on Richard's guidance.
Because of unqualified workmanship, the casting of the steam engine cylinder was stuck for two years.
With the development of the steel industry in Harland's territory, the steam engine research team has successively overcome difficulties such as manufacturing cylinder blocks, grinding and polishing, and gear alloys.
A prototype was built two years ago, but the sealing problem could not be solved and the steam engine could not run for too long at all.
In the past three years, Richard has been offering large rewards, hoping to find things like natural rubber, but unfortunately nothing has been found.
If he doesn't find it for a long time, Richard is even going to send people to search for it in the south of Dawn Continent, and arrange for some members of the Harland family to develop in the southwestern magical countries to see if they can find the otherworldly version of the rubber tree.
There had been no progress in offering a large reward for three years. Richard had given up hope, but he didn't expect to find something this fall.
Natural red rubber extracted from red rubber grass and vulcanized into red rubber products have stronger properties than vulcanized rubber. It not only has very high elasticity, but also has strong mechanical strength, wear resistance and corrosion resistance. It is a very good sealing material.
After solving the sealing problem, we are not far away from producing a qualified steam engine.
The Dawn Plane has a magic factor, and the magic crystal contains powerful energy. It is very simple to burn the magic crystal through special runes. The magic hot air balloon manufactured by Harland Territory can easily do this.
After the steam engine is successfully manufactured, Richard can further determine the technical route and create a smaller magic steam engine, making the steam engine very convenient to use.
After the magic steam engine and red glue were successfully manufactured, the power problem was solved. As long as a large amount of money and personnel were invested, some mechanical transmission troubles were solved. It is not difficult to manufacture steam trains, steam cars, and steam ships.
The emergence of trains and telegraphs was disruptive to the development of a territory and a country. This meant that information and materials could be transmitted quickly, the cost of ruling remote areas became lower, and the bonus to national power was far greater than that of alchemy bombs.
"How much red rubber was extracted in your laboratory?"
"It's less than six kilograms. Half of it was vulcanized according to the Lord's instructions. The vulcanized red rubber has stable performance and has been made into some red rubber sealing rings by us. ."
Richard suppressed the excitement in his heart and said to Cartman: "Now you take these sealing rings and come with me to the Steam Engine Research Institute to see the sealing effect."
Everyone came out of the Botany Research Institute and it was getting close to dark. In the evening, the Steam Engine Research Institute is about three kilometers away from the Botany Research Institute. It is probably already dark when we arrive at the Steam Engine Research Institute.
But Richard was so impatient that he couldn't wait for tomorrow.
The group of people came to the Steam Engine Research Institute with red rubber sealing rings. The sun had already set.
Under the command of Richard, everyone installed the red rubber sealing ring on the huge steam engine. As the wood was ignited, the water was boiled in less than a moment. Driven by a large amount of hot steam, the steam engine started working.
Richard stayed beside the steam engine and waited for about four hours before burning out a duct part.
"Although the steam sealing problem has been solved, the cylinder and piston are not smooth enough and the vibration is too great. There is still room for improvement in the steam engine. In addition, the duct, gear, piston, and bearing materials still need to increase their strength. In this regard, you have to work with the Metallurgical Research Institute If the funds are not enough, I will find a way.
Today's experiment is enough to show that the steam engine is very practical. I think it can be used to pump water in mines, and it can also be used to pump water to irrigate farmland in case of drought. Steam engine
research It is necessary to divide some of the power. Research institutes with high technical level will continue to engage in steam engine improvement research, and those with low technical level will serve as steam engine maintenance personnel. We must
use steam engines in production as soon as possible, and find and improve problems during production and use.
Use of steam engines It has a large range. It can not only pump water, but also grind flour. It can be used as the power of machine tools. It can be used in the machinery manufacturing industry. In the future, it can also be used to build steam cars and steam ships. This invention of ours will change the world. I will let the territorial
painter Paintings and hanging our portraits in the Harland family museum for future generations to visit. Medals and generous subsidies will also be awarded to meritorious personnel. From today on, you will become the heroes of the Harland territory,
your His name will be recorded in the history books and he will become a great man who is admired by others. Let us cheer, history will remember this day."
Richard's speech was very passionate, making the researchers present feel excited.
Even at twelve o'clock in the night, Richard's orders were still continuous. He first sent someone to wake up the sleeping painters of Harland Territory, and ordered them to draw a huge portrait called "The Great Invention" to record this great moment. The researchers who played an important role in the study of steam engines, Each one must appear in the portrait.
The painting will hang on the front of the Halland Territory Museum upon entry.
Last winter, the Halland Territory Museum was completed. Due to the rapid expansion of the city, the museum was built outside the back city, not far from Riverside Elementary School.
In order to build the museum, Harland Territory also carried out demolition and demolished 16 houses and courtyards before building this tall and majestic museum.
Because the history of the Harland Territory is very short, the museum does not have many antique cultural relics for the time being, but the information left during the construction of the territory is basically preserved in the museum.
The museum also collects some very meaningful items, such as the pots and pans used by Richard, Powell and others when building Fort William, and the straw mats and quilts used for sleeping. The letters and orders they wrote, the manuscripts used to plan the city, the first bottle of distilled liquor produced in the territory, the first furnace of iron slag smelted by the steel department, the first scalpel made by doctors, etc. These useless things were collected and preserved by Richard and put on display in the museum.
(End of chapter)