In this land ruled by the Cecil family, Amber is probably one of the only people who dares to question Gawain's decision-making, although in most cases this half-elf lady's bold questioning is just because She has an open mouth, but Gawain is still happy to see that not everyone here will blindly obey him, which means the existence of independent thinking... Well, it doesn't necessarily mean independent thinking when it comes to Amber, she is Mouth is yawning.
It was difficult for Gawain to explain all his thoughts to Amber in a short period of time. He could only briefly talk to him about the composition of the industrial structure and the concept of technological generation gap, but as for the deeper economy Political interests, long-term control of Leslie Territory, he did not mention these.
But no matter what, Amber still carried out Gawain's order seriously. She set out the next day, as the Cecil Territory's special envoy, to deliver Duke Gawain Cecil's personal letter. Sent to the castle of Viscount Andrew.
Viscount Andrew's response was faster than Gawain expected. He readily accepted the invitation on the spot. On the third day after Amber returned to the territory, the Viscount arrived by speedboat. Arrived at Cecil's pier.
The last time I saw the Viscount, he was still in a state of weakness that had been eroded by evil magic. However, after this period of recuperation and recovery, Andrew Leslie has regained his health. , he wore a thick and warm dark red coat, his hair was neatly combed, and the newly recruited housekeeper followed him. He also brought a security team composed of ten soldiers and a business consultant from the territory—— The business consultants are naturally for the "business" mentioned by Gawain in his handwritten letter, while the escort team composed of soldiers is a necessary display for the nobles.
He saw a new Cecil Territory that was completely different from what he imagined.
Both the new and neat houses and the civilians walking on the streets left a deep impression on him. He was particularly curious about the houses of citizens and the serfs on the territory. Where did he live with the lower class, but compared to Padric, who had no aristocratic blood, the Viscount was ultimately much more stable and calm. From the time he got off the ship to being introduced to the Lord's Mansion, he maintained the most calm and elegant state. Until he sat in Gawain Cecil's drawing room, he did not show any excess curiosity or fuss of the country bumpkin nobles.
Then Betty poured a whole pot of tea.
The people in the southern border are simple and honest, and everyone is honest - and more importantly, everyone seems to have the problem of thinking too much. Viscount Andrew, like Padric, was half-empty at the beginning. During the process, I guessed for a long time what Gawain's intention was behind arranging a maid to constantly fill the guests with water...
Betty, who was standing in a daze in the living room holding a big water bottle, had no idea that she had been crowned a sage. Unpredictable character cards, she was just looking at the decorative swords hanging on the wall in the room, silently recalling the newly learned words and grammar in her mind, and at the same time dedicating part of her attention to paying attention to the guests.When does a person's tea cup need to be filled with water? When she recited the vocabulary list for the second time, Gawain appeared.
"Viscount Andrew, I'm glad to see you are back to health." Gawain greeted him enthusiastically as soon as he entered the door. "I heard that order has been completely restored in Tanzanian Town. This is really a surprise." Good news."
"I should thank you for your help. Without your large ore order, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to repair the big hole in the castle this winter," Viscount Andrew said with a bit of exaggeration. Shou said with a smile, "So after I heard that you were going to discuss a new business with me in person, I rushed over immediately."
"It is indeed a new business, but we can't do that here. Good to talk—if you don’t mind, would you like to come with me to visit the mines in Cecil Territory?”
“The mines?” Viscount Andrew frowned: “You mentioned in your letter that you are There are some new mining equipment for sale, but the Leslie family has been mining for generations, and I am familiar with all kinds of mining equipment... Burr... Ah, I'm sorry, I'm rude."
"No need. Don't mind if you mind." Gawain quickly waved his hand, and at the same time he was curious why Viscount Andrew started to hear back from his hiccups, and then explained with a smile, "It is necessary to see it with your own eyes, because I want to sell something. I'm afraid you have never seen it before."
Gawain had already said this, and Viscount Andrew certainly would not continue to be ignorant, so he readily agreed to the invitation to visit the mine - and asked about it by the way. Find out which direction the toilet is in.
The Cecil Mine is located in the east of the territory. At the beginning, it was just a small mining site. However, with the rapid development of the territory and the increasing demand for ore, the mine became The construction intensity is second only to the central area of "Cecil City". A large amount of manpower, material resources and advanced machinery and equipment have been transported here. It has slowly transformed from an mining site with only a few tents into an area with more than a dozen tents. Villages with houses have developed from villages to villages and towns. Now there are newly built brick houses and neat roads paved with slag and cement. A wide main road connects the mining town with Sisi. Ercheng is connected together, ensuring the flow of people and materials between the two places.
Due to the convenient transportation, Gawain led his guests to the mining town in less than two hours by carriage.
Viscount Andrew maintained his calmness and indifferent demeanor until the last stop of the journey - whether he saw the magic crystal lamps everywhere in the territory, the straight and smooth roads, or the He tried not to be too surprised by the people who were still busy working in the winter and the "factories" that made strange noises on the edge of the town, because although these things were beyond his expectations, they were not beyond his imagination - he was surprised by the past The Cecil family, which had declined to the point where it almost relied on selling titles to survive, was able to build such a territory in a short period of time, but he could still give a reasonable explanation to everything he saw, as long as he understood it all for"Gawain Cecil dug up the coffins he had buried and then used money to build a place like this." Then everything was understandable.
Until he saw something he couldn't understand at all
"This... what is this? ! ”
In front of Viscount Andrew, a huge machine was using amazing power to drive a winch to move several carts of heavy ore that probably required dozens of slave workers from the deep mine. Dragging it out, the machine made a low sound like a giant roaring. The huge disc structure kept rotating on its side with an indomitable momentum. Every part of it seemed to be made of steel. However, these inanimate things But it was running endlessly like a living thing - emotionless, endless, and infinitely powerful, even with an inexplicable majesty derived from steel.
After being stunned for a few seconds, Andrew. The Viscount finally saw a bit of magical brilliance shining at the core of the machine, and his speech ability finally recovered a little: "This is... a magic device? Some kind of combination of magical mechanism and mechanical mechanism? "
"It can be understood that way," Gawain smiled, "This is what I want to sell you, but this is just one of them. If you go forward, you can see more Machines - In Cecil Territory, most of the heavy manual labor in the mines is done by these machines. ”
The more Viscount Andrew looked, the more shocked he became. He knew the mines and was familiar with the mining equipment, but he would never have imagined that the “mining equipment” Gawain mentioned was actually a bunch of things like this. The... steel giants. He looked at those huge machines, and quickly noticed the incredible precision of these seemingly thick iron lumps - those tightly fitting parts, and the precisely matched connections. Rods, and those magic circles that are unmanned but switch quickly... How were these monsters created?
"Is this... the magic technology of the ancient Gondor Empire? ! "Finally, Viscount Andrew thought he had found the only possible reasonable explanation. He slowly turned his head, looked into Gawain's eyes and asked.
"This is a joint effort between me and the technical experts in my territory. Designed, of course, if you think that because I am the first generation survivor of the ancient Gondor Empire, the technology I master can be regarded as ancient Gondor technology... then there is no problem in understanding it this way," Gawain deliberately used a relatively vague explanation. After perfunctoryly, he looked at Viscount Andrew's reaction and said, "How about it, are you interested in these 'magic devices'? ”
“As long as you are willing to sell! "Viscount Andrew stared and said.
"You can probably tell that the details of these machines are extremely difficult to process. The cost of manufacturing one is quite high, so the price is naturally High, depending on its scale and manufacturing difficulty, the cost alone ranges from hundreds to thousands of Cecil gold coins, and manufacturing these things obviously requires the participation of extraordinary people, and the labor costs... you can imagine,"Gawain said unhurriedly, but before Viscount Andrew gradually lost his smile, he changed the subject, "Of course, I will only charge this price when selling to others. If it is sold to a neighbor, I will only charge Material cost price - and if you're in trouble, you can even use ore to pay for it. ”
Viscount Andrew felt very excited.
Of course he knew that these machines were not cheap, but he also knew very well that when these machines were running, they were worth the lives of many people. Power!
A tractor can withstand the strength of dozens or hundreds of slave workers. The ore crushed by a crusher in half a day can keep all the slave workers in the Tanzanian mine safe. It can be done! Of course it will cost a lot of money to purchase these machines, but the cost will be recovered very quickly, and after the cost is recovered, Tanzanian Town and even the entire Leslie Territory will receive unprecedented benefits! < /p>
And the magic part of these machines does not seem to be too complicated. After paying back, he may try to recruit a group of rune craftsmen and magic circle experts to study how these things move. ...
At this time, Gawain's voice interrupted his thinking: "By the way, Viscount Andrew, I want to tell you something else: these machines can't run by themselves. You should have discovered it." Well, there is no magician here to provide energy for the machine..."
"Well...I am indeed curious about this," Viscount Andrew touched his chin, "I didn't see any The magician was controlling these machines, and he didn't see anyone charging them... Do they contain large-capacity magic storage crystals? ”
“They also need a matching ‘Magic Network’ technology. I want to have a good talk with you about this technology...”