"Sizzle, no, this wear is still too serious!"

The scientific madman named 'Calvin George' held a wrench in his hand, looked at the steam locomotive in front of him, and couldn't help but sigh.

A few months passed, and the first steam locomotive had to be replaced almost every month since it was built, because the results were not always satisfactory to him and Gregory.

Turning his head to look at Gregory, whose clothes had become as dirty as his, Calvin scratched his messy hair, "Gregory, what do you say this should be?"

Although as the head of the Empire's R&D Department, Calvin's head was always filled with whimsy, but now this kind of thing was clearly not within his scope of handling.

He can create many new things, but he rarely modifies some things that have already been made, which is not his forte, and this kind of thing is usually left to his subordinates or the Imperial Manufacturing Department.

The impact of the changes in the Black Forest on the continent of Slo Mendes was much more severe than they had imagined, and it is said that in winter, the excess water element covered the desert area on the southern border of the empire with a white carpet, and it was even able to make the soldiers on the border who were tired of seeing the yellow sand suffer from snow blindness.

Until now, as summer approached, Gregory still wore long sleeves, but thankfully the snow had melted, and thanks to the snow, this year could be another bumper harvest.

He stood beside Calvin, also holding a wrench in his hand, and looked at a hexagonal nut in front of him in a daze—the quadrangular shape was too straight, the octagonal shape was too cumbersome to produce, and finally the production standard for the nut was hexagonal.

In fact, the steam locomotive in front of me not only has problems with wear and tear, but also has more or less big problems in other aspects.

The question of how to control the speed can be put together with the problem of wear and tear, and on top of that, their steam engines are smaller and more powerful, but they also consume more - they can't just put a basket of coal in the car, right?

The miniaturized road was blocked, and that road didn't work at all, so after several improvements, the steam locomotive got bigger and bigger, but in this way, their original idea was completely abandoned.

R&D requires a lot of investment, and His Majesty has enough patience to realize the potential of steam locomotives, and immediately allocated a lot of funds to them, but now there are too many problems, and neither of them is confident that they can complete this thing.

Members of the manufacturing and R&D departments were busy walking behind them, either gathering together to discuss the design of a certain part, or racking their brains alone to think about how to improve the steam locomotive.

Without exception, everyone seemed busy, even those standing still frowned and muttered something.

Grigory took a deep breath and closed his eyes: "Let me think about ......"

Not only the wear and tear of the wheels and axles, but also the damage to the ground.

Because the steam locomotive was too powerful and heavy for the wooden structure to support and easily fall apart once it was running, they replaced the wheels with metal, but the metal wheels were not satisfactory to them.

The metal wheels can support the operation of the locomotive, but the problem is that the weight is too great, and the damage to the ground is too great, and it is not possible to drive in the city, but in the wilderness...... It can also be difficult because of the size and weight, making it difficult to traverse certain terrain.

The locomotive is so large that it seems that it should be difficult to destroy, but in fact, anyone who has handled it knows that this machine is actually very fragile, and once the balance in the body is broken, then the whole car will collapse directly.

Therefore, the locomotive is not suitable for driving in places where the road conditions are not very good, which is not known to their majesty, and if they want to make this project continue, they can only report good news and not bad news for the time being, and then explain that because it is the early stage of the project, there are many problems to be solved, but the results are remarkable.

"I heard...... A new building material has appeared there on the Mendez continent, called 'cement'......"

In the midst of the discussion, one voice stood out.

The people turned to look at the proposer, who hurriedly waved his hand and hurriedly said: "I just heard - I heard that a new building material has appeared there, called 'cement', which can not only build houses, but also pave roads, much cheaper than paving with stone slabs, and it is also much easier and cheaper!"

Hearing this, Gregory raised his eyebrows and looked back, "Sad Wind Leader?"

"Uh......" The proposer was slightly stunned, and quickly nodded, "Yes, yes, Sorrowful Wind Leader! The Glorious Church has sent people to study there before, and they have brought back a lot of things, and 'cement' is one of them......"

His voice became quieter and quieter, which was what he suddenly remembered, and it was because of the Sad Wind Leader that they had to expose the existence of the 'factory' in the empire.

Because of the Sad Wind Leader, their plan went bankrupt, so now he brings up the Sad Wind Leader......

“...... How?" asked Grigory.

"Huh?"

The proposer was stunned for a moment, but then thought that this was Minister Gregory, and that was not surprising.

"It's not as hard as a stone, it's less expensive, and as I saw when I visited my family in Lolandal, the roads are already covered with a layer of cement. And it seems that the Sad Wind Collar has recently introduced a new material called 'concrete', which is said to be an improvement on the basis of cement, and how exactly it will ......" The proposer shook his head, "I don't know." ”

Because of the Black Forest's separation from the inland sea, communication between the continents of Slo Mendes was not as frequent and convenient as it was thousands of years ago, and ships had to take a detour from the coast to reach the continent on the other side.

Maybe they've been behind for a long time, but that's a train of thought.

"Don't be resentful of them, maybe our previous plan went bankrupt, but now that we think about it, there are many holes in the plan, and even without them, we wouldn't necessarily succeed, but after this battle, we realized a lot of problems and gained a lot. Therefore, to find the technology to produce cement, whether to steal or rob, to buy what we can, in short, we must get it. ”

Gregor tapped the metal shell of the locomotive with a wrench, and looked at the people with serious eyes, "If it doesn't work, let's think of another way, we must build a steam locomotive!"

It may be difficult for the members of the Imperial Manufacturing Department and R&D Department to see the potential behind this invention, but both he and Calvin saw it very far, and it was Calvin who went when he submitted the project upgrade application to His Majesty.

Although one focuses only on mechanics and the other prefers magic, there is no doubt that they are both people who have worked hard for the country, very different from the nobles, otherwise they would not have been able to sit in this position.

"Gregory, you say ......"

After Gregory had given orders to his subordinates, Calvin licked his lips, suddenly grinned, and made a crazy suggestion to his friend and rival: "You say, since we can't drive on ordinary roads, can we make a special road for steam locomotives to run?"

"If we can't drive in special environments and certain terrain, then we can't create an environment where the locomotive can operate normally?"

"Of course, I know it's crazy, and it might cost a lot of money, but you also know how important a line of transport is to war. If we can speed up the speed and quality of transportation, then the situation of the war will change a lot. ”

Listening to Calvin's words, Gregory did not rush to object, but calmed down and began to think about the feasibility of this matter.

"As long as there is a result, we can continue to research, Your Majesty is an urgent person, although you know that research and development is a very expensive and time-consuming thing, but Your Majesty can't wait......" Calvin smiled, looking like a madman and showing a mouthful of big white teeth, "Gregory, what do you say?"