"Half a year...... Just build this kind of track to the depths of the wilderness?" After listening to Roland's plan, Barov, who had already seen many "miracles", still widened his eyes in disbelief, "But the Ministry of Construction spent more than half a year just to build an ordinary road connecting the border and Changge, and now this distance is at least five times that of the Kingdom Road, are you sure that Mr. Karl can do it?"

There was also a lot of head-to-head at the scene, and the Kingdom Avenue was the first mega project launched by Roland after taking over the Changge Fortress, employing as many as 2,000 workers, which was regarded as a useless move in the eyes of many people at the time. And the new road has to go further, and with the time limit, it may not be enough to put all the workers of Neverwinter into it.

The Minister of Construction, Carl Van Burt, himself was silent, as if he was pondering the feasibility of the plan.

Roland knew what these officials were suspicious about, after all, there were many construction projects in the city, and it was impossible to invest all resources in the railway, but in fact it was much more convenient to lay subgrade ballast than to grade the material and repeatedly roll the cement gravel pavement.

As for the seemingly complicated installation of rails, it is the quickest part.

He'd seen Anna's demonstration of black-fire welding, where components like rails connect two breakpoints at a time, in less than ten seconds on average. Compared with traditional bolts or hot melt connections, not only the quality is better, but also a lot of manpower and materials can be saved, except for the lack of the emotional "clang" sound of the old-fashioned train, which can be described as perfect.

In fact, the experimental track in front of everyone is a quasi-seamless railroad track. With the exception of the knots left by the resistance to the temperature stress of the steel itself, the entire top surface forms a smooth straight line, and the wheels can hardly feel the tremor as they roll on it.

At that time, Anna only took half a day to complete the process.

That's why Roland is confident that the deadline will be so short.

In other words, it took a worker ten days to lay out the foundation, and it took five days to place the sleepers and rails, while Anna could weld them all in one day. If you don't deliberately accumulate the number, it is the rhythm of taking Maisie in the morning and returning to the castle for lunch at noon.

It's just that he didn't elaborate on this, after all, not everyone knows everything about the witch's abilities, and the other half a year is only a rough estimate. As soon as he arrived in Neverwinter, he headed straight for the Werewolf Girl and the Meeting, and he didn't have time to ask Tilly which witches had come to the Isle of Sleep—the railroad might have progressed faster with the right abilities.

Seeing that Roland didn't say much, the officials turned their eyes back to the train.

Compared to the modern level of railways, the train itself is undoubtedly much more antique. A complete locomotive is divided into two sections, the first half is mainly composed of the fourth-generation steam engine and transmission, and the second half is the coal storage car. The cab is located in the center, and in addition to controlling the speed and sounding the whistle, it is also the driver's responsibility to manually add coal to the boiler.

Although the train is still in a semi-finished stage due to the impact of the expedition, it is still much more complete than the first steam locomotive in another world. For example, the steam works directly on the crankshaft instead of being driven by a flywheel belt, and for example, the two wheels are connected with a dead-center linkage mechanism instead of a gear set for single-wheel drive.

In the design, Roland simplified all kinds of cumbersome functions, almost directly put together several main parts, if from the perspective of posterity, its shortcomings are as many as stars - the brake needs to rely on the manual twisting of the winch, the cab is rigidly connected to the girder, the driver can fully feel the "restlessness" of the steam engine when working, there is no electrical equipment, and the crew needs to rely on the whistle or voice to inform the crew, etc...... Here, though, it's the best solution that can be solved with Neverwinter's existing technology.

Just like the first generation of steam engines, solve the problem first, and then improve it step by step.

"Your Majesty, this thing...... How much cargo can you tow?," said the Minister of Chemical Affairs, Kemo Strier, curious, "compared to the cement boats in the river?"

"I don't think it should be a problem to transport five or six ships of cargo at a time," Roland smugly saw the crowd look surprised again, "but this is just the beginning, and with the advancement of technology, it will not be a problem to tow a hundred cement ships in the future." ”

"One...... A hundred?" Barov swallowed, as the head of the town hall, he could fully understand what this number meant.

"So...... What about speed?" Perro's voice trembled slightly.

"It's hard to say, it depends on the actual test results, but it won't be slower than a cement ship. ”

However, in their eyes, the windless automatic paddle steamer cement ship has been a very fast means of transportation, you must know that the land transportation in this era is still mainly carried by horse-drawn carriages or livestock, and its efficiency can be imagined on the uneven soft road. Slightly faster, vehicles without any suspension system can shake their shafts apart, so shipping is the main means of transportation in the Greycastle Kingdom - and in the inland rivers, the steamship without the help of wind obviously has an advantage over sailboats.

When they heard that the train would only be more capable and that the speed would not be lost, the group fell into complete silence.

Roland couldn't help but laugh secretly in his heart, if it was two years ago, he would only be regarded as crazy by others if he said this. He couldn't help but feel quite relieved to see these officials subconsciously want to deny it, but with a look of what to do if it was true—although those descriptions were based on the fact that the ship's technology was standing still, now that the war was coming, it would be good to strengthen everyone's confidence.

What's more, he is not without purpose.

And that's just the first generation of industrial products.

With the advent of the second generation of source power, namely the internal combustion engine, the epoch-making means of transportation such as trains will become the veritable king of land transportation.

"Your Majesty, can you show us?" said the old steward after a long while.

"Not for now, it's missing a couple of key parts at the moment and it's not really finished. When everything is debugged, it is estimated that it will take about a week. Roland shook his head.

"The plan you gave to the Ministry of Construction before you set out was to connect the mine to the dock with rails, right?" asked Barov again.

"What's wrong?" he sensed that the other seemed to have something to say.

"If it is as you say, it will have a positive effect on the war propaganda in the town hall," Barov said, adding his thoughts, "Can you let your people see this incredible scene with their own eyes on the day the train runs?"

Roland immediately understood the intention of the governor, and it seems that in the past few years, the old manager has also understood the importance of guiding the people.

"Just do as you say. He said, raising the corners of his mouth.

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