In order to speed up the progress of the research project, Roland adjusted his work and rest schedule. Every day after lunch, he would sleep for two to three hours in the office, which indirectly increased the number of times he entered the Dream World.
Because of this, groups of Scourge would appear in the Castle District after noon, which became a spectacle in the Castle District.
With the help of the Graycastle Design Bureau, the new batch of industrial projects progressed smoothly. By the last week of autumn, the design of the tractor was basically finalized.
Prior to this, all the projects in Neverwinter were hand-made by Anna, who would verify the feasibility and finalize the design. Then, they would divide the production parts and deliver them to the factory for trial production. Finally, they would determine the flow plan and assemble the tractor. Not only was it time-consuming, but it was also easy to make mistakes.
Especially when it came to dividing the production parts. As the processing ability of Blackfire was far superior to any machine tool, the factory might not be able to produce the parts that Anna could produce. A machine had hundreds of thousands of parts. It was undoubtedly a huge amount of work to determine which parts could be completed by the factory itself and which had to be handed over to Anna for post-processing. Only after the complete assembly of the tractor could the project enter the phase of mass production.
In fact, during the production of the second-generation steam engine, Roland had suffered at this stage. Although the pressure valve part seemed simple, it was surprisingly low when it was officially mass produced. As a result, the relevant production line had to be restarted, and the final product was also delayed by more than half a month.
The Graycastle Design Bureau had basically completed all the preliminary work for Anna, from testing and finalization to the flow design, as well as to whether ordinary machine tools could meet the requirements. All these processes could be completed directly in the Dream World. Therefore, once the plan was finalized, the Ministry of Industry could immediately organize the production, which greatly reduced the development cycle and cost of the new project.
Roland named this agricultural machine, which he had high hopes for, "Harvest".
It would inherit the name of the five pairs of wheels and plough the land of Graycastle.
Of course, Roland did not let Master Xie rest. The current Harvest was just a simple chassis. It would not be a problem to attach a plow to it as a tractor, but it was still a long way from the final form of the five pairs of wheels.
He hoped to be able to achieve everything the army needed on this platform.
As for the transmitter, Qingqing quickly recruited a few applicants. Some of them were fresh graduates, and some were amateur radio enthusiasts. However, when Roland saw the circuit diagrams, he felt dizzy. In the end, he ordered all of them to change the circuit diagrams to physical ones. Only then could he barely distinguish what was what. Even so, his learning in this area was abnormally slow. He could only forcibly memorize the sample and slowly ponder it with Anna.
In addition to these two major projects, Neverwinter's other major preparedness projects had achieved results one after another.
The first was the North-South Artery Plan.
Horford Quinn had sent him a letter, saying that the Kingdom of Dawn had invested nearly a thousand people to set up cement calcining plants in the two border cities. These factories can produce hundreds of tons of cement every day to meet the needs of hardening the road surface. Now, the road from the Windward Ridge to the Sparkling River had basically been paved, and the second half of the road on the Cage Mountain had also been started. It was estimated that it would be completed in about half a month.
Even with the help of Lotus and Molly, this speed of construction was enough to be regarded as excellent. Obviously, the Quinn Family had put a lot of effort into this project. Moreover, the road from the turning point of the Eastern Region of the Redwater River to the City of Evernight had been completed, which meant that Neverwinter was only one step away from being able to project power from the land to the battlefield thousands of kilometers away.
The second project was the supporting project of the North-South Artery Plan — the "Hump" steam truck. The first one had also been rolled off the assembly line and put into service.
It had a classic flat-nosed cab, a front-mounted engine, a single front wheel and two rear wheels. Except for the slightly longer head (to accommodate the large water tank), its appearance was almost similar to that of the modern trucks. It weighed about ten tons and was designed to carry six tons. It could maintain a stable speed of 40 kilometers per hour on a flat concrete road and continuously drive for 300 kilometers.
When necessary, the driver could also fill it with rainwater, well water, or even urine to increase its mileage. Of course, even without any replenishment, it was enough to travel between the city and the river.
Unlike the armored train, each truck needed at least two drivers. In other words, even if Neverwinter could immediately produce a large number of trucks, there was still a huge shortage of drivers. Fortunately, they already had a prototype truck. Next, they just needed to set up a driving school and quickly train a group of qualified drivers. After all, there were no traffic laws in this era. As long as the truck could start, everything else was easy.
The last project was the lead-acid battery.
Although it was not eye-catching and the technical content was much lower than the previous projects, it was very useful.
For example, the battery provided power for the headlights and tail lights of the truck, which was also the only electrical equipment on the "Hump". With the lights, the truck's driving time was instantly extended from day to night, which almost doubled the efficiency.
It could also be used to start the biplane, which could save the ground crew a lot of effort. More importantly, if the engine stalled in the air, the pilot could directly try to start it again, which indirectly improved the safety.
In short, with a large number of immigrants moving in, the industrial capacity of Neverwinter once again broke through the bottleneck and entered a period of rapid growth.
However, Roland also knew that this increase was not entirely due to the increase in population. If it was still manual production, it would take several years to train a layman who knew nothing into a qualified worker, let alone a few months. But here, those experienced workers were only afraid that you wouldn't learn, but they were also not afraid that you wouldn't be able to learn, because promotions and salary increases were closely related to the apprentices under them. They would always look like they were hungry and thirsty, and they would teach everything they knew.
Ordinary people only needed one or two weeks of hands-on instruction to understand the basic operation of a machine tool. Even if a newcomer did not know a word, he could imitate the steps and produce qualified parts.
With the new productivity system, the promotion of universal education, and the emphasis on creation and research, the industrialization of the city would only get faster in the future.
However, the news he received was not all good.
According to Iron Axe's report, the First Army was under increasing pressure at the front line. With the spreading Red Mist, the demons could already reach the Cage Mountain area. Some people even said that they had seen Devilbeasts in the Kingdom of Dawn.
When he was on the Fertile Plains, Roland already knew that the demons could attack from thousands of miles away. Although they could not mobilize many troops, even a small number of Mad Demons could cause considerable damage to the rear.
And now, the scattered Devilbeasts were very likely to be sentinels who were scouting for routes for the surprise attack.
If the First Army wanted to counteract this, they must have the same mobility.
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