In this land ruled by the Cecil family, Amber was probably one of the few people who dared to question Gwen's decision. Although this half-elf lady's bold questioning was mostly because she had a loose mouth, Gwen was still very happy to see that not everyone here would blindly obey him. This meant the existence of independent thinking … Well, it wasn't necessarily independent thinking when it came to Amber, she just had a loose mouth.
It was difficult for Gwen to explain all his ideas to Amber in a short time. He could only roughly explain the composition of the industrial structure and the concept of technology generation gap. As for the deeper economic and political interests, and the long-term control of the Leslie Territory, he didn't mention these.
But in any case, Amber still seriously carried out Gwen's order. She set off the next day as the special envoy of the Cecil Territory and delivered the letter written by Duke Gwen Cecil to Viscount Andrew's castle.
Viscount Andrew's response was faster than Gwen imagined. He gladly accepted the invitation on the spot. On the third day after Amber returned to the territory, the viscount took a fast boat and arrived at the dock of the Cecil Territory.
The last time he saw the viscount, the viscount was still in a weakened state after being corroded by evil magic. But after a period of recuperation, Andrew Leslie had regained his health. He was wearing a thick and warm dark red coat, and his hair was combed meticulously. The newly recruited butler was by his side. He also brought with him a guard team of ten soldiers and a business consultant of the fief. The business consultant was naturally for the 'business' mentioned in Gawain's personal letter, and the guard team was made up of soldiers for the necessary extravagance of a noble.
He saw a new Cecil Territory that was completely different from what he had imagined.
Whether it was the brand-new and neat houses or the civilians walking on the streets, they all left a deep impression on him. He was especially curious about the houses of the citizens and where the serfs and lower-class people in the territory lived. But compared to Padrick who had no noble blood, the viscount was more steady and calm. He maintained the most indifferent and elegant state from the moment he got off the boat to the moment he was led to the lord's mansion. Even when he sat in Gwen Cecil's living room, he didn't show any excessive curiosity and fuss of a country bumpkin noble.
Then, he was forced to drink a whole pot of tea by Betty.
The people of the Southern Territory were simple and honest. More importantly, everyone seemed to have the problem of overthinking. Viscount Andrew, like Padrick, had been guessing why Gawain arranged for a maid to continuously pour water into the guest's mouth when he first drank half a pot of water.
Betty, who was standing in the living room with a big water bottle in her arms, had no idea that she had been labeled as an enigmatic character. She was just looking at the decorative swords hanging on the wall in a daze. Her mind was silently recalling the words and grammar she had recently learned. At the same time, she diverted part of her attention to pay attention to when the guest's teacup needed to be refilled. When she recited the vocabulary list for the second time, Gwen appeared.
"Viscount Andrew, I'm glad to see that you have recovered." Gwen greeted him warmly as soon as he entered the door. "I heard that Tanzania Town has been completely restored to order. That's really good news."
"I should thank you for your help. If it weren't for your large order of ores, I'm afraid I couldn't even afford to repair the big hole in the castle this winter." Viscount Andrew said with an exaggerated smile. "So when I heard that you wanted to talk to me personally about a new business, I came immediately."
"It is indeed a new business, but we can't talk about it here. If you don't mind, would you like to come with me to visit the mine under Cecil?"
"Mine?" Viscount Andrew knit his brows, "You mentioned in the letter that you have some new mining equipment for sale, but the Leslie family has been mining for generations, so I'm very familiar with all kinds of mining equipment … … Burp … … Ah, sorry, I was rude."
"Don't mind it, don't mind it." Gwen quickly waved his hand. At the same time, he was curious why Viscount Andrew's burp began to echo. He then explained with a smile, "It's necessary to see it with your own eyes because I'm afraid you haven't seen the things I want to sell before."
Since Gwen had already said so, Viscount Andrew, of course, would not continue to be tactless, so he gladly agreed to the invitation to visit the mine and asked where the toilet was.
Cecil Mine was located in the east of the territory. In the beginning, it was just a small mining site. But with the rapid development of the territory and the increasing demand for ores, the mine became a place second only to the central area of 'Cecil City.' A large number of manpower, materials, and advanced machinery were transported here. It slowly changed from a mining site with only a few tents to a village with more than a dozen houses, and from a village to a town. Now there were newly built brick houses and neat roads paved with slag and cement. A wide main road connected the mining town and Cecil City together, ensuring the flow of people and materials between the two places.
Due to the convenient transportation, Gwen and his guests arrived at the mining town in less than two hours by carriage.
Viscount Andrew maintained his calm and indifferent demeanor until the last stop of the journey. He tried not to be too surprised when he saw the magic crystal lamps everywhere in the territory, the straight and smooth roads, and the people who were still busy working in the winter, and the strange noises coming from the 'factories' at the edge of the town. Although these things were beyond his expectations, they were not beyond his imagination. He was surprised that the Cecil family, which had declined to the point where they almost had to sell their titles to survive, could build such a territory in such a short period of time. But he could still add a reasonable explanation to everything he saw. As long as he understood all this as' Gwen Cecil dug out the coffin he buried years ago and built such a place with money ', then everything was understandable.
Until he saw something that he couldn't understand, couldn't explain, and couldn't even imagine.
"What … what is this thing?!"
In front of Viscount Andrew, a huge machine was driving a winch with amazing power to pull several carts of heavy ores, which probably required dozens of slave workers to move, out of the deep mine. The machine made a deep sound like a giant's roar. The huge disc structure on the side of the machine kept rotating with an indomitable momentum. Every part of the machine seemed to be made of steel, but these lifeless things kept moving as if they were alive. They were emotionless, endless, powerful, and even had an inexplicable majesty that originated from steel.
After being stunned for a few seconds, Viscount Andrew finally saw a shining magic light at the core of the machine. He finally regained some of his ability to speak. "This is a … magic device? Some kind of combination of magic gear and mechanical engineering? "
"You can think of it that way." Gwen smiled. "This is what I want to sell you, but this is only one of them. You can see more machines as you move forward. In Cecil Hill, more than half of the heavy labor in the mine is done by these machines."
The more Viscount Andrew looked, the more shocked he was. He knew the mine and was familiar with the mining equipment, but he would never have thought that the "mining equipment" that Gwen was talking about was actually a pile of … steel behemoths. He looked at the huge machines and quickly noticed the incredible precision of these seemingly crude lumps of metal. The parts that fit together perfectly, the connecting rods that fit together perfectly, and the magic circles that switched quickly even though no one was controlling them … How were these monsters made?!
"Is this … the magic technology of the ancient Kingdom of Gondor?!" Finally, Viscount Andrew thought that he had found the only reasonable explanation. He slowly turned his head and looked into Gwen's eyes.
"This was designed by me and the technical experts in my territory. Of course, if you think that because I'm the first survivor of the ancient Kingdom of Gondor, the technology that I have mastered is the ancient Gondor technology … then it's not a problem to understand it that way." Gwen deliberately gave a vague explanation and then looked at Viscount Andrew's reaction. "So, are you interested in these 'magic devices'?"
"As long as you're willing to sell them!" Viscount Andrew said with his eyes wide open.
"I'm sure you can see that the details of these machines are terrifyingly difficult to process. The cost of making one is not cheap, so the price is naturally high. According to the difference in scale and manufacturing difficulty, the cost alone is between hundreds to thousands of Cecil gold coins. And the manufacturing of these things obviously requires the participation of Transcendents. The labor cost … you can imagine," Gwen said slowly, but before Viscount Andrew gradually lost his smile, he changed the topic. "Of course, I'll only set the price like this when I'm selling to others. If I'm selling to my neighbor, I'll only charge the cost of the materials. And if you're in trouble, you can even use the ores to pay for it."
Viscount Andrew was greatly tempted.
Of course, he knew that these machines were not cheap, but he also knew very well that these machines were equivalent to the strength of many people when they were operating!
A tractor could match the strength of hundreds of slave workers, and a crusher could crush the ores in half a day, leaving all the slave workers in the Tanzan mine with nothing to do! Of course, buying these machines would cost a lot of money, but he would recover the cost very quickly. And after the cost was recovered, Tanzan Town, and even the entire Leslie Hill, would usher in an unprecedented profit!
And the magic part of these machines did not seem too complicated. After he recovered the cost, he might try to recruit a group of rune craftsmen and experts in magic circles to study how these things worked …
At this time, Gwen's voice interrupted his thoughts. "By the way, Viscount Andrew, I'll tell you one more thing. These machines can't operate on their own. You should have noticed that there are no magicians here to provide energy for the machines …"
"Hmm … I'm also curious about this matter." Viscount Andrew touched his chin. "I didn't see any mage controlling these machines, nor did I see anyone charging them … Do they have a large capacity of Magic Storage Crystal?"
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