Amidst the cheers and exclamations of tens of thousands of citizens on both sides of the river, the new magic warship made of steel sounded its whistle. It slowly sailed across the river and entered full-power sailing mode after passing through the north gate.
The reports of the controllers sounded in the bridge. "Magic Net base layer normal!" "Power spine normal!" "Machinery normal!" "Preparing to deploy magic energy wings. Engine output increased!" "Attitude stable. Power unit forward three times!"
On both sides of the magic warship, wing-like devices made of a large number of narrow metal plates and mechanical devices slowly unfolded. A shining magic shield rose first, covering all possible weak points on the warship. The runes and magic lines on the surface of the three pairs of 'wings' intersected with the glimmer of the shield. This wing-like structure was one of the most important structures on the magic warship, as well as all kinds of large magic transport vehicles in the future. It could provide extra magic energy for the power spine and release a large amount of waste energy to the outside of the magic mechanism in time. Only by unfolding these wings could the magic warship operate at full power.
With the roar of the three sets of magic energy engines, the warship gradually accelerated and began to sail toward Tanzania Town.
It was hard to say who was the first to shout from the riverbank, but gradually the shouts grew louder and louder.
"Have a safe journey!" "Have a safe journey!" "Long live Cecil!"
Godwin? Orlando stood on the high ground of the south bank and personally pressed the recording button on the magic energy terminal. He then lowered his head and wrote down his feelings in his shorthand book.
"… The steel water fortress has lifted everyone's spirits. People, regardless of their status, stood on the riverbank and cheered excitedly, giving their blessings to this voyage. The Lord once said that he wanted to create a sense of pride for the Cecil people. Now, this sense of pride has begun to build. A powerful industrial product, and one that was created by 'us', is enough to make every citizen proud …"
The slightly chilly spring breeze blew over from the river, making this old scholar from the King's City tighten his clothes. He then raised his head and looked at the hazy northern shore. His vision seemed to have passed through the river, passed through the plains, passed through the mountains in the south, all the way to the north of the Holy Spirit Plains, to his hometown in Saint Sunil …
When would such a ship be able to navigate the vast rivers of the Plains of the Holy Spirit?
A student noticed the old scholar's absent-mindedness and could not help but ask, "Teacher? What happened to you? "
"It's nothing, I'm getting old … It's easy for me to get distracted."
…
The Trailblazer would continue to sail, and its engine group and control mechanism would be tested during the next few hours of the voyage. It would not stop until it reached Tanzania Town, which should actually be called Tanzania New City.
At that time, the technicians would begin to check the engine's working condition and the state of the power spine. Gwen and the others would disembark at the port of Tanson and return to Cecil City by magic car. Some of the sailors on standby in Tanson City would board the ship in rotation. After that, the Pioneer would continue to set sail and complete its tour that would last nearly half a month.
With the speed of this ship, it certainly wouldn't take that long to complete a tour. However, in order to demonstrate its effects, this ship definitely wouldn't move at full speed. Moreover, it would need to stop many times in the middle for necessary mechanical checks and adjustments.
Gwen left the platform at the front of the bridge. In the rest area at the back of the bridge, he called Byron and Knight.
"How do you feel about this ship?" he asked with a smile.
"Exciting, very exciting." Byron smiled brightly. "I've never come into contact with such a powerful thing in my life. The previous Polar Light and Morning Star were far inferior to it."
"In fact, I was worried at first. I was worried that you, a Knight who fought on land, would not be happy to be the commander of the navy." Gwen was very used to the down-to-earth way of speaking of this ruffian Knight who used to be a mercenary. He was quite direct when talking to him. "I guess most of the traditional nobles will think that this is a demotion and suppression. After all, no one has paid attention to the battle on the water."
Byron spread his hands. "Let them say that to the six cannons. I don't believe that after seeing a 100-meter-long, steel fortress with six heavy cannons and two layers of shields on the water, they can still say that this thing is not useful. If there is, I'm willing to serve them wine and food, bathe and change clothes, sincerely salute them, and then stuff them into the railgun and launch them."
Evidently, the mercenary Byron rarely considered the question of whether it was honorable to sit on a ship and fight. What he valued was that this ship was capable of fighting, extremely capable of fighting — and that was enough.
But then again, Byron could think so simply and directly, but Gwen could not only think about the warship's ability to fight.
He raised his head and looked at the few control platforms not far away, as well as the 'mechanical soldiers' who were busy between the platforms. He listened to the faint mechanical roars coming from the lower cabins and thought about how much derivative value this ship could bring.
The Trailblazer was just the beginning. It was a fusion of Cecil's most cutting-edge magitech technology and Siren technology. The value of this fusion didn't lie in the fact that it could create a powerful warship, but also in the fact that every piece of technology was harvested during the construction of this warship.
For the current Cecil Principality, the Pioneer could be said to be a "parameter overflow".
As an inland river warship, its various values were far beyond the scope of an inland river warship, and also beyond the current military requirements of Cecil, from firepower to armor to power. It could be said that the Pioneer had piled all the advanced technologies together regardless of the cost on the basis of ensuring that it could sail on inland rivers. If it were a finalized warship, such a technological accumulation could be described as a waste.
But this was exactly the significance of building an "experimental ship". The process of building the Trailblazer itself was equivalent to trying out all the currently feasible technologies. After a certain degree of degradation or modification, these technologies could be used in other fields, especially in the civilian field.
According to the plan, after the warship went offline, the relevant technological accumulation would immediately enter the application and expansion phase.
First of all, the mature power technology would be applied to the Polar Light and the Morning Star. The two semi-finished magical warships would not be dismantled because of the new warships. In the principle of making the best use of everything, Gwen decided to complete the transformation and reconstruction of the warships, install the engines and new outer armor, and then integrate them into the Cecil Fleet.
Then, all the civilian ships under the Cecil Shipyard and the ship management department would enter the transformation phase. The old cargo ships would be modified if possible, and if not, they would be gradually scrapped and rebuilt. After the degradation, the power and control technology accumulated on the magical warships could be used to build civilian cargo ships with large capacity and high speed. This would greatly improve the material transportation capacity in the Southern Territory and relieve the transportation pressure faced by the various parts of the principality during the period of great construction.
At the same time, the highly integrated power spine, magical wings, and ship-borne shield technology of the Pioneer could also be used on roadbed bunkers, large vehicles, engineering facilities, and other types of warships.
He called Heti over and told her his plan. When she heard that the transportation problem was going to be alleviated, Heti, who had been worrying about this for a long time, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. "This is great … If the power technology of the Pioneer is used on civilian ships, at least in the areas covered by rivers, the transportation problem will be solved by half."
But then she frowned, "But if that's the case, the new mechanical ships will soon monopolize the river transportation, and those traditional ship owners will quickly go bankrupt. Most of them won't be able to afford an arcanotech ship …"
Gwen looked at Heti with a little surprise.
"What's wrong?" Heti did not understand. She touched her face. "Is there something on my face?"
Cecil was puzzled. She clearly remembered that she did not wear smoky makeup today … Could it be that she forgot to remove the makeup that she put on yesterday to cheat half a day's leave?
Gwen did not know what his eldest granddaughter was muttering in her heart. He suddenly thought of the time when Heti was at a loss when she heard about the "labor reward" system and the concept of "personnel management".
At that time, Heti did not understand the life of the common people. Although she had some righteous and compassionate thoughts, she was still a noble lady who had never left the castle and manor, and only relied on imagination to imagine the suffering of the common people. At that time, she did not even know why the common people could only eat two meals a day, and did not know why the common people had to pick up the food scraps thrown out of the castle …
Today, she was able to think about what to do if the ship-owners went bankrupt. Although a large part of the reason was the nature of the work in the government office, it was enough to show that her way of thinking had changed.
"We will not sit and watch the ship-owners go bankrupt. Since we want to promote the technology on the warships to the civilian sector, we must really promote it to the civilian sector, let it serve the people, and not make them go bankrupt." Gwen smiled. "I have three preliminary plans …"
At this point, he thought for a moment, and then said one by one, "First, open up the sales and rental channels of the mechanical ships. When the time is ripe, we can even help the capable private capital to establish small shipyards, and reduce the cost of the arcanotech ships to a level that the people can accept as soon as possible. Some big ship-owners or wealthy businessmen can afford to buy and rent ships, just like the commercial use of arcanotech vehicles.
"Second, for some ship-owners, the government office will subsidize them to modify the old cargo ships, or let them use the old cargo ships to buy new ships. If they don't have enough financial strength, they can borrow money to buy new ships without interest. Don't worry about this part of the cost. As long as the new cargo ships are running on the river, they can bring economic benefits far beyond the subsidies.
"Finally, the ship-owners of smaller ships can jointly set up a transportation company, raise funds to buy ships, or transfer jobs and enter the port freight system. There will be subsidies for each. Now that new cities are being built everywhere, there will always be a vacancy. As long as the job placement is done well, there will always be a way out.
"As for the specific implementation of these plans … it depends on you."
Looking at Heti's serious face, Gwen sighed slightly in his heart.
The plan was good, but there would definitely be a lot of problems after it was implemented. Industrialization was a good thing, but the impact in the process of changing agriculture to industry was unavoidable. Just like the alchemy potion that made a lot of alchemists go bankrupt, and last year's arcanotech vehicle caused panic in the carriage industry. And now, the mechanical ships … would definitely impact the ship-owners who relied on the old cargo ships for a living.
Once, more than 90% of the land in the south was controlled by other lords, and many alchemists and potioneers went bankrupt. Gwen could ignore it, and even be happy to see it, because it weakened and shook the other territories. But now, the entire south was under the rule of the Cecil family, and everyone was Cecil's citizen. There were many problems he had to consider.
He could only rely on his own knowledge and experience to get through these impacts as smoothly as possible.
While Gwen and Heti were thinking about how to popularize the new technology, another person on the bridge was also deep in thought.
Beside the main control seat, Rebecca was looking at the flashing runes and silver-white rods on the platform in a daze. Beside her, Tyre was carefully coiling himself on the ground. The siren lady was carefully stuffing the tip of her tail into the 'snake ball', and could not help but look up at Rebecca. "Hey, what are you thinking about?"
Rebecca was startled out of her reverie. She looked at Tyre who was playing with his tail, and her face was dejected. "Your arcanotech ship has been built, and my enchanted train still explodes twice a day …"
Since using the Origins Laboratory, the siren was no longer afraid of the cost and the hidden dangers of explosions, and the number of explosions in her experiments had increased significantly.
Tyre tilted his head and said casually, "What's there to be depressed about? I have hundreds of people here, and they have been studying this ship since last year. Isn't it normal for them to have an earlier result than you?"
"That's true …" Rebecca was still dejected. "But if the train problem is not solved, the ores in the White Sand Hills won't be able to be shipped back …"
Tyre thought for a moment, and slowly retracted into the ball he had made with his tail. "Then I can't help. We sirens are not good at making vehicles that can run on land, and the engine unit of the arcanotech warship can't be used on your train."
Rebecca looked helplessly at Tyre who had completely turned into a snake ball. The Marquess of the Cecil family was more dejected than ever …
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