In the following days, Ren Baqian's students were stuck in a situation where the locomotive was too heavy and the steam engine couldn't move it. Furthermore, the steam engine was too big and the structure couldn't support it. Between these two situations, the size of the locomotive started to increase …
Half a month later, seeing that the locomotive was half the size of a courtyard, Ren Baqian finally couldn't help but ask, "Can't you bunch of idiots change the structure to iron?"
"Iron is too expensive! We can't afford it! "Tong Lan raised her small face and said confidently. Everyone nodded their heads.
Ren Baqian was so angry that he almost laughed. A bunch of officials' children … Well, even though they were good-for-nothings among the officials' children, they still had a lot of pocket money, right? With so many people pooling together, they shouldn't be unable to afford iron, right?
However, their expressions didn't seem to be fake. Ren Baqian recalled that he hadn't been paying much attention to the current situation of Dayao's iron production, so he didn't say anything more.
However, he had recently discovered some interesting phenomena. In the past, it was fine, but ever since the steam engine was made, these students gradually divided into three levels.
The first level consisted of Tong Lan and Shi Gan, who were the strongest. At this moment, it could be seen from their bodies that the rest of the students were more or less dirty, but they were relatively clean.
However, the cleanliness of the two of them was different. Tong Lan's entire body was clean and refreshing. She was dressed in white, which was completely out of place in the messy surroundings.
As for Shi Gan … Even though his chest and sleeves looked a little dirty, one could tell from his hands that they were clean without any traces of work.
However, he made his clothes a little dirty so that he didn't look so special.
It could only be said that he was indeed the son of the Great Elder. He was on a completely different level from Tong Lan, who was a silly girl with a brain full of muscles.
These two people were mainly responsible for talking and giving advice. Among them, Shi Gan had put forward many useful suggestions. As for Tong Lan, she was only used as a talker and a mascot.
Even though Tong Lan seemed to have done a lot of things recently, these were all because of "differences in ideology", such as fighting with Shi Gan and coming up with bad ideas.
The second level consisted of a small number of people who were stronger, did less work, and mainly did odd jobs and came up with ideas. Unexpectedly, this group of people was made up of commoner students.
These people were relatively hardworking, and their individual strengths were pretty good. After entering Ren Baqian's school by chance, their performance was generally pretty good.
The last group was led by Du Laoliu and the rest, who were good-for-nothings from the various clans. All of them were dirty and had been reduced to coolies.
The aboriginals' respect for martial prowess and the law of the jungle was clearly displayed here.
However, Ren Baqian felt that this kind of division wasn't too bad. At the very least, it was much better than having the coolies be the children of commoners. The ethos of Dayao was still relatively simple.
After class, he went to the Ministry of Works to ask about it.
After asking around, he found out that the students really couldn't afford it … It wasn't fake, it was real.
Even though the mining of the Damo Iron Mine in Dayao had been going very smoothly for the past six months, causing Dayao's iron production to soar, the price of the iron mine hadn't dropped by much.
Dayao's demand for iron was simply too high.
Even though Mount Damo had produced quite a lot of iron ore, it still had to satisfy the needs of the army. During the war, the consumption of weapons had always been very fast.
Moreover, the militia also needed a large amount of weapons.
After removing these two items, there weren't that many weapons that ended up in the hands of the commoners.
After all, the Mount Damo Iron Mine had only been mining with the solar furnace for slightly more than half a year. At the very most, there were only 500,000 kilograms of iron, and only about 50,000 weapons were forged. Even though it was already 100 times faster than before, the time was still too short.
Nowadays, there were more weapons among the commoners than before, but most of them were concentrated in the north. They were mainly made from the weapons left behind by Great Xia.
As a result, the price of iron was still very high and only slightly lower than before.
It was fine to let these students pool their money to buy one or two weapons, but they didn't have to think about the rest.
One kilogram of iron cost about four taels of silver. Including the various structures, connecting rods, and wheels of the steam engine, they would need at least 500 kilograms of iron, which was 4,000 taels of silver.
The monthly salary of a low-level official was only six taels of silver. Even though most of these students came from good backgrounds, firstly, aboriginal officials weren't very wealthy. Secondly, most of these students were "good-for-nothings" who weren't very well received by their clans, so they didn't have much money. As a result, they really couldn't afford 4,000 taels of silver.
Upon seeing this, Ren Baqian returned to the palace and found the empress. He specially transferred 1,500 kilograms of iron to the Black Bamboo Academy and ordered the Ministry of Works to transfer a few blacksmiths over. They partitioned a courtyard in a corner of the academy. Every day after school, they would hammer there and finally, the production of the locomotive was back on track.
In fact, as long as the power problem was solved and there was a clear goal, it wasn't too difficult to complete. It was just a matter of time before a suitable structure could be developed. Only then would they be able to manufacture this horribly ugly locomotive with a hair-raising conversion rate.
Even though Ren Baqian had a complete train drawing from the early 20th century in his hand, he didn't intend to take it out. He left it to the students to improve bit by bit, and the value of the harvest was much higher than that of a train.
Ren Baqian had been quietly observing their changes and waiting for the day they would transform.
Ren Baqian's daily life had also become one of the two places he had been looking forward to — the palace and the academy.
Other than attending classes every day, he would cultivate in the palace. Every now and then, he would be taught a lesson by the little lolita. At other times, he would accompany the empress to sit in the palace in a daze or walk around the palace to observe the subtle changes.
For example, the street lamps that could be seen everywhere.
After returning to Lan City for a few months, Ren Baqian began to carry out his "Palace Illumination Project." When he had nothing to do, he would bring back some street lamp equipment and batteries.
After a few months, there was now a street lamp every 20 meters in the palace. This allowed the palace to be brightly lit throughout the night, as if it was a city that never slept.
The empress was extremely happy with such a change. When she had nothing to do, she would sit on the roof of the palace chamber and drink wine at night. As far as her eyes could see, she would see the bright palace.
At the same time, such a change made the imperial guards and maids in the palace a little uncomfortable. They didn't use torches or palace lanterns at night anymore. It was as if the palace had suddenly become a city that never slept in a few months. Regardless of whether it was day or night, there wasn't a single place that was dark.
Even in other parts of Lan City, one could see the exceptionally bright palace every night.
The biggest impact this had on them was that … they couldn't find a place to pee anywhere they wanted … It was too bright …
After all, in a brightly lit place, under the watchful eyes of everyone, it took courage to pee anywhere they wanted …
Similarly, the officials in the imperial court were amazed by the huge changes in the palace. At the very beginning, they had discovered the street lamps in the palace. After all, there were so many pillars on both sides of the road that it was impossible to not see them.
However, there were only a few of them at that time. Coupled with the subsequent war with Great Xia and the pacification of Tianjing Basin, Ren Baqian and the empress weren't in the palace, leaving them in Lan City to speculate.
However, no matter how they speculated, there was one thing that everyone was sure of. This kind of treasure that absorbed light during the day and released at night was definitely very valuable.
They didn't expect that within a few months of the empress and Ren Baqian's return, the palace would be covered with such treasures, leaving no blind spots in the palace. Although it was extremely beautiful, it also made many people even more shocked. How much did it cost to build so many treasures and where did they come from?
In addition, there were still battles going on in the northeast and southeast. The sudden change in the palace caused a lot of criticism.
In fact, this wasn't the only change. Many of the windows in the palace were also replaced with glass. However, everyone knew that the glass was made by the imperial family. Although it was expensive, it didn't cause much discussion.
On the contrary, these street lamps were more precious treasures than the luminous pearls in the eyes of many people. After all, how bright were the luminous pearls? How could they compare to these street lamps in the palace?
This caused many officials to privately discuss that the empress had changed and had become too extravagant!
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
