Warlord: King of All Clans

The huge steam locomotive was ugly and weird, with a mess of parts, bolts and rivets everywhere, and patches of steel plates.

Noreen frowned as she looked at it. “What is this?”

Although it was completely different from what Leo knew, he still recognized it, "It's a steam locomotive."

This was the first high-pressure steam locomotive in Riverbend. The idea was provided by Leo, the drawings were completed by Morse, Virgil provided guidance, and it was finally built by Fraser and his team of Riverbend craftsmen.

In fact, when the high-pressure boiler appeared, the drawing of this high-pressure steam engine was placed on Leo's desk.

However, the industrial base of Hewan is not sufficient to produce finished products, so it is only now, after several rounds of selection, that it is finally available.

Obviously, there are many differences between the steam locomotive built by Fraser and the design drawings by Master Morse. The locomotive in Master Morse's drawings is simple, elegant, exquisite and beautiful, while the actual one made by Fraser is rough, ugly, hideous and weird.

But this is also in line with the current situation of Hewan. When materials and technology are insufficient, they can only be compensated by other methods as long as the core functions remain unchanged.

A stabilizing magic circle was drawn at a key position on the front of the car, which made Leo frown.

The magic array in the extraordinary realm is a representative of high cost, and the energy provided by magic crystals is equivalent to high-cost energy like early nuclear energy.

Therefore, Leo has never introduced the system of extraordinary magic into the industry of Hewan. His requirement for the Hewan research team is to pursue practicality and be able to mass produce.

Just as Master Virgil said, if such a steam locomotive is driven by magic, its size and weight can be reduced by three times and its power can be increased tenfold, which is enough to meet any of Leo's requirements.

But the cost will also increase a hundredfold, and it will take the alchemical locomotive fifty years of rail transportation to make a profit, not counting the consumption of magic energy.

If the consumption of magic crystal energy is also included in the cost, then for every truckload of iron ore, the profit of three truckloads of iron ore will be lost.

What kind of production is this? Leo didn't even bother to make a sample for fun.

The high cost of magic crystal energy supply is a problem that the Orlantis Empire has not been able to solve for hundreds of years.

The Free State of the Islands in the south of the empire had developed mature alchemical airship manufacturing technology hundreds of years ago, capable of carrying hundreds of people in the air.

The energy it uses is the magic stone mine discovered deep under the Storm Sea. This is the only magic resource that can replace the magic crystals of mainland creatures, but the mining cost is extremely high and it cannot be popularized for civilian use.

For hundreds of years, the number of alchemical airships in the entire continent has remained below five due to the scarcity of magic stone energy.

In the entire continent, only the elves who control the fountain of magic have the conditions to squander magic power without restraint.

Leo also didn't think that his grassroots team could solve the magic energy problem in a year or half a year.

Hewan's economic strength is not yet able to support such research, and he would rather Fraser and his men slowly build a primitive steam locomotive.

Fisa's deputy is a young low-level wizard, the first exiled noble who migrated from Count Gustav's territory, named Wade.

Master Vader studied under the master of mechanics, Ingsor, who was the vice-president of Anhurst School of Magic and an authority on alchemical puppetry in the North.

His contribution to the early release of this steam locomotive can be attributed to half of the entire team.

After all, Fraser is very playful. He tinkers with things here and there every day and is reluctant to let go of anything.

Compared to professional mechanical scholars like Wade, Fraser spends more time coming up with creative ideas and less time working and researching.

After Master Morse left Riverbend to study in the Atrium, Fraser became the chief mage of the Riverbend Mage Tower and presided over the various research projects left by Master Morse.

But the steam engine research team was actually led by Wade.

After arriving at the river bend, Master Vader went through the initial cautiousness and established his own authority and confidence.

Seeing Leo frown, Master Wade immediately knew what he was thinking and came up to explain: "The steel on the locomotive is not up to standard yet. If it is heated for a long time, it will be easily damaged quickly. So I temporarily engraved a stabilization array on it. On the one hand, it is to strengthen it, and on the other hand, it is to reduce vibration. However, this low-level stabilization array does not consume much energy. It only consumes one magic crystal in a year."

"When the experiment is successful and the next car head is optimized, the stabilization array will no longer be needed."

After hearing this, Leo felt a little better. If he had to carve a stable magic circle that was expensive and consumed a lot of energy, then even if the research on this steam locomotive was successful, it would not be possible to put it into practical use.

He was not completely ignorant of the field of magic now. The primary stable magic circle engraved on the steam locomotive and covering an area of ​​one square meter could be engraved even by low-level alchemists. It was completely different from the sophisticated rune magic circle drawn on the breastplate or alchemy table.

The latter is a rune array that only mid- to high-level mages are capable of carving. Excluding the cost of materials, the labor cost alone is calculated in gold coins.

"Consuming one magic crystal a year is still within the acceptable range. If the transportation capacity it provides is sufficient, it is not impossible to use it as a fixed component."

Master Vader smiled and said, "It's too early to discuss this now. It's not a big problem for the steam locomotive to run, but its service life is still unknown. After solving many problems, we still have to consider its energy consumption."

Leo nodded repeatedly. He invested manpower and financial resources to prioritize the research of steam locomotives in order to increase the transportation capacity of the river bay and prepare for the large-scale import of coal from the western border.

It would be interesting if a steam locomotive needed to consume two train cars of coal to pull back one train car of coal.

Of course, this would never happen in reality, but at least the steam locomotive would be more efficient than a horse-drawn carriage.

Norin, standing aside, was wary of the alchemical creations in the river bay. After all, the last time she rode a griffin here, she was almost shot down by Fesha's pressure cooker before she even landed.

"What kind of steam engine is this? It's not going to explode, is it?"

"Don't worry, there's a pressure valve now. At most it will leak, but it won't explode."

Norin knew a little about the industry in Hewan. Looking at the gas gushing out from the forging workshop in the distance, she asked, "Hewan's steam engine was developed last year, right? Why are they researching it again this year?"

Leo explained: "Those are low-pressure steam engines that can only pump water and drive machine tools. What you are seeing now is the latest high-pressure steam engine, which has greater power."

The first batch of steam engines in Hewan have been put into use, but they are primitive and crude low-pressure steam engines with low material and structural manufacturing levels.

The textile, mining, metallurgical and papermaking industries invested in Hewan have all achieved certain results.

In particular, as coal from the western border entered the river bay and partially replaced charcoal, these low-pressure steam engines also showed greater appeal.

Now every mine in Hewan cannot do without steam pumps.

However, the thermal energy conversion efficiency of the low-pressure steam engine is extremely low. The advantage is that you can move around no matter what you eat, but the disadvantage is that your appetite is too large.

If they are used to make locomotives, whether they can pull cargo is a problem, but not the main problem.

The bigger problem is that it is really possible that one truckload of coal will be consumed for every truckload of coal transported.

Moreover, the low-pressure steam engine was too large and heavy to even support the rails.