The Empress’s Gigolo

Five days before the New Year.

“Teacher, teacher, we have succeeded. It’s moving! It’s moving!” Ren Baqian was sitting in the classroom when he heard the students shouting from outside the window.

Ren Baqian closed the book in his hand. He had always been monitoring the students’ progress and had originally thought that they would be able to achieve results sooner.

They merely had to adjust the linkages of the steam engine and fix them to the wheels. Little did he expect them to only complete these tasks after close to two months.

Strength grew in numbers. On the contrary, even though the aboriginals were indeed very strong, they were very slow in completing these tasks.

However, among so many students, there were indeed some who were hindrances to the rest. For instance, people like Tong Lan. If they were to be weeded out, the tasks could probably have been completed two weeks earlier.

In the room, Ren Baqian could hear the cheers of the students coming from the backyard. He strolled over with his hands behind his back, only to see dozens of people surrounding an enormous tractor…

Yes, a tractor indeed. Its entire outlook exceedingly resembled a tractor that Ren Baqian had seen when he was young. However, the thing before him looked a little more crude and simplified.

A cylindrical steam engine was mounted at the front with an exhaust pipe on top of it…

Behind that was a metal plate filled with coal. One of the students stood on top and constantly added coal into the furnace. As the burning coal in the furnace heated up the water tank, a steady flow of steam was transported to the engine cylinder in front through a pipe on top.

At the same time, these students also made use of the characteristics of the state changes between water and steam. They installed a diversion canal at the bottom of the engine cylinder that was able to direct the cooled water back into the water tank.

Below the cylinder were two large flywheels and six that gradually shrank in size. They were no longer linked together by animal tendons, which were used in the early stages, and were now connected by metal linkages.

When Ren Baqian arrived, Du Laoliu was covered in dirt. Baring his upper arms, he added coal to the furnace while standing on the vehicle.

“It’s moving! It’s moving!” Many of the students cheered.

“After so long, we have finally succeeded in making a steam car that doesn’t require manual labor!”

Regardless of whether it was Shi Gan with the best grades or the worst students, regardless of whether they were the younger generation from the families of the officials or ordinary commoners, every one of them looked very excited at the moment.

Even the blacksmiths and carpenters that Tong Zhenye had sent to help out at the school were folding their arms and admiring their masterpiece! After all, they had also contributed their efforts to make this steam car.

“Everyone move aside and give way—the car is accelerating!” Du Laoliu shouted toward the crowd in front. His hands were constantly adding coal to the furnace, and at the same time, he was howling with laughter and had a faceful of excitement.

“This is actually the first steam car since the creation of this world, so of course, I must be the one to operate it! Hahahaha!”

“Idiot!” While sitting on top of a rock away from the crowd, Tong Lan’s mouth immediately twitched when she heard Du Laoliu’s laughter. “This thing can’t turn!”

Upon hearing Tong Lan’s muttering, Ren Baqian, who had just arrived, looked at Du Laoliu again, who was standing on top of the steam car in high spirits. Ren Baqian immediately looked sympathetic.

The first traffic accident of the first steam car since the creation of this world will be caused by you!

As the students gave way to the vehicle, its speed began picking up. As the steam car moved forward, dust began rising from the back.

The wheels of the steam car created two grooves on the ground as it moved.

The steam car moved faster and faster, accelerating from the walking speed of a person to a jogging speed, and crashed directly into the wall of the courtyard on the opposite side!

“Hey, hey, hey? How do I steer this thing?” Du Laoliu suddenly thought about this when he was about to crash into the wall. He tried to tug on the reins, but he couldn’t find any and began to shout frantically. He was so anxious that he even shouted “Jia!”[1.”Jia”: sound made when getting a horse to stop]

Still, the steam car didn’t react and crashed into the wall.    ( AllNovel )

After the peal of falling bricks, the steam car crashed through the wall and continued moving forward.

The school was located to the east of the palace and north of the Beihong district. There were actually very few people moving about in this area. Only a few imperial bodyguards stopped in their tracks in surprise and stared as that odd looking thing drove out from the school, crossed the pavement, and barged through the courtyard wall of the residence of the Great Elder, Shi Qing!

The courtyard wall of Shi Qing’s residence was made entirely out of rocks, which was much sturdier compared to the school’s wall. There was the loud sound of a collision when the steam car, which was filled with the efforts of so many students from the school, crashed into the Shi residence’s wall. It actually only made a gap and didn’t destroy the entire wall.

As if they had provoked a hornet’s nest, over ten burly men jumped on top of the wall and stared at the culprit who had the audacity to attack the Shi residence.

All of a sudden, the dirt-covered Du Laoliu was marked by dozens of beast-like men, and his entire head was covered in cold sweat. He smiled at the crowd with a guilty look and said, “It was Shi Gan who did it.”

He pointed behind him as he spoke.

At that moment, a bunch of students ran through the gap in the wall.

“Older brothers, this was an accident!” Shi Gan promptly stepped forward and explained, “We made this steam car, but there has been a slight mishap.”

With Shi Gan’s explanation, the guards’ gazes finally became less tense.

“Come over here.” They weren’t sure when he had arrived, but Shi Qing waved his hands from outside the wall.

He then looked curiously at the steam car that had smashed through his courtyard wall and asked, “Is this what you have been busy with these days?”

“Dad!” Shi Gan first greeted sincerely before saying a little excitedly, “This is a steam car that is propelled by a steam engine. It can move without manual labor, and it doesn’t get tired.”

“How much metal was used for this?!” The thing that Shi Qing was most concerned about was how much metal was used to make this weird metal object. How many weapons could it have made, and how many soldiers could it have equipped?

Even though the output of the iron ore mine at Mount Damo had already increased by a hundred fold and the price of iron ore would decrease after two more years, Shi Qing was still unable to erase the notion he had held for the past few decades.

“Around 1,000 kilograms,” Shi Gan answered softly.

Shi Qing remained silent for a moment after hearing this and said, “You guys are indeed big spenders!”

“Sir Shi, metal will no longer be a restriction for Dayao anymore. Not to mention one ton of metal, even using ten tons to build this thing will be worth it. It’s just like the initial stages of the solar powered furnace—if you don’t know how to utilize it, it won’t be notable at all. However, if it’s properly utilized, you won’t even sell it for ten or even 100 times its value.” Ren Baqian stepped forward and smiled.

“Principal Ren!” Shi Qing nodded his head toward him. “I know that. It’s just an old notion of mine that I simply can’t overlook in a short period of time. I still remember those words that Principal Ren said previously. However, can this thing really perform like what you described?”

“This is just a prototype. There are still more modifications to be made,” Ren Baqian replied.

“I have no understanding of these things, so I shall wait and see Principal Ren’s performance then.” Shi Qing smiled at Ren Baqian and returned back to the Shi residence in a flash.

After that, everyone carried the steam car back for an inspection. As a result, they found out that the crash had created a hole in the engine cylinder. Du Laoliu had to take a beating for that.

“Teacher, how can we change the direction of this thing?” someone promptly asked Ren Baqian.

“We don’t need to change its direction. It will suffice as long as it can run along the steel rails.”

When Ren Baqian then brought out a few wooden sticks to demonstrate to everyone, Shi Gan immediately understood and said, “If that’s the case, there will be fewer adverse effects to the pavement, and the speed of the car can be increased by quite a bit.”

“Yet, how much metal will that require?” Shi Gan became speechless.

“You don’t have to worry about this. You simply have to know how useful this thing can be. If you can travel from Lan City to the Yun Nation in three days, it will be worth it, no matter how much metal is used.”

“Understood!” Everyone immediately became excited and left after hearing what Ren Baqian said.

After the students had built this steam car with their own hands, they had all become more enthusiastic. They felt that they definitely need to build the train that Yagui talked about.

Ren Baqian let out a gentle smile after seeing them leave.

Aside from himself, there was probably nobody who knew how much steel would be required to build a steel railroad.

If they were to learn about it, they would be extremely astonished and would go all out to prevent Ren Baqian from building the railroad.

One meter of steel railroad track would require 100 kilograms of steel, and in turn, one kilometer would require 100 tons of steel.

The current output of Mount Damo’s iron ore mine was one million kilograms per year. It was sufficient to produce weapons and was enough to make 100,000 steel blades a year. This could immediately increase Dayao’s soldiers by double.

With 200,000 warriors, it would be possible to take down Great Xia.

However, if they were to build the steel railroad, then this would be out of the question.

It was at least 1,000 kilometers from Lan City to the Yun Nation border. Based on the output of the iron ore mine at Mount Damo, they could only lay ten kilometers of railroad track per year, and it would take over 100 years to be able to finish laying such a railroad.

Fortunately, Ren Baqian’s objective had never been based on the metal output from Mount Damo’s iron ore mine.

There were also iron ore mines in the Yun Nation.