As soon as Murphy arrived at his office, he opened the lump of coal wrapped in cloth.

To be honest, Murphy's heart was very excited, and with coal, those ideas in his heart could finally be truly put into practice.

For example, coal-to-liquid, coal-to-natural gas, etc.

Although it cannot be directly promoted to the level of modern industrial civilization, at least there is a direction for development.

After all, the meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and the road must be taken step by step.

Murphy opened the drawer, pulled out his notebook, and pulled out one of the manuscripts.

Above it is a design drawing of a modern blast furnace.

However, the blast furnace has been simplified, after all, there is no complete supporting industry, and such an advanced blast furnace cannot be built.

But there are a few other things to be done before the blast furnace can be built.

At the very least, the advent of coal gave Murphy a glimpse of the dawn of a viable industrialization.

Murphy set his notes aside and began to study the lump of coal in front of him.

He remembers that when he visited the Coal Bureau, a friend had taught him how to distinguish between coal types.

The coal in front of me is gray-black in appearance, and it can be seen that the degree of coalification is not low, and the powder brown that is ground down is black, and the glossy part of the glass and the dull part are gathered into layers with each other, and there are obvious bands and convex mirror-like structures.

Murphy took a portion of the coal and lit it with a burning inscription, the flame was long and smoking, apparently a type of bituminous coal.

Murphy was happier, and while anthracite was a good power and industrial fuel, it was clear that bituminous coal, which could be used to make coke, was more useful in this world.

Although Murphy couldn't tell what the specific type of coal in front of him was, as long as he knew that it was bituminous coal, he would know everything if he threw it into the furnace and smelted it.

"It seems that we will have to wait until Alsace has recruited the craftsmen before proceeding to the next step. ”

Murphy thought to himself.

"I've been so busy learning magic lately that I've neglected the development of the town.

"But Alsace and Marshall are also rare talents, and with their help in dealing with them, I am happy to be idle, and I just need to draw the general direction. ”

Murphy spread his hands out, put the coal to the side, folded his legs on the table, and leaned back comfortably, squinting his eyes to sleep.

However, the reality was not as good as it should be, and less than half an hour after Murphy closed his eyes, someone knocked on the door outside.

Murphy pulled his legs off, straightened his slightly messy clothes, and sat down in his chair.

"Come in!"

He shouted out the door, then slowly picked up the quill pen, dipped it in ink, and pretended to write and draw on the parchment.

"Your Royal Highness, I have brought you the serf you are looking for. ”

Arthas pushed the door open and cautiously said to Murphy.

"Then let him in, I have something important to ask him. Murphy looked up and put down the quill in his hand.

"Yes!"

Arthas placed his right hand on his left chest, bowed slightly, and made a standard aristocratic salute, before shouting at the door.

"Your Highness said, bring it up!"

Three seconds later, two guards escorted a large man in ragged clothes into the room.

I saw that the big man was only wearing a slightly thicker dress in the middle of winter, his beard was thick and messy, and there were fleas in his hair, but fortunately it was winter, and the smell on his body spread a little less.

As soon as he came in, he threw himself directly in front of Murphy and kissed Murphy's shoes.

"Your Sage Prince, you must be the messenger of the gods! Your kindness and wisdom have made a good life for all the people of Remlos Castle!"

The serf knelt on the ground, his hands outstretched, and he did not hesitate to praise Murphy.

Judging from the micro-expression and mental outlook, although the serf's words were a little exaggerated, what he said was true.

"Get up, I don't like people kneeling in front of me, no one will have to kneel when they see me in the future, I hate those cumbersome etiquette. Murphy stepped forward and picked up the serf with his own hand.

The serf trembled with excitement.

"We've got more important things to talk about. Murphy picked up the coal from the side and placed it on the table.

"How do you know this black stone can be burned?" asked Murphy, pointing to the coal.

"Back to Your Highness, I was a freeman in the western part of the kingdom before I sold myself to become a serf. The serf froze for a moment, as if caught in a memory.

But he quickly adjusted.

"To the north of the Forbidden West, there is a huge forest where I used to live, and there is a large area of 'black flint' under the forest.

Villagers who live outside the forest often go there together to dig holes in the ground to dig 'black flint', which is particularly useful, it burns vigorously, there is no smoke, and it can burn all night.

Because the trees in the forest are the property of Viscount Hancock, and we civilians are not qualified to cut them down, so we can only burn this 'black flint' in winter to keep warm. ”

"Wait, you just said that your coal there... Ah no, the 'Black Flint burns' without smoke?" Murphy asked, raising an eyebrow.

It is estimated that it is high-quality anthracite, and when trains can be built in the future, anthracite is the best fuel.

"That's right, I've seen the black flints here, they're brittle, not as hard as the ones we have there, and ......"

"And it smokes when it burns. Murphy added to the side.

"Yes, Your Highness the Prince, so I don't think it's the same breed here. The serf wiped the sweat from his head and concluded.

"You go on, what happened?" Murphy waved his hand and motioned for him to continue.

"However, although the black flint is very practical, Viscount Hancock doesn't care about it at all, because he is a transcendent magician himself, and the cold of winter can't affect him at all, and other knights and lords also regard the black flint as a chicken rib, so only nearby civilians will burn the black flint to keep warm.

Later, our village was destroyed in a Warcraft riot, and I was exiled to the north, sold into slavery, and survived with great difficulty. ”

When he finished speaking, there was silence in the office, except for the crackling of wood in the decorative fireplace.

"You...... What's your name?" asked Murphy, after listening to his account.

"Back to Your Highness, my name is Boval and I don't have a surname. Serf Jonas spoke.

"Bolval?" murmured Murphy, glancing at Bolval and then at Arthas next to him.

Suddenly, a bad taste came to my heart, and I wrote a name on the paper.

"From this day forward, you will be called Berval Vortagen, and you will be elevated to the rank of Freeman. Murphy handed the name on the paper to Berval Vortagen.

Futagen's hands trembled with excitement, and a five-body bow went straight down.

"Thank you, Your Highness, Long live Your Highness!" exclaimed Fattagan excitedly.

"I'm not done yet, I'm going to hire you now at City Hall as the head of the Coal Bureau, and I'll pay you seven silver naso a month, would you like it?" Murphy stood up and looked at him.

"I ...... I am willing to go to the soup for His Royal Highness the Prince, and I will not give up!" Although he didn't know what kind of position the director of the coal bureau was, he was still willing to go to the soup for Murphy.

He never dreamed that he had just fallen into a pit, but it changed his life.

"Take him down, assign him a room, and change into decent clothes. With a wave of his hand, Murphy motioned for Arthas to bring the man down.

And he himself finally stole half a day of leisure and could rest for a while.

Everything will have to wait for Simon to return with the grain and grass and the craftsmen brought by Arthas before there can be any progress.