Roland could only try to persuade Matvey to turn a blind eye to this dwarven engineering battalion, anyway, the dwarves drank very well, and drinking alcohol was like drinking cold water to them, and it was not so easy to get drunk.

Matvey reluctantly accepted his persuasion, abandoned the unrealistic idea of issuing a "prohibition order", and called the supervisor to lead the way, and went to check the cliffs that stood in the way.

The thousand-foot-high mountains lay ahead, and it was an insurmountable obstacle. What's even more troublesome is that the mountain ridge is "bow-shaped" and stretches for dozens of miles on both sides, and to avoid this obstacle is to take a long detour, and a detour means additional road construction costs.

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, I'm afraid we won't be able to get around this time, so we can only try to dig a tunnel through the mountain." After calculating and comparing the costs of detours and tunnels, Matvey made a proposal to Roland.

"Mr. Matvey, I don't know much about the construction site, everything is under your command." Roland was clear.

"Then let's gnaw on this hard bone!" Old man Matvey rubbed his hands, looking particularly excited.

At this time, the "Independence" in the air also received an order to dig a tunnel through the mountain, hovered in the air for several minutes, and finally found a flat area close to the mountain range and landed. The door to the airship's cargo hold opened, and eight horses slowly appeared on the construction site dragging a strangely shaped machine.

Roland asked Matvey about the machine he had invented to dig tunnels and culverts, called the "Magic Guided TBM", which had been used many times since the construction of the Northern Railroad began, and was nicknamed the "Centipede Car" by the workers.

"This guy's shape really looks like a big centipede cast of steel."

Roland looked closer, and found it to be a long steel-framed multi-wheeler, powered by a Magic Steam Engine, covered with skin and shields.

Matvey personally instructed the workers to push the "Magic TBM" to the cliff, and when the engine was started, the slender and massive machine immediately rumbled, and the tail exhaust hole spewed out a white vapour of water, which looked quite scary.

The hollow body carries the operator, the front end is open and equipped with a slide rail, and after approaching the mountain, the high-hardness enchanted spiral drill bit rotates at high speed under the drive of the magic guide engine, digging the dirt and pressing it to the back, and the workers in the belly of the car shovel the dirt into the bucket truck, along the slide rail to the tail of the "centipede car", and dump it out of the tunnel.

Roland watched curiously at the "Magic Guided TBM", and watched the "iron-clad centipede" slowly but firmly burrow into the cliff, leaving behind a black hole tunnel, and couldn't help but feel that time and space were out of order—both in terms of appearance and working methods, this thing was very similar to the "shield machine" on the earth.

"Mr. Matvey, how did you come up with the idea to invent such a machine?" Roland deeply suspects that His Excellency the Minister of Transportation also has some ulterior connection with the civilization of Earth.

"Actually, I started thinking about the problem of digging tunnels fifteen years ago, and the traditional way is to use spells to dig tunnels, such as earth excavation, soft stone and fossil mud, etc., which of course can also achieve the goal, but the construction cost of pure spells is too high, and it is not a long-term solution, so I wondered if I could invent an excavation machine to replace the caster to dig tunnels at a lower cost."

Matvey talked about his proud work, and his old face was radiant.

"After years of living in seclusion, I had plenty of time to turn my ideas into practice, and after repeated attempts, I finally created this experimental magic TBM, which had many shortcomings, but barely managed to come in handy."

"You are too modest, and it seems to me that this is undoubtedly a genius invention." Roland's admiration from the bottom of his heart.

Matvey shook his head and smiled: "Your Highness, I'll tell you the truth, the idea of this thing didn't come up with me out of thin air, have you ever seen a siege vehicle?" ”

"Siege Engine......" Roland recalled the siege warfare of the Cold Weapon Age on Earth, "You mean the kind of siege machine that looks like a tower and is equipped with wheels?" ”

"That's right, the siege vehicle itself does not have weapons to destroy the city wall, but the car can hide a team of sappers, the car is equipped with a shield, covered with thick leather, can help the sappers hiding in it to resist the arrows shot from the city, the sappers work together to push the siege vehicle to the city wall, and then under the cover of the siege vehicle, you can carry out siege operations such as destroying the wall and digging tunnels."

After listening to Matvey's explanation, Roland suddenly realized: "It turns out that you invented this magic guide TBM based on the structure of the siege vehicle, no wonder the machine is wrapped with a shield-like iron shell, presumably used to resist the falling dirt and rubble when digging tunnels?" ”

"That's right, the Magic Tunnel Boring Machine is like a siege vehicle powered by a Magic Crystal steam engine, except that it is not manpower that is used to dig the rock and soil, but a drill bit driven by a steam engine." Matvey replied with a smile.

"This is indeed a great invention, and Mr. Matvey deserves to be the father of the Far Eastern Railway!" "Fat Fox" Fox sincerely admired Matvey, but Elder Sophie pursed his lips disapprovingly. The Druid's belief in natural rejection of man-made machines, and even if she admits that the "Magic Tunneler" is useful, she will never like this booming tin monster!

In fact, Matvey is not overly modest, and the Magic TBM is indeed an experimental model, but it still has many shortcomings. For the first two hours the machine was working well and the tunnels were digging efficiently, but suddenly they slowed down and the noise of the drill bits rubbing against the rock became extremely sharp and harsh!

The hatch at the tail of the TMBM was open, and one of Matvey's students hurried out to report to the teacher and His Royal Highness the Prince about the accident in the tunnel.

"The outer part of the mountain is relatively soft sandstone, but as the excavation depth increases, the rock layers inside the mountain become harder and harder, and the excavation speed inevitably decreases. The young mechanic looked at the teacher's face and tentatively made a suggestion: "The drill bit of the roadheader is quite expensive and not to mention, it is also very troublesome to replace, teacher, do you see that we are suspending the construction, please ask the caster to go up and think of a way?" ”

"Just do as you say, stop work first, and we'll think of another way."

Matvey nodded with a heavy face, and returned to Roland and Fawkes, Sophie, and others to tell everyone about the current troubles.

"The 'Magic TBM' is very efficient at digging through soft minerals such as sediment and shale, rock salt, sandstone, gypsum, and chalk, but it is difficult to advance against hard rock formations such as granite, quartzite, and basalt, so you can only ask the caster to use magic against the hard rock formations."