Seeing Natalia's rigid and cold face, Roland suddenly remembered that when he came to Koras Island to inspect last year, Leonid invited him to drink, perhaps because he still retained the habit of "spitting the truth after drinking", Leonid once said to him with emotion: "The biggest wish in this life is to see Natalia's face smile again." ”

At that time, Roland did not have the ability to help this infatuated man realize his wish, but he was sincerely sympathetic, and now it is not what it used to be, but it is possible to help him fulfill his wish.

"Your Highness, I'm sorry, I'm going to have to wait for you for a long time, my father is a very strange person, and he will never show up until the appointed time." His Royal Highness Prince Laojia waited for his father, and Leonid was quite upset.

"Mr. Matvey's punctuality is well known, and he doesn't want to waste a second, anyway, we're fine right now, just wait for him here while we walk."

Roland looked at the flat concrete plaza across from the institute. I didn't pay attention when I came last year, but this time I found a small "Dawn-class" airship moored in the square, and I looked at it twice out of curiosity.

"It was Natalia's airship, and she finally got her wish and is now an excellent airship pilot, occasionally going to the airship company for test flights." Leonid said proudly.

Roland turned to look at Natalia. The Lady of the Secret Puppet still has a cold face, and only when her eyes touch her husband and the airship do she reveal a glimmer of brilliance, perhaps this is the only happiness she has left.

The three of them walked around the square, chatting casually. Roland did not inquire about Leonid's new invention, but he noticed the light gray rut marks crisscrossing the square, and immediately recognized the traces left by the tires in the test of sharp turns and sudden braking when driving at heavy loads and high speeds.

At this moment, a pillar of teleportation light lit up in the corner of the square, and the figure of the old man Matvey appeared, looking dusty, obviously just coming from the construction site.

"I'm sorry, His Royal Highness Roland has been waiting for a long time, I'm not late, am I?" Matvey asked apologetically.

Roland shook his head and smiled: "Your old man is more punctual than a clock." Now that everyone is here, let's go and see some of the new inventions of Ionid. ”

"It's best not to let me run for nothing." Old man Matvey muttered angrily.

Leonid, who had long been accustomed to his father's cold words, turned around and opened the door of the warehouse, clapped his hands, and the dim warehouse lit up with an inextinguishable flame.

Roland stepped onto the threshold, his eyes immediately drawn to the machine in the center of the warehouse, which looked like a heavy truck, and he couldn't help but whistle in surprise despite his premonition.

"Leonid, I'm really surprised that you actually got the magic guide steam car out!"

The old man Matvey was also obviously surprised, stared up and down at the domineering iron-hulled cart with wide eyes, rushed up quickly, reached out to touch the shell of the car, and squatted down to stroke the huge and heavy star-quality tires, his eyes became extremely hot.

Leonid puffed up his chest and walked towards his father with his hands behind his back, looking like a rooster.

"How's it going, Dad, I'm going to surprise you this time!"

Matvey pursed his lips and snorted, not answering his son's show-off at the first time, and circled around the magic car, knocking here and groping there, as if he was trying to find something wrong. However, I have checked up and down, but I can't even find a fault, especially unwillingly, grabbed the door handle, pulled it open, and went into the cab to inspect the dashboard and rudder, with a thoughtful face.

Whether it's automotive engineering on Earth or Vares's magic construction, Roland doesn't know anything. The only reference he provided to Leonid was the shape of the car, which could be seen from the outside of the magic car, and the power plant, which greatly surprised him.

Based on his shallow knowledge of automobiles, Roland knows that the automotive industry on earth has had a tortuous and difficult development since its inception in the 19th century. Initially, engineers on Earth tried to transplant the design of a steam locomotive to a car, and many of the attempts were unsatisfactory. The steam engine has enough power to propel the vehicle on the road, but the problem is that the steam engine has a disadvantage that is difficult to overcome, that is, it takes a long time to start and brake.

Trains running on the tracks have enough space and time to start slowly and brake slowly; However, on a street with a lot of people and horse-drawn carriages, if it takes 10 seconds for a car to brake, it may have to kill a bunch of passers-by - this is absolutely intolerable!

In order to achieve the rapid braking of a steam locomotive, scientists and engineers on Earth racked their brains and only barely solved this problem until the beginning of the twentieth century. But sorry, it's too late. Since the invention of the world's first internal combustion engine in 1886, it has quickly become the darling of the road, and any attempt to improve the steam car is doomed to be futile and destined to be eliminated by the tide of the times.

When Roland first introduced the concept of the automobile to Wittgenstein and his sons, he also considered the braking problem of the steam engine, so he was prepared for two things: let Leonid try it out with a steam car, and if he couldn't do it in the end, he threw out the idea of an "internal combustion engine" and sought another way.

The reason why he did not do it in one step and came up to engage in internal combustion locomotives is, firstly, because Roland himself does not know much about the principle and structure of internal combustion engines, and secondly, the fuel of internal combustion engines is too troublesome. There is oil in the world of Vares, and there is no doubt that there are open-pit asphalt mines and spectacular asphalt lakes in the Far East, but the problem is that refining oil into diesel or gasoline requires a range of chemical technologies as a basis, and Roland is a complete layman. If you ask an alchemist to study the relevant technology, it will not be solved in the short term. Therefore, he did not want to replicate the path of automobile development on Earth unless he had to.

"Leonid, what's your big thing's name, Magic Car? It looks pretty good on the outside, but I have to suspect it's just a façade. "Of course you can start it running, maybe it's going to run pretty fast, but how are you going to stop it?" ”

"What's so hard about it, you can stop it by pressing the brakes, like a train on railroad tracks." Leonid replied calmly.

Matvey shook his head, his expression becoming extremely serious.

"You think too simply, a set of rails is usually only for one train, there is plenty of space and time to brake slowly, the situation of road traffic is more complicated, if your magic car also has to brake slowly like a train, it is destined to cause serious traffic accidents, we will never build a road for this kind of car to travel."

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