Before the salt lake was mined, the Harland Territory spent a lot of gold coins every year to buy salt from the Duke of Jonathan.

With the mining of salt lakes, salt is now self-sufficient, saving the territory a lot of money. As for the sale of salt, it is still difficult for Haaland's territory.

Because within the salt trade of each province, there are many nobles of Nolan.

Richard will not easily offend the big men of the royal capital for some economic gains. When Jeram was offended by the salt trade, the Haaland family was very uncomfortable. At that time, the Haaland family had just started, and the barefoot were not afraid to wear shoes, and in order to protect their own interests, they were forced to compete with Jeram and others.

If it weren't for the Duke of Breener's fake death and his desire to lure the legendary magician Elena of the Novenus family to make a move, causing King Charlie's misjudgment and Nolan's political situation to change, the life of the Harland family must be uncomfortable now.

If King Charles is in power, Prince Felix is in charge, and he will continue to pull back and play black hands in the royal capital Nolan, so that Richard's years of operation will be ruined, and the Haaland family will lose its territory.

Although these people are not enough, they are more than enough for bad.

Although Richard doesn't like such a character in his heart, he doesn't like to come into contact with the nobles of the royal capital, and on the surface, he will not tear his face with these people and go to the opposite side.

After suffering a few secret losses, Richard had already learned a lesson, and he would not easily touch the interests of the nobles of the royal capital and break out into conflict with them.

As the construction of Fort North began, the garrison of Salt Lake County essentially left Fort Salt Lake and moved to the north.

Salt Lake County was the focal point of the defense of the Harland territory, and the 6th and 7th brigades were stationed on the territory, and the number of regular troops exceeded 3,000. In addition, the training of auxiliary troops has been strengthened this year, and it is expected that the training will be intensive for three months in the winter to train 800 reservists. Combined with some second-line armed personnel to maintain law and order, the strength of the defense in Salt Lake County exceeded 4,000.

The Northern Boundary Fort is located in the middle of the valley, on the mountain beams on both sides, all the military villages have been built, heavy trebuchets are installed in the military wall, a large number of alchemy bombs are stored, there are three thousand defenders, even if it is half an orc army attack, it will inevitably hit the head and blood, gray face, the terrain here is more dangerous than Fort William.

Orcs, if they were smart, would not attack such a fortified stronghold with a treacherous terrain.

Richard had been wandering around Salt Lake County for seven or eight days, and he already knew a lot about what was going on. He said to Bernard with a serious face: "The construction task of your county is very heavy, and the material support is not abundant, so life will be a little more difficult this year and next year." Now that the climate has become colder and snow will soon fall, you have to catch the construction of the indentured slaves' sheds, so as not to freeze to death in the winter. As a high-ranking civil servant of the territory, it is important to know that the population is the most important resource of the territory. When managing government in daily life, we should have good thoughts in our hearts. ”

What Richard personally advised, Bernard did not dare to slack off. The next day, he mobilized some manpower and material resources, stopped some official projects, and began the construction of camp sheds.

Although the wooden house is not very warm, the fire resistance is also a little worse. However, the materials are simple, the construction is fast, the warmth is far better than that of tents, and there are coal stoves in Haaland's territory for heating, so few ordinary people have frozen to death in winter.

In the more than a decade since the establishment of the Haaland territory, the standard of living has improved dramatically. Today's indentured slaves, who basically do not suffer from cold and starvation, enter the territory of Haaland, and it is as if they have come to heaven on earth.

Richard has made some changes to the world in the past two decades.

After rounding the territory, it's September. This year, the snowfall in northern Xinjiang was earlier, and the first snow had already fallen in Haaland's territory on the third day of September.

Fortunately, the first snow did not fall very much, and the temperature rose a little on the fifth day of September, so it did not cause too much difficulty to Haaland's territory.

Richard was an idle man, and when he returned to Fort William, he began to enter various research institutes and inquire about the development of various researches.

The Institute of Optics has produced a microscope with a magnification of more than 300 times, and with the magician's visual magnification spell, it has already shown great power in research.

In recent years, the Institute of Optics has used the method of manual mirror grinding, and has produced dozens of microscopes, and through the accumulation of experience, the skills of mirror sharpeners have become better and better, and almost everyone in the formal magician has bought one.

Although the price of the microscope was very high, and the internal price was more than eighty gold coins, it could not stop the enthusiasm of the wealthy magician. Even if you just become a magician, the salary is not high, and you have to save money for two years without eating or drinking to buy a microscope.

Because the microscope has a strong effect on magicians and scientists to understand the world and summarize the laws, the intelligence department of Haaland's territory has also set restrictions to prohibit the sale of high-powered microscopes to the outside world.

Every high-powered microscope manufactured by the Institute of Optics is numbered and often subject to spot checks by intelligence agencies. After the mirror is worn, it should be destroyed by special personnel.

Through the high-powered microscope, the magicians of the Harland Territory discovered hundreds of bacteria and viruses, which promoted the great development of biology. In recent years, Haaland's territorial doctors have written hundreds of papers on bacteria and viruses.

Although the Institute of Optics has developed rapidly, there have been no heavyweight discoveries in recent years. After listening to the report, Richard came out of the Institute of Optics, and saw that it was still early, so he quickly entered the nearby Botanical Research Institute.

Upon entering, Richard said to Cartman, the director of the Botanical Institute, "Some time ago, I heard that you guys made a big discovery?" ”

Cartman comes from a very modest background, he is the child of a serf, and he joined the Harland Territory in 3255, and it has only been eleven years since then. Relying on his eldest brother who died in battle, Cartman became a freeman in 3257 and attended Riverbank Elementary School with the support of his family, where he was one of the first students.

Compared to his contemporaries, Cartman is seventeen years old and almost an adult. He cherished the opportunity to study and change his fate, and he also worked very hard when he went to school, and it only took him one year to study his primary school curriculum for five years, and he graduated from Riverside Primary School at the age of eighteen.

After graduating, Cartman joins the botanical research institute that he has just been preparing and begins to collect plant specimens and compile a botanical book series.

In order to collect rare plants, Cartman even went deep into the Eagle Mountains and entered the territory of the Orc Empire twice, making outstanding contributions to the development of the Botanical Research Institute.

After the death of the former director of the first botanical research institute, Richard pushed Cartman, who was only 21 years old, to take over as director.

Sure enough, in just a few years, Cartman lived up to expectations, and this year he personally led a team to investigate and discovered a very important economic plant. If this plant is successfully cultivated in large quantities, it will greatly boost the industry of Haaland's territory.

"You are right, my lord, we have indeed discovered a special plant, the red gum grass, in the western part of the Eagle Mountains. After our research, the gelatinous content of this plant is more than 25%, and the extracted red gum should be able to meet the requirements of the lord. ”

About ten years ago, as soon as Haaland's territory was stabilized, Richard began pre-research on the steam engine.

For more than a decade, he has been investing money in this project.

In the beginning, there were only two or three students in the steam engine research group, and the research process relied almost entirely on Richard's guidance.

Because of the unqualified process, the casting of the steam engine block was stuck for two years.

With the development of the steel industry in Haaland's territory, the steam engine research team has successively passed through the difficulties of manufacturing cylinder blocks, grinding and polishing, gear alloys, etc.

Two years ago, a prototype had been built, but the sealing problem could not be solved, and the steam engine simply did not run for too long.

For the past three years, Richard has been offering a lot of money, hoping to find something like natural rubber, but unfortunately nothing has been found.

If it is not found for a long time, Richard is even ready to send people to the south of the Dawn Continent to find it, and arrange for some members of the Harland family to develop in the southwest magical countries to see if they can find the otherworldly version of the rubber tree.

The heavy bounty had not made progress for three years, and Richard was already hopeless, but he didn't expect to make a discovery this fall.

The natural red gum extracted from red gum grass and the red gum products made of vulcanization have stronger properties than vulcanized rubber. It not only has very high elasticity, but also has strong mechanical strength, wear-resistant and corrosion-resistant, and is a very good sealing material.

The sealing problem was solved, and it was not far from the manufacture of a qualified steam engine.

The Dawn Plane has a magic factor, and the magic crystal contains powerful energy, and it is quite simple to make the magic crystal burn through special runes, and the magic energy hot air balloon made in Haaland's territory can easily do this.

After the steam engine was successfully manufactured, Richard could further determine the technical route and build a smaller magic energy steam engine, making it very convenient to use.

After the successful manufacture of the magic energy steam engine and red glue, the power problem is solved, as long as a lot of money and personnel are invested, some troubles on the mechanical transmission can be solved. Steam trains, steam cars, steam ships are not difficult to build.

The emergence of trains and telegraphs is subversive for the development of a territory and a country, which means that information and materials can be transmitted quickly, the cost of ruling remote areas has become lower, and the bonus to national strength is far more than the alchemy bomb.

"How much red gum do you have in your lab?"

"There are only less than six kilograms, and half of them have been vulcanized according to the instructions of the lord, and the vulcanized red rubber has stable properties, and we have made some red rubber seals."

Richard suppressed his excitement and said to Cartman, "Now you take these seals with me to the Steam Engine Research Institute to see how well the seals work." ”

Everyone came out of the botanical research institute, it was already close to evening, the steam engine research institute was about three kilometers away from the botanical research institute, and when they arrived at the steam engine research institute, I am afraid it was already night.

But Richard was so anxious that he couldn't wait for tomorrow.

A group of people came to the steam engine research institute with a red rubber seal, and the sun had already set.

Under Richard's command, the red rubber seals were installed on top of the huge steam engine, and with the wood on fire, the water was boiled in less than a few moments, and the steam engine began to work under the impetus of a large amount of hot steam.

Richard stayed by the steam engine and waited for about four hours before a conduit part burned out.

"Although the steam sealing problem has been solved, the smoothness of the cylinder block and piston is not enough, the vibration is too great, and there is still room for improvement in the steam engine. In addition, the conduit, gear, piston, and bearing materials still need to increase the strength, and you have to cooperate with the Metallurgical Research Institute in this regard, and if the funds are not enough, I will find a way.

Today's experiment is enough to show that the steam engine has a strong practicability, I think it can be used to pump water in the pit first, and it can also be used to pump water to irrigate farmland in case of drought.

The steam engine research institute should divide some of its strength, and the research institute with a high technical level should continue to conduct research on the improvement of the steam engine, and those with a low technical level should serve as steam engine maintenance personnel.

We must use the steam engine in production as soon as possible, and find and improve problems in the process of production and use.

The steam engine has a large range of use, not only to pump water, but also to grind the surface, as the power of the machine tool, used in the machinery manufacturing industry, and later to make steam cars, steam ships, our invention, will change the world.

I will have the painters of the territory paint and hang our portraits in the museum of the Harland family for posterity to see. Medals and generous subsidies will also be awarded to those who have made meritorious contributions.

From this day on, you will be the heroes of Haaland's domain, your names will be recorded in the history books, and you will be revered as great men, let us rejoice, history will remember this day. ”

Richard's speech was very passionate, which made the researchers present have a feeling of blood boiling.

Even at twelve o'clock in the evening, Richard's orders continued. He first sent someone to wake up the sleeping painters of Haaland's territory, and ordered them to paint a huge portrait called "The Great Invention", to record this great moment, and the researchers who played an important role in the study of the steam engine, each of them had to show their faces in the portrait.

The painting will hang on the front of the entrance to the Haaland Territory Museum.

Last winter, the Harland Territory Museum was inaugurated, and because of the rapid expansion of the city, the museum was built outside the back city, not far from the riverside primary school.

In order to build the museum, Haaland's territory also carried out a demolition, demolishing the courtyards of 16 private houses before building this tall and majestic museum.

Because the history of Haaland's territory is very short, there are not many antique relics in the museum for the time being, but the materials left during the construction of the territory are basically preserved in the museum.

In the museum, there are also some very meaningful items, such as the pots and pans used by Richard, Powell and others when Fort William was built, and the straw mats and quilts used for sleeping. They wrote letters and orders, planned the manuscript paper used in the city, the first bottle of distilled liquor produced in the territory, the first iron slag smelted in the iron and steel department, the first scalpel made by doctors, and so on. These useless things were collected and preserved by Richard and put on display in museums.

(End of chapter)