Road To The Crown

While traveling on the horseback through the night was simply impossible due to how high of a risk it posed for the horses to trip, doing so on the river wasn"t that much of a trouble. As long as one was willing to waste his manpower of people constantly making sure that the sh.o.r.e was far enough while the waterway was deep enough, moving through the river was pretty feasible.

Yet, with how only the merchants were scheduled to come soon with the supplies from Sandomir that would let the development of this place finally reach the stage on which I could produce most of the simple stuff locally rather than relying on the external source for all sorts of products, I couldn"t help but wonder what made them go for such lengths to travel overnight!

Was it the Governor"s influence or direct order backed up with enough gold to convince them it was a worthy investment of their time after a.s.sessing the risks? Or maybe they somehow sneaked enough peaks at what was going on back when they came here for the last time to realise the potential that this place held in both the short and long term?

Just like later ages would prove in a rather brutal way, industrialisation was a process that could be compared to a sink for the resources during its growth stages, inducing a huge growth and development to all the areas subjected to its influence, only to turn into a complex and efficient machine literally s.h.i.+tting out more wares than the local population and traders could move and use for themselves, forcing the governments to look for the new ways to dump all of the products made in the urbanised areas.

Yet with no compet.i.tion in place that could compete with anything produced by my projects, I didn"t have to worry about saturating the market, as my aim, in the long run, was to invest a huge portion of the product back into the development, only leaving enough wares for the others to buy.

In this way, while the areas in which I would invest, rather than ever facing the problem of spreading their products around the world, would simply dump this task on the others while turning into a forced modernisation drive for literally the rest of the world! By the time I would move from the steam engines to the diesel ones, I would open the gates of my factories and dumb all the remaining stock in the hands of those interested of replicating my steps.

Did someone want to buy the blueprints for the efficient blast furnace? Sure! But by the time he would build one, my lands would be already using industrial-grade arc furnaces! Did someone want to build his own table saw? Not a problem! But by the time it would be completed, my lands would already have fully automated production of planks in all shapes one"s heart could desire!

Even though some might think that this entire situation would only start to really happen when I would reach some later stages of developing the industrial technology, but just from the simple fact that even before the governor could see the steam horse mark one operating, I was already doing everything I could to fine-tune the details for the pressure steam horse engine so that I could have it done before either Elia or Jan would finally reach this place proved that as the technology would be put in use, the speed of progress would only accelerate!

"Have someone go and greet the merchants. If everything went as I hope it would, they will bring all sorts of tools that we were lacking those past few days. While I hope it won"t happen, if there will be any problems, feel free to call for me."

Rather than wasting my time by dealing with those profit-oriented bunch, I would much rather see the forms filling up with the liquid metal even if one droplet at a time, or even just go to my tent and catch up on my missing sleep.

As for the missing materials, with how even I never expected to finish the first type of steam horse so soon, I simply didn"t bother myself with ordering them back when I was in Sandomir myself. With the limited s.p.a.ce on the barges that took us to this area, there was no way to fit all the chains, blades and other elements that would allow me to replace the fragile parts we made on the spot from what we had on hand.

For example, using the hemp rope to power up all the mechanisms connected to the steam horse was… a bad idea to say the least. If the resistance offered by the receiving machines was a bit too big for the rope to handle, rather than moving it around, it would simply slide on it with not enough traction to keep it moving.

On the other hand, when using a simple chain to connect any two machines together, just by adding small pins to the wheel that powered the entire thing, I could make sure that as long as the chain held itself together, the two machines would continue to work to the best of their ability!

But as my thoughts once again roamed free through all the tasks I had to finish and the perspectives on the development for the future days, yet another shout forced me out of my dreamlike state back into the harsh reality.

"Sir! I think you should come here right now!"

Just what could"ve happened for those craftsmen that went to meet with the merchants to call me out so soon? Even a single look to the river was enough for me to realise that the s.h.i.+ps didn"t stop their travel yet, so how come there could be any troubles requiring my attention?

Was I simply too nice to my workers and craftsmen working under me to the point they started treating me as their equal that they could call to even the simplest of tasks?

With the slight anger slowly helping me to push the thoughts of my warm bed aside, I made my way to the sh.o.r.e, only to freeze in place as soon as I saw a familiar face lingering atop the s.h.i.+p"s deck.

What the h.e.l.l was he doing here?