15th July 1574"I know how unbelievable my words sound. Don"t worry about it. To be quite honest, if not for your interest in military affairs, this entire show would start with a completely different thing."
Seeing how even after my bold claim the crowd didn"t seem to be convinced, I had to quickly step into the spotlight again to get their attention on myself. After all, outside of the quick few shots with my rifle, the people here had no idea about all the incredible inventions that I put to use in my own lands!
"While I want to speak about the economy-related stuff now, I"m not the kind of monster who would tease you and then leave you hanging just like that. Please, wait a moment."
Looking at Onfary, I nodded my head while speaking only to move back to the auto-carriage. After rummaging through my luggage once again, I pulled out another rifle along with two more magazines.
"Look."
Putting the rifle back on the floor as to free my hands, I raised the weapon that I used just a moment ago to showcase its might. With a simple yet decisive tap to its side, I pushed the pin in the middle of the cylindrical magazine in, effectively freeing the ammo container. Despite a few more bullets still ready to fire from it, I had to showcase the reloading process to let everyone understand just how insane this piece of wood and metal was.
With the previous casing falling to the ground, I picked the full magazine from the side of the carriage and locked the hole in its middle against the special, long pin on the rifle. After making sure that the angle of the magazine was correct, I pushed it forward, effectively reloading the entire mechanism. With just a simple tap at the safety switch, the gun was cooked and ready to fire once again!
"Here, you can check how it feels to shoot so fast yourself."
After grabbing the rifle by its barrel and handle and aiming its muzzle at the ground, I pa.s.sed it directly to Onfary. Being the military expert he was announced to be, only by testing the prowess of such weapon himself would he be able to formulate any thoughts about it.
"As for you, dear sister, let"s move on to the next topic. I bet you are curious about just what kind of machinery is mounted on this carriage, don"t you?"
With how I drove this steam carriage directly to the main plaza of the city, it was bound to gather more than enough attention to let me gently switch the topic from the war to the economy.
"Well, some of my retainers are claiming that you are borrowing the power from h.e.l.l and I should call for the priest, while others are arguing that it"s bound to be something blessed by G.o.d himself… But hearing how you call it machinery, I a.s.sume there is some underlying principle behind its inner workings. Am I right?
Hearing how Kristina quickly managed to come to the only rational conclusion made me quite hopeful that I wouldn"t be forced to waste the entire day on explaining the principle on which the steam engine was working on.
"Yes, you are perfectly right. Basically, this entire mechanism consists of various switches and hand-controlled parts, that are connected to the core unit, that we called a steam horse. Without going into details, it"s a machine that holds water inside of it. By heating the water, we turn it into steam, that forces the inner parts of the steam horse to move, allowing us to make use of this movement. But what you can see right in front of you right now, is nothing more than a silly attempt at creating a makes.h.i.+ft vehicle by combining two completely incompatible parts. This core unit, said steam-horse, is the truly important a.s.set."
Patting my hands against the planks of the carriage, I pointed my hand at the centrally mounted cage with the steam horse belly inside and a small burning chamber beneath it. This last part was added as the simple way to separate the powering fire from the wood of the carriage itself because otherwise powering the steam engine would require burning the d.a.m.ned vessel first!
"Can"t you explain what this… core unit as you called it, do? I mean, in words that we could understand?"
Yet despite my utmost efforts to lecture them about the prowess of the steam engine with details, Kristina quickly drowned my enthusiasm.
"Eh… In short words, by burning wood or charcoal under it, we can make it move. By using its movement, we can make it do the work that otherwise would require human or animals, with the simple difference that this thing will never tire itself down, and can output far greater strength than even the greatest horse or pulling cattle."
Just like my manager back in modern times said, no matter what product you have on hand, you need to sell it as the thing that your client wants the most. And if your client doesn"t desire anything, it"s your job to change that mindset of his!
If they wanted a simple explanation, then I was bound to give it to them. Yet even after doing so, I could still see hints of confusion on the crowd"s face. In fact, most of the people with the few exceptions, were more interested in the shoots that Onfar was currently firing!
"To put it into the right perspective, we can use it to pull heavy mining carts, full with ore, out of the mining hole. We can use it to break apart huge pieces of rocks or make them do any type of repet.i.tive work that requires a lot of energy. That"s how I managed to increase the output of my mines, and how I intend to do the same for yours if we come to an agreement."
To be frank, convincing others about the economical importance of the steam engine was a bit too much of it. If even this simplistic way of explaining it wouldn"t be enough to convince them, then I would be at a loss of what else could I do to get their attention!
"I think I know what you want to tell us. I can already picture many uses for such useful… machine. Tell me, how much would buying one cost? What about ten of them? Or a hundred?"