The Tramroad
The Tramroad
After the Ministry of Agriculture was completely organized, spring plowing of a new year finally began, and it was the first step for Roland's agricultural technique revolution. The serfs, who saw the dawn of life as freemen, were filled with motivation to work. The scene that a supervisor whipped the serfs and forced them to work was never seen again on the southern bank of Redwater River. Some serfs loafed on the job, only to find that no one came to supervise them again. They heard from the officials who were busy measuring in the fields with strange tools that His Highness did not concern himself about the harvest of one or two fields. From now on, the serfs would work for themselves, and the more they plowed, the more they gained.
Not all officials of the Ministry of Agriculture understood the principle of 'distribution to each according to his work'. They were actually required by Roland to unceasingly repeat these ideas to the serfs in order to instill these ideas into their mind. To satisfy His Highness' nostalgic feelings, red flags and banners were decorated along the banks of Redwater River. On the banners were written slogans such as 'Labor is the only way to get rich', 'Labor brings honor and glory', 'Labor leads to freedom', and 'Labor changes destiny' and so on.
Of course these measures met objections from others, for example, Barov was the first one to stand up and express his disapproval.
"Your Highness, this is totally meaningless. Most serfs aren't able to read, and they don't care about what's written on the banners. These people are just stupid and ignorant. Whips can't even make them better, let alone these banners with strange words."
Roland, however, gave a simple answer, "Those banners aren't meant for them."
"Then why did you do these things?" hearing this, the assistant minister asked rather confused.
"To create living models."
He never thought the serfs were stupid and unchangeable. It was true that they were not educated, but it did not mean that they had no thoughts. No matter how dull a man might be, he would be driven by desire and interest, which was simply human nature. The repeated words said by the officials of Ministry of Agriculture seemed to produce little effect at first, but would actually inspire them and thus lead them to subconsciously change their old ideas, like little streams would gather to form a sea. When the first group of serfs was promoted to freemen, when they exchanged their harvested crop for money to buy decent clothes and delicious food and even solid and warm brick-houses, the often repeated slogans would become a reality and be deeply engraved on their mind.
As for the banners along the riverbank, they were for the subjects of Border Town after they received a universal education.
By their own hands, the serfs were able to get rid of poverty, become a formal member of Border Town and even have a better life than the native inhabitants. All by the power of hard work.
By comparing it, people could feel the gap between them. They would then pursue a better life of their own initiative. Only in this way could an individual's efficiency be raised to its highest level.
...
Iron Head stood at the mine entrance waiting for the latest delivery of ores.
Since half of his face was burned by the hot steam during the last Months of Demons, he never dared to stand beside this black machine ever again.
Fortunately, there was a kind angel, Miss Nana, in Border Town. Iron Head touched his face which was completely healed, and his heart was filled with gratitude. When he was wounded, he had the nerve to suspect that she was one of the devil's minions. What an offense to her! After the winter, he took two salted fish and a wild boar leg, and then went to the house of Mr. Pine to apologize for his mistake.
More surprisingly, though Tigui Pine was a viscount, unlike those arrogant nobles who held their nose high in the air, he generously accepted his apologies. For the first time, Iron Head felt that not all nobles were cruel and merciless.
"Old Iron," a miner who was covered with dust ran out of the mine and shouted, "The ropes have been fastened."
"Okay," he turned back to the direction of the steam engine and shouted, "everyone, clear the area. Flacke, lift up the green rod and then press the red rod. If you make a mistake again, I'll twist your head off!"
"Trust me, Old Iron. You can count on me," Flacke responded loudly.
Since Nail was sent to join the First Army, Iron Head arranged Flacke to operate the steam engine. At first, Flacke often made mistakes with the order, which caused steam pipes to burst. Iron Head had thrashed him many times for it. Fortunately, His Highness did not blame them for this matter. Instead, he sent people to replace the damaged parts of the machine. And they even did not have to pay money for the damaged parts. Iron Head originally had thought they would be fined a month's salary for it.
With the opening of the inlet valve, the steam engine spurted out a tremendous amount white smoke and the main wheel began to slowly rotate, leading the capstan to stretch the ropes straight.
"Cheer up! Watch the ropes. Watch them carefully!" Iron Head shouted.
Besides the steam engine, the way of pulling the ores out of the mine had changed too.
His Highness ordered the carpenters to chop many long wood sticks, which were laid end to end to form rails along the whole mine's tunnels. And then other wood sticks were placed under the parallel wooden rails. At the first glance, it looked like a long wooden ladder.
His Highness called it a wood rail transportation system, an awkward name. It did not seem to be very complicated, but it had amazing effects after they used the special trams! How efficient! The ores, which cost them three or four days to carry out of the mine in the past, were packed in several trams and pulled out by the steam engine in a breath.
Iron Head had eagerly observed the four-wheel tram running along the wooden rails. It was completely made of iron and so it was extremely expensive. The key to making it move along the narrow rails without falling was its wheels. There was a larger flange on the inside edge of the wheel which fixed it firmly on the rail. Above the wheel was a square iron pot that had hooks at the front and back to connect the trams in a line.
He could not help but admire His Highness's wisdom. With such a simple design, he had made the transportation of ores become much easier. Before the invention, the transportation of the heavy ores out of the mine was the most time-consuming and energy-consuming labor.
However, this system was not perfect. For example, after they used it for five days, two pieces of wood rails had already been crushed, and other ones were soon broken. The situation was improved after His Highness ordered to wrap the top side of all rails with a thin iron sheet.
In addition, the ropes broke once and caused a serious accident. Iron Head still felt his heart was violently beating when he recalled it. According to the regulations, they were only allowed to pull four trams at a time. But on that day, the miners wanted to finish their work more quickly, so they linked six trams together. The tram was halfway there, when a half arm-thick rope suddenly broke, rebounded and hit a miner who was standing beside Iron Head. It broke his arm and several ribs. The trams slid down along the rails, knocked down two miners and crushed the legs of another unlucky miner.
Luckily Iron Head knew what they should do in such cases. He immediately organized people to carry the wounded miners to the house of Viscount Tigui. As long as they were not dead, Miss Nana would be able to heal them completely.
"Old Iron, the trams are out!" shouted the man who was observing at the entrance.
Hearing this, Iron Head ordered loudly. "Flacke, wait for 10 breaths, then turn off the steam engine and mind the order!"
"Yes, gotcha."
Four trams slowly stopped at the end of the tramroad. Iron Head went over to record the ore yield. The first two trams were filled with reddish-brown iron ores, which were found the most in the mine. In the third tram, there were gray ores with a slight yellow tint, which should be copper ores. When he saw the ores in the fourth tram, he was a little shocked, as he had never seen this kind of ores in previous records. They were dark brown and emitted a dim metallic sheen in the sun.
Another unknown ore, Iron Head shook his head. North Slope Mine had so many tunnels, so it was normal that they often dug out some strange ores. He drew a cross on his paper and ordered miners to send all ores to the yard. As for these dark brown ores, whether they would be thrown into the furnace or not had nothing to do with him.