Chapter 595 — The Wheels of History
Blade of Dawn Page 1 of 2
The Lord had temporarily left his loyal capital, yet the land continued to prosper under an order of steel.
No social unrest, no collapse of order — the soldiers still carried out their orders, the sheriffs still kept the peace, the markets still flourished, the nights were still safe. People had worried that Cecil might descend into some degree of turmoil after the Lord's temporary departure, but events proved that the administrative council system and the strict laws established by Gao Yang Cecil had done their work — the Lord was absent, but the law remained.
And in Xuanyao City, which still maintained its prosperity and vitality, new things emerged as they always had, one after another.
In the eastern part of the city, at the edge of the factory district, at the end of "Mechanical Square," thousands of citizens who had heard the news were gathering on the raised platforms and open ground, while still more people were arriving by carriage or on foot from the factory district, the dock district, and other parts of the city, making the once-spacious open ground ever more crowded with a surging sea of heads.
The season had already turned to winter. Though the first snow had not yet fallen, a rainfall several days earlier had still brought a sharp drop in temperature, and now a moderate north wind blew across from the far bank of the Baishui River, reminding people of the cold of winter. Yet this low temperature could not dampen the citizens' enthusiasm. They continued to gather in ever greater numbers on the open ground, crowding onto the few raised platforms, craning their necks to look toward the area in the east that was cordoned off by the peacekeeping squads and soldiers. And in their line of sight, a road of strange construction — paved with gleaming runes and flanked on both sides by curious "pillars" — stretched straight out, extending all the way to the end of vision.
The citizens speculated about what exactly the "magic-energy train" described in yesterday's broadcast might be, or discussed heatedly how many new jobs and extra income this brand-new thing could bring. And the sharper-eyed among them noticed that reporters from the Cecil Weekly, the Miscellany, and the Curiosities and Natural History Weekly had already taken their places atop the easternmost raised platform, setting up their magic-net photographic devices aimed at that strange "road," every inch the picture of people about to capture a great news story.
— The Cecil Weekly was the duchy's earliest and largest-circulation newspaper; the Miscellany and the Curiosities and Natural History Weekly were two papers that had only gradually risen in the past few months. The former was founded by several scholars from the northern regions, the latter by a local merchant of enterprising spirit and several craftsmen devoted to modern technology. Since more and more people in the territory could read, and people had different reading interests, the readership of these two new publications was growing day by day.
The people crowded together, speculated, and discussed the new thing about to appear — and that new thing did not keep them waiting long. Just as the newspapers had proclaimed, "Punctuality is a trait that honorable Cecil citizens ought to possess," and accompanied by the great mechanical clock in distant "Gear Square" striking a sonorous chime, a long, melodious whistle reached the people's ears.
That whistle irresistibly brought to mind the sound of the ever-multiplying magic-driven mechanical boats on the Baishui River, yet it was somewhat sharper and more piercing. And as the whistle grew clearer, the crowds on the platforms and open ground ahead grew more and more agitated, accompanied by a rising tide of exclamations and exclamations of admiration.
A steel-forged, massive, awe-inspiring construct of engineering and magic-guided craft slowly drove out from the great building in the distance, advancing majestically, accelerating all the while.
It was a vehicle, but by no means any vehicle people could have imagined — if the magic-guided cars of before could still more or less evoke "a carriage that needs no horse to pull it," then the thing before their eyes was the product of an entirely different concept.
It was formed of steel car after steel car joined in succession, each car exceeding the largest magic-guided vehicles in size, and linked one to another they stretched more than ten cars long, like some steel serpent crawling upon the earth;
At the very front and very rear of this "steel serpent," several cars were of closed construction: white box-like bodies roughly rectangular, set on both sides with neat rows of windows, and between the windows, fixed to the steel plates, stood columns that gleamed with runic light and hinted at mechanical structures within; on the roofs could be seen metal frames, magic-energy crystals, lamps, and other ancillary structures;
The middle section of the "steel serpent" consisted of open cars, likewise made of steel and painted a deep, sober gray, open at the top like enormous "boxes." Their style was plainly rougher than the cars at either end, yet carried all the more a sense of mechanical and industrial power; on their lower halves and both sides could be seen thick, reliable mechanical structures, and painted upon them were serial numbers larger than a man. The quicker-witted, upon seeing such "boxes," understood their purpose at once: they were plainly meant for transporting enormous quantities of goods.
This was the "magic-energy train" mentioned in the magic-net broadcast... a "man-made behemoth" capable of carrying a thousand people or tens of thousands of tons of cargo to distant places in a single run, racing across plains and hills.
It sounded its whistle again; the mechanical structures on both sides of the train worked in unison, adjusting the angle of those rune-glowing columns, and the hum of magic in operation rose together with the creaking of mechanical structures bearing enormous force. This "man-made behemoth" moved forward solemnly, accelerating, accelerating still...
It already carried a portion of the technical staff and workers, and a certain quantity of supplies was loaded in the freight cars. It would travel half-loaded to the end of this journey — the mining town in the eastern part of the city — where its mechanical structures would be inspected and adjusted, and afterward the iron ore from the mining town would fill every one of its freight boxes and be carried back to Xuanyao City.
Hedy Cecil, the mature and elegant Grand Chancellor of the duchy, dressed in a red gown, stood upon a nearby raised platform, watching alongside the technical staff and the administrative council officials as that steel behemoth gradually drove into the distance. The expression on her face was solemn and dignified, yet deep in her eyes there was a faint trace of relief and relaxation.
It had finally set out. A great project that had gathered the painstaking effort of countless people and consumed immense energy had finally borne fruit, and she could finally breathe a little easier.
The round, rotund Nicholas Egg floated beside her, and from within that massive metal sphere came a buzzing voice: "It's not far from here to the mining town — it'll arrive soon enough. Then it'll stay half a day, most of which will be spent checking the mechanical devices and runic structures, inspecting the condition of each sensor and controller, and then it will return fully loaded."