Chương 181: The Steam Engine

With the Magic Blast Furnace operational, the Alliance finally secured a steady supply of high-grade steel. Although its initial output was only one ton per day, combined with the system's output, total production reached two tons daily! Li Qinwu immediately set to work on developing the steam engine, intending to pull the Alliance headfirst into the industrial era. In principle, a steam engine was straightforward.

Its primary components consisted of a coal-fired boiler, a network of heat-absorption tubes, a water reservoir, steam routing pipes, cylinders, control valves, gears, and a reciprocating mechanical link. The true challenge lay in material strength and precision. The cylinder walls needed to endure high internal pressure without bursting, the reciprocating assembly demanded decent machining tolerances, and the sealing gaskets required rubber.

Li Qinwu could easily handle the structural and machining requirements using high-performance steel and system-assisted crafting. As for the rubber seals, while he had yet to discover rubber-bearing plants in the wild, an alternative presented itself in the Crimson Queen's arachnid brood! Li Qinwu recalled that the Crimson Queen commanded a specialized spider variant with hyper-developed silk glands used for weaving heavy webs.

He wondered whether their viscous secretions could be processed into durable sealing gaskets. He immediately summoned the Crimson Queen to the Industrial Zone and outlined his idea. Without a second thought, the Crimson Queen raised her massive abdomen and extruded a thick, sticky mass of viscous fluid right on the spot.

"Boss, I tuned this fluid based on your requirements. It's soft right now, but if you heat it up to drive off the moisture, it will set permanently." Li Qinwu had his workers collect the mass, pour it into molds, and bake it. To his delight, the resulting rubber-like gaskets met every performance standard required for industrial seals! Li Qinwu beamed with satisfaction.

"Red, can your brood mass-produce this fluid? The Alliance will be needing massive quantities of it moving forward!" The Crimson Queen nodded.

"No problem at all, Boss. I just need to adjust my internal hormone levels to spawn a specialized variant of web-laying broodlings. I can give you as much as you need." Recalling another design, Li Qinwu added, "By the way, I also need an extremely tough, high-tensile thread—something strong enough to weave parachutes..." Li Qinwu was planning for airborne infantry to deploy from airships.

Beyond parachutes, high-strength spider silk could also serve as skin paneling for airships, power-transmission belts for factory machinery, or even durable tires. The Crimson Queen assured him it was entirely feasible. As long as she was supplied with enough food to run her biological experiments, she could engineer silk with virtually any set of physical properties. With that settled, she left behind a massive pile of raw viscous fluid and trotted off to join Gob-Big on road construction duty.

With all necessary materials secured, Li Qinwu officially began constructing the prototype steam engine. He decided to build a compact experimental model first to validate the mechanical design. Li Qinwu drafted the blueprints himself, delegating the heavy casting work to Tie-Ouk. For high-precision components like pistons and valves, he machined them by hand, leveraging his system-enhanced crafting precision.

After five days of continuous work, a compact experimental machine roughly the size of a tricycle stood ready in the workshop. Li Qinwu personally filled the water tank and stoked the coal fire in the boiler. As the water hit its boiling point and internal pressure built, the reciprocating piston began to drive the flywheel, releasing rhythmic bursts of white steam through the relief valves. The test was a resounding success—the Alliance had officially stepped into the industrial age!

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. A wave of overwhelming excitement washed over Li Qinwu. He gathered all the workers in the Industrial Zone around the humming machine and raised his voice in a passionate address:"Everyone! Today is February 15th, Year 4354 of the Gods Era—a day that will go down in history! From this moment on, the Alliance's productivity will scale to levels that would astound the gods themselves!

Our national power will shake the world, and our enemies will be crushed to powder beneath the boots of an industrialized army!

"To commemorate this historic milestone, I hereby declare February 15th as Workers' Day, marked by a three-day national holiday! This festival celebrates not only our mastery over industrial power, but also the birth of our working class!

"The working class is power! Long live the working class!" Amidst Li Qinwu's thunderous declarations, the Alliance officially welcomed the industrial revolution—though the road ahead remained challenging. The prototype was merely a proof-of-concept. Optimizing energy efficiency and adapting the steam engine for heavy industrial applications would require extensive technical refining. Li Qinwu couldn't handle every detail himself; doing so would leave him stuck in the Industrial Zone forever.

His role was to set the direction, provide resources, and delegate the execution to a dedicated engineering team. Over the next few days, he compiled everything he knew about improving thermal efficiency and adapting steam power to drive factory machinery into a reference manual. He handed it over to Tie-Ouk, instructing him to form a specialized research task force to tackle the remaining technical hurdles.

He laid down a strict deadline: Tie-Ouk had one month to deliver a fully functional, production-ready industrial steam engine to power the machinery for rifled barrels and artillery production. Li Qinwu felt that with all the core principles already laid out on a silver platter, Tie-Ouk should have no trouble hitting the target. Leaving the Industrial Zone, Li Qinwu returned to the Supreme Commander's Residence, where Gob-Bow was already waiting for him.

"Boss! The Water Drake tribe has delivered their recruits. Exactly 1, 000 Water Drakes have gathered at the Underworld Tree training grounds, not a single one missing."

"Oh? They've arrived? How's the quality of the recruits?" Li Qinwu asked.

"They look solid, Boss," Gob-Bow reported.

"Gob-Spear personally selected them on the North Bank. They're all young, physically fit Drakes with clean health checks. However... their tribe sent along a high-ranking chief, demanding that he be put in command of the unit." Li Qinwu let out a cold snort.

"These lizardmen still don't get it! They're still clinging to their tribal mentality, thinking an army unit is their private militia that they can assign commanders to?!"

"What should we do with him, Boss?" Gob-Bow asked. Li Qinwu waved his hand dismissively.

"Tell that self-important chief to get lost! Daring to interfere with military personnel appointments—is he itching to taste our harsher disciplinary measures?

"Put the Water Drake unit into closed-door intensive training immediately. But make sure the instructors adjust their methods. Water Drakes are amphibious creatures; their physical endurance and physiology differ from purely terrestrial troops. Map out their physical limits before pushing them through heavy drills." Different species possessed vastly different physiological traits.

Kobolds, for instance, had thick fur and poor heat tolerance; holding a military formation under the blazing sun for half an hour would cause them to collapse from heat stroke. Amphibious creatures like Water Drakes might have even lower heat tolerance, so understanding their biological needs was crucial before imposing strict regimes. Gob-Bow nodded in understanding, though he still voiced concerns regarding command structure.

"Boss, should we assign our own officers as company and battalion commanders for the Water Drake unit? I'm worried that once they're trained up, they might try to desert with their gear.

"Also, what unit designation should they fall under? The Penal Corps, the National Defense Force, or the Garrison Force?" Li Qinwu pondered for a moment before replying: "To prevent desertion, step up legal and ideological education, draw experienced vice-company commanders from our core units, and establish dedicated Military Police detachments.

"The Military Police won't just enforce discipline—they'll also monitor the psychological well-being of the troops. I'll write up a detailed operating manual for that.

"On top of that, ensure high-quality food rations and logistics. Instructors are strictly forbidden from using derogatory language or displaying racial bias. If anyone still tries to desert after all that, we'll let the military tribunals deal with them.

"As for officers, promote the top-performing Water Drakes based strictly on merit. Let performance decide who rises. Once the top candidates for battalion commander and deputy commander emerge, bring them to see me.

"As for their unit designation, assign them directly to the National Defense Force." Although the Water Drake tribe had joined the Alliance, their integration was still in its infancy, and tribal influences remained strong. By instituting a merit-based promotion system, Li Qinwu could win over talented Water Drake officers. After all, their ranks and authority would only be recognized within the Alliance military framework; outside of it, those titles meant nothing. Finally, there was the system binding.

Once the top Water Drake commanders proved their worth, Li Qinwu would bind them to the system, permanently eliminating any risk of betrayal or desertion at the top of the chain of command.