The next day, Neverwinter City ushered in its fourth holiday since autumn began, also the first weekend of Mid-Autumn.
Since this world doesn't have any legends like the Creation, most people have to work tirelessly to fill their stomachs at all times. Ever since Roland issued the regulation of one day off every seven days, the citizens attributed this gratitude to him—being able to rest completely for a day without deducting wages, what could be criticized about such a benevolent and loving lord?
Especially the displaced people who migrated from other places, after personally experiencing the living environment of Neverwinter City, were all determined to settle here, even the municipal government's extensive propaganda about demons couldn't curb this trend—compared to hunger and poverty, even the threat of demons became less important.
However, Barov's report showed that the production situation in Neverwinter City wasn't greatly affected after the day-off system was officially promoted. The main reason was that the rest wasn't mandatory, and many people chose to continue working and earning extra pay. On the other hand, the city's trade activities had increased significantly. Every weekend, the plaza area was always crowded with people, not only local merchants, but even traveling merchants from other places came to set up stalls and sell on this day, using the rest of the time to purchase the unique products of the Western Region and resell them to other places.
This kind of cargo turnover on a weekly basis was unimaginable a year ago, but now, with the increasing number of cement boats, the pace of trade has become faster and faster. Inland cities like Clearwater City can even eat fresh sea fish shipped from Shallow Beach Port, immersed in ice. In the past, the nobles and merchants there could only eat salted dried fish at most.
In view of this, Roland simply put major speeches, achievement displays, and various award ceremonies on rest days, using the habits of the masses to further promote the activity of commercial trade—the so-called wool comes from the sheep, and the extra wages can be completely recovered from sales tax and consumption, which is simply a win-win strategy.
Today's weekend is no exception. The warmth left over from summer hasn't dissipated, and the cloudless blue sky is blowing a gentle breeze, which is obviously another good day for travel. The streets are crowded with people, and from the inner river dock area to the city's northern wall, you can see citizens looking forward to something.
The difference is that this time they're not going to the convenience market to buy a few pounds of good meat, but are waiting to witness His Majesty the King's new invention.
An unprecedented means of transportation—the first trial run of the "train".
Jeweler Viktor was also one of them.
After learning about the municipal government's publicity, he even left a big deal he was negotiating to his subordinates, and took a cement boat from the Old King's City to Neverwinter City overnight.
If anyone has the most intense touch on the changes in the Western Region in recent years, Viktor is undoubtedly one of them. When it was still a remote town, he visited the lord of this place. He didn't leave too much of an impression on that ruler, only remembering that he was an obese middle-aged noble who complained about being assigned to manage this barren land. If he couldn't occasionally find one or two high-quality raw gemstones from the other party, he would probably only stop at Longsong Stronghold.
Even so, Viktor visited the Western Region at most once a year, and no matter when he came, this frontier town was almost the same as every year, dilapidated and decaying. But in the past three years, he has come here more and more frequently, especially after Roland Wimbledon announced the construction of the city, basically reaching once a month.
Graycastle's Western Region seems to have become another world.
Here, one day is no longer one day, but a month; similarly, one month is no longer one month, but a year, otherwise it's difficult for him to explain why the changes in Neverwinter City can be so rapid.
Viktor walked into a tavern on the street, and the boss immediately greeted him with a smile, "I knew you would come, I specially reserved a window seat for you on the third floor."
He casually took out a silver wolf and threw it to the other party, "Take me there."
"Yes, please follow me."
As a regular customer of this tavern, Viktor naturally didn't have to choose to squeeze into the street with the common people—although there were many people gathered on the third floor, at least the view was much wider.
The people around were already discussing today's demonstration enthusiastically.
"That narrow street is the road the train will take later? It's too far from Central Plaza and the residential area."
"Street? Ignorant, that's called a track system, something used in the mining area." Then someone ridiculed, "Since it's not for people, of course it should be far away from crowded places, you think the train is a carriage!"
"Are you talking about the thing paved in the Silverlight City mine?"
"That's right, it was originally produced here, and needs to be used with a steam engine."
Viktor couldn't help but join in the fun, "I've also seen trailers driven by steam engines, and their advantage is that they don't care about the terrain. If it's placed on flat ground, mules and horses can completely replace it. If it's just like this, the municipal government shouldn't promote it as a 'trans-epochal means of transportation', right?"
"Maybe it's just a gimmick." Another person muttered.
"Go, go," a burst of booing immediately sounded around, "Is this your first time in Neverwinter City? His Majesty Roland never exaggerates in this regard."
The man wanted to say something more unconvinced, when suddenly a high-pitched whistle sounded in the distance.
"Woo----------------------------"
"It's coming, it's coming!" The room suddenly boiled over, and everyone stretched their bodies out of the window, staring at the small street on the side of the castle area, and some who had prepared earlier also took out telescopes from their arms.
Viktor also looked towards the source of the sound—
I saw a black long dragon slowly driving out from behind the shielding houses, gradually appearing in everyone's eyes. Its size was huge, and its head looked like an iron bucket架on wheels, and billowing gray smoke was喷ing out of the top of the bucket, which was no different from the appearance of a steam engine running.
And next to the front of the car, there was also a parallel four-wheeled carriage—the carriage was牵引ed by two骏 horses, and its speed was comparable to that of the train, and it looked like they were competing with each other. However, because it was装着full of ore, it was quite difficult for the horses to take every step. This can be seen from the coachman's constant waving of the whip. If it weren't for the cast iron轮毂, the carriage would probably have been压垮ed long ago.
As the train gradually showed its full appearance, Viktor couldn't help but feel goosebumps冒ing up on his back.
The front of the car was拉着one car after another, and each of them was顶得four or five carriages, and they were also装满了ore. Judging from the weight alone, it was probably not下the weight of a river sailboat专门for transportation.
The problem is that it takes好几列carriages at the same time!
People's exclamations kept coming one after another!
"Four... the fourth one!"
"Five!"
"There can't be any more behind, right?"
"God is, six!"
"It's out, the seventh one!"
The monster-like front of the car dragged整整seven列carriages, passing through the open space in front of the castle at an extremely稳健speed.
Viktor's questions have also been answered.
A steam engine固定at the entrance of the mine and专门牵引ing mine cars in and out is a completely different concept from a steam engine that can act independently.
The latter means that as long as the railroad tracks are修建到wherever, it can transport a large amount of goods to wherever. Weight is no longer a瓶颈for land transportation, on the contrary, compared to航运, its transportation capacity is even stronger. If His Majesty is willing, he can even搬空a city in a short period of time.
Viktor, who came from a family of merchants, naturally knows the importance of transportation. There is a reason why the vast majority of cities are built near rivers. And the emergence of this means of transportation will bring unlimited possibilities to the flow of resources, and the statement of跨时代is not exaggerated at all.
He felt an indescribable悸动涌in his heart, which contained both satisfaction and loss... He felt that he was witnessing history, but at the same time was抛弃ed by history—in other kingdoms, the lords were still沉醉于声色犬马, their means of transportation were still horses and mules, and their roads were still paved with青砖and full of泥泞.
But they don't know it at all, and take it for granted.
A thought不由得浮现in Viktor's mind.
The future has already arrived, but it is not evenly distributed.