“Half a year… to build this kind of railway to the depths of the barren land?” After listening to Roland's plan, Barov, who had seen many "miracles," still widened his eyes in disbelief. "But the Construction Department spent more than half a year just building an ordinary road connecting the Border Town and Longsong Stronghold. Now this distance is at least five times the length of the Kingdom Avenue. Are you sure Mr. Karl can do it?"

A murmur rippled through the crowd. Kingdom Avenue was the first large-scale project Roland launched after taking over Longsong Stronghold, employing as many as two thousand workers, which many people at the time considered a pointless endeavor. The new road was even more ambitious, and with the limitations of the processing period, even if all the workers in Neverwinter City were thrown into it, it would probably be difficult to meet the demand.

Construction Minister Karl van Bate himself remained silent, as if pondering the feasibility of the plan.

Roland knew what these officials were worried about. After all, there were still many construction projects in the city, and it was impossible to pour all the resources into the railway. But in fact, unlike the cement and gravel road surface that requires aggregate processing and repeated rolling, the laying of roadbed ballast is much easier.

As for the seemingly complex track installation, it was actually the quickest part.

He had personally witnessed Anna's Blackfire welding demonstration. For components like rails, each connection took less than ten seconds on average. Compared to traditional bolts or hot-melt connections, it was not only of better quality but also saved a lot of labor and materials. Apart from the lack of the nostalgic "clack-clack" sound of old-fashioned trains, it could be described as perfect.

In fact, the experimental track in front of them was a quasi-seamless rail. Except for the expansion joints left to counteract the steel's own temperature stress, the entire top surface formed a smooth straight line, and the wheels could hardly feel any vibration when rolling on it.

And Anna had only taken half a day to complete this process.

This was also why Roland was confident in setting the construction period so short.

In other words, it took the workers ten days to lay the roadbed, Yezi might need five days to place the sleepers and rails, and Anna could weld everything in just one day. If she didn't intentionally accumulate the amount, she could also take Maisie in the morning and return to the castle for lunch at noon.

However, he didn't explain this in detail, after all, not everyone was familiar with the witches' abilities, and half a year was just a rough estimate. He had arrived in Neverwinter City and went straight to the wolf girl and the meeting, and hadn't even had time to ask Tilly which witches had come to Sleeping Island – if there were suitable ability users, the railway progress might be even faster.

Seeing that Roland didn't say much, the officials turned their attention back to the train itself.

Compared to the railway with modern standards, the train itself undoubtedly seemed much more antique. A complete locomotive was divided into two sections, the front half consisting mainly of the fourth-generation steam engine and transmission device, and the rear half being the coal car. The driver's cab was located in the middle. In addition to controlling the speed and sounding the whistle, it was also the driver's responsibility to add coal to the boiler manually.

Although the train was still in the semi-finished stage due to the impact of the expedition, it was still much more complete than the first steam locomotive in another world. For example, the steam directly did work on the crankshaft, instead of being transmitted through a flywheel belt, and the wheels on both sides were fitted with a linkage mechanism without dead spots, instead of being driven by gears.

During the design, Roland simplified various cumbersome functions, almost directly piecing together several major components. From a later perspective, its shortcomings were as numerous as the stars – the brakes needed to be manually turned by a winch, the driver's cab was rigidly connected to the girder, allowing the driver to fully feel the "agitation" of the steam engine working, there were no electrical devices, and the crew needed to be notified by the whistle or voice, etc… But here, it was already the best solution that could be solved with Neverwinter City's existing technology.

Like the first steam engine, first solve the problem of having it, and then improve it step by step.

"Your Majesty, how much cargo can this thing tow?" Chemical Minister Kaimo. Streel asked curiously, "How about those cement boats in the river?"

"I think transporting the cargo of five or six boats at a time shouldn't be a problem," Roland said, pleased to see the surprised expressions on everyone's faces again. "But this is just the beginning. As technology advances, it won't be a problem to tow the cargo of a hundred cement boats in the future."

"O...one hundred boats?" Barov swallowed. As the chief executive of the city hall, he fully understood what this quantity meant.

"Then… what about the speed?" Peiro's voice trembled slightly.

"It's hard to say yet, it depends on the actual test results, but it won't be slower than the cement boats."

However, the self-propelled paddlewheel cement boats were already considered extremely fast transportation tools in their eyes. It should be known that land transportation in this era was still mainly by carriages or livestock, and the efficiency on uneven soft roads was imaginable. If they ran a little faster, vehicles without any shock absorption system could be shaken to the point of breaking axles and falling apart. Therefore, shipping was the main means of transportation in the Kingdom of Graycastle – and in inland rivers, steamships that did not need wind power obviously had unparalleled advantages over sailboats.

Hearing that the train's carrying capacity would only be stronger, and the speed would not decrease, the group was completely silent.

Roland couldn't help but laugh inwardly. If he had said this two years ago, he would have been considered a madman. Watching these officials subconsciously wanting to deny it, but also harboring the expression of what to do if it was true, he couldn't help but feel quite relieved – although those descriptions were based on the stagnation of ship technology, it was good to strengthen everyone's confidence now that the war was approaching.

Moreover, he wasn't just talking nonsense.

This was just the first generation of industrial products under the first-generation power source.

When the second-generation power source, the internal combustion engine, was invented, the train, as a revolutionary transportation tool, would become the veritable king of land transportation.

"Your Majesty, can you show it to us?" After a while, the old chief executive opened his mouth.

"Not for the time being. It's currently missing a few key parts and isn't really finished. It will probably take about a week before everything is debugged," Roland shook his head.

"The plan you gave to the Construction Department before the expedition was to connect the mines and the docks with rails, right?" Barov asked again.

"What's wrong?" He sensed that the other party seemed to have something to say.

"If it's really as you say, it will definitely have a positive impact on the city hall's war propaganda," Barov said his thoughts one by one. "Could you let your people witness this incredible scene on the day the train runs?"

Roland immediately understood the chief executive's intention. It seemed that over the past few years, the old chief executive had also realized the importance of guiding the people.

"Do as you say," he said, raising the corners of his mouth.