The steam engine was working, its rotating flywheel driving a series of gears, which pulled the ore carts, chained together, one after another, out of the mine shaft.
The miners waiting nearby, under the guidance of workers from Tang Mo's Great Tang Group, easily flipped the lever above, disengaging the rotation of the steam engine from the entire mechanism, and thus the carts came to a stop.
On the other side, workers by the tracks stepped forward, tipping the ore carts filled with ores to one side, dumping the contents out.
The remaining miners hurriedly shoveled the ores to a farther location, the whole process flowing smoothly, with unimaginable speed.
This was but the first revolution of the mine, and with more mining equipment to come, the speed at which humans mined ore would soon increase tenfold or a hundredfold, fast to a terrifying extent.
Look at those huge pits in Siberia, like meteorite craters, where humans before their own massive excavations stand as insignificant as dust.
"Miss! We've done a test. As long as this machine keeps running, our mining speed will be three times faster than before!" reported a foreman to Alice, who stood silent with a pocket watch in hand.
"Very good! At least our money wasn't wasted, was it?" Alice said with a smile, without turning her head.
She was admiring a piece of art, an art she had dreamed of owning. This machine, with just a few people shoveling coal and lighting fires, could do the work of giants.
Here, she had watched for over ten minutes and the machine showed no signs of stopping, rotating incessantly, emitting steam intermittently as if it were alive.
This was Northern Ridge's greatest reliance, the future of Northern Ridge! With such machinery, her father would own more industries, more money, and more power to revitalize the Ronin Family!
Standing here, she suddenly remembered that Tang Mo had even sent her the steam engine blueprints.
Those precious blueprints, dazzling more than jewels, were lying on her dressing table at this moment, each inscribed with neat handwriting.
A man she had never met presented the world's most luminous pearl—it felt too good. This feeling made her restless, her cheeks as flushed as a ripe apple.
Compared to that young man in Brunas, those noblemen who had once pursued her were nothing but trash.
They had only their fathers' shadows, only clichés, only wealth and status that didn't truly belong to them...
The poetry purchased with money, praising her beauty, was just a pile of useless text before those blueprints.
When she saw the note on the stack of blueprints from Tang Mo that read "To the beautiful Miss Alice," she found those words so beautiful that she couldn't help but touch them.
"Hiss..." The steam engine's safety valve released excess steam once more, blowing against the scarf around Alice's neck, brushing against her slender neck, ticklish and extremely comfortable.
"Order five more steam engines from Tang Mo! And by the way, have our workers take a good look at these things," Alice ordered, setting aside her girlish fancies. She brushed her temple hair with her hand, tucking the slightly disheveled strands behind her ear.
She strutted toward her carriage with her long legs, the smile on her face impossible to conceal. "Where's father? Has he gone to the military barracks again?"
"Yes, Miss!" the guard following Alice bowed slightly and opened the carriage door for her.
Many noble girls could ride horses, but few went out riding frequently. Riding might affect the shape of their legs, so noble daughters preferred carriages.
They only chose to ride horses during gatherings or journeys, as a fashionable sport or for social interaction.
Alice was no exception. She too was a girl, one who loved beauty and cared about her figure, so although she occasionally cut an impressive figure on horseback, she was more often the demure and graceful lady.
That's women—they could be sultry, sexy, adorable, or cute, but they wished only to reveal these different images to the one man.
On the training field, Ronin Fisallo rode his warhorse, watching the first infantry battalion of the Northern Ridge Legion do its first large-scale live-fire exercise after rearming with new weapons.
Rows of soldiers were neatly arranged, facing the harsh northern wind in the wide fields, chins up, awaiting orders.
The soldiers, in their bright yellow uniforms, shouldered newly acquired, a total of 410 Great Tang Group K1 Quick Guns.
The Great Tang breechloader had been in service with the Northern Ridge military for more than a day or two, and the primary forces under Earl Fisello had already trained with this weapon in batches.
Many people had already trained with this weapon at the target range multiple times and gone through dozens of simulated loading exercises.
Lord Earl was no fool; although he could not procure a large number of the actual breechloading rifles, he could use wood to make models for training purposes.
After training with the props, soldiers could then be acquainted with the real thing, strengthening their muscle memory and thereby speeding up the training process.
The soldiers of the Northern Ridge Legion were already among the elite, chosen from hundreds, and obviously, they were more perceptive than the makeshift troops.
So, after over two months of training, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion had completed their rearmament, which filled Lord Earl with immense pride.
"Raise your guns!" commanded an officer, surrounded by a group of knights and holding high the wolf banner of Northern Ridge, his voice echoing loudly.
Upon hearing the command, the soldiers promptly lowered the breechloading rifles from their shoulders, assuming the ready-to-fire position.
Though they all wore the standard bright yellow uniforms of the Leite Kingdom, there were some apparent differences in their attire. Their equipment belts were more scientific, and the ammo was placed in a more accessible spot on either side.
All the soldiers were issued standardized bayonets and identical water canteens at their backs; thanks to Tang Mo, whose mass-produced gear elevated the military bearing of the Northern Ridge Legion up a notch.
"Fire!" Along with the officer's command, the first row of soldiers squeezed their triggers, and the dense sound of gunfire startled birds in the distance.
An entire row of soldiers fired almost in unison, and a cloud of white smoke instantly filled the space in front of their formation. Behind that white smoke screen, soldiers set down their rifles at almost the same moment, bending their heads to quickly clean their barrels.
Seconds later, they skillfully extracted a new cartridge—a paper-wrapped Minié ball—from the ammo pouches at their sides.
Because it fit the rifling better, Tang Mo's breechloading rifles were more accurate than flintlocks, with rifling utilization fundamentally increasing the effective range of firearms for the first time.
Soon after a volley of gunfire and before the smoke had even cleared, these soldiers of the Northern Ridge, having fired their first shot, raised their rifles again.
Their confidence was nearly boundless, for they knew they had been equipped with the most powerful rifles of the era; they were now much stronger than their enemies!
They had no reason to lack confidence, as their enemies' rifles had a firing rate only a third of the Quick Gun's!
No one could withstand the barrage of a Quick Gun like a torrential storm! Furthermore, Lord Earl had formed a "Revolver Team"!
Elite cavalry armed with Northern Ridge revolvers could slice into the enemy's weakest point at the critical moment, shattering their formation in an instant.
Ronin Fisallo, who had fought battles all his life, knew that even the troops trained under him could not withstand the crushing firepower of six simultaneous volleys.
Once this cavalry force entered the battlefield, the enemy commanders would only have a multiple-choice question before them: to commit suicide or surrender, or rally their fleeing troops and then commit suicide or surrender...
"Second row, step forward!" Not far away, the officer called out the order, and the wolf flag snapped in the fierce wind.
Fisheo, however, was thinking about his daughter. He had heard that Tang Mo had given all the steam engine blueprints to his daughter, and upon hearing this, he felt a sense of indignity as if he had been robbed.
How did that rascal come by such dumb luck to engage his daughter's greatest interest? And that scoundrel had the audacity to offer up his most prized invention...
To think of it was maddening! His most cherished, most precious... untouched by any for over a decade... was now suddenly in jeopardy. Who could remain calm about that?
"Dream on!" he railed internally, then heaved a powerless sigh—knowing that if that Tang Mo continued to rush down the path of money-making, his own daughter might actually fall for him.
After all, who doesn't know the value of their own cabbages...
In the distance, a knight sped on his horse until he slowed as he approached. The rider on horseback nodded in respect, delivering the report, "Lord! The weapons sent from King City have arrived! 1,000 Shireck Flintlock Guns! They've sent 100 extra... but..."
"But what?" Earl Fisello raised an eyebrow, momentarily setting aside thoughts of his daughter.
"But the 30 cannons they promised to give us, they said we'd have to wait two more months..." The messenger knight reined his horse, turning it in a circle, and spoke with some annoyance.
"No matter! The great battle approaches, and we hope they will deliver the cannons on time!" Fisheo looked over at the troops of the 1st Battalion and said with full confidence.