The Empress’s Gigolo

August, 76th year, Dayao.

After the court session ended, the crowd didn’t leave, but waited in front of the palace. A bunch of rare mounts were being pulled over by guards from different families. There was a white saber-toothed tiger, an orangutan that was about five to six meters tall, a large and black feline beast with horns on its head, and a large lizard that looked like a western dragon…

A horned-cow king, which was red in color and twice the size of ordinary horned-cows, didn’t stand out at all.

It was like an Audi A4 that was mixed in with a bunch of sports cars.

There was also a high-end Wuling Hongguang[1.Wuling Hongguang: a car brand in China] at the side; an Earth Wheel level black master. Standing up, its back stood three meters above the ground, and it had two tusks sticking out of its mouth. It fretfully scratched its hooves against the flagstones on the ground, forming two holes after a short while.

A bodyguard standing nearby wrote down in a small notebook to issue a fine to these people afterward.

In other places, if the entrance of a palace was destroyed, the offender’s entire family would probably have to die together with him.

However, in Dayao, the palace gate had accidentally been damaged numerous times.

The flagstones in the throne room had to be changed once every few days.

The crowd stood outside the palace and chatted in groups while waiting. From time to time, there would be people asking about what they were going to see this time.

After all, Her Majesty held everyone back with great fanfare, so they couldn’t help but be curious.

The last time this happened was when they saw something called a steam locomotive.

The steam locomotive was truly magical. It could run nonstop just by filling it up with burning stones. It wouldn’t feel tired at all and had a lot of strength as well.

While everyone was chatting, the palace gates opened, and the empress’s imperial carriage came out slowly. It stopped for a while before setting off for the east gate.

Many people cheered along the way and followed her out of the city.

By the time the empress was outside the city, there were nearly 1,000 people following behind.

At this time, on the concrete road outside the east gate, there was a large object that was a few meters long and covered by a red cloth. Ren Baqian sat on the side and looked up at the sky. When he saw that there were quite a number of students following him, he got up and went to meet them.

“Zhao Prince Consort, is there something special for us to see today?” Tong Zhenye laughed as he stroked his beard.

Everyone knew that if there was something new to show, it had to be Zhao Prince Consort’s creation.

They were quite looking forward to seeing the thing that he made.

Each time, they never failed to be amazed.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Ren Baqian smiled at the crowd and looked up at the commoners following in the distance. This was a good promotion opportunity.

With today’s performance, new things like tractors would inevitably spread in Lan City. After the launch of the real thing some time later, the people in Lan City, who had waited a long time, could see the true features of the product. There would definitely be someone who wanted to give it a try.

The only question was whether anyone could afford it.

Even if Ren Baqian was prepared to lose money while selling, the purpose was to promote this new product, improve the transportation capacity of Dayao, and reduce the use of manpower in many ways to improve the current manpower shortage situation.

However, promotion would take time. Even if he agreed to sell the product at a loss, the price was still a very large limiting factor.

For now, the largest customers of this product would remain the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War.

From Ren Baqian’s point of view, the biggest value that tractors provided wasn’t only for transportation. Solely based on transportation from Lan City to the Yun Nation, trucks were faster and less technical than tractors.

In addition to being able to use tractors on various muddy roads in the south, an important point was to replace manpower, liberate an amount of labor from the fields, and put them into factories or other places.

He wanted to reach out his hand to support the empress, but she disappeared from the carriage in a flash and landed on the ground behind him.

“Let’s go and see your new product,” she said without even turning her head.

Ren Baqian smiled helplessly. Even though she was 32 months pregnant, she was still the same empress, and there wasn’t the slightest bit of pretense.

“Everyone, this is an epoch-marking product!” He shouted as he walked forward.

Standing nearby, Qin Chuan replied, “You said this last time as well!”

“Epoch-marking technologies are developing too quickly!” Ren Baqian laughed and continued, “In other words, this era will change very quickly!”

When he walked to the tractor, he pressed his hand on the red cloth, turned to the crowd, and said, “Previously, everyone saw the potential of the steam engine. With the steam engine, we can connect two faraway places and transport an army of 100,000 men and their supplies to the Yun Nation or even to Great Xia in three days. This completely changed the previous concepts around the deployment of soldiers and mounts during wars. In the face of war, we can have a faster reaction time and better maneuverability.”

“The question is, what war are we talking about and with whom?” Qin Chuan spread his hands. The only possible enemies were Great Xia and the Yun Nation, but both nations were presently busy with their own matters. It was foreseeable that it would be impossible for a war to occur in the next decade or two.

“War is only an example. The more important factor is transportation. With the Yun Nation, the current price of iron in Lan City is only one-fifth of its original cost, but the transportation of large amounts of material is still a problem. With trains, transportation will be easier and faster while requiring less manpower and consuming fewer resources. This will naturally be worthwhile in the long run. Especially for the transportation of fresh produce, this can’t be matched by land transport,” Ren Baqian said casually.

“If there weren’t those large consumers of iron, the price of iron in Lan City would already have been reduced to half of what it is now,” someone whispered.

Ren Baqian glared over and said, “We must look at the long run! Iron isn’t the only thing. There is also food, fruits, vegetables, cloth, and minerals. Do you still want to use ox carts to transport all the iron from the Yun Nation every year?”

Everyone immediately laughed.

The person who interrupted Ren Baqian was an official from the Ministry of Revenue who was presently full of resentment.

In fact, it wasn’t only him. In the entire Ministry of Revenue, none of the people were very happy.

The steel mills and the laying of steel rails were really iron-eating monsters that were akin to bottomless pits. At least half of the iron ore mined in the Yun Nation from the past two years had been used by them.

One meter of steel rail required 50 kilograms of material, and a set of rails required two sides.

One kilometer of railroad would require 100 tons of steel.

This was equivalent to the annual iron ore output of Dayao.

When this figure was calculated, everyone in the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue felt their heads spinning.

The Yun Nation originally produced about 11,000 tons of iron and less than 1,500 tons of steel per year. Over the past three years, with the large-scale utilization of steam engines in various mines, iron output had increased to 20,000 tons with steel output increasing to almost 5,000 tons.

Most of the steel output was invested in rails.

Over the past two years, only 100 kilometers of railroad had been laid.

At the current rate of steel production, it would take at least another 10 years to complete the railway.

However, this was based on the current output. In Ren Baqian’s estimation, within five years, the output of iron could reach 40,000 tons while the output of steel could reach 15,000 tons.

This seemed like a lot, but if one were to calculate it carefully, it was actually attainable.

This comparison was a far cry from the Song Dynasty, let alone the Republic of China.

The biggest limitation wasn’t just technology. The equipment and technology used in the mines and steel mills today had reached at least the mid-level of the industrial revolution.

However, the number of supporting technologies and manpower couldn’t keep up.

For instance, manufacturing and maintenance of equipment, training of personnel, etc. These were all facing restraints.

It would take at least three years for these conditions to ease and five years to break out of these limitations.

However, the investment of steel alone was an astronomical figure, not to mention the manpower and material resources invested.

Even though the state treasury’s situation had improved greatly over the past two years, its annual expenditure was enough to make everyone in the Ministry of Revenue feel an ache in their hearts.

This was true even though they understood the importance of the railway.

As a result, the people in the Ministry of Revenue were resentful, and nobody was surprised at all.

Anyone in their shoes would feel distressed, let alone the Ministry of Revenue, which had always been miserly!