When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 1239 Light Balloon

In early June, cicadas chirped incessantly.

Horses pulled the train, laden with peat and timber, disappearing from Hansk's sight, sparks flying from the friction of the wheels against the rails.

With his mouth agape, Hanske blinked repeatedly. What a huge mining cart! It would take ten horses to pull it.

“This is a horse-drawn train,” Delavan proudly explained. “In the future, these will all be used for wind-up locomotives.”

Saint Union, Thousand Rivers Valley, port of Langsander County.

Two figures, one tall and one short, stood by the railway tracks, with military police on horseback patrolling on either side to prevent theft of iron.

In fact, the Holy Union assigned responsibilities to each section of the railway, and if any section of the railway had a problem, the nearby Hundred Households District would be reprimanded.

So far, apart from refugees from other places, it's rare to see anyone stealing iron.

Nowadays, with the rise of the steel industry in Sanctuary, the raw materials for railway construction are no longer a problem.

The two major metal processing centers, Ashburn and Hot Springsburg, ensured that manufacturing was not a problem.

The biggest problem now is actually the lunar mercury.

Since there is only one Ethereal Spire, there is a limit to the amount of lunar mercury that can be produced each month.

Even with a clockwork mechanism, it works very well within the ether clock, but outside the ether clock's range, it has to rely on lunar mercury.

Therefore, currently, clockwork locomotives are mostly used for long-distance travel, and only a very few lines are open to them.

Most of these are railways built by a county itself, and the trains running on them are still pulled by horses.

Nevertheless, it still improved the efficiency of commodity circulation by several times, and various commodities saw a certain degree of price reduction.

"Alright, stop looking. Let's take the next train to Xialucheng." Delavan grabbed Hanske's arm and walked towards the platform.

Thanks to Hanske's prior knowledge of some words learned at church and Pierre's recommendation, he successfully enrolled in Friendship Primary School as an "Active Youth of the Church of St. Doctrine".

Friendship Elementary School is a boarding school, and there is one in every county capital in the entire Holy Union.

Although it's called a primary school, the students are mostly teenagers or even twenty-year-olds.

Because this primary school is an adult primary school, specifically designed to improve the cognitive abilities of newly recruited soldiers or young people in society.

It is under completely military-style management, with a three-year program, rapid teaching, and is extremely rigorous.

Generally speaking, as long as you pass the basic literacy and arithmetic tests in the military literacy class, you can go to school.

There were spontaneously organized literacy classes in the military and rural areas, from which elites were selected to quickly learn arithmetic, reading, writing and general knowledge in primary school.

Then they either enter factories or go to artisan schools before entering factories, which can train a huge number of workers.

Unlike the Imperials, which considered workers to be inferior, the Holy Alliance was a nation where being a worker was an honor.

One can rise step by step from factory director to factory manager, or ascend to the top by being named a "model worker," eventually reaching the level of county magistrate or even a high-ranking monk in the central government.

It must be said that Hanske is quite talented. After studying for less than half a year, plus some basic knowledge, he actually passed the literacy test.

However, Hanske himself was somewhat afraid when faced with these things.

This is, after all, a foreign land. He originally came here to reunite with his family, but somehow he ended up here.

As for his sister, Pierre promised to use his connections to help him find one as long as he came to school.

Otherwise, it would be a shame to waste such talent.

Even now, Hanske is grateful to the Holy Father for allowing him to meet Pierre and his son.

"The car is here, get in."

"Oh ok."

Following closely behind Delavan, Hansk boarded the horse-drawn train.

The train was not wide, and it was made entirely of walnut wood. There were two benches on each side, and a corridor in the middle that was about one and a half people wide.

Sitting on both sides were farmers carrying sacks, young lawyers holding notebooks, not to mention crying children.

The aisle was filled with a jumble of luggage and sacks, and you had to step over a piece of luggage or a tall sack almost every step of the way.

Therefore, the Holy Alliance also has the joke of "dwarves and horses pulling a train".

Despite the noise, the horse-drawn train started on time as soon as the bell rang. Sitting on the train, with the acrid smell of smoke and burning sweet potatoes filling the air, Hanske had to lean against the window to breathe some fresh air.

Looking out the window at the towering river embankment and the sluice gate spouting water, he was quite young and was quickly captivated.

As for the fields between the riverbank and the railway tracks, they were also different from what Hansk had imagined, with those special plows and harrows, huge horse-drawn seeders, and spiral water pumps sitting beside the ditches...

For a moment, he even seemed to see a mechanical dog covered in brass and clockwork gears digging in the ground behind the berry bushes.

As for Delavan, he felt even more spirited as he faced the wind blowing in from the window.

He was back to report on his duties; during his three months as a staff officer stationed abroad, he had made considerable contributions.

After applying, he received a medal and a week's leave. He came back to collect the medal and visit his family.

The boy next to him asked questions in a country bumpkin-like manner, which secretly pleased him even more.

After all, he contributed to the construction of the Holy Alliance, so how can he not be honored?

"what is that?"

"A wind-up dredger..."

"And what is that?"

"A clockwork-driven crane."

"Is that man the master?"

"The Holy Alliance has no master. Judging from his attire, he's probably some fashionable farmer."

"And what is that?"

"This is... Wait, what the hell is this?"

Standing there blankly, Delavan blinked rapidly. He pulled Hansk away and stuck his head out of the car window.

On the riverbank beside the railway, without any wind-catching device, two shiny brown-black balls were floating in the air.

They were firmly tied to the riverbank with several thick hemp ropes, and there were no alchemists dressed around.

Between the two spheres hung a banner that read, "Warmly welcome the Holy Grandson to visit Xia Lucheng and guide our work!"

Seeing Delavan's surprised expression, a farmer next to him couldn't help but chuckle and muttered "country bumpkin" before saying, "That's a light balloon."

"A hydrogen balloon?"

“No, you mispronounced it. It’s a light balloon,” the farmer corrected Delavan in his thick accent. “It was invented by the inventor Franz Siegfried.”

This Franz claims to be an inventor, but he's actually just an entrepreneur who recycles mithril.

He was originally an alchemist in Black Snake Bay, but he joined the Holy Alliance relatively early and made his fortune as a middleman in land leasing.

Later, the factory was transformed, and its main job was to extract excess mithril from hollow soil waste.

Simply put, they eat nothing but garbage.

However, it was during the refining of hollow soil waste that this entrepreneur actually extracted a derivative of mithril.

Since the Holy Alliance has already popularized the concept of gas, and this product is a gas that is lighter than air and can be suspended in the air.

Therefore, Franz called it "light air".

As long as light air is filled into the ball, it can rise into the air naturally, and alchemists can even control the movement, gathering, and dispersion of light air.

As a result, light balloon rides have sprung up all over the Holy Alliance, and almost every park has one.

"However, a while ago, due to improper operation, someone fell and died. His Majesty the Holy Grandson was extremely furious, and it quickly made the headlines of the Holy Alliance newspapers." The farmer shrugged, "So it was banned. Now we can only do this kind of small thing."

"Franz's company?"

"It's said that it was acquired by the military. I don't know how he managed to get himself to go and enjoy a life of luxury at the Holy See."

"Acquired by the military..." Delavan fell into deep thought; something felt off.

"Next stop: Friendship Primary School! Next stop: Friendship Primary School..."

"We're here, we're here, make way, we need to get off."

(End of this chapter)