Chapter 372 Steam Locomotive and Railway

The formation of the orcs was thin on the two wings and thick in the middle. There were four battalions of orcs defending the middle camp, and two battalions on each wing. One of the battalions was a half-orc battalion. Half-orcs were very powerful archers.

Half-orcs were a special type of orcs and humans, mainly of medium-sized orcs such as werewolves and leopards.

Because half-orcs have half human blood, their hands are more flexible and they can shoot arrows with bows. Their strength far exceeds that of human soldiers, with an average strength of more than six points. If they are promoted to professionals, their strength will be greatly improved.

Because of their great strength, half-orcs use strong bows and crossbows. Their long-range strike capability is very strong, far exceeding that of human elite soldiers.

If it weren't for the difficulty of half-orcs to reproduce and their very small number, humans might not be opponents in battle with orcs.

Generally speaking, half-orc battalions, like snake-bodied heavy infantry and silver moon wolf cavalry, are elite troops among orcs and will only be incorporated into the main legion with a forward number.

The orcs pulled out of their stronghold this time and mobilized a lot of elite soldiers, including not only snake-bodied heavy infantry, silver wolf cavalry, eagle-bodied scouts, but also a new special unit, the half-orc archers.

This half-orc brigade was very lethal to Harland's soldiers.

After breaking through the two echelons of the orcs, Richard saw that the cavalry cluster was a little sparse, and immediately realized that the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade had fallen off the horse and some people had fallen behind. Seeing that the orcs' middle camp was in chaos, the orcs' fleeing soldiers were attacking the third echelon formation.

In order to maintain the stability of the formation, the captain of the third echelon orc brigade immediately commanded the soldiers to kill the fleeing orcs.

Richard saw that the orcs' middle camp was already shaky, and he knew that it was not the time to save his strength, so he immediately urged the magic power in his body and released the second starlight bomb.

After being promoted to the seventh-level warrior, Richard's mental power increased a little bit, and it was already fifty-three points. According to the standard of the attribute panel, it was already 1272 points of magic power. Normally, releasing a starlight bomb consumes 360 points of magic power. Richard's magic power was slightly exceeded when releasing three starlight bombs.

The second white light column hit the third echelon of the orcs fiercely, and the ground shook again. The third echelon of the orcs suffered heavy casualties. In just over ten minutes, the orcs were bombarded by two starlight bombs in succession. The serious casualties broke the orcs' fighting will. In an instant, the formation of the orcs' central army could no longer be maintained.

After breaking the hand of the orcs' central army, Richard still did not stop. He input the remaining magic power into the Starlight Necklace and released the third starlight bomb, this time aiming at the left wing of the orcs.

The white light column fell into the half-orc brigade, and another cloud of smoke rose high. The scene of shaking the ground and mountains appeared again. In the blink of an eye, with the explosion point as the center, the area within a few hundred meters suddenly turned into dust.

In order to take advantage of the long-range projection, the half-orc archers arranged their formation very densely and were suddenly exploded by the starlight bomb. Although the Orc archers were of higher quality, they also suffered heavy casualties. Five or six hundred were killed on the spot, and more than a thousand were injured. Only a few Orcs escaped, but they were already scared and their fighting spirit collapsed.

The Orc archers were the elite soldiers of the Orcs. Once they recovered, they would still be a tough opponent for Harland's army. Killing an Orc might cost a lot.

Seeing that the Orc brigade had collapsed, Richard commanded the Warcraft cavalry to rush madly towards the left wing of the Orcs. Richard showed no mercy to the injured Orc cavalry and killed them all.

The Warcraft cavalry brigade swept through the chaos and defeated the left wing of the Orcs, killing all the wounded Orcs. In a 2,000-man Orc brigade, only one or two hundred soldiers broke away from the formation and saved their lives.

The orcs' center and left wing collapsed. Richard saw that the orcs' right wing did not collapse, but stabilized the team. He did not want the Warcraft Cavalry to increase casualties, so he slowly retreated.

Richard led the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade to retreat seven or eight hundred meters, out of the attack range of the orcs, and immediately said: "Organize the formation, each squadron report the number."

"One, two, three, four!..."

The voices of reporting came one after another. After each squadron reported the number, the losses were quickly counted. The Warcraft Cavalry led by Harland was armored cavalry, and the soldiers were equipped with force field shields, but they were attacked by bows and arrows by the half-orc brigade, and still suffered about 70 to 80 casualties. Thirty-six of them died in the battle, and 43 Warcraft horses were lost.

This casualty was already difficult for the first battalion of Warcraft Cavalry with a total of 900 people to bear.

The magician accompanying the army immediately released a healing spell to treat the soldiers' injuries. Richard picked up the arrow shot by the orcs, weighed the arrow shaft, and muttered to himself: "Orc archers are really hard to deal with."

The arrows shot by the orcs are as long as 1.5 meters and weigh about 400 to 500 grams. Such heavy arrows have the same power as a small crossbow.

Although the crossbow is powerful, it is not accurate enough, but a good orc archer can still shoot heavy arrows with high accuracy.

Such heavy arrows can penetrate steel armor from a hundred steps away. Even a monster like the iron-horned horse, wearing heavy armor, can't stand it at close range.

In Harland's army, only professional officers have such power and accurate archery.

If Richard hadn't decisively released three starlight bombs to change the situation, the result of this battle would have been bad. Even if the monster cavalry broke through the orc camp, there would have been a lot of casualties.

Richard led the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade and defeated the blocking of eight orc brigades. This battle killed more than 4,500 orcs, and more than 4,000 were injured. In addition to the part that was scattered, the orcs finally gathered only about 5,000 troops.

Most of the wounded orcs were captured by Harland's army. Because of the lack of medical care and medicine, it was not cost-effective to treat the wounded orcs, so they were quickly gathered and killed. The few wounded orcs who successfully evacuated could not keep up with the pace of the main orc march in the cold weather. Few were able to return to the starting camp, and most of them froze to death on the way.

The commander of the giant owl of the Eastern Front of the Orcs saw the course of this battle from high in the sky.

After this battle, the commander of the giant owl knew that Harland had mastered a powerful legendary fourth-level magic item. If this problem was not solved, it would be difficult to defeat the opponent on the front battlefield.

Although the Orc Empire also had legendary fourth-level masters, such as the Orc Emperor and the Red Dragon Prince, they were all equivalent to legendary fourth-level masters. But such a heavyweight figure would not come to a remote place like the Eagle Mountains to deal with Richard.

The opponent of the Orc Emperor is a big man from the Holy God Empire.

The only thing the Giant Owl Commander can count on is the help of the Grassland Governor's District. Relying on the legend of the Grassland Governor's District, it is difficult to defeat Lord Harland who has a legendary fourth-level item.

The battle line in this area may have to retreat.

In just over a hundred years, the Grassland Governor's District has been defeated again and again in the battle with the Grant Kingdom. First, it was defeated in the Dragon Canyon and gave up the Black River Basin and the Dragon Canyon. Then, after more than a hundred years of tug-of-war, it was forced to withdraw from the southern foot of the Eagle Mountains. Now it can't even defend the northern part of the Eagle Mountains.

In more than a hundred years, the orcs' battle line retreated about 500 kilometers to the north. If they continue to retreat again and again, I'm afraid they won't even be able to defend the northern prairie.

Thinking of the terrible scene in the future, the Giant Owl Legion Commander was also very worried.

After Richard defeated the orcs who were blocking him, the situation became more favorable to Harland. After finding that the situation was unfavorable and the strategic goal could not be achieved, the orc army had to retreat.

This time, the orcs used troops in winter in an unusual way, wanting to fight a battle, but lost 15,000 soldiers but gained nothing, and finally had to withdraw in disgrace.

The casualties of Harland's army added up to only about 1,400 people. Among them, only more than 500 people were killed, which was far from being a serious injury.

Through this battle, the defense line in the north of Harland's territory was finally gradually stabilized.

Richard defeated the orcs in the north of the Eagle Mountains, and the commodity fair in Fort William finally ended.

This year's commodity fair added Tenghui potion, which brought 50,000 gold coins of extraordinary material income to Harland's territory.

This batch of extraordinary materials entered the territory, which can greatly reduce cash expenditure.

On November 25, 3270 of the Dawn Calendar, there were crowds of people outside Fort William, and the commodity fair had already ended. The crowds who came to Fort William were mainly to see a new thing in Harland.

Today is the completion ceremony of the railway from Fort William to No. 1 Coal Mine. Roger, the civil affairs officer of Harland, and his sister Sophia rushed to the scene to watch the steam train departure ceremony in person.

Railways have appeared in Harland for more than ten years, but they used to be horse-drawn trains, mainly built in mining areas, and the tracks were mainly made of wood. The better sections of the road had thin steel plates nailed on the wooden cabinets.

As the output of coal mines increases, the capacity of horse-drawn tracks is far from enough.

In recent years, due to the discovery of rubber substitutes, the industrial level of Harland has been rapidly improving. Last year, steel production reached 18,000 tons and iron production reached 30,000 tons.

As of October this year, the steel production of the Duke of Harland has increased to 22,000 tons and iron production has reached 35,000 tons.

In terms of steel production capacity, it has barely met the prerequisites for building railways.

In addition, the steam engine has been invented for five years, and the technical level has reached the standard for manufacturing steam boilers.

Although there were some problems in the design, the time for finalized production was a bit short, and the railway was a bit hasty to start, Richard still provided financial support. Because of the large amount of capital investment, more than 30 kilometers of railway lines were built in Harland Territory this year.

As the flames in the steam engine boiler burned more and more vigorously, the pressure was finally increased. The cylinder pistons on both sides slowly worked under the push of steam, and the connecting rods pushed the wheels to slowly turn under the action of the pistons.

The steam engine used in this locomotive has a low horsepower of only 90 horsepower, and consumes about 150 kilograms of coal per hour. The running speed of the train is not too fast, about 30 to 40 kilometers.

A coal and water carriage is hung behind the steam locomotive, which is loaded with one or two tons of coal and a small amount of fresh water, allowing the train to run continuously for more than ten hours. Twelve large wagons can be hung behind it. It only takes one hour to get from the No. 1 coal mine to Fort William. A steam train can transport 120 tons of materials.

A steam train runs eight round trips a day and can transport more than 1,000 tons of coal from the No. 1 coal mine to Fort William. A steam train, running eight times a day in three shifts, requires at most seven or eight train drivers, a dozen steam engine repairmen, and less than a hundred people including loaders and unloaders.

Now, the workers transporting coal from the No. 1 coal mine add up to more than 800 people, not to mention the cost of hundreds of horses.

Eight hundred people plus hundreds of horses could hardly transport a thousand tons of materials to Fort William by horse-drawn tracks. Because the steeper sections could not be climbed by horse-drawn tracks, and could only be transported by manpower, and the time for loading and unloading was very labor-intensive.

Now with high-horsepower steam engines, more than a hundred tons of goods can be carried over mountains and hills, and as long as the slope is not too steep, it can be easily crossed over mountains and hills.

Looking at the train emitting black smoke and carrying more than a hundred tons of goods, Sophia said in a slightly excited voice: "As long as the north-south railway of the Eagle Mountains is built, our supply will become very easy. At that time, wherever the railway reaches, it will be our territory."

"There is a lot of snow in the Eagle Mountains. Even if the railway is built, it will be difficult to pass in winter. However, the railway can quickly mobilize materials and has a very large role in promoting the economic development of the territory.

Baron Harden's territory and Eagle Castle are both rich areas, but because they are far away from the coal mines, the price of coal is surprisingly high. When I went there to inspect, I found that the residents were reluctant to buy coal and wood, and actually collected cow dung.

With railway trains, our material dispatch will be very easy in the future. A few coal trucks can transport a large amount of coal to remote areas by running a few times a day. With railways to mobilize materials, we can easily maintain price stability, which is very helpful for consolidating rule."

"Now the steam boiler technology is not mature, and steam cars The failure rate of the locomotive is high, and the construction of the railway requires a high investment. It takes 1,500 gold coins to build one kilometer. Railway transportation requires a high cost, and the economic benefits are far less than water transportation.

However, water transportation is greatly restricted by the terrain, while the railway line can be built deep inland. With the railway, it is very convenient for us to mobilize troops. With a few locomotives, we can mobilize thousands of soldiers hundreds of kilometers away. Even if the territory tries its best, it must connect the railway line.

If we build the railway line to Baron Harden this year, we can quickly mobilize troops to defeat the orcs. The losses in this area will not be so severe. According to statistics from the civil affairs department, this orc invasion caused an economic loss of millions of gold coins. If this money is invested in railway construction, 700 kilometers of railway can be built, which is enough to build the railway from Baron Harden to the Twin Star Castle. "

Powell, who was standing next to Sofia, seemed very excited. Now Powell has transformed into a civil servant, mainly responsible for managing the construction projects in the Harland territory. This railway test line was built under the leadership of Powell.

In the past ten years, the development of Harland Territory has been changing with each passing day, which has greatly impacted Powell's nerves.

Eighteen years ago, the male members of the Harland family were still accumulating merits and striving to be promoted to the aristocratic class. Powell thought that after his lifelong struggle, he could only see William promoted to baron and his children promoted to the aristocratic class.

Unexpectedly, eighteen years later, Richard has become the Duke of Grant Kingdom. The surname Harland has left a great reputation in Grant Kingdom and will definitely be recorded in history books in the future.

In the past five or six years, new things have continued to emerge, and a large part of machines have replaced manual labor, and productivity has been greatly improved. The emergence of steam engines has changed the mode of production and greatly increased the national strength of Harland Territory. Powell's experience over the years has made him a little overwhelmed, and he has to accept new things every year.

At this moment, Powell looked at the thick black smoke, and a huge cast iron train flashed in his eyes.

Under the wheels of the great era, everyone is a small person.