Three days after Lord Earl was laid to rest, the weather in Northern Ridge remained fine, cloudless with the sun shining brightly and even the temperature had risen quite a bit.
Tang Mo opened his eyes, lying in the soft bed, today was the day he had to leave Northern Ridge to return to Brunas.
He carefully moved the slender arm that was hanging over his chest to the side, turned over and got out of bed, stretching lazily.
Alice, with sleep-laden eyes, hugged his waist from behind and said in a sweet tone, "Stay a few more days… I don't want you to leave so soon."
"Too many things are waiting for me to do, I can't stay in the land of soft living any longer," Tang Mo steadied Alice's tender arm, and comfortingly said, "Soon, a railway will reach Northern Ridge, and by then, it might only take you 5 hours to get to Brunas."
"Don't lie to me," Alice thought that in this world there couldn't possibly be a vehicle so fast that it could shorten the distance between two places so much.
"How could I bear to deceive you…" Tang Mo moved Alice's arm aside, turned back to look into her eyes and said, "Trust me."
It must be said, Alice's eyes were exceptionally large and incredibly beautiful. They were eyes that could see the light; although they had lost some of their spirit in the past few days, now they seemed to have become vibrant again.
The power of love was indeed great, it had nourished the young girl, or rather, the young wife by now.
It's easy for a woman to catch a man behind a layer of gauze, and although Tang Mo was reluctant to take advantage of someone at their weakest, the vulnerable Alice had taken the initiative and offered herself and Tang Mo really had no reason to keep playing the gentleman.
He was just cautious, not a saint. Gifted with a beauty akin to a celestial being throwing herself into his embrace, he saw no reason to push her away.
Thus, yesterday, the two of them, like firewood meeting a fierce flame, finally came together.
Although it wasn't quite appropriate to do so during the Earl's mourning period, apparently if he didn't leave Alice with something to remember, the new Earl of Northern Ridge would not let him go easily.
However, Tang Mo felt that he had spent a bit too long in Northern Ridge, so he had to rush back to Brunas to see the progress that Brunas had made in his absence.
Originally not one to pine for romantic attachment, Tang Mo kissed Alice once more and then spoke, "Northern Ridge is yours now, Lord Earl."
"If I marry you…" Alice said, looking at Tang Mo with her watery eyes softly.
"Don't be silly, it's yours," Tang Mo interrupted her and said, "This is your father's legacy, you have to take care of everything here for your father… That's your responsibility, and mine too."
"Then I will wait for you here! My dear," Alice bit her lip, looking quite alluring at that moment.
A girl turns into a woman of desire with just one man, Tang Mo swallowed hard.
Even heroes struggle to pass the test of a beauty; sometimes the land of tenderness is indeed the hero's grave. When Tang Mo once again remembered his grand ambitions, it was already the morning of the next day.
But this time, Alice did not hold him back but left the room before Tang Mo woke up.
She went to inspect the mines and left decisively. After having breakfast in Wolf City, Tang Mo departed for Brunas with his guard and Wes.
And he left Tagg behind in Northern Ridge. On one hand, to help Alice control the Military, and on the other hand, to give Tagg a chance to find Qiumuluo in Northern Ridge.
"You're back," Tang Mo found Roger, Li'ao, Mathews, and others waiting in his office when he arrived.
He took off his coat and hung it on the wall, sighing as he said, "Why are you all here?"
"Lately there has been too much bad news, so we decided to give you a surprise," Roger said with a hint of a smile, explaining to Tang Mo.
"You're not going to make me guess, are you?" Tang Mo put down the handgun from under his arm and looked at everyone.
"Well, here's how it is, master. We have produced light bulbs, and they work very well," Mathews eagerly reported to Tang Mo the breakthrough they had achieved while he was away.
He proudly showed off, and then pulled a round light bulb out of his pocket, presenting it to Tang Mo as if he was offering up a treasure.
Tang Mo took the light bulb, an object he had seen many times in another world, that had later become almost unseen, and examined it closely.
The tungsten filament inside was already very finely processed, and tungsten as a material was not common in Brunas.
To obtain this raw material, Tang Mo frankly spent a good deal of money. However, after seeing the finished light bulbs, he knew that everything was worth the investment.
"It's worth it! Absolutely worth it!" Seeing what Tang Mo was thinking, Roger, who always thought Tang Mo overpaid for rare materials, said excitedly.
He had seen these things light up the factory, and when a few bulbs illuminated the entire factory, the nights were no longer so long.
Because the lighting was so good, some workers were reluctant to leave the factory after their shift, gathering there instead, chatting and playing cards happily.
Playing cards, as one of the most easily popularized games, had already spread throughout Tang Mo's factory, and everyone liked to play a few hands in their leisure time. If the stakes weren't too high, Parker wouldn't interfere too much.
"We used these bulbs in a few new factories, and now they are almost non-stop. At night, we bring in new workers, who work overtime, and our production speed of rail tracks has directly doubled!" Mathews said proudly.
In those days, there were no labor laws, so continuous shifts certainly didn't exist; double shifts were already enough to achieve 24-hour non-stop production.
What made Tang Mo feel almost inhumane was that the night shift didn't even get extra pay; everyone received the same salary as those who worked during the day.
The workers were even willing to work the night shift, so they could use the daylight to go out after work, saving the use of candles and oil lamps when they went home at night.
"Another workshop that uses bulb lighting is the train production workshop, where we've already made two locomotives and the third is in production."
"Trains from Brunas to Station No. 2 can depart daily, which is incredibly convenient. Workers can even take the train to work, and it can transport goods from the docks to Station No. 2."
Tang Mo's rail tracks were connected, from his exclusive docks to the factory district, and onwards to Station No. 2 in the Vicious Forest, stringing Tang Mo's industries together like pearls.
The distance of less than twenty kilometers, a round trip by train took at most 40 minutes, an efficiency that left the carriage drivers dumbstruck.
There was no helping it; Tang Mo rolled out a mature design that had been experimented with for decades, and upon its introduction, it completely crushed every other mode of transportation in this era with its performance.
With this technology, transportation would become extremely convenient, and wars would consequently revolve around railways and transport lines.
Purposeless attacks would transform into fierce contests over transport lines and nodes, and what Tang Mo was building was not just a series of transport lines, but lifelines.
If he wished, goods departing from Northern Ridge could now be transported to Station No. 2 by train for transit to Brunas.
Of course, given the short distance and the time for loading and unloading, the current transit advantage may not be evident yet.
But once Tang Mo broke through the Vicious Forest and linked the railway to Northern Ridge, the railway transport would immediately show its advantage.
At that point, the distance between Northern Ridge and Brunas would virtually disappear, and the two places would be completely integrated into one economic circle, the Northern Ridge-Brunas Economic Zone.
"What about our secret weapon? Is it ready too?" Tang Mo looked at Mathews curiously and asked.
"Yes, Master! This may be the most powerful weapon ever made by mankind!" Mathews's expression turned serious and he spoke gravely, "With it, Brunas will be an impenetrable stronghold, the most solid fortress!"
"Let's go and see our new toy," Tang Mo gestured for the others to follow, and they soon arrived at the platform.
By train, Tang Mo and his companions quickly reached Station No. 2, which Tang Mo had turned into a new secret factory. In the factory's workshop, Tang Mo's new weapons were taking shape.
C80 howitzers! A behemoth evolved from the C64 field gun! This beast weighed two tons, with a caliber that leapt to 120mm from 75mm, and a staggering range of 6 kilometers.
Frankly speaking, this thing was not very mobile; it was almost the limit of what horses could drag. It was quite troublesome to deploy, and its ammunition was heavy.
But... Tang Mo had trains. He produced a batch of flat cars to carry these cannons. With the pre-laid tracks, these howitzers could be rapidly deployed to any position where they were needed and could immediately begin firing.
This was essentially a prototype of a railroad gun, and a very domineering one at that. A Tang Mo train could pull a dozen cannons and a large amount of ammunition, dashing to the battlefield to deal a heavy blow to any enemy attacking Brunas from any direction.
In fact, Tang Mo only needed to deploy a dozen cannons to ensure support fire was available everywhere, significantly reducing his defensive burden.
So, no matter from which direction Shireck attacked Tang Mo, they would have to face Tang Mo's superior firepower support.
Just by looking at the caliber and quality of the cannons, Shireck was already losing, and losing utterly.