I, transformed into a vampire girl, sparked the Industrial Revolution.

Chapter 105 The Miracle of Reinforced Concrete

The train carried Lolaran from the Voronezh border region to Whiterun, and then from Whiterun to the south, to Trian, the starting point of everything. Lolaran leaned against the glass train lathe. In Trian, the snow was gradually melting, and it was the coldest time of year. He saw the engineer opposite him wrapped tightly in a cotton coat.

Loralan chuckled. Dwarves are a race resistant to cold. Having lived in the snowfields for many years, they have long been able to withstand the most biting cold winds, and the cold of the Trian snow season does not affect him much.

What truly caught his attention was the outside world. From the snowfields to the city, he immediately saw the concrete roads and bridges. The majestic Trian Ring Road stood there, under construction with countless scaffolds, but it was precisely this sight that drew his attention.

"What are they building?"

"The Trian Ring Elevated Road is designed to raise the road and divert traffic flow. There are already enough cars in Trian, and many roads were only found to be too narrow after the design was completed."

With the mass production of inexpensive cars and bicycles, and following Alice's call, car manufacturers began producing affordable vehicles that were as accessible as possible to the majority of people, such as the Ford Model T Sedan, the Volkswagen People's Car, and the Fiat 501. The massive production volume and minimal features made these new gadgets readily available to most people, especially middle-class workers—skilled laborers and administrators—who were more inclined to buy a car for convenient commuting.

In the first half of 655 alone, 15,000 new passenger cars were registered in the entire Amelia County. Including military vehicles, the total number of passenger cars in the Amelia County, which is not yet unified, reached 78,000, while the number of trucks was around 50,000.

To accommodate such a massive influx of steel, the newly established Transportation Committee Chairman, Edra Flat, convened a national transportation construction conference and submitted a national transportation construction proposal to Alice. This proposal called for the establishment of a nationwide highway network, optimization of traffic routes in various cities, strengthening of the traffic police under the National Police Department, and revision of the national traffic law.

After all, the old laws are outdated. In traffic where the average speed must not be less than 35 km/h, are horse-drawn carriages allowed on the road? It should be noted that horse-drawn carriages and automobiles still enjoy the same right of way. When a horse-drawn carriage appears on the road, the roar of automobiles and horns can sometimes startle the horses, leading to traffic accidents.

Calls are growing louder to ban horse-drawn carriages from national highways and city roads, but should they be allowed to pass through underground tunnels and bridges?

In short, a variety of problems arose, and despite having a comprehensive database as a backup, the implementation still depended on the quality of the workers. The Trian transport infrastructure developed amidst such disputes, chaos, and order.

This is the scene that Loralan sees now. Trian has become a forest of reinforced concrete. The natural atmosphere in this big city has been lost. Even he admits that even the dwarven capital Chelyabinsk cannot compare to this city. It is exactly the same as the homeland of steel and solid stone in the legends of the dwarves.

"Just how much will all these projects consume... If I'm not mistaken, that building is six stories high... and they're still building on top of it?"

The dwarf pointed to a building outside the window. The train was traveling on a high ramp, and the building outside impressed him. The dwarf elders' palace had a domed arch and spire structure that was about the same height, but it was a masterpiece built by the dwarfs with the full strength of their race.

The tall building outside the window was just an ordinary house, built up like a frame, with an unimaginable steel tower slowly rotating its boom above it.

"That's the Trian department store building, expected to be completed the year after next... There are too many construction sites like that in Trian."

The extensive use of reinforced concrete structures has led to a continuous rise in the city skyline, and the further increase in steel production capacity has further promoted this trend. The train passes through the Trian economic zone, where many buildings were constructed for the rise of capitalism. A large number of state-owned and private enterprises have chosen to build their high-rise buildings on this peninsula surrounded by the Trian River, corresponding to the administrative district peninsula on the other side.

"To be honest, building high-rise buildings can provide both jobs and housing, so why not?"

The Trian municipal government's finances are relatively healthy, thanks to the support of national finances. In addition, Trian itself is directly controlled by Alicia. Before Alice launched the Industrial Revolution, Trian was not actually that big. The various areas of present-day Trian were wastelands in the past, which is why Trian is now a giant construction site.

The massive construction of printing plants led to an explosion in the production capacity of paper and books. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Truth from the American Academy of Sciences, which was Alice's team directly involved with the tablet computer, continuously compiled simple industry knowledge booklets. These booklets were distributed in large quantities and sold cheaply. People in various industries were sometimes unfamiliar with their own industries, but now they could find popular science booklets for their respective industries in the National Library or National Bookstore. The Industrial Committee's subsidies to industry also meant that these booklets were distributed in large quantities when people joined the workforce.

Alice was willing to risk technology leaks in order to improve the basic quality of the nation's citizens. If she wanted to quickly build an industrial society, this was the only policy she could implement.

This was the first sight the dwarves saw from the people of Amelansi, guided by the welcoming team.

"Everyone's reading... Good heavens, what are you all doing...?"

Even among dwarves, books are not cheap. Woodblock printing and early papermaking techniques were not inexpensive. Moreover, most dwarven books are books of industrial experience, a few are stories, and the former are mostly secret knowledge.

Amy Lansier was genuinely surprised that everyone here had a book to read.

"You know, we don't lack knowledge, but we lack knowledgeable people... Our society is changing rapidly, and if we don't acquire more knowledge, we may not be able to find a foothold in the city."

Amidst this astonishment, the dwarf boarded the car bound for the Red House. It was a Ford Touring Sedan, a three-box hatchback in the official version. This version of the car was quite different from the Ford T-type that the dwarf had seen before. It no longer resembled a horse-drawn carriage, but instead had a beautiful streamlined shape, like a black snow bear lying on the ground.

"Please get in the car, Mr. Lora Land. We'll go straight to the Hong Kong Coliseum."