Machines Can Deliver You

"When we hear the heartfelt plea,

The world should stand united,

There are people on the brink of death,

It's time to lend a helping hand,

This is the greatest gift."

As more disaster victims arrived at the camp, the people hired within the Wessen Territory also came by carriage, singing songs, to strengthen the management and construction of the camp.

Frederick sat next to the water pump on the riverbank, proudly listening to the various songs he had finally translated into Rhenish.

Compared to text and dry sermons, songs were easier to remember and more likely to resonate deeply.

Frederick remembered seeing a question on a certain forum in his previous life about how to distinguish real soldiers from fake ones. A highly-rated answer was to ask them the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention. Those who immediately sang them out were definitely real.

He also remembered a scene in "Underground Traffic Station" where, during the training of fake Eighth Route Army soldiers, the puppet troops who had been captured also sang the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention when recalling them.

Therefore, in terms of spiritual civilization construction, he invested a lot of energy in music, copying and adapting many songs, to the extent that his music teacher went on strike due to differing concepts of music.

However, Frederick also faced a problem: the development of music was synchronized with the development of musical instruments. The current instruments could not achieve the effect he wanted, and he didn't understand the history of musical instrument development, so he could only make do.

"Frederick..."

A pleasant but timid voice brought Frederick back from his thoughts. He turned his head to see Maria standing beside him, her head lowered, gripping the hem of her skirt with both hands.

"Maria, uh, what's wrong?" Frederick noticed something was off with the little girl.

Maria asked with her head down, "Am I a bad child? Did I make you angry? You don't play with me anymore?"

Frederick blinked, and it took him a while to understand what she meant.

He had initially lived in Maria's family's castle, but after the camp was built, he moved into the camp to facilitate on-site work. Even the maid Tarot and the coachmen who came with him were no exception.

When he lived in the castle, he still had time to play Chinese Checkers and such with Maria, but as the camp was built and the disaster victims arrived one after another, he no longer had that time.

"No," Frederick said, a bright smile appearing on his face. "I've been too busy lately. How about I find you to play again after a while?"

Maria visibly relaxed and smiled.

Frederick saw Philip and an old man standing in the distance, followed by several experts, so he said to the little girl, "There are a lot of bugs here, quickly go back to the castle. I'll come back to the castle for dinner tonight."

"Really?" Maria smiled even more brightly. "You're not allowed to lie!"

Only after Frederick promised repeatedly did the little girl leave, led back to the castle by the maid.

Then Frederick was blocked.

Philip looked at this guy as if he were a little pig trying to root up his family's cabbage sprouts.

The old man's gaze was like a sharp knife, seeming to want to pierce a certain guy into a colander.

Frederick put on a cute expression, attempting to charmingly muddle through.

A burst of steam rose, breaking the brief standoff.

The old man looked at the water pump beside him, frowned, and asked, "What is this?"

In front of them was an iron box the size of a washing machine. The top and bottom were connected to ceramic pipes leading to the river and the camp, respectively. One end had a handle like a bellows that was pulled back and forth. The principle of this reciprocating pump was the same as a bellows.

Beside it, pulling the handle, was a strange machine. The machine had a metal rod about three fingers thick, connected to magic circuits. It was rhythmically extending and retracting, driving an iron rod to pull the reciprocating pump.

Next to the machine was a frame, and on the frame was a wooden bucket with a diagonal cut. A stick passed through it. A small water pipe, the thickness of a little finger, at the top of the reciprocating pump was injecting water into the wooden bucket. When the water reached a certain level, it would automatically pour water onto the machine's constantly extending and retracting metal rod for cooling.

"Your Grace, the Grand Duke of Mainz, this is a water pump," Frederick said in a cute voice. "The water level in the river is much lower now, so we can only use it to pump water over the embankment."

Frederick recognized the old man's identity at a glance through the guards: he was Philip's liege, Dalberg von Mainz.

Dalberg seemed a little interested in this machine. After looking around, he asked Frederick, "Who made this?"

Frederick replied, "The scholars at Weissenburg University made it."

A reciprocating pump was not high technology. This one was modified from the bellows of the ironworks and had its seals reinforced with Slime Gel.

The machine that performed the reciprocating motion was a technical verification machine made by Aumert's students after listening to Frederick's suggestion to dismantle a Golem Puppet they had brought and use the Magic Muscle inside. The Magic Muscle from the Golem Puppet's limbs and waist was used to make ten machines. Five of them were these horizontal types, and five were vertical types that moved vertically. Later, it was found that the vertical type was convenient for blacksmithing, provided that the heat dissipation issue was resolved.

Dalberg nodded and said, "It looks quite useful."

"Of course!" Frederick immediately said. "Its power is great, equivalent to ten horses, and it can also replace the Waterwheel to power the mills in the mill."

"As long as the Magic Crystal has Mana, it can work non-stop all day, only needing water for cooling and occasional replacement of worn parts."

"We also did comparative experiments. Grinding a ton of wheat, the cost of the Magic Crystal consumed is cheaper than horse feed."

"And its price is not expensive, only about 100 Florins."

Dalberg initially thought it was pretty good, but when he heard the price, he shook his head.

"Too expensive," he said. "This price can buy 50 strong draft horses."

Frederick shrugged and said, "You can't arrange for 50 horses to work together here."

Dalberg frowned, shook his head, and continued, "Too expensive."

Frederick said "Oh" and stopped talking about the machine, instead saying, "I'm truly sorry for the impact my actions have had on the Duchy of Mainz recently. Please forgive me, Your Grace."

The cost of this machine was less than 10 Florins. Even a brand new one would only cost about ten Florin Gold Coins. He was asking for a high price mainly because he didn't want to give people the impression that magic-powered machines were cheap; otherwise, how could he sell machines in the future?

Currently, the only potential customers for magic-powered machines are wealthy landowners, and there are no competitors.

It's not like maltose, where the rich aren't lacking in honey and it can only target the broad civilian market at a relatively low price.

So, Frederick naturally sells them for as much as he can. Nobody thinks they have too much money, and "climbing the tech tree" is, in a sense, synonymous with "spending money like water."

However, he wasn't in a hurry to sell, as the heat dissipation issue always limited the use of this machine.

Dalberg was actually already tempted. He was a wealthy magnate with mines and also faced the problem of pumping water, and this machine could be used in the narrow mine shafts.

100 Florins wasn't much to him. His warhorse, which had unicorn blood, could buy 10 of these machines, and a set of armor could buy 5.

But his money didn't come easily either, so he naturally wanted to haggle. However, he didn't expect Frederick to refuse.

"100 Florins it is," Dalberg said generously. "I know you're short on money, so I'll pay your asking price. I'll buy 3."

The Weissen Family was targeted by King William using disaster victims, and while the long-term benefits outweighed the drawbacks, it had indeed severely impacted Frederick in the short term.

Everyone in the luxury goods circle knew that almost all the gold artifacts in the Weissen Family had been sold, and it was rumored they were preparing to sell their silver cutlery.

Seeing how Frederick handled this matter with such order, Dalberg had some thoughts and decided to take the opportunity to offer help in their time of need.

However, Frederick was even more generous and said seriously, "I can give the Grand Duke 5 units as a gift. I just want you to do me a favor."

"It's not a big favor, just taking the lead in expanding the scope of the Patent Law from textile patterns, cooking, and brewing techniques to other fields."

Dalberg's gaze towards Frederick instantly became sharper.