Iron Dragon Rolls Over the Path, Spraying Cold Mist; Tenon and Mortise Join Steel Rails to Connect the Flat Ridge
Several dozen li south of Pinggang City, clouds of dust billowed along the official road, filling the sky.
Yet it carried none of the grim, killing aura of troops galloping at full speed. Instead, the air was thick with the scent of iron filings and warm vapor.
A "track-laying torrent" formed of colossal steel behemoths and billowing white mist was steadily advancing toward the city, its momentum grand and soul-shaking.
At the very front of the convoy, two steam-powered track-laying vehicles, each a zhang tall, moved slowly forward like mobile steel fortresses.
Their bodies had been forged from thickened iron plates, gleaming all over with a cold, hard metallic sheen. Special steel gears crafted by the Mohist School were set into their sides, clicking with precise clack-clack sounds as they meshed together.
The chimneys at their fronts constantly spewed dense white steam, which rose carrying waves of heat. Their roar rolled over the earth like muffled thunder, making even the soil beneath one's feet tremble faintly.
Special iron-plow mechanisms had been fitted to the fronts of the track-layers. Turning with the wheels, they cut steadily into the ground, loosening, leveling, and compacting the roadbed's soil in one seamless motion.
Behind the vehicles extended two sets of agile mechanical assembly lines, precisely gripping rail after rail and sleeper after sleeper, then rapidly joining and locking them together through the Mohist School's unique mortise-and-tenon mechanisms.
Not a single iron nail was needed. The mechanical locks alone held everything as steady as a boulder, utterly immovable.
Several officials in the Mohist Pavilion's distinctive uniforms stood atop the vehicle platforms. They waved wooden rulers etched with precise markings and occasionally bent down to adjust the mechanism dials on the sides, calibrating the rails' spacing and levelness. Their movements were practiced and crisp, every action