Industrial Beginnings
The first thing Zul'ra needed to do was, based on the discussions with Broken-Tooth, Lostro, and Maki, write a letter about Amani's attitude towards the Dakkalai Trolls, and have Akil'darah's offspring deliver it to Cook.
Along with the letter went Maki and Lostro's trusted men, who were responsible for digging—well, no, for preparing to receive refugees. Amani didn't have much power to help Dakkalai, but they did have the ability to give them a refuge; after all, they were all family.
After writing to Cook, Zul'ra immediately turned her attention to the army. The Giant Deer Army currently has two towns, one of which Cook and Bakaji took to Northrend to establish a base for the Amani and to provide some support to the Dakkalai.
The remaining one will stay in Zul'Aman. The town's two thousand soldiers will be responsible for protecting Zul'Aman and will also need to participate in voluntary labor when necessary. As the first professional soldiers in Amani to receive a salary, they need to set an example.
While inspecting the condition and armament of the Giant Deer Army, Zul'ra also inspected Amani's shipbuilding, smelting, and weapons factories, and summoned the Defias artisans, Goblins technicians, and Amani craftsmen serving in Amani to discuss and ask some questions.
Back when he was setting up the cannery and instant noodle factory, Zul'ra had already set his sights on the Industrial Revolution. The technicians he hired from Silvermoon City during this negotiation with Quel'Thalas were also there to support this initiative.
Beyond just machinery, Zul'ra also wants to create some firearms. With the impending the Scourge, those guys have even come up with devices like floating cities, which is really giving people a headache. Amani still relies on cold weapons, and although they have magic, they are still a bit worried.
To achieve an industrial revolution, the first thing needed is powerful mechanical power, which must surpass the power of water, wind, humans, and animals in nature. Zul'ra took a liking to the Goblins ' steam engine technology, so he had Broken-Tooth hire Piz Goldtooth, a Goblins who designed logging robots, from Mardi.
In fact, Zul'ra really wanted to hire the Gnomes, but unfortunately he didn't have the connections. However, for the sake of money, Dr. Piz agreed to provide his steam power technology. Zul'ra didn't dare let him do the design, fearing that he would set the engine as a time bomb.
Mechanical power was the core of the Industrial Revolution, and the core of firearms is gunpowder chemical energy. Zul'ra is very troubled by this, because the Dwarves are the most powerful in gunpowder manufacturing technology in this world, but in his opinion, their firearms are not that great. If firearms were powerful enough, the war situation in this world should have changed.
Zul'ra obtained some gunpowder recipes from the Defias artisans, and the Zandalar also had some unique explosive and incendiary recipes, but none of them were enough to support the creation of powerful personal handheld firearms. To increase the power, it would be necessary to increase the size of the firearms, which at most could only be used to make cannons.
Zul'ra sought help from Piz Goldtooth for qualified gunpowder, but Piz said he couldn't help. He was quite skilled in mechanical explosions, but really not good at alchemy with such raw materials. There weren't many people who could handle this business. Nine out of ten goblins Goblins alchemical explosions would die because those chemicals were too deadly.
Unable to obtain any further gunpowder or fuel, Zul'ra had no choice but to make do with what he had and decided to build cannons instead: mortars for the army and sophisticated breech-loading cannons for the navy's warships. However, when he proposed these two ideas, the craftsmen all shook their heads, believing that Amani did not have the capacity to mass-produce these cannons.
Amani's current smelting technology is still at the stage of making cold weapons. They can't even make a qualified can lid, let alone materials for making cannons. The craftsmen also raised questions about the use of cannons.
The use of artillery has many problems. Even the Dwarves, who are most skilled with firearms, can only use small mortars, while the human ships are armed with heavy mortars. Neither of these weapons is very powerful.
The operation of cannons is also very troublesome. In a sense, they are not as useful as ballistae. Of course, there are also cannons with great power, but those things are not easy to move and the reaction force of the shot is huge. Only extremely sturdy turrets can support them. Ships cannot withstand them. A wooden giant ship will fall apart after firing a few shots.
After a series of inquiries, Zul'ra's image of giant ships, cannons, and the simultaneous firing of thousands of cannons was shattered by the craftsmen's dissuasion. However, he had no choice; the technology in this world was truly too lazy to explore.
Although this world possesses many advanced technologies, such as steam, electricity, and electromagnetic technology, all races only study their application without exploring their underlying principles.
Basic scientific theories like buoyancy, gravity, and centrifugal force haven't even been discovered yet, so let alone more advanced materials science.
Most craftsmen and scientists are still like blind men feeling an elephant, creating things based on touch and inspiration. They can create amazing robots, but when it comes to industrial technology, they probably can't even make a can lid or a decent ballpoint pen tip.
Although the situation was quite difficult, Zul'ra did not give up his confidence. If there were no difficulties at all, why would he have gathered so many people?
Soon, Zul'ra brought over a group of people from Silvermoon City. Lor'themar's assurances were quite effective; all the people arrived and were very obedient. Of course, some of them might act as spies, but Amani couldn't afford to suffer no losses at all.
After Zul'ra gathered the people, he immediately got to work without saying a word. He first wrote a plan for himself and then carried out the experiment step by step.
Take mechanical power machines as an example. First, a prototype is made, and then improvements and simplifications are made to the prototype. In addition, people are sent to organize the relevant materials.
It must be said that the Sin'dorei's Arcane thinking is very meticulous. Their smelting experts have also accumulated enough experience, have their own summary of the texture of metal materials, and have mastered many formulas. Most importantly, at Zul'ra's request, they cooperated very well in handing over the formulas. This may be because they did not even know what they were doing, since Zul'ra was in charge of the cutting and management.
In short, Sin'dorei did Zul'ra a great favor, and the first prototype of a steam engine was soon completed. When Sanra saw the complex machine with the steaming boiler driving the wheel shaft, Zul'ra smiled very happily and immediately expressed his gratitude to Sin'dorei, who was in charge of the engine drawings, Link, the Defias craftsman who manufactured the engine, Link, Kabin Amani apprentice, and Goblins Piz.
"Your names will be recorded in history." Zul'ra's excitement left the group somewhat bewildered. After all, the other technologies they had seen were far more advanced than this little gadget. However, they still accepted the thanks. After all, they had all painstakingly drawn up the blueprints, resisted the temptation to participate in the design, and built the machine with their sweat and toil.
After viewing the initial machine, Zul'ra secretly kept it for future museum exhibition. He then ordered others to improve and simplify it, and design other machines based on its principles. Of course, these tasks would not be accomplished by themselves; other technicians would also help. They were encouraged to ask for help, and Amani would do his best to meet their needs.
There's nothing left at night.