Thick smoke billowed skyward from a thirty-meter chimney below.
After so long in research and construction, the Longcheng Power Plant had finally begun operating.
It ran on coal.
The principle was simple: boil water, let steam drive machines to cut through magnetic fields, and generate electrical current.
Lord Zhao Baihui himself came to inspect the Longcheng Power Plant and offered everyone his commendation and encouragement.
A contingent of Longcheng University students were also among those commended — without their involvement, the plant could never have been completed so quickly.
All personnel involved received salary bonuses of one to three months, scaled according to the length and significance of their contributions.
Several key figures at the center of the project received bonuses of six months' pay.
Watching the massive machines roar to life and send electricity flowing into Longcheng, Zhao Baihui was overcome with excitement.
All the electricity they had used up to this point had been generated by diesel engines burning diesel fuel. The diesel in the system was supplied at market price rather than cost price, and those ancient, rickety machines were woefully inefficient — the result was a cost of two yuan per kilowatt-hour!
Now that the power plant was up and running, how much money could they save?
Coal-fired electricity was far cheaper!
Zhao Baihui was happily calculating how much diesel he'd be saving each day, how much money he'd be pocketing, when Jinyi had all seventy of Longcheng's generators transferred elsewhere — and then asked the lord to keep supplying diesel.
Better yet, to increase the supply.
There were now several dozen vehicles as well, all of which needed gasoline.
On top of that, Jinyi had submitted a request for ten large trucks, specifically for hauling coal back and forth.
That was another fifty million, plus an endless stream of diesel.
Zhao Baihui was dumbfounded. How had building a power plant actually increased his expenses?
The cars burned gasoline; the heavy trucks burned diesel for power.
When he ran the numbers, these ongoing costs hadn't gone down at all — they'd gone up considerably.
Lord Zhao, who had been dreaming of padding his personal treasury, was utterly numb.
Before, running entirely on diesel generators meant only a limited number of places could be supplied with power.
But now, with the power plant in operation, electrical equipment could be rolled out on a large scale.
For the moment, the only equipment available was the light bulb.
Even so, it was enough to dramatically accelerate Longcheng's march toward becoming a city that never slept.
The price of electricity was slashed twice over — from two yuan down to fifty fen — and the entire city began laying electrical infrastructure.
Electric lights started making their way into homes across the city, household by household.
One fen could buy two hours of light from a bulb, a burden most ordinary Longcheng residents could easily bear.
The Longcheng Electric Company was established. This company would surely grow into one of Longcheng's pillar industries in the years to come.
At fifty fen per kilowatt-hour, the costs — a little coal, a little labor, a little maintenance, a little diesel to haul the coal — were almost negligible compared to the revenue that price generated.
Within days of the power plant's completion, construction began on Longcheng's streetlight network.
Before long, two rows of streetlights lined Taoyuan Street, the main thoroughfare.
When night fell and every bulb blazed to life at once, every person in Longcheng was stunned.
Had someone looked down from above, they would have seen the dark earth below lit for the very first time by the faintest glimmer of light.
…
Jinyi stood before Zhao Baihui with a notebook in hand, delivering his report.
"My lord, the steam engines have now reached a fairly mature stage of development. They could be rolled out across the whole city."
"Then roll them out."
"Should we continue increasing investment and push further research?"
"No. Good enough for now is good enough. It's a dead-end road — in the future, the internal combustion engine will be the mainstream. And of course, if electrical applications develop quickly enough, that will be the true endpoint."
"Understood. Then we'll continue channeling our investment into electrical development."
"Still no news about petroleum?"
"Not yet."
Zhao Baihui nodded, disappointed.
The Central Plains were vast — there was certainly oil out there, but it was almost certainly buried very deep.
The system hadn't unlocked petroleum resources yet, so he had no way to simply purchase the coordinates of shallow, easily-extracted deposits.
All he could do was send people out to search far and wide.
It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.
The Longcheng Power Plant had succeeded, and a smaller plant in Taoyuan Town was now under construction.
Baihu City was also a firmly established stronghold under Longcheng's banner, with a population now exceeding thirty thousand — ripe for a power plant of its own.
It had to be said: that young Mingxin was something else. He roamed about poaching people day after day, pulling talent right out from under the Northern Barbarian court — and the men in that court knew it, but could do nothing about him.
Infuriating, really.
Beyond these three power plants, other locations weren't yet suited for construction, so all one hundred generators were gradually parceled out to them.
Everyone was, naturally, delighted.
In the new capital, on Taoyuan Street, Jinyan gazed at a row of five generators and was beside herself with joy.
With these, she would have a truly abundant supply of electricity.
As night descended, the whole of the new capital was swallowed by darkness — all except the hazy glow that seeped out from within the walls of Taoyuan Street.
Quite a few nearby residents grew curious. After a moment's hesitation, they stepped out of their homes.
Each of the four gates was guarded by a squad of Wolf Soldiers. So long as visitors carried no weapons or armor, they were free to enter.
"Brother, might we go in and have a look?"
This was a merchant who lived nearby; over the past two months, he had become a familiar face to the soldiers at the gate.
"Haven't I told you before? You can come in whenever you like — just don't cause any trouble."
"Of course, of course. I'll just go in and have a look around." The man walked in with hesitant steps, but walked in nonetheless.
Seeing him go, others who had gathered out of curiosity followed him through the gate.
Inside, the first thing that greeted their eyes was a multitude of light bulbs casting a soft, hazy glow. Though dimmer than daylight by far, it was already enough to astonish them.
A scattering of people moved about the street. In a building by the roadside, a dozen or so people sat around several tables, doing something or other.
A few steps further on appeared to be a dining establishment — through the glass, figures could be seen eating inside.
The proprietor spotted the people lingering at the door and stepped out. "Care to come in for a meal? It's not expensive — a meal runs a few mao, maybe a yuan — that's just a few coppers, ten-odd coppers at the very most."
Reassured by such modest prices, the visitors hesitated for only a moment before going in.
With the proprietor's enthusiastic guidance, one of the merchants chose a bowl of white rice and two dishes — one meat, one vegetable — then carried his tray to the end of the counter.
"Rice is fifty fen, the meat and vegetable together come to one yuan ten, so that's one yuan sixty in total."
"If you're paying in copper cash, copper's depreciated a bit, but we can call it sixteen wen for you — we won't charge you extra."
The merchant produced a tiny chip of silver, no bigger than a fingernail.
"A qian of silver exchanges for nine yuan eighty right now. Your total is one yuan sixty, so your change is eight yuan twenty — please keep it safe."
The proprietor handed over two three-yuan notes, two one-yuan notes, and two one-jiao notes.
The merchant stood there gripping six different bills, thoroughly bewildered. He had no idea what any of it meant, but didn't dare ask, so he quietly tucked it all inside his robe.
He picked up his tray, watched what the other diners were doing, and found himself a seat.
He took a bite, and his eyes went wide. "This food is genuinely delicious — better than what my own cook makes at home. And they're only charging sixteen wen?"
"It seems I'll be coming here often. It's right on my doorstep, after all."
The merchant finished his meal, patted his belly with satisfaction, and headed for the door.
He glanced at the mahjong parlor next door and the bathhouse — both piqued his curiosity — but it was his first time here, and he felt a little out of his depth, not bold enough to wander in on a whim.
"Come on, it's almost curfew outside. We'll come back another day — it's not far."
"Tomorrow I'll bring Old Li along. He's got nerve. I'll have him scout out that bathhouse."
The age-old instincts of a man told him a bathhouse was bound to be a fine establishment.