The long wait finally gave him a reply. Seven days later, at the Rose Tour Hotel, Belshazer Gelt received a letter from the Erengrad City Hall, asking him to arrive at the City Hall 2 on time at ten o'clock tomorrow morning.
He will be received in the reception room on the first floor of the building, where Mayor Alves will receive him.
Galt was ecstatic when he received the news, as if he was one step closer to a successful life.
Although he still has nothing, no funds, and no manpower, he is qualified for this job based on his own abilities. Moreover, looking at the entire Kislev, it is estimated that no one is qualified for this job except himself.
In the entire northern country of Kislev, the magicians are basically frost wizards. Those witches can grow flowers and shoot a few ice arrows, but they know nothing about engineering and machinery.
Galt believed that the so-called King of the North, Rhodes, wanted such a difficult project that it would be impossible to complete unless the Empire's alchemists helped. And among the Empire's alchemists, there were probably only a few who were willing to come to this barbaric land.
not much.
So I still have hope. Galt couldn't help but feel refreshed when he thought about this.
The next day, after the bell in the clock tower on White Bear Street rang ten times, Galt, the imperial alchemist, was already dressed neatly and came to the first floor of the city hall to wait.
The window registrar who received him that day led him up to the second floor. Galt was confident and majestic. Everyone passing by in the corridor seemed to be greeting him.
In this way, Galt strode behind the receptionist and walked into the reception room. He originally thought that this meeting was for him alone. However, when Galt walked into the door, he found that the place was filled with other people.
Merchants and nobles. No doubt they, like myself, were guests of the alderman.
Guest... damn... this title is so worthless here!
Galt cursed in his heart. But he could only sit helplessly in the crowd, waiting for the dwarf to finish meeting the people in front of him...
The visitors included merchants, nobles, and knights... some even walked in wearing rough linen cotton clothes. Obviously, the people the Mayor of Elengrad met were of different identities, and it seemed that there were not many nobles and big businessmen here.
The advantage is that you have to wait with those ordinary knights.
Galt only felt that he had been insulted. In the empire, how could nobles wait with knights? Only here would you encounter such a strange scene.
However, for the sake of money, he could only wait and endure it. If he had not run for the position of president of Altdorf Gold Academy in two years, he would definitely not come here. Kislev, no matter how it develops, will always be a piece of cake.
A remote and barbaric land. Even if it were given a hundred years, it would still not be able to keep up with the prosperity of Altdorf, the capital of the empire.
However, in such a barren land, Galt had to come at this time. Because the election for the president of the Golden Academy requires funds.
Moreover, compared with other aspects, funds are the most important thing. There is a famous saying among the imperial aristocracy - there is nothing that a bag of gold cannot solve. If there is, then add another bag.
Galt was well aware of the charm and usefulness of money in the empire, so in order to achieve his goal, he had to endure it first and come to Erengrad to seek a sudden increase in wealth.
Half an hour later, Galt was finally met alone by Alves, the mayor of Elengrad.
As in the rumors, the alderman is a short dwarf. Although he sits on a high chair and has a wide desk covered with cowhide in front of him, his image is still short in Galt's eyes.
"Belshazer Gelt, alchemist Altdorf, I'm sorry to keep you waiting."
The mayor spoke first. This surprised Geert. He originally thought that as the mayor of the most important port city in Kislev, he should be arrogant and domineering. After all, he needs to be seen here.
, so many people flattered him. However, when the mayor named Alves spoke, Galt felt his humility and sincerity.
"Oh...it's okay...it won't be long actually."
Galt didn't know how to answer for a moment, so he stiffly uttered a few polite words.
"I already have a general understanding of the purpose of your meeting with me and the project you want to contract. Then, please briefly describe your ideas for the water supply project in the Elengrad Winter Spring District."
Alves added -
"Your ideas and your plans."
Galt was stunned again. He did not expect that the dwarf city mayor would not even say a single extra polite word in the opening, and went straight to the point and directly asked about the business. This made Galt a little uncomfortable. He had prepared a question a day ago.
A lot of official language and polite expressions were used in the opening, but now it seems that they are of no use at all. The mayor is really an anomaly, and the opening gets straight to the point. But if you think about it carefully, this Alves has to meet so many people every day
There are many people, and if every imperial noble greets them politely, they probably won't be able to get much done in one day.
"Okay, Lord Mayor."
Galt straightened his voice and said——
"I have read the introduction and requirements of the Dongquan District water supply project. Please forgive me, sir, although this project looks inconspicuous, it is extremely difficult. First of all, the water supply uses pure water sources, that is, upstream river water and mountain springs. This requires
Large-diameter, long-distance main water supply pipelines. Because the terrain of Oerengrad is not entirely plain, but has hills. Therefore, the design of the main water supply pipeline is very complicated. When necessary, an elevated drinking water bridge must even be built. This involves
to bridge construction and water conservancy projects.”
Galt raised his voice, emphasizing the difficulty of the project. At the same time, he also paved the way for the plan he proposed next. The more he emphasized the difficulty of the project, if he could successfully complete it by then, he could take credit for it.
, the more rewards you will get.
Alves, who was on the opposite side, listened patiently, nodded, and motioned for Galt to continue.
"A dual project requires two talents with different majors to work together. It is actually more difficult than building a grand theater. In addition, let's talk about the material issue. Generally speaking, the metal material currently used for water pipes on the market is iron. But iron is easy
If it rusts, it will need to be replaced within a few years, and the subsequent maintenance costs will be huge. Of course, the metal materials that can be used for water pipes are not only iron, but also lead, gold, silver, and copper. Naturally, gold and silver do not need to be considered, and no one has that luxury.
Even the richest nobles in the empire would not use gold and silver to make water pipes."
"Although lead is cheap and low-cost, it is poisonous. Long-term use of lead water pipes will lead to lead poisoning. As for copper, it is indeed the best one among the several materials mentioned above. It is not easy to corrode, is stable, and is resistant to corrosion.
Pressure. But like gold and silver, its cost is high. In Altdorf, only the upper aristocracy would use copper water pipes."
Galt hesitated to speak. He originally wanted to continue talking about this topic, but it involved a matter of face, so he had to suppress it. Galt wanted to know the person behind the alderman, the man named Luo
What do you think, a man of virtue? It is a thankless job to provide natural water supply to the urban areas.
Unlike the construction of ports, the establishment of water supply systems will not bring direct benefits to lords and rulers. At most, it will improve residents' living and health standards and make their lives more convenient and hygienic.
And this is almost not considered in Altdorf. All civilians draw water directly from the river. Food for food and drainage are all in the same river... One family is emptying the shit basin by the river, and the other is in the river.
Fetching water is also a common thing... City managers almost never ask about it. Only the nobles will install water supply systems for their villas and mansions. Those beautiful fountains are the result of private construction.
Although the city's comprehensive water supply puzzled Galt, this was not the scope of his consideration. All he had to consider was how to win the project and get the money to leave smoothly.
"That's right, that's exactly what it is."
Alves suddenly nodded in agreement.
"So, your solution?"
The alderman continued to ask.
Galt raised his head and looked around the audience proudly——
"My method is to synthesize metal!"
He paused word by word.
"Traditional metals cannot do everything. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages. But I can fuse different metals and even change their properties to turn them into more perfect metal materials."
"Sir, my plan is to use iron-copper alloy to complete this project. Iron has a price advantage, while copper is corrosion-resistant. The combination of the two is a high-quality material for making water pipes. I will plate the surface of the iron pipe.
The upper layer of copper film is made of iron as the main raw material and copper as the auxiliary material. Only a little copper is needed to cover an entire iron water pipe. In this way, it not only solves the problem that iron water pipes are prone to rusting, but also solves the problem.
It solves the problem of high cost of copper pipes.”
After Galt finished speaking, the corners of the mayor's eyes twitched visibly. Obviously, this was the most genius idea Alves had ever heard. But he was still a little unsure. In the past, there were so many people who came here to cheat on food and drink.
Yes. He claims to be talented and capable. However, after several months of eating and drinking, the problem has not been solved, and there are many people who run away at night. Therefore, Alves must be a little suspicious.
"So, can you make a copy of the material you mentioned on site and show it to me?"
Alves asked seriously.
"Sir, I'm afraid it's not possible to make it on site. It would require a chemical reaction laboratory. However, I brought samples that I had prepared in advance."
Galt said, and took out a small piece of strange metal from his arms. Only then did people see the small piece of metal clearly. The guard on the side was shocked and broke out in a cold sweat. He had just done a routine inspection.
At that time, no metal equipment was found on this young man. You must know that everyone who enters the reception room is not allowed to wear weapons. And this young man from the empire secretly hid a small piece of metal without being exposed at all.
People notice. Fortunately, it is indeed just a small piece of metal. It is not sharp at all, it is cylindrical and copper-yellow.