The Ancestral Legacy Begins in the Wild West

The moment the door closed gently behind him, the night of Kyoto completely engulfed Zhang Chang'an.

He stood in the alley outside the Iron Boat Workshop and took a deep breath.

The June night breeze carried a damp warmth, and the smell of whale oil and cooking smoke filled my nostrils.

Of course, Kyoto is a little closer to nature than London.

Just a little bit.

The streets were still shrouded in a fog that reminded him of London. Perhaps it was just river fog, but it was mixed with who knows how much soot from burning whale oil, rust particles, and industrial fumes.

Zhang Chang'an slowly emerged from the fog and stepped onto the main road that runs through Kyoto from north to south.

The gravel road was wide enough for two oxcarts to pass side by side, with two-story or higher wooden townhouses with black tiled roofs on both sides, and lanterns occasionally hanging under the eaves.

The dim candlelight and the countless gas lamps, each with a different color due to fuel variations, shrouded in fog, made the entire street look particularly strange.

"Hiss..." On the street in the distance, two railway tracks stretched out from the darkness. This was clearly a city train like those in the west. The metal carriages spewed smoke among the ancient buildings of Kyoto, having just stopped running.

Besides the crisp sound of wooden clogs crunching over gravel in the distance, he could also hear the chirping of insects and the barking of dogs. But these sounds only added to his anxiety.

After all, looking around, there were no pedestrians in the fog, only a drunkard staggering from the opposite side, with a katana at his waist and a device that looked like a steamer that could be heated.

In the distance, there was a small late-night snack stall. The steam-powered food cart had already been closed, and the vendors were cleaning up the dishes. The fishy smell of greasy food completely overpowered the miso.

Seeing all this, he regained his awareness of this era. He unconsciously quickened his pace.

His goal was very clear: to obtain something that could cure diseases for Tie Zhou Gong.

He spent the entire day reviewing numerous daily records at Tiezhou Gong's shop, thus confirming his ancestor's illness.

His condition was indeed better than Okita's, but the oil residue and exhaust fumes he came into contact with at work were absorbed through his skin and inhaled through his respiratory tract, accumulating in his body over time, clogging his blood vessels, and adhering to the surface of his organs.

Like a machine that uses inferior fuel year after year, with its pipes covered in grease, it will eventually break down.

The most direct way to solve this problem is to remove the deposits little by little through a special surgery.

But even if such methods existed in this era, let alone if they did, it would be very difficult for him to implement them.

However, his ultimate goal was not to completely cure the disease, nor could he clean it all out. Cleaning the area around the extremely dangerous internal organs would be enough.

Moreover, he comes from the future, so even if there is no cure in this era, it doesn't mean he has no other way.

Although London is only two years behind Japan, its technological development direction is completely different from Japan's.

The oil they use is more stable and safer, so people there don't have the same problems as them.

Just because people don't exist doesn't mean machines don't exist. London has a set of large machines specifically designed to clean oil stains from machines, called "siphon sludge cleaners".

After all, not all factories in London could burn blue agate, and even treated industrial oil would still cause pollution with long-term use.

The surface of the machine is relatively easy to clean; even if it's covered in grease, you can simply peel it off and replace the parts. However, some critical components have delicate internal structures, and once they become clogged with grease, only this special equipment can remove them.

The principle behind this thing is quite simple.

The British have a much more advanced way of processing oil than the people on the Japanese islands. However, no matter how much blue agate is purified and refined, it is essentially the same thing as ordinary whale oil. As long as they are put together, they will blend together.

The siphon sludge cleaner uses blue agate to attract and absorb oil and impurities inside the machine.

What Zhang Ansheng needs to do is to modify this device to be smaller and safer for use on the human body.

To this end, he spent a large sum of money to purchase the mechanical knowledge that Tie Zhou Gong had researched over the years. What he needed was the experience of applying steam machinery to the human body.

The final product, the design he kept before leaving, was a contraption that resembled a pneumatic injector and a mechanical syringe.

The internal details still need to be improved, but for many parts, there is already a clear direction for selection.

These are the things he's going to work on now.

Tessho spent several years in Kyoto, though he never became a mechanic under the shogunate. The house was mostly filled with various parts for civilian machinery.

But even if he only sold fuel and daily necessities, he still had to deal with the shogunate officials who managed whale oil and steam machinery.

Therefore, although he may not necessarily buy the parts and materials, he is very clear about the source of those high-precision parts.

"How come Japan's industrial technology is so bad..." Zhang Chang'an felt no dissatisfaction with his own mechanic skills, only contempt for Japan's industrial level.

It's highly likely that the shogunate didn't intentionally restrict the development of steam technology among the common people; it's just that their metalworking skills were indeed incredibly poor.

In addition, given the current chaotic situation, it is indeed necessary to restrict the circulation of these items. For parts with a slightly higher degree of precision, there are simply no machines available for civilian production; they can only be procured from officially designated sources.

Some special things, such as steel that can be rolled into gun barrels, or glass tubes used in machinery to store whale oil, are not particularly rare in London, but here, not only can they not be made, but they are also not allowed to be sold at all.

Furthermore, Tie Zhougong's health deteriorated, and his manual dexterity declined, so he had even less chance to develop it on his own.

So he had no choice but to go out and make something himself.

"This is it." Zhang Chang'an stopped on the stone-paved road of a small alley.

Ahead lies Kyoto's famous Sanjo Bridge, a vital passageway leading to Edo, which would later become Tokyo. However, in this era, the bridge is actually a wooden frame structure, resembling a river bridge at the entrance of some village.

The Kamo River flows quietly under the bridge in the night, its surface reflecting the lights on both banks, creating a shimmering effect.

Across the bridge, nestled among low-rise houses and even sparser lights, were red-brick and iron metal processing factories, not unlike those in London.

He silently reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

It was a rough iron mask that he had hastily made in the workshop this afternoon, but it was enough to cover his face, similar to the Nuo style.

After placing it on his face, Zhang Chang'an tugged at the front of his kimono.

Beneath the kimono, the exoskeleton brought from London, distributed along the spine, was now pressed against his back, slightly warm. Several transmission cables extended from the core, connecting to Zhang Chang'an's hands, which were always tucked into his sleeves.

"Click..." Zhang Chang'an raised his hand, and the mechanical hand pressed down on the steam-powered longsword at his waist.

In those days, carrying a sword was not prohibited in Japan, so he didn't need to carve a cross on his face and get a reverse-blade sword.

Even though it's a steam-powered longsword, it can't be seen as such when it's sheathed in a wooden case covered with black leather.

Of course, there was something else hidden inside his kimono. Zhang Chang'an had one hand on his sword, while the other hand was inside the outer hem of his kimono.

M1889 remained silent, waiting for him to focus his gaze and see the details of the factory across the street.