Industrial revolutions start with knowledge
"Sir! Your father wishes to see you." A woman in dress spoke in a seemingly empty room. The only response was a "Just a minute. I need to dress." The woman was named Alice. She was a knight for the house of Gundel. One of the four main noble houses of Egnerland. Alice waited patiently and soon the door she was waiting in front of opened, revealing a male with short dark brown hair and brown eyes. Bali Gundel, the third son of Robert Gundel. Alice looked at the young noble man who was now in front of her, before she turned around and led Bali who followed her without any words spoken. In the five years Alice knew the young noble, she got used to Bali's silence. Bali only spoke when he was asked something and even then he kept his answers short. The duo soon arrived to a council room. Bali's father, Robert Gundel, his two brothers, Carl and Thomas Gundel and at last Bali's sister, Julia Gundel were seated around a table with a map of the known world nailed to it.
"You wanted to see me?" Bali asked as he made his way to the table. His two brothers looked up before snickering, Julia nodding but keeping her eyes on the table and Robert nodding and looking up to face the young noble. "Good. I need you all to help me. Egnerland is in war. The Parsian empire declared war on us. We need men to fight. I need you four to help me win the war." All four siblings nodded in unison. Silence took over the room again before Bali raised his voice. "We have barely 10,000 men in the army right now. How are we supposed to fight a force of 50,000? Even on naval warfare we have less ships then we need. We can't just recruit from the cities, because we have recruited every able man into the army." The room fell silent again before Thomas decided to voice his opinion. "And what would you know? You spend your days drawing, or reading books on different topics. You have no experience with the real world." Carl nodded in agreement making Bali raise his voice. "Well, if that's your opinion then I'm clearly unneeded here. Have fun dying with your swords facing muskets." Bali turned around and left the room slamming the door behind him.
"You shouldn't let them talk to you like that. You may spend all your day inside your room but you're still their brother." Alice said as Bali made his way back to his room. The male stayed quiet the whole way not even bothering to speak. As Alice turned away from Bali, the latter tapped on her shoulder. The knight turned to face Bali who was facing a window. "Alice, you want to know why I let them insult me like that? They have no idea of how to win this war. We have only the advantage in naval combat with our superior, although smaller fleet." Alice nodded and turned to look around in Bali's room. A stack of papers caught her eyes.
Moving closer to investigate she saw blueprints for something called a 'Steam engine' as well as many applications for it. Alice also saw the blueprints for air dropped explosives and hot air balloons. Some with a smaller steam engine spinning blades to push the hot air balloons forward. "What are these..?" Alice couldn't get words out from her mouth. She was astonished by the blueprints she saw. "I am not stupid. I know that we are at a 5 to 1 disadvantage as well as a technological disadvantage. Contrary to my brothers' beliefs however I haven't just been sitting inside drawing and reading. I was outside testing my 'inventions'. I am developing new weapons." Bali said as he was drawing another blueprint, this one for a light and efficient steam engine that could be used for making moving machines later. If the Parsians wanted war… they would get a war. But the war would turn into a technological boost to the whole world. After all… Bali wasn't from this time-line.