At the end of the meeting, Roland left Barov alone.
"As you can see, the Chemical Laboratory and Graycastle Industries need people. Next, I plan to produce soap and perfume on a large scale, which also requires a lot of manpower." The Prince said bluntly, "When most of the townspeople pass the primary education examination, it will be at least next year, and there will only be six or seven hundred people, which is not enough. I need more people. "
"If you conscript people from the stronghold..."
"No," Roland interrupted, "After the city is built next year, the stronghold and the town will be connected as a whole, which is equivalent to taking money out of the left pocket and putting it into the right pocket, I need more people outside the Western Region."
"This..." Barov was a little embarrassed, "I'm afraid it's not so easy to solve, if you go to other cities to fish people out, the local lord will not sit idly by."
"Don't go to the city," Roland dipped his finger into the cup, dipped it in ice water, and gestured on the table, "I don't know if you have noticed, but since the end of the Months of Demons, Graycastle has been in a state of war. Including Timothy's several attacks on the Southern Territory, which led to the burning of Eagle City, and serious damage to the surrounding villages and towns. Then there was the expedition to the Northern Territory, depriving Duke Ace of his title and territory for treason. Lastly, there was the attack on the sea in the east. "He knocked the table twice, leaving a pool of water stain." It affected Seawindshire, Valencia, and Cold Raven Castle quite a bit. Not to mention those small towns in the surrounding area. Just from the number of people who fled to the capital, you can see how heavy the losses were. "
"You mean..." Barov showed a thoughtful expression.
"Spread the news of the Western Region," the Prince smoothed out the water, "In the past six months, only the Western Region has been peaceful, there has been no forced conscription, nor has it been attacked by the flames of war. Especially the first point, since Timothy has wantonly used civilians to fight, he will definitely recruit and even abduct civilians from all over the country. No one can guarantee that this kind of thing won't happen to them next time, so a safe place isolated from the flames of war is the main point of our propaganda. "
"I think I understand," he pondered. "You intend to attract civilians from other towns and villages by promising not to be conscripted, not to be forced into labor, and at the same time, to provide shelter, food, and a stable job?"
"Almost." Roland nodded with a smile. Being flexible and receptive had always been an Assistant Minister's strong points. "Also, we should focus on promoting the generous treatment that literate people can enjoy. I think there must be some desperate Knight and nobles in these places who are willing to come to the Western Region to try their luck."
Whether it was a village or a town, it was almost always the territory of a small noble. If it was a time of peace, no matter how barren the land was, no matter how poorly managed it was, a few acres of farmland would always be enough to fill their stomachs. However, if there was a serious loss of population during times of turmoil, it would be hard for them to continue living. At this time, if there was a safe place to go, most people would be tempted. In any case, even if the territory was left unguarded, it would not be occupied by others. After this period of time, they would bring money and mercenaries back to take over the territory.
As for how to promote it, he believed that the other side had their own ways.
"But Your Highness, in this way, it will be another expense to arrange for these people, and the purchase of food cannot be interrupted," Barov said hesitantly. "In case something happens to the caravan, the City hall treasury will soon run dry."
"Well... what you said makes sense," Roland touched his chin. The most important task of the new political power was to establish prestige and confidence in the hearts of the people. If they suddenly fell into a predicament where they could not pay their salaries, the good situation would take a sharp turn for the worse. "Well, you go back and make a plan first. Wait until the caravan and Border Town have completed the next month's transaction, and after the treasury is full, then you can implement it."
"Yes, Your Highness," Barov said while putting his hand on his chest.
After finishing his task, Roland returned to his office and began to think about how to complete Margaery's balloon order.
The unit price of a thousand Golden Dragon balloons was even higher than that of a steam engine, but its cost was much lower. The airbag was mainly drawn by Soroya, while the hemp rope and bamboo basket were cheap goods. In fact, Roland had already trial-produced a simple sample in the Arsenal's courtyard: a hydrogen balloon that could carry both Lightning and Maggie into the sky at the same time.
After repeated consideration, he finally abandoned the hot air balloon plan. Gas needed to be obtained by dry distillation of coal, the equipment would take up a large area, and the manufacturing process would be very troublesome. In addition, coal had to be imported from other towns, so small-scale production was not cost-effective. It was far less convenient and easy to obtain than hydrogen.
The trial product was made with a single-sided water coating, and after the painting was finished, the paper on the back was also burned, so the entire balloon was almost weightless, and its flexibility was also very outstanding. In the experiment, the inflated balloon was not afraid of rain, impact, or fire. Even when Maggie transformed into a variety of birds and fiercely pecked at it, there was not a single trace left behind. Only an iron needle could barely pierce through this one millimeter thick coating. Due to its extremely light weight, a hydrogen balloon with a diameter of about two meters could carry an adult person into the sky.
The only difficulty was how to solve the problem of inflating the high-pressure hydrogen cylinder.
The DC motor used for electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen could not be sold. A motor connected to a steam engine could inflate all the hydrogen balloons, which was obviously not cost-effective. If he wanted to continuously earn Golden Dragon from rich people, he must have a high-pressure cylinder that could be repeatedly inflated.
The cylinder itself was not difficult. If the material was not good enough, the wall thickness could be supplemented, pig iron or wrought iron could be used. In any case, with Anna, precision processing was not a problem. The key was the inflation. In the previous generation, the pressure of the gas storage cylinder was more than 20mpa. Wanting to rely on a pump to inflate it was undoubtedly a fantasy. Even ten Qilin arms would be useless, at least a high-pressure air pump was needed. And if the pressure inside the cylinder was not enough, it was simply impossible to fill the hydrogen balloon.
The high-pressure air pump was divided into piston air and turbine air pump. The former belonged to the technology tree of internal combustion engines, while the latter belonged to the category of turbines. No matter which one was developed, it was a large and time-consuming project. Until the evening, Roland finally came up with the simplest solution: self-inflating the cylinder.
What gave him this inspiration was a piece of news that he had seen before he traveled to this world: a street vendor selling hydrogen balloons used a modified liquefied gas tank to store hydrogen, which resulted in an explosion, causing a tragedy. The reason was that the vendor directly reacted with dilute sulfuric acid and aluminum to produce hydrogen without calculating the amount of reaction. As a result, the pressure inside the tank was too high, and the tank directly burst.
The method of self-inflating was to pour dilute sulfuric acid and active metal into the bottle to replace the hydrogen. Zinc was commonly used in the laboratory, and aluminum was the most common element that could produce hydrogen by weight. However, neither of these two elements were available in this era, so Roland still planned to use iron to react. Lucia could separate iron with extremely high purity, and the slow reaction speed at room temperature could be improved by heating and increasing the contact area (such as iron sheets and iron powder). An inner coating would be able to resist the corrosion of acid on the bottle.
Thinking of this, he immediately drew a simple sketch on the paper. In order to reduce air leakage, the high-pressure cylinder should be as one piece as possible, so the body of the cylinder should be integrated, leaving only a raised threaded hole at the top, which could be screwed into the valve nozzle.
After injecting the reactant from the hole and tightening the valve, the continuously produced gas had nowhere to go, and the pressure inside the bottle could reach a very impressive value. When in use, as long as the valve was opened, the hydrogen would rush out and rush into the air sac. Reflushing was also very convenient. After removing the valve, drying the water, and cleaning out the ferrous sulfate crystals, the reactant could be poured in again.
Considering that dilute sulfuric acid was also an alchemy product, the inflating price obviously could not be set too low.
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