"My Lord, a truly top-quality ballista can shoot at a distance of 300 metres, with a precision error of less than half a metre. Only then can it pose a great threat to the enemy's defensive equipment. In the previous empire, Chrison the Fifth had standardized the production of ballistae, and every ballista produced in that period was of high quality. However, the system became lax, and the ballistae produced by the imperial armaments could no longer reach that standard. "
Master Falin was currently explaining some general knowledge about ballistae to Lollister. The surrounding empty space was filled with all kinds of ballistae that the Norton Family's armed forces currently had. Dolles viewed the caravan as a treasure, and two of the 12 small ballistae he had obtained from the Dawn Academy's armoury were placed here.
"The most important part of a ballista is its arm. In reality, we can use any type of wood to shoot at a distance of 300 metres. The only drawback is that it cannot be sustained. In other words, the difference between the second arrow and the first arrow is extremely large. This is because of the difference in flexibility and regeneration of wood. The materials used to make the arms of the ballistae must be extremely flexible and have the ability to regenerate in the shortest time. Only then can the next arrow maintain the same quality as the first arrow. Just this aspect alone eliminates most of the wood. "
Master Falin brought Lollister to a stop in front of the two small ballistae. "My Lord, these two ballistae can be considered the best ballistae I have seen in the past ten years. They are half the size of other ballistae, and they are easy to control and aim. They can shoot at a distance of 260 metres, so they are of high quality. I asked Dolles, and he said that these 12 small ballistae were produced by the Dawn Academy to participate in the armoury procurement for the city defense army. However, due to the complexity of the operation, they were abandoned and ended up in your hands. "
Lollister nodded. He remembered that the academy's armoury registration form had stated that the reason for the failure was because of the complexity of the operation.
Master Falin laughed. "My Lord, think about it. Most ballistae require at least five people to operate, but these small ballistae only require three people. How can they be considered complicated? The true reason is that they are expensive, and the fact that they cannot be mass-produced is their greatest weakness … "
"My Lord, do you know what material the arms of these small ballistae are made of?" Master Falin asked as he pointed at the arms that seemed to be made of wood and gold.
Lorister shook his head.
"The material of this crossbow comes from the unique Arrow Dragon Wood of the Ruins Archipelago. After being soaked three times, it has such good elasticity and resilience. According to records, the Arrow Dragon Wood was a kind of plant that was specially transplanted from other planes to make magic crossbows during the magic civilization era. It would take at least a hundred years for it to grow to such a size. It must have taken Dawn Academy a lot of effort to get so much Arrow Dragon Wood. It's just that the people who came later didn't know what it was and abandoned it. "
Master Falin gently stroked the black crossbow arm and sighed, "From the perspective of making a crossbow, Arrow Dragon Wood is indeed the most suitable crossbow arm for a ballista. It's just that the materials are rare and expensive, and the processing process takes a long time. For example, three soaking and three soaking requires six different ingredients and takes seven years. As military equipment, the most important thing is that it is cheap and can be mass-produced, and the parts can be changed at any time. This often greatly reduces the effectiveness of the equipment, so it's very difficult to find a way to get the best of both worlds. "
"I've already done careful calculations on the ballistae that My Lord has designed. From the blueprint, if we can complete it, it will be an earth-shattering innovation in the history of crossbows. However, I don't know if we can find or make the flexible steel that My Lord envisioned. Without this steel for the crossbow arm, My Lord's idea of using the ballistae to deal with large magic beasts cannot be completed." Master Falin knew what Lorister was thinking, but he was only good at using wood to make ballistae. Using wood was time-consuming and laborious, and it was impossible to make a large number of ballistae to equip troops.
"How about this, Master Falin, why don't you come with me to the Blade Edge Mountain Range tomorrow? The family has built a Darksteel Forging Field there. We can go and see if we can get Master Hiro to forge suitable steel for us to make crossbow arms," Laurist said.
… …
After leaving the ballista forge, Lorister returned to his office on the second floor of Monolith Castle.
As soon as he entered, he found Miss Tresty leaning on his desk, laughing so hard that she was out of breath.
"Dear, what's wrong?" Lorister was very curious.
"Loke, didn't you tell all the family knights and officials to think of a way to deal with the magic beasts? Now that these letters have been collected, look, haha, the idea in this letter is to directly open a path to the coast of Blade Peak Mountain. Then, when the wave of magical beasts comes, they will directly follow this path to the sea … haha, this is too funny. "
Lorister also laughed. During this period of time, he had forced all the family knights and officials under him to come up with an idea to deal with the magic beasts. Many of them couldn't come up with anything, so their imaginations ran wild and all sorts of unreliable ideas were submitted.
"Mm, it's much more reliable than the one who suggested building a wall from Monolith Castle to Maple Forest Manor to protect Fengle Plains. At least he gave the magic beasts a way out to seek refuge in the raging sea …" Lorister commented.
Last time, someone came up with the idea of building a city wall to prevent the magical beasts from entering the Fengle Plain. However, they didn't realize that the distance between the Monolith Castle and the Maple Forest Villa was hundreds of kilometers. Who knew how much manpower, resources, and time it would take to build a city wall that could defend against the magical beasts? This reminded Lorister of the Great Wall in his previous life, so he had a deep impression of it.
Miss Tresti was amused again. "Locke, do you still remember the knight who came up with the idea of mobilizing everyone to dig a huge trap along the path of the wave of magical beasts and letting all the magical beasts fall into it? I specially wrote him a letter asking what to do with the soil and stones dug out from the trap. This time, he wrote back saying that we can just dig another pit at the side and bury the soil and stones. Haha … "
Lorister smiled bitterly and shook his head. Many family knights were martial artists who didn't like to use their brains. It was indeed difficult for them to come up with an idea to deal with the magic beasts.
He picked up a few letters from the table and started reading them. The first letter asked for all the lichen and moss in Fengle Plains to be cleaned up. The magic beasts wouldn't come again without their favorite food. Sigh, why don't you think about how big Fengle Plains is? Moreover, can you even clean up the lichen and moss? It'll just grow again after a few days. What a brainless …
The second letter was even more unreliable. It asked for a large-scale poison to be scattered on the lichen and moss in Fengle Plains. It would be good to poison all the magic beasts when they came. Brother, tell me how to make a poison that can be stored in the open for a long time without losing its medicinal effect. As a level one apothecary, Lorister felt that whoever invented such a poison would definitely win the Forde Research Award from the Apothecary Association. The reward of two hundred thousand gold coins was just waiting for him to collect it.
The third letter said that there was an isthmus about ten miles away from Maple Forest Manor. It was a very large place. When the magic beasts came, they could find a way to lure the large magic beasts like the demonic cows and demonic elephants over. As long as they were trapped in the isthmus, the remaining small herbivorous magic beasts would be much easier to deal with.
Eh? That's not a bad idea. Lorister looked at the name of the writer. Tagger. It was a little familiar. He seemed to have heard of it somewhere. But was there anyone named Tagger among the family knights? In Lorister's impression, there shouldn't be.
He pulled the summoning bell and Reidi came in.
"Reidi, find this person," Lorister said.
Very soon, there was a knock on the door. However, it was Fatty Shi who came in.
"My Lord, Knight Ovis sent someone to report that the second prince has sent us an invitation, inviting my Lord to participate in the Northern Noble Fellowship that will be held on the 15th of May in the capital of the Grand Duchy, Gildusk City. Do you think we should go? "
"Bullsh * t Noble Fellowship. In the end, it's just a way to scrape money from the nobles. Why should we care about him? Just turn him down. We don't have the time to play noble games with the second prince, "Lorister said impatiently.
"Alright then, I'll send someone to inform Knight Ovis and tell the second prince's messenger to scram," Fatty Shi said.
"Right, Fatty, accompany me to the Black Iron Forging Field at the Blade Mountain Range tomorrow. I have something to discuss with Master Sid. I also want to see how the weapons production base you're planning is going, "Lorister said.
"Alright, then I'll wait for you tomorrow." Fatty Shi went back.
Reidi didn't find Tagger until the evening and brought him to see Lorister.
"It's you?" Lorister smiled. "No wonder I always felt like I heard your name somewhere. Sorry, there were too many things to do and I forgot about you."
Standing in front of Lorister was Tagger, the supervisor of the hard labor camp when the northbound caravan took down Geldous City. Laurist occasionally discovered that this burly man had a meticulous and considerate way of doing things that was very different from his appearance. For a moment, Laurist's love for talent was aroused. Regardless of how much Tagger objected to it, he forced the convoy to bring his family north. Then Lorister forgot about this matter and ran back to his family's territory to inherit the title.
On the way north, Tagger's family had indeed suffered a lot. This could be seen from Tagger's silent and aggrieved look at Lorister.
"Alright, Tagger, I apologize to you again. I made your family go north and forgot to take care of you. How about this, no matter what you're doing now, come and be my personal attendant first. Right, Reidi, go register a house for Tagger's family and settle them down first. Then, give him ten gold fords as compensation. "Lorister ordered Reidi.
"Locke, who is he? You seem to think highly of him." Miss Trish asked after Reidi and Tagger left.
"Hehe, don't be fooled by his burly appearance. He's very meticulous and can notice details that ordinary people don't. He's the stuff of a spy. He's a bit afraid of death, but he's also very family-oriented. I admire him very much, so I made the caravan kidnap his family north. Then, I forgot about him and returned to the north first. If he hadn't written me a letter and given me the idea, I really wouldn't have remembered him. Look at his letter. It's very rare. Out of so many people, he was the only one who came up with a more reliable idea. "Lorister handed the letter to her.
"Yes, Locke, you're going to the Blade Peak Mountains tomorrow?"
"Yes, I might have to stay longer this time. After I'm done there, I'll inspect the construction of the districts in Fengle Plains. You can discuss with Knight Shredder about the matters here. If there's really no solution, send me a messenger. It's getting late, let's go eat first. "
…
The Blade Peak Mountains.
He discovered that the valley below the Mystic Iron mine had already become a bustling smelting factory.
"Sir, we've set up a total of seven smelting furnaces, producing about three thousand kilograms of iron ingots per day …" Master Sid, who was in charge, was introducing the smelting factory to Lorister, Fatty Shi, and Master Falin.
Lorister discovered that as a smelting factory for Mystic Iron, the so-called smelting furnaces were still very primitive. Unlike the blast furnaces in his previous world, the people here built the smelting rooms underground, only revealing a tall chimney. They placed the Mystic Iron into the underground furnace room and piled up charcoal beside it. After igniting it, they kept blowing air into it. Finally, the temperature increased, and the ore melted into molten iron. The molten iron flowed into the mold, and a piece of Mystic Iron ingot was completed.
"I seem to have seen it in a book. There are different methods of smelting that produce fine steel ingots directly." Lorister drew a picture of a blast furnace from his previous world on a piece of paper and handed it to Master Sid. "I remember that it's a type of black stone that's used for combustion. It's very hot."
Master Sid looked at the drawing of a blast furnace on the animal skin paper, his expression a little awkward. "Sir, you're very knowledgeable and knowledgeable. It's really admirable. It's just that we can't make this kind of blast furnace … "
"Why?" Fatty Shi asked.
"Because this kind of blast furnace needs to be made with a very fire-resistant brick that can withstand very high temperatures. This way, the blast furnace won't explode. We don't know how to make this kind of brick … "Master Sid said.
Lorister nodded. Master Sid had seen the key to making a blast furnace at a glance. However, Lorister didn't know the formula for making the fire-resistant brick, so he could only slowly experiment in the future.
"As for the black stone that can burn, I've seen it before. It's called Black Fire Stone. When that stone burns, it gives off a very pungent smell. Also, if you use Black Fire Stone to refine iron ore, the quality of the iron ingot produced isn't very good. It'll be very brittle … "Master Sid answered the question about the Black Fire Stone that could burn.
It turned out that in this world, coal was called Black Fire Stone. However, he couldn't remember what coking was. It seemed that coal had to go through coking to become coke before it could be used as a raw material to produce steel. Otherwise, anything produced with coal rich in sulfur would be very brittle.
"Then how do you guys refine steel?" Lorister asked.
"It's like this, Master. Look, the largest refinery over there is used to produce steel. We put the Black Iron Ingot inside and add in the ingredients according to the type of steel we want to make. After burning it, we stir it, and then pour the molten steel into the mold. After taking it out, it goes through continuous hammering to remove the impurities. In the end, we can get a satisfactory steel, "Master Sid explained.
"So that's how it is. Then, I have a blueprint here that requires a type of steel. Master, can you see if you can refine it?" Lorister opened up the blueprint of the ballista he had designed. Master Fallin went up to Master Sid and introduced the characteristics and specifications of the steel used to make the arms of the ballista.
After looking at the blueprint, Master Sid frowned and thought for a long time. In the end, he ordered someone to find an old man.
"Master, this is Master Yu Lian. He has worked in the capital's refinery for most of his life. If he can't make the steel you want, then no one can." Master Sid introduced.
Don't be fooled by Master Yu Lian's simple and honest appearance. But after listening to Master Fallin's explanation and requirements, he nodded. "I can make it. The reeds under His Majesty Chrison the Seventh's carriage are even more demanding than yours. I remember the formula. However, it needs to be hammered back into the furnace and quenched with oil. It requires a lot of manpower. If the quantity is small, it can be produced. If the quantity is large, it will be difficult to find experienced blacksmiths to forge it. If the force is too light, it will be useless and will instead ruin the refined steel. "
Lorister smiled. "That's not a problem. I can design a hydraulic forging machine for you. Look at the waterfall hanging down the mountain wall. It's too wasteful to just let it flow. It's perfect for forging. I'll draw it for you …"
Very quickly, the sketch of a hydraulic forging machine appeared in front of everyone. It was a very simple hydraulic forging machine. It used a hydraulic impacting wheel to drive the gears, causing the hammer to strike the iron chisel up and down. The composition was clear at a glance.
Master Yu Lian was overjoyed. "Master, you really are a genius. With this, I can make as much steel as you want …"
… …
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