Chapter 250 End of Midsummer

Seeing that Midsummer Day was coming to an end soon, and Border Town was about to usher in the last and hottest month of summer, Roland didn't want to leave the castle even more.

Except for making gunpowder, the saltpeter purchased from Margaery was used by him to lower the room temperature—now almost every house has a bucket containing saltpetre, and there is still water in the bucket. There is a kettle. In this way, it can not only absorb heat and cool down, but also drink ice water to quench your thirst. Only in this way, he will not be sweating profusely as soon as he sits in the office every day.

Except for Anna, the other witches were also stopped from work by him. Except for the necessary daily practice and study, they basically gathered in the hall on the first floor, either chatting or playing Gwent cards with each other, looking happy. And Anna... It wasn't that Roland didn't want her to rest, but that she wasn't afraid of heat at all. The red-scorched iron ingot can be directly held in her hand, and the high temperature in the scorching summer is nothing to her at all. Even if she stood by the steelmaking furnace for an entire afternoon, she would not shed an extra drop of sweat.

In order to reward Anna for her hard work and conscientiousness, Roland will specially make some iced snacks to reward her recently, such as the classic and delicious ice cream of later generations - made by mixing egg yolk, cream, milk and sugar water, and then cooling with saltpeter. Anna is very fond of this cold, waxy, soft and unusually sweet snack. Every time he takes a small bite of ice cream, the way his lake-blue eyes bend into slits makes him feel pleasing to the eye.

In addition, looking through the month-end summary sheets sent by the city hall is also a great pleasure.

So far, Border Town's population has doubled again, reaching nearly 18,000 people. In addition, Changge Fortress will "turn in" a batch of serfs every month, and it will not be a problem to break through the 20,000 mark in the coming year. Not counting the number of villages and towns in the territory, this scale is almost comparable to big cities like Chishui City, Jinsui City and Wangdu.

It is a little regrettable that the population has increased a lot, but the quality has not improved much. At present, more than a thousand aborigines in the town are still being educated, and it may take about a year to graduate smoothly-although the private college opened by Karl has produced a group of talents who graduated first, but less than a hundred people The numbers are still insignificant compared to the total population.

Maybe we should start educating the refugees in the eastern region first, instead of waiting for enough dormitory communities to be built before doing this step, Roland thought to himself, after all, there are only advantages and no disadvantages in early education.

The development momentum of the factories in the town is also very good.

After more than half a year of construction, the industrial park now has three factories in operation: two steam engine production plants and one bullet processing plant. The number of workers in Factory No. 1 has expanded from a dozen or so blacksmiths when it was first established to more than 100 now, and those who joined later are basically aborigines—this is exactly what he hopes to see, a group of apprentices gradually grow into craftsmen , And then drive the next batch of apprentices.

The workers in the No. 2 Factory belong to the Crescent Bay caravan. In just one month, they have roughly mastered the use of each machine tool. Performance is clearly better. It was just that before the contract expired, all the steam engines they produced belonged to Roland. Now the two factories can produce about eight to ten steam engines per month, which is also the main income of Border Town.

As for the bullet factory, it was directly handed over to the First Army after it was completed. Not only was there a sentry post at the entrance, but patrols were arranged around it, and even the production work was in charge of the soldiers. After a week of trial operation, mass production of a new generation of custom-loaded bullets has now begun.

The assembly line designed by Roland cannot achieve full mechanical production. Whether it is primer, gunpowder or warhead, it needs to be loaded and compacted by manpower. The main processing tools are two mechanical stamping machines, one can press the copper sheet Anna cut into the shape of the shell case, and the other is used to stamp the primer cup.

Soldiers only need to place the mercury fulminate powder evenly between two pieces of thin paper, stick the paper tightly, sandwich it into the primer cup, and finally insert the primer cup into the annular groove at the end of the shell, and they are done. As for the process of loading black powder and compacting the warhead, it is exactly the same as the previous reloading exercise.

There are not many people in the factory, only about 40 people, and they can produce more than 500 rounds of ammunition almost every day. Roland planned to turn these forty people into full-time processing personnel to maintain the normal operation of the bullet factory.

The next thing Roland plans to add is a soap factory and a perfume factory—the former is an extremely important part of the military industry, and the latter may open up a new commercial channel for the town. As for the bicycle factory, it can be delayed further, as long as it can be put into production before the Kingdom Avenue is repaired.

"Your Highness," Nightingale pushed open the doorway, "Maggie and Lightning are here."

The two slipped past Nightingale, ran to the table and poked their heads out, "What do you want us to do?"

"Tomorrow is Ji Xia." Roland dug out the already written reply from the drawer and handed it to Maggie. "When you return to the fjords, remember to hand it over to Tilly for me."

"Ah...!" She was stunned for a moment, blinked her eyes a few times before taking the envelope, and carefully stuffed it into her close-fitting bag, "It's ok!"

Seeing the other party's suddenly enlightened appearance, I am afraid that he no longer remembers that he has to go back to report every month. Roland held back the smile in his heart. It seems that the charm of the town is quite great.

"I even forgot that tomorrow is a new January," Lightning pressed his forehead, "Isn't it a long time since we can't see each other again?"

"Last time it was Miss Tilly's cleaning plan that delayed the time, this time I will come back as soon as possible," Maggie shook her long white hair that was about to be dragged to the ground, "The Eagle's Nest will not be allowed to explore until I come back. ... Goo!"

"I see," the little girl curled her lips and said, "That's the deal."

"You also have a task." Roland spread out a blueprint of the southern area of ​​the town. "This is a map drawn by you yourself. Do you still remember the location of a shoal near the sea?"

"Remember," Lightning gestured on the map, "it's probably here."

"Very well, you will take Maggie to fly once later, and then plant two flags at the junction of the shallows and mountains, and mark them on the map," he looked at Maggie after explaining, "If Tilly agrees If you send a witch, you can lead the sailboat to this shoal, and I will welcome you at the top of the mountain."

"Send a witch?" Lightning asked curiously, "Could it be that there are new sisters coming to Border Town?"

"I don't know yet," Roland smiled slightly. "It depends on Tilly's answer...but I think she will agree."