Chapter 305 Chemical Breakthrough

It has been four days since the witch and the first army set off. According to the plan, they should arrive at the outskirts of Silver Light City tomorrow afternoon.

Equipped with the honey flying courier, Roland can receive letters from the team every day, including iron axe, Anna, and Nightingale. Although they are not as fast as mobile phones, they are basically the same as wireless telegrams. Similar. If there are several times more flying messengers on this route, and there are birds going back and forth between the two places all the time, maybe the effect of text message chat can be simulated.

In the days when Nightingale was away, the chief knight took over the important task of defending the castle. But what puzzled Roland was that Carter always looked cheerful these days, as if he had encountered something very happy. Is it so happy to return to my job and be responsible for personal protection?

He shook his head and turned his attention to the report of Minister of Construction Carl Vanbert.

With the help of the Sleeping Island witch, the construction project in Border Town has progressed rapidly in the past month or so.

First of all, the steel bridge on the Chishui River was successfully completed—compared with traditional stone bridges and wooden plank bridges, the steel bridge body can be prefabricated and then hoisted as a whole, plus the two floating islands raised in the river, It further simplifies the difficulty of its construction, shortening the construction period of the main bridge to an astonishing one month.

Although from the perspective of future generations, it is short and narrow, the structure is too simple, the load is extremely low, and it is a waste of materials, but it can be regarded as a magnificent super bridge in this era - with a total length of more than 100 years. meters, and the bridge deck is straight enough for two horse-drawn carriages to pass side by side, and the lower part can also meet the passage of sailboats on inland rivers. No matter what, the cumbersome stone bridge cannot do it.

Secondly, Lian's new city wall has also been closed. This city wall built of pure mud has more than tripled the area of ​​the town. If the city is built in the future, the original town will become a veritable "inner city". However, Roland is more inclined to talk about the first ring and the second ring. Perhaps one day in the future, this place can also be expanded into a giant city with seven rings, officially crowned the name of the imperial capital.

The last is the construction of the Kingdom Avenue. Some of the foothills that spread along the Impassable Mountains were lowered to the ground by lotus, so that the road can pass straight through, which greatly reduces the total construction period.

"Your Highness, what is your next construction plan for Lian?" Karl asked after reporting the progress.

It can be seen that he is full of envy for the ability to transform the terrain, and he almost didn't ask to include her in the Ministry of Construction and appoint a deputy minister.

"Hmm..." Roland was also thinking about this question, and he still had three major renovation projects to be implemented.

The first one is the estuary project: find a low gap in the southern mountain range, and then subside to form a road that can enter and exit the shoal. This must rely on Lian's ability to do so. Once the transformation is completed, the western region will have a harbor facing the sea.

The second is residential expansion: Although the city hall has invested a lot of manpower and financial resources to step up the construction of residential communities, nearly 3,000 people may still be unable to live in warm brick houses when winter comes. The wooden sheds and simple dwellings set up now can't meet the needs of keeping out the cold, so he needs a batch of cave houses with thick walls and heated kangs to solve this problem.

The last point is to build a dock: in order to produce a shallow-water heavy artillery ship, he must first build a spacious dock, and at the same time, it must not affect the passage of the Chishui River. Roland plans to lower the height of a river embankment at the west end of the town to form a dry dock, and install a lifting gate on the side close to the Chishui River to control water blocking and release. The earthwork of the project is huge, and it also depends on Lian's ability to complete it.

After thinking about it for a while, he finally decided to put the expansion of the house first. Since he brought the fugitives from the East to Border Town, he had to be responsible for their basic necessities. If they died of freezing and starvation, it would not only be a loss to the western border, but also reduce the sense of belonging of the local people to this place.

"So where is this temporary residence built?" Carl continued to ask.

"Let's just land in the current serf shanty town," Roland said with a glance at the map, "far away from the city wall defense line, and there are impenetrable mountains to shelter from the wind."

After the Minister of Construction resigned, he was just about to take a nap on the chair when Camer Stree came to the door again.

"Your Highness, I have successfully developed the large-scale acid production method you requested."

These words immediately dispelled Roland's tiredness. He stood up from the table in surprise and said, "Really? Take me to see it."

A group of people came to the laboratory by the Chishui River, and saw several off-white pots and a kiln set up next to the No. 5 laboratory. Each pot was about two people high, and the top was connected by pipes. It was cut by Anna.

"I salute you, Your Highness," a young man who looked very young bowed to Roland.

"You are Chames, right?" Although he already knew that Kaimo had dug a group of alchemy apprentices from Chishui City, and even recruited an outstanding alchemist, but today was the first time he saw him.

"You actually remember my name," Chames said in surprise.

"Mr. Kemo mentioned you many times." Roland patted him on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement, "Do it well." Then he looked at the chief alchemist, "How does this thing make acid?"

Kaimo stroked his beard and said with a smile, "It can be developed successfully, it is completely deduced according to the reaction formula in "Elementary Chemistry". Look at the kiln, the purified sulfur will be burned in the kiln, and the generated gas will pass through It was further heated and sent into lead tanks."

"These devices are all made of lead?"

"That's right, only lead can resist the corrosion of acid." Kemo nodded, "The lead pipe on the top of the tank continuously sprinkles sulfuric acid containing nitric acid. Under the scorching sulfur dioxide gas, the nitric acid is heated and decomposed into nitrogen oxides. 1. Sulfur dioxide generates sulfuric acid solution, which flows out from the hole at the bottom - the ingenious part of this reaction is that nitrogen oxides only play the role of transferring oxygen, and are not consumed by themselves, so the amount of nitric acid is not large. Once the reaction starts, the energy source will continue keep going!"

"How about its output?" Roland asked excitedly, patting the lead can. Large-scale acid production is a prerequisite for the mass production of smokeless gunpowder. If this problem can be solved, there will be hope for a new generation of ammunition for continuous fire guns and artillery.

"This is the fourth device I tried to make, and the output in one day is probably equivalent to a week's worth of dry distillation in the laboratory." The chief alchemist said proudly, "Because of experimental factors, its volume It’s not big. If lead tanks with larger capacity can be built, the output can be further increased.”

"This is really good news," Roland said with a smile. "When Miss Anna returns, you should immediately start building a larger-scale acid plant. In addition, if the lead is not enough, you can use iron instead. Miss Soraya's coating can make the Iron is protected from acid."

Kaimo nodded in response, but his next sentence froze the smile on the prince's face.

"Now that the large-scale acid production method has achieved results, all five laboratories are filled with apprentices. Your Highness, can I be rewarded with the "Intermediate Chemistry" you promised?"