Chapter 470 New Ship
Roland's words still echoed in his ears until he was on the way to Beipo Mountain's backyard.
He felt a gap in his heart being opened little by little. Yes, he thought, he was no longer the original draftsman who dealt with mechanical drawings all day long. This was not the world he was familiar with in the past. He had now gradually become a The great lord who rules a party may even become the ruler of the kingdom in the future. When the situation changes, it is no longer applicable to restrain himself with the previous concepts.
Just follow your innermost thoughts, he told himself. If you force each other for some fictitious "rules", there will be no benefit except hurting both parties.
Thinking of this, Roland's mood suddenly became much brighter. He took a deep breath of cold air and slowly opened the backyard door.
The opened iron door was like a gap in my heart, opening up a new world in an instant.
"Ah... it's Your Highness," Hummingbird and Lucia ran forward and saluted.
"Are you here?" Anna showed a sweet smile, and seeing a light red mark on her fair neck, Roland couldn't help but think of the other party's fiery enthusiasm last night, but now that he had made a decision, he I no longer care about the last bit of waiting.
"How's it going? Has the model been made?"
"Of course," Anna made a sign to follow me. The two of them walked out of the back door of the yard and saw an iron boat floating in the middle of a pool surrounded by snow. The iron boat is about one meter long and about twenty centimeters wide. It looks much slender compared to those thick cement boats. The bow of the ship is obviously fusiform, and the rear end is a flat tail. The most special thing is that the bottom of the ship is covered with crisscrossing support bars, which looks like countless squares spliced together.
"This is what I want," Roland exclaimed. Compared with the stone boats made of reinforced concrete, the pure steel boats have a unique sense of refinement, especially with the densely spaced staggered beams, it is like a work of art. generally. He knew that each module of this ship model was completely reduced to scale and cut with black fire, and not a single connection point was omitted. If placed in future generations, it would also be a masterpiece worth tens of thousands.
"Is it the new ship you're building?"
"Well," he nodded, "it's also the town's first regular warship."
Roland originally planned to use a cement ship as the hull of the shallow-water heavy gunship, but he found that with insufficient steam engine power, the speed of the cement ship became the most significant shortcoming—when it only carried fuel and personnel, this time The average speed of the entire fleet heading out to Changge Fortress is only eight to nine kilometers. If it is equipped with a rotatable 152mm fortress cannon, plus necessary ammunition and other combat weapons, the speed is likely to drop below five kilometers. mark. Converted into knots, the speed of even three knots cannot be guaranteed. The reason is that the dead weight of concrete is too heavy. If it is used for transportation, it does not matter how fast it is. But if it is used as a warship, it is naturally better to be lighter.
If the steel production capacity was seriously insufficient two months ago, he would have to hold his nose and admit it no matter how late he was. However, with the production of Steel Star, the current steel reserves can support him in building a real iron-clad warship. In terms of structure, Roland chose the simplest modular assembly method - that is, welding steel plates with transverse and longitudinal beams to form a larger hollow box structure, and then splicing many flat boxes together to form the hull bottom plate. This building-block shipbuilding method does not require a keel and has nothing to do with classical building methods. In addition, the enemy does not threaten its own artillery at all, so he does not need to worry about defense issues. The sides are almost surrounded by thin iron sheets. , minimizing cost and weight.
As for the power part, Roland decided to invest in propeller technology on the new ship instead of the cement ship's paddle wheel drive... The power unit is still a steam engine, which uses rotating gears to drive two propellers. However, in the design drawing given to Anna, he reserved space for modification of the three-expansion steam engine, and planned to wait until the mass construction in the future to uniformly modify it into a new steam engine more suitable for ships.
Back in the yard, Anna started cutting the first steel plate.
The black fire in her hand was like the most precise ruler. As it flew up and down, a one-meter-square thick steel block instantly turned into seven or eight thin plates like peeling potatoes. The thickness of each steel plate was five millimeters, no more than one cent. A little less.
The next step is welding. Hummingbird places the weight-reduced steel beam between two steel plates, and Anna’s black fire turns into filaments invisible to the naked eye and penetrates into the bottom of the beam, tying the three together like sutures. Together, the temperature is raised at the same time - completely different from the original open flame welding. This kind of heating from the inside out allows the flowing molten steel to completely fill the gaps between the plates. When the three are completely combined, the longitudinal beam has sunk slightly. About a millimeter, which is proof that the bottom melted and filled the gap between the two steel plates.
A staggered cross-shaped transverse and longitudinal beam can connect four steel plates, and more cross beams form a hollow box unit. These units will be transported to the Chishui River by Hummingbird after being reduced in weight, and the final assembly process will be completed in the dock.
Roland's eyes stayed on the busy figure of Anna. The girl's long flaxen hair swayed back and forth with the cutting movements, like a dancing elf in the pure white snow scene.
…
In the afternoon, Roland met the newly awakened witch, Axia.
The fact that she can appear in the office means that she has passed Nightingale's review. Wendy had already recorded her strange abilities very clearly, so Roland did not do any more tests, but directly placed the contract in front of her.
Axia picked up the pen and stood stiff for a while, then said with a blushing face, "I...can't write."
"It doesn't matter," Roland smiled, "You can also press your fingerprint."
She carefully pressed her inked thumb to the end of the parchment, "Is that okay?"
"Well," Roland put away the contract, "I have already learned about your situation from Wendy, so even if you sign the contract, you don't have to live in the castle. You just need to come here every day to practice your abilities and listen to classes. About magic Characteristics, Wendy should have told you these days, right?"
"Yes, Your Highness," Axia immediately relaxed a lot when she heard that she no longer needed to stay in the castle. "Ms. Wendy said that if you don't release the magic power accumulated every day, your life will be in danger on the Day of Awakening."
"That's right, so you have to practice hard. I think she will slowly teach you the relationship between the precise control of magic power and the corresponding ability." Roland did not correct the honorific in the other person's mouth and remained in awe for a beginner. It's not a bad thing, "If you don't understand anything, you can ask any member of the Witches Union for advice."
"I understand, Your Highness," she lowered her head and said, "But...is this ability useless? I once asked Lady Wendy this question, but she said that only Your Highness knows the answer."
"Of course not," Roland said with a smile, "You have the ability that only a famous detective has, and you are invincible when it comes to fighting crime."
"A...detective?" Axia looked confused.
"It doesn't matter, you will know soon," he called out to the nightingale in the mist. "From today on, this witch will be your immediate boss." (To be continued.)