Chapter 243 Magic Hot Air Balloon
The difficulty of making a hot air balloon lies in the fuel control technology. Although the magic flame lamp burns stably, it is difficult to adjust the size of the flame.
In the past six months, Annie's main focus has been on solving this problem.
By engraving other runes and resetting the rune array, the power of the magic lamp was divided into three levels, solving the flame control problem.
The last problem is the hot air balloon lander. To solve this problem, it is necessary to control the temperature. Harland Territory already has a thermometer that can observe the temperature intuitively.
Through brainstorming, a magic apprentice who is proficient in mechanical processing finally put forward a point of view and made a manual exhaust valve. The exhaust valve is connected by a thin rope. When the thin rope is pulled, the exhaust valve contracts, and the lift and gravity form pressure relative to each other. As well as the principle of hot air rising, a part of the air can be squeezed out of the balloon to lower the temperature.
After overcoming all the difficulties, the manufacture of hot air balloons is no longer difficult.
A few days ago, Annie successfully made a hot air balloon with the help of her assistant. Today, the wind is relatively small, and it is the first time to do a hot air balloon flight experiment.
For safety, Wendy and Annie participated in the experiment together. Wendy knows how to fly, so she can save the pilot even if the hot air balloon is in danger.
In order to prevent others from copying, Richard also used the principle of sound wave recognition and set up a magic flame lamp to open the mechanism.
In the previous life on Earth, hot air balloons were tools that could only be manufactured when industrial science developed to a certain level, and the difficulty of manufacturing was the same as that of steam engines. Without the use of magic, the Harland Territory could only manufacture simple Kongming lanterns, and it was not until the 18th century that the Earth manufactured mature hot air balloons.
Even if Richard handed the hot air balloon to a dukedom, he could not copy it without cracking the principle of sound wave recognition.
Even if the Grant royal family got the hot air balloon, they would need to overcome many technical difficulties if they wanted to copy it. I am afraid that they would need to mobilize a large number of magicians for research. I don’t know how many years it would take to overcome the technical difficulties such as the principle of sound wave recognition, the control principle of magic flame lamps, and the use of alloy materials for exhaust valves.
It is very difficult to copy the hot air balloon. Unlike the counterweight catapult, Richard is not afraid of being visited.
There were many people watching the hot air balloon experiment, including the members of the Mage Association, the Institute of Mathematics, the Institute of Optics and other scientific researchers, as well as the military guards and staff officers.
Under the gaze of the crowd, the hot air balloon slowly flew into the sky. With the help of wind, the hot air balloon flew at a moderate speed.
With the hot air balloon, although the Harland Territory has not yet formed the Lion Cavalry, it also has a certain air combat capability through the hot air balloon.
Normally, a standard hot air balloon can allow four people to fly into the sky.
Among the four people, there must be a magic apprentice to control the magic flame lamp and adjust the size of the flame, and there must be a magic archer to prevent the eagle from approaching and protect the safety of the hot air balloon. There is an observer carrying a telescope to perform observation tasks, and the last one is the pilot of the hot air balloon.
After the hot air balloon was successfully manufactured, Richard immediately ordered the manufacture of six hot air balloons to train pilots.
After the magic hot air balloon was successfully manufactured, Richard formed a hot air balloon squadron and selected archers, magic apprentices, and observers. Although the magic hot air balloon squadron had a small number of people, it was the first air force in the Harland Territory and was ahead of the Lion Duck Cavalry.
As the captain of the magic hot air balloon squadron, Richard appointed a second-level professional, Istrian.
Istrian is a veteran who has been in the army for more than ten years and is also a very talented archer. His archery skills are second only to Richard and Soros, and it is estimated that he has practiced to the fifth level.
The magic hot air balloon squadron was formed, and the Lion Duck Cavalry also began to train.
After trading half of the lion ducks with the royal family, there were only six adult lion ducks left in the Harland Territory, and three were sub-adults. However, eight lion duck eggs were retained by Richard. In April of this year, eight lion duck eggs successfully hatched six little lion ducks.
These little lion ducks grew up with humans, so it was easier to tame them. Richard selected professionals from the army to take care of the lion ducks one-on-one. When the lion ducks grow to sub-adulthood, they can try to ride and form lion duck cavalry.
In order to train the lion duck cavalry, Richard found the bishop of the Dawn Church in Geda Province, Deng Lejin, hoping to use ultrasonic detection of this new magic in exchange for the experience of the Dawn Church in forming the lion duck cavalry.
Not long after, Deng Lejin received a message and agreed to Richard's exchange conditions.
After getting the experience of forming the lion duck cavalry from the Dawn Church, Richard immediately asked the lion duck cavalry to learn the lion duck language.
His cousin Audrey had the best language talent and was the first to master the lion duck language. Through communication with the lion duck, she tamed an adult lion duck and was the first to fly into the sky.
Audrey performed very well, and Richard also appointed her as the captain of the lion duck cavalry.
Women in the Dawn Plane can also serve as military officers as long as they are strong.
Raphael, the second daughter of Baron Fenda, has advanced to the eighth-level golden knight and become a female viscount. Her strength has far surpassed her father and she is a very powerful noble lord in Gascoigne Province.
Audrey is already a third-level knight, and her combat power is not weaker than that of a fourth-level warrior. In addition, she was the first to tame the lion duck. Even though the lion duck cavalry felt that being led by a young girl was not good, they did not dare to provoke Audrey and cause trouble for themselves.
It was August, and the territory began to harvest in autumn.
After the harvest, about 13,000 contract slaves fulfilled their five-year contracts and were pardoned by Richard as free people.
For these newly-promoted freemen, the territory will provide them with a year's worth of food and crops, and they will also be allocated fixed houses.
These houses are of course not free, and they need to pay about four silver coins a year to buy them.
Freemen need to pay installments for 15 consecutive years to obtain the property rights of the house.
There are about 12,000 freemen in the Haland territory now. Among them, 4,000 households are military families, who have already bought houses in advance because of their high incomes, and more than 1,000 households are merchants, bureaucrats, and technical workers, who have a relatively wealthy standard of living and have also bought their own houses.
The remaining less than 7,000 households bring about 2,300 gold coins in housing income to the territory each year.
This year's field tax adds up to 15,000 gold coins, plus commercial taxes, tariffs and other miscellaneous income, installment purchase money plus taxes is about 20,000 gold coins.
20,000 gold coins in taxes is already a lot of money.
Although this year's grain production has decreased by about 10,000 tons due to fallow.
However, the territory's 75,000-plus freemen do not need Richard's support, and the grain reserves are maintained at 80,000 tons. 40,000 tons of grain are used as food for the 165,000 indentured slaves in the territory, 10,000 tons of grain are reserved for next year's planting, 2,000 tons of grain are used to brew liquor, and the remaining 28,000 tons are used as reserve grain to deal with unexpected events.
Excluding tax grain, the territory can sell about 26,000 tons of grain.
This year's grain prices are relatively stable. Richard got the army order, and there is also a new channel for the Church of Wealth to sell grain. 26,000 tons of grain sold for about 52,000 gold coins.
More than 50,000 gold coins of cash poured into the territory, and Richard certainly would not keep them in the vault.
Now there are about 20,000 gold coins in the vault of William Castle. As long as there are no major problems in the operation of the territory, 20,000 gold coins of reserve funds are enough to cope with it.
Richard still decided to buy slaves with this money, but this time he didn't need to go to the Grand Duchy of Stannic in person.
After buying slaves for many consecutive years, Richard has become the largest slave buyer in the Kingdom of Grant.
Over the years, Richard has purchased more than 60,000 slaves. As a big buyer of slaves, he has attracted the attention of Duke of Guise.
Duke of Guise sent someone to find Richard, willing to transport the slaves to Black River Fort. As long as Richard paid a few hundred gold coins for the freight, they were willing to provide door-to-door service.
After meeting the head of the caravan under Duke of Guise, Richard proposed a new business model, using the surplus grain in Harland Territory to exchange slaves captured by Duke of Guise from next year.
The territory of Duke of Guise is relatively dry, with large areas of saline-alkali land in the territory. The grain production is not enough, and grain must be purchased from outside every year.
The slave-for-food plan bypasses the middlemen such as grain merchants, transport merchants, and slave merchants, which is good for the development of both territories.
The snowfall in the northern border came relatively early this year. Half a month after the autumn harvest, the heavy snow blocked the mountain road.
The heavy snow blocked the mountain, and the demon hunting team also returned to the southern foot of the Eagle Mountains.
This year, the demon hunting team entered the Eagle Mountains eleven times. The biggest gain was that after winter, due to lack of food, a group of iron-horned horses migrated to the middle of the Eagle Mountains.
The demon hunting team originally planned to go back, and caught this group of iron-horned horses.
There are more than 40 wild iron-horned horses in this group, including a third-level horse king.
No lord will sell the third-level horse king. With this horse king, the genes of the iron-horned horses in the Harland territory can be improved, which is very beneficial to the breeding of Warcraft war horses.
Including this group of captured iron-horned horses, there are about 360 iron-horned horses in the Harland territory.
About 200 of them are infertile geldings. These geldings are almost all in the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade and the Reconnaissance Brigade. There are only about 160 iron-horned horses that can normally reproduce and expand the population.
Among them, there are only 80 iron-horned horses in the breeding base, all of which are the best quality stallions and mares in the territory. The breeding base can give birth to about 20 foals every year.
For this successful hunt, Richard gave a large amount of bonus to each demon hunter, averaging about fifty gold coins per person.
Sura participated in this hunting operation, and after returning to the territory, he invited his old comrades from the first squadron to dinner again.
More than ten years have passed, and there are only about seven or eight old comrades who are still in the army. The best of them is Jennings, who is already a fourth-level warrior and serves as the captain of the sixth brigade of the territory. Those who are not doing well have also been promoted to senior warrior students and serve as squad leaders in the army.
Although the squad leader has a low position, he has a gold coin salary every month, plus the military age subsidy, he has an income of twenty gold coins a year.
Harland Territory is rich in products, and the price level is lower than that of Black River Fort. Ten gold coins can make a family live very rich.
With an annual income of twenty gold coins, the living standard is slightly better than that of the professionals in Black River Fort.
The place for the dinner was still chosen at the restaurant in Odaye. After several years of development, there are already 18,000 free people near William Fort.
The freemen of Harland Territory are all capable of spending.
With the increase in the number of consumers, the market has also expanded a lot. The restaurant business opened by Odaye is getting better and better. Two years ago, it has turned losses into profits and can make a net profit of 30 gold coins a year. In another year or two, Sura's investment in gold coins will be recovered.
Jennings rode over on horseback and saw Sura standing at the door of the restaurant. He quickly jumped off the horse and said apologetically: "I'm really sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."
"You have become the captain and are extremely busy every day. It would be nice if you can come to the party to give me the honor. It shows that you have not forgotten your old comrades. Everyone is here now. If you don't come over, we will have a party."
Zhannings has a very close relationship with Sulla. Sulla is also a third-level warrior and an infantry squadron leader. Although Zhannings' status is much higher than Sulla, the two are still in the same class. Occasionally we can see each other during military meetings.
A few days ago, the demon hunting team returned to Fort William, and a group of stallions were eliminated from the Warcraft breeding base. When Jennings received the Warcraft horse, he met his old comrades.
Su La made a joke and entered the second floor of the hotel chatting and laughing with Zhannings.
After coming in, everyone still ordered a roasted whole lamb, two fish, and on Odaye's recommendation, they also ordered the restaurant's new signature dish, roasted suckling pig.
After pouring the wine, everyone drank a few rounds. The distilled wine in Haaland's territory has a high alcohol content. Even strong professionals will get a little drunk after drinking a few kilograms.
After getting drunk, everyone relaxed and forgot their differences for a while.
The theme of gatherings of old comrades-in-arms is often to reminisce about the past, recalling those friends who struggled with them and sacrificed for many years when they first joined the army.
"Do you still remember the first time you participated in a battle? Although I became a professional at that time, I had never actually participated in a battle. I was very nervous inside. My legs were even shaking a little when I was in formation. I was so nervous that I couldn't express it. Words come.
After the battle with the kobold squadron, Varanda and Somu stood by my side, and soon died at the hands of the kobolds. The person I had been with day and night died beside me, which made me a little confused. At that time, all I could think about was revenge, so I rushed into the depths of the kobold army and killed six kobolds, making my first military exploit. "
Jennings took a big gulp of a glass of wine, and shed tears as he spoke, obviously thinking of his old comrades who had died for many years.
"Actually, when we were in formation, I noticed that your legs were shaking, and I was laughing at you, a little kid. Although you are talented in practicing breathing techniques and your physical fitness has improved quickly, you are still a timid and cowardly person. Secretly praying, I hope you can hold on and never run away. Once the officers run away, the soldiers will follow. Once the battle fails, we will die without a burial place.
I didn't expect you to be so brave when there was a real fight. You were the first to rush into the kobold formation and led us to defeat the kobolds. Together with Mr. Richard and Captain Thoros, we killed the kobold officers. Our casualties were minimal. Ate the kobold squadron. It was only after this battle that you convinced me. "
Before Julian was captured, he was a serf soldier under the aristocracy of the Kingdom of Delon. Although he did not practice breathing techniques, he still had several combat experiences. He and Sura had good talents. Although not as good as Jennings, they were above average.
At the beginning, I was not very convinced of Jennings, who was promoted to an officer at a young age.
"Time has passed in a flash. Who would have thought more than ten years ago that we would become professionals and have the hope of becoming hereditary nobles. We owe our existence today to Mr. Richard."
"Yes, when Master Richard is promoted to a hereditary earl, he can be granted the title of baron. We will work hard to practice the breathing method. After being promoted to a high level, we will have the opportunity to become a hereditary noble. Especially Zhannings, he will definitely change his destiny and become a hereditary noble. "
After hearing the compliments from everyone, Zhan Nings hurriedly shook his head and said: "This kind of thing depends on luck. Only if the Harland territory develops rapidly and Master Richard is promoted to a hereditary earl, then we people will have a future."
"Yes, I wish Mr. Richard will become a great nobleman soon. Let's have a drink for Mr. Richard." Sula raised the wine glass and drank a large glass of wine.