Chapter 205 Progress
"Sir, come and see!"
The next morning, the craftsman Daen enthusiastically invited Roning to visit the expanded iron and wood workshop to see the loom he had been tinkering with recently.
According to the drawings provided by Roning and Daen's many improvements, Roning has seen the prototype of the pedal loom.
"Congratulations, Daen, this loom is already about 50% complete."
He sat on the stool in front of the loom and tried to step on the pedal twice, recalling the scene of weaving in his mind and feeling the feedback from the loom in front of him.
"The loom frame should be similar, but the rotation when stepping on the pedal continuously is a bit jerky, and the pedal mechanism is not smooth enough. It should be carefully polished to optimize its transmission mechanism."
"In addition, have you tried the effect?" Roning asked while fiddling with the bamboo reed.
Daen shook his head a little awkwardly, "Sir, this loom was fully assembled two days ago, and I haven't tried to operate it formally yet."
Craftsman Daen is famous in Wushan Territory. At this moment, he was inspected by the lord and acted like a student who was checking his homework in front of the teacher.
It's not that he was afraid of Ronin's authority, but he cared a lot about his own production results.
"You can ask Leah to help you try it."
Ronin suggested, "But before trying it, there are still many places that need to be improved on this loom."
He began to give suggestions to the machine, such as the bamboo reeds were too sparse, the gauze was based on 800 reeds, and the bamboo reeds made by Daen were estimated to be less than 300, which needed to be modified. In addition, there were problems with the healds, and tools such as the sieve, the reel, and the shuttle that matched the loom also needed to be made.
Ronin raised all the problems he could think of, especially when he said that he hoped to have a loom that could be put into use when the cocoons were harvested this year, which made the craftsman Daen feel a lot of pressure.
Ronin was optimistic about this, after all, there was motivation only when there was pressure.
It was only February now, and there were still six months before the cocoon harvest this year. With the personal ability of the craftsman Daen, it was still possible to transform it.
After inspecting the loom, Ronin took a look at the production of ironwood equipment.
With William recruiting apprentices and carpenters from Swamp Town being sent here one after another, the number of people involved in the production has reached more than 20 people!
Now the production capacity of ironwood shields, ironwood armor and other protective gear has been greatly improved, and there is no problem in completing the order of the first knight squad of Wushan Fort before April.
Even according to William's estimate, there is estimated to be a batch left.
Ronin promised to provide sufficient food, so that they can produce as much as they can, and also let the other party study the possibility of ironwood arrows.
Now Rydar and McKen are training new infantry, archers and cavalry, and it is estimated that there will be two knight squads in the first half of the year.
Not to mention whether there are enough professional knights for the time being, the number of the three types of soldiers mentioned above can reach more than 200, and the required protective gear and weapons need to be equipped.
After inspecting the ironwood workshop, Ronin turned to Kales's blacksmith shop and Jim's pottery workshop.
When he left last time, Roning assigned Jim a task - firing bricks and modifying the kiln to increase the temperature inside the kiln.
This matter was known to Kales. Combined with the fact that high temperature is also required for smelting molten iron, blacksmiths, potters and masons took the loess from Shanlin Town and fired a batch of bricks, and then used these bricks to build a blast furnace for iron smelting and a kiln for firing porcelain. Unexpectedly, unexpected results were achieved.
First of all, Jim has been able to fire white porcelain. Although the success rate is less than 30%, it has been a good start.
In order to reward the efforts and achievements of several people, Roning gave Jim and his apprentices a gold coin and five silver coins respectively.
At the same time, they arranged the next stage of tasks for them -
Improve the ability to control the temperature of the kiln to increase the success rate of porcelain firing, collect various colored ores to make glazes of different colors, and try to draw patterns on the blank to form patterned porcelain.
Although being able to successfully fire porcelain is already halfway to success, more attempts are needed to produce exquisite, unique, high-value, and rich finished products.
After this successful firing, Jim and others can be considered to settle in Huitu Village, after all, the kaolin vein is there.
Refining mud and firing in Huitu Village saves a lot of effort compared to transporting materials back to Shanlin Town.
On the other hand, Kales has built a blast furnace for iron smelting according to the drawings drawn by Ronin.
However, although the blast furnace looks decent, it is still a little bit lacking in the iron smelting process. Occasionally, a little molten iron can be obtained, but most of the time, the iron blocks thrown in do not melt, and no molten iron flows out.
Ronin watched Kales and his apprentices add materials to the blast furnace, blow air, and smelt. There should be no problem with the process, and there is no problem with the blast furnace. The fuel used is also made of high-quality charcoal, which can bring higher temperatures than ordinary wood.
After comprehensive analysis, Ronin considered that there was a problem with the blower.
Although the blast furnace was not very large, the accompanying blower was still a bit small.
Even if the apprentices worked hard to pull, the amount of air blown in at a time was very limited. Without sufficient oxygen entering from the bottom of the blast furnace, it would not be possible to generate a temperature high enough to melt the iron.
This problem was easy to solve.
Ronin asked Carles to contact William the carpenter and ask him to arrange one or two apprentices to make two larger ones in the shape of the blower.
If the blower can be replaced, then the ability to smelt molten iron is mastered by Ronin. Later, the agricultural tools can be cast in batches, which will make the farming technology of Wubei Territory further advanced.
Although pig iron cannot be used to make weapons, if the skill of frying steel is supplemented, the way to get steel will be much simpler.
The only pity is that Wubei Territory has not found iron ore veins, and it is estimated that iron ore will need to be purchased from outside.
While observing the iron smelting, Ronin was also wondering if he could transform the iron smelting furnace through magic?
For example, in the iron smelting blast furnace, a fire magic array diagram is made, and the iron ore is melted by using magic cores or magic crystals to generate high temperature.
However, Ronin did not continue to study after thinking about it.
First, he did not know how to make such a magic array diagram;
Secondly, whether it is using magic cores or magic crystals as energy, the cost is very expensive.
A fully-conditioned magic crystal costs hundreds of gold coins. Using it to smelt iron is a sheer waste of money and costs.
In contrast, using wood as fuel is a little more troublesome to collect and process, but it is much more economical than using magic cores and magic crystals.
After two days, Roning had a good grasp of the various situations in Shanlin Town, and everything was moving in a good direction.
After arranging the development direction of the territory, he devoted his time to practicing and making level 3 and 4 spell scrolls.
Time flies, and it's March in a blink of an eye.
These days, Wilson and his assistants shuttled through several territories under the escort of several cavalry squads.
Due to their active supervision, spring plowing was carried out in an orderly manner in Shanlin Town and Swamp Town.
Land preparation, seed treatment, sowing, fertilization, irrigation, etc., every job has changed.
Although this change still has a lot of room for improvement, it has improved a lot compared to the previous barbaric sowing method.
With the popularization and standardization of field management work in the future, if there are no unexpected situations such as natural disasters, Ronin believes that the grain harvest in Wubei Territory this year will definitely be better than in previous years.
"Master, Knight Rogner wants to see you." The male servant Galen came to the door of the study and reported respectfully.
"Is the grain in place?"
Ronin put down the pen in his hand and drew a horizontal sword shape on the paper.
"Bring him to see me." (End of this chapter)