"My Lord, a truly first-rate city-defense chariot ballista has a direct-fire range exceeding three hundred meters, with a targeting error of no more than half a meter. Only at this level can it pose a serious threat to an enemy's siege equipment during a counterattack. During the pre-Imperial era, Kelsen the Fifth established standardized regulations for the production of city-defense chariot ballistae, and every unit produced in that period was a masterwork. But as standards slipped, those produced by the Imperial Arsenal could never again reach that level."
Master Farin was introducing
"The truly critical component of a city-defense chariot ballista is the bow arm. In fact, we can achieve a direct-fire range of three hundred meters using virtually any type of wood. The only drawback is durability — the second shot falls far short of the first. This comes down to differences in the wood's elasticity and recovery capability. The material for the bow arm must possess exceptional elasticity and the fastest possible recovery time, so that subsequent bolts maintain roughly the same performance as the first. This single requirement alone eliminates the vast majority of wood types."
Master Farin led Lorist to a stop before the two small chariot ballistae. "My Lord, these two ballistae are among the finest I've seen in the past decade. They're half the size of standard city-defense ballistae, easy to operate and aim, and their direct-fire range reaches two hundred and sixty meters — truly masterwork quality. I asked Dolles about them, and he said these twelve small ballistae were produced by Dawn Academy for the garrison army's military procurement, but they were rejected and discarded because they were deemed too complex to operate. Is that how they ended up in your hands, My Lord?"
Lorist nodded. He recalled that the reason listed on the Academy armory's register had indeed been that the operation was too complex, which was why they were rejected.
Master Farin laughed. "Wrong. Think about it, My Lord — a standard city-defense chariot ballista requires at least five men to operate, but these small ones need only three. How could that possibly be considered too complex? The real reason is the price. The inability to mass-produce them is the greatest weakness of this type of small chariot ballista..."
"My Lord, do you know what material the bow arms of these small chariot ballistae are made from?" Master Farin pointed at the bow arms of the two small ballistae — which had a strange quality, neither metallic nor wooden — and asked.
Lorist shook his head.
"The material for these bow arms comes from Arrow Dragon Wood, which is unique to the Ruins Archipelago. It takes triple soaking and dipping to achieve such excellent elasticity and resilience. According to records, Arrow Dragon Wood is a plant that was transplanted from another plane by mages during the legendary Age of Magic specifically for crafting magical bows and crossbows. Growing to this size takes at least a hundred years. For Dawn Academy to have obtained so much Arrow Dragon Wood must have required considerable effort, but later generations failed to recognize its value and simply let it go to waste."
Master Farin gently stroked the dark, lustrous bow arms and sighed, "From the perspective of crafting crossbow bows, Arrow Dragon Wood is indeed the most suitable material for chariot crossbow arms — but the material is rare and expensive. The processing takes an exceedingly long time; the triple soaking and dipping alone requires six different medicinal solutions and takes seven whole years. As a weapon, the most important factors are affordability, the ability to mass-produce in large quantities, and the ability to replace parts at any time. Yet these requirements often lead to significant reductions in performance. It really is difficult to find a solution that satisfies both sides."
"I have already carefully calculated the chariot crossbow that Your Lordship designed. From the blueprints alone, if it can be completed, it would represent an earth-shattering revolution in the history of crossbows. However, I don't know whether we can find or produce the type of spring steel Your Lordship envisions. Without such steel plates for the bow arms, Your Lordship's vision of using chariot crossbows to deal with large magical beasts cannot be realized." Master Farin understood Lorist's thinking as well, but his expertise lay only in crafting chariot crossbows from wood — and using wood was time-consuming and labor-intensive, making it impossible to produce chariot crossbows on a large scale to equip the army.
"Tell you what, Master Farin — why don't you come with me to the Bladepeak Mountain Range tomorrow? The family has established a Darksteel smelting facility there. We can go take a look and see if we can have Master Hero forge suitable steel plates for the bow arms," Lorist said.
…
After leaving the crossbow workshop, Lorist returned to the second-floor office of
But the moment he walked in, he found Lady Tristy slumped over his desk, laughing so hard she could barely catch her breath.
"Darling, what's gotten into you?" Lorist asked curiously.
"Locke, didn't you ask all the Family Knights and your officials to think of ways to deal with the magical beasts? Well, all the letters have been collected now. Look — haha — the idea in this letter is to build a road straight from here to the coast near the Bladepeak Mountains, so when the beast tide comes, the beasts will just follow the road straight into the sea... Haha. That's hilarious."
Lorist also laughed. Over these past days, he had been pressuring his Family Knights and civil officials each to come up with an idea for dealing with the magical beast tide. Quite a few couldn't think of anything, so they let their imaginations run wild, and all manner of far-fetched, half-baked thoughts ended up on his desk.
"Well, compared to the one last time who suggested building a wall all the way from Boulderstone Castle to Maplewood Manor to fortify the Fengle Plains, this is actually more reasonable. At least he gave the beast tide an escape route — charge straight into the Rage Sea..." Lorist commented.
A moment later.
Lady Tristy burst out laughing again. "Locke, remember that one knight who came up with the idea of mobilizing everyone to dig a giant trap along the path the beast tide would take, so all the magical beasts would just fall in and that would be that? I wrote back specifically to ask him what he planned to do with all the earth and rock dug out of the trap. He just replied saying you could dig another pit nearby and bury it all in there. Haha..."
Lorist shook his head with a wry smile. Most of the Family Knights were brawny types who didn't like using their brains. Asking them to come up with strategies against the magical beast tide was really putting them in a tough spot.
He picked up a few letters from the desk and began reading. The first one suggested clearing all the lichen and moss from the Fengle Plains — once the magical beasts had nothing tasty to eat, they naturally wouldn't come back. Sigh. Did the man have any idea how vast the Fengle Plains were? Besides, lichen and moss — how could you possibly clear it all? You'd barely get rid of a patch before it grew right back a few days later. Useless...
The second letter was even more impractical. It proposed mass-producing a powerful poison to spread over the lichen and moss of the Fengle Plains, so when the magical beasts arrived, they'd all be poisoned to death. Brother, tell me — how exactly do you brew a poison that can sit out in the open for a long time without losing its potency? As a first-tier alchemist, Lorist felt that whoever invented such a poison would surely win the Fard Research Grand Prize from the Alchemist Association, with two hundred thousand gold Fards in prize money gleaming and waiting for the taking.
The third letter said there was an isthmus about ten-odd li from Maplewood Manor, a fairly large stretch of land. If, when the beast tide came, they could find a way to lure the larger magical beasts — the magic bulls, the magic elephants, and such — over to it and trap them in that isthmus, then the smaller herbivorous beasts that remained would be much easier to deal with.
Hm? That's not a bad idea. Lorist looked at the name of the letter's author: Tager. It looked somewhat familiar. He felt like he had heard the name somewhere before. But was there a Family Knight called Tager? In Lorist's memory, there shouldn't have been.
He pulled the summoning bell, and
"Redi, find this person and bring him here," Lorist said.
Soon, a knock sounded at the door, but it was Fatty who entered.
"My lord, Knight
"What noble society—it's just a thinly veiled scheme to shake down the territorial nobles for money. Why bother? Decline it straight away. We don't have time to play noble games with the Second Prince," Lorist said impatiently.
"Very well. I'll have someone notify Knight Ovigis and tell the Second Prince's envoy to get lost," Fatty said.
"Oh, that reminds me—Fatty, come with me tomorrow to the darksteel smelting works near Blade Edge Mountains. I need to discuss something with Master Hede. And while we're at it, we can check on how that weapons production base you've been planning is coming along," Lorist said.
"Sure, I'll wait for you tomorrow." Fatty left.
It wasn't until evening that Redi finally found Tager and brought him to meet Lorist.
"It's you?" Lorist laughed. "No wonder your name has been nagging at me—sorry, there's just been far too much on my plate, and I forgot about you."
The man standing before Lorist was none other than Tager, the former labor camp superintendent from the time the northbound caravan had captured Gordos City. Lorist had happened to discover that this big, burly fellow possessed a surprisingly delicate and thorough approach to handling matters—nothing at all like his rough exterior—and had taken a fancy to him on the spot. No matter how Tager protested, Lorist had forced the caravan to drag his whole family along northward. Afterward, Lorist had simply forgotten about the whole thing and gone back to his family's territory to inherit his title.
The journey northward had certainly been hard on Tager and his family. That much was clear from the way the man kept silent, gazing at Lorist with a look of wounded grievance.
"All right, Tager, I owe you another apology. I was the one who had your family brought north, then forgot all about you. Here's what we'll do—no matter what you've been working on, come serve as my aide for now. Oh, and Redi, go register a house for Tager's family nearby. Get them settled in first, then give him ten gold Ferd as compensation." Lorist gave the order to Redi.
"Locke, who is he? You seem to think quite highly of him," Miss Trusty asked after Redi and Tager had withdrawn.
"Heh, don't let his rough appearance fool you—the man's actually incredibly meticulous. He picks up on details that most people would never notice. He's got the makings of an informant and a spy. The only trouble is he's rather afraid of death and terribly devoted to his family. I took a liking to him, so I had the caravan drag his whole family along northward. Then I forgot about him entirely and went back to the Northland on my own. If he hadn't written to me with that idea of his, I honestly never would have remembered him. Look at this letter—out of so many people, he was the only one who came up with something worthwhile." Lorist handed her the letter to read.
"Mm, Locke—you're heading to the Edge Mountains tomorrow?"
"That's right. This trip might take a while longer. Once I'm done there, I'll inspect the construction progress across the various districts of Fangle Plains. You and Knight Shrade can handle things here—just send a messenger if there's anything you can't resolve. It's getting late; let's go grab some dinner."
…
The Edge Mountains.
The valley below the dark iron mine had already been transformed into a bustling smelting works.
"My Lord, we've set up seven refining furnaces in total, producing roughly three thousand pounds of iron ingots per day…" Master Hyde, serving as the overall person in charge, was giving Lorist, Fatty, and Master Farin a tour of the smelting works.
The smelting furnaces were still very primitive. Unlike the blast furnaces of his previous life, the people here built the smelting chamber underground, leaving only a tall chimney visible above. They would place the dark iron ore into the underground furnace, pile charcoal alongside it, ignite it, and continuously pump air inside. Eventually, the temperature would rise, melting the ore into molten iron that flowed into molds, completing a dark iron ingot.
"I seem to recall reading in a book about a different smelting method that produces refined steel ingots directly." Lorist sketched the blast furnace from his past life on a piece of parchment and handed it to Master Hyde. "I remember it used a type of black stone for burning, which generated very high temperatures."
Master Hyde looked at the furnace drawing in his hand, his expression a bit awkward. "Your Lordship's extensive knowledge is truly admirable. However, a furnace of this design is something we cannot construct..."
"Why not?" Fatty asked.
"Because such a furnace requires bricks made to withstand intense fire—bricks that can endure extremely high temperatures, so the furnace won't crack. We don't know how to make such bricks..." Master Hyde explained.
A true expert. Lorist nodded. Master Hyde had instantly identified the key to building a blast furnace. Unfortunately, Lorist didn't know the recipe for refractory bricks either, so they would have to experiment gradually in the future.
"As for the black, flammable stone Your Lordship mentioned, I have seen it. It's called black firestone. When that stone burns, it emits a very pungent, foul odor. Furthermore, using black firestone to smelt iron ore produces ingots of rather poor quality—they become very brittle..." Master Hyde also answered the question about the flammable black firestone.
So coal in this world was called black firestone. He just couldn't recall the specifics of coking. It seemed coal had to undergo coking to become coke before it could be used as raw material for steel production; otherwise, if the sulfur-rich coal was used directly, anything produced would be brittle.
"Then how do you refine steel and iron?" Lorist asked.
"Like this, Your Lordship. Look—that largest smelting furnace over there is used for producing steel and iron. We place a dark iron ingot inside, add ingredients according to the type of steel we wish to make, and after ignition, we stir it. Then we pour the molten steel into molds. After removing it, we hammer it repeatedly to purge impurities, and finally, we obtain satisfactory steel." Master Hyde explained.
"I see. Well, I have a set of blueprints here that require a particular type of steel. Could you take a look, Master, and see if you can forge it?" Lorist unrolled the blueprints for his designed ballista, and Master Farin stepped forward to explain to Master Hyde the characteristics and specifications of the steel plates needed for the crossbow arms.
After studying the blueprints, Master Hyde furrowed his brow and pondered for a long while before finally ordering someone to bring over an old man.
"My lord, this is Master Craftsman Yulen. He spent the better half of his life working at the Imperial Capital's smeltery. If even he can't produce the steel you need, then no one can," Master Hyde introduced.
Don't let Master Craftsman Yulen's plain appearance and simple demeanor fool you. After hearing Master Farin's explanation and requirements, he nodded: "It can be done. Back in the day, the leaf springs under Emperor Chrisen VII's carriage were made to even higher specifications than yours. I remember the formula. The problem is it requires constant forging and reheating, and in the end you have to quench it in oil, which takes a great deal of manpower. If the quantity is small, we can manage, but for large quantities it's hard to find enough experienced blacksmiths to handle the forging. Too light a strike is useless — it'll actually ruin the finished steel."
Lorist laughed: "That won't be a problem. I can design a water-powered trip hammer for you. Look at that waterfall cascading down the valley wall — letting it flow freely like that is such a waste. We can put it to use for the forging. Let me sketch it for you..."
Soon a rough sketch of a water-powered trip hammer appeared before everyone. It was a very rudimentary design — water power drove the paddles, which turned gears that raised and lowered an iron hammer onto the anvil. The diagram was straightforward and easy to understand at a glance.
Master Craftsman Yulen was overjoyed: "My lord, you're a genius! With this, I can produce as much of that steel as you need..."
…(To be continued.)