King of The Wall

2021-01-06

Chapter 319 Industrial Zone and Gunpowder
At the outermost edge of the planned outer city, a two-meter-high The fence is isolated from other areas, operates independently, and is an industrial area.

A plethora of earthy kilns or furnaces of all shapes and sizes fill the field of view.

Igor comes from a modern world where civilization is highly developed and the social division of labor has been extremely meticulous. Therefore, although he is engaged in work related to metal materials, he does not know much about the most source "smelting" step... Fortunately, Ice Fire Although the world is backward, it is not a primordial society after all. The simple operation of restoring metal from ore has long been mastered and improved. As long as a craftsman with a little experience, he can set up the commander of the smelting area.

The team that went to explore the origin of the ore in the mountains has not yet returned, but a small part of the "industrial area" in the rear crown city has already started: besides the ore, the production of charcoal, the largest material required for smelting .

The craftsmen of Icefire World have long concluded that the quality of the products obtained by charcoal metallurgy is high. Therefore, before the official start of construction, this preparatory work has already supported countless new land grantors: the land grant is not as good as Wolfswood. Or Haunted Forest, a forest so large that it needs to be marked on the map, but there is no shortage of small forests here and there. In the case of few people, although the wood is completely sufficient, it is quite troublesome to collect.

The measures taken by the principals of Queenscrown were to issue "wood gathering orders", allowing idlers everywhere with nothing to do to collect firewood and send it to Queenscrown, where it was weighed by the receiver and sorted according to the wet and dry conditions. After classification, it is converted into money and paid... Compared with other formal recruitment and work, this job is tiring and earns less money, but fortunately, men, women and children can go into battle, which allows Queenscrown not to worry about wood, but also justifiable. It is a good thing to feed a lot of people.

After the wood is in place, the workers will go into battle to select and classify them according to their length and thickness, build them into tall hollow woodpiles, and paste clay on the outside to wrap them into an earthen kiln. fired. The smoldering kiln flameout method - when the fire reaches a certain level, all openings will be blocked, and after the flame is extinguished and cooled naturally, the outer layer of clay will be shaved, and the finished black charcoal will be inside.

Simple and repetitive operation, the most time-consuming step is to wait... But there is nothing else in the land grant, the most important thing is the place. After sealing a charcoal pile, the workers can immediately go to another open space to repeat the above steps. It is for this reason that the scene of many large earthen kilns in front of them is formed.

There are workers coming and going, transporting firewood and burnt charcoal back and forth on rudimentary carts. In addition to these front-line workers, there are also a small number of commanders and supervisors who are quite conspicuous, and even a number of mountain hawkers who came to deliver meals. There was even a faint smell of food in the heat.

This is by no means a show made for Igor to see. The division of labor and cooperation is so smooth and natural that it makes people fully believe that once the copper ore arrives, it will turn into mouth-spitting metal immediately. The industrial giant beast.

"Sir, this is burnt charcoal." It stands to reason that the smelted copper block should be displayed, but unfortunately there is none, so Yam had to take a black piece of charcoal and hand it to Igor before.

"en." Burning charcoal to keep Igor warm is no problem. How about distinguishing the quality and quality of charcoal? That's too much respect for him, he pretended to knead the black light block in his hand, he nodded, and changed the topic: "Look, this is much better than firewood, peat or coal, and at night This is what you use to keep your house warm."

Arya rolled her eyes at him: "che, this is so interesting!"

"hehe, indeed, this is not interesting. Igor nod: "Please come to the master in charge of smelting and casting, take me to see you." The reason why Lannister tube mines and connections are all in the Westerlands is that this craftsman who is proficient in everything from smelting to casting and forging is also invited from Lanisport. Looking forty-fifty for his age, he has bronze skin and a sturdy build, and looks like he's in the business.

Igor greeted him and asked about the relevant preparations and specific information, regretfully and easily found that this world is not far behind in metallurgy, and a layman like oneself can give pointers. or degree of improvement.

"After refining the copper, what are you going to use it for?" the craftsman asked casually, "Although copper is still worth a little money, now the army is in chaos, and what is even more in short supply is good steel for weapons...

And your land grant is too far from the south. You can't make a lot of money by shipping things over there. But if you can find tin mines, I can help you get some bronze. If you can make do with it, it's worse than iron. Not much.”

“If tin ore can be found, it would be the best, but the procurement cost would be too high.” Igor shook his head: “This matter can be taken slowly, and the first batch of smelting will be produced. I plan to use it for coinage. After all, coins have no requirements on the toughness and hardness of the material."

"What? Indeed, pure copper can also be used for coinage." The craftsman stared wide-eyed: " But it's not a matter of materials, minting coins...but if you want the king's approval, can you get permission?"

"Not yet, but I'll settle the matter. Only Copper Coins are minted here, The name is just a token. It is mainly used to distribute labor remuneration and allowances to the land-grant residents and Night's Watch. Regardless of the outflow of the donated land, the value is set to be equal to the copper points... In this case, each Copper How much copper does the Coin need, mold and cast, can you handle it?"

"I have to admit, I've never made copper items that small." The ease on the questionee's face disappeared , shook his head gloomily: "But it shouldn't be difficult, after all, that's what it is. You give me enough tools and time, and if you try a few more times, you will always succeed."

After a pause, He continued to ask: "Then... what pattern and text should be printed on the so-called 'token'? Does Night's Watch have a coat of arms, or whose face?"

Whose face is printed on the coin, it must be Igor oneself's, but that kind of arrogant and rebellious thing, just think about it, it is impossible to come true: "This, you discuss with the Chief-In-Charge of the logistics department. , just show me the final plan, everything is based on the principle of simplicity and easy minting. Anyway, we only mint Copper Coin, and still use Silver Stag and Golden Dragon, it doesn’t matter.”

“ Well, I see."

"One more thing, Master." Igor lowered his body, "I invited you to give land at a high price, not only because I want you to help us start smelting. When you are free, you have to teach the ability skills in your mind to our apprentices and helpers who are assigned to you - you can rest assured that our people will never go to the south to compete with you for jobs in the future, and Church has them, The remuneration I give you here is absolutely enough for your life.”

From We The craftsmen of sterlands looked at Igor unexpectedly, and thought that the legendary Others killer seemed to have a lot of ideas... But he was naturally impossible to respond to this in-depth request, only nodded, indifferent expression.

Igor doesn't expect to let others pass on his life skills through empty words. As long as he has enough money, he is not afraid that he will not do anything at all... Besides, now people are on the oneself site, if he is really ignorant, he will be soft. No, it can be tough.

After chatting for a while, Igor said goodbye to everyone and left the industrial area, through the inner city gates and streets, wooden bridges, to the small island in the middle of the lake, where he placed oneself and turned from King's Landing Pyromancer their place.

......

If there is any knowledge that can help him gain a big advantage in this world just at the level of science, it is nothing more than gunpowder. To this end, he began to reserve and prepare talent and technology early... After two years of getting acquainted with and using various means to recruit these Pyromancers, he finally managed to "control a force that obeys and belongs to oneself", and can start Gradually push this great killing tool to the stage of history, without worrying that it will immediately become the possession of others.

The Pyromancers have come to the land grant for nearly two years, and they have always enjoyed the highest level of treatment in Queenscrown. They have gradually become accustomed to the climate here, and they are dissatisfied and left with one heart. In addition to deploying and storing Wildfire all day, they have also started preparations for making gunpowder according to Igor's secret instructions.

Entering this tower with the highest security level in Queenscrown, surrounded by water, in a room full of various bottles and cans, like a chemical laboratory, Igor saw a few people he hadn't seen for a long time. Name Pyromancer.

After enough favor and respect from Queenscrown, these rat-like Alchemists since the fall of Targaryen Dynasty have regained some complexion and confidence, and two have even grown their hair back come out.

"Good afternoon, wise men." Igor greeted with a smile: "Please, what you have prepared, is it done?"

"It's done," said the wise man in Harlem. : "Except that nitrate is a bit troublesome, everything else is as much as you want. It's not uncommon at all." material.

Charcoal, needless to say, you can use the fine black charcoal smoldering out of the industrial area outside.

Sulfur... Coincidence and necessity: volcanic craters on Dragonstone are all over the place, and when they come back, they simply melt, filter, and distill to get barely pure sulfur. It's not difficult for Pyromancers in the oil city.

But on the last item, Pyromancers encountered difficulties: things like sulfur and charcoal were already familiar and used in the world of ice and fire before Igor crossed over. Cannibal - Westeros has no Chinese medicine and Pill Refinement Master, people have no concept of it.

"We now know that this stuff is found in the corners of stables, toilets, some cellars and cave walls, and it's easy to purify -- just soak it in hot water and filter it. The problem now is, where do these sources come from? There are too few, and it is not suitable for mass production."

"What about the saltpeter mine?"

"No one has heard of this thing at all! Since you can say it, What does its ore look like, where is it generally distributed, and you can give me any hints."

How does Igor know this? He was not a geology major or a hobby before he crossed, and he didn't know that oneself would one day need to make gunpowder! He scratched his head vigorously, realizing that things were not as simple as he imagined, after all, knowing the charcoal of sulfur, two nitrate, and producing gunpowder and bringing a world into the age of firearms were completely different things.

"Then what should I do? I'll send someone up and down the Seven Kingdoms to buy the frost that naturally forms in their toilets and stables?"

"That's all for now. It's just, We still don't understand, why are these three things the nemesis of Others? Although they can burn, there is no magic power in it, and don't we have a Wildfire with more formidable power?"

The so-called Others nemesis, of course, is just a rhetoric made up by Igor. In the future, most of them will use this as an excuse to buy saltpeter up and down the Seven Kingdoms... Mixed with obsidian fragments to make Dragonglass fragmentation bombs, and even with the possible future casting Cooperating with bronze guns is Igor's real plan.

"Where's the stuff?"

Dak Wise took out three large jars, each containing three kinds of raw materials: "This jar is our assistant still in King's Landing, from Alchemist Scraped off the walls of the cellar of the guild hall, as best you can, it's only half a jar after purification, if it's the nemesis of Others, then you need to save a little."

This half can at least It must be a few pounds, not a lot, but considering that this amount can only be scraped in a building the size of the entire Alchemist Guild Hall, this is really a precious resource.

If it is used to shoot a cannon, it will be gone as soon as it rings.

It seems that this war against the Others and the dead will probably depend on something like Wildfire first.

……

Igor took a small pile of all three materials with a piece of paper and left the laboratory, which is strictly prohibited from smoking.

"Come on, here comes the interesting thing you asked for."

The crowd followed him to the lounge, which was separated by several walls. Igor folded the paper with gunpowder and Shaking, crumpling into a ball, and throwing it into the heating fireplace.

Accompanied by a slight gas explosion sound of "hong", the originally stable fire instantly intensified several times, and the color-changing flames pushed the heat and fire star even briefly out of the fireplace, bringing the accompanying fire Yam, the Pyromancers, and Arya startled.

"Then that... what is that!" Arya's displeased face was probably pretending, but seeing this unprecedented scene, she couldn't hold her face anymore, excited. called out.

The girls were just amused, while the Pyromancers were totally shocked.

They have been studying how these three things can restrain Others for the past two months. All kinds of things have to be mixed together and then set on fire!

A deflagration, of course they've seen it, and they know: if this reaction happens in a closed container and environment -- it can explode.

Not to mention, Wildfire can explode under the right circumstances. But you know, until now what prevents Wildfire from being officially put into military use is its difficult transport and instability! And now, a completely solid state, extremely stable and easy to transport without exposure to flame and high temperature, and also lightweight, can also form this violent reaction! What this means, nowhere is clearer than the Pyromancers who served the Targaryen Dynasty, and this is what they have been after for centuries - chemical items that can be used as weapons!

Once this is known to the nobles and kings of the South... Spring for the Pyromancers is coming!

"Many thanks to your hard work and efforts over the past two years, from tomorrow, Queenscrown will restrict access in a stricter way." Of course, Igor knows better than them the changes this thing can bring to the world , he had already prepared for all the secrecy work: "This thing called 'gunpowder', I hope that until the end of this war, is a secret that belongs only to Night's Watch."

——

(end of this chapter)