Utopia

Origin Calendar February 2, 498

Aikern Principality, northern border

"Grand Duke."

"Is this the crossbow introduced from the north? I heard that it uses leather rope as a torsion spring?"

"Yes. The rope inside is a cowhide rope."

Due to the invasion of zombie plague and the military pressure from the other eight countries, the Grand Duke of Akern, Legrand Snakad Akern, was listening to the introduction of the craftsmen and felt extremely fortunate for his choice to hire craftsmen to develop war machines at a high price.

What does a crossbow that can accurately hit a 26-kilogram stone bullet to 25 meters away mean? That is, no enemy will come to seek death within 25 meters!

What's more, he is now directly on the border of the principality, and one such heavy crossbow must be equipped for every 500 people. And he has 2000 troops in the north, and there are tens of thousands of troops on standby at any time in the country.

"Father, the dark elf caravan is setting up stalls outside the city wall again."

"What kind of goods are they selling?"

"In addition to normal swords and crossbows, they also have a black bomb."

"What is it?"

"Just light the white line on it and throw it out, and the black iron ball will explode."

Obviously, some so-called dark elves who have no bottom line dare to sell even homemade grenades. But for the Grand Duke of Akern, Legrand Snarkard Akern, who has a strong desire to enrich the country and strengthen the army, and dominate one side, he should buy some at any price.

"Martena, how much is a bomb?"

"5 [To be honest, I've been using it recently, both Android and Apple are OK.] copper coins."

"Just one silver coin, buy as many as you can. Copper... don't use copper if you can avoid it."

"Yes."

Unlike the other eight countries, Legrand was the first lord of the Kahn Empire to realize and directly abolish copper coins. After abolishing copper coins, he used salt as a substitute. After all, to this day, he knows that too much copper is wasted in the form of coins. The value of copper as a strategic resource is actually higher than silver.

In addition, Legrand, as a grand duke, has always been unable to figure out how the dark elves, who not only have brown skin but also white skin, can forge one iron blade after another. He was forced to let the troops continue to use bronze weapons, so he saved the money to study how to forge them.

Unfortunately, everyone is illiterate, and they have to record certain knowledge by word of mouth if they want to keep it. This method is famous for being very prone to information omissions. Once information is omitted, the consequence is that the entire information may be completely wrong.

For this reason, Tulo, as one of the merchants who came here to do business, was like more than a hundred other colleagues in the company. They were extremely happy that the Principality of Aken did not use copper coins but silver coins for transactions.

"Sure enough, these natives are all well-off."

"But I am convinced. Why haven't they mastered the technology of forging steel until today?"

"Because they don't know what iron is, what steel is, and they don't know what liquid to use for quenching."

"In fact, I looked at their ironware, and they were all wrought iron without exception. Obviously, the iron ore in their territory is of high grade, which is a waste. So I personally suspect that they use the reduction principle of block iron smelting, and use charcoal fire to do low-temperature iron smelting technology. This kind of iron smelting technology can produce wrought iron with fewer impurities, but there is a disadvantage that the gaps in the wrought iron are as dense as honeycombs. Even if such wrought iron can be further hammered and forged into armor such as plate armor, it is soft and not durable, which is destined to be unsuitable for war."

At this time, the words of a brown-skinned female Kalai member in the caravan made everyone curious. Because there are not many Kalai who know this smelting technology, and many of them are men in the factory. Women who know this thing are probably very rare in Ruyi Town, not to mention the caravan.

"Uh... Is there anyone in your family who can forge iron?"

"Yes. My father and three brothers are all blacksmiths. Tulo, how did you guess?"

"Because you have a machete on your waist that I have never seen before."

"Oh, this is the Su Tie knife I made myself."

"Made it yourself?"

Tulo was stunned for a moment. The female colleague in front of him did not look like a muscular and strong person. Although he could see that the calluses on the woman's hands were obviously not thin, but the female blacksmith...

"Forging is actually not difficult. I just wrap the wrought iron bars with raw iron sheets and use the steel pouring method to make steel."

"Wait, the steel pouring method?"

As the woman named Bilan Opal gave a simple narration, not only Tulo, but also the other members of the caravan were sweating coldly.

"It's that simple. I haven't even mentioned more advanced techniques like double-liquid quenching, folding forging, and blade burning."

"I say, Opal... with your level, why don't you find a workshop to forge iron and come to our company..."

"My family is full of blacksmiths, so it doesn't matter if I'm missing one. What's more, my husband said that I should go out more often, see what the outside world is like, and learn if there are more advanced forging techniques outside."

Obviously, as the fifth child of Bilan Omer, a master craftsman of the Kingdom of Negan, the family's blacksmithing skills cannot be lost, and everyone in the family must learn it.

But after she came out to work, she couldn't help but sigh when she saw the wrought iron swords of the Kahn Empire.

I really don't know what these blacksmiths in the Kahn Empire do for a living, wasting all kinds of high-grade iron ores. You know, the iron ores that the Kingdom of Negan could find at the beginning were all low-grade "scrap iron" with high impurity content.

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If it weren't for the forgers like His Royal Highness and his father who improved the production process again and again, their Kingdom of Negan couldn't even make a good machete. Of course, the special boilers used in the steel mills of the Kingdom of Negan are confidential matters now.

Even a craftsman like her couldn't just ask around, she could only figure out her own ironmaking skills. So she created the technique of pouring steel without a teacher.

So, it's no wonder that the warriors of the Kahn Empire basically wear a full set of bronze armor. But now that she's here, bronze weapons and equipment should be ready to disappear.

"It seems that this has disappointed you."

"It's okay. This way we won't lose the desire to sell. Besides, don't we have an advantage?"

"Hmm..."

"In fact, given their situation, I actually hope they can enter the Steel Age as soon as possible."