Warlord: King of All Clans

Along the way, Leo saw the many alchemical products in Freeman's alchemy room, which opened his eyes.

There was a new type of alchemical material called "Magic Stone Crystal Dust" whose chemical properties were surprisingly similar to smokeless gunpowder, but when Leo asked about the price, it was equivalent to gold.

This is still a relatively cheap alchemical material in Freeman's alchemy room.

There is also the Alchemical Self-Propelled Carriage, which is almost a modified version of a car, except that it is powered by magic.

Magic is the most common energy source in this world, but it is also a high-cost energy source. The cost of such an alchemical carriage is not taken into account at all. The consumption of driving it alone is calculated in gold coins.

Of course, the early products of the previous industrial era were also incredibly expensive, but with the advancement of technology and the reduction of material prices, they gradually spread to the public.

The same is true of this world. Sooner or later, it will enter the industrial revolution.

Coming out of Freeman's alchemy room, Leo had already received a letter of introduction from Master Freeman, and Denise accompanied him as they walked towards the alchemy workshop on Kingsley Street.

This workshop is Freeman's long-term cooperative manufacturer. Many of Freeman's alchemical product manufacturing processes of the Alchemy Laboratory have been bought and monopolized by this workshop.

So although Freeman is not their shareholder, he still has enough influence.

As the industrial crystallization of the human race in the southern border, the alchemy workshop successfully applied magic to industrial production and formed a basic assembly line operation. Its productivity is at least ten times that of ordinary workshops.

Such places are generally closed to outsiders to prevent the outflow of technology, especially to outsiders like Leo.

Although the supervisor of the alchemy workshop felt that the barbaric and backward northerners could not understand the production methods of the alchemy workshop at all, he was also wary of him. He read the letter of introduction again and again, and only after Denise's repeated assurances did he reluctantly take Leo on a quick tour.

Several people came to the plate armor forging workshop. Before Leo entered the door, he felt the heat waves from the shop and the regular and orderly collision sounds.

In the workshop, pieces of steel plates that have been heated to dark red by the fire element furnace are sent by conveyor belts to the huge metal forging hammer. As the metal forging hammer slowly descends, the originally flat steel plates are directly pressed into a piece of bumpy plate armor chest.

It has a curved dome and roughly decorated patterns on it, and it hardly needs any hammering.

The plate armor chest that has been shaped is then sent to the back by a conveyor belt for subsequent processing, including trimming, polishing and tinning.

In addition to the plate armor front chest plate, there are also rear chest plate, plate armor gauntlets, plate armor leg guards, plate armor shoulder guards and other parts.

Leo couldn't go in to take a closer look at the specific process, but the industrial equipment in front of him that was comparable to modern times made Leo jealous.

Although the manual forging workshops in the North also began to use hydraulic forging hammers, the power of hydraulic forging hammers was limited and the precision was not high, so they could only be used for the rough processing of plate armor blanks.

The North has neither mass-produced high-quality steel plates nor such precise and powerful rolling equipment. The plate armor workshop with hundreds of people in the Earl's main city is clanging all day long, but the plate armor they produce is less than one-tenth of the output of this assembly line.

But Denise told Leo that actually the profit of the plate armor workshop was not that high. It relied on small profits and quick turnover. The knight's full body armor was tailor-made. No noble would be interested in any of these mass-produced plate armor parts, no matter how good their quality was.

These mass-produced plate armor components are exported to the two northwestern regions of the empire, and the shipping cost is no lower than the production cost.

The advantage is that such alchemy and forging workshops are among the top workshops in the empire. There are only six in the entire southern border, three of which are in the imperial capital, and they are the only one willing to make plate armor.

The merchant caravans from the two northwestern regions were vying for space outside the gate, so the plate armor produced was never hard to sell.

Leo immediately asked the workshop supervisor, "How much does a set of this kind of plate armor cost?"

"It depends on the quantity you purchase. The more you buy, the lower the price." The workshop manager secretly looked down on the northern barbarians, but Leo was of noble status after all, so he didn't say anything on the surface. He just introduced it politely, "For a single set, it's normally around twelve gold soles."

Leo was secretly amazed when he heard this. A set of Isenbol's silver-scale breastplate cost five big gold coins!

It costs almost twenty gold coins to arm a regular infantryman and put on legionary chain mail and iron parts.

Such a set of heavy armor and elite equipment only costs twelve gold coins, and it can be even cheaper if purchased in bulk!

Even if you don't use it yourself, you can still make a lot of money by selling it to others.

Leo waved his hand and said, "I want a thousand sets. How much is the price?"

The workshop manager was shocked. Generally, the shareholders behind long-distance caravans were all earls of the third realm, but they would only purchase one or two hundred sets of plate armor at a time.

One thousand sets is a bit scary. Even if we use Imperial Gold Soles to settle the bill, it would cost thousands of pounds of gold!

"For this kind of transaction, we need to discuss it with our boss. The main reason is that we don't have enough inventory and need to work overtime..."

With the foundation of purchasing plate armor, subsequent communication went more smoothly. Leo took the opportunity to visit several workshops before he asked the workshop supervisor to customize his own gun barrel.

Unfortunately, this kind of thick-walled steel pipe has basically no other uses, and there is no precedent for its production. The workshop supervisor could only say that he would first produce the drawings and then calculate the production cost, and he would get a reply in a few days.

What this means is that if the quantity is too small or the profit is too low, then it cannot be put on the assembly line for production.

Leo expressed his understanding of this. He said that the assembly line production method is not as flexible as the manual workshop. The emergence of a new product may even require changes to the equipment in the entire workshop. It is not something that can be manufactured just like that.

In addition to the products, Leo was also very envious of the workshop's production equipment and technicians. Unfortunately, the former was the alchemy workshop's secret weapon, and the latter were wealthy citizens in the imperial capital with families and businesses, and would never follow him to the remote countryside in the north.

Not to mention the researchers in Freeman's Alchemy Laboratory, they are equivalent to members of the human race's top research institutions, and their status is higher than that of ordinary nobles.

Those mid-level wizards who master cutting-edge alchemical technology can easily obtain a hereditary title in the southern territory, which is simply not comparable to the nameless square and corner flags in the northern territory.

After coming out of the alchemy workshop, Leo thanked Denise and invited her to attend the palace dinner tomorrow night before returning to the palace.

When Olivia found some time, she detained all of Freya's cubs and forbade them to run wild in the palace again, so the little mouse could only stay in his own bedroom with his two little sisters, Freya and Feisa, to play.

When Leo came back, Little Mouse was reading an alchemy book with Fesa, while Freya was squatting opposite them and rolling her eyes.

Leo touched everyone's head one by one, and seeing Feisa was thoughtful, he said, "Feisha, I saw a dog-headed man today."

Fisa's ears immediately stood up and she wagged her tail rapidly, "What kobold?"

"Hmm, a new breed! If you dye your fur green, you'll look exactly like him!"