Chapter 116: Chapter 115: Steward Merchant (3K)

With a blacksmith shop and over a hundred pounds of high-quality iron left.

Lynn’s first thought was naturally to use iron pipes for the blower system.

If it was before, Lynn would naturally be reluctant.

A few hundred pounds of high-quality iron just to make pipes for blower equipment?

Madness, right?

But now a whole open-pit iron mine has been discovered.

High-quality iron is nothing; he has plenty!

Lynn returned to the blacksmith shop and assigned this task to Ehrelo, letting him handle it himself.

Iron pipes of several tens of meters, connecting the forging water wheel and the iron smelting furnace, it’s not hard.

But it’s not easy, either.

Simply put, it’s about forging iron into sheets, then bending and securing them with iron nails and screws.

Minimize wind loss as much as possible!

After everything was instructed.

By afternoon time.

The pulley group on the dock just got installed.

One by one, sampan boats swiftly glided down from the upper Acadia River.

Inside those sampan boats were baskets of black stones.

Lynn’s eyebrows raised involuntarily.

He understood that his territory could finally start smelting iron!

Basket after basket of iron ore was hoisted up by the pulley system.

Apprentices from the blacksmith shop hustled about, loading these iron ores onto wagons, urging the draft horses, heading for the blacksmith shop.

Upon returning to the blacksmith shop, the iron ores were piled in the open ground at the back.

The weather is excellent now; there’s no concern about rain.

Through the quantity display on Resource Management, Lynn made a rough estimate.

The sampan boat’s load is a bit over two thousand pounds, aside from the weight of two boatmen.

One trip with a sampan boat can transport about two thousand pounds of iron ore.

Twenty boats mean forty thousand pounds!

Although forty thousand pounds are just iron ores, how much high-quality iron can be smelted is only known after smelting.

However, Lynn is not worried.

This is just the beginning phase.

Now the iron mine has started extraction and operation, and from today on, there will be endless iron ores sent to the village!

He can vigorously develop iron products!

In terms of daily life, things like iron pots, iron shovels, iron doors, iron barrels, iron tables, iron chairs...

In terms of breeding, heavy plows, iron feeding troughs, iron fences, iron hooves...

In terms of armor, plate armor, chain armor, heavy armor, full metal shields, even vests!

In terms of weapons, long spears, lances, winged spears, hook lances...

...

Put simply.

Lynn can now craft all sorts of required armor and weapons for soldiers of different attributes!

Without realizing it.

Lynn’s breathing started to quicken.

He has money now!

He has fuel!

And now, he has iron!

As long as he gets enough manpower, who would dare to provoke him?

Lynn let out a long breath.

Trying to suppress the excitement in his heart as much as possible.

His future now is unlimited.

But at the same time, he still needs to continue developing.

Food production is insufficient.

From March to now, aside from the few acres of wheat, vegetables, and those cotton plants that Lynn and his people initially planted.

He has not truly harvested anything yet!

The food consumed in the territory now all comes from external purchases.

This is an extremely unstable method!

One must know the grain production in this world is extremely volatile.

Perhaps a single adverse weather condition could lead to a wide-scale harvest failure in the entire country.

By then, even with money, grain couldn’t be bought.

To obtain sufficient and stable grain supplies, planting must be done on one’s own land.

There is not enough population.

Without enough people, even with these, it’s still impossible to form a large army.

No warhorses.

Only with enough warhorses can a substantial cavalry be formed, and cavalry is the killer on the battlefield.

Highly mobile, strong in assaults...

The current situation is somewhat dangerous, but Lynn doesn’t have much to worry about.

With the existence of city walls, he can continue to develop.

However, the day of his rise is not too far away!

...

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Near the blacksmith shop by the forging water wheel, the blower water wheel was also erected.

In the pull of the river water, the water wheel started to rotate rapidly.

The rotational movement of the water wheel is transmitted to the pistons and other parts of the blower through a gear transmission device, causing it to produce reciprocating motion or continuous rotation.

When the piston is pulled or pushed by the transmission device, it creates a pressure difference in the bellows, thereby generating wind force.

Thus, it can continuously supply sufficient oxygen for the combustion of the anthracite in the iron-smelting blast furnace.

Lynn stood six to seven meters away beside the iron-smelting furnace and could still feel the heat radiating from the furnace walls.

The needed protective measures were all in place, yet there was still heat leakage, which is unavoidable due to current limitations.

After all, the conditions now are limited.

The working principle of the iron-smelting blast furnace is not complicated.

Iron ore, anthracite, and limestone are poured into the top of the furnace.

Then, through the tuyeres at the bottom of the blast furnace, continuous air-blowing is performed to accelerate the complete combustion of anthracite, thus raising the temperature inside the blast furnace.

Under high temperatures, the carbon monoxide produced by burning anthracite will strip the oxygen from the iron ore, obtaining molten iron.

The molten iron will separate from the impurities, flow to the very bottom of the blast furnace, and be drawn out from the rough iron tap.

This process is called reduction.

The impurities in the iron ore will combine with the limestone to form slag, which is blocked by a top layer.

Manpower is needed to pick up and scoop out the slag from the slag outlet.

The only regret for Lynn is that the gas from smelting iron ore cannot be collected; otherwise, it could be used.

Despite the molten iron radiating intense heat and appearing yellowish-red like lava,

Ehrelo showed no sign of nervousness.

Instead, those brown eyes were glued to the molten iron!

Lynn noticed that his entire body was even slightly trembling.

"It’s a success, truly a success!"

Ehrelo suddenly looked at Lynn, his words full of excitement, "Master Lynn, the high furnace you’ve built has really smelted iron."

Lynn nodded, remaining silent.

The main reason was that he had already been excited about it a few days earlier.

He naturally knew that the iron smelting high furnace would succeed.

His mind was filled with complete and extremely mature memories and knowledge.

With Ehrelo leading, a group of apprentices started bustling about.

They needed to pour the molten iron into specially made wooden molds to press out the desired shape of iron blocks in the sand box.

This was the simplest and most basic sand mold ingot casting method.

Forming them into iron blocks made them easier to store.

Currently, Lynn had no knowledge or memories about armor production in his mind.

Looking at those sand boxes, Lynn raised an eyebrow.

The sand box could cast the molten iron into blocks.

So why not directly use the sand box to cast the iron into the shape of armor?

The molten iron would flow from the high furnace directly into the armor mold sand box.

Once cooled, it would become a complete piece of chest armor, wouldn’t it?

Lynn certainly knew that a set of plate armor consisted of several pieces.

Chest armor, shoulder guards, arm armor, gauntlets, etc...

But it was still possible to use different molds, replicating the process extensively to produce different components!

Isn’t this the method of making standard armor?

To achieve mass production of cavalry or armed troops, relying solely on a blacksmith to forge piece by piece,

for Lynn, was unrealistic.

Currently, there was no plate armor in his territory.

If he formed an army of a thousand soldiers, they would need a thousand suits of plate armor!

Even if several blacksmiths and apprentices were highly skilled, crafting a suit of plate armor would still take at least a month!

Does Lynn need to wait a thousand months?

Of course, this is an irrational calculation.

Therefore, using different molds to make armor is the best solution.

Lynn did not require the armor to be very exquisite, nor particularly detailed.

They only needed to withstand the enemy’s blade and sword, and shield against volleys of arrows.

That would be enough!

However,

Lynn also understood.

Relying solely on this iron smelting high furnace and the group under Ehrelo,

would be far from enough to manufacture standard armor.

He needed more manpower, needed more iron smelting high furnaces!

After confirming that the operation of the iron smelting high furnace was all normal, Lynn left the blacksmith shop.

He no longer had to worry about lacking quality iron!

Even more, he no longer needed to buy from outside sources.

During the evening.

George returned.

After dismounting from his horse, Lynn noticed his expression was no different from that of the traveling merchant Boer.

Even more exaggerated.

George bent over towards Lynn, his words full of excitement, "Oh my, Master Lynn!"

"If I hadn’t seen Instructor Ross, I would have thought I walked into the wrong place."

How long had he been gone?

A month?

Half a month?

Lynn had even built city walls?

If he stayed away a little longer, would the entire territory turn into a city?

Lynn smiled calmly and said, "It’s good that you’re back."

George exhaled deeply and responded, "Master Lynn, I’ve brought back three hundred slaves for you."

"Fifty thousand jin of grain and three hundred jin of quality iron."

George also wanted to bring back more slaves and food for Master Lynn.

However, he couldn’t travel to various territories and empires like those traveling merchants crossing oceans.

He hadn’t obtained the trade permit from the Merchant Guild, nor did he have a long ship for transport.

The slaves and goods he brought back were purchased from Kakasong City or a few nearby small cities.

Combined with the transportation capacity limit, the number was naturally limited.

Lynn looked into the distance, and sure enough, there were groups of figures following behind the caravan.

Lynn praised, "Well done."

"However, in the future, there’s no need to buy iron blocks from outside..."

"To be precise, you no longer need to go out!"

Listening to Master Lynn’s words, George froze.

Was he disappointed because, despite so many trips, he still couldn’t buy the slaves Master Lynn needed?

Indeed, his abilities were still limited!

If he were Master Lynn, he’d also consider replacing himself with someone else...

A trace of sorrow appeared on George’s face, "Alright, Master Lynn..."

Lynn sensed the change in George’s mood and gave him a puzzled look.

"What I mean is, my territory needs a merchant steward."

Upon hearing this,

The sense of defeat instantly vanished from George’s face.

He looked at Master Lynn in disbelief, "A merchant... steward?"

Lynn nodded, "Yes, specifically responsible for managing trade goods."

As more and more merchants cooperated with his territory, it was impossible for Lynn to meet and conduct transactions with each one personally.

With that time, Lynn would rather invest in gaining experience and achievements.

Enhancing skill experience, obtaining energy stones, boosting attributes.

Improving oneself is the true path!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com