Chapter 207: Progress

"My Lord, come look!"

Early the next morning, Master Craftsman Dan enthusiastically invited Luoning to visit the expanded Ironwood Workshop to see the loom he had been tinkering with for some time.

Based on the blueprints provided by Luoning and Dan's numerous improvements, Luoning could already see the prototype of a pedal loom.

"Congratulations, Dan. This loom is already five or six tenths of the way there."

He sat on the stool in front of the loom, tried stepping on the pedals twice, recalled the scene of weaving in his mind, and felt the feedback from the loom before him.

"The frame should be about right, but the rotation is a bit stiff when pedaling continuously. The pedal mechanism isn't smooth enough; it should be carefully polished to optimize its transmission mechanism."

"Also, have you tested its effectiveness?" Luoning asked while fiddling with the bamboo reed.

Dan shook his head somewhat nervously, "My Lord, this loom was only fully assembled two days ago, and I haven't tried a formal operation yet."

Master Craftsman Dan was, after all, someone with a reputation in Wushan Territory; at this moment, facing the inspection of his liege, he acted like a student facing a teacher's review of their homework.

It wasn't that he feared Luoning's authority, but rather that he cared deeply about the results of his work.

"You can ask Lia to help test it."

Luoning suggested, "However, before testing, there are still many places on this loom that need improvement."

He began giving suggestions for the machine, such as the bamboo reed being too sparse—gauze should be based on an eight-hundred-reed count, and the one Dan made probably didn't even have three hundred, so it needed major modification. Additionally, the heddles had issues, and tools to accompany the loom like the bobbins, pirns, and shuttles also needed to be made.

Luoning brought up every problem he could think of, especially when he mentioned his hope that a loom could be put into use by this year's cocoon harvest, which made Master Craftsman Dan feel immense pressure.

Regarding this, Luoning held an optimistic attitude; after all, pressure creates motivation.

It was only February now, and there were still six months until this year's cocoon harvest; with Master Craftsman Dan's personal ability, it was still possible to modify it.

After inspecting the loom, Luoning took the opportunity to check on the production of Iron-wood Equipment.

With William recruiting apprentices, and carpenters from Zhaoze Town being sent here one after another, the number of people participating in production had reached over twenty!

Now, the production capacity for defensive gear like Iron Wood Shields and Ironwood Lamellar Armor had been greatly improved, and there was absolutely no problem completing the order for the First Knight Squad of Wushan Castle before April.

According to William's estimate, there might even be a batch left over.

Luoning promised to provide sufficient food so they could go full throttle and produce as much as possible, and he also asked the other party to research the possibility of Iron Wood Arrows.

Currently, Ruidar and Maiken were training new Infantry, Archers, and cavalry, and it was estimated that there would be a configuration of two Knight Squads by the first half of the year.

Not to mention whether there were enough Professional Knights for now, the number of troops in the three categories mentioned above could reach over two hundred, and the defensive gear and weapons required all needed to be equipped.

After inspecting the Ironwood Workshop, Luoning then turned to Kalesi's Blacksmith Shop and Jim's pottery workshop.

The last time he left, Luoning had assigned Jim a task—to fire bricks and modify the kilns to increase the temperature inside them.

This matter became known to Kalesi, and combining the fact that smelting molten iron also required high temperatures, the blacksmith, the potter, and the mason joined forces to use yellow soil from Shanlin to fire a batch of bricks, then used these bricks to build high furnaces for iron smelting and kilns for firing porcelain; unexpectedly, it achieved surprising results.

First, Jim's side was already able to fire white porcelain, and although the success rate was less than thirty percent, it was already a good start.

To reward the efforts and achievements of the few, Luoning gave Jim and his apprentices a reward of one gold coin and five silver coins respectively.

At the same time, he arranged the next phase of tasks for them—

To improve the ability to control the kiln temperature to increase the success rate of porcelain firing, while also collecting various colored ores to make glazes of different colors, and attempting to paint patterns on the greenware to create patterned porcelain.

Although being able to successfully fire porcelain was already more than half the battle, making exquisite, unique, high-value, and diverse finished products still required more experimentation.

After this successful firing, one could consider moving Jim and the others to settle in Huitu Village, as the Kaolin vein was there after all.

Refining clay and firing in Huitu Village would save an untold amount of effort compared to transporting materials back to Shanlin Town.

On the other hand, Kalesi had already built the high furnace for iron smelting according to the blueprints drawn by Luoning.

However, although the high furnace looked the part, it was still lacking something in the process of iron smelting; occasionally a little molten iron could be obtained, but most of the time the iron blocks thrown in did not melt, and no molten iron flowed out.

Luoning observed Kalesi and his apprentices adding materials to the high furnace, blowing air, and smelting back and forth; the process should have been fine, the high furnace had no issues, and the fuel used was high-quality charcoal that had been prepared, which could produce higher temperatures than ordinary wood.

After a comprehensive analysis, Luoning considered that the problem lay with the bellows.

Although the high furnace was not very large, the accompanying bellows were still a bit small.

Even if the apprentices pulled them vigorously, the amount of air blown in per stroke was very limited, and without sufficient oxygen entering from the bottom of the high furnace, it could not generate a temperature high enough to melt the iron.

This problem was easy to solve.

Luoning had Kalesi contact the carpenter William and have him arrange for one or two apprentices to build two larger ones based on the design of the bellows.

If replacing the bellows worked, then the ability to smelt molten iron would be mastered by Luoning, and later, batch casting of farm tools would take the agricultural technology of Wubei Territory a step further.

Although pig iron could not be used to make weapons, if the skill of the Stir-frying Steel Method was added, the way to obtain steel would be much simpler.

The only pity was that no iron ore vein had been discovered in Wubei Territory, and it was estimated that iron ore would need to be purchased from outside later.

While observing the iron smelting, Luoning was also wondering if it was possible to modify the iron smelting furnace through Magic?

For example, creating a fire-type Magic Array Diagram inside the iron smelting high furnace and using a Magic Core or Magic Crystal to generate high temperatures to melt the iron ore.

However, after thinking about it, Luoning did not continue to research it.

First, he did not know how to create such a Magic Array Diagram;

Second, whether using a Magic Core or a Magic Crystal as an energy source, the price paid was extremely expensive.

A single fully-charged Magic Crystal cost over a hundred gold coins, and using it to smelt iron was purely increasing costs for no reason and wasting money.

By comparison, using wood as fuel, although collecting and processing it was a bit troublesome, was much cheaper than using Magic Cores and Magic Crystals.

Spending two days, Luoning had grasped the various situations in Shanlin Town, and everything was developing in a good direction.

After he himself had arranged the development direction of the territory, he devoted his time to cultivation and the work of making level three and four Spell Scrolls.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was March.

During these days, Wilson and his assistants traveled between several territories under the escort of several cavalry squads.

Due to their active supervision, whether in Shanlin Town or Zhaoze Town, spring plowing was proceeding in an orderly manner.

Land preparation, seed treatment, sowing, fertilizing, irrigation, etc. —every task had changed.

Although there was still a great deal of room for improvement in this change, compared to the barbaric sowing methods of the past, it was already a great improvement.

With the subsequent popularization and standardization of field management work, provided no unexpected situations like natural disasters occurred, Luoning believed that the grain harvest in Wubei Territory this year would definitely be better than in previous years.

"My Lord, Knight Luogena wishes to see you." The manservant Jialun came to the door of the study and reported respectfully.

"Has the grain already arrived?"

Luoning put down the pen in his hand; on the paper, he had drawn the design of a horizontal blade.

"Bring him to see me." (End of this chapter)