When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 827 - 778: Conscription and Stealing Technology

Lower Reif County and Kasha County, both plains counties, are already under Horn's control.

County Governors Martin and Catherine could easily mobilize the Priestly Order, and Horn's actions merely shifted this authority from overt to covert.

This proposal was swiftly passed, while the five mountain counties will temporarily remain unchanged.

After the meeting ended, Horn returned to his room, but his mind was occupied with an issue that wasn't mentioned during the meeting—recruitment.

Expanding recruitment isn't something that can be accomplished with just a mere statement of intent.

The manpower issue is secondary since Horn has two sources of troops, Black Snake Bay and the Norn people, while the Falan also generously send some mercenaries.

The foremost issue, however, is the equipment problem.

A battle group requires at least 2400 to 2500 sets of infantry armor and corresponding spears, 4,000 military sabers, and corresponding uniforms.

Additionally, there are 1600 to 2000 spring rifles, 24 three-pound falcon cannons, and 4 six-pound stone eagle cannons.

Besides this, 50 to 80 mules and horses are needed for transporting food, spring cannons, and other logistical resources.

The Armory Workshop in Gray Furnace Town, with the gathering of various small workshops, is rapidly increasing its production efficiency.

From a monthly production of 95 sets of armor in 1445, to a current monthly production of 250 to 270 sets in 1448.

Over three years, including other counties' armory workshops, Thousand River Valley produces an average of 3,000 sets of infantry armor and 500 sets of cavalry armor annually.

Currently, Horn's personal inventory totals 4,000 sets of infantry armor and 1,100 sets of cavalry armor.

Maintaining a 60% armor rate, this quantity is expected to outfit another one and a half battle groups.

If Gray Furnace Town operates at full capacity, the remaining half of a battle group can be supplemented by the end of the year.

Including the 1,600-plus sets of infantry armor sent by the King of Falan, there is an estimated recruitment quota for two and a half battle groups.

There's no need to worry about the spring rifles either; the Holy Gun Workshop on Autumn Dusk Island currently produces three to four hundred spring rifles per month.

This is the result of a controlled production pace, considering there's a stockpile of over 7,000 spring rifles, more than enough to equip four battle groups.

Looking at the drafts on the table, Horn sighs silently.

His throat is almost hoarse from spitting out complaints. When will Hilov manage to resolve the issue with the Demon-Loving Fungus?

Back to the main topic.

Are we recruiting for two and a half battle groups? Recruiting 13,000 new soldiers and merging them with the original territorial defense groups into three new battle groups?

Horn raised his gaze and saw the key terms "spring cannon" in the draft again.

Currently, the dwarf artillery factory in Gray Furnace Town can forge a three-pound cannon in about two weeks and a six-pound cannon in three weeks.

If it's a twelve-pound or twenty-four-pound cannon, it takes more than a month due to the segmented mold casting required.

This refers only to the entire cannon construction time, whereas the actual casting of the cannon barrel is quite fast. What truly drags the process is the spring warehouse.

Currently, only six twelve-pound cannons and one twenty-four-pound cannon have been forged.

Most dwarf artillery craftsmen are forging the three-pound and six-pound field cannons, the mainstay artillery.

The artillery factory currently has four artillery groups, each capable of forging two falcon cannons or 1.33 stone eagle cannons a month.

Apart from providing for Moliat and the city defense cannons, Horn only restocked the Salvation Army's two battle groups with spring cannons this February.

The current stock has 32 falcon cannons and two stone eagle cannons left, which is certainly insufficient to supply two and a half battle groups.

Even supplying two battle groups is somewhat challenging, given the two to three months of battle preparation time.

If the dwarf community in North Mangde County could be mobilized into a war footing, as long as the raw materials aren't an issue, the spring cannon supply could double in a very short time.

As for the most critical power component of the spring cannon, it is of no current concern.

After using the alchemical reaction vessel and lunar mercury immersion method, Horn discovered that the notion of 14 pounds of refined iron to produce 1 pound of brass is utter nonsense.

Because with the alchemical reaction vessel and lunar mercury water, it can be done with 7 pounds or even 5 pounds of refined iron to produce 1 pound of brass.

So, at least 7 pounds of the original 14 pounds of refined iron were wasted, weren't they?

Currently, a ton of steel (refined iron) can refine 400 pounds of brass, enough to make 200 falcon cannons or 1,200 spring rifles.

If ever Horn needed to worry about steel not keeping up with brass, he wouldn't need to wonder where to obtain steel.

In artillery forging, the most critical aspect is crafting the spring warehouse.

Aside from the dwarves, very few others can construct it properly.

This, however, depends on the progress over at Harbin's side.

Horn picked up the latest third issue of the "Truth Newspaper," almost every issue attacking the Steel Guild of North Mangde County.

The first issue is about the dwarves exposing a dwarf master's scandal, with apprentices tearfully revealing their master's atrocities.

The second installment explains the current situation in the Thousand River Valley, clarifying the steel output and subtly pointing out the involvement of the dwarves, mine owners, and nobles from North Mande County.

The third installment announces the construction of a new smelting town in South Mangde County and enthusiastically invites the public to suggest names.

Due to its association with the bulletin system, "The Truth" remains relatively neutral and avoids outright confrontation.

Commercial newspapers under Meigedi, as well as various pamphlets flattering Horn, frequently stir up drama.

Headlines such as "The North Mande County, Criminals of the Thousand River Valley," "The Steel Guild, Enemies of Civilization," and "Heavy Blows Must Be Dealt to the Dwarves of North Mande County" have surfaced.

They'll probably relent soon enough.

After much consideration, Horn finally wrote down the figure of 8,000 people on the draft, roughly enough to form two battle groups (excluding service soldiers).

Next spring, once the equipment is complete, recruiting a second batch of 12,000 people won't be too late.

After all, with two new battle groups, supported by the two field battle groups of the Salvation Army, Mountain County's newly formed battle group, and the Defensive Army, there should be around 30,000 men.

When the future reinforcement from Moliat arrives, the number can be boosted to about 40,000, which would be sufficient.

When the second batch of 12,000 men enlists, it will be time for a strategic counteroffensive.

Listing this plan, Horn called Petier and handed him the pile of drafts.

Petier took the drafts in a daze and was about to leave but turned around and said, "It seems Lady Istria is waiting outside. Would you like to invite her in? I asked her, but she just smiled without answering."

"Istria? Let her in."

Soon, the Witch, propelled by the attendants, came before Horn.

"What brings you here?"

Istria didn't say much, only handing a few pages of notes to Horn.

Horn took the notes in confusion, glanced at them, and his expression froze.

"This is..." He looked up in surprise at Istria, "Are you attempting the reverse mana transformation of mountain copper?"

"To be precise, it's not me. You'll understand if you look further," Istria said with a closed-eye smile.

The so-called reverse mana transformation of mountain copper was a hypothesis proposed by Senius, an outsider to alchemy.

It questions whether, after being tightly wound by brute force, there is mana inside the mountain copper spring.

According to the laws of alchemy, mental and physical attributes influence one another.

Since the mental attribute of mountain copper can transform mana into potential energy, could potential energy, a physical attribute, be transformed into mana?

Due to the lack of mana observation instruments, this question has been left unresolved until now.

Bachelor Kerben believes that mana cannot appear or disappear out of thin air.

Without external input, there can be no mana inside a mountain copper spring.

However, on these incomplete notes, through an alchemical ritual that Horn couldn't understand, it was proven that the spring tightened by brute force stores mana!

The owner of the notes was still trying to find the source of this mana, but unfortunately failed.

Therefore, the owner designed a new alchemical ritual, still incomprehensible to Horn, attempting to "extract" the mana from the mountain copper spring to identify its nature.

Unfortunately, he could only transfer the mana from one mountain copper spring to another.

What was a pity for the owner was not a pity for Horn at all.

This implies that previously only relatively fast water flow or a dam could charge the spring.

But now, even wind power can charge the light spring, and through this ritual, mana and potential energy can be concentrated on the heavy spring.

The only thing worth investigating currently is the efficiency of this ritual.

However, the ritual is incomplete, with only about one-third of the content. Thankfully, some experimental data and failure cases are recorded.

"Do you have the missing parts of the ritual?" Horn looked up and urgently asked.

"No." Istria's tightly closed eyelids faced Horn, "But you could completely deduce it yourselves."

Horn's heated emotions suddenly cooled down: "We are short of hands at the moment. You know how many fake formulas we've had to identify recently..."

"This one will definitely work." Istria interrupted Horn with a soft voice that didn't feel rude.

"Are you so confident? This is an unverified formula, maybe conjured by some mad alchemist in a hallucination."

"Why don't you check the signature of the note's owner?"

Horn quickly flipped through the pages until he saw a familiar name on the last page.

"Kerben?" Horn raised his head sharply, "This is Kerben's research, why didn't I know?"

"Of course, you didn't know," Istria revealed a mysterious smile, "because this is Bachelor Kerben's research outcome ten years in the future."