Chapter 1073: Chapter 1016: I Need It Urgently

Horn’s first stop departing from ry Court Barracks was not Joan of Arc Castle, but the Armory Workshop in Gray Furnace Town.

As the foremost town in the Holy Alliance for armory and metal industries, Gray Furnace Town is naturally different from the past.

The project from the Town Hall to gather funds from local metal workshops, which took three years to build a horse-drawn railway from Gray Furnace Town to Joan of Arc Castle, is a glimpse into its transformation.

This railway is the same width as that of ry Court Barracks, perfectly accommodating horses pulling five wooden carriages.

The horse-drawn carriages are divided into freight and passenger types, with freight often being wooden carts covered with a layer of canvas.

Passenger cars have four corner posts, a roof, surrounded by railings, with several rows of benches inside.

As for the fare, 5 Farren copper coins are all it takes.

Compared to Horn’s paper money, the copper coins mined from Hot Spring City are exceptionally popular among the populace.

The Farren copper coins are of full value and stably produced using hydropower, with exquisite appearances.

Furthermore, the Holy Alliance does not mandate Farren as the legal copper coin nor enforce exchange rates.

This leads to the market pricing Farren copper coins based on actual value.

Often, a single Farren copper coin can be worth seven or eight inferior coppers.

The kindness market further propels this, causing a remarkable phenomenon of good currency driving out bad currency among the populace.

People exchange inferior coins for Farren good coins for storage, while small private copper coin workshops are collapsing.

Because they find that printing 1 Farren copper coin costs are actually higher than 1 Farren.

Is your Holy Alliance losing its mind?

But only a few know that the real source of Hot Spring City’s ability to produce high-value Farren at low cost lies in the progress of the lead alloy printing technology at the printing house in Joan of Arc Castle.

The printing house in Joan of Arc Castle originally used lead-tin alloy, resulting in particularly blurry printed characters.

Thus, the local printing house issued a 500 gold pound reward, attracting reformist dwarfs with a keen sense.

Through research, the dwarfs developed a new alloy, but the cost was too high, requiring imports from Furnace Plateau.

It was too expensive for printing but perfect for minting Farren copper coins, producing clearer imprints.

Horn fondled the Farren copper coin in his hand, while his ears were filled with the clicking sounds of gears and wheels sliding on rails.

As the carriage progressed, the two rows of Holy Alliance flags on the tower of Gray Furnace Town church gradually came into view.

Beside the Holy Alliance flags, there are dozens of smoke columns slowly rising to the sky.

The cauldron often spouts heavy steam when heated, let alone the black smoke from burning peat and wood.

Beside the river, the small river where Enrico once drowned himself is now astonishingly over two meters deep.

As for the reason, just look at the upstream dam, the ponds flanking it, and the creaking waterwheel.

The coal residue, rusty water, ground ores powder, and floating grease have turned the once-clear river water into an iron-gray shade.

The closer to the town, the sparser the surrounding forests become, leaving bare slopes covered with smoking brick kilns and peat workshops.

Horn hadn’t approached yet, but his nose was already filled with the choking scent of coal smoke, the heat of metal, and the heavy smell of grease.

Among these, there was a hint of acidity from the etching agents.

Surrounding the center of Gray Furnace Town, the former suburban territory is filled with various metal workshops.

The most densely packed and bustling are the foundries and forges, and the train hadn’t arrived yet, but the clanging sounds were audible.

In the heavy armory forge by the river, the loud booming noises can be heard, where water hammers are at work.

The noise is second only to the forges and foundries, coming from the grinding workshops.

The large grinding wheels rotate ceaselessly, piercing the ears with their screeching noise.

Workers pressing armor plates or swords against the wheels cause sparks to cascade like waterfalls.

Relatively speaking, the quietest place is the manufacturing workshop, where the masters are carving gunstocks, and apprentices are assembling and inspecting.

If the parts fail to meet standards, they’d be sent back for rework, bringing misfortune to the craftsman or workshop responsible.

After alighting from the horse-drawn carriage, Horn was faced with narrow, twisting passageways naturally formed, paved with cobblestones, marked by ruts and potholes.

Carts transporting metal ingots and peat were crowded together in the plaza before the gates.

Mounds of peat and metal ingots, copper ingots and timber were commonly seen roadside, along with numerous semi-finished products waiting for processing and transportation, such as unsharpened blades and armor plates.

Red-bearded Brock still leads Gray Furnace Town.

He brought along a large group of local monks and workshop supervisors, waiting early at the town’s entrance to greet.

This old dwarf hasn’t changed one bit compared to eight years ago.

Horn had grown taller, though.

"It’s been a long time, Master Brock."

Brock looked at Horn, forcing a smile: "How have you been?"

For his wooden demeanor, this is already an exceedingly flattering expression.

"Gray Furnace Town is changing rapidly..." Horn remarked, observing the somewhat dismal surroundings.

Brock obviously didn’t understand, he just turned and said, "Follow me, what you need is inside."

Following behind Brock, Horn stepped forward, and the shops on both sides came into view.

Only three types of shops: tool shops, taverns, and general stores, with men dressed as blacksmiths and laborers walking on the street.

Their clothes were often stained with grease and dust, and their hands mostly bore burns and scars.

Cart drivers struggled to maneuver wagons filled with raw materials or finished weapons through the streets, the axles creaking.

Laborers carried and transported raw materials to their own workshops.

As for those rare, relatively well-dressed individuals, they were quartermasters from various battle groups or merchants.

They would be led into the church to negotiate large orders with the workshop masters.

Just like what Horn was doing now.

Brock picked up a breastplate and started the introduction.

"This is the latest mithril-steel armor developed by the armory workshop, with protective abilities roughly equivalent to a 22-pound armor but reduced in weight to 12 pounds."

From a wooden stand, Brock took down a breastplate and handed it to Horn.

This breastplate uses mithril alloy, divided into two parts, the front armplate and backplate.

This breastplate weighs around 12 pounds, lighter than historical breastplates on Earth.

The design of this breastplate is quite good, using high-quality steel from the ry Court Barracks.

The front breastplate is thicker, with a distinct central raised ridge line extending upwards from the midpoint of the breastbone for enhanced structural strength and deflected attacks.

The backplate is slightly thinner and connected to the front breastplate with leather straps from North County.

All edges have internal rolled treatments, making them more solid and smooth, while rivets spur the leather padding inside.

"We tested it, and it can effectively defend against most cold weapon attacks of the time, and from distances of 50 to 100 meters, it effectively defends against crossbow arrows and low-tier knight arrows.

But if facing high-tier knight attacks up close or facing our own clockwork guns, the defense effectiveness significantly declines.

Especially at the thinner backplate and edges, particularly at non-perpendicular angles."

"This level is good enough; there aren’t many high-tier knights." Horn weighed the breastplate joyfully.

Although currently moving toward line tactics, armor is still indispensable.

Currently, for knights’ desperate charges, armor can effectively reduce mortality rates.

And for soldiers who have mastered the breathing method, wearing something weighing 12 pounds is like wearing a thick garment; they can bear it.

"Then this is the Kanni Di 1453 model we developed based on the design blueprint sent by Haimodin, total weight reduced to 10 pounds."

Picking up the new-style Kanni Di 1453, Horn fondly caressed it.

Its length is around 1.4 meters, significantly shorter than previous long guns due to the use of a mithril firing rod inside.

Regarding the caliber, it’s generally 18 to 20 millimeters, unnecessary for ordinary people but necessary since the enemy’s main force consists of Extraordinary Knights.

In terms of the clockwork box, it has replaced the alloy pawls with a more durable version, allowing the string to last longer.

The biggest difference is its side has a locking plate cover.

Lifting the cover allows the placement of leads inside, and lowering the cover turns it into a natural exhaust hole.

"This way we can shoot while kneeling or even lying down." Horn couldn’t put it down, caressing it with peculiar glimmering eyes.

Although it still resembles a flintlock gun structurally, due to the different clockwork structure, only four years have resulted in producing a breech-loading gun.

"We tested it and it can fire about 10 rounds per minute, possibly 12 rounds when proficient."

At the moment, the Kanni Di guns in the Horn Army can generally fire up to 4 rounds per minute.

In terms of firepower density, this is a dramatic increase, capable of causing devastating damage to traditional concentrated formations.

If we can master bayonet mass production technology, line tactics can officially enter the historical stage.

Still, considering the breastplate and the breech-loading Kanni Di, plus not needing to carry too many weapon supplies, the overall burden is reduced by at least 30 pounds.

As for the march speed increase, daily marches could be 40 to 50 miles, essentially reaching the infantry marching speed of Napoleon’s period.

If forced marching, covering 80 miles a day isn’t too hard.

However, this presupposes the staff monks have planned the march routes in advance; otherwise, empty legs would result in mutual crowding or even traffic jams and collisions.

Thinking back to the marches during the Gulag period, covering less than 20 miles a day, it seemed normal back then, but now Horn reflects and feels embarrassed.

"How long will it take to equip?" Horn asked excitedly.

"The whole battle group? Hiss, that’s hard to say, three to four years maybe..."

"Three months, can you equip half a battle group?"

"That could be done, but..."

"That’s enough." Horn patted Brock’s shoulder, "Hurry up, I need it urgently."