Chapter 55: Casting Iron Spears and Instant Army
In the center of the courtyard of the Gulag monastery is an electric arc furnace as tall as a person.
This electric arc furnace is cylindrical in shape, with a square box on one side and a tap hole as thick as a wrist at the bottom of the box.
This electric arc furnace is made of mud bricks and salt soil, with a ring of mortar coated around the outside.
Unlike Horn's hometown, if you want to make a blast furnace for ironmaking, you must first develop coke technology, blast technology, refractory brick technology, and even some engineering mechanics technology.
But here, with Jeanna's lightning iron-making technology, a simple blast furnace is enough to smelt good iron.
Next to the electric arc furnace, there are baskets of ironware collected, both rusty and intact.
A few villagers with thick arms, wielding sledgehammers, smashed these iron tools into pieces of iron for easier smelting.
After all, the Gulag Monastery is not a blacksmith shop, let alone a castle. Naturally, there are not many iron ore or iron ingots in the warehouse.
So, Horn's idea was to recycle waste and forge weapons with farm tools and daily iron supplies.
Due to the presence of rust and impurities, the wet iron smelting here is very inefficient in reforging iron tools, but for Jeanne, who can directly melt iron tools with lightning, this is not a problem.
As baskets of iron pieces were poured into the electric arc furnace, Jeanne grasped the oak pole protruding from the electric arc furnace with both hands.
An electric snake suddenly slid through the air, and the next second, Jeanna's hair floated up, and the dazzling golden light dyed her hair golden.
Where her hands met the oak, sparks the size of grains of sand flashed.
The sparks kept moving forward on the pole, drawing black lines like lightning.
"Zizzizi——"
The sound of the electric current gradually became louder, and the hair and fine hairs of the people standing near the electric arc furnace began to stand up, causing them to hide away quickly in shock.
The chimney pipe of the electric arc furnace erupts not black smoke, but blue lightning. Amidst the sound of current, the sound of molten iron exploding and sputtering gradually becomes clearer.
When Jeanne's forehead was covered with sweat, red molten iron slowly flowed out along the taphole.
The molten iron flowed from the tap hole into another stone vat. Two blacksmith apprentices held wooden sticks and constantly stirred the molten iron.
When the molten iron flows from the stone vat into the clay mold, it forms pieces of iron ingots and cast spearheads.
Picking up a cooled cast spearhead, Horn flicked it with his fingers, making a crisp sound.
Although this kind of forged iron spear is smelted quickly, the spear head cast in three days is enough to arm a hundred people.
But after all, the quality is still too poor, and the casting is still very brittle. The spear head will break if it is used ten more times.
But it is enough to leave it to the line-fillers to resist the line. After all, they are dealing with the serf soldiers.
Maybe people are still in the Stone Age, and this is definitely a dimensionality reduction blow.
Pig iron ingots are used to make sophisticated weapons for the Apostolic Guards. After all, they have to face the night watch guards.
"Your Majesty."
While standing next to the electric arc furnace and thinking, Horn heard Jeshka's voice.
"Your Majesty, the recruitment has been completed. Excluding the old, weak, sick and only children, we have recruited a total of 120 recruits."
Dragging Jeshka to sit down by the flower garden, Horn monitored the training of the boy soldiers and listened to Jeshka's report.
"Your Highness, according to Ms. Dia, the church should have dispatched about two hundred people to, ahem, compete with us.
Of these two hundred people, according to my estimate, , there will be no more than three teams of armored sergeants, that is, 36 people, and there will be no more than five teams of night watch guards, that is, 60 people.
As for the remaining people, they are probably mainly refugees and public farmers. Serf soldiers.
If the flood does not come, there will be knights nearby to help and improve the record.
But now that the roads are blocked, the bridges are damaged, and famine is everywhere, it is estimated that those knights are not in the mood.
So, conservatively, we have to face 36 armored sergeants, 60 night guards, and 100 serf soldiers. "Listening to Jeshka's words, Horn kept nodding. I have to say that he is indeed a professional mercenary. He is indeed professional.
No matter how Jishka tried his best to cover it up, Horn still understands in his heart
According to Jeshka, the Pontifical Guard can draw out fifty relatively elite Pontifical Guards.
These elite guards are absolutely no match for the sergeants, and they will collapse if they are charged.
They are no match for the night guards. At most, they can only guarantee defensive counterattacks and cannot take the initiative to attack.
As for the 120 new recruits, it was difficult to deal with the night guards. They could only fight a dozen serf soldiers at most.
Their only advantage is that they have Danji, a knight with the fourth level of breathing skills, and Jeanne, a witch.
The two men also basically slaughtered the serf soldiers and night guards, but they had some difficulty dealing with groups of armored sergeants.
Originally, Jeanne's extraordinary ability was very unnatural, but unfortunately, the iron in this world is not conductive, which greatly reduced its power.
"We only have five days." Horn held out five fingers, "In these five days, I need you to quickly build an army.
As for how to quickly build it, I will tell you later. I’ll write you a charter and we’ll discuss it together to see if it’s feasible.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Jeshka stood up and was about to leave, but was pushed down by Horn. shoulders.
"Wait a moment, I have one more thing to tell you."
Jeshka quickly sat upright.
“I usually manage the Apostolic Guards and an entire hundred households, but now I have to train a new army. Isn’t the burden on my shoulders too heavy?”
“No. , not serious.”
“Jeshka, you are different from others. Don’t waste your time on civil affairs. You have many things to do. You should focus on the military.”
“What do you mean?”
"The positions of Chief of the Hundred Households and Captain of the Apostolic Guard will be temporarily stepped down.
The position of Chief of the Hundred Households will be concurrently held by Archbishop Madeleine, and the position of Captain of the Guards will be concurrently held by me. You will serve as the head coach of the new army."
Jeshka had expected such a day.
After all, according to the original plan, he was in charge of the army, the people, the Imperial Guard, and even a small station to train the new army.
Going a step further, it is estimated that it is "Hundred Households Become the Pope" and "Jeshka, the Sovereign Staff".
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Jeshka immediately stood up and saluted. Anyway, as long as Busak didn't come to take over from him, he could accept it.
"One more thing, what should our new army be called?"
"I have a suggestion." Smiling, Horn stabbed the side with a cast iron spear. The trunk of the cedar tree, "Let them decide for themselves."
"Decide for themselves?" Jeshka was a little confused, "You mean, let them think of their own names?"
"Yes." Pulling out the iron spear from the trunk, Horn put it in his hand and played with it. "When a person decides on a matter, he will have a sense of identity with that matter.
When When a group of people make a decision together, they will feel that I am the creator and founder, so they will have a sense of belonging."
"Okay, I understand, Your Majesty."
Jeshka nodded, he pondered for a long time, and then asked: "Your Majesty, I have a question. From your point of view, can Her Majesty the Saint really hold back those armored soldiers?"
"This is also what I am thinking about." Horn rubbed the stubble on his chin with his fingers, "Hey, I remembered an expert in this field. Maybe he can know how to measure the witch's combat effectiveness. ”
(End of this chapter)