Empire of Shadows

Chapter 21: Start living off your savings

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After Carsent agreed, I immediately began to collect the necessary materials, including a large amount of wood, elastic cables, and a large number of craftsmen and soldiers. As the soldiers on the city wall stared in amazement, I even dismantled many of the trebuchets that were not in ideal condition and sent them to the barracks.

At my request, all the carpenters and blacksmiths in the city came to Damei, and were all taken to the barracks by the green-eyed city lord along with their tools. Everyone worked hard to build the parts I needed under my instructions and instructions. Although these were just some of the most primitive parts in my eyes, and even just roughcasts in the eyes of modern mechanical workers, they were undoubtedly some advanced gadgets that were difficult for them to understand in the eyes of these guys whose understanding and production capabilities I looked down upon.

After failing to communicate with the blacksmiths, I had to give up my initial idea. It seems that I can only do my old job. What I need now is just for emergency use, not for fine design. It's OK as long as it can be used. (Hey, a 10-day warranty is OK)

Finally, I asked the carpenters to make the more complicated parts for me, and asked the blacksmiths to find high-temperature resistant clay for me. I put the wooden parts into the clay, compacted the clay, and then took it outside the house for the soldiers to roast it in the stove.

When the things were sent out after 2 hours, I was satisfied. The clay had already lumped together and maintained a considerable hardness. The wood inside had also been burned by the high temperature, and only some ashes were left. Just blowing it casually could make it relatively clean.

After dealing with this, I immediately asked the blacksmiths to get out, and then used my soldiers to pour the molten steel into the openings of the clay models of the wooden parts. Because it was for temporary use, and I did it on purpose, I did not add shrinkage risers when pouring those parts (when the molten steel cools, it shrinks due to its smaller volume. Generally, factories will add risers to the products to prevent shrinkage in the parts). It doesn't matter if the quality is poor, I only need you to deal with it for a few days. It would be best to wait until the Senke Federation Army is repelled and the trebuchets are all destroyed.

When the parts were cooled, I immediately called a few of the dumbest soldiers to carefully break up the clay and take out the parts. After the soldiers washed the clay with clean water, the parts I needed came out.

Watching the birth of these parts, I wondered if this would be the first investment casting production in the world? I wondered how significant it would be compared to the Simuwu Large Square Tripod in my country? Or maybe I would be the father of casting in the world in the future... Well, it seems a bit far-fetched to think about this.

After doing all this, these parts cannot be put into use immediately. There is still one last process, annealing. Anyone who knows about casting knows that there is a very big disadvantage of directly cast products, that is, brittleness. Only products that have been annealed at high temperature can make the performance of the parts reach a relatively good level. Of course, if there are special requirements, they can be obtained through other heat treatment methods. If you want hardness, you can quench; if you want elasticity, general neutral carbon steel can be quenched and tempered at medium temperature to make the elasticity of the material reach the best state.

Thinking of this feature, I couldn't help but wonder, if there are people I don't like or my enemies who need weapons in the future, can I just cast some weapons for them? Then sell them to them after grinding and partially quenching the blade without annealing? Although such weapons are not a big deal in normal use, once they are on the battlefield, in the fierce collision of weapons, the weapon is definitely likely to break into two pieces... Good idea... Absolutely a good idea, the best way to ambush someone, but you must never let the other party know...

Thinking of this, I almost laughed foolishly. But the action of a soldier next to me woke me up. That guy actually put a thin bearing part against a big rock on the ground. The part made a crisp "ding" sound and immediately broke into two pieces. . . . . .

"Damn it... Get out, all of you!" I was so angry that I almost went crazy. I quickly drove out all those guys who were more trouble than help to assist the craftsmen.

After driving away those craftsmen, I threw those things into the furnace. I waited until the parts were red hot and kept them warm for an hour to avoid direct contact with the flames before taking them out, and then placed them on a pile of dry sand to cool. (Direct contact with the flame will greatly reduce the effect of annealing, but now there is no modern equipment, so the traditional annealing method can only be used. If you buy castings in the future, you must ask them to use an electrically heated furnace for annealing, otherwise the quality is difficult to guarantee. Coal furnaces and oil furnaces are less effective)

When I placed a large number of parts in front of the craftsmen, the ground was almost full of eyeballs. If Wei Jue Ye's princess wife was there, it would definitely be exciting to have an eyeball-stomping meeting. Those craftsmen, especially the blacksmiths, could only stare at the parts with their eyes wide open, and couldn't even fart. For a while, there was no noise at the scene except for the sound of breathing.

"Well, didn't you say it was impossible to make so many strange parts in such a short time? I just asked some people to help, and I made these things in just half a day. Do you think you are all idiots

All of a sudden, all the craftsmen and soldiers came to me with a mountain of compliments and flattery, making me, a guy who had only been here for a few days, almost forget who I was.

"Sir, are you...are you a powerful magician?" A craftsman who had come to his senses asked cautiously.

"No, I'm not a magician, but if I were a magician, I would be really happy. Unfortunately, I'm not one. You can just ask the soldiers around me, did I use magic in this process?"

The answer was very simple and clear. All the soldiers firmly said that it was definitely not magic. But I was also intrigued by the magicians they mentioned. Could those magicians really be omnipotent? They could also smelt iron? Haha. But soon I learned something. Those people were a branch of magicians. The name was very simple, just like the kind I often see in online novels - alchemists!

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