Seeing that midsummer was about to end, and Border Town was about to usher in the last and hottest month of summer, Roland felt more and more unwilling to leave the castle.
In addition to making gunpowder, the saltpeter bought from Margery was used by him to lower the room temperature. Now, in almost every room, there is a bucket filled with saltpeter, and there is a kettle in the bucket. . This can not only have the effect of endothermic cooling, but also drink ice to quench thirst. Only in this way will he not be sweating profusely as soon as he sits in the office every day.
Except for Anna, the other witches were also stopped from work by him. Except for the necessary practice and study every day, they basically gathered in the hall on the first floor, either chatting or fighting each other's Gwent cards, and they looked happy. And Anna... It wasn't that Roland didn't want her to rest, but that she wasn't afraid of the heat at all. The red-hot iron ingots can be directly held in her hands, and the high temperature of the hot summer is nothing to her at all. Even if she stood by the steel furnace for an afternoon, she would not sweat a single drop.
In order to reward the diligent and serious Anna, Roland has recently made some iced desserts to treat her. For example, the classic delicious ice cream of later generations is made by mixing egg yolk, cream, milk and sugar water, and then cooling it with saltpeter. Anna is very fond of this kind of cold, glutinous, soft and unusually sweet snack. Every time he takes a small bite of ice cream and the lake blue eyes are bent into slits, he will feel pleasing to the eye.
In addition, looking at the month-end summary sheets sent by the city hall is also a great joy in a happy mood.
So far, the population of Border Town has doubled again to nearly 18,000. In addition, Changge Fortress will "turn over" a batch of serfs every month, and it will not be a problem to break the 20,000 mark next year. Not counting the number of villages and townships in the territory, this scale is almost comparable to big cities like Chishui City, Jinsui City, and Wangdu.
It is a little regrettable that the population has grown a lot, but the quality has not improved much. At present, more than 1,000 aborigines in the town are still educated, and it will probably take about a year to successfully graduate. Although the private college opened before Karl has created a group of talents who have graduated first, the number of less than 100 people is relatively Still insignificant compared to the general population.
Perhaps we should start educating the refugees in the East, instead of waiting for enough dormitory communities to be built before doing this step, Roland thought to himself, after all, early education is only good, not bad.
The development of factories in the town is also very good.
After more than half a year of construction, the industrial park now has three factories in operation: two steam engine production plants and a bullet processing plant. The number of workers in the No. 1 factory has expanded from a dozen blacksmiths at the beginning to more than 100 now, and the subsequent additions are basically aborigines. This is exactly what he hopes to see. Drive the next batch of apprentices.
The workers of Factory No. 2 belong to the Crescent Moon Bay Caravan. In just one month, they have roughly mastered the use of various machine tools. Although the yield rate is relatively poor, compared with the blacksmiths of Factory No. 1, the first month of these craftsmen The performance is clearly better. Only before the contract expired, all the steam engines they produced were owned by Roland. At present, the two factories can produce about eight to ten steam engines per month, which are also the main income of Border Town.
As for the bullet factory, it was directly handed over to the First Army after its completion. Not only was there a guard post at the entrance, but patrols were arranged around it, and even the production work was carried out by soldiers. After a week of trial operation, mass production of a new generation of custom-loaded ammunition has now begun.
The assembly line designed by Roland cannot achieve full mechanical production. Whether it is primer, gunpowder or warhead, manual filling and compaction are required. The main processing tools are two mechanical punching machines, one can press the copper sheet cut by Anna into the shape of the bullet casing, and the other is used to punch the primer cup.
Soldiers only need to place the mercury fulminate powder evenly between two thin sheets of paper, glue the sheets tightly, clip them into the primer cup, and finally put the primer cup into the annular groove at the end of the cartridge case, and they are done. As for the process of loading black powder and compacting the warhead, it is exactly the same as the previous reloading exercise.
The factory has a small number of people, only about 40 people, and it can produce more than 500 bullets every day. Roland intends to turn these forty people into full-time processing personnel to maintain the normal operation of the bullet factory.
What Roland intends to add next is that the soap factory and the perfume factory are extremely important parts of the military industry, while the latter may open up a new business channel for the town. As for the bike factory, it can be dragged a little further, as long as it goes into production before Kingdom Avenue is fixed.
"Your Highness," Nightingale opened the door and said, "Maggie and Lightning are here."
The two sneaked past Nightingale's side, ran to the table and stuck their heads out, "Are you looking for us?"
"Tomorrow is Jixia," Roland took out the already written reply from the drawer and handed it to Maisie, "When you return to the fjord, remember to help me pass it to Tilly."
"Ah...!" She was stunned for a moment, blinked a few times before taking the envelope, carefully stuffing it into her close-fitting bag, "No problem!"
Seeing the other person's sudden realization, I'm afraid he doesn't remember the fact that he has to go back to report every month. Roland held back the smile in his heart. It seems that the charm of the town is really big.
"I forgot that tomorrow will be a new month again," Lightning pressed his forehead, "Isn't that why we can't see each other for a long time?"
"Last time, it was Mr. Tilly's cleaning plan that delayed the time, this time I will come back as soon as possible," Maisie shook her long white hair that was about to be dragged to the ground, "That Eagle's Nest will not go on an adventure until I come back. ... goo!"
"I see," the little girl pouted, "that's it."
"You also have a mission," Roland spread out a blueprint of the southern area of the town. "This is a map you drew with your own hands. Do you remember the location of a shoal in the direction of the mountain and the sea?"
"Remember," Lightning gestured on the map, "probably right here."
"Very good, you can take Maisie for a flight later, and then plant two flags at the junction of the shoal and the mountain, and mark them on the map," he explained and looked at Maisie, "If Tilly agrees If you send a witch, you can guide the sailboat to this shoal, and I will greet you at the top of the mountain."
"Send a witch?" Lightning asked curiously, "Are there any new sisters coming to Border Town?"
"I don't know yet," Roland smiled slightly. "It depends on Tilly's answer... But I think she will agree." (.., Your support is my biggest motivation.)