Release that Witch

Chapter 305: Chemical breakthrough

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It has been four days since the witch and the First Army set off. According to the plan, they should arrive on the outskirts of Silver Light City tomorrow afternoon.

Equipped with the flying messenger of honey, Roland can receive letters from the team every day, including Iron Axe, Anna, and Nightingale. Although it is not as fast as a mobile phone, it is basically the same as wireless telegraphy. Similar. If there are several times more flying messengers on this line, and there are birds going back and forth between the two places all the time, it may be possible to simulate the effect of text messaging.

When Nightingale was away, the chief knight took over the responsibility of defending the castle. But what puzzled Roland was that Carter was always looking happy these days, and it seemed that he had encountered something extraordinarily happy. Is it so gratifying to return to your own job and be responsible for guarding yourself

He shook his head and turned his attention to the report of the Minister of Construction Karl Van Bert.

With the assistance of the witch of Sleeping Island, the construction project in Border Town for more than a month can be said to have progressed rapidly.

First of all, the steel bridge on the Chishui River was successfully completed. Compared with the traditional stone bridge and plank bridge, the steel bridge body can be prefabricated and then hoisted as a whole. In addition, the two floating islands where the lotus rises in the river can be further simplified. Due to the difficulty of its erection, the construction period of the main bridge was shortened to an astonishing month.

Although in the eyes of later generations, it is short and narrow, the structure is too simple, the load is extremely low, and it is purely a waste of materials, but in this era, it can be regarded as a magnificent super bridge with a total length of more than 100 meters. And the bridge deck is straight, allowing two carriages to pass side by side, and the lower part can also meet the passage of inland sailboats, which is not something that a cumbersome stone bridge can do.

Second, Lian's new city wall was also closed. This pure mud-filled city wall has more than tripled the area of the town. If the city is built in the future, the original town will become a veritable "inner city". However, Roland prefers the idea of one ring and two rings. Maybe one day, this place can be expanded into a giant city with seven rings and officially crowned the imperial capital.

The last is the construction of Kingdom Avenue. Some of the foothills that spread along the Desperate Mountains were lowered to the ground by lotus, so that the road can pass straight through, which greatly reduces the total construction period.

"His Royal Highness, what is your next construction plan for Lian?" Carl asked after reporting the progress.

It can be seen that he is full of envy for the ability to transform the terrain, and he just missed the request to include her in the Ministry of Construction and appoint a deputy minister.

"Well..." Roland is also thinking about this issue, and he has three major renovation projects to be implemented next.

The first one is the estuary project: find a low gap in the mountains at the southern end, and then settle into a road that can enter and exit the shoal. This must be done by the ability of lotus. Once the transformation is completed, the West Territory will have a harbor facing the sea.

The second is residential expansion: Although the city hall has invested a lot of human and financial resources to step up the construction of residential quarters, when winter comes, there may still be nearly 3,000 people who cannot live in warm brick houses. The wooden sheds and simple dwellings that are currently erected cannot meet the needs of the cold, so he needs a batch of cave houses with thick walls and heated kang to solve this problem.

The last point is to set up a dock: to produce a shallow-water heavy gunship, he must first set up a spacious dock without affecting the passage of the Chishui River. Roland intends to lower the height of a river bank at the west end of the town to form a dry dock, and install a lift gate on the side close to the Chishui River to control water retention and release. The scale of the earthwork is huge, and it also depends on Lian's ability to complete it.

After thinking about it for a while, he finally decided to put the expansion of the house first. Since he brought the evacuees from the east to Border Town, he had to be responsible for their food, clothing, housing and transportation. If you freeze to death and starve to death, it will not only be a loss to the West, but will also reduce the sense of belonging of the territorial people to this place.

"So where is this temporary dwelling located?" Carl asked.

"Let's just land in the current serf shanty towns," Roland glanced at the map and said, "Away from the city wall defense line, there are also desperate mountains to shelter from the wind."

After the Minister of Construction had retired, he was just about to take a nap on the chair when Kemer Stryer came to the door again.

"His Royal Highness, I have successfully developed the large-scale acid production method you requested."

This sentence immediately dispelled Roland's tiredness. He stood up from the table in surprise and said, "Really? Take me to see it."

The group came to the laboratory by the Chishui River, and saw several gray-white jars and a kiln erected next to the No. 5 laboratory. Each jar was about two people tall, connected by pipes at the top, and its neat and smooth shape was obvious. It was cut by Anna.

"Salute to you, Your Highness," a young man who looked very young bowed to Roland and saluted.

"You are Chamis, right?" Although he knew that Kaimo had dug a group of alchemy apprentices from Chishui City, and also attracted an outstanding alchemist, it was the first time he saw the other party's appearance today.

"You remember my name," Chalmers wondered.

"Mr. Kemo has mentioned you many times," Roland patted him on the shoulder to show encouragement, "Do it well." Then he looked at the chief alchemist, "How does this thing make acid?"

Kaimo stroked his beard and smiled, "It can be successfully developed, which is completely derived from the reaction formula in "Elementary Chemistry". Look at the kiln, the purified sulfur will be burned in the kiln, and the generated gas will pass through the kiln. It is further heated and sent into lead cans."

"These devices are all made of lead?"

"Yes, only lead can resist the corrosion of acid." Kaimo nodded, "The lead pipe at the top of the jar constantly sprinkled nitric sulfuric acid. Under the scorching sulfur dioxide gas, the nitric acid was heated and decomposed into nitrogen oxides, and finally mixed with water. , Sulfur dioxide generates sulfuric acid solution, which flows out of the hole at the bottom. The ingenious part of this reaction is that nitrogen oxides only play the role of transmitting oxygen and do not consume themselves, so the amount of nitric acid is not large. Once the reaction starts, it will continue to be carried out Go down!"

"How's its output?" Roland asked excitedly, patting the lead can. Large-scale acid production is the premise of mass production of smokeless gunpowder. If this problem can be solved, there will be hope for the ammunition of a new generation of continuous fire guns and artillery.

"This is the fourth device I've tried, and the output in one day is roughly equivalent to a week's worth of dry distillation in the laboratory." The chief alchemist said proudly, "Because of the experimental factor, its volume is It's not big. If bigger lead cans can be built, the output can be increased further."

"This is really good news," Roland laughed. "When Miss Anna returns, you can start building a larger-scale acid-making plant. In addition, if the lead is not enough, you can use iron instead. Miss Soraya's coating can make Iron is immune to acid corrosion."

Kaimer nodded in response, but his next sentence made the prince's smile freeze on his face.

"Now that the large-scale acid production method has achieved results, and the five laboratories have all been filled with apprentices, Your Highness, can you reward me with the "Middle Chemistry" you promised?" (., Your support is my greatest power.)

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