Until the way to the backyard of Beipo Mountain, Roland's ears kept ringing with these words.
He felt that a gap in his heart was opened little by little. Yes, he thought, he was no longer the cartographer who dealt with mechanical drawings all day, and this was not the world he was familiar with in the past. He has gradually become a The great lord who leads the party may even become the ruler of the kingdom in the future. When the situation changes, it is no longer applicable to bind oneself with the previous concept.
It's good to act according to the innermost thoughts. He told himself that if you force each other for some non-existent rules, there will be no benefit other than hurting both parties.
Thinking of this, Roland's mood suddenly opened up a lot. He took a deep breath of cold air and slowly opened the backyard door.
The opened iron door was like a gap in the bottom of my heart, and a new world opened up in an instant.
"Ah... it's Your Highness," Hummingbird and Lucia ran forward to salut.
"You're here?" Anna showed a sweet smile. Seeing a light red mark on her fair neck, Roland couldn't help but think of the other party's fiery enthusiasm last night, but now that he has made a decision, he I don't care about waiting for the last time.
"How about it, has the model been made?"
"Of course," Anna gestured to follow me, and the two walked out of the back door of the yard. They saw an iron boat floating in the middle of a pool surrounded by snow. The iron boat was about one meter long and twenty centimeters wide, which was much slender compared to those crude benzene cement boats. The bow of the boat is in the shape of an obvious shuttle, and the rear end is a flat tail. The most special thing is that the bottom of the boat is covered with criss-crossing support bars, which looks like countless squares are spliced together.
"This is what I want," Roland sighed. Compared with the stone boat made of reinforced concrete, the pure steel boat has a unique sense of delicacy, especially with the densely interlaced beams, it is like a work of art generally. He knew that each module of this ship model was completely scaled down and cut by black fire, and not a single connection point was omitted.
"Is it your new ship?"
"Well," he nodded, "it's also the town's first regular warship."
Originally, Roland planned to use the cement ship as the hull of the shallow-water heavy artillery ship, but he found that in the case of insufficient steam engine power, the sailing of the cement ship has become the most obvious disadvantage. In the case of only carrying fuel and personnel, the expedition is long. The entire fleet of Song Fortress is only eight to nine kilometers long. If it is equipped with a 152mm fortress cannon that can be rotated, plus necessary ammunition and other combat weapons, the speed is likely to fall below the five kilometers mark. Converted into knots, even three knots cannot be guaranteed. The reason is that the self-weight of concrete is too heavy. If it is used for transportation, it does not care about the speed. But if it is used as a warship, it is naturally better to be brisk.
If there was a serious shortage of steel production capacity two months ago, no matter how slow he is, he can only recognize it with his nose, but with the iron and steel star put into production, today's steel reserves have been able to support him to build a real iron armored warship. In terms of structure, Roland chose the simplest modular assembly method, that is, welding pieces of steel plates with transverse beams to form a larger hollow box structure, and then splicing together many flat boxes to form the hull bottom plate. This building-block shipbuilding method does not require keels, and has nothing to do with the classical method. In addition, the enemy does not threaten his own artillery at all, so he does not need to care about defense issues. The broadside is almost surrounded by thin iron sheets. , to minimize cost and weight.
As for the power part, Roland decided to put propeller technology on the new boat instead of the paddle wheel drive of the cement boat... The power unit is still a steam engine, driving two propellers with turning gears. However, in the design drawings handed to Anna, he reserved space for the modification of the three-increase steam engine, and planned to wait until the mass construction in the future, and then refit it into a new type of steam engine more suitable for ships.
Back in the yard, Anna started cutting the first steel plate.
The black fire in her hand was like the most accurate ruler, flying up and down, a one-meter-square thick steel block instantly turned into seven or eight thin plates like peeling potatoes. A little bit.
Next is welding. Hummingbird placed the reduced weight steel beam and placed it between the two steel plates, while Anna’s black fire turned into invisible filaments and penetrated the bottom of the beam, tying the three together like sutures. At the same time, raising the temperature at the same time is completely different from the initial open flame welding. This heating from the inside out can make the flowing molten steel completely fill the gap between the plates. When the three are completely combined, the longitudinal beam has sunk slightly. About millimeters, this is the proof that the bottom of it has melted and filled the gap between the two steel plates.
A staggered cross-shaped transverse beam can connect four steel plates, and more cross beams form a hollow box unit. These units will be transported to the Chishui River after weight reduction by Hummingbird, and the final assembly process will be completed in the dock.
And Roland's eyes stayed on the busy figure of Anna. The girl's flaxen hair swayed back and forth with the cutting action, like a dancing elf in a pure white snow scene.
…
In the afternoon, Roland met the newly awakened witch, Axia.
If she can appear in the office, it means that she has passed the review of Nightingale. Regarding her peculiar abilities, Wendy had already recorded it very clearly, so Roland did not do any more tests, but directly put the contract in front of her.
A-Xia picked up the pen and stiffened for a while, then said with a red face, "I… can't write."
"It's okay," Roland smiled, "it's okay to press your fingerprint."
Carefully, she pressed her inked thumb to the end of the parchment. "Is that enough?"
"Well," Roland accepted the contract, "I have already learned about your situation from Wendy, so even if you sign a contract, you don't have to live in the castle. Just come here every day to practice your abilities and listen to the lectures. Characteristics, Wendy should have told you these days, right?"
"Yes, Your Highness," A-Xia's expression suddenly relaxed a lot when she heard that she didn't need to stay in the castle. "Sir Wendy said that if you don't release the magic power accumulated every day, your life will be in danger when you wake up."
"That's right, so you have to practice hard. I think she will slowly teach you the relationship between the precise control of magic power and the corresponding ability," Roland did not correct the honorific in the other's mouth, maintaining awe. For beginners It's not a bad thing. "If you don't understand anything, you can ask any member of the Witch League for advice."
"I understand, Your Highness," she said, bowing her head, "but... is this ability useless? I once asked Lord Wendy this question, but she said that only His Highness knows the answer."
"Of course not," said Roland with a smile, "you are an ability only possessed by a famous detective, and you are invincible when it comes to fighting crime."
"Name... Detective?" A-Xia looked confused.
"It doesn't matter, it won't take long for you to know," he called out the nightingale in the mist, "from today on, this witch is your immediate boss."(.)8