Chapter 206: Progress

"My Lord, come and see!"

Early the following morning, Master Artisan Dan enthusiastically invited Rhonin to the newly expanded ironwood workshop to inspect the loom he had been tinkering with of late.

Following the blueprints Rhonin had provided, and augmented by Dan’s numerous modifications, a rudimentary treadle loom had finally taken shape before Rhonin’s eyes.

"Congratulations, Dan. This loom is already more than half-realized."

Seating himself on the stool before the contraption, he pressed down on the pedals a couple of times, visualizing the process of weaving cloth as he gauged the tactile feedback of the machinery.

"The frame itself seems adequate, but the rotation during continuous pedaling is somewhat stiff. The treadle mechanism lacks smoothness; it requires meticulous polishing to optimize its transmission."

"Furthermore, have you tested its efficacy yet?" Rhonin inquired, gently flicking the bamboo reed.

Dan shook his head with a touch of unease. "My Lord, this machine was only fully assembled two days ago. We have not yet attempted an official trial."

Master Artisan Dan was a man of no small repute within the Wushan Domain, yet now, under his lord’s scrutiny, he conducted himself like a schoolboy awaiting the examination of his master.

It was not out of fear for Rhonin’s authority, but rather because he cared deeply about the fruits of his own labor.

"We can ask Lia to help us test it," Rhonin suggested. "However, before we do, there are still many areas on this loom that require refinement."

He began to proffer precise recommendations regarding the apparatus, noting that the bamboo reed was far too coarse. The gauze required a standard of eight hundred dents, whereas the one Dan had crafted scarcely reached three hundred. This needed a fundamental overhaul. Moreover, there were defects in the heddles, and the peripheral implements that complemented the loom—such as the warping reels, bobbins, and shuttles—still remained to be fashioned.

Rhonin recounted every issue he could conceive, and when he expressed his desire to have an operational loom by the time of this year's cocoon harvest, the sheer weight of the expectation bore down heavily upon Master Dan.

Rhonin, for his part, maintained an optimistic view; after all, pressure was the mother of momentum.

It was only just February now, leaving six full months before the silkworm cocoons were to be harvested. Given Master Dan’s personal capabilities, completing the modifications was well within the realm of possibility.

Having concluded his inspection of the loom, Rhonin dropped by the ironwood equipment production line.

Since William had recruited apprentices, and with the gradual arrival of carpenters transferred from Swamp Town, the workforce had swelled to over twenty men.

Production capacities for ironwood shields and ironwood scale armor had increased dramatically, ensuring that the order for Castle Wushan’s First Knight Squad would be fulfilled well before April without any issue.

According to William’s projections, there might even be a surplus remaining.

Rhonin promised to provide ample rations, urging them to exert their full strength to produce as much as possible, while also tasking them with researching the feasibility of ironwood arrows.

Presently, Rydal and Maken were training new infantrymen, archers, and cavalry. It was estimated that by the first half of the year, two full knight squads would be outfitted.

Setting aside the question of whether there were enough professional knights, the total number of soldiers across the three aforementioned branches would reach over two hundred men, all of whom required matching armor and armaments.

With his inspection of the ironwood workshop finished, Rhonin turned his attention to Kales’s smithy and Jim’s pottery workshop.

Prior to his last departure, Rhonin had assigned Jim a task: to bake bricks and modify the kilns in order to elevate their internal temperature.

When Kales caught wind of this endeavor, noting that the smelting of molten iron likewise demanded extreme heat, the blacksmith and the potter joined forces with the masons. They gathered yellow clay from Mountain Town to bake a batch of bricks, which they then used to construct an iron-smelting blast furnace and a porcelain kiln, yielding unexpected success.

First and foremost, Jim’s side had already succeeded in firing white porcelain. Although the success rate was under thirty percent, it was a promising beginning.

To reward their dedication and achievements, Rhonin bestowed a bounty of one gold coin and five silver coins upon Jim and his apprentices respectively.

At the same time, he laid out their tasks for the subsequent phase.

They were to master the control of the kiln's temperature to raise the success rate of the porcelain firing, while simultaneously gathering various colored ores to create diverse glazes, and attempting to paint motifs onto the clay bodies to produce patterned porcelain.

Though successfully firing porcelain constituted more than half the battle, creating exquisite, unique, highly valuable, and diverse finished wares still demanded many more trials.

Now that this firing had succeeded, he could consider relocating Jim and his men to Ash Village to settle, given that the veins of kaolin clay were situated there.

Refining the clay and firing it directly within Ash Village would save an immense amount of labor compared to transporting the raw materials back to Mountain Town.

On the other hand, Kales had already erected the iron-smelting blast furnace according to the blueprints Rhonin had drawn.

However, while the blast furnace looked proper enough, the actual smelting process left something to be desired. They occasionally obtained a small amount of molten iron, but most of the time, the iron blocks thrown inside failed to melt, and no liquid iron flowed forth.

Rhonin stood by, observing Kales and his apprentices as they charged the furnace, stoked the bellows, and smelted. The process seemed flawless, the furnace itself was without defect, and the fuel used was high-quality charcoal, which provided far greater heat than ordinary timber.

Through a comprehensive analysis, Rhonin concluded that the fault lay within the bellows.

Though the blast furnace was not exceptionally large, the accompanying bellows were still too small.

Even with the apprentices throwing their full weight into pulling the levers, the volume of air introduced in a single stroke was far too limited. Without a sufficient supply of oxygen entering from the base of the furnace, it could not generate temperatures high enough to liquefy the iron.

This was an easily rectifiable issue.

Rhonin instructed Kales to contact William the carpenter, asking him to assign an apprentice or two to construct two larger units patterned after the existing bellows.

If replacing the bellows proved successful, then the art of smelting molten iron would effectively be mastered by Rhonin, allowing for the mass-casting of agricultural implements in the later stages to further advance the farming techniques of the North Wushan Domain.

While pig iron could not be fashioned into weapons, if the puddling steel method could be introduced to fill the gap, procuring high-quality steel would become vastly simpler.

The sole misfortune was that no iron veins had been discovered within the North Wushan Domain; they would likely need to purchase iron ore from the outside world later on.

While observing the iron smelting, Rhonin wondered if it might be possible to modify the smelting furnace through magic.

For instance, engraving a fire-attribute magic array inside the blast furnace, utilizing monster cores or magic crystals to generate the immense heat required to melt the ore.

Yet after brief deliberation, Rhonin abandoned the idea.

Firstly, he had no knowledge of how to construct such a magic array.

Secondly, whether using monster cores or magic crystals as an energy source, the expenditure was exorbitant.

A fully charged magic crystal cost upwards of a hundred gold coins; using it to smelt iron would merely inflate costs needlessly and squander wealth.

By comparison, using wood as fuel, though troublesome to harvest and process, was vastly more economical than relying on monster cores or magic crystals.

Spending two days on the endeavor, Rhonin gained a thorough grasp of the various affairs within Mountain Town; everything was progressing in a favorable direction.

Having orchestrated the development course for his territory, he dedicated his own time to cultivation and the crafting of third- and fourth-tier spell scrolls.

Time flew swiftly, and in the blink of an eye, March arrived.

During these days, Wilson, accompanied by his assistant and escorted by several cavalry squads, traversed the various territories.

Thanks to their diligent oversight, spring plowing was proceeding in an orderly fashion across both Mountain Town and Swamp Town.

Land preparation, seed treatment, sowing, fertilizing, and irrigation—every facet of the labor had undergone transformation.

Though there remained vast room for improvement, it was already a massive leap forward compared to the primitive sowing methods of yesteryear.

With the subsequent popularization and standardization of field management, barring any unforeseen natural disasters, Rhonin believed that this year's harvest in the North Wushan Domain would undoubtedly surpass all previous years.

"My Lord, Knight Rogner requests an audience," Galen the valet reported respectfully from outside the study door.

"Has the grain finally arrived?"

Rhonin set down his quill. Upon the parchment, he had sketched the silhouette of a single-edged straight sword.

"Bring him in to see me."