When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

The alchemy workshop is a common production model in Black Snake Bay, similar to the blacksmith shops and stonemason workshops they previously saw at Joan of Arc Castle.

An alchemy workshop often purchases a yard at the raw material source or a place with convenient water and land transportation. This yard must accommodate the functions of an alchemy ceremony venue, storage, and even lodging.

A normal alchemy workshop typically operates with four or five alchemy apprentices and one or two main alchemists.

Most of the time, the smuggling channels of alchemy products are controlled by the Secret Faction, so these alchemy workshops often sell goods directly to the Secret Faction.

Large Secret Factions like the Ruo'an Faction and the Silver Rose even offer subsidies to the alchemists in the off-season, giving a semi-state-owned feeling.

Of course, there are also private alchemy workshops, which mostly depend on a large Wizard Clan.

Alchemists do not have much ability to protect themselves and often need to rely on the protection of powerful forces.

Horn dared not make a quick decision on whether to establish a Peat Alchemy Workshop in Daze Village. Instead, he assigned some Blessed Individuals to Patrick, letting him and several Secret Faction members who escaped together conduct an investigation.

No investigation, no speaking rights; launching a project impulsively has a high probability of encountering problems.

After arranging the peat matters, he agreed with Jeska and Victor to pick personnel for tomorrow's trip to Autumn Dusk Island.

Once these scattered matters were decided, the aroma of grilled fish and fish porridge had already reached everyone's nostrils.

Horn smiled and said to those present, "I've already eaten, the fragrance must be making you hungry, go and eat."

"Brother, I have something to say."

"Eat first, eat first, don't discuss matters on an empty stomach." Horn pushed Jeanne away, urging her to eat first.

He sat down again by the fire, gazing at the dancing flames, continuing to ponder the current development.

If the peat alchemy workshop succeeds, then the issues of grain and meat will be basically resolved.

Actually, if peat can replace wood and other fuels to boil salt, the problem of salted fish can be solved, and then there would be no need to establish a pottery workshop.

However, Horn still decided to establish a small pottery workshop because items like pots and pans are essential.

Using a branch to intensify the fire, Horn turned his head towards the distant mountains.

Initially unnoticed, after these days of traveling, he suddenly discovered a geographical advantage.

Daze Village is located at the intersection of South Mande, Lower Reif, and Langsande Counties, using mountains and swamps to block the roads interconnecting the three counties.

If one wants to travel from Shangruifo and North Mande to Langsande County, they will inevitably be blocked by this mountainous and swampy terrain, requiring a detour of at least 100 kilometers or even 90 kilometers.

If Horn can clear the giant spiders in Wild Spider Forest, stabilize the local beastmen, and expand the roads, merchants won't need to take a detour.

Through Daze Village's shorter route, Shangruifo, North and South Mande, and even the Norns can easily transport goods to Langsande, while Joan of Arc Castle can send goods to Black Snake Bay and Kasha County.

This inevitably makes Horn recall Qianqian mentioning the Shattered Stone Plain wool trade route.

Previously, Shattered Stone Plain wool heading south often went first to Shangruifo County or neighboring North Mande County, then flowed down the Nao'an River to Feiliu Castle, and traveled by land.

Then, it ascended the Yaxi River against the current, then traveled by land to Joan of Arc Castle, and followed the canal downstream to Ibe River before heading south.

But if Daze Village could be opened, whether traveling by water or land, they could go directly to Joan of Arc Castle, saving at least a third of the journey.

However, if the wool trade route changes, Feiliu Castle will suffer the consequences.

But situated on the essential path of Daze Village, Autumn Dusk Island's geographic environment suddenly becomes excellent, possibly becoming the transfer station for the Joan of Arc Castle route, turning into an important sub-city.

"Brother, I'm done eating." Jeanne's words interrupted Horn's thoughts as she briskly walked over, wiping the oil off her lips with a handkerchief.

That was fast? Horn stared blankly at Jeanne, "Don't you need to rest after eating?"

"Brother, can't rest now." Grabbing Horn's arm, Jeanne led him into the camp.

Around the tattered tents, they saw Brock and Rekado busy with something at a makeshift workbench.

Horn immediately understood that there must have been some breakthrough with the mountain bronze spring.

"I saw your previous forging methods." The old dwarf remained in his usual honest and taciturn demeanor. Upon seeing Horn, he spoke directly, "Mix the molten iron and mountain bronze water together, pour them into molds to cool into alloy bars, then electrify the alloy bars until they're white-hot, and give them to the blacksmith for forging."

"Exactly."

Brock shook his head: "This method is quite mundane, incorrect, lacking in spirit."

Horn glanced at Jeanne's confident face and turned to Brock to ask, "Do you have a new way?"

"I have to earn the 3 gold pounds per month salary you gave me." Brock said sullenly, "Gold plating was originally our dwarf skill, but shameless Norn people stole it. Anyway, everyone knows, it's no problem for me to teach you."

Saying this, Brock opened a jar beside him, which contained a golden paste.

"What is this?"

"Mountain bronze paste." Brock took out the butter-like mountain bronze paste from the jar, grabbed a wooden chip casually, and smeared a piece on the surface of an iron spring.

Smearing both sides of the spring to a golden yellow, Brock took out a thin rope to separate the mountain bronze paste sticking between the spiral springs: "The so-called gold plating technique is to fuse gold and mercury together, then squeeze out the excess mercury using leather, leaving behind the gold paste.

Apply the gold paste onto the metal surface, bake it at high temperature, and after some time, the mercury disappears, leaving only gold.

I noticed your mountain bronze is also golden-yellow, quite like gold, my dwarf intuition tells me this might be useful, so I tried it."

Putting the coated gilded copper spring into the furnace to bake, Brock used tongs to take out another previously baked gilded copper spring.

"Initially, I thought mountain bronze would just adhere to the surface of the spring plates, but after the mercury evaporated, the mountain bronze actually seeped into the spring." Jeanne couldn't contain her excitement.

"Normally, gilded metals require a protective layer on the surface to prevent gold from penetrating the substrate, but I didn't have suitable material, so I didn't apply the protective layer." Brock also felt somewhat sentimental at this point.

"Maybe the essence of mountain bronze is steel, so it merges with iron. I don't understand why, but it just succeeded." Holding up the spring, Brock pointed to the parts stuck together between the spring coils, "Use a file to grind it down."

Horn picked up the mountain bronze spring with the tongs in surprise, and examined it closely in the firelight.

If this method proves effective, Jeanne wouldn't have to spend a lot of time accompanying the blacksmith in forging anymore.

By using the gilded mountain bronze technique, the original process of developing the mountain bronze spring that required Jeanne's continuous cooperation is directly separated, turning into two steps: making mountain bronze paste and making springs.

From now on, Jeanne can mass-produce large quantities of mountain bronze paste and store it, freeing herself from the cumbersome crafting process.

With this, the production speed of spring guns will once again be improved.

But thinking about mountain bronze, Horn found it challenging. According to the formula for mountain bronze, 1 pound requires 14 pounds of refined iron and 2 pounds of copper.

Due to the high density of mountain bronze, each mountain bronze spring consumes one-third pound of mountain bronze.

Including the gun barrel, spring box, and the all-important firing rod, each spring gun requires 6 pounds of cast iron and 2 pounds of refined iron (steel).

According to Horn's initial plan for 1000 Holy Gunmen, approximately 333 pounds of mountain bronze are needed, accounting for wastage, requiring 5000 pounds of refined iron and 700 pounds of copper.

Adding the consumption of the gun barrels and firing rods, it becomes 6000 pounds of cast iron and 2000 pounds of refined iron.

The consumption for 1000 Holy Gunmen alone is at least 7000 pounds of refined iron and 6000 pounds of cast iron and 700 pounds of copper.

Previously, during the zero-cost acquisition in Joan of Arc Castle, Horn emptied the armories, including outposts and blacksmith shops, controlled by various noblemen and dukes, even deliberately allowing soldiers to extort, altogether collecting only 6200 pounds of steel ingots, 7800 pounds of regular iron ingots, and 900 pounds of copper ingots.

Carefully calculating, there is still an 800 pounds shortage of refined iron.

The only consolation is that the situation with the Long Spearman is still manageable.

By stripping from mercenaries, the Salvation Army obtained more than 1800 long spears and more than 900 short swords, plus those from the armory and purchased ones, which just fill the main weapon gap for 3000 Long Spearmen.

Tomorrow I'll ask Patrick if he has any good ideas. As a Great Wizard, Patrick's knowledge base is practically a huge treasure trove.

Truly, countless connections start from the beginning. Horn blew the warm air off the spring, realizing building is far more difficult than leading people all over the place.