Chapter 405: Chapter 387 Gray Furnace Town Armory Workshop and Honeycomb Coal
Gray Furnace Town consists of two parts, a residential area outside the city, and a smelting district within the city.
The Knight Hall, where nobles once gathered, has been transformed into the Town Hall, and a block away, facing it, is the Ash Furnace Armory.
Harbin was not visiting Gray Furnace Town for the first time. He walked in through the main gate with ease and greeted the Night Watchers on duty.
Currently, Harbin is in the Holy Casting Department, where he is in charge of matters related to peat. Since peat has some military uses, he also shares a small amount of responsibility in military affairs.
For instance, he is responsible for the quality inspection and collection of iron armor, and coincidentally, the person in charge of forging the armor is Harbin’s father, Brock.
The father and son duo, one responsible for designing and forging, the other for quality inspection and collection, form an intriguingly ambiguous combination.
However, Harbin always sticks to business, even with his father, often driving old Brock into a fury.
It was even rumored that old Brock wrote a letter back home, trying to marry a new wife and have another child, to replace this unfilial Harbin.
Standing in front of the Armory Workshop, Harbin looked up at the large "Holy Casting Department" sign, blinking his eyes.
This armory workshop, with over three hundred artisans, spans two floors and covers about five acres. An artificial river branches out from the Joan of Arc Castle Canal, extending into the workshop.
The entire workshop is divided into four areas: the central workshop, the division workshop, raw materials and equipment warehouse, and the office on the second floor.
The central workshop is the largest working area, with vats, furnaces, forging stations, and water hammers occupying the main space, primarily used for large-scale forging operations.
The smelting work of iron ore was transferred to Mayo Town, and piles of crude and refined iron were transported here by cart.
The division workshop features dedicated rooms or areas for different types of craftsmen, such as shoulder armor forging, arm armor forging, front breastplate forging, back breastplate forging, helmet forging, ingredient rooms, assembly rooms, inspection rooms, etc.
The rough pieces forged in the central workshop are sent to the division workshop for refinement and, if necessary, reworked in the central workshop.
Armor pieces that are completed and pass quality inspection are sent to the finished goods warehouse, which also stores raw materials and semi-finished products, generally located closer to the road for easy access and transportation.
Lastly, the second-floor office area is where management and master artisans operate, planning work, recording production progress, and designing technical drawings.
Previously secluded monks who spent all day at the Monastery chanting and copying scriptures were pulled from their religious duties by Horn and forcibly assigned to various workshops.
The management knowledge and armament design passed down orally turned into more efficient regulations from these monks who were inexperienced in production.
Instead of going up to the second floor to find his father immediately, Harbin first observed the crafting scenes in the central workshop.
White steam rose from the vats, and softened metal emitted a bright white shimmer. Each hammer blow sparked a shower of bright white embers.
And beneath the vat were blocks of peat shaped like lotus roots, the new form of honeycomb coal introduced by the Holy Casting Department.
This honeycomb coal is made by drying peat, grinding it into powder, and then binding it together with yellow clay.
Each block of honeycomb coal is drilled with several holes so that the flames and peat itself can contact more air and burn more intensely.
Due to the large contact area with the air and being not easily disassembled, when used with a dedicated honeycomb coal iron furnace, 8 blocks of honeycomb coal can meet a day’s fuel needs.
This method was proposed by Saint Son Horn as early as the Autumn Dusk Island period and was highly praised when used.
It is not only convenient but also has higher combustion efficiency and is cheaper.
The price for each ton of honeycomb coal is 18 to 20 Dinars, while the price for each ton of wood ranges from 26 to 28 Dinars.
Even after the forest was opened and caused a price drop, the price of wood still remained at around 20 to 22 Dinars.
But the issue is that one hundred pounds of honeycomb coal can be used for more than half a month, whereas one hundred pounds of wood lasts less than a week.
It is due to the high price of wood and other fuels that the Thousand River Valley People intercropped rice fruit and wheat.
Although the wheat yields were low due to climate reasons, bread baked from wheat flour, compared to rice fruit, which requires steaming and boiling for every meal, is more cost-effective.
If honeycomb coal can be widely adopted, then more productive rice fruit can be grown extensively in agriculture, bringing another leap to the agriculture of Langsande County.
Even though each ton of honeycomb coal sells for only 18 to 20 Dinars, the peat workshops can still earn close to double the profit due to their low costs.
Harbin looked at the honeycomb coal spouting flames in the furnace, rubbing his chin and falling into thought.
Why don’t we cut prices again and forcefully lower fuel costs? That way, we can sell more.
But the problem is, they don’t have enough alchemists on hand at the moment.
Currently, in the market, hiring an alchemy artisan costs generally 10% to 20% more than a regular artisan.
Blindly expanding production would be difficult to manage.
"Hey kid, what are you here for?" Brock spoke with a strange tone, his face wooden as he asked Harbin.
Harbin turned around and then noticed his father walking down the stairs wearing a leather vest.
Brock’s mouth was full of blisters, and his gaze towards Harbin wasn’t friendly.
"Dad, why does your voice sound weird? What’s wrong with your mouth?"
"Fluid imbalance, too much heat fluid, got blistered up here on my mouth and tongue, no big deal." Seeing his youngest son caring, Brock’s face remained wooden, but his heart warmed.
But soon after, Brock started trembling all over with anger, sweating cold in the heated weather.
"If it’s no big deal, then hurry up and get the next batch of breastplates done." Harbin cheerfully tugged his father’s hand, "You pulled off great work; I’ll report it for you to Saint’s Grandson and get you a big reward."
"Enough! Enough!" Brock shook off Harbin’s hand, agitated to the point of being unable to speak clearly, and started pushing Harbin outside, "I have already prepared long ago, so leave if there’s nothing else."
"Oh no, please don’t." With his hands clutching the door frame, half his body was pushed outside; Harbin turned back with difficulty, "I came with a mission, seriously."
Amidst the snickering of nearby artisans, Brock reluctantly turned Harbin around.
"Dad, look what I have here." Harbin pulled out two palm-sized metal rods from his pocket.
"Mithril? Adamantine? Where did you get this?" Brock snatched the two metal rods from Harbin’s hand, carefully polishing them while his eyes sparked, "The purity isn’t bad either."
Mithril and Adamantine are two relatively rare alchemical products; apart from being naturally formed, only dwarves produce them.
These two minerals have miraculous functions: Mithril can lighten weaponry and armor, whereas Adamantine enhances hardness and toughness.
"They’re gifts from the knights of Jinhe Town." Harbin said happily, "How about incorporating Mithril into the firing rods?"
"That requires a specially made dwarven forge and materials."
"Is there a way to work around the dwarven forge?"
"Find that method and then have the humans steal the technique, right? Think it through." Brock snorted, stuffing the two metal rods into his pocket.
"Dad, look at you..." Harbin reached into Brock’s pocket, Brock firmly held his hand, and with his other hand, Harbin tried pulling Brock’s clothes, Brock turned sideways to prevent him from reaching his pocket.
After a tussle between the father and son, their clothes were messed up before Harbin helplessly stepped back:
"His Majesty mentioned that there will be a patent law enacted within five years, anyone using this technology must pay us a royalty, and we’ll earn money without painstaking making them."
"Humans’ sweet talk is too much; I don’t believe it." Brock spoke hoarsely, "Didn’t the Norn people promise not to spread out their secrets back then? What happened then?"
"This won’t work, that won’t work, what do you actually want?"
Harbin’s temper flared; he shouted on the spot, "Sure, keep stubborn; your stubbornness will ruin Saint’s Grandson’s front lines, chaos Langsande County, and collapse the Salvation Army, I’ll just die with you."
But this time Brock wasn’t angry; he instead gave him a scornful look, "Am I as oblivious as you?
Last time when you said the armor wasn’t up to par, I wrote to a few dwarf friends in North County, asking them to bring the forge over, fool."
"Wow, that’s impressive." Harbin immediately switched to a flattering expression, hugging him and planting two firm kisses on his father’s face, "As expected of you, Dad! I said you’re as sharp as ice, naturally charismatic..."
"Get down, get down!" Brock, somewhat embarrassed by Harbin, with a flushed face, tugged at Harbin’s beard and pulled him off, "Any more business? Don’t bother me if there’s nothing."
"Alright, I’ll leave, I won’t disturb you, and about the iron armor, don’t forget!"
"Enough, get out!" Brock, flustered and angry, kicked Harbin out of the workshop’s door.