When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist-Chapter 666 - 624 Thousand River Valley Steel Guild and Cold Spring Castle Smeltery
The discussion about Divine Art and necromancy quickly reached an impasse.
Because these conclusions were just Hilov's mother's headless conjectures, the specific reasoning process wasn't written in the book at all.
Regarding such baseless speculations, although Horn harbored doubts, they were of no help at the moment, so he put them aside and focused his main energy on the upcoming fiscal meeting.
When the news that the Hundred Households District in South Mangde County had been completed reached the Holy Machinery Court in mid-October, Moliat arrived at the Holy Machinery Court under Horn's unarmored invitation to receive his stipend.
After a simple welcoming ceremony, Moliat took a black oak carriage to the Holy Seat Mansion for the first meeting.
"Please come in." Horn personally opened the door to his office, and as Moliat's heavy footsteps resounded, she held her iron fist to her chest and walked through the office with her chin up.
Horn stood at the door and instructed Petier: "For the next hour, make sure no one disturbs us."
"Alright, Your Highness."
Closing the door engraved with gears and sun patterns, Horn turned around and saw Moliat examining the entire room.
This study was about 50 square meters, with an additional 20 square meter reception room outside. Against the wall were three to five walnut cushioned chairs, two cabinets, and a bookshelf.
Facing the six floor-to-ceiling windows, there was a large mahogany desk and an exquisite armchair with a backrest.
The entire desk was formed by joining two tables, with a total length of about 5 meters, and when the Cardinal's council meetings were held, the cardinals would sit in a row in front of the long table.
Moliat unceremoniously sat in Horn's seat, looking up at the clear autumn sky.
Vite had imported expensive white sand flat glass with a pale blue-green hue, embedded in the round gear-patterned windows and large floor-to-ceiling windows of the Holy Seat Mansion.
The walnut core tables, velvet cushioned chairs, silk damask curtains, cyan leaf swirl porcelain, many were war spoils acquired at low costs from old soldiers by the Holy Machinery Court Hall.
However, the furniture in Horn's office was all new, partly ordered from outside, partly custom-made internally.
Compared to the extravagant furnishings and decor of the grand nobility, the decoration of the Holy Seat Mansion could only be considered at the level of affluent merchants.
Of course, luxurious as it was, the Holy Seat Mansion still belonged to all believers.
Horn merely happened to be working there.
Horn didn't mind her sitting indiscriminately; instead, he picked up the red tea from the cabinet: "Would you like some sugar?"
"A third cup of milk and half a spoon of sugar."
Once the red tea was prepared, Horn handed the cup over: "Is your Steel Guild all sorted out?"
Sipping the red tea, Moliat smiled and removed her iron mask: "Just the final touches left, your double-entry bookkeeping method is quite effective."
While Horn was reorganizing the Hundred Households District for three to four months, Moliat wasn't idle in the north. She enlisted Catherine for a large-scale restructuring of the Northern Mangde Region's mines and ironworks.
In simple terms, it was to provide housing and allocate mines to the Dragon Worship Sect's dwarves according to previous agreements.
During this period, Moliat leveraged her power to merge a large number of mines originally belonging to the nobility.
These mine owners and nobles were either invited to enjoy themselves in Pingyuan County, were directly stripped of their titles and executed, or became subjugated and were acquired by Moliat.
After four months from June to October, a steel industry consortium named the "Thousand River Valley Steel Guild" emerged in the north.
"I have established the Cold Spring Castle Iron Smelting Plant in Cold Spring Castle as you said, and hired dwarves from the Dragon Worship Sect as masters, with an annual output of about 70 tons," Moliat said, taking the fiscal budget plan handed to her by Horn.
Moliat honestly did not understand Horn's intention for her to open a new smelting plant, as the Leia Kingdom had already placed sanctions on them, so production should be reduced even considering military expenses.
"This year, we estimate an excess of 800 tons of iron; where do you plan to sell this surplus iron?" 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮
"There's no need to sell it; the demand for steel in farming tools, bridges, and railed carriages is sufficient to absorb the excess capacity," Horn waved dismissively, "We will order 100,000 sets of farm tools from you."
"Do you have the funds to pay for that? It costs over 6,000 gold pounds!"
"Don't worry, we have the funds," Horn sipped his refreshing red tea, "We can raise funds from the Falan; improved agricultural tools increase food production, which can be exchanged for more sugar at Black Snake Bay, then use sugar to repay bonds... you'll see."
Honestly, with just under 1,000 tons of surplus steel annual production, Horn found it amusing, because it's actually the output of pig iron or cast iron!
If it were steel, with this world's steelmaking efficiency, producing 90 tons would already be good.
Railed carriages do not carry heavy loads and do not require high-quality iron; cast iron is more than sufficient.
Horn calculated that a hundred meters of rail requires 5,000 pounds of cast iron, roughly equivalent to over 2 tons of cast iron. A kilometer of rail demands over 20 tons of cast iron.
This calculation even excludes the water-powered loom and lathes and parts workshops that Horn intends to build, requiring wrought iron, which is steel.
Not to mention civilian household utensils, including pots, bowls, and pans, as well as building doors, nails, pipes, locks, bolts, and a series of small components.
As infrastructure gradually unfolds, including a large number of engineering machinery and clockwork engines, all require steel.
In other words, as productivity rises, numerous emerging industries will demand steel, and future iron demand will only increase.
However, up to now, Horn hadn't heard of any breakthroughs in wet smelting for iron from Moliat, and the alternative lightning furnace remained a fantasy.
"Didn't you say Jeanne could channel aether with lightning strikes to store lightning in the moon pool of the Ethereal Tower?" Moliat asked while flipping through the fiscal plan.
Horn shook his head: "That's too unstable; we can't possibly build the lightning furnace in the Ethereal Tower, can we? So far, we haven't even analyzed what the water in the moon pool actually is."
Aether, this special astral substance, could grant gears unique power and somehow guide spells.
For instance, when Horn almost had his head sucked into the astral plane, it accidentally verified that aether could also guide lightning magic.
Because the power of that aether explosion and lightning clearly exceeded the upper limit of what Jeanne could use with her lightning magic.
Even later, Hilov tried a series of energies like fire, light, and ice, but only lightning could be guided by aether and stored in the moon pool.
Horn once considered using the moon pool to store lightning and create a lightning furnace, but the problem was that the water in the moon pool couldn't be replicated.
Later, Bachelor Kerben from the Dragon Language Alchemy Society identified the moon pool as Light Water at first glance because it could store a small amount of magical energy.
But after discovering its ability to guide lightning, Bachelor Kerben became bewildered, for this was clearly a feature of Quicksilver.
After three days of analysis, Bachelor Kerben's head was about to explode.
He suspected someone used some groundbreaking level of alchemy to merge the alchemical properties of Quicksilver with Light Water.
The absurdity of this matter, according to Horn's analysis, was akin to someone fusing strawberries with potatoes, yielding strawberries the size of potatoes with a yield of 3,000 pounds per acre.
Almost an impossibility; at least so far, such high technology was beyond Horner's ability to replicate.
Really, how did Hilov's mother manage to create this?
Thinking of this, Horn hurriedly asked Moliat: "Is the Scales Hermitage willing to send someone to meet with us here?"
"They are elusive; my mother went through great pains just to find them," Moliat set down the fiscal budget plan, "They are reluctant to disclose the whereabouts of their higher-ups; they are willing to meet with you within the borders of Black Snake Bay."
"Well, never mind; after all, come spring, I have to make a southern tour to Black Snake Bay as my schedule dictates," Horn said, "After all, we still have to finalize the sugar grain trade."
