When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 977 Material Power and Red Dragon

"Sneak attack!"

Horn stretched out his hands, grabbed Shilov's wolf ears and rubbed them instantly.

Almost in an instant, the wolf girl's tail immediately fluffed up and she picked up the book on the table and threw it over.

The thick notebook hit the wall with a whistling sound.

It wasn't until the notebook fell to the ground that Horn's shrunken neck returned to normal: "Is it necessary?"

"If this can teach you a lesson, it's necessary." Shilov turned the wheelchair and faced Horn. "I told you not to scare me."

Horn said nothing, but just kept smiling.

With a glare at him, Shilov turned her wheelchair and moved towards the corner, ready to pick up the book she had just thrown away.

Due to the limitations of the clockwork and the fact that key parts were severely worn and had to be manually recast by the dwarves, the wolf girl's prosthetic leg did not last long.

In addition, she was used to sitting in a wheelchair, so most of the time she sat in a wheelchair to save time using her prosthetic legs.

Holding the book, Shilov returned to the table and looked at him with a sigh: "Didn't you go to meet those people from the Iron Guild?"

"They are in the Iron and Steel Guild right now. Catherine is negotiating with them." Horn picked up a glass bottle and shook the powder inside. "What is this?"

"Astral dust, a byproduct of the Lightning Furnace, is still being tested for its properties and uses."

Horn nodded and put the bottle back.

It is currently the era of great discovery in the Holy Alliance. Strange and bizarre things are discovered and named every day. He is no longer surprised.

Pulling a chair and sitting opposite Shilov, Horn asked, "After testing, how many employees do you think such a refinery would need?"

"A lightning refinery like this probably requires more than fifty workers." The wolf girl counted on her fingers, "including smelting technicians, forgers, furnace maintenance workers, iron ingot pre-processors, quality inspectors, porters, and at least ten technical employees."

The technical employees that the wolf girl referred to were metallurgists, alchemical engineers, mechanical technicians, and clerical managers.

"A lightning refinery can create so many jobs, and the students in those schools finally have a new place to go."

As the president of the Holy Council of Theology and Technology and the Holy See Theological Seminary in charge of the Education Committee, Shilov is also under a lot of pressure.

She went against all odds, increased funding significantly, and even advocated further expansion of schools and enrollment.

It would be ridiculous if students couldn't find a job after graduation.

After hearing what Shilov said, Horn couldn't help but secretly reached out and pinched her wolf ears again: "There are more than fifty positions."

According to Horn, the lightning refinery will provide far more jobs than these.

New workers and employees always need to consume in their daily lives, right? The steel they produce always needs to be sold, right? This has led to the rise of a number of new service industries.

As for the upstream, when the refined ironworks need enough pig iron, the Steel Guild will inevitably increase production.

That would require opening new smelters, or even opening new mines or increasing mining efforts, which would require hiring people and providing jobs.

Well, these newly hired people need to spend money, right? Secondly, mining is not done by hand, so another batch of tool orders were added.

From the downstream perspective, with more steel, tinplate can be produced, and if tinplate can be produced, canneries will not be far away.

It’s the same principle again, new employees, new tools, new consumption.

Moreover, with more steel, more new products can be manufactured, not just tinplate.

The general trend is from organic products to inorganic products.

"Tsk tsk, no wonder you still feel there aren't enough literate people." Slapping Horn's hand away, Shilov covered her two wolf ears and pressed them against her scalp.

But in Horn's opinion, this made her look like a folded-ear puppy, extremely cute.

Horn nodded: "That's why I want to expand and recruit more people, but talent is only one of the limiting conditions, and the leading factor is actually concentrated in the downstream industries.

The internal problem of steel production that has constrained our development has been basically solved, and all that remains is time and accumulation.

Among the remaining constraints, the most important ones are certain viable illegal monopolies.”

"The Steel Guild, is this why you invited them here today?" Shilov still pressed her ears, fearing that Horn would launch a sneak attack.

"Yes, today we are just showing our power. If they bow their heads, they will be rewarded. Catherine will talk to them.

If they dare to talk back, then Jeanne and Carrie will talk to them. If they think they can beat me in a civil war, they might as well try. "

In this regard, Horn is quite confident.

Four years of war, four years of training, and countless veterans and reservists of the Holy League.

There are even militia organizations called Skitarii that are also undergoing military training.

If a real fight breaks out, the battle group will immediately reach the doorstep of the Steel Workers' Union.

"How do you know that the Iron and Steel Guild is the factor that restricts pig iron production?" Shilov was curious. She usually didn't care about production.

When he said this, Horn held his head and said helplessly: "These idiots caused me to lose at least 400 tons of pig iron!"

Currently, Qianhegu's annual pig iron output is about 5800 tons, an increase of about 1000 tons compared to four years ago.

This 1000-ton increase may seem like a huge increase to others, but it is definitely not good to Horn.

Compared with the same period in history, the annual output of pig iron in 1559 was 5200 tons, which was similar to that of Saint-Leninist in 1449.

In 1569, Britain's annual pig iron production was 8800 tons, an increase of 3600 tons.

To put it in perspective, the average annual growth is 360 tons, or about 1440 tons in four years. Shenglian is clearly lagging behind.

It can’t be that the Holy League is worse than the monarchy in 1560 with England?

So where does the difference of 400 tons come from?
The efficiency of wet ironmaking is a bit low, but not as low as 30%.

After using the closed peat furnace, the increase in heating temperature made the iron smelting efficiency much faster than before.

Horn also spent a huge amount of money to establish a large number of plantations of iron-smelting related medicinal herbs in Black Snake Bay, and set up a large number of iron-smelting potion workshops.

The human, material and mineral resources of the Thousand River Valley are no less than those of England in the 16th century.

Once the variables were controlled, some steel guilds immediately surfaced.

According to Halkin’s survey report:

First, the North Mound County workshop was a family-run workshop, and was simply not compatible with Horn’s process decomposition and standardized factory system.

Second, the iron smelting workshops in the Thousand River Valley are scattered (such as the hundreds of smelters in North Mound County), and the average annual output of each workshop is only 40 tons of iron, wasting a lot of resources.

Third, the most direct reason is that this crappy Steel Union and Mining Association is both monopolistic and conservative, hindering market development.

Before the current breakthrough in new iron-making technology, the upper limit of the old technology has not yet been reached!

If Horn doesn't attack the Steel Guild, who will he attack?
"What about the second constraint?" Looking at Horn warily, Shilov covered her wolf ears with one hand and reached for another memo with the other.

“I think there are generally only two factors that restrict the development of science and technology: one is materials and the other is power.

As for the material problem, we can solve it by building a lightning furnace and solving the Steel Guild.

But regarding the power issue, we have two directions.

The First Star cast gears were good, but there were too few of them and we couldn’t find a casting method, so they couldn’t be used on a large scale.

What about the clockwork engine?

It is indeed easy to cast and has mature applications, but it does not store enough energy and is too bulky and dangerous, requiring frequent replacement during operation.”

Horn spread his hands: "If we obtain the technology of star-cast gears, we can naturally eliminate clockwork machinery.

If we can’t get it, we will develop the latter on a large scale, even if it is cumbersome and dangerous.”

Shilov was very clear about Horn's implication and put down her hand covering the wolf's ears: "When are you going to Black Snake Bay?"

"I plan to complete the renovation of the Iron and Steel Guild in the fall and winter, and set off next spring." Horn took her hand, "But don't force it."

Shilov pursed her lips, her eyes wandered, and one of her wolf ears stood upright while the other drooped.

After a while, she finally made up her mind and quickly wrote down on the memo: "I, I've made up my mind. I'll go with you."

"you sure?"

"Yes." Shilov raised her head, "Didn't you say you would take me to see the sea? The first step is to go to Black Snake Bay!
Besides, I also have a lot of questions that I want to ask that Red Dragon lady..."

(End of this chapter)