Lord: Starting with Summoning the Regular Army of Earth

Chapter 91 Eleanor's Role

Thanks to the efficient organization of Will, Old Sam, Conrad, and others, the new "people" received a hot, thick soup mixed with beans and salted meat, as well as a hearty rye bread.

For them, who hadn't had a proper meal in a long time, this was undoubtedly a delicacy, and it gave them a real sense of comfort that they hadn't felt in a long time.

Looking at the bustling scene around them and the busy figures, they were filled with energy. For them, it was not about suffering, but about living, about vitality, about hope, and about a scene of happiness.

After finishing their meal, Yak and his sister Lina played happily, running around. The adults watched the children's laughter and joy, and long-lost smiles appeared on their faces.

After dinner, Will, Sam, and Conrad divided everyone into three groups: one group of skilled men, one group of unskilled men, and one group of women and children. They then took them to learn about the work they would be doing next.

For example, building city walls, mining ore, moving bricks in kilns, weaving bamboo baskets, and so on.

During this process, the three also explained the work point system to everyone again, talked about the benefits of becoming citizens in the future, and reiterated some important rules.

Finally, all the people were separated by gender and placed in well-ventilated, dry longhouses as temporary accommodations.

Although crowded, each person had a bed covered with hay and a rough but clean thin blanket, which was a very good treatment for those who had struggled in despair.

More importantly, they are filled with hope. In just three months, if they earn enough work points, they can become true citizens and exchange those work points for their own houses, goods and supplies, and even farmland.

The next day, the newly arrived citizens were quickly assigned to various production and construction teams. Under the leadership of Will, Conrad, and the original core members, they devoted themselves to tasks such as building city walls, quarrying limestone, firing brick kilns, and felling trees and sawing timber.

Although it was hard work, the fact that they could eat their fill, that there was a fair system, and that they could see hope inspired them to work with amazing enthusiasm.

After resting for a night, Eleanor, accompanied by Will, began a systematic tour of Emberstone Ridge.

From the city wall construction site to the brick kiln, from the cement mixing plant to the lime kiln, from the gunpowder production to the soap factory, the more she saw, the deeper her shock and curiosity about Matthew grew.

She knew very well that this land held wisdom far beyond what the outside world could imagine.

To be precise, it was the summoned creatures that Matthew brought technology and knowledge that did not belong to this world. As for where they came from and why they were summoned,

Eleanor is a smart girl; she knows what she should ask and what she shouldn't.

However, during the process of observation and understanding, she also began to silently ponder how her alchemical knowledge could be combined with these strange techniques to bring out its unique value.

When Eleanor and Will arrived at the blast furnace area, they found the atmosphere there to be rather somber.

At this moment, experts and technicians such as Matthew, Zhang Hongjian, He Wentao, Liu Han, and Wang Qinian were staring at the blast furnace outlet, their brows furrowed.

The blast furnace has been successfully ignited and running for most of the day, but the tapping of iron is not going smoothly.

The molten iron that flowed out was intermittent, dull in color, and mixed with a large amount of impurities and slag, clearly failing to reach the ideal state.

"The blast strength is still not stable enough!" A technician wiped the sweat and coal dust from his face, his voice anxious. "The hydraulically driven bellows are not strong enough and are not very stable, causing the temperature inside the furnace to fluctuate too much. Moreover, the refractory material in the tuyeres area is being worn away faster than expected, and some high-temperature areas may have already burned through!"

"The furnace charge ratio may also need to be adjusted. It seems that the proportion of ore, coke, and limestone is not entirely suitable for the local ore," another technician added, holding a freshly extracted iron sample with a furrowed brow. "The pig iron produced in this way has a high sulfur and phosphorus content, is too brittle, and is prone to cracking when forged directly. It is far from the tough steel we need."

Matthew appeared calm, but he was just as anxious inside.

Blast furnaces are the cornerstone of the territory's industrialization. If qualified pig iron cannot be produced stably, the subsequent manufacturing of weapons and tools will be fatally constrained.

Although they possess knowledge ahead of their time, when it comes to adjusting process parameters and the microscopic level of materials science, they need a lot of practical exploration, which takes time, and that is what they lack most.

Eleanor looked at Will with some curiosity and asked what had happened. Will gave her a rough translation.

Will was also involved in the construction of the blast furnace.

With the language and writing barriers resolved, much of the territory management was handled by the goblins summoned by Matthew, giving Will more time to learn about the knowledge from another world.

Especially now that Will has basically mastered the everyday language and most of the commonly used written language on Earth, and can understand the conversations of Earth's experts and engineers, he feels like he has opened the door to a new world.

This filled him with curiosity about the world from which those summoned creatures came, and with longing for the knowledge and technology they possessed.

Therefore, he followed and recorded the entire design and construction process of the blast furnace.

"Sir Will, could you explain in detail how this furnace works? What generates the high temperatures? How is the airflow delivered into the furnace?"

“Of course!” Will was happy to share these things with Eleanor, and he thought that Eleanor, who was skilled in alchemy, might be helpful. “Advisor Eleanor, the blast furnace uses water power to drive that large bellows, forcibly blowing air into the bottom of the furnace. The furnace is layered with iron ore, coke, and limestone. The coke burns to generate high temperatures, melting the ore, while the limestone is used to combine with impurities in the ore to form slag. The volume and stability of the blown air directly affect the efficiency of coke combustion and the temperature inside the furnace.”

Eleanor listened intently, her light blue eyes sparkling with thoughtful consideration.

She carefully considered Will's words and the problems they were currently facing, her gaze falling on the air inlet area where the bellows connected to the furnace body.

Finally, I took a look at the simple mechanical structure that controls the rotation speed of the waterwheel.

After a moment, she turned to Will, a bright light flashing in her eyes: "Scholar Will, I have a preliminary idea. Perhaps I can try to improve the problem of insufficient wind force and instability in the wind direction."

"Tell me more details!" Will immediately became interested; he knew Eleanor might have a solution.

Eleanor organized her thoughts, trying to explain in an easy-to-understand way: "In alchemy, we sometimes need an extremely stable, controlled source of heat to work with delicate materials. Besides improving fuel and containers, we also use a method—drawing arrays of 'breath' and 'constant temperature' runes."

"This isn't a powerful spell that directly generates wind or flames, but rather a function of 'guiding' and 'stabilizing.' We can try drawing airflow-stabilizing runes on the inner wall of the air intake duct using a special magic-guiding material. It can't blow air, but it might smooth out the turbulence in the airflow from the bellows, allowing it to be delivered into the furnace more evenly."

"Furthermore, we can embed tiny heat-dispersing runes into the refractory brick lining in areas prone to overheating. These runes do not cool the area, but they can very slowly guide the overly concentrated heat to the surrounding areas with slightly lower temperatures, similar to—allowing the heat to flow and preventing a single point from overheating and burning out."

This requires extremely high precision and an understanding of the material's magical properties, but I can try.

She paused, then added, "This requires using mineral powders with good magical conductivity mixed with high-temperature resistant binders to draw the runes. The effects may not be immediate, and it cannot replace a good furnace design and refractory materials, but it may serve as an auxiliary adjustment to improve the system's stability and durability."

Will's eyes lit up at Eleanor's idea, because he knew very well that it was indeed a very feasible plan. So he immediately stepped forward and reported Eleanor's ideas and thoughts to Matthew in detail.

Upon hearing this, Matthew's serious expression instantly relaxed, replaced by surprise.

He instantly grasped the core of Eleanor's idea—it was essentially a passive magical control system.

It does not provide energy, but rather optimizes the distribution and transfer efficiency of energy.

It is like the prototype of fluid deflectors, heat pipe technology, or distributed sensors and actuators in modern industry.

Although the methods differ, the goal is surprisingly consistent: to achieve a more stable and uniform process environment.

"Wonderful!" Matthew couldn't help but exclaim, his gaze fixed intently on Eleanor, which was exactly what he expected from her.

"Eleanor, your idea is invaluable!" Matthew exclaimed. It's not about replacing existing technology, but rather adding the finishing touch.

Even if the wind power stability can only be improved by 10% and the service life of refractory materials can be extended by 20%, it will play a huge role in the stable operation of the blast furnace.

Evelyn (Eleanor) was overjoyed to receive this affirmation, as if she had finally found her own value. She smiled and performed a standard aristocratic lady's bow.

"Evelyn, what materials are needed to achieve these functions? Is it complicated to implement?" Matthew asked.

"It's not very complicated. It might require some alchemical tools and common magical materials, which aren't hard to find," Evelyn said.

"Okay, give Will a list and I'll arrange for someone to buy it for you as soon as possible."

"Yes, my lord." Will and Evelyn left together.

Matthew then shared Evelyn's idea with everyone present. Although they didn't quite understand it, they all knew that in this world where magic existed, organically combining magic and technology might indeed help them solve many technical problems.

Just like Matthew now, who can process and manufacture many parts by using the magic of magic, he can definitely skip many steps and speed up the technology tree by making good use of magical power.

This is also the "mysterious power" that Blue Star Technology desperately needs.

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