CH 109 Unconventional Industrialization

Since March, many people have noticed a disturbing phenomenon: the gunpowder craftsmen, blacksmiths, and military engineers around them would suddenly be picked up by a carriage with the rose symbol in the early morning of a certain day, and then no longer appear in front of their eyes again.

If it weren't for the fact that their family members could still receive a letter every two weeks, people would almost think that they had collectively offended the King and were executed at the guillotine.

Saige's husband was one of these military engineers who had been transferred away. After worrying at the beginning, she gradually got used to not knowing where her husband worked. In any case she could still receive letters from her husband every two weeks, and her husband's income of one pound a month——and this was not a small sum.

One must know that her husband's annual income was only ten pounds under normal circumstances!

This caused some wives to complain about their useless husbands: "Why did I marry such a worthless guy like you! Why couldn't you be chosen by the King like Saige's husband!"

So, don't know when it started, but blacksmiths, gunpowder craftsmen and military engineers began to wait eagerly, hoping that one day, a carriage with the rose symbol would stop at their doorstep.

The overseas spies in Legrand were very puzzled:

The number of gunpowder artisans, blacksmiths, and military engineers recruited by Pureland I was enough to prepare for several wars, but what the hell, no matter how hard they tried to inquire and snoop around, they couldn't find out where exactly Legrand's "military heavy industry department" was located.

Over time, this had become an unsolved mystery in the eyes of Legrand's overseas spies. Some people even privately speculated whether Legrand had reached some terrible agreement with evil supernatural forces and those people who had disappeared had actually been used as sacrifices.

And the "Legrand No. 1 Military Heavy Industry Department", which the overseas spies tried their best to find to no avail, was officially constructed in less than two weeks.

It must be said that the undead skeletons were definitely the best construction team in the world. There were so many of them, and they didn't need to rest nor wages, and worked day and night, resulting in the progress of the construction practically leaping by the day. Moreover, their inhuman nature——the ability to fall apart and put themselves back together again——allowed them to do many things that human workers could not.

For example: Four skulls could work together to bite the same stone slab and fly into the air, quickly building a dome…..

In just two weeks, Mr. Architect at the Lunatic Academy of Sciences found himself finally with the first satisfactory construction crew he had come across. The skeletons absolutely obeyed all his requirements, and all the buildings in the heavy industry base were neat and square. Such that after the construction of the base was completed, when the skeleton team was handed over to the chemist brothers, the architect was particularly reluctant to part with them.

The skeletons were also very reluctant to part with their "contractor" Mr. Architect.

After sleeping for so long! It was the first time someone cared about whether their bones were intact, and it was also the first time someone used iron nails to repair their damaged bones…..

The Rogers brothers fell silent after learning from Captain Skeleton, who was shaving his face with his palm bones, why they were so reluctant to part ways.

——They wondered if they should tell these straightforward Mr. Skeletons that the architect was actually obsessive-compulsive, and he didn't really care about the upkeep of their bones, but just couldn't stand the skeletons whose bones were incomplete or falling apart always ambling in front of his eyes…..

After the completion of the heavy industry base, the military industry officially began to operate.

After the initial period of shock, the workers gradually discovered:

Hell was really a huge treasure trove that had not been discovered and developed.

Here were mines of the oldest rocks quietly buried and left undiscovered. The only problem was that the rock formations in hell were harder than the rock formations in the world. Fortunately, it was the supernaturally strong skeletons, not humans, who were responsible for the mining. They only needed to be responsible for the exploration and design of the mining project.

A huge blast furnace was erected on the banks of the river of departed souls.

At the beginning, the blacksmiths felt that with their apprentices not having come with them together, it would be difficult to complete the heavy blacksmithing process alone. But soon, they found that they now had assistants 10,000 times better than their apprentices who lazed about all day long.

In the previous industrial base construction and ore mining, a group of skeletons looked particularly pitiful. They didn't look like humans, but were transformed from magma lizards. Their short limbs made it difficult to perform tasks that require more dexterity. But to the blacksmiths, they were downright adorable!

"Gera! Make it hotter!"

A bare-chested blacksmith yelled, waving the hammer in his hand and beating it down again and again.

A skeleton lizard next to him raised its head halfway. Hearing his words, it opened its mouth, and a ball of fire flew into the furnace.

"Nice job!"

The blacksmith praised loudly.

The skeleton lizard he named "Gera" flicked its long, bony tail happily. If one ignored its ferocious appearance, this action was actually quite like a puppy that had received praises from its owner.

The blacksmith couldn't help but take the time to pet its flat skull, thinking in his heart that he might as well fire his own apprentice in the human world, since the boy always acted as if all his energy had been hollowed out by the ladies of the brothel when he was only simply asked to pull the bellows.

Rumble——

The sound of an explosion came from a distance, but the blacksmith was used to it, and he just continued to swing his hammer. To the left of the Iron Casting Department was the Gunpowder Research Department, which was never quiet these days.

"Thank Captain Tom."

The blacksmith grumbled.

Tom was the person in charge of their Iron Casting Department. Thanks to Tom and other department heads for their hard work, that group of madmen obsessed with explosives finally avoided playing with their "hobby" during their rest times at night.

As if they wanted to be woken up suddenly by the sound of an explosion while in bed at night!

In fact, the blacksmiths privately nicknamed the people in the Gunpowder Research Department "Explosive Maniacs", and the two Rogers brothers were well-deserved as the "Head Explosive Maniacs".

The two Rogers brothers, the deans of the Lunatic Academy of Sciences, had no problem risking killing themselves by playing with explosives in cramped spaces, not to mention that they now had such a large piece of hell at their disposal. Under the leadership of the "Head Explosive Maniacs", the gunpowder craftsmen experimented with gunpowder of different proportions and formulas one by one, as if they were simply only setting off fireworks.

The person in charge of recording the data for them was the royal scribe selected by the King. The poor little powder-faced civil servant had gone from trembling like a leaf in the beginning, to now fluttering the quill in his hand expressionlessly.

"Group A, experimental items: effective distance, explosion strength….."

"Group B, experimental items: different ratios, saltpeter concentration 66%....."

"Group C, experimental items….."

Boom, boom, boom.

Amid high or low explosion sounds, the special black stones used to test the power of explosive gunpowder on the testing ground shattered piece by piece.

On one side, Bran, who smelled of gunpowder, recorded their experimental results on paper with his ashy hands:

".....The proportion of saltpeter in military gunpowder should be best stabilized at about 75%, in the proportion of other components sulfur should be 10%, and charcoal should be 15%. The gunpowder of this formula has a temperature of 2100 degrees when it burns, and each gram of gunpowder can produce a powerful gas in the range of two hundred to three hundred cubic meters…..."

".....Gunpowder with a low saltpeter ratio formula is suitable for mining, fireworks, etc."

"I believe it's better to use different powders for different firearms....."

While the experiment was going along smoothly, a new conflict arose between the Gunpowder Research Department and the military engineers.

"I said before! The power of artillery is not limited to the power of explosion! There is also stability! Stability! The power of gunpowder is too strong for the barrel to bear, and it will explode directly. Are you going to bomb others or yourself with this artillery!" The head of the Military Design Department, a young Mr. Raul confronted Malley angrily.

"That's something you should solve!"

Malley shot back without hesitation.

"We have solved the problem of the power of the explosives. If the cannon can't bear its strength, that's your problem!"

"We've thickened the chamber walls!"

Mr. Raul was so mad at Malley that his face was flushed and he yelled angrily.

"It turns out that the only thing you can do is to thicken the iron?" Malley sneered, and he patted his scrap papers, "With your level, you are only worthy of having a guillotine."

Malley dropped the new gunpowder and walked away, leaving the engineers of the Military Design Department so infuriated they nearly fainted.

"They are just guys who study gunpowder! What do they know about cannons!"

A military engineer slapped the table and cursed angrily.

"What are you grumbling about! Don't you feel ashamed enough?" Raul gritted his teeth, "Wrought iron, cast copper…..try any material and test any new ideas…..F**k, a gunpowder smelter actually came and accused us of being incompetent in our own field!"

Under the leadership of the young department head, the group of military engineers rushed out of the office with their sleeves rolled up, and flocked to the Iron Casting Department.

The blacksmiths struck iron rhythmically, determined not to participate in the competition of this group of lunatics.

The entire military heavy industry department could be described as a chaotic zoo.

Mela the crow perched on the castle, looking at this bustling scene, moved to tears.

"Idiot….."

The Devil cast an exasperated glance at Mela who didn't feel that anything was wrong at all, and scolded in a low voice.

He sat on the spire of the blackstone castle, holding the bone scepter, and habitually blocked the occasional prying eyes from the lords of other territories in hell.

An invisible barrier enclosed the King's arsenal: prying eyes were forbidden here.

In fact, the Devil never thought that he would not even allow prying eyes. He had wanted nothing more than to let the other fellows in hell know that this place had recovered.

But, it was really…..alas!! Which hell lord ran a territory the way His Majesty did? Hell's army of death and human workers calling each other brothers and sisters. If this news was spread, how could hell maintain any face?

His Majesty was really good at throwing difficult problems at him.

Thinking about this, the Devil raised the bone scepter again, and casually pointed it in one direction.

Several fearsome bolts of lightning flashed across the dark red sky and fell into a dark abyss. In the abyss, an ancient being grunted, and couldn't help cursing that damn lunatic for having become even sicker in the head recently.

………………

While the hellish military factory was put on the right track, the Rose Palace.

After reading the letter from hell, the King rejected the military design department's request to have him declare that the guillotine was superior to the burning rack, and at the same time acknowledged their attitude of experimenting with various new designs.

The Master of the Households looked at the King reviewing those letters from hell, and thought sadly, it was over, from now on, Legrand would be reduced to a carnival of lunatics step by step…..

He imagined the future where Legrand was dominated by lunatics from top to bottom, and reported to the King with lingering sorrow: "The astrologers have arrived."