Release that Witch

The second project was the residential expansion: Although City Hall had invested a lot of the workforce and financial resources to step up the construction of residential quarters, with winter soon to approach, by now there were nearly three thousand people who would be unable to live in a warm brick house. Nowadays, erecting wooden sheds and simple shelters simply couldn’t meet the requirements to resist the cold, so they needed a group of cave rooms with thick walls and kangs if they wanted to solve this problem.

The third point was to set up a dock: If he wanted to produce shallow water gunboats, he first had to arrange for a large dock, which at the same time would also affect the passage of the Redwater River. Roland intended to reduce the height of the riverbank on the western side of Border Town, to form a dry dock and install a lift gate at the side of the Redwater River so that they can control the water intake and runoff. The scale of the necessary earthwork was immense, and he would also have to rely on Lotus’ ability to complete it.

After considering for a moment, he finally decided to place the residential expansion as the first priority. Since they had invited the refugees from the Eastern Region to Border Town, they were going to have to take responsibility and provide them with the basic necessities of life. If they were to freeze or starved to death, then, not only would it be a loss for the Western Territory, but it would also reduce the people’s attachment toward this place.

“So where is the place we should build the temporary residences?” Karl asked.

“The best place would be at the place of the current serf shantytown,” Roland glanced at the map, “That place is far from the defense line of the city wall, they can also use the cover there to protect themselves from the wind coming from the Impassable Mountains.”

After the Minister of Construction left the room, Roland had just planned to take a short nap in his chair when Kyle Sichi arrived at the door.

“Your Highness, the large-scale acid production method you have requested, has been successfully developed.”

Hearing this sentence dispelled Roland’s weariness immediately. He showed a smiling expression on receiving such a pleasant surprise, Roland stood up and said: “Really? Take me to see it.”

When their group came to the laboratory at the Redwater River, he saw a few gray jars and a kiln set up beside laboratory No. five. Each jar was the height of two people and had a pipeline connected to the top, which had a smooth shape; which had clearly been cut out by Anna.

“I pay my respect to you, Your Highness,” a very young looking man said toward Roland and bowed.

“I presume you’re Chavez?” Although he had already learned about the several alchemist apprentices and outstanding alchemist that Kyle had brought from Redwater City, today was still the first time that he saw the other’s appearance.

“You even remember my name,” Chavez said astonished.

“Mr. Sichi has mentioned you plenty of times before,” Roland explained and patted his shoulder in encouragement, “Keep up the good work.” Then, looking over to the Chief Alchemist he asked, “How will this thing produce acid?”

Kyle stroked his beard and said with a smile, “The successful manufacture is entirely according to a derivation of an equation of the ‘Elementary Chemistry’. You see those kilns, the purified sulfur will burn in the kiln, and through further heating the gas produced will pass through the pipes and into a lead jar.”

“Are all those devices made of lead?”

“That’s right; only lead can resist acid’s corrosion.” Kyle nodded. “The nitro-sulpheric acid will unceasingly sprinkle down from the lead pipe at the top of the jar, and, together with the hot sulfur dioxide below, the heated nitric acid will decompose into nitrogen oxide. Finally, the water and sulfur dioxide together will generate a sulfuric acid solution. This solution will flow out of a hole at the bottom — the smart thing about this reaction is that nitrogen oxide only acts as oxygen carriers, but by itself it can’t be consumed. Therefore, the amount of nitric acids used is small, and once the reaction has started up, it can carry on working continuously!”

“How is the output?” Roland asked while agitatedly patting against a lead jar. Functioning large-scale acid production was the premise needed for mass production of smokeless gunpowder. As long as he could solve this problem, there was hope for the rise of a new generation of weapons and ammunition.

“This is the fourth device I’ve tested, the daily output may be as much as the weight of using the laboratory’s dry distillation method for an entire week.” the Chief Alchemist proudly said, “Because it is a testing device, the volume isn’t large. However, the capacity could be further improved, if you could build lead jars with a larger capacity.