Chapter 243 Magic Hot Air Balloon
The difficulty in making a hot air balloon lies in the fuel control technology. Although the magic flame lamp burns stably, it is difficult to adjust the flame size.
Anne's main focus in the past six months has been to solve this problem.
By inscribing other runes and resetting the rune array, the power of the magic lamp was divided into three levels and the flame control problem was solved.
The last problem is the hot air balloon descender. To solve this problem, the temperature needs to be controlled. The Harland territory already has a thermometer, which can visually observe the temperature.
After brainstorming, a magic apprentice who was proficient in mechanical processing finally came up with an idea and made a manual exhaust valve. The exhaust valve was connected through a string. When the string was pulled, the exhaust valve contracted and the lift formed relative to gravity. Pressure, as well as the principle of hot air rising, can squeeze some of the air out of the balloon to lower the temperature.
After overcoming all the difficulties, making a hot air balloon is no longer difficult.
A few days ago, with the help of her assistant, Annie successfully made a hot air balloon. Today, the wind was relatively light and it was her first time to do a hot air balloon flight experiment.
For safety reasons, Wendy and Annie participated in the experiment together. Wendy can fly and can save the pilot even if the hot air balloon is in danger.
In order to prevent others from copycatting, Richard also used the principle of sound wave recognition and set up a magic flame lamp to turn on the mechanism.
In the previous life on Earth, hot air balloons were tools that could only be manufactured after industrial science had developed to a certain level, and were as difficult to manufacture as steam engines. Without the use of magical means, the Harland Territory could only produce simple sky lanterns. It was not until the 18th century that the Earth produced mature hot air balloons.
Even if Richard handed over the hot air balloon to a dukedom, he would not be able to imitate it without cracking the principle of sound wave recognition.
Even if the Grant royal family obtains a hot air balloon, they will need to overcome many technical difficulties if they want to imitate it. I am afraid that it will require a large number of magicians to do research. I don’t know how many years it will take to overcome the principles of sound wave recognition, the control principle of magic flame lamps, and the use of exhaust valves. Alloy materials and other technical difficulties.
It is very difficult to copy the hot air balloon. Unlike the counterweight trebuchet, Richard is not afraid of being visited.
There were quite a few people watching the hot air balloon experiment, including members of the Mage Association, researchers from the Institute of Mathematics and the Institute of Optics, as well as military guards and staff officers.
Under the gaze of everyone, the hot-air balloon slowly flew into the sky. With the help of the wind, the hot-air balloon flew neither fast nor slow.
With the hot air balloon, although the Harland Territory has not yet organized the Lion Cavalry, it still has certain air combat capabilities through the hot air balloon.
Normally, a standard hot air balloon can carry four people into the sky.
Among the four people, there must be a magic apprentice who can control the magic flame lamp and adjust the size of the flame, and an archer who can prevent the harpy from approaching and protect the safety of the hot air balloon. There is an observer carrying a telescope who performs observation tasks, and the last one is the pilot of the hot air balloon.
After the hot air balloon was successfully manufactured, Richard immediately ordered the manufacture of six hot air balloons to train pilots.
After the magic hot air balloon was successfully manufactured, Richard formed a hot air balloon squadron and recruited archers, magic apprentices, and observers. Although the magic hot air balloon squadron had a small number of people, it was the first aerial force in the Harland territory. After replacing the former captain of the Magic Hot Air Balloon Squadron of the Griffin Cavalry
, Richard appointed a second-level professional Istruan.
Istruan is a veteran who has been in the army for more than ten years. He is also a very talented archer. His archery skills are second only to Richard and Thoros. He is estimated to have reached the fifth level.
The Magic Hot Air Balloon Squadron was formed, and the Griffin Cavalry also began training.
Half of the griffons were traded with the royal family, and there were only six adult griffons left in Harland's territory, and three were sub-adults. But the eight griffon eggs were retained by Richard. In April this year, eight griffon eggs successfully hatched six young griffons.
These little griffons grew up with humans and were easier to tame. Richard deployed professionals from the army to take care of the griffons one-on-one. When the griffons grew to sub-adults, they could try to ride them and form lions. The eagle cavalry is gone.
In order to train the Griffin Cavalry, Richard found Deng Lejin, the bishop of the Dawn Church in Geda Province, hoping to use ultrasonic waves to detect this new magic and exchange the Dawn Church's experience in forming the Griffin Cavalry.
Not long after, news came from Deng Lejin, agreeing to Richard's terms of exchange.
After receiving the experience of organizing the Griffin Cavalry from the Dawn Church, Richard immediately asked the Griffin Cavalry to learn the Griffin language.
His cousin Audrey had the best language talent. She was the first to master the griffon language. Through communication with the griffon, she tamed an adult griffon and was the first to fly into the sky.
Audrey performed very well, and Richard also appointed her as the captain of the Griffin Cavalry Squadron.
Women from the Dawn Plane can also serve as military officers as long as they are strong.
Raphael, the second daughter of Baron Fanta, has advanced to the eighth level of the Golden Knight and has become a female viscount. Her strength has far surpassed that of her father. She is a very powerful noble lord in Gascoigne Province.
Audrey is already a third-level knight, and her combat power is not weaker than that of a fourth-level warrior. In addition, she was the first to tame the gryphon. Even though the gryphon cavalry felt that they were being led by a young girl and did not look good, they did not dare to provoke Audrey. Li, you're asking for trouble.
Time has entered August, and the autumn harvest has begun in the territory.
After the autumn harvest, approximately 13,000 indentured slaves completed their five-year contracts and were pardoned as free citizens by Richard.
These new freedmen will be given a year's rations on credit in their territory, they will grow grain, and they will also be allocated fixed houses.
Of course, these houses are not free. You need to pay about four silver coins a year to purchase the house.
Freedmen were required to pay installment payments for fifteen consecutive years before they could obtain the property rights of their houses.
There are now about twelve thousand freemen in Halland Territory. Among them, 4,000 are military families who have already purchased their houses in advance because of their higher incomes. There are also more than 1,000 families who are businessmen, bureaucrats, and skilled workers who have relatively affluent living standards and have also purchased their own houses.
There are less than 7,000 households left, and the annual housing income brought to the territory is about 2,300 gold coins.
This year's land tax adds up to 15,000 gold coins, plus commercial taxes, customs duties and other miscellaneous income, the installment payment plus taxes is about 20,000 gold coins.
The tax of twenty thousand gold coins is already a lot of money.
This year, although due to fallow farming, grain production has decreased by about 10,000 tons.
However, the more than 75,000 free people in the territory did not need Richard's support, and the food reserve was enough to maintain at 80,000 tons. Forty thousand tons of grain are used as rations for the territory's 165,000 indentured servants, 10,000 tons of grain are reserved for growing grain next year, 2,000 tons of grain are used to brew liquor, and the remaining 28,000 tons are used as food reserves for unexpected emergencies.
Not counting taxed grain, the territory can sell about 26,000 tons of grain.
The price of food this year was relatively stable. Richard received an order from the army, and the Wealth Church also had a new channel to sell food. Twenty-six thousand tons of food were sold, and approximately 52,000 gold coins were sold.
Cash of more than 50,000 gold coins poured into the territory, and of course Richard would not keep it in the treasury.
There are currently about 20,000 gold coins in reserve in Fort William's treasury. As long as there are no major problems in the territory's operations, the reserve of 20,000 gold coins is enough to cope with it. With this money, Richard still decided to buy slaves, but this time he did not need to go to the Grand Duchy of Stanik in person.
After purchasing slaves for many years, Richard has become the largest slave buyer in Grant Kingdom.
Richard has purchased more than 60,000 slaves in total over the years. As a big buyer of slaves, he has attracted the attention of the Duke of Guise.
The Duke of Guise sent someone to find Richard and was willing to transport the slaves to Black River Castle. As long as Richard paid a few hundred gold coins for shipping, they were willing to provide door-to-door service.
After meeting the leader of the caravan under the Duke of Guise, Richard proposed a new business model, starting next year, using the surplus food in the Harland territory to exchange for the slaves captured by the Duke of Guise.
The Duchy of Guise is relatively arid. There are large areas of saline-alkali land in the territory. The production of food is not enough, so food must be purchased from outside every year.
The slave-for-grain plan bypassed second-tier traders such as grain merchants, transport merchants, and slave merchants, and was beneficial to the development of both territories.
The snowfall in northern Xinjiang came relatively early this year. Half a month after the autumn harvest, heavy snow blocked the mountain roads.
Heavy snow closed the mountains, and the demon hunting team also returned to the southern foot of the Eagle Mountains.
This year, the demon hunting team has entered the Eagle Mountains eleven times. The biggest gain was that after winter, due to lack of food, a group of feral wildebeests migrated to the central part of the Eagle Mountains.
The demon hunting team planned to go back and caught this group of wildebeests.
There are more than 40 wild iron horned horses in this group, including a third-level horse king.
No lord will sell the third-level horse king at all. With this horse king, the genes of Harland's subway wildebeest can be improved, which will be of great benefit to the breeding of Warcraft war horses.
Counting this group of captured wildebeests, there are about 360 wildebeests in Harland's territory.
About two hundred of them are sterile geldings. Almost all of these geldings are in the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade and the Reconnaissance Brigade. There are only about 160 Iron Horned Horses that can normally give birth and expand the population.
Among them, there are only 80 horses in the Iron Horn Horse breeding base, all of which are the best quality stallions and mares in the territory. The breeding base can give birth to about 20 foals every year.
After this successful hunting, Richard gave a large amount of bonuses to each demon hunting team member, with an average of about fifty gold coins per person.
Sulla participated in this hunting operation. After returning to the territory, he once again invited his old comrades from the First Squadron to dinner.
More than ten years have passed, and only about seven or eight old comrades remain in the army. The best among them is Zhannings, who is already a fourth-level warrior and also serves as the captain of the territory's sixth brigade. Those who didn't do well were promoted to advanced warrior students and served as squad leaders in the army.
Although the squad leader has a low position, he gets a salary of one gold coin every month. With the military age allowance, he can earn 20 gold coins a year.
The Haaland territory is rich in products and the price level is lower than that of Black River Fort. Ten gold coins can make a family live a very prosperous life.
With an annual income of twenty gold coins, his living standard is slightly better than that of professionals in Black River Fort.
The place for entertaining guests was still the hotel in Odaille. After several years of development, there were already 18,000 freedmen near Fort William.
The free citizens of Harland Territory are all people with spending power.
With the increase in the consumer population, the market has also expanded a lot. The business of the restaurant run by Odaye is getting better and better. It has turned a profit since two years ago and can earn a net profit of thirty gold coins a year. In another year or two, the gold coins invested by Sulla will be able to recover the cost.
Zhan Ningsi came on horseback and saw Su La standing at the door of the hotel. He jumped off the horse and said apologetically: "I'm really sorry for keeping everyone waiting for so long." "
You became the captain and you are very busy every day. It’s good to be able to come to the party with dignity. It shows that we haven’t forgotten our old comrades. Now everyone is here. If you don’t come over, we will have a party.” Zhan Nings is very close to Sura, who is also a third-level warrior
. Infantry squadron captain, although Jennings's status is much higher than Sulla, the two are still in the same class. Occasionally we can see each other during military meetings.
A few days ago, the demon hunting team returned to Fort William, and a group of stallions were eliminated from the Warcraft breeding base. When Jennings received the Warcraft horse, he met his old comrades.
Su La made a joke and entered the second floor of the hotel chatting and laughing with Zhannings.
After coming in, everyone still ordered a roasted whole lamb, two fish, and on Odaye's recommendation, they also ordered the restaurant's new signature dish, roasted suckling pig.
After pouring the wine, everyone drank a few rounds. The distilled wine in Haaland's territory has a high degree of alcohol. Even strong professionals will feel a little drunk after drinking a few kilograms.
After getting drunk, everyone relaxed and forgot their differences for a while.
The theme of gatherings of old comrades-in-arms is often to reminisce about the past, recalling those friends who struggled with them and sacrificed for many years when they first joined the army.
"Do you remember the first time you participated in a battle? Although I became a professional at that time, I had never actually participated in a battle. I was very nervous inside. My legs were even shaking a little when I was in formation. I was so nervous that I couldn't express my feelings. Words come.
After the battle with the kobold squadron, Varanda and Som stood by my side, and soon died at the hands of the kobolds. The person I had been with day and night died beside me, which suddenly made me a little confused. At that time, all I could think about was revenge, so I rushed into the depths of the kobold army and killed six kobolds, making my first military exploit. "
Zhannings took a big gulp of a glass of wine, and even shed tears as he spoke. He obviously thought of his old comrades who had died for many years.
"Actually, when we were in formation, I noticed that your legs were shaking, and I was laughing at you in my heart. Although this little kid is talented in practicing breathing techniques and his physical fitness has improved rapidly, he is still a timid and cowardly person. I secretly pray in my heart, hoping that you can hold on and never run away. Once the officers run away, the soldiers will follow. Once the battle fails, we will die without a burial place.
I didn't expect you to be so brave when there was a real fight. You were the first to rush into the kobold formation and led us to defeat the kobolds. Together with Mr. Richard and Captain Thoros, we killed the kobold officers. Our casualties were minimal. Ate the kobold squadron. It was only after this battle that you convinced me. "
Julian was a serf soldier under the command of the nobles of the Kingdom of Delon before he was captured. Although he did not practice breathing techniques, he still had several combat experiences. His and Sura's talents were pretty good. Although not as good as Jennings, they were above average.
At the beginning, I was not very convinced by Jennings, who was promoted to an officer at a young age.
"Time passed in an instant. More than ten years ago, who would have thought that we would become professionals and have the hope of becoming hereditary nobles. We can be where we are today thanks to Mr. Richard. "
Yes. When Mr. Richard is promoted to a hereditary earl, he can be granted the title of baron. We will work hard to practice the breathing method. After being promoted to a high level, we will have the opportunity to become a hereditary noble." Especially Jennings, he will definitely change his destiny and become a hereditary noble. "
After listening to everyone's compliments, Zhannings shook his head hurriedly and said: "This kind of thing depends on luck. Only if the Harland territory develops rapidly and Master Richard is promoted to a hereditary earl, then we people will have a future.
"Yes, I wish Mr. Richard will become a great nobleman soon. " Let’s have a drink for Mr. Richard. "Sura raised the wine glass and drank a large glass of wine.
(End of chapter)