Chapter 46 Petrochemical Technology
The planning of Fort William was mainly based on Richard's opinions and was approved by family members. The construction process was mainly supervised by his second uncle Powell.
After the city wall was completed, construction of the Baron's Palace began.
It will take about three years for the city defense fortifications in the three eastern and western cities to be completed.
After receiving the books from Richard, Sophia didn't care much at first.
After teaching the breathing method to several literate slave soldiers, Sophia appointed these literate soldiers as officers.
She has no military knowledge. Although she wants to improve the combat effectiveness of the army, she has nowhere to start.
In the end, only a cousin of the Stopa family could be found and appointed as commander.
Then hand the craft book to the steward responsible for managing production and start learning magic yourself.
If you want to gain a foothold in Northern Xinjiang, strength is fundamental.
After leaving the magical kingdom of Markholm, it was already difficult for Sophia to communicate with others in terms of magic academics.
But she was born into the Baron Stoppa family, and her father and brother had instilled aristocratic education in her since childhood.
Without the protection of the Stopa family, she would not be able to live well and learn magic without any worries.
Now the Stopa family needs her strength, and her brothers cry and plead.
Sophia had no choice but to leave Markholm, sold her unique magic knowledge, and returned to Vicksburg with more than 20,000 gold coins to build the territory from scratch.
Suddenly one day, Sophia picked up the advanced algebra reading book written by Richard himself.
Sophia was shocked when she saw the contents. She had never seen the contents before, and the knowledge points were very in-depth.
After reading only two or three pages, Sophia clarified a knowledge point and many doubts about magic were instantly solved.
In just two months, she improved three new magic patterns, which is equivalent to creating a new spell.
When creating new magic, the magic factor will give feedback.
During this period, a new magic was successfully created. The effect of Sophia's meditation was particularly good, and she successfully advanced to a five-ring magician.
After five years of studying magic in Markholm, Sophia only improved one level.
The learning of magic becomes more and more difficult as it progresses, especially the accumulation of knowledge and innovation, which is a great test of a magician's talent.
Learning any knowledge costs a lot of money, especially the magical knowledge unique to some powerful magicians. The price is even greater. It requires precious materials and knowledge of the same level to be exchanged.
During her five years in Markholm, Sophia participated in seven adventures and found more than a dozen kinds of magic materials before she exchanged them for three more precious pieces of magic knowledge.
These three kinds of precious magic knowledge are far inferior to the advanced algebra sent by Richard.
While Richard was busy on the dike, Sophia came to Harland's territory in person and asked him about advanced algebra questions.
At the same time, he helped Richard answer some questions about learning magic, and also asked Richard to copy many spells he knew.
As the two communicated, they felt that they had gained a lot. After a while, Richard asked his sister Wendy to join the exchange.
Wendy advanced to become a first-level magician in April and quickly learned the petrification technique.
The petrification technique is a first-level magic that Sophia asked Richard to copy. This magic is generally powerful in war. If you want to turn living creatures into Stone requires very strong mental strength.
Sophia has personally calculated that even a fourth-ring magician who devotes all his mental power can only turn an ordinary person into stone.
If the natural magic resistance is strong, a sixth-level magician may not be able to kill his opponent with petrification.
But petrification is particularly suitable for building various buildings.
This spell can easily turn sand and dirt into stone.
In key load-bearing areas, petrification can be used to integrate the stones in the building. Especially when building support columns, having a magician help can save a lot of time.
Richard sent Wendy to Fort William and asked her to help build various buildings. The addition of Wendy, a magician, speeded up the construction of the castle.
Sophia lived in the Harland Territory for four months. In July, she had mastered advanced algebra before reluctantly returning to Vicksburg. And Richard and his sister Wendy copied sixteen spells from Sophia.
Counting the thirteen spells he has mastered, the Harland family has accumulated nearly thirty kinds of magic in the collection.
Although most of them are low-level magics below the third ring, they are already very good among wild magicians.
Many nobles do not have a magician heritage, even the powerful Baron Harden family is no exception.
Sophia obtained the magic book by chance. Not every baron has the opportunity to collect magic books.
Seeing how effective the petrification technique was, Richard mastered this technique after two months of study.
With the help of their brothers and sisters, the main project of the Baron Castle was completed before winter, and all that was left was decoration.
This year, the Harland territory still had a bumper harvest, with 1,800 tons of grain harvested.
The yield per acre is slightly higher than last year.
But the most fertile and easily developed land has been basically reclaimed. The remaining paddy fields need to be irrigated by setting up waterwheels and building canals.
The water wheel needs to be built before October, otherwise it will be delayed until next year due to heavy snowfall.
In the spring of next year, farmland will not be irrigated, and the reclaimed farmland will also delay farming time and affect agricultural production.
Of the 1,800 tons of grain, 800 tons were left as rations for the slaves, 200 tons were stored in Fort William, and the remaining 800 tons were ready to be sold to Heihe Fort.
Richard didn't want to sell grain, but now the territory was short of gold coins. The only way to survive is by borrowing money, which is not the way to go. Food is already the most suitable wealth for the Harland Territory to be liquidated.
But if you want to transport the food, you still need to build nearly 50 kilometers of roads.
Roads need to be built and waterwheels need to be built.
The climate in northern Xinjiang is cold, and the slaves have insufficient clothing to keep out the cold, so they can only work for about a month.
In one month, even if all the slaves were allowed to build roads, it would be difficult to build 50 kilometers of roads.
So Richard planned to store the grain for a year, put it in the warehouse of Fort William, and lead the slaves to build a waterwheel.
The second year after acquiring the fiefdom, the Haaland family still had no income. Some still have a steady stream of expenses.
Fortunately, the investment this year is much less than last year.
We are already self-sufficient in food, and we can produce bricks, wood, lime, and cement ourselves. Occasionally, you can also catch some prey in the forest.
The main items purchased were cloth, salt, metal tools, needles, thread, and some medicines to treat diseases.
This year's expenses totaled about 4,000 gold coins, basically spent on cloth and salt.
The Harland family invested 12,000 gold coins in the first year and 4,000 gold coins in the second year.
With only input and no output, the Haaland family's funds can no longer bear it.
There is not much liquidity left, and a lot of debt is still on the table.
In the past two years, slaves have given birth to more than 500 people. A baby boom has occurred in the territory, and women's labor efficiency has been affected.
If there are any big projects next year, more slaves will need to be purchased to increase the population.
In order to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, Richard built a glass kiln and planned to make some money by selling glass products.
Geda Province already has good glass-burning technology. The glass produced by Viscount Luomen's family monopolizes the glass market in the province and earns a lot of gold coins every year.
But without a qualified glassmaker, Richard underestimated the difficulty of making glass.
Although it is simple to burn glass, it is not easy to burn transparent glass without impurities. It requires a lot of process technology to be summarized.
The glass kiln that Richard built was almost based on experience gained from scratch. How long will it take to produce qualified glass?
(End of chapter)