In the following month, Claude spent most of his spare time on the development of the iron mine in East Mosiraga Mountains apart from dealing with official business.
While Weyblon didn't know why Claude was so interested in the mine, the fact that Claude was paying so much attention to it meant that his investment of two thousand crowns wasn't for naught.
With his help, they quickly recruited basic management personnel and nikancha youths to mine. It only took them one and a half months to start producing iron ore.
The next step was to set up a forge. Turning iron into molten iron and casting molds was a simple task. All he needed was a smelting furnace and a forge workshop. This was something Weyblon was familiar with, so he completed it easily.
However, Claude also requested for a workshop for carpentry, gunpowder, and assembly. That worried Weyblon. He didn't know what Claude was trying to do.
When Weyblon went to look for Claude, he noticed that the rarely seen Miss Anna of House Ferd was there as well. He hurriedly bowed and asked.
Since Weyblon had already signed a confidentiality agreement, he could see what kind of weapon he wanted to make.
Weyblon saw the first lieutenant beside Claude bring over two chests. One of them was filled with cylinders about ten centimeters in diameter. The top of the cylinder was made of black iron and the bottom was made of wood.
The first lieutenant then took out two metal plates from the other chest. One of the thicker plates was placed on the ground as a base while the other thinner plate was inserted into the groove at the end of the thicker plate to form an 'L' shape.
Then, the big lieutenant broke the L-shaped iron plate down, and this iron plate became a circular arc.
Not bad. It was only then that Weyblon realized that the metal plate was the spring plate used under the carriage. However, he couldn't figure out what Claude was using it for.
The big lieutenant bent the spring iron plate with one hand, and with the other he took one out of the box full of black iron cylinders, and placed it in a round hole at the end of the spring iron plate, with the wooden handle facing down.
Immediately afterwards, the large lieutenant tore off a thread sticking out from the wooden handle with one hand, while his other hand loosened the spring iron plate.
With a bang, the spring iron plate bounced back, and the black iron cylinder inserted in the round hole of the iron plate was thrown high up into the air.
Not bad, thought Weyblon. Isn't this the principle of a catapult from ancient times? If Claude is so particular about smashing a pig egg, it seems he can definitely sell his so-called weapon for a higher price in the war zone. That means more profits.
But before Weyblon could finish his thoughts, there was a loud explosion in the distance.
He turned around and saw that the cylinder made of black iron had exploded on the ground. There was a small hole in the soil in the distance, and green smoke was rising from it …
"This … this thing will explode?" Weyblon asked in shock.
"Of course. Otherwise, do you think I opened the iron mine to throw iron lumps at my enemies?"
He turned to his sister, Angelina. "Sigh, this gunpowder really isn't that powerful. It's far inferior to safe explosives. Just one of them is enough to shatter the heavens and shatter the earth. It's enough to scare people unconscious."
Weyblon didn't care whether Claude was talking about gunpowder or safe explosives. The fact that the thing could explode was already beyond his expectations.
Even though he hadn't served in the military or experienced war, he knew that the throwable weapon Claude designed would be very useful in battle.
One exploding ball might not be much of a threat, but dozens or hundreds of them would make him feel sorry for the defending enemy.
Weyblon had seen the colonies' garrisons quell native riots the most in the past.
It was basically a matter of firing volley after volley of bullets. When the vile native rioters fell, the ones at the back would scatter like chickens and dogs.
If he imagined the result of dozens of these exploding cylinders being thrown into a crowd, Weyblon believed that the nikancha would have to think twice before starting a riot.
"Can I have a look?" Weyblon asked the lieutenant as he pointed at the cylinders in the crate.
The lieutenant nodded and gave him a seat.
Picking up one of the cylinders, Weyblon immediately understood why Claude wanted to use the spring to throw it. It was a little too heavy.
Even though the wooden handle was comfortable, Weyblon estimated that he would only be able to throw it ten meters or so.
"Can you open it?" Weyblon asked.
Claude nodded. The lieutenant walked over and took the cylinder from Weyblon's hands. He twisted it counter-clockwise and the black iron cylinder and the wooden handle separated, spilling out the gunpowder inside.
The design of the so-called grenade was actually quite simple. The black iron casing was filled with black gunpowder, but the wooden handle was intricately designed.
Pulling on a thread exposed on the outside of the handle would cause the flint in the hollow handle to heat up and ignite a short pinch of gunpowder inside.
As for the gunpowder, a large portion of it was exposed. Obviously, it had reached into the black gunpowder particles within the black iron shell.
As long as the short piece of gunpowder inside the hollow wooden handle burned to the top, it would cause the gunpowder inside the black iron shell to explode ….
It was a rather crude grenade design. It was only slightly better than the ones that exposed the pinch of gunpowder and ignited it with fire.
But that was the limit of what Claude could do. After all, he was a computer administrator before his transmigration. He wasn't a genius in the sciences who could build everything.
However, it was already a huge shock to Weyblon. "General, you really are a genius to be able to design such a powerful weapon. What's its name?"
"Grenade."
Claude sighed and shook his head. "It's not that powerful. The effective range of the explosion is a little too small.
You saw it yourself. If it's filled with gunpowder, it'll be too heavy. "
That was true. Weyblon already knew its weight when he took one.
However, Weyblon said, "General, since you've already designed the throwing mechanism, there's no need to design a wooden handle anymore. Since we're not going to throw it by hand, we should just use a cast iron casing and fill it with gunpowder. Wouldn't that increase the explosive power?"
Things were always so wonderful. Perhaps it was often the words of a layman who could break through the fog in front of him and point to the truth of the matter.
Claude and Angelina's eyes lit up at the same time. Since the soldiers wouldn't be able to throw the grenades with their bare hands, they might as well get rid of the wooden handle and add more gunpowder to the outer shell. Then, they could improve the throwing mechanism and make the grenades even more explosive.
"I'll go back and test it out." Angelina hurriedly drove the carriage away.
Claude had no choice but to have Gum follow her to ensure her safety.
Three days later, Weyblon was invited by Claude's men to observe a new grenade throwing test.
He found that the grenade they were going to test this time had a completely different appearance. The wooden handle had been removed and the black cylinder had been lengthened. It now looked like a black metal bottle.
The simple throwing mechanism had also been changed to a fixed model. The spring on top had also been lengthened and thickened to the point where it couldn't be removed by hand.
A grappling hook and a turntable had been added to the side. Before throwing, the turntable had to be turned and the spring was removed. Then, it was fixed according to the scale on the turntable and the grenade was placed on it.
Similarly, when he pulled the string, a wisp of green smoke came out from the back of the grenade, which meant that the gunpowder inside had been ignited.
Then, the grappling hook was broken, and the grenade was thrown high up into the air, flying into the distance. Then, with a boom, the grenade exploded, and smoke filled the air.
The improved grenade was clearly louder than the one Weyblon had heard before, which meant that it was more powerful.
Claude nodded. He was quite satisfied with the explosive power of the grenade he tested. Of course, there was always a downside. The speed of the improved projectile was much slower than the original one.
However, in order to ensure the throwing distance and accuracy, this loss in throwing speed was still tolerable.
"This grenade can't be thrown by hand now. Bro, you'll have to come up with another name for it," Angelina said.
Indeed, without the wooden handle, the canister grenade wouldn't be easy to throw by hand.
Claude thought about it for a long time and came up with a name for it.
However, Weyblon furrowed his brow at the canister grenade he was holding.
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Claude asked.
Weyblon pointed at the cracks on the surface of the shell and asked, "General, why are there so many cracks on the shell?"
Claude chuckled. "That's simple. With these cracks, the outer shell will shatter into more than 30 pieces during the explosion. It'll cause a lot of damage to everything within a five-metre radius.
Without those cracks, the shell might only break into two or three pieces during the explosion. The threat and damage it poses will be greatly reduced. "
Weyblon smiled bitterly. "I understand, General. We'll have to work on the shell after forging it to create the cracks, right?"
Claude nodded. "That's right. That should be a simple process. There shouldn't be any problems, right?"
"Yes, General. There's no problem with us casting this black iron shell."
"But to make a crack like that in a black iron shell, we'll need cutting and planing machines, as well as a threading machine.
Those are all easily obtainable machines. The problem is that we don't have the power to do so. "
Power?
Claude found it rather odd. It wasn't that he hadn't asked around before. Simple machine tools had long existed in this world. Back when he obtained Landes' diary and magical notebook, he saw the blueprints in them.
When Landes designed the first flintlock, he designed a series of alchemical furnaces and machine tools for making gun barrels.
Even the military workshops in the three southern prefectures of Aueras had a large number of machine tools, let alone the four great gunsmiths.
Yet, Weyblon said that he didn't have the power to do so. What was going on?
But after listening to Weyblon's explanation, Claude realized that he had been oversimplifying things.
While there were machine tools in this world, they were still in their infancy. The biggest problem was the lack of power that limited their use.
Generally speaking, there were only three types of power that could be used in this world. The most important was water power, followed by animal power and the third was the legendary mana.
The four great gunsmiths of Aueras were all located in the valley. It wasn't for the sake of secrecy, but because there was a huge waterfall in the valley all year round.
Large waterfalls like this also required a high drop and sufficient water to be used as a power source for various hydraulic machine tools. These simple machine tools could be used to make all kinds of delicate objects on various metals and alloys, such as cutting, planing, drilling, threading, and so on …
The second kind of animal power was even simpler. Basically, it was to use a rotary table to pull the connecting parts, so that a simple machine tool could perform a certain reciprocating motion, achieving the role of machinery replacing manpower.
But those simple machines were mostly used in small workshops and carpentry workshops. Items that were too hard were hard to work with.
The biggest drawback was the instability of animal power, which would cause errors and waste in the finished product.
As for the third type, the legendary mana, that was something Claude had only heard of but never seen before.
It was to use the Magic Stones consumed by the Magic Array Glyphs as an energy source to drive the large mechanical device to operate steadily.
It was said that there was only one place in the entire kingdom that used mana as a power source, and that was the cannon manufacturing workshop located in the Royal City. All of the cannon barrels were produced by those machines that used mana as a power source to produce standard cannons with uniform specifications and no errors.
There were also some human-powered machines and wind-powered machines, but none of them could be put to use.
Human labor wasn't sustainable and wind power wasn't reliable. Apart from the windmills, there weren't many that could be used.
The reason was that wind power was dependent on the heavens. It fluctuated wildly and changed rapidly.
Sometimes, the moment the sails were turned around, the wind would change direction again. It was troublesome and labor-intensive.
Weyblon told Claude that the mountainous region where the mine was located didn't have any waterfalls or usable water power, so it was difficult to set up simple processing machines there.
The only way to do that was to find another place with a waterfall and transport the shells of the projectiles there for processing before assembling them.
"Have you heard of steam power before?" Claude asked.
Weyblon furrowed his brow and pondered for a long time before shaking his head.
Angelina, on the other hand, was rather interested in the mana Weyblon was talking about, but he had only heard about it from others.
He wasn't a magus and didn't know how magic stones could be used to power a machine.
He did remember what magic stones were. They were the shells of the magic crystal mines mined during the ancient magi era. Due to the fact that they were produced alongside magic crystals, they contained some mana.
During the end of the magic era, magic crystals became rarer and rarer and more valuable.
Therefore, when the mages discovered that the shells of the abandoned stones in the Magic Crystal Mine also contained a little bit of magic power, these magic stones immediately became precious magic materials.
There was only one magic stone mine in Aueras, and it was in the kingdom itself.
All the magic stones produced there belonged to the royal family.
Claude was a little annoyed. He didn't think there would be a problem with power when making grenades.
He asked if Weyblon had heard of steam power before, but that didn't mean he knew how to make one.
There was a huge difference between knowing the theory and making the actual thing. There was no way he would be able to draw out the blueprints of a steam engine. All he could do was ask Weyblon to send someone to search the mountains near the mine to see if there was any usable water power for a workshop.