Chapter 305: Heavenly Stone House
"Today is my first harvest festival since I became the Lord of Storm Territory! I want to tell you here that I am very satisfied with your hard work over the past six months. All of you have paid the full agricultural tax, and I hope you can continue to maintain it in the future!"
Looking at the dark mass of serfs below, Gervis spoke loudly.
But to be honest, Gervis didn't have much to say to them today. He just briefly praised the tax collection situation this year and was about to end his speech. After all, it was more effective to give the serfs money or food directly than to give them spiritual chicken soup.
"Now, I declare that this year's Harvest Festival has officially begun. Everyone can pick up lunch from Butler Thomas!"
"Thank you, Lord, for the reward!"
"Thank you, Lord, for the reward!"
The serfs stretched their necks, originally thinking that the lord might nag for a long time, but they didn't expect that he finished his speech in just a few seconds.
When they heard that food had begun to be distributed, all the serfs smiled happily and lined up in a long queue under the organization of the guards to receive the black bread and large pieces of meat prepared for them by Gervis.
He showed up in front of the serfs once and expressed his generosity. After that, Gervis had no part in the Harvest Festival. After all, it was a festival for workers, and Gervis was now an evil exploiter.
After getting off the platform, Gervis did not return to the castle to practice immediately. Since he had already arrived in Binhai Town, Gervis planned to go to the Tiangong Stone House in the town first. There was something that Gervis was thinking about.
There are three stone houses in Binhai Town, two of which were purchased and occupied by Bernard and Brian respectively. The other stone house was previously used by the government official to handle government affairs. However, as the number of serfs in Storm Territory gradually decreased, the serf territory with only 2,000 people did not need a government official at all, so this house became vacant.
Today, this stone house has been renovated and cleaned, and was named Tiangong Stone House by Gervis himself.
The word "Tiangong" was taken from "Tiangong Kaiwu" in his previous life. As the name suggests, Gervis intends to make this stone house a workshop for various tools in his territory.
Gervis was just an ordinary person in his previous life. It was a bit unrealistic to ask him to invent glass and cement. After all, he only had a vague understanding of the ingredients of cement and glass, and he didn't know where to start if he wanted to experiment.
There are special factors that led to the invention of black powder. As a man, Gervis was particularly interested in gunpowder, guns and other weapons in his previous life, which made him remember the production of black powder.
But what about glass and cement? Although these two things can be found everywhere, people don’t care how these common and cheap things are produced.
For example, Gervis only vaguely remembered that glass could be made from sand, because sand contained quartz, but what else could it be made from? Gervis had no idea.
There is also cement. Gervis also remembered some of the raw materials of cement, including gypsum and iron ore, but he still only remembered these two incomplete raw materials. What's more important is that in order to burn cement and glass, temperatures of thousands of degrees are required. Gervis felt that he should not think about getting involved in these modern things in his lifetime.
Although Gervis could not invent modern products, there were also backward periods in his previous life. Gervis felt that if he could manufacture some of the ancient tools that were not complicated but could play a huge role, it would likely have a great impact on the development of his territory.
For example, the curved plow, which was something Gervis often saw when he was a child. A large buffalo pulled an iron plow, and a person just had to drive the buffalo from behind. It was countless times faster than plowing the land manually, and it saved both effort and time. So Gervis had drawn a simple blueprint and gave it to the carpenters and blacksmiths, asking them to first make a sample and then improve it, so that it could be put to good use next year.
In addition to the curved plow, Gervis also drew sickles, guillotines, water wheels, windmills and other primitive tools from previous lives. Although these were the most primitive tools, they were practical and reliable. After all, these tools were the result of hundreds or thousands of summaries and accumulations in previous lives.
For this backward society whose technology tree is suppressed by fighting spirit and elf bugs, these tools can definitely improve the farming efficiency of the serfs in Storm Territory.
Along the street, Gervis brought his maid and bodyguards directly to the Tiangong Stone House.
When Gervis walked into the house, the carpenter and the blacksmith were busy.
"Owner!"
"Owner!"
When Gervis came close to them, the blacksmith and the carpenter finally reacted. They quickly put down the things in their hands, knelt on the ground and saluted to greet Gervis.
"Get up, you won't have to carry luggage when you work anymore!"
"Is this the sickle you just forged?!"
After Gervis asked the two to stand up, his eyes were attracted by a semi-finished product on a wooden table. It was a crescent-shaped sickle with triangular teeth, but the wooden handle had not yet been pressed on. Gervis picked up the sickle and touched it. It was exactly the same sickle in his memory.
"Yes, Master, I hammered out this sickle according to the note you gave me, but I haven't put on the wooden handle yet."
The slave blacksmith's forging skills were very average, and he couldn't even forge a decent sword, but he had no problem forging these farm tools, so he answered Gervis carefully.
"Very good. You must forge 50 sickles for me in the next two days. The territory is currently building a stone house, and the roof of the stone house needs thatch. These sickles will be just what we need."
Gervis nodded with satisfaction, and then said to the carpenter beside him: "The curved plow can be made in a few days. Make the wooden handles of these sickles first. Do you understand?"
"Understood, Master! I will start making it now."
The carpenter standing by did not dare to delay and immediately agreed respectfully.
Only then did Gervis walk towards the backyard of the stone house with satisfaction. Gervis came here this time not for the sickle and the plow, but for the things in the backyard.
There is a well in the backyard of the stone house. A stonemason is sitting by the well. He is not surprised by Gervis's arrival. The thing in his hand is the crystal stone that Gervis asked for from Alice.
The stonemason was concentrating very hard, carefully polishing the crystal on the oilstone, when he suddenly noticed a figure blocking most of the sunlight. This time, the stonemason discovered the presence of Gervis.
"Owner!"
"Well, how is the grinding of the crystal cake going?"
Gervis's eyes were fixed on the small piece of crystal in the stonemason's hand. The crystal had been ground into a round shape with a diameter of seven or eight centimeters and a thickness of about two centimeters.
"Master, I just cut the crystal stone you gave me into pieces yesterday. This is the first crystal 'cake' I'm grinding today. Now I'm just grinding the shape into a round shape according to your request. Next, I'll grind the edges of these two sides into arc shapes."
The stonemason did not dare to neglect the question asked by Gervis, and quickly put the crystal "cake" in the wooden basin beside him to wash it, and then handed it to Gervis for inspection. While Gervis was inspecting the crystal, the stonemason began to report the progress of his work to Gervis.
Although the stonemason didn't know why his master cut the huge and extremely precious crystal stone into many pieces and asked him to grind the crystal into pieces of strangely shaped crystal 'cakes', none of this mattered. What mattered was that his craftsmanship satisfied his master.
"Well, that's right, but there is one thing you need to pay attention to. When you are grinding the two sides, you must look at it several times in the sun to make sure that the outline of the crystal cake is round and clear, and the scenery cannot be distorted."
"Yes, Master, I will definitely pay attention to it!"
The stonemason agreed immediately.
After getting confirmation from the stonemason, Gervis handed the crystal 'cake' back to the stonemason.
The stonemason carefully took back the crystal 'cake' and continued to grind it.
Seeing the stonemason continue to work, Gervis turned and left the natural stone house.
The crystal "cake" polished by the stonemason just now was actually a random name given by Gervis. The real name should be called a concave-convex mirror.
The reason why Gervis asked Alice for these crystal stones of top quality and transparency comparable to glass was actually to make a telescope.
There is no glass in this world, but there is crystal stone with such high transparency. The only drawback is that the cost is too high.
However, Gervis was only planning to make a few monocular telescopes for himself and the people around him, so of course he didn't care about the price.
Although Gervis knew the principles of the telescope, in this backward world, turning a large piece of crystal into a concave and convex lens like in the past life could only be done by hand.
So Gervis selected the best slave stonemason to help him grind the lenses. The stonemasons in this world are not just good at building houses and walls. Many skilled stonemasons are actually half artists, and many reliefs on the walls of mansions are their masterpieces.
(End of this chapter)
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