Chapter 525: Found a Treasure
Trial and error doesn’t actually require many people. Too many people will only make things more chaotic. The main test is patience, after all, you have to keep trying.
However, their forging department has done similar things before.
For example, when they were forging copper swords, if they were too long they would break easily, but if they were too short it would easily affect the combat effectiveness. In order to find the optimal length, they used patience and perseverance and kept trying.
"The new material weapons developed this time are likely to play a key role in future battles, so we must hurry up and research them as soon as possible."
Having said that, Zhou Xu thought of something else and quickly added two more sentences.
"By the way, when casting, use the mold for making enchanted weapons. I plan to make it into an enchanted weapon for use."
"In addition, I have another suggestion. You can try to break the apatite into pieces or even grind it into powder for smelting. This should make smelting more convenient."
During the conversation, Zhou Xu told Wang Dachui all his thoughts.
Wang Dachui also wrote them down one by one. Based on his experience so far, he thought that the king's ideas were basically reliable.
During this time, considering that Zhou Xu had just said that they should hurry up, Wang Dachui took the time to order his men to start crushing and grinding the aphrite while the two were talking.
Zhou Xu and Wang Dachui were watching from the side, and had some more in-depth discussions about the new material weapons that they needed to develop, and occasionally glanced at the polishing progress over there.
"So, what specific effect do you want this new weapon to achieve, Your Majesty?"
This question is very important.
It's like designing a product. You have to first say what you want the product to do? What scenarios are it suitable for? That way, their design direction can be clearer.
Zhou Xu pondered for two seconds regarding this question.
"To put it simply, my expectation is to improve the sharpness of the weapon while ensuring that its strength is basically the same as that of iron weapons."
According to Zhou Xu's idea, given the fragile state of the sharp stone, it is unrealistic to use it to increase the strength of the weapon. It would be good enough as long as he could ensure that the strength of the weapon does not decrease too much.
After all, the key here is to use the sharp stone to change the properties of iron, so that it can be transformed into a special metal like "mithril steel", so that their enchanted weapons can show better effects.
However, the forging department does not need to worry about this issue, so Zhou Xu did not intend to talk about it.
Retine is very brittle. While they were talking, the forging department member who was in charge of crushing and grinding the retine had already crushed the three pieces of retine into the size of fine gravel.
In fact, this state has been going on for a while, and the member of the forging department can clearly feel that relying solely on the pestle and mortar to hit by hand is almost the limit.
After understanding this situation, Zhou Xu took a look at the crushed sharp stone and said...
"You can crush all the sharp crystal stones into this size first, and then go to the Ministry of Agriculture to borrow a stone mill. At this time, the stone mill of the Ministry of Agriculture should be empty."
The Agricultural Department needs to use a stone mill to process potato flour, but this work is usually completed before winter. In winter, the stone mill is basically empty, so it should not be a problem to borrow it to grind the abrasive stone for the Forging Department.
While Zhou Xu was making these arrangements, on the other side, as a test for them, the quick-acting Lizardman craftsmen had already finished polishing the iron arrowhead.
After all, arrowheads are only this big, and it doesn't take too much time to polish each one.
But the point is that for iron arrowheads like this, the forging department often casts one or two thousand in a batch. As the quantity increases, the workload naturally increases.
Back to the topic, looking at the first batch of iron arrowheads that had been polished, Zhou Xu and Wang Dachui picked up one and looked at it, and also changed a few arrowheads for comparison.
To be honest, before this, neither Zhou Xu nor Wang Dachui had high expectations for the craftsmanship of those lizardman craftsmen. They were only prepared to let them do the hard labor and help out.
After all, in their opinion, the Lizardmen's weapons-making technology is too backward.
But when they saw it now, they were shocked.
Putting aside other things, at least their craftsmanship in polishing weapons is really up to par.
No! Judging from the arrowheads that glowed coldly in the winter, this was not just good enough, but excellent.
"Good boy, this can be considered a treasure, right?"
As for why these lizardman craftsmen had such skills, Zhou Xu's mind turned several corners and he quickly figured it out.
Think about what they used to grind. It was acridite! This thing was brittle and difficult to grind, but the Lizardmen craftsmen were able to grind even such acridite into weapons in batches. For them, replacing them with stronger iron weapons was a complete reduction in difficulty!
Wang Dachui also laughed when he heard what their king said.
If the more than 200 lizardmen craftsmen all have this polishing skill, it is no exaggeration to say that the efficiency of their forging department in producing weapons will definitely reach a new level! But before that, for Wang Dachui, there is still a headache that has not been solved.
"My Lord, how should I place these two hundred lizardmen craftsmen?"
Obviously, the small space in their forging department cannot accommodate more than two hundred Lizardmen. They can't just let them work on the test field all the time, right?
Zhou Xu had undoubtedly considered this issue.
"Don't worry, I've already thought about it. I plan to separate the 'polishing' work and directly form a subordinate department under the 'Ordnance Equipment Department'. I will ask Xiaoshan to open a separate workshop for them to do the polishing work. There is no need to force them here."
The scope of polishing work is very wide. It is not just the weapons of the ordnance forging department that need to be polished. In addition, some parts and equipment of the equipment department also need to be polished.
In general, the 'Polishing Department' wants to provide services for the entire 'Ordnance Equipment Department'. In this case, instead of forcing them all into the Forging Department, it would be better to set up a separate subordinate department. This should be the most convenient way.
In the future, the forging department only needs to complete the first two steps, and the final polishing step can be sent directly to the "polishing department".
Under the Ordnance Equipment Department, the Equipment Department and the Forging Department are the two largest and most core departments. Although Wang Dachui is the chief director of the Forging Department, he is also the deputy director of the Ordnance Equipment Department.
Even if a separate 'polishing department' was set up, they would still be his subordinates, so he had nothing to worry about with this arrangement of their king.
(End of this chapter)
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