When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#201 - Town Renovation Plan and Clockwork Gun Improvement Plan

“Lord Horn, look, this is what I mentioned, the style of ancient Aier, small private spaces and large public spaces.”

Witt pointed to a four-story stone house standing by the roadside. The roof of the stone house had already collapsed, revealing a moldy black wooden skeleton.

Horn pinched his nose and approached, a disgusting stench assailing him, stirring in his nasal cavity like a porridge made of pig manure, cow dung, and human excrement.

Most of the orange-red wall paint had peeled off, and the sticks extending from the windows were either clothes racks or awnings.

This type of stone house is called an insula (island) apartment, occupying about one acre. If viewed from the sky, it would look roughly like the Chinese character “回”.

The street-facing part of the first floor is for shops, the rest are livestock pens and public toilets, and the second floor is for human living apartments.

Ignoring the guards' dissuasion, Horn followed Witt directly into this insula apartment, and Witt, disregarding the decayed steps, scurried upstairs in a puff of smoke.

Ignoring the jumping Witt, Horn looked around. The inside of these houses had wooden corridors, and small windows opened on the outside.

At first glance, it actually had a sense of modern apartment buildings.

Horn took a few more steps and came to the center of the courtyard surrounded by the stone house. There was a water tank full of green duckweed, which should be the place where the insula provided water for people and livestock.

Near the corridor on the first floor, there were actually flower beds and green plants. Although they are now covered by weeds, traces of the old days can still be seen.

Sometimes Horn even wondered what was going on with the architectural technology of this Aier Empire. How could they have built such modern-like apartment buildings two thousand years ago?

However, as Horn observed further, he still discovered that it was proof of ancient technology. This kind of apartment building was still too simple.

Due to architectural technology, the insula apartment was shorter on each floor. Horn visually estimated that the top floor was probably less than two meters high.

Each floor had as few as eight rooms and as many as twelve rooms, each room was about 30 to 45 square meters, without bathrooms, toilets, let alone running water or sewer pipes.

A room was really just a room. Most importantly, such a room had to accommodate two to three people. An insula could accommodate fifty or sixty people.

“Crack!”

“Creak!”

“Thump!”

Sure enough, no matter how light Witt was, the decayed stairs could not bear his weight.

Looking at Witt who was crawling out of the rotten stairs in embarrassment, Horn asked him: “Is this where the Aier people usually live?”

“Accurately speaking, this is where the Aier commoners live.” Witt looked at the insula apartment with some emotion, “Those moneylenders, nobles, and officials live in a single-story courtyard called a domus.

And they are often the owners of these insula apartments. Relying on these insulas, they can afford to live in a domus.

This small Aier city is likely located on the border and is not as crowded as the capital Blacknail. There, an insula is only about half an acre, but it has to accommodate hundreds of people, which is really crowded.”

Horn sighed softly and turned to walk out of the insula apartment.

Walking to the street outside, Horn turned around and asked Witt, who was still full of interest: “Rocker is afraid to join us, aren’t you afraid?”

“I never liked the Duke anyway.” Witt shook his head and said, “Moreover, I care about one thing, which is the picture you drew.”

Saying that, Witt took out the stress analysis diagram Horn had previously drawn in the stonemason's workshop from his pocket: “I have seen this kind of line and analysis method at the headquarters of the Imperial Stonemason's Guild. It was on the incomplete copy of the ancient Aier's highest architectural code, 'Earthwork and Buckets'.

I think you must have the full version. If I help you with work, can you give me the book?”

Looking at Witt's slightly trembling hands, Horn was stunned for a few seconds and suddenly laughed loudly: “Okay, I'll teach you, but I have a condition.”

“You say.”

“I want you to submit a town transformation plan to me in five days, with the goal of transforming these ruins into a settlement that can accommodate at least 10,000 people. Can you do it?”

Standing in place and thinking for a while, Witt raised his head, his eyes shining brightly: “I need manpower.”

“I will send someone to contact you.” Horn smiled.

After saying goodbye to Witt, Horn wandered around the surrounding area and had a general understanding of the town. Then, under the guidance of the child soldiers, he walked towards a workshop.

The workshop was located in the ruins. It was simply built with a wooden shed roof and covered with thatch. Inside the workshop, soldiers of the Salvation Army in black were clearing rubble.

In front of a workbench, Pasric kept nodding his head, dozing off in his chair, while Haimoting was rapidly assembling the clockwork musket in front of him.

“How is it? Do you understand this?”

“A crude but useful design.” Haimoting's voice was full of heavy nasal sounds, not sure if it was the flu or Saint Sun disease.

“The firing of this clockwork musket comes from the clockwork box and the firing pin. This firing pin is actually a long nail rack with rounded heads on both ends.

One end is stuck in the cavity of the wooden handle to prevent the gear from firing the firing pin together, and the other end is placed in the barrel to fire iron sand.

When the gear rotates, it pushes the rack, and the firing pin moves forward, but because the force of the spring is too great, when the gear rotates, it will cause the firing pin to jump and tilt, so you installed a non-powered gear above the barrel to control it.

However, this structure has a problem, that is, in order to give full play to the kinetic energy of the gear, the firing pin must be very long, which makes the entire clockwork musket too long and too heavy.”

It has to be said that although Haimoting was born as a thief, she really loves what she does. She really understands this kind of tiny mechanical structure.

“These are the two problems I mentioned to you before.” Grabbing a three-legged stool and sitting down, Horn stretched out two fingers, “The first is to find a way to shorten the firing pin and the barrel, and the second is to find a way to improve the need to pull the spring key to fire.”

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“If you want to reduce the barrel, you can use a lathe in the Mechanical Palace to cut and drill holes.” Haimoting pointed to the firing pin on the table and said, “As for shortening the firing pin, we must find a metal material that is both light and strong.

This material exists, and that is the Holy Silver used by the Holy See Guards. It is light and strong, not inferior to refined iron or even white crystal steel. Can you get it?”

“Nonsense, if I could get it, would I still ask you how to solve it?”

Playing with the clockwork box in his hand, Haimoting looked at it for a long time, and finally shook her head: “Then I don’t have any ideas for the time being.”

Horn nodded in disappointment: “Think more about it in the recent period, and I will let Brock cooperate with you.”

Listening to Horn's words, Haimoting put down the clockwork box on her own: “I do have some ideas for the second question. Actually, in the structure of a single pendulum clock, there is a ratchet.

It will get stuck on the gear to prevent it from reversing. We can move this to the clockwork box, and then we need a, um, mechanism to control the ratchet…”

Haimoting frowned, seemingly thinking about how to describe this structure.

“You can make a serpentine bolt, and then use the bolt to jam on the ratchet, and grind a curve on the wooden handle, and then install the trigger on it, just pull the trigger…” Recalling the appearance of the matchlock gun bolt in his mind, Horn interrupted Haimoting's words.

However, when he looked up, it was Haimoting's curious eyes: “Your Majesty, how do you know these things?”

The bolt is simple, but it is not something that can be thought of casually. Haimoting's own idea was to launch with a lever, but it is much inferior to pulling a finger.

“Oh, I'm just suggesting.”

Horn laughed, after all, the bolt is a proven and effective structure, and it is better to try in this direction than to blindly try and make mistakes.

Skipping over the confused Haimoting, Horn looked at the burly white-haired old man: “Grandpa Chrispa, have you thought about the orichalcum problem I told you about recently?”

The orichalcum alchemy ritual consumes too much refined iron. Horn already lacks refined iron, so he can only ask for help from this Pasric who claims to be “proficient” in alchemy.

“The manufacture of orichalcum is more wasteful of refined iron, but the number of your people and mana make up for this part.”

Pasric said lightly: “Actually, the current orichalcum formula has been adjusted by many parties, based on the current situation calculated by the alchemists of Black Serpent Bay.

But you have so many alchemists entering Daze Township, you can completely rely on mana to make up for the waste in orichalcum manufacturing.”

“Then can you adjust the formula?”

Pasric said with a look of disdain: “If I, Pasri…Chrispa can't do it, then no one else can!”