Chapter 13: Iron does not conduct electricity?

Bends of lightning flashed through the beech trees, illuminating the previously gray mist.

A faint smell of rain lingered at the tip of Horn's nose, and the heavy humidity formed water droplets on the tips of his hair.

In the open space beside the woods, golden hair was flying with the lightning. Jeanna, wearing a leather corset, was constantly shooting lightning in her hands, bombarding the metal plate armor hanging on the tree.

"Okay, stop."

To stop Jeanna's lightning and thunder, Horn quickly walked to the metal plate armor and lifted it up with a branch.

A squirrel jumped out with its big tail bouncing, and it flew so fast that it almost left an afterimage.

Reaching out to touch the edge of the armor, Horn looked at the part of the armor that had been blasted to white-hot and melted with some disbelief.

"How is this possible?" Horn was a little stunned. "Why is it not conductive?"

Yes, Horn had noticed something was wrong when he saw Jeanne pierce Barnett's chest.

Her pitchfork could not break the defense of Barnett's armor, and if the current was large enough to melt the armor in less than half a second, Barnett inside the armor would have been electrocuted into charcoal long ago.

Barnett was wearing half-body plate armor similar to three-quarter armor. Although he had iron boots, he had no thigh armor, which meant he had no ground contact.

The lightning released by Jeanne actually only heated the armor instead of conducting electricity through the metal armor and electrocuting him to death.

The lightning would not enter Barnett's body until Jeanne pierced his armor and touched his body.

Metals only heat up when electricity is applied? Does this mean that the metals in this world may be a semi-insulator with extremely high resistivity and extremely high temperature coefficient of resistance?

Or, is the lightning in Jeanne's hand just covered with the outer shell of lightning, and the inside is made of a completely different substance?

As if he had thought of something, Horn turned his head suddenly and said, "Jeanna, have you ever heard of things like the devil tide or the divine disaster?"

With two dark circles under her eyes, Jeanna looked confused as if she had just woken up from a dream: "What was that?"

Looking at Jeanne's confused face, Horn did not continue the topic.

He walked forward and carefully observed the dark circles under Jeanna's eyes: "Does using this arc magic take so much mental effort on you?"

"No, if you only bombard in one direction, you have to bombard continuously for a while before you feel dizzy. You will feel better after a short rest."

"Then why are your eyes dark?"

"Yes, I want you to take care of it... The ground is too hard. Is it okay if I didn't sleep well?"

"If you didn't sleep well, then you didn't sleep well. Why are you yelling so loudly?" Horn was picking his ears with a confused look on his face. He patted his empty stomach and said, "It's time for lunch. Let's eat first."

Pulling Jeanne along with him, Horn went straight from the clearing at the edge of the forest to the hillside where the villagers lived.

A long thatched hut had been erected early in the open space.

Hanging over the stove, several large black pottery pots were bubbling with food, emitting hot steam. The sweet aroma of rice crackers wafted across this small hill.

Rice crackers are the staple food crop in the Qianhe Valley.

It is a grain similar to rice, but much larger than rice, with one grain being as big as the nail of your little finger.

The Thousand River Valley is unlike other places. The hot monsoon from the Emerald Sea and the cold current from the Furnace Highlands meet in this mountainous area, resulting in abundant rain, warm and humid weather in the Thousand River Valley.

Crops such as wheat that the imperial people often eat prefer drought to moisture, while rye, which can tolerate moisture, cannot tolerate heat.

If the ancestors of the people of Qianhe Valley had not brought the crop of rice crackers from the Flesh and Blood Royal Court, Qianhe Valley would probably have been deserted like the Black Snake Bay in the south.

Although rice crackers can be eaten directly, locals are accustomed to boiling them before eating.

These rice crackers were Barnett's legacy. The old man hid a total of 400 pounds of rice crackers and was unwilling to take them out.

Horn knew that the armed farmers actually hid some food, and Barnett's food was probably used to control these armed farmers.

In the eyes of the people here, as long as the armed peasants are stabilized, the remaining people are not worth mentioning.

I'm afraid Barnett would never have thought that the two magical beings, the Holy Grandson and the Holy Daughter, would appear out of nowhere.

One destroyed his status spiritually, and the other destroyed him physically.

In front of several pottery jars, the villagers lined up in a chaotic formation and clamored to receive rice porridge. Seeing this, Horn shook his head, picked up the rice porridge that had been prepared for him, and walked towards the hunter's cabin while shoveling it into his mouth.

The door of the hunter's hut was open. A clay pot was standing on the kang in the middle of the hut. A fragrant fish soup was cooking in it, and green wild vegetables were bubbling in the white soup.

The rich aroma spread outside, and even though the villagers had just finished lunch, they couldn't help but stick their heads out to take a look.

In the mist, five people sat around the fish soup in the middle. They were the four newly elected heads of the ten households, Busak, Haze, Jeshka, Chap and Father Kosse.

Jeshka sat cross-legged with his head lowered, looking absent-minded.

Father Cosset's face turned pale as he drew the word "噴" on his forehead and prayed.

Haze put his palms on the corners of his mouth, tilted his head, and spoke mysteriously to Busak.

As the only armed farmer, Busak sat properly, looking at the people in front of him with contempt.

As for the last head of ten households, Chapu, he stared blankly at the firewood under the pottery jar.

Walking in from the gate and sitting in the first seat, Horn examined the four heads of ten households in front of him one by one with a satisfied smile on his face. There were two public book farmers, one refugee, and one armed farmer.

For modern people, it is normal to select these four ten-household heads according to the population ratio. However, in the Holy Aiel Empire, it is normal for the four ten-household heads to be armed peasants.

After swallowing the last mouthful of rice porridge, Horn scooped a bowl of fish soup with a wooden bowl, added the fish head, glanced around, and handed the fish soup to Busak first.

Busak straightened his back as if it was his right and he was very pleased, and took the fish soup respectfully.

With his hands free, Horn said straight to the point without further ado: "The four of you are all leaders who are trusted and respected by people in your respective ten households. From now on, I will order you to do whatever I want. If you do it well, you will be rewarded. If you don't, you will be punished.

Today I have called you here for the same reason as for the believers within your ten households.

To be honest, the knight only has about a hundred pounds of food left in his storage, which can only last for one more day at most, so the famine problem must be resolved quickly.

I've said before that you are allowed to enter the forest to forage for food, but there must be a rule for how to forage for food. You can't just let everyone go into the forest. Not only will it scare away the prey, but the effort they waste will not be worth the effort they put into finding food."

At this moment, Busak finished his first bowl of fish soup. Horn picked up the empty bowl and scooped another bowl for Jeshka beside him.

"So, I decided to divide the work. Jieshka, you find a few people with hunting experience to form a hunting team to hunt wild animals and birds."

Jeshka took the fish soup and said, "I am willing to serve you, Master Saint Grandson."

Both Busak and Haze stared at Jeshka with some jealousy.

Ever since the previous generation of knights donated the woodland to the Archbishop of High Castle, they have not been allowed to enter the forest for nearly twenty years. The armed farmers who were originally responsible for hunting have switched to opening spinning workshops.

But there are many poachers or former hunters among the refugees. For example, Jeshka himself is an old poacher and often deals with the nobles' forest rangers.

To form a hunting team, it is natural to select leaders and main forces from among the refugees.

"Hmph, stinky outsider." Haze muttered.

"From each of the ten households, select four or five strong men with good strength and legs to join the hunting team. About twenty people should be enough." Horn handed the third bowl of fish soup to Haze.

He wiped his hands on his pants and continued, "In addition to the hunting team, there is also a gathering team. Similarly, each of the ten households will select fifteen people with nimble hands and feet and good eyesight, both men and women, to collect wild vegetables, turmeric, wild fruits, garlic, acorns, firewood, mushrooms, etc.

The collection team does not need to act collectively. Each of the ten households can divide the area and collect their own crops. Just manage your own business.”

The fourth bowl of fish soup was given to Chap. Chap didn't even say thank you, but just took the wooden bowl woodenly and drank the fish soup.

"In addition to gathering and hunting, there must be a baggage team. Every day, each household will temporarily select people according to the situation to be responsible for cooking, taking care of children, mending clothes, fetching water, building and repairing huts, etc. Previously, it was too wasteful for each of them to cook for themselves. From now on, everyone will cook together and eat the same food."

As he spoke, Horn handed the soup with fish tail to Father Cosset and said, "As for the rest of you, don't be idle. If you can't work, sing hymns and pray. As for what to sing and how to sing, Father Cosset will stay and discuss it in detail later."

Kesai took a sip of the soup without tasting it.

Stirring the pot with a spoon, Horn raised his head and looked around: "I have said everything I need to say, you can do whatever you need to do... Oh, there is one more thing."

The ten heads of households who stood up and were about to leave turned around and looked at Horn in confusion.

"If there are unadopted orphans in each of your ten households, you can send them to me to serve as my servants and personal guards."

(End of this chapter)