Chapter 55: Forging Iron Spears and Building a Quick Army
In the center of the Gulag monastery courtyard is an electric arc furnace more than one meter tall.

The electric arc furnace is cylindrical in shape, with a square box on one side and an iron outlet at the bottom of the box that is as thick as a wrist.

The electric arc furnace is made of mud bricks and salt soil, and is coated with a circle of mortar on the outside.

Unlike Horn's hometown, if you want to build a blast furnace for iron smelting, you have to first master coke technology, blast technology, refractory brick technology, and even some engineering mechanics technology.

But here, with Jeanne's lightning iron-making technology, a simple blast furnace is enough to produce good iron.

Next to the electric arc furnace are baskets of collected ironware, some rusty and some intact.

Several villagers with strong arms swung sledgehammers and smashed the iron tools into iron sheets for easier smelting.

After all, the Gulag Monastery is not a blacksmith shop, let alone a castle, so there are naturally not many iron ore or iron ingots in the warehouse.

So, Horn came up with the idea of ​​recycling waste materials and forging weapons with farm tools and daily iron items.

Due to the presence of rust and impurities, the efficiency of wet iron smelting to reforge ironware is very low. But for Jeanna, who can directly melt iron with lightning, this is not a problem.

As baskets of iron sheets were poured into the electric arc furnace, Jeanne grasped the oak pole extending from the furnace with both hands.

Suddenly, a streak of lightning flashed through the air, and the next second, Jeanna's hair floated in the air, and the dazzling golden light dyed her hair golden.

Sparks the size of grains of sand flashed where her hands met the oak.

Sparks continued to move along the pole, drawing lightning-like black lines.

"Zizzi-"

The sound of electric current gradually became louder, and the hair and sweat of people standing near the arc furnace began to stand on end. They were so frightened that they quickly hid far away.

The chimney of the electric arc furnace spews out not black smoke but blue lightning. Amid the sound of electric current, the sounds of molten iron exploding and splashing gradually become clearer.

When Jeanne's forehead was covered with sweat, the red molten iron slowly flowed out from the iron outlet.

The molten iron flowed from the iron outlet into another stone vat. Two blacksmith apprentices held wooden sticks and kept stirring the molten iron.

When the molten iron flowed from the stone vat into the clay mold, it formed iron ingots and cast spearheads.

Picking up a cooled cast spear head, Horn flicked it with his fingers, making a crisp sound.

Although this type of cast iron spear has a fast smelting speed, the spear head cast in three days is enough to arm a hundred people.

But after all, the quality is still too poor, and the casting is very brittle. This spear head will break after being used ten times at most.

But it is enough to let the line-filling babies hold the line, after all, they are dealing with those serf soldiers.

They might still be in the Stone Age. This is definitely a dimensionality reduction attack.

Pig iron ingots are used to make sophisticated weapons for the Apostolic Guard, after all, they have to face the Night Guards.

"Your Majesty."

While standing next to the arc furnace and thinking, Horn heard Jeshka's voice.

"Your Majesty, the conscription has been completed. Excluding the old, weak, sick, and only sons, we have recruited a total of 120 new soldiers."

Pulling Jeshka to sit down by the flower bed, Horn monitored the training of the child soldiers while listening to Jeshka's report.

"Your Highness, according to Ms. Dia, the church should have sent out about 200 people. Come, ahem, compete with us.

Among these two hundred people, according to my estimation, there will be no more than three teams of armored soldiers, which is 36 people, and no more than five teams of night guards, which is 60 people.

As for the rest of the people, they were probably serf soldiers, mainly refugees and public farmers.

If the flood had not come, nearby knights would have come to help and improve their battle records at the same time.

But now the roads are blocked, the bridges are damaged, and famine is everywhere. I guess those knights are not in a good mood.

Therefore, conservatively speaking, we have to face 36 armored sergeants, 60 night watchmen, and 100 serfs. "Listening to Jeshka's words, Horn nodded continuously. He had to say that they were indeed professional mercenaries.

But no matter how hard Jeska tried to cover it up, Horn knew it in his heart.

According to Jeshka, the Apostolic Guard can select fifty relatively elite and battle-hardened Apostolic Guards.

These elite guards are definitely no match for the sergeants and would collapse at the first charge.

They were no match for the night guards and could only defend and counterattack at best, but could not take the initiative to attack.

As for the 120 new recruits, it would be difficult for them to deal with the night guards and they could only fight against a dozen serfs at best.

Their only advantage is that they have Danji, a knight with the fourth level of breathing technique, and Jeanna, a witch.

These two people basically massacred the serfs and night guards, but they had some difficulty dealing with groups of armored soldiers.

Jeanna's extraordinary ability was originally extremely powerful, but unfortunately iron in this world does not conduct electricity, so its power is greatly reduced.

"We only have five days." Horn held up five fingers, "In these five days, I need you to quickly build an army.

As for how to achieve quick success, I will write a charter for you later, and we can discuss it together to see if it is feasible. "

"As you command, Your Majesty." Jeshka stood up and was about to leave, but Horn pressed down his shoulder.

"Wait a moment, I have something else to tell you."

Deshka quickly sat up straight.

"You usually manage the Apostolic Guard and a whole army of soldiers. Now you have to train new troops. Isn't the burden on your shoulders too heavy?"

"Not heavy, not heavy."

"Dieska, you are different from others. Don't waste your time on civil affairs. You have too much to do. You should focus your main energy on military affairs."

"what do you mean?"

“I will temporarily resign from the position of centurion and captain of the Apostolic Guard.

Archbishop Madeleine will concurrently serve as the centurion, and I will concurrently serve as the captain of the guard, and you will serve as the commander-in-chief of the new army."

Jessica had expected this day to come.

After all, according to the original system, he was in charge of the army, the people, the imperial guards, and even trained new troops in Xiaozhan.

Going one step further, it would probably be "the centurion becomes the pope" and "Jeska, the sovereign scepter".

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Jeshka immediately stood up and saluted. As long as it wasn't Busak who took over his job, he would accept it.

"One more thing, what should our new army be called?"

"I have a suggestion." Smiling, Horn stabbed the trunk of the nearby fir tree with his cast iron spear. "Let them decide for themselves."

"Let them decide for themselves?" Jeshka was a little confused. "You mean, let them come up with their own names?"

"Yes." Horn pulled out the iron spear from the tree trunk and played with it in his hand, "When people decide on a matter themselves, they will have a sense of identity with that matter.

When a group of people make a decision together, they will feel that they are the creator and founder, and they will have a sense of belonging. "

"Okay, I understand, Your Majesty."

Jieshka nodded, and after a long pause, he asked, "Your Majesty, I have a question. From your perspective, can Her Royal Highness the Saint really hold back those armored soldiers?"

"That's what I was thinking about as well." Horn rubbed the stubble on his chin with his fingers. "Hiss, I remembered an expert in this area. Maybe he knows how to measure the combat effectiveness of a witch."

(End of this chapter)