Warlord: King of All Clans

The Talhan family built their own firearms workshop in Ulanggar. A short-barreled musket made entirely by hand cost four or five gold coins. It was time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the output was extremely low.

If high-quality barrels limited the range and power of Western muskets, more complex military technologies such as flint devices, firing devices, and paper-wrapped ammunition limited the production capacity of Western muskets.

The flintlock rifle was now able to be manufactured, but only ten or eight were produced per month, which was not enough to replace the Tarhan cavalry's equipment.

After the battle with Gustav's main army, Arina realized more deeply the advantage of the imperial weapons and armor. Their short-barreled muskets were simply no match for the organized heavy infantry and armored knights.

It cannot be said that the idea of ​​the Cuirass Corps formed by Fonteyne was wrong. It was indeed a response measure in line with the times.

These heavy plate breastplates, with an average thickness of more than three millimeters, are heavier than the plate armor of armored knights. It is simply like tying a steel shield to the chest.

This is a creation of the Southern Territory Alchemy Workshop. It contains the most advanced human mechanics and material mechanics in the empire, and the quality of its steel far exceeds that of the Northern Territory.

The dome-structured breastplate has a vertical fold line in the middle, which gives the entire breastplate stable reinforcement ribs and an inclined angle.

When arrows from a crossbow or lead bullets from a pistol hit it, they would simply slide to the sides or break into pieces, causing no damage at all.

Even if it was Hewan's heavy flintlock rifle, if the angle of impact was wrong or the distance was over a hundred meters, it might not penetrate the target.

Fortunately, Hewan not only has smoothbore muskets, but also powerful foreign warriors, grenades, rifles and various artillery, and never fights evenly matched battles.

Otherwise, if they only relied on a few lines of muskets with insufficient firepower, they might really be rushed into close combat range by the fearless cuirassier infantry, and the victory would be a pyrrhic one.

After a brief exchange with the Breastplate Legion, Arina found it extremely difficult to deal with. Apart from harassment tactics, she had almost no strategy to defeat the enemy.

Only the heavy flintlock rifles equipped by the river bend can pose a fatal threat to the heavy armor of the North.

Leo was willing to sell the flintlock muskets from Hewan for his own reasons.

Now that barrel boring machines are available, the difference between smoothbore barrels and rifled barrels is just one more process, and the cost is not much higher.

It is expected that there will be no large-scale wars in Hewan for some time to come.

These outdated flintlock muskets can now be gradually withdrawn from the standard weapons of Hewan. Apart from being distributed to the defenders, they can only be left in warehouses to rust.

Instead of doing this, it would be better to sell it to the Talhan tribe at a high price, allowing them to continue to capture cities and territories in the west and obtain more cheap resources for the River Bay industry.

The Hongshanbao area under the jurisdiction of Xingtao City is full of red mountains. Under the sunlight, many cliffs are flashing with metallic glitter.

The streams at the foot of the mountain were covered with thick rust and there was almost no grass growing.

The reason why Hongshanbao is called Hongshanbao is because the stones and soil here are all rich in iron, so rich that it can be seen with the naked eye.

This is the largest iron ore mining area in the entire North. High-quality iron ingots are exported to the West, North and South. Before the River Bend Iron Mine was developed, the iron ingots of Isemboll and Abros were purchased from here.

The entire Xingtao City has a population of nearly 100,000, and at least 20% of them are engaged in mining and metallurgy. Hongshanbao, a small town with a population of 2,000, has more than 20 blacksmith shops of various sizes, which is more than the number of branch cities in other areas with tens of thousands of people.

However, Arina was also jealous of these high-quality people and snatched away most of the craftsmen.

The hematite in the River Bay Gnoll Valley is of excellent quality, but it is located in the mountains after all. After razing the entire Gnoll Valley, the Gnolls dug deeper and deeper, and the mining cost increased exponentially.

The iron ore in other places, both in quantity and quality, is far inferior to that in the Gnoll Valley, and the cost of mining is higher.

Leo has sent a message back, asking people to immediately organize a mining team and an iron smelting team to come to the Red Mountain Castle area, find the iron ore with the best geographical location, build a mine and an iron smelting plant, and replicate the metallurgical industry of the Earldom of River Bay to Red Mountain Castle.

Although this place has a complete metallurgical base, it is generally one era behind River Bay. Leo doesn't think highly of it and would rather rebuild it from scratch.

Building a railway to Ulanggar is not purely to help the western region, but to obtain coal from the western region.

The western border passage blocked by Hongshan Fort is the straightest of the three avenues, leading almost straight to Ulanggar in the western border.

The straight-line distance between the two places is less than two hundred miles, and the actual journey is only three hundred miles!

However, there is almost no road from Red Mountain Castle to Ishampore. The caravan must follow the foothills of the Buck Mountains, head east to the city of Wedanlan, then go upstream from the port town and cross the sharp bend of Arbroath to reach Ishampore.

The straight-line distance is two hundred miles, and the actual distance is more than two thousand miles!

In the evening, after having dinner at the Lord's Castle of Red Mountain Castle, Arina dressed up and prepared to sleep with Leo in return for the Earl of River Bay's generous gift to the Tarhan tribe.

In her opinion, helping Riverbend defeat the Gustav family and capture two cities had completed Olivia's test.

She has a place in Hewan, and it is only a matter of time before she gets married.

But Leo didn't plan to spend the night in Red Mountain Castle. Standing on the high platform of the castle, he saw Arina appear in a light veil and was very surprised. "Isn't your outfit a bit too revealing?"

Arina stared at Leo with a sullen face, on guard against his mischief, "What are you going to do now?"

Leo smiled slightly and jumped down from the platform.

The neighing of a Pegasus was heard from under the platform, and Weir rode the Pegasus past, carrying Leo to the north.

Of course, I go home to see my wife!

Taking off from Red Mountain Castle and heading straight north, in less than two hours, Leo saw lights flickering on the earth under the mountains shrouded in darkness. Those were the small towns of Isenbol and River Bay.

Half an hour later, the lights became more and more dense, and Leo knew that they had arrived at the River Bay Peninsula without having to distinguish them.

Compared to the densely populated but dimly lit city of Isenbol, the workshops around the River Bay Peninsula are still running at full capacity and have a night shift system.

In order to serve these workers, craftsmen and managers, there is a night market on the Hewan Peninsula. In addition to traditional taverns, new things such as barbecue stalls and noodle shops have also sprung up.

The residents of Hewan Peninsula are not poor. Even the poorest workers, after meeting the survival needs of their family, have hundreds or thousands of copper coins left every month, which is enough for them to go to a restaurant or have a midnight snack.

Therefore, the night market in the peninsula is also very popular. The small business owners work hard and do not close until after the early morning.

Before the Pegasus landed, El, who was far away in the courtyard, had already detected Leo's return.

Then, all the members of the Riverbend House heard Al's voice in their minds.

"System prompt: The great devil Leo is back! Hide quickly!"

Olivia, with a big belly, met Leo in the lord's house.

When Leo left, the wheat in the river bend had just been planted, and Olivia's belly had not changed.

When he came back, the wheat in the river bend was ripe, and many plots of land had been harvested, turning into empty fields.

Olivia's belly was already bulging, and she was eight months pregnant and ready to give birth.