In Garriman's room in the castle of Burretta, there was a needle-like lamp on the table, and on top of the needle was a ball wick, but the wick was a circle of light that he had made, and the soft light sprinkled on the scratch paper.

Garriman put down his homemade pencil and pinched the bridge of his nose with his right hand, feeling a little headache.

Two days ago, after a pleasant hunt, they returned to the city of Buretta. Heath went to the front with his guards half a day later, while Anne went back to her mentor to strengthen her training.

And Gariman spent these two days re-implementing papermaking. At first, he wanted to directly restore modern papermaking, but after carefully searching for the technology that can be realized now, he found that it could only be made by magic in the laboratory, and it could not be mass-produced at all. So he lowered it a notch and went straight to the workshop, not thinking about being fully automatic for the time being.

However, it was only when it was implemented that many problems were discovered, most importantly, the lack of energy supply.

The Winter Wolf Territory is the northwestern border territory of the Northern Empire, and it is a very authentic bitter cold land, with an average temperature of around five degrees from October this year to June of the following year. For the average civilian in the territory, the thin clothing and physique cannot survive the low temperature for up to eight months, and they need a large amount of combustibles to provide warm heat. However, papermaking needs a flame to heat the raw materials for cooking fiber, and at this time, where is the surplus item to burn.

It's not just the source of energy, it's also the raw materials needed to make paper, and most of the plant fibers have withered at this time, except for the forage for the horses. At the same time, limestone was not stored in large quantities.

This means that in order for Gariman to achieve large-scale papermaking, raw materials, energy, manpower, and materials need to be solved by him.

Garriman asked for a map of the mineral resources in the territory of the Winter Wolf, and found that there was a lime mine west of Buretta City, and a coal mine was a little northeast of the lime mine.

The next morning, after the Vidilon family had finished breakfast, in André's study, Garriman placed hand-rolled papers on his desk.

André picked up a piece of translucent rice paper with his big calloused hands, then picked up another piece of A4 paper, pinched his index finger and thumb, felt the toughness of the paper, and said to Gariman with satisfaction: "The comparison between the paper-making technology you got from the Mystery Islands and the papyrus paper in circulation now is like the destruction of the silver class against the black iron class, even ordinary leather paper cannot be compared with it, but I don't know if the manufacture of this kind of paper is difficult." ”

As he spoke, he put down the paper and looked at Garryman.

"The method of making this paper is very simple, and its raw materials are very broad, flax, straw, hay, trees, etc. can be used as raw materials for paper, but firewood is wasted in the cooking step, so I want to borrow a mining team from my father to mine the coal and lime mines northwest of the city of Burretta." ”

"I remember that both deposits over there were being excavated."

"But they can't mine enough to make paper on a large scale, especially coal, which is needed to heat the winter months." Garriman said helplessly.

Andre thought for a moment and said: "At present, the mining teams in the Winter Wolf Territory are all mining, and there are no idle mining teams for the time being, but I will issue a recruitment order in this winter." ”

Garriman thought for a moment, in this era when ordinary people were still living in the Middle World, most of the mining methods were exchanged for the lives of countless miners. If the open-pit mine is good and can mine ore through thermal expansion and cold contraction, those deep underground veins can only be excavated at once.

So he pulled out a clay bomb, "If it's a shortage of manpower, I think these explosives can greatly speed up mining." ”

Andre took the pound of clay explosives that was the size of a fist for Garriman and only the size of a palm for him, and said with a smile: "I've heard Anne complain a few times about your habit of carrying this dangerous alchemy item like a fireball spell with you. ”

"Clay explosives and papermaking are very similar, that is, they are very cheap to build, as long as the supply of raw materials is available, large-scale production can further reduce production costs. Its main raw material, slime gum, comes from slimes, which are found everywhere. "The mud explosives can be detonated by another less powerful black powder without the need for expensive magic scrolls, that is, the safety type will be lower, but as long as you pay attention to it, it will not hurt. At present, mining requires miners to hammer a pickaxe, which is more than an order of magnitude slower than blasting directly with mud explosives. ”

"Is it just as effective for mining iron ore as it is for mining caves?"

"The direct blasting method can be used to mine most of the minerals, but the mine will be more troublesome and easy to blow up the mine. However, if it is a shallow vein, it will be enough to blow up the surface soil layer together. Garriman frowns at the mention of explosives, "And it's not just minerals that can be blasted. When I came back, I saw that the grain produced by wheat in the territory was not as full as in the south, and the cultivated area was not as large as in the south, because the weather in the north was cold and freezing, and the main source of water for watering wheat was the river except for rain and snow, and there was no large-scale and extensive construction of water conservancy projects, resulting in a serious reduction in wheat production far from the river. With the mud and rubber explosives, we can open mountains and blow up rocks, build river water trucks, dig irrigation ditches, and spread waterways throughout the Winter Wolf Territory, and the food output of the Winter Wolf Territory will definitely increase significantly. ”

Andre rubbed his brows and said with a wry smile: "The project you proposed is too grand. To tell you the truth, son, the output of the territory is only a little more than the consumption now, and this is still the situation that has improved after the sale of iron tools, and it has always been supported by the royal appropriation before, otherwise the military supplies supplied to the northern border defense alone would have been able to bring down our family. ”

Garriman thought about it and found that even if he wanted to start a construction project, there were not so many clay explosives that could support the explosion of the entire Winter Wolf Territory, and the current output of clay explosives completely depended on the speed of Gariman himself's daily hand-making, and the infrastructure on the side of the Winter Wolf Territory was completely built around the military, and the several workshops he needed were not available in Buretta City, and the raw materials could not be supplied.

"Then we will first complete the construction of the paper workshop, find the raw materials, and make the clay explosives." Garriman thought it was better to set a small goal first, "Father, I'll prepare the explosives first, and set off for the mine in the northwest in the afternoon." ”

Andrei took out a token and gave it to Galiman, "This is my token, go to the mine and give it to Knight Luman, he will help you." ”