"It's disgusting late autumn. Yazov looked at the distant Arctic mountains and wiped the sword and rose badge on his chest with some regret, the emblem of the Seventh Legion, symbolizing the coexistence of grace and strength.

As the personal knight of the commander of Ron's army, Yazov has always been proud and proud of his identity, he was born into a famous family, he was very talented in swordsmanship since he was a child, he passed the certification of the Holy See at the age of twelve, became a qualified knight, and for the first sixteen years of his life, he always considered himself the protagonist of the world, until he met Ron, and was impressed by him, and willingly followed him to become his chief knight.

Thinking of Ron, Yazov couldn't help but feel a little emotional, he seemed to be born with the temperament of a leader, and people couldn't help but want to follow him, no matter how fierce the soldier and general, he was obedient like a mouse who saw a cat in front of him.

That's probably the domineering of the king.

Yazov has always believed that Lord Ron's dedication to the military camp is the most correct and absolute thing he has done, and the succession of the title does not have to rely on the designation of the duke, in this world full of war, only mastering the army and mastering real power is the most powerful, and when Lord Ron slowly builds up military merits and controls the army, how can his two brothers fight against him?

"Rand, Lord Ron's younger brother, I heard that he is a cowardly and ridiculous and lustful fellow, it really deserves his reputation, even a demon seed can escape from his hands, I really don't know what kind of face he has to be called a descendant of the Capet family together with Lord Ron!" Yazov looked at the empty collar in the distance, and a disdainful smile appeared on his face: "Lord Ron disdains to pay attention to your younger brother, let me exercise the right to be an elder brother on Lord Ron's behalf!"

Yazov lightly pinched the horse's belly with his legs, and one by one rode up the dust and headed in the direction of the empty collar.

......

Inside the empty collar, Rand was holding a pile of drawings, squatting in front of the hot steelmaking furnace with several craftsmen, studying the dimensions of the molds, for which Rand had stayed up for two nights, his eyes were bloodshot.

"The arrow must be made of stainless steel, not mixed with impurities, the arrow body can be made of scale wood, the hardness of the scale wood is able to withstand the strength of the impact, and the pressure of the spring is increased," Rand held a pair of tongs in his hand, looking at the slowly condensed parts in the mold, with an excited look on his face.

"My lord, all other standards can be met, but we can't produce arrowheads, and with our technology, we can't completely remove magazines from steel. An old craftsman** dressed his upper body, his bronzed skin shining in the light of the fire, wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, and he told the fact.

"Can't get rid of impurities?" Rand was stunned, this was not good news, according to his calculations, if there were impurities left in the arrow, it might not be able to withstand the tremendous force of the ballista, and the arrow would probably explode the moment it pierced the barbarian's skin, unable to deal a fatal blow to it.

The devil knows how these simple-minded and well-limbed guys grow, and their skin is harder than a stone!

"Go get Oak!" Rand instructed Payne, "he can help us separate the impurities from the steel." ”

"Yes. After meeting Oak that morning, Payne finally understood that he couldn't change Rand's determination to take in the demon seed, so he had no choice but to accept this fact.

......

Rand and the craftsmen stood outside the door of the smelting room, quietly waiting for the first batch of flawless steel to be released.

Although Rand didn't care about Orc's identity, the people didn't think so, and they were still afraid of the demon seed, so in order to avoid trouble, Rand drove out all the irrelevant people when Orc was smelting.

Smelting steel is not a simple task, especially the raw materials, Oak needs to strip the steel from the ore, then heat it to about 1,500 degrees, melt it to a liquid state, and then surround the liquid steel with a flame to strip the substance from it.

In a world where metallurgical technology is so backward, there are very few who can do this, so the weapons in the army are deteriorating so quickly that Rand can almost imagine how tough an arrow made of pure steel will be.

The iron ore that had been broken into small stones was thrown into the smelting furnace, and Oak stood there, the flames rose in an instant, the color of the center of the flame turned red, and the iron ore was melted into a liquid state.

"If the problem of the arrow can be solved, then how long will it take to assemble such a ballista?"

Rand wasn't worried about the steel, with Oak there, he was able to do a lot of things with flames that humans couldn't, his only concern was that the time was too tight for the ballista to be assembled.

Hearing this, several old craftsmen came together and muttered a few words, and after a while, the old craftsman with his upper body walked over and said respectfully: "My lord, if there is no mistake in your drawings, it will take fifteen days to assemble the first ballista! After the first assembly is completed, the time for mass production will be greatly shortened." ”

"How many days can it be reduced?"

"There are a total of seven smelting chambers in your territory, and if they work together, it will only take two days to make and assemble a ballista!" the old craftsman made a rough calculation: "If two groups of people take turns to assemble it, it will be able to assemble one in a day and a half." ”

Rand nodded, this time did not exceed his expectations, he calculated, ten ballistas, each equipped with thousands of arrows, even if the total number of barbarians exceeded four hundred, Rand was confident to hold the town of cabins.

"My lord, if the power of the ballista is huge, why don't we produce it in large quantities?" asked Payne, who was staying at Rand's side, curiously.

"Cost!Penn, do you know how much it costs to build a ballista?" Rand said, spreading his hands, "five thousand silver coins, not counting the money for the arrows!"

Payne gasped, five thousand silver coins, the manufacturing cost is so expensive, no wonder it can't be produced in large quantities, you must know that the tax revenue of the empty ferry for a year is only more than 100,000 silver coins, and half of it is smashed into it at this time.

"Where is this fighting, these are all silver coins for white flowers!" Rand gritted his teeth in distress, and made up his mind in his heart, he must strengthen the tax collection in the shallow water and loot the pockets of those profiteers.

The fire in the smelting chamber slowly faded away, and the craftsmen pushed open the vents and windows for heat dissipation, and the heat wave came out with the iron powder floating in the air, and even though it was far away, Rand still felt the pain of the smoke on his cheeks.

"That's it!" Oak stood in front of the furnace, watching as the molten iron in the mold slowly took shape and gradually changed to a sharp color.

"Oh my God, we've never seen such fine steel!" the craftsmen picked up a shaped arrow with their tongs, "it's so tough that I can't put a mark on it with a hammer." ”

"If you use this kind of arrowhead, even heavy armor can penetrate it!" Payne also picked up a piece of steel that had been cooled, and sighed in amazement.

"My lord, are these up to your standards?" asked Oak cautiously, his eagerness for approval that made Rand touch his head.

"Oak, these are all your credits, and without you, we would never have succeeded!" Rand complimented without hesitation.

Rand didn't mind the craftsmen seeing Oak, there were tens of thousands of people in his territory, and only a few knights and Loves knew Oak's true identity, as long as they didn't show their abilities in front of people, no one could associate this polite and handsome guy with the demon seed.

Oak's face flushed, and then a smile of great joy appeared on his face, and for the first time he felt so good that he was being needed, an emotion he had never experienced before.