As soon as the diplomatic corps left, Rhodes summoned Alves and asked the little dwarf to help him draft a letter to his "friend" of the Prince on the border, the inventor of the repeating gun, Hiram Vlaar. The content of the letter is very simple and straightforward, that is, to reach a cooperation agreement with Vlaar to monopolize the export trade of repeating guns.

"Are you afraid that this person will steal business from you?"

Alves asked Rhodes with a wicked smile as he wrote the letter in official terms. After dealing with this great lord all these years, he has long been familiar with the routine of the Lord of Black Hammer Castle, and he wants to capture him. In fact, Rhodes really wanted to sell the repeater gun to the Empire, although this thing was very good, but with the Empire's engineering technology and espionage methods, he would get it sooner or later. Until then, it's true to sell for a good price. However, you can't agree to the other party all at once, which will directly reduce the price. Maintaining a haughty posture while exaggerating and publicizing the actual combat power of the repeater gun will help drive up the price.

However, there is one more key point to address before doing so. That is the original inventor of the repeating gun - Vlaar. This guy is a genius when it comes to mechanics, and at the same time, he has several repeating guns in his hands. If you know that there is business to talk about here, and come to do business again, then you will ruin your plan. So Rhodes wrote to him in advance to prevent this from happening.

"That's what it means. But it's a win-win for us and for him. Vlaar should also thank me for the fact that without us the use of the cannon in real combat and the brilliant results we achieved. Who would want to buy such a bulky guy?"

Rhodes walked up and down the room, pondering for answers.

"Shall I add anything else to the letter, except for the matter of cooperating in raising prices?"

Alves asked with a smile after finishing his draft.

"No, that's the most important thing and the only thing to talk to him. Vlaar I've only met him once, but I know that this guy is a practical guy who can run faster than anyone else if he has interests. If there is no interest, even if it is a brother, he will not help. ”

Rod said with a frown.

...... Lazy people listen to books

Winter passed quickly, and Black Hammer ushered in another spring. The melting snow brought an abundance of fresh water, causing the water level of the Dongquan River to skyrocket. Fortunately, the upstream dam regulates the flow of water and does not have much impact on the river and the waterwheels in the river.

Standing on the banks of the Winter Springs River, Rhodes pondered a new big project. It was indeed a big project, and the amount of work was so large that it even exceeded the sum of all the previous projects combined. He planned to build a three-level wall to enclose the entire old and new towns.

Since the last time the Norscans invaded south, Rhodes realized that the town needed a strong enough defense line to keep it safe. Otherwise, once the darkness returns, and you don't have time to organize a defense, then years of accumulation may be in vain.

However, after three years of development, Blackhammer Fort is no longer the small town it used to be, there are at least six or seven thousand people living in this town, and the scale of the entire town is far larger than the scale of an ordinary castle. Most of the buildings were built outside the secondary walls, without the protection of other fortifications. If you want to build a third-level city wall, the scale is not comparable to a second-level city wall.

With the current size of the town, it would take a dozen kilometers of walls to completely close it. The amount of work required to do this, the amount of cement, will far exceed that of the Blackwater Dam. And the three-level wall that Rhodes hopes to build is several times larger than that. After all, Blackhammer Castle can't just stay at its current level of development, and at the current momentum, it will increase its population by at least 20 percent per year, and in a few years, the population of the town here will double again. At that time, there will be new buildings to be built outside the city walls. In that way, the outer walls lose their meaning and value again. Therefore, the three-level city wall that Rhodes wants to build is built according to the standard of development in the next 20 years.

It's going to be a long-term job. Such a huge project, and there is no direct economic benefit, it is inevitable that it will not be completed in a short period of time, so Ruder Finn plans to build slowly in a few years. For several days, Chief Engineer Brown has been running around with Rhodes, and how to build this long three-level city wall in the territory of Black Hammer Fort is a science. It has to pass through rivers, hills, mining areas. How to avoid or use these areas is all knowledge.

Rhodes' idea was that the three-tier wall would cross the Winterspring River, build along the shoreline, reach the edge of the Dark Forest, and finally make a bend in the mining area and merge down the Winterspring River. The hill in the northwest corner was used for the construction of a lookout tower, which would be built to the highest specifications if possible, and would be equipped with repeating guns in the future, even if pirates or other fleets were attacked.

It's just that such an idea, such a plan, is too advanced for the current Black Hammer Castle. According to Rhodes' plan, the area of territory protected by the walls was the size of Old Erlengrad. Before the rebellion of Erlengrad, the total population of the city was about 100,000. And now, the total population of Blackhammer does not exceed eight thousand people at most. The scale is simply not comparable. In addition to the old Erlengrad, there are a large number of migrants living in dark and damp basements, or small attics, and the space is highly utilized, so that the capacity of the old Erlengrad is far greater than the actual population. If a comprehensive census were to be conducted, it is estimated that the actual population of Erlengrad would be approaching 13 to 150,000. Therefore, there is actually a very big gap between the current Black Hammer Fort and the original Erlengrad.

But that's how Rhodes does things, always planning ahead. Just like the construction of sewers, it is also planned according to ten times the population. And a special patrol of plumbers was formed. to ensure underground safety. This was also influenced by the urban planning of Paris, France, when there were only 100,000 people in Paris, and the city officials planned and built a sewer network for the entire city according to the scale of the million population. So, hundreds of years later, while other cities were struggling with other problems such as clogged sewers, Paris's drainage system was working so well that the entire city was like a labyrinth underneath. Although the current Black Hammer Fort is small, the reason is the same. How many cities actually evolved on the basis of castles.

Finally, after more than a month of field investigation and engineering measurement, Chief Engineer Brown gave a draft of the "Three-level City Wall Construction Plan for Black Hammer Fort". According to the draft, it will take at least ten years to build this magnificent and massive three-level wall, with sufficient funds and manpower...... Rhodes flipped through the entire construction plan and signed his name under it. It is expected that the construction of the walls will be almost in sync with the expansion of the population, and without large-scale fighting, in ten years, the size of Blackhammer will swell to the size of a medium-sized city, and by that time, the outer walls will be completed, just in time to protect the old and new towns.