With a combination of gunpowder, firearms, and magical power, the destructive power that armored golems can exert far exceeds the limits of their rank.

In fact, it is not surprising that no matter what world it is, with the development of civilization, the weapons mastered by mankind are destined to be far more powerful than the armor of their contemporaries.

It's always easier to destroy than to defend, and there is no future for simply stacking armor.

This is true not only for Ronan, but also for the current Empire.

Cold Wind Collar, the main hall on the first floor of the new castle.

Ronan was sitting on the first seat, flipping through the news from Blackstone City.

Among them is information about the affairs of Blackstone City, as well as information about the battlefields of Silver Collar and Dragon's Tooth City.

At this time, a month has passed since Ronan completed the armored puppet.

During this time, the situation in the empire was constantly changing.

It's like the item he just received.

In front of Ronan, Leo, the leader of the craftsmen, was looking at the items in his hands, observing them from different angles, and carefully stroking the surface lines with his hands.

Leo held a primitive rifle with a wooden butt and body with a steel barrel.

Flint and anvils for ignition were set behind the gun, which ignited the gunpowder with the help of a spring.

"Novel ideas, bad craftsmanship, but compared to your design, it can only be regarded as backward and defective."

Knowing how the flintlock pistol worked, Leo shook his head and set him aside.

"This is a new weapon that appeared on the frontal battlefield a few weeks ago, and the army of Dragon's Tooth City has managed to turn the tide of the battle, from the terrible situation of being beaten to the clarion call for a counterattack."

Ronan explained to Leo, looking at the gun.

War is the best catalyst for technological development, and it has only been long before the technology of guns and artillery has been lit up by the Empire.

And with the help of the awakened ones who have awakened the blood of the sages in the Castle of Bachelors.

Directly beyond the era of arquebuses, well-designed flintlock pistols have appeared.

All kinds of other primitive artillery and explosives emerged one after another, directly stunned the silver-collar army.

The nobles of the Great Plains were apparently forced by the Silver Alliance's advance to completely abandon the military ban on gunpowder in the past.

A frenzy is underway to produce the relevant weapons and put them in the hands of soldiers.

With the power of flintlock bullets, ordinary soldiers are no match at all, and the smoke and loud noises generated when they are fired can take a serious toll on their morale.

The knight could barely resist with the plate armor on his body, but he couldn't withstand the damage of concentrated fire.

The most important thing is that the cost of the two is not at the same level at all.

It takes more than twenty years and a large supply of food to train a knight, and plate armor is equally expensive to craft.

But what about a flintlock pistol? As the craft matures, the price will only be cheaper than that of bows and arrows.

Due to the presence of many captured flintlock pistols on the battlefield, the idea of designing guns is no secret and is circulating on a large scale in the Empire.

This was not the situation that the great nobles wanted to see, but the merchants and many scholars did not care what they wanted.

Ronan estimated that it would not be long before he would be able to meet the formed musketeers in the major cities.

The knights' position in force was under serious threat, and this meant that the authority of the traditional aristocracy had been dealt another blow since the Black Death.

But whatever, he couldn't threaten himself anyway, and Ronan didn't care too much about it.

The flintlock pistol is able to penetrate plate armor because the thickness of the latter is generally around 2 mm, which is difficult to effectively protect against penetrating damage.

But against his armored golems, this bullet damage is no different from tickling.

In the face of the enemy's new weapons, Ronan estimated that the Silver Alliance would either thicken the knight's plate armor and keep stacking the armor, or simply choose to join.

"My lord, at present, the mold production line for special armor has been established, and the rough embryos that have been melted and cast are polished by craftsmen and distributed according to their respective distributions, of which one heavy artillery can be produced in about a month, one can be produced in twenty days of air and space penetration, and one can be produced in ten days of mobile reconnaissance."

Leo reports to Ronan on the current production of armored golems.

Heavy artillery takes the longest time due to its size, the structure of the multi-layered armor, and the detailed depiction of the rifling of the gun and the barrel.

The air-space breakthrough is due to the complex and special fluid structure, which requires the highest process accuracy.

On the contrary, mobile reconnaissance is not too troublesome in all aspects, and three have now been produced, which have been successfully transformed into armored puppets by Ronan.

This armor will also become the mainstream model of the Chill Collar.

After all, cost and difficulty of handling are more important than combat effectiveness, and he certainly prefers cheap and easy-to-use weapons.

Ronan even considered swapping out the long-range sniper rifle, which was the most cumbersome part of the production process, for a large AK.

The cost and manufacturing time are even more rattling.

Ronan didn't take the flintlock pistol too seriously, after all, it didn't have much to do with him at the moment.

But he found himself thinking too lightly.

It's been almost another month, and the winter here in Coldwind and Blackstone is coming to an end.

Ronan and Old Mo Tou were discussing the specific plan for the next spring ploughing in the castle.

As a result of the Black Death, a large number of serfs and yeoman farmers died in that catastrophe and fled.

Much of the farmland around Blackstone has been untended for nearly two years, and many have even been abandoned.

He needs to reassign people to manage farming and fill the vacant workforce.

In the meantime, Aderich, the finance minister who was in charge of managing Black Rock City for him, hurried to the Coldwind Collar.

Deliver a message that shocked the entire empire to his ears.

"The Dantuma Union declares independence?"

Although he had learned about the news through Raven's channel, Ronan was extremely surprised when it was actually confirmed.

As a community of merchant city-states, the Dantuma Alliance has always been attached to the nobles of the empire, providing them with a variety of intimate services.

But they didn't expect that in this chaotic era, they would be the first to stand up and declare their independence from the rule of the empire.

This involves the complexity of the situation in the upper echelons today, the split between the two factions of the church, the antagonism of the great aristocracy, the emergence of new weapons, the disappointment of merchants and new nobles with the emperor, and so on.

Ronan didn't pay attention to any of this, and what made him unhappy was that he broke away from the empire with the Dantuma Alliance.

Many commercial cities in the kingdom have also declared their independence, and the local councils will manage the city's government affairs and commerce on their own.

Among them is a city in the Blackstone Trade Road.

And there, Ronan had already paid a large deposit in advance to buy an important batch of grain and seeds from the local lord.

Now, when they declare independence, they cut off his goods.

And it doesn't seem like he's going to admit it.

(End of chapter)