Chapter XXVI: Guns and Factories
Hanji was still talking to Ian as she carefully verified the weapon's drawings, which were simply intimidatingly ingenious.
"The Survey Corps is now in focus." "If we make any more big moves, the central government will immediately launch a military crackdown on us, and if the situation inside the walls is too tense now, I'm afraid they would have done it," Hanji said. β
"Didn't you say Captain Hanji that the situation wasn't that tense?"
"It's not so nervous, if we are divided into peace, the government will not do anything to us, but knowing those things, how can it be safe and divided, the outbreak of contradictions is a matter of time, Erwin asked me to bring you to the royal capital, in fact, it is to discuss what to do next, although he did not say it, but I can see that he is completely disappointed in the government and the nobles."
"It doesn't matter, as long as we can build the factory, we will win, and now that we have lost the King of the Wall, we can win overwhelmingly."
"It's not that simple." Hanji rubbed his forehead: "Because of the destruction of the wall, the number of the survey corps is already the smallest of the three major corps, as soldiers we are qualified, but the number of soldiers as workers and craftsmen is completely insufficient, and now once the survey corps has a big move, the gendarmerie corps will immediately move." β
"Isn't there a lot of ground for workers and craftsmen?" Ian said, "They don't want much, they just need to eat well, and with Mr. Hannes' reputation, it's easy to recruit people." β
"Have you even thought of this step?" Hanji stared at Ian with wide eyes.
"Originally, I planned to build an iron-smelting plant and then find a way to contact the Investigation Corps, but I didn't expect you to find it in advance." Ian said.
"That's... What about popular support? How to get popular support after the government is overthrown, do you have a way? Hanji asked, almost trembling.
"Yes." Ian nodded indifferently: "The illegitimate daughter of the Lacey family is not dead, she has been exiled to the refugees, as long as we can find her and support her as the new king of orthodoxy, we will be able to obtain justice." β
"And... The people are not so sensitive to power, they are more concerned about who can feed them, as long as the ugly face of the aristocracy and the government is publicized to the public, so that the people can live better than they are now, we will naturally get support. β
"You... Was the purpose a coup d'Γ©tat in the first place? β
"It's change, change that makes people's lives better and richer." Ian said.
"You're really scary..."Hanji hugged his arms, chilling all over, "To be honest, if you were my enemy, I would definitely lose sleep." β
"But... All right! Hanji shook hands with Ian: "Just do as you say, the illegitimate daughter of the Lacey family, the Survey Corps will be responsible for finding it!" We will also find a way to provide food for the workers and materials for the initial establishment of the factory! I'll write to Erwin and ask him to delay a little longer. β
"I see." Ian nodded, "Then every second counts." β
...
The next day, Ian informs Hanji of Heatheria's appearance and characteristics.
Of course, even if she finds it, it's not time to bring her here.
Heatheria is being watched, and bringing her here in advance will only startle the snake, and when the coup is really launched, her appearance will be needed.
Ian and Hanji secretly found Hannes and made a fake decree asking Hannes to help gather workers and build an iron-smelting factory, on the grounds that it was necessary to make new iron farming tools for the purpose of smelting iron and steel.
Ian showed the blueprints of the iron plough to Hannes, who easily believed it, thinking that it was really that simple, and that the iron was smelted to make farm tools.
The mobilization of the workers went smoothly, and Hannes promised that every worker involved in the work would receive one and a half people a day of food, without any technical skills, only manual labor.
There are still two months to go before the crop harvest, and there are many people who can't eat enough, and quite a lot of people have signed up.
Ian persuaded Hannes that it would be better to gather a few men in each of the frontiers for the sake of fairness, so that those who were really starving to death could be fed.
In fact, the aim is to prevent too many people from moving to attract the attention of the government.
Although the frontier is still free-range, it is still easy to find out when a large number of people suddenly leave.
All in all, with the help of the soldiers of the garrison corps, the factory recruited 200 sturdy adult males in one week.
With the assistance of the Survey Corps, the men were secretly taken to a no-man's land and began to build a factory.
Iron ore for the beginning, materials and parts needed to make a blast furnace, fuel, food for the workers.... These items were provided by the Survey Corps.
Thanks to the fact that Palladium Island is an island rich in natural resources, they also have an energy source that Ian's original world did not have: Iceblaststone.
This thing is used as an energy source for a three-dimensional motorized device, which can be burned, and is a better iron-making fuel than coal.
Half a month later, the first blast furnace was finally established, due to the lack of heat-resistant material technology, so the service life of the blast furnace is very short, but it doesn't matter, just be able to quickly smelt a batch of high-quality steel in a short time.
On this day, Ian and Hanji watched the iron ore being thrown into the iron-making furnace.
Alan, Armin, and Mikasa are also here, doing some chores, everyone is unkempt, and the factory is very busy and hard at the beginning, and when there are certain problems, Ian and Hanji often need to be taught and solved in person.
But finally, the first blast furnace was put into operation!
Ian took out the mold of the gun parts that had been made long ago, which was created by Hanji, the accuracy of the AK-47's parts, in fact, is not much higher than the three-dimensional mobile device, as a scholar who has improved the three-dimensional mobile device, Hanji can naturally make gun parts through those design drawings,
Hanji and her team made the world's first AK-47 out of molten iron, and they cooled the hot molten iron into parts, and Ian's steel recipe was so powerful that the steel was more than a notch stronger than the previous pig iron, both in terms of toughness and strength.
Excitedly placing the parts on the table, Hanji hired carpenters to make the butts and other wooden parts of the gun, like puzzles, to put the metal parts together with the wood.
Finally... Almost a month after Hanji saw the drawings, the gun became a reality!
The metal magazine, the wooden body, the structure that looks several eras more advanced than the flintlock pistol...
Thanks to their efforts, the AK-47 was successfully reproduced into the world.
Hanji couldn't wait to load up the new bullet and pick it up and shoot at the target.
Bang bang bang!!
Smoke came out of the muzzle, and after pulling the trigger, several clearly visible bullet marks appeared on the target.
The first burst-firing automatic rifle is declared complete within the walls!