RPAGF #485 - I declare this place to be called the Holy Palace
#485 - I declare this place to be called the Holy Palace
Although there are nearly a hundred Star-Forged Gears in the Mechanical Palace, only sixty are truly suitable for industrial production.
Four are used for gear-driven stone cutters, each producing 60 to 80 cubic meters of stone bricks per month, enough to pave about 40 to 50 meters of street.
Six have been turned into gear-driven sawmills, producing 500 to 600 cubic meters of timber each month.
Currently, the paving stones on Autumn Twilight Island are all cut by stone cutting machines, while the temporary wooden houses for the laborers and the building materials for rural farmhouses are all cut by gear-driven sawmills.
Seven are used as gear-driven spinning machines, basically the original scroll spinning machines converted to gear-driven mechanical power.
These gear-driven scroll spinning machines, modified by Hilov, have 500-800 spindles and can produce hundreds of yards of linen per hour.
These textile workshops can spin a total of 7,000 to 9,000 yards of linen per month, consuming the entire linen production of Autumn Twilight Island and still having two months of idle capacity.
Horn calculated that each gear-driven textile workshop occupies about 800 square meters and requires 20 to 30 operators to monitor yarn quality, repair broken yarns, and replace spindles.
If a manual workshop wanted to achieve the same effect, it would need 150 spinning machines, 60 looms, and 230 textile workers, occupying roughly the same area.
But that's nearly a tenfold difference in personnel.
The 70,000-plus yards of linen they spin are just enough to fill Autumn Twilight Island's clothing market this year.
Since people in this era tend to wear clothes for ten years, now that they have enough, the market demand on Autumn Twilight Island next year is estimated to decrease by half.
The Beastman Kingdom of Great Marsh is still converting to growing flax, which will cause the supply side of linen to increase next year.
The surplus, besides being consumed internally by the Beastmen, can only be exported to the Langsand County market.
Horn could imagine that the market price of linen clothing next year would be reduced to about 80% of the original price.
And this is just from three gear-driven textile workshops.
If he could solve the raw material supply problem, Horn would grit his teeth and expand to thirty workshops, and while maintaining the original price, the textile industry of Autumn Twilight Island alone could meet the market demand of the entire Thousand River Valley.
At that time, a single street in Autumn Twilight Island would truly shock the entire Thousand River Valley.
It's just a pity that the manufacturing method of Star-Forged Gears is still a mystery.
Of the remaining Star-Forged Gears, ten have been turned into rotary water pumps, and nine into swivel-arm cranes.
"This set of three things is basically used for dredging river channels."
Holding the wooden railing of the embankment bridge, Horn looked out at the muddy river channel in front of him and could see these three gear-driven machines in action.
The rotary water pumps go without saying; Horn's attention was mainly focused on the swivel-arm cranes.
They are about 8 to 12 meters high, lined up on both sides of the river channel.
These swivel-arm cranes are made entirely of oak and fir wood, and the L-shaped metal parts and black iron rivets shine with a dim luster even on semi-rainy days.
The overall shape of the swivel-arm crane is like a tower, with a single arm extending from the top, equipped with a pulley system connected to the rotary holy machine via ropes and hinges.
The most eye-catching thing about this contraption is the wooden sculpture of the Three Horrors at the top of the crane tower, while the rotating arm is hung with a 屮-shaped frame made of white animal bones.
Wood is combined with metal skin components, and even wrapped in leather, and the leather even has blood-red alchemical symbols.
With this appearance, Horn sometimes fears that it will suddenly collapse.
This unique aesthetic of tatteredness and barbarism, when he first witnessed it, shocked him no less than the Hor-Hor Human-Face Statue—
It's over! The thing he feared most has happened...
The Black Serpent Bay people and the Beastmen have mixed together!
Later, Horn couldn't say anything whenever he encountered them on the street, and would only avoid them with a dark face.
Although the appearance and feel are poor, he had to admit that this thing is indeed very reliable.
At this moment, the alchemical priest is using a large gear-driven key wrench to start the rotary holy machine, and as the roaring sound of the wheel rises, the ropes and hinges are all taut.
The laborers riding in the wooden baskets are lifted from the riverbed to the ground by the crane, swaying and laughing.
In the past, when Horn came to inspect, they were lifting not people, but baskets of mud.
The laborers push wheelbarrows to transport this fertile silt to the shore of the Great Marsh, where the Beastmen use the silt to fill the swamps and connect roads.
Without these swivel-arm cranes, they wouldn't even be able to clear the silt from the river mouth.
Of the remaining twenty-four Star-Forged Gears, seven are used for gear-driven power hammers, responsible for forging plate armor and firing rods.
And nine are installed on gear-driven lathes.
Wheel lathes are used to manufacture parts for gearboxes.
Lead screw lathes are used to turn threads to make spiral firing rods.
Wood and stone lathes are used to manufacture high-end furniture.
Finally, eight were left in the Mechanical Palace, partly to maintain the operation of the Mechanical Palace itself, and partly to allow Hilov to research and design machinery.
Recalling what he had seen and heard on Autumn Twilight Island during this time, Horn suddenly understood why Hilov proposed calling the town on Autumn Twilight Island Saint-Machina Court.
Gears clicking, gears roaring, the Holy Father turning the wheel, bringing about a city where machines replace manpower.
If this city isn't called Saint-Machina Court, then what should it be called?
Strolling in the rain, Horn was about to say something with great emotion when he was interrupted by Chap, who rushed over:
"Your Eminence, the sluice gate opening ceremony is ready."
Armand ignored him, only looking into Horn's eyes, Horn waved his hand: "Since it's ready, then don't keep everyone waiting."
Returning from the embankment to the shore highlands, the important figures of Great Marsh were all waiting.
Not only were there officials, elders, officers, and students from all levels of Autumn Twilight Island, but also farmer representatives, the Beastman Queen, and others.
The moment Horn appeared, the people present cheered.
While waving and greeting, Horn stepped onto the pre-built podium.
"It took nearly a year, we paid countless sweat and blood, built this dam, and started the dredging project."
"To thank all the people who have worked hard during this period, I would like to invite you all to applaud for one minute, to cheer for the people working hard on the river."
Amidst the cheers, everyone present raised their hands above their heads and kept applauding, the clapping sounds forming a unified whole.
As for the laborers, they puffed out their chests with pride, some with flushed faces, and some cheering along.
"Good, good..." Horn pressed his hands down, "Paying labor deserves respect, but how is this labor result, still has to be tested, is it a mule or a horse, we all have to pull it out for a walk."
"That's right." Armand's arranged stooge immediately picked up the conversation.
"Now, let's have a collective prayer, and then ask the Holy Father to make a judgment."
Horn crossed his fingers and held them to his chest, offering a standard prayer.
After everyone stopped, he nodded to Chap, and then tapped the table with a wooden hammer:
"Officially open the sluice gate!"
The wooden gate, clamped with heavy soil, slowly rose, and when it rose halfway, everyone could see with their own eyes that the wooden gate was shaking.
Although the laborers were very careful, one of the wooden gates was still skewed by the gushing lake water and could not be recovered, so they could only watch it shatter and drift away.
As if a chariot was walking in the sky, Horn heard the sound of wheels rolling over the air.
South Marsh Lake, which originally had a very high water level, vibrated, and the huge water pressure squeezed the water through the opening until it burst open.
Even the entire site began to shake, and some sharp-eyed people even saw a lot of cracks appearing on the dam.
But fortunately, this mortar-reinforced dam finally held up, at least it survived this impact.
The lake water, wrapped in sediment, surged forward, and the mud that had accumulated for hundreds of years screamed and rolled away under the inescapable waves.
South Marsh Lake's centuries of accumulated depression and pain were being vented along the stone embankment, washing away the black mud that seemed to block and suppress her forever.
The black mud would never have imagined that the calm lake water would have such a violent day, and the laborers seemed to be lighting a fire in the lake water with gear-driven machines.
As the white waves plunged into the black silt, the water flowed from side to side, washing the river channel.
The originally filthy river channel gradually disappeared, and the turbid lake water became clear.
The fishy and muddy smell dissipated with the wind, and Horn could only smell the fresh water vapor.
South Marsh Lake, no, Great Marsh is about to usher in a new life.
Facing the stunned crowd, Horn stood on a dark black rock.
In the roar of the lake water behind him, he opened his arms, the wind blowing the clothes on his back tightly against his body, and the sleeves rustled like flowing water.
"Although it's a bit sudden, I announce that, in the Autumn Twilight Island town renaming proposal, I cast my eleven thousand five hundred and thirty-seven votes for the name 'Saint-Machina Court'!"
"From now on, Autumn Twilight Island town is officially renamed—"
"Saint-Machina Court!"