Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest-Chapter 75 - 9 Hydroelectric Hammer

75: Chapter 9: Hydroelectric Hammer

75 -9: Hydroelectric Hammer

After seven days of relentless effort, Roman finally saw the skill upgrade notification.

[Forging Level 2: 0/380]

[Milestone Unlock: How Steel Is Made]

[How Steel Is Made: Obtain 500 original stones]

His mind was also flooded with countless pieces of various knowledge, an effect even more intense than the rise of his planting skills.

…

Roman rubbed his temples, having received all the information, and began to sort it out.

His red eyes suddenly lit up.

It was as if flames were ignited in the depths of his gaze.

“I’ve got it!”

“What have you got?” Lax, who had been keeping an eye on Roman, couldn’t help but ask.

He had watched helplessly as Roman crafted one large iron pot after another, his skill becoming ever more expert, until he had completely surpassed Lax.

Today, the devil finally stopped, otherwise Lax wouldn’t even know whether he should still call himself a blacksmith.

Roman’s mouth curved into a smile, “A Hydroelectric Hammer!”

Lax listened, baffled.

But Roman didn’t bother explaining any further.

He immediately halted all the tasks of the blacksmith apprentices.

Throughout these days, they had been forging five or six dozen iron shovels around the clock, which was far from satisfying the needs of the road workers, mainly because these objects were too troublesome to make, only slightly simpler than the process for forging plate armor.

Now they had something more important to do.

Roman called Vic over and instructed all the carpenters to make all the materials needed for the Hydroelectric Hammer under his command.

The Hydroelectric Hammer was essentially not complex to build, given the key knowledge.

What Roman had designed was a multi-gear transmission shaft system, which was more intricate in structure.

The advantage was that it could simultaneously drive five or even more forging hammers at the same time.

This power system was similar to that of a deer-scaring device found in courtyards—the courtyard’s water flowed into a bamboo tube, then fell and rose at the tail end, emitting a crisp sound, with the process cycling and repeating, offering a decent sense of charm.

And the waterwheel had more and larger buckets, controlling those massive heavy forging hammers to continuously rise and fall.

Driven by the waterwheel, the transmission shaft could complete a rotation in 8 seconds, and with each turn of the shaft, it would use gears to transmit power, raising and lowering each hammer 5 times with a high frequency.

And under this high-frequency hammering, the raw iron ingots would soon be forged into steel.

It took Roman two days, and all the blacksmiths and carpenters were kept so busy following his instructions that the huge power transmission system was finally set up.

The river system in this basin was well-developed, referred to by the residents of Sige Town as the ‘Winding River’—like the trace of a snake’s crawl.

The river’s flow was stable and the depth suitable, perfect for the Hydroelectric Hammer’s operation.

Each hammer weighed about 200 pounds, with five hammers consuming 1000 pounds of steel.

But it was all worth it!

Even someone like Roman, a Transcendent, couldn’t possibly lift a 200-pound hammer and maintain this kind of lifting frequency for long.

Let alone keep it up indefinitely, even maintaining it for just over ten minutes would render his arms useless.

However, the transmission shaft and gears wouldn’t suffer like this; even if they were damaged, it only meant replacing some wood.

Those heavy and massive hammers would thus rise and fall endlessly and consistently.

Lax’s mouth hung open, unbelieving of the astonishing sight before him.

For Roman, this was just an appetizer; he was happy because it allowed the continued conservation of labor,

But for Lax, it was not so.

It was as if he had seen the first light of creation, and his brain had stopped working.

Roman snorted, “You are a bunch of lucky fools who have witnessed true power.

Watch and see, no Transcendent will be a match for it.

From this moment on, I will lead you all forward!”

When the crowd regained their composure from the shock, they realized that Roman had left the forging shed at some point.

…

Roman knew that Lax would make good use of the hydroelectric hammer’s power system to forge more steel tools for him later on.

Steel tools meant a significant increase in production efficiency.

He had so much to do that sometimes it wasn’t that he couldn’t upgrade his skills, but various environmental constraints prevented him from developing fully.

Most skills didn’t even need to be upgraded and would only waste time.

Because he didn’t have enough manpower to meet his development needs.

Roman struggled every day with the shortage of labor.

Of course, the construction progress was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

With the aid of iron tools like shovels and hoes, the progress of road construction immediately surged forward.

In just seven days, they had pushed forward nearly five kilometers, averaging 700 meters a day.

This was also thanks to the fifty chickens Roman fed them every day—only the laborers on the front lines got to eat them.

Though on average, more than ten people had to share one chicken, with each person getting at most two pieces of chicken.

But this was still a rare treat.

Most farmers raised poultry not to satisfy their appetites, but to exchange them for money when grown, to buy essential daily necessities.

They thought that once the poultry were bought by the lord, they would never see them again in this lifetime.

Yet, who could have expected that, just a few days apart, they would see the poultry they had raised from chicks in the big iron pot.

This caused them to shed tears of sadness at the corners of their mouths.

If the dried chicken was eaten up, Roman would feed them ducks.

If the ducks were finished, then it was on to geese, and when the geese were gone, they’d start slaughtering pigs and sheep.

That was the plan.

However, a sudden turn of events occurred.

It all started when Roman was forging, and at night, several wild boars rushed out of the forest to the north of Origin Manor and ravaged the vegetable plot he had cultivated.

Although the area of destruction wasn’t large—about half an acre—the loss was still there.

Gwivelle watched and shed tears.

She had finally managed to bring the pine needle soil out from the mixed forest and sprinkled it over ten acres of vegetable fields.

Beyond her daily studies, she’d squat beside the vegetable patch and watch them grow.

Just when she saw they would be ready to harvest in another ten days or so.

To see that many tubers of windgrass were dug up and chewed by the wild boars, naturally, she felt very upset.

In fact, in Sige Town in previous years, there were often such incidents of wild animals rampaging through fields and destroying crops.

And the locals were often helpless against it.

They could only let it be.

Even the guards could only deal with wild beasts that attacked people and villages, and couldn’t possibly guard all the land.

Moor had no interest in hunting before; the poultry raised in Sige Town were enough for their daily needs, and hunting meant danger.

But Roman couldn’t bear it.

He felt these spring wild boars were delivering warmth.

“Heaven has a path which you did not take, hell has no gate yet you come knocking!”

He immediately summoned Green and Aaron.

Dota, as captain, led forty guards standing before Roman.

All of them were tall and straight, wearing uniforms made of linen with uniform design, their waists rigid, maintaining their military posture for so long, they exuded an outstanding vigor.

In the past month, they had done hardly anything else, fully immersed in training.

Just the military stance and marching practice took three to four hours each day, with three meals a day and meat every day, without any logistical concerns.