Chapter 78 of 100
Chapter 78
7 min read1,678 words
When Tang En held the sword in his hand, he even doubted whether it was the same sword ingot he had seen last night when he left.
The silver-white blade, the beautiful cloud patterns, and the smooth lines were simply on par with the craftsmanship of the elves. Was this really the stick he had seen last night?
Moreover, it felt very comfortable in his hand, with no sense of sluggishness at all, as if it was made for him.
"Rubbish! Do you know who made it!"
Bryan widened his eyes: "I specially adjusted the entire blade considering your strength and the size of your palm. If it didn't fit, what would we dwarves be doing in the forging world!"
"Really? ... Wait! When did you investigate the size of my palm?"
"Just a glance when you patted my head!"
Tang En looked at Bryan with a horrified expression, feeling a chill down his spine!
"What kind of look is that... If you don't like it, give it back! This is my masterpiece!"
Bryan was furious.
"No, I like it very much!"
Tang En firmly rejected Bryan: "What's the name of this sword?"
"You name it!"
"This sword—"
Tang En's eyes twinkled, and he said: "—let's call it the Iron-Cleaving Sword."
Originally, Tang En wanted to give it a more majestic name, like Cheng Ying, Seven-Star Dragon Spring, or even the Xuanyuan Sword. But after some thought, he realized that this thing would be mass-produced in the future. The idea of everyone having one of the top ten famous swords of China made him say, "F*ck!" So he finally gave up on that idea.
The Iron-Cleaving Sword is not bad either. When everyone has one, it will feel like they are all shouting "EX Calibur" together, which is quite cool...
"Iron-Cleaving Sword? Not bad!"
Bryan seemed to accept the name.
"What are you going to do?"
"Go to sleep!"
Bryan muttered: "I've been busy all night, and you won't let me sleep?"
Tang En blurted out: "What time is it? Get up and have fun!"
Edgar and Bryan looked at Tang En in confusion, not knowing what was wrong with him.
"Cough, cough, it's nothing, nothing!"
Tang En waved his hand: "What I mean is, after yesterday's forging, have you thought of anything?"
"The new forging technique is amazing, the lord is amazing, I'm very tired, so can I go to sleep?"
Bryan was too tired to even bother with small talk.
"You can't sleep yet."
Tang En couldn't let Bryan leave. The unfinished conversation from last night was the main point today.
"Have you thought about how long it would take you to do the folding and cladding techniques without my help?"
"Probably a few days."
"But have you thought about using a press machine?"
"Press machine?"
Bryan was stunned, a light bulb went off in his head, and he slapped his hand: "Right! Why didn't I think of that!"
"It seems you still haven't remembered the assembly line production method I mentioned before."
Tang En was speechless: "This kind of repetitive, mechanical labor is best left to machines. If you use a press machine, you could make several sword ingots in the morning. If you also use cutting machines, grinding machines, and even polishing machines, you could produce dozens of such swords in a day. If you have more production lines, this sword can be mass-produced. Haven't you thought about that?"
After Tang En's speech, Bryan and Edgar were stunned. Previously, Tang En had described such a future to them, but they didn't have a clear impression. Today, they almost immediately understood the huge significance.
"Brother..."
Bryan looked at Tang En with a horrified expression: "You're not planning to become a king, are you?"
Mass-producing high-quality weapons and arming your soldiers at will, even a dwarf knew how taboo that was.
Tang En shook his head: "I have no interest in that."
"But you..."
Bryan was full of doubt: "Since I met you, you've been emphasizing the liberation of productivity and improving production efficiency, and even came up with something as incredible as a press machine. If you don't want to be an emperor, what do you want? To benefit the masses?"
"Of course."
"Who would believe that!"
Tang En shrugged, feeling helpless.
He couldn't tell Bryan and the others that he needed to develop his strength as much as possible because he couldn't determine when the crisis would come.
The official website of the game clearly stated that the invasion of Chaos would be the greatest crisis for Plandar, and even if all the players worked together, they might not be able to resist such a danger. Only by becoming a lord, obtaining his own territory, and developing the strength of the NPCs (natives) and gathering the power of the entire world could he hope to defeat the enemy.
Now that he had mysteriously arrived in Plandar, even though he didn't know the relationship between this world and the game, he had to start preparing as soon as possible for any potential danger.
Before considering the bigger picture, Tang En's first priority was to protect himself.
That's why he was eager for Elington to rise quickly.
"In fact, you all underestimate the power of industry."
Tang En shook his head: "Not just weapons, but armor can also be mass-produced on an assembly line."
"What? Are you kidding us?"
Bryan and Edgar looked disbelieving: "We won't talk about leather armor and mage robes, but every piece of armor worn by soldiers is very complex. How can these machines possibly mass-produce them!"
"You guys... sigh!"
Tang En sighed heavily, feeling frustrated.
"Can't you break down the entire suit of armor into smaller parts!?"
"Break down? Good idea, in fact, armor is already broken down, how can you use it without breaking down the joints? But how do you solve the connection points?"
Bryan sneered: "The connection points are too obvious, they would be fatal weaknesses. If they are too hidden, it affects the efficiency and convenience of wearing the armor, and you also have to consider the body types of different people... Armor and weapons are completely different! Much more complex!"
At this point, Bryan regained some of his confidence as a professional forging master and a proud smile appeared on his face.
"So... keep breaking it down."
Tang En smiled: "Break down a suit of armor into a hundred... no, a thousand identical parts. Then, just produce some of each type according to different sizes."
"Break it down into a thousand identical parts? Impossible!"
Bryan shook his head vigorously. This was impossible, absolutely impossible!
"Of course it's possible."
Tang En smiled and took out the drawings he had made before going to bed last night: "Take a look. These two types of armor are called fish-scale armor and chainmail."
Bryan and Edgar gathered around the drawings. After a while, they both looked up at Tang En with shocked expressions: "This kind of armor... how did you think of it?"
"Let's talk about feasibility first. You won't say it's impossible after seeing the drawings, right?"
"Feasible! Of course feasible! Absolutely feasible!"
Bryan said firmly: "The design of this armor is very ingenious. Although its defensive power is slightly lower than that of full-body armor, using the new material you created will make up for this defect. At the same time, the weight is greatly reduced. Soldiers wearing this armor will have better mobility, less fatigue, and the manufacturing process is much simpler!"
Bryan was shocked again. This idea was simply brilliant. Breaking down the armor into small parts, mass-producing those parts with machines, and then weaving them together, resulted in armor with defensive power not inferior to full-body armor, while also being lightweight. If combined with the new forging techniques to produce weapons...
This would be an invincible army!
Bryan took a deep breath. If Tang En said he didn't want to dominate the world, he would jump up and slap his face!
Hmm, wait? Can't hit his face? Bryan thought fiercely, then I'll hit his d*ck!
Actually, Bryan knew that even if it was an invincible army, it still fell short. The high-end combat power in this world was in the hands of the Enlightened, but these ordinary soldiers could easily crush the armies of other countries—unless the Enlightened joined the army.
If the strength of these soldiers was generally improved by one level, even those powerful beings might be overwhelmed and drowned in the sea of people.
This... is such a terrifying thing...
Bryan felt that what he was holding was like a terrifying weapon that could destroy the world at any time.
Tang En didn't know that Bryan would think so much. He took out this design because he hadn't seen fish-scale armor or chainmail in the army of Caspamia Castle. These two types of armor were also easy to mass-produce, so he brought them out.
Eliminate humanity, unify the world? He hadn't even thought about such things. The only enemy in his heart was the Chaos army that might come at any time.
"Have you finished looking at the drawings? Now do you know what our biggest weakness is?"
"Steel production? Aren't you planning to build a blast furnace to start steel production?"
"That's just one of them. Our biggest weakness is... people!"
Tang En said with a frown: "There aren't enough people in Elington!"
Even if the metal farming tools had liberated some productivity, it was only a few scattered individuals, giving farmers some leisure time to consume and fostering the sprouting of other industries.
But to enter the era of large-scale industrial production, population was always the biggest problem Elington needed to solve.
Population... population...
"Are you done? I want to go to sleep..."
"I also want to go to sleep..."
Tang En looked at Edgar and Bryan, whose eyes were green with envy, wishing he could stuff them into a room to have children. ===PS: Finish voting! Otherwise, I'll stuff you into a room to have monkeys!
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