Herald of Steel

The weapons shop was built a bit further away from the other two and was designated as a level-3 workshop.

This seemingly low number might surprise many people, as the weapons produced here were a matter of national security and could be said to be one of Alexander’s trump cards.

But the reason for this designation was because Alexander did not consider these weapon production plants to be economically very significant for Zanzan.

Sure, revolutions in armor technology like chainmail were being made here, and wonder weapons like the instant bow and crossbows also had their inception there.

But it was because of their speciality that Alexander could not sell them, or at least in great quantities, limiting their economic potential.

And Alexander was also willing to sell some of the technique because the material that was needed to make them, i.e- good quality iron, was almost exclusively under Alexander’s monopolistic hand.

So even if Alexander were to sell them the technique to manufacture these armaments, to actually produce and maintain them, they would need to buy the steel from Alexander. ｏｖ𝚕．ｃｏ𝚖

At least, they would have to do that if they wanted to make them economically.

In this way, Alexander would always have the ability to cut off the supply of this vital metal at any time.

And thus Alexander was not averse to selling these weapon-manufacturing techniques and was willing to, perhaps not the know-how on how to make the top-tier ones, but maybe of those of a bit lower quality.

Alexander also had another reason for placing the weapons workshop not on the higher levels like 4 or 5.

And that was because he was sure that it was only a matter of time before his equipment got copied by his enemies.

After all, battles of this time period were brutal hand-to-hand combats, and so killing a soldier and looting his corpse was much easier than in modern times, where engagements occurred at distances measured in kilometers, and thus a dead soldier would likely have anything valuable on him taken away by his retreating comrades.

‘Well since I’m bound to get my weapons pirated, might as well pirate it myself,’ Alexander hence reasoned with himself.

“Welcome, my lord,” Faziz, the leader of this weapon greeted Alexander at the weapons workshop, and then like before, after a few pleasantries and refreshments, was led on a tour of the site.

“So, how goes my weapon production?” Alexander asked as he toured the crossbow and instant bow-making facilities, to which Faziz very enthusiastically replied, “Fine, fine, my lord. We have never seen so much steel in our life. And of so high quality! It’s so much easier to work with!”

A wide grin involuntarily crept up on Faziz as he sang these praises, his mind drifting to the first day Alexander had sent his steel to the workshop.

Faziz would never forget the kind of shock he, and also his colleagues had received that day, as tons and tons of steel, cart after cart full of the stuff was presented to them.

The amount of shock and joy he had experienced on that morning was comparable to the kind of happiness he felt when his son was born and Faziz was sure he would remember that feeling for the rest of his life.

‘Easier to work it, huh?’ Alexander remarked to himself.

He had heard this also before and understood that without all the slag impurities present. the blacksmiths no longer had to waste so much of their time beating the steel and could fold it more easily without the risk of the metal cracking.

Alexander first toured the bow shop, which had expanded to close to ten times its original size.

A large number of blacksmiths were seen here, sitting by their personal forge and beating the heated steel ingots into iron bows to be fitted into crossbows, while others were busy making the stirrup by curving the steel into a semicircular shape.

*Clang*, *Clang*, *Clang*

The clamor and din of steel hitting steel was deafening for Alexander., while the heat from the so many forges running at the same time soon made Alexander profusely sweat.

“My lord, let us go there next,” Faziz, noticing Alexander’s state soon advised him to move to the next shed, where the assembly process was happening, as the bow, stock, and stirrups were being married to form the deadly crossbow, held together by thick ropes and tied using expert knots.

“My lord, before being made into crossbows all these iron bows are annealed just like you instructed,” Faziz did not forget to tell Alexander this additional information, though he had trouble pronouncing this English word.

Annealing was a heat treatment process where the steel piece would be made more ductile by putting it in a furnace at about 900- 1000 degrees Celcius, which was above the ‘recrystallization temperature’ and letting it soak at that temperature for a few hours, and then letting it cool inside the furnace slowly to room temperature over time.

This process would cause some physical changes in the steel, with the ultimate result being that it would make the steel softer and much more ductile, and machineable, which were all desirable qualities when making a crossbow, for it would make the bow more springy, allowing it to be bent more and thus shoot arrows faster and further.

This was also an example of how Alexander could protect his weapon’s secrets as even if an opponent were to steal his crossbow design and copy it, they would have no idea about the annealing process, allowing Alexander to constantly outrange his opponents.

“When do you anneal them?” Alexander then asked Faziz out of curiosity.

“We start at around noon and heat them in the furnace until the evening. After that, we douche the furnace and turn it in for the night, keeping the steel inside the furnace overnight, and letting them slowly cool. So they are retrieved the next morning,” Faziz succinctly described the whole procedure.

“Mmmmm,” Alexander approved with a nod and then moved on to the next shed.

Here the instant bow was being made, though the number of people seen working was much smaller than the crossbow plant.

And the reason for it was simply because it was a much more technical feat.

“Can you make the wooden mechanism out of steel?” Alexander asked curiously, feeling that would speed up production by magnitudes.

“Tha…that…might be…ummm,” Here Faziz stammered, as his eyes darted to find a quick answer to Alexander’s question.

As a blacksmith, he had a rough idea of how that might be possible, but he was still not sure how to properly tackle this problem.

Because producing such large, slabs of steel with the proper slotting without any machine tools would be quite problematic.

Casting them would not work, because cast steel was structurally weak and would likely crack under the large stresses.

Meaning it would have to be forged, or shaped by repeated hammer blows, which would be no easy feat.

At least no easier than chipping wood.

‘Hmmm, I should build a waterwheel to help them forge the iron,’ Alexander made a mental note, while he reassured Faziz, “Okay, okay, no need to get so worked up. For now, keep making it out of wood. We can think about making it out of iron slowly.”

“Thank you, my lord,” Faziz breathed a sigh of relief that his young pasha was not going to make some absurd demand.

And then, seemingly not wanting to disappoint Alexander promised the pasha with steely determination, “Sire, we are still learning how this new steel works. Once we get the hang of it, I promise you we can make the instant bow mechanism out of iron.”

Alexander certainly liked such ambitious claims and thus smiled and encouraged, “Then I look forward to it,”

Afterward, Alexander was led to the next site, the arrow-making plant which was huge to small the least, employing close to 300 people, all working in small groups.

There were blacksmiths making the steel arrowheads.

There were carpenters making the shaft and attaching them to the bodkins.

And lastly, there were fletchers cleaning the feathers and tying them to the ends using thin linen stings.

The whole process reminded Alexander of one of those assembly lines in China where rows and rows of women could be seen during the same thing over and over again with blinding speed, and standing there and witnessing it for himself, it seemed somewhat of a hypnotic scene for Alexander.

“I’m amazed every time I come here. To think, so arrows could be made so quickly,” It was Faziz who said, the appreciation in his voice palpable.

This setup was directed by Alexander, who had taught Faziz the basics of the division of labor as he had done Jazum’s son Jafor.

And compared to the previous way of doing things, where one would do much of the work the numbers said it all.

“How many arrows can we make?” Alexander asked expectantly, remembering that he had asked Faziz to obtain a daily production ability of ten thousand (10,000) arrowheads.

“These workers are new my lord. So about twenty-five thousand (25,000) a day,” Faziz answered, and then predicted optimistically, “But in a few months, once they become proficient enough, we should be able to make thirty-five thousand (35,000).”

“Mnnn, that’s good,” Alexander was pleased by these numbers.

And though making so many arrows per day might sound like a lot, it really was not.

For anyone who has ever fired a gun will know just how easily bullets can be used up.

And arrows were the same.

Once thousands of men started letting these sharp bits of iron fly out, Alexander knew his stocks would rapidly dwindle.