Capítulo 144: Looking forward (2/3)
The morning began with snow blanketing the kingdom, silencing the land in a way that reminded people of winter's hold. For most, there was little to do but huddle close to fires and hope their food stores would last until spring. Peasants stacked logs on their hearths, eating simple meals of bread and cheese as they warmed by the fire.
In one single-room cottage, a father and his young son prepared to head to a construction site. The boy asked eagerly, "Hey, Dad, can I help you today?"
The father patted his shoulder. "Best you stay here and help your mother. I'll take your brother today." He tapped his son's shoulder, he was to become of age the next year but already knew the art of metalworking.
After few minutes both went to the place designed for the construction of something new.
There they met other workers and surprisingly one of the advisors of the king. It wasn't that common for such thing to happen. They followed his instructions building with good quality clay what looked like a tall chimney. Attached to its bottom were two billows to blow air into the chimney.
What they found strange was the smooth path they made on the ground going from the smelter and ending in what looked like square molds. A palm above that hole there was another one, but on the other side.
The next morning they all returned there even before the sun rise to pre-heat the smelter. Besides some peasants helping, there was a fairly large group of metalworkers ranging from all specializations.
After a few hours they saw a luxurious wagon approaching the site. Around it were a dozen soldiers on horses accompanying it.
Who could that be? They thought, curious.
They felt their legs tremble when they saw the King himself comign out of the carriage. Rafael appeared right after but all the attention was on Threo.
"So this is the smelter? Is everything ready?" Threo asked Lucius, his advisor, that nodded back.
Rafael stepped forward, explaining the setup. "If it works, we'll call it a blast furnace." He described how iron ore, charcoal, and limestone would be layered inside, with air forced in by the bellows to stoke the heat. The onlookers exchanged glances, uncertain but intrigued.
"These billows cannot stop for a single second. If there isn't enough air being introduced in the furnace then it won't work." The men did not understand the word "second" but they got the idea of what Rafael was saying.
As the layers heated, Rafael kept a close watch, explaining the chemistry in simple terms: "The limestone reduces the temperature needed to melt the iron, making the process faster." The skilled metalworkers began to realize the implications, although many remained skeptical.
After a long, tense wait, the moment arrived. "Check if the slag has separated," Rafael ordered. At his command, they opened the higher drain, and a yellowish liquid poured out.
"Is that it?" Threo asked.
Rafael peered closely. "That's slag. The impurities are out, which means…" He gestured to open the bottom drain. A flow of bright molten iron poured into the waiting molds, leaving the crowd stunned.
"Don't tell me you found a way to separate iron from its impurities during the smelting step!" Another one said in disbelief. Seeing the impurities getting expelled first let them excited to know where the iron was.
"You've done it!" exclaimed one blacksmith, barely able to contain his excitement. "You found a way to speed up iron production and purify it all at once!"
"We were blessed! Now we will bee able to produce unbelievable amounts of pure iron and all that we need is a larger version of this smelter!"
"This process doesn't have a name yet but the smelter has, I call it blast furnace." Rafael said with confidence and pride after seeing everyone loose their minds over what was shown.
"So it means our production will increase?" Threo asked Lucius, his advisor that was accompanying him.
"Indeed, it will. This is probably going to change our kingdom forever. Milord, I advise you to order the construction of bigger versions of it. With this much iron our blacksmiths can make our soldiers the most well equipped ones in the world." He felt his head spin.
How many times he said "this new inventions will change our kingdom" in the last month? Such leap in advancements was unheard of.
Threo's face lit up with understanding, but Rafael quickly tempered their enthusiasm.
"There's only one thing you should know. What just came out of the drain I call it pig iron, it is too brittle to be used on swords and that type of stuff. It can be used to make things that don't suffer a lot of stress like a pan or things like that."
"Wait, really? So in the end it's not that great of a thing." Some felt as if they were betrayed. Yeah, it was too good to be true, they thought.
"Wow calm down, you can not deny that there's still usefulness to this iron and if you don't want this, I know how to make it less brittle and more malleable," he saw the shine come back to the eyes of those workers and even the king himself.
Well, it's time to put this world on tracks, Rafael thought with a big smile on his face.
"All you have to do is blow cold air into the molten iron and in less than an hour it will turn into the malleable iron as you all know it."
They know nothing about carbon and that steel is just iron with a bit of carbon on it... how can I explain that to them? This is the Bessemer process- I mean.... Rafael process? That doesn't sounds good. I'll have to think on a name later.
"And let me tell you something, and this will surely make you all sleep with a big smile tonight."
"Wait there's more?!" One surprised blacksmith asked. The others around couldn't believe what they were hearing and seeing.
"How else could this be better?" Everyone present was blown away by the "proof of concept" done. Fairly cheap and easy way to produce large quantities of iron was incredible but now there was something else? Something that was even better?
"This process of blowing cold air into this brittle iron... Insteal of going all the way and turning into malleable iron, you can stop half way and end with high quality steel."
Jaws fell to the ground.
"W-what?!"
"So you're saying that all this", the blacksmith pointed to the now hardened pig iron on the ground, "can become steel by just blowing some air into it while it was still hot?"
"As I said you'd have to stop at the right time but yes, it can."
The worker felt dizzy and needed a friend to hold him up.
"We need a bigger blast furnace right now! Men! I want one ready for next week!" Threo shouted. Their world was not the same anymore. All the things Rafael shared were ideas and knowledge that came decades, centuries and even millenia later.
He was trapped forever in the past and after a lot of suffering and time he understood he has the way to shape the world the way he likes. But because of uncertainties and fear he avoided spilling the beans right away before finding someone that wouldn't torture him for every bit of information he had.
I don't care how you know all this or from where or whom you learned it from. Just keep it coming. Threo actually slept smiling that night. Part because of the new method of producing iron and steel and also a few recommendations that Rafael gave everyone about how and where the furnace should be build and how it should be handled.
Rafael also indicated three friends of his that could help with the automation of the blowers.
The next day the decision to retake the city of Carilan was made. Everyone wanted to wait till the blast furnace started producing steel but gave up after learning that it would take maybe a month for that to happen.
"Our troops must take enough food with them to reach the outskirts of the city. We have some wagons ready to be pulled with them for that."
"Good. If they want they can hunt along the route too."
"How long will it take for them to reach the city?" Rafael asked.
"A week, more or less." Because the roads connecting cities weren't paved and wide and even being common for it to pass through dense forest, the estimated time of one week was rather optimistic.
"How many are going?"
"We mannaged to draft three thousand troops. Two hundred of them are fresh trained crossbowmen. We are also sending the first group specialized on building a trebuchet to help conquer the city."
"We're sending it disassembled with the troops so they can quickly assemble it back when they're there."
Everyone had high expectations from this incursion. It could be said the future of their resistance was tied to this advance. It wouldn't be easy of course, the troops are going to travel on foot for kilometers under extreme cold weather and snow but it was necessary.
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