You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 64 Water-Powered Forging Hammer
After seven days of hard work, Roman finally saw the notification to upgrade his skills.

[Level 2 Forging: 0/380]

[Milestone Unlocked: How Steel Is Forged]

How Steel Was Tempered: Obtain 500 Primogems

Countless pieces of knowledge flooded my mind, with an effect even more powerful than the improvement in planting skills.

……

Roman rubbed his temples, having received everything, and then sorted through it.

His red eyes immediately lit up.

It was as if a flame had been ignited deep within his eyes.

"Have it!"

"What's up?"

Lax, who had been keeping a close eye on Roman, couldn't help but ask.

These past few days he'd watched Roman craft one large iron pot after another, his skills becoming increasingly refined until he finally surpassed him completely.

Today, this devil finally stopped; otherwise, he wouldn't know whether he should call himself a blacksmith or not.

Roman's lips curled into a smile: "Hydraulic forging hammer!"

Lax was bewildered.

But Roman didn't explain that much.

He immediately suspended all the work of the blacksmith apprentices.

In recent days, they have worked day and night to forge fifty or sixty shovels, which is far from meeting the shortage of road workers. The main reason is that this thing is too troublesome, and the process is only slightly worse than forging plate armor.

They have more important things to do now.

Roman then summoned Vickers and ordered all the carpenters to follow his instructions and make all the materials needed for the water-powered forging hammer.

Hydraulic forging hammers are not inherently complicated; mastering the key knowledge is all it takes to build one.

Roman designed a multi-gear drive shaft system, which has a more complex structure.

The advantage is that it can drive five or even more forging hammers to move simultaneously.

This power system is similar to the courtyard deer-startling system—water from the courtyard flows into a bamboo tube, the tail dips down and rises up again, making a crisp sound, the process repeating endlessly, creating a rather picturesque scene.

Waterwheels have even more and larger water buckets, which control the continuous rise and fall of those huge and heavy forging hammers.

The waterwheel drives the transmission shaft, which can rotate once every 8 seconds. Once the transmission shaft rotates once, the power is transmitted through the gears to drive each forging hammer to rise and fall 5 times, which is an extremely high frequency.

Under such high-frequency forging, the raw iron ingots are quickly forged into steel.

Roman spent two days, with all the blacksmiths and carpenters working tirelessly on his orders, and finally got the huge power transmission system in place.

The basin has a well-developed water system, which the residents of Sigge Town call the 'winding river'—like the tracks left by a snake.

The river has a stable flow rate and a suitable depth, making it ideal for the hydraulic forging hammer to perform its function.

Each forging hammer weighs about 200 jin (100 catties), and the five forging hammers directly used 1000 jin (500 catties) of steel.

But it's all worth it!
Even a superhuman like Roman couldn't lift a 200-pound forging hammer for long, raising and lowering it at that frequency.

Let alone maintaining it for a long time, even if he could only maintain it for a short period of ten minutes or so, his arms would be ruined.

However, this is not the case for drive shafts and gears; even if they are damaged, only the wood needs to be replaced.

Those heavy and enormous forging hammers rose and fell for a long and continuous time.

Lax's mouth gaped open as he stared in disbelief at the shocking scene before him.

For Roman, this was just an appetizer; his happiness stemmed from the fact that he could continue to save on labor.

But this is not the case for Lax.

He felt as if he had seen the first ray of light after the creation of the world; his mind went completely blank.

Roman scoffed, "You're a bunch of lucky fools who've witnessed true power. Just watch, no superhuman will stand a chance against it. From this moment on, I will lead you all forward!"

When everyone recovered from the shock, they discovered that Roman had left the blacksmith's shed at some point.

...Roman knew that Lax would make good use of the power system of the water-powered forging hammer to forge more steel tools for him later.

Steel tools mean a significant increase in production efficiency.

He has too many things to do. Sometimes it's not that he can't improve his skills, but that various environmental limitations prevent him from developing them comprehensively. Most of his skills are not worth improving and would only be a waste of time.

Because there are not enough people to meet his various development needs.

Roman was troubled every day by the lack of manpower.

Of course, the construction is proceeding in an orderly manner.

With the help of iron tools such as shovels and hoes, the road repair progress immediately increased significantly.

In just seven days, they made progress of nearly five kilometers, averaging 700 meters per day.

This was also thanks to the 50 chickens that Roman fed them every day—only the frontline workers could eat them.

On average, it takes more than ten people to share one chicken, and each person gets at most two pieces of chicken.

But it's still a rare treat.

Most farmers raise poultry not to satisfy their appetites, but to raise them to adulthood and exchange them for money to buy various necessities.

They thought that once the lord bought the poultry, they would never see them again in their lives.

But who could have predicted that, after only a few days apart, they would find the poultry they had raised from chicks in a large iron pot?

This caused tears of sadness to well up in their eyes.

If the dried chicken ran out, Roman would feed them ducks.

When the ducks are all eaten, they feed the geese, and when the geese are all eaten, they start slaughtering pigs and sheep.

That was originally the plan.

However, things suddenly took a turn for the better.

The incident began when Roman was blacksmithing, and several wild boars rushed out of the forest north of Origin Manor at night and ruined his vegetable garden.

Although the area damaged was not large, only about half an acre, there were still losses.

It brought tears to Gweil's eyes.

She finally managed to carry the pine needle soil out of the mixed forest and spread a layer on the ten acres of vegetable garden.

Every day, in my spare time from studying, I would squat beside the vegetable garden and observe how the vegetables were growing.

The harvest will be ready in about ten days.

As a result, many of the tubers of the parsnip were uprooted and gnawed by wild boars, which naturally made me very upset.

In fact, in previous years, wild animals have frequently ravaged the fields and destroyed crops in Sig Town.

The locals are often helpless.

We had no choice but to let them be.

Even guards can only deal with wild animals that attack people and villages; they cannot possibly guard all the land.

Moore had never been interested in hunting before; the poultry raised in Sig Town were enough for their daily needs, and hunting meant danger.

But Roman couldn't stand it.

He felt that these wild boars had come to bring warmth in the spring.

"You choose the path to heaven but refuse to take it, while turning to hell when there's no way out!"

Green and Aaron were immediately summoned.

Dota, as captain, led forty guards to stand before Roman.

Everyone stood tall and straight, wearing uniform linen military uniforms. Their waists were straight, and after standing at attention for so long, they exuded an outstanding spirit.

For the past month, they have basically done nothing but devote themselves entirely to training.

Every day, they train for three or four hours just to maintain military posture and march in step. They have meat with every meal, and there are no logistical concerns.

(End of this chapter)