MC's career as foreign lord

"My lord, the entire construction is complete! We're going back to rebuild our homes now!"

The leading dwarf said, which made Zhou Ren a bit confused. Weren't their homes already repaired? Why did they need to rebuild again?

He directly asked the question and got the answer he wanted.

"After building such a perfect creation, we realized we still have many shortcomings, so we decided to renovate our homes. We want to build something special that satisfies both artistic and practical needs!"

"I see!" Zhou Ren nodded. "Go ahead, I wish you success!"

Because of his arrival, many dwarves also emerged from the building, taking him to view the newly constructed house.

The dwarves seemed very happy after completing the construction here. Behind them was a huge building many times taller than their bodies, with various facilities and a gun barrel sculpture that seemed to be slowly built and carved by hand.

That's right, in order to highlight the excellence of this area and their thoughts, they initially planned to build a dwarf statue, but after the dwarves argued strongly, it became a firearm, the most iconic symbol of the dwarf race!

It was only at this time that Zhou Ren learned that the history of dwarven firearms was actually quite long, and had become a coveted weapon for everyone hundreds of years ago.

Therefore, they incorporated a large number of firearm elements into this building, and even placed the firearm assembly factory at the head of the gun barrel, which could directly eject complete firearms onto the gun rack below.

These guys' ideas are really interesting. Zhou Ren's face showed a very interested look, his eyes flashing with a little light. "Can you show me the building?"

"It's our honor, my lord!" A dwarf stepped forward and said. The gnomes had already left at this moment, and this was now the dwarves' forging base.

It seemed that because the entire base had been completely built, the machines inside had already started operating. Zhou Ren had even seen many strange-looking large machines being assembled by them.

"With the help of the power you gave us, we can forge all these large smelting and forging machines, and give them even more unique new powers!" The dwarf craftsman who introduced him was very excited.

"Oh? What kind of statement is that?" Zhou Ren was very curious. As the most skilled underground dwarves in the world, who were more specialized in defensive weapons and shield forging, what kind of scene would it be when they combined with the MC's forging system?

"The power you gave us allows us to forge any metal into the shape we want. A large amount of metal has been turned into a very complete forging lathe!"

They showed Zhou Ren a gun that had just been forged. It only took less than two minutes for it to transform from a complete metal block into a gun.

Zhou Ren was a little surprised. He might need to reposition the abilities of these races.

You should know that even in his era, lathes were not a very ancient technology. As the 'mother hen' of all industrial goods, this assembly line-like lathe model represents some of the most advanced industrial skills.

A race with complete forging technology is different. The dwarven race with this technology is probably more powerful and reliable than he imagined. If they have a lathe, it means that with enough minerals and energy, they can quickly arm their entire race.

Moreover, this kind of forging technology often means the arrival of some assembly line-like industries, and also means the emergence of a large industrial era. So why hasn't this powerful manufacturing and shaping ability caused a stir on the entire continent?

This continent is much deeper than he imagined. Is it that the gods disregarded their reputation and interfered again, or is it that even such an industrial form still cannot create an advantage on the continent?

He thought a lot, but the dwarves' efforts were also worthy of praise. Walking to the rack full of firearms, he took out one and held it in his hand.

It was indeed different from what he imagined. He originally thought that the guns produced by this industrial assembly line should at least be breech-loading guns, right?

As a result, he saw the burning fuse behind and the gunpowder and bullets loaded from the front. In order to increase the power and length, they even made a very long seamless steel pipe, and then filled it with a large amount of gunpowder.

This gun doesn't look like a primitive rifle at all, but rather like a hand cannon. The barrel is very long, but also very thick, seemingly to adapt to the flame and the terrifying explosive power.

"No wonder there is no change. With this kind of thinking ability, you will never be able to defeat a mage in your lifetime!" Zhou Ren said.

This kind of hand cannon is quite useful in wars between ordinary people, but once it involves powerful external wars or terrifying elemental wars, it is useless against mages and legendary warriors.

In order to strengthen the power of the guns, the dwarves stuffed more and harder bullets and more abundant gunpowder into them, but this didn't actually make much sense except for making the gun more bloated.

The not-so-long range cannot make the strong feel threatened, and the not-powerful-enough and not-penetrating-enough gunpowder can even allow others to see the shooting route clearly and then be forcibly blocked.

Moreover, the slow rate of fire and the too-short range cannot better make the enemy feel threatened. Even if the gun barrel is filled with iron sand, they have countless ways to easily solve large creatures like dragons who are thick-skinned.

They only need to endure such attacks in the first charge, and then it will be their time to do whatever they want.

Even though the history of guns has been hundreds of years old, this most primitive production method cannot meet Zhou Ren's requirements.

This is not his idea, and of course it is not his concept, so very happily, Zhou Ren began to revise these things.

"Your gun is not very good!" Posing in the exclusive posture of a 'know-it-all', he began to express his opinions. "Can such weapons have a great effect in war?"

"Of course, our dwarven race relied on such weapons to establish a country on the mainland. Ordinary races have no way to confront us!" Speaking of this, the dwarven craftsmen were very proud.

Zhou Ren shook his head, "But you were driven underground and became dispensable existences. The dwarven race also has no way to flourish on the mainland because your firearms can only play a role in ordinary wars, and cannot even cope with large-scale charges!"

His words directly hit the dwarves' sore spot as a race. The reason they couldn't return to the mainland was because their firearms couldn't contend with the strong individuals of other races.

For the numerous humans, large-scale charges could be countered with equally large charges. But for the sparsely populated elves and dwarves, throwing their population into such clashes would be akin to destroying their entire race.

The elves' solution was simple. Their War Mage Corps was specifically prepared for this. Terrifying elven war magic could completely dispel any race's desire to engage in head-on charges.

The sheer number of mages and their powerful magic proficiency, unrivaled on the continent, were the foundation upon which their entire race stood firm.

It was with this foundation and confidence that the elven race had always remained undefeated.

However, the dwarves didn't have such a foundation. They themselves knew that their race lacked such a foundation and the corresponding combat prowess.

Even if their goat riders were unprecedented in the continent's history, their small numbers made forming a proper army a mere pipe dream.

In this situation, their only recourse was to barely keep up with the advanced technology of other races, namely firearms technology.

When this technology first arrived, it did give them a considerable tactical advantage. At least ordinary soldiers and warhorses would feel fear when faced with these booming weapons.

But this situation couldn't last. Once other races understood these tactics and combat capabilities, the dwarves' win rate began to plummet drastically.

Zhou Ren had heard the dwarves tell such stories, and thus he deduced that the biggest weakness of firearms as weapons was… insufficient suppressive fire.

History served as a lesson. The people of the Song Dynasty possessed firearms, but the nomadic tribes of the time were still skilled warriors. If the firearms in their hands had been Maxim guns, would the nomadic tribes have become peaceful singers and dancers?

In other words, if the dwarves could transform their muzzle-loading cannons into high-tech, rapid-firing breech-loading weapons, wouldn't they be able to secure their race's combat advantage and extend it to wars across the continent?

But regardless, these things they developed would become unique products of Zhou Ren's territory.

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One of his previous headaches was indeed the orcs and the terrifying number of various magical creatures that had retreated to orcish territory.

But once a rapid-firing machine gun was truly developed, the biggest problem would no longer be numbers. 'I have 300 Maxim guns; I can resist any enemy.'

He directly brought up this idea, and since the dwarves could adjust metal according to their whims, it meant that, besides gunpowder, all other problems were essentially non-existent.

After all, all the components could be completely synthesized through the workbench and the hammers in their hands. What kind of experience would that be?

While other races yearned for and lacked gunpowder, Zhou Ren's warehouse was already overflowing with it, just like arrows. He had originally planned to turn it all into TNT for blasting mountains, but now it seemed he could also give it to the dwarves as propellant for their launchers.

After all, if gunpowder was loaded into bullets, a single portion of gunpowder could be used for quite a few bullets. As long as it wasn't a special creation from MC, these materials were actually very durable.

One portion of gunpowder was a staggering 1/9 of a cubic meter! Anyone who has studied mathematics should know how terrifying that is.

That's a true ton of TNT!

He suddenly became much happier, thinking of a way to consume the gunpowder without having to turn it all into TNT and go blasting mountains, which was also a decent option.

As a lord, even if his ideas weren't fully acknowledged by the dwarves, they still garnered a certain respect. Many dwarves immediately took action, starting to create a machine gun that could be used for firing according to his instructions.

The unreasonable thing about the magical world was that most structures that couldn't be directly created could be forcibly hammered out with the help of one's own magic and perception of various objects.

They didn't need the thing to be particularly good, just able to run with the help of magic elements.

This made the brand-new thing they created look exceptionally crude, even including the six pipes tied to the front.

This was naturally inspired by the Gatling gun. If a single pipe fired too many bullets, it would create unmanageable high temperatures.

In the original world, there weren't particularly good solutions. Either directly replace the barrel, or use cold water or ice for physical cooling.

And using six barrels for rotary firing could not only increase the bullet's firing rate but also greatly reduce the temperature of the barrel, which could be considered a win-win.

After these six seamless steel pipes were completely bound together and connected to a rotating magic bearing, the next step was the creation of the firing mechanism and gunpowder bullets.

This thing was even cruder. To connect the firing mechanism with these six pipes, the dwarves even made a huge trigger.

Then there was the loading of the bullets. Zhou Ren mentioned the method of making bullet belts, and they learned very quickly, taking a thread and directly tying the bullets to it.

The forward-protruding loading method could use pressure to directly break the rope tied to each bullet, which was a simple bullet feeding device, and then they designed a mechanism that could suck the bullets in.

At the same time, the six pipes would continuously rotate, and each bullet could just be stuck into the pipe. Then, with the striker of the firing mechanism detonating at the same time, the bullets could be fired through the six barrels simultaneously, and the barrels would be constantly replaced with the continuous rotation of the bearing.

Zhou Ren stared blankly at their crude operations, not expecting it to be so successful. Although it looked crude and unscientific, this gun was indeed very magical. It only needed to be injected with a little magic or use some newly purchased magic crystals to keep the gun running for half an hour.

"Hiss…" He was somewhat speechless and could only exclaim, "You guys are really damn little geniuses!"

The dwarves didn't understand these words, only taking it as a reward from their lord, and their faces beamed with happiness. However, they also knew the shortcomings of this thing.

"Lord, this is just a simple template. If we really want to make it, we probably need to make many improvements!" one of the dwarves said.