Walking on the soft grass, Horn conversed with Herman and Knight Morne while leading the group forward.

As for the old nobles of North Mande County, they kept a distance of about three to five meters, following on foot, constantly murmuring.

"Steve, Steve."

Steve, who had been walking, turned his head, only to see it was Brunock, a fellow director of the smelting department, patting his shoulder.

"Do you have something to tell me?"

"It's everyone who has something to discuss with you. This abrupt visit from His Highness Saint Sun requires us to unify our stance while we can."

Suddenly, Steve realized this was exactly the Steel Guild elders trying to band together.

"What is it you all want now?" he asked warily. "I'm not getting involved in this. That Cheka is scary."

"Who said it has anything to do with Cheka?" Brunock lowered his voice, "Do you know the saying, set a high price, settle for less?"

Seeing Steve's puzzled expression, Brunock had to continue explaining, "Moliat — I mean, Her Highness Jia Li is siding with the Saint's Grandson, so there's no way we can keep our family estates.

But that doesn't mean we have to hand over the mines and smelting sites unconditionally!

As long as we stand firm and unite, we can at least gain more capital."

"What do you have in mind?" Steve didn't really want to get involved in this mess but still asked.

He'd long applied to be transferred to the internal security forces, but Her Highness Jia Li never approved it.

Brunock was delighted, grabbing his wrist: "You don't need to do much, just don't give in at a critical moment."

What do the elders of the Steel Guild fear the most?

They fear the Holy Alliance offering a high price, and if one person gives in, the others naturally won't hold out either.

At that point, it's all about luck, which is an utterly unacceptable scenario for the so-called "elders" of the Steel Guild.

They are the source of metal components for various workshops in the Holy Alliance, and if they collapse, it's only detrimental to the Holy Alliance.

So it must be a peaceful takeover, leaving room for maneuver.

How could they give up without squeezing out some future prosperity?

"But this seems like the Holy Alliance's latest technology? Are you sure the dwarves won't defect?" Steve remained skeptical.

Originally, the establishment of Hot Spring City absorbed a large number of Reformed Dwarves from the Dragon Sleep Mountain Range.

Their smelting and forging workshops visibly squeezed the market of the old-school dwarves.

As the saying goes, if you can't beat them, join them. The old-school dwarves might just surrender.

Anyway, the Holy Alliance granted citizenship to these dwarves, which is a very generous offer.

However, Brunock shook his head proudly, "No, they want to nationalize the mines, stripping the property rights granted by Her Highness Moliat to the dwarves. No old-school dwarf would agree.

Besides, claiming to surpass dwarves in steel-making has infuriated many dwarf masters.

If things really fall apart, the dwarves would return to the mountains, refusing to smelt steel for the Holy Alliance.

The Holy Alliance then would have to start from scratch to establish steel smelting and forging facilities, disrupting their four-year plan, leading to mutual detriment."

After all the explanations, Steve still didn't get it; he impatiently waved his hand, "I don't understand this convoluted stuff, I'll just keep quiet."

Brunock was naturally delighted, seeing that Steve didn't care for the smelting sites, which made persuasion even less likely.

"Then it's settled." Brunock let go of Steve's hand and hurried off to persuade the next person. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Before long, a series of encouraging voices rose among the crowd.

"In terms of steel-making, dwarves are the ancestors of humanity."

"Well said."

"Don't lose face, we've all been through battlefield experiences."

Hearing the voices behind, Horn couldn't help but smile.

Next to him, Knight Morne looked worried: "Your Grace, shall I stop them? This is getting out of hand."

"No need." Horn continued to stride forward with a grin, "Nothing much will come of it."

Knight Morne glanced back with a glare, then turned his head to see His Grace extending his hand: "Oh, it's raining."

Transparent rain droplets floated intermittently in the air, tapping the branches and making the leaves sway.

Entering the end of September, the rainy season in the Thousand River Valley finally arrived.

Dark clouds spread like ink, gradually coloring the originally gray-white lead clouds.

By the time Horn and his companions arrived at the site of the Flash Furnace, raindrops were already drumming on the roof of the red-brick building.

In this factory area spanning over 2,000 square meters, the tall, three-story buildings with exposed red bricks came into view.

"ry Court Barracks Steel Refining Plant?" Steve tried hard to pronounce the words.

"Welcome to the ry Court Barracks Steel Refining Plant, a place with an annual output of over 150 tons of steel." The gates opened, and Horn introduced with arms wide open to the crowd.

But upon hearing this, the dwarves laughed.

An annual output of 150 tons, thinking of surpassing the Leia Kingdom in a year?

Missing a zero, the dwarves might believe it; 150 tons is just...

Amusing.

Following behind Horn, they walked into the yard of the refining plant.

You could see a half-open storage area, piled with tons of pig iron ingots, cave crystal powder, and other raw materials.

Inside, there were crisscrossing wooden tracks for transporting iron materials.

Crossing over these wooden tracks and pushing open the oak doors, the scene before them made these dwarves and old nobles stop in their tracks.

Their heads slowly lifted up, and green flashes reflected off their faces.

Standing with hands on his hips in front of the massive lightning furnace, Horn also looked at her with a complex expression.

The idea of the lightning furnace was proposed six years ago, conceptualized between 1447 and 1448.

From research to design to experimentation to shaping, and finally to formal construction, it took a full six years and nearly one hundred thousand gold pounds.

Finally, it was built.

Yet, even after inspecting this towering lightning furnace multiple times, Horn couldn't help but marvel.

No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like a device only an evil organization would have.

In the dim light of the room, the brass-colored furnace, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, sat on the base, covered with rivets and iron bands.

On one side, a person-height gourd-shaped metal container was secured by a rotating gear round gate.

As for moon mercury, it was introduced from this metal container into the lightning furnace through a slender tin pipe.

White steam shot out from the seams, surrounded by green slender lightning.

The massive lightning furnace before them seemed like the forging god in Norn mythology, exhaling fire mist and turning hard pig iron into soft molten steel.

While Horn was still lamenting the wrong style, the other old nobles who saw this kind of lightning furnace for the first time didn't feel out of place.

Looking at the giant-like furnace, the initial vigor they had stirred among themselves suddenly slackened.

Faced with the giant, especially this thing almost as tall as a house, they had an inherent sense of fear.

Seeing everyone was stunned, several guild elders scratched their heads, couldn't help pulling their sleeves, and reminded them with their gaze.

The old nobles then reacted, and whispers of "don't lose face" and "keep your spirit up" sounded again among the crowd.

However, compared to before, these whispers had softened considerably.

The dwarves were carefully examining the gigantic tower furnace in front of them but dared not approach, fearing being struck by the green lightning.

It's just that they didn't see a furnace mouth or chemical feed port; without these, how could steel possibly be refined?

Some dwarves frowned and then seemed to recall something, shivered all over, remembering the rumor circulating among the Reformed Dwarves.

"The Saint's Grandson has already found the way for giants to refine iron; your outdated techniques ought to have been eliminated long ago. Do you know what's crucial? Let me tell you—lightning!"

In terms of principle, it seemed lightning really could melt iron ingots, as this was also recorded in the "Book of Forging."

But the book also said that lightning was the divine power of giants and dragons, and that mortals, even with lightning, could not use it for steelmaking.

"Is the Saint's Grandson a mortal?" This question arose in the minds of the dwarves.

Ignoring the danger, several dwarves rushed forward but were stopped by several workers: "Do you want to die? One shock and you'll become a charred corpse."

Standing behind the railing and yellow paint, the dwarf artisans wished they could stick their heads into the furnace.

Could it be? Could such a contraption really make steel?

Under the tense gaze of the dwarves, a rumbling sound suddenly came from the pipes.

"Whoa!" Suddenly, a dwarf pointed to the concave trough set up in front of him and shouted, "Steel!"

The dark red shimmering molten iron gushed out like lava from a dwarf volcano, splashing around like red silk meteors.

Liquid iron!

For many, it was their first time seeing iron heated to such an extreme that it became liquid!

Dwarf crucible iron could only produce steel the size of soybean grains, which then had to be hammered into steel ingots bit by bit.

But this furnace before them could directly refine pig iron into steel, and high-quality molten steel at that.

No forging or impurity removal needed; just take a mold, let it cool, and it's a fine steel ingot.

One block, two blocks, three blocks... blocks of brick-sized steel ingots formed, neatly arranged.

Thirty-six steel ingots, approximately 720 pounds of steel; calculating at three furnaces per day, that's about a ton.

Considering it takes three tons of pig iron to refine a ton of steel, Cold Spring Castle's steel plant's annual output of 70 tons of pig iron isn't enough for the refinery for even a month.

Sell that steel, and it's a profit of thirty to forty times, whether for the Falan people or the Leia people, they will all need it.

They originally thought they had grasped the lifeblood of steel for the Holy Alliance, but now it seemed no one was irreplaceable.

"Currently, due to some restrictions, the lightning furnace can only operate sixteen days a month, refining about 15 tons of steel, which can then be processed into mountain bronze."

"Besides refining into mountain bronze, it should also be used to manufacture lathes, tools, arbalests, cans, rivets… and, of course, weapons."

"So, next year we're planning to place an additional order of 300 tons of pig iron with Cold Spring Castle."

"By the end of next year, we're planning to build another refinery, a canning factory, a bicycle factory, a machinery factory..."

"Don't worry, an iron furnace is already on the research agenda; the current pig iron production can still hold up, whether ten or eight years, it will eventually be figured out."

No matter what Horn said at this moment, the heads of the several elders of the Steel Guild and the dwarves buzzed.

Until a clap of thunder, with lightning thrown down by dark clouds, woke those dazed and bewildered.

Horn stood before them, his clothes billowing from the gusts stirred by the green lightning: "Gentlemen, welcome to the Age of Steel!"