82: Chapter 82 Words cannot express my gratitude for His Majesty's kindness!

"To think it was calculated so quickly!"

Many officials couldn't help but look at the abacuses placed on the tables by the prospective bank personnel.

They had used those abacuses to calculate the data.

This calculating tool was much more advanced than Counting Rods.

They looked toward His Majesty the Head of State again.

Even with their vast experience, none of them had ever seen a tool like the Abacus; it was clear that the Abacus was another creation of His Majesty the Head of State.

This made them feel even more respectful toward His Majesty the Head of State in their hearts.

Such talent was truly earth-shattering; even the First Emperor wouldn't be able to catch up even if he were on horseback!

Zhao Fusu looked at the sales figures: a total of 26,481,500 coins!

Converted to RMB, that would be 5.2963 billion!

Zhao Fusu truly couldn't hide his inner excitement.

There were too many places to spend money. Seeing the funds provided by Li Si and Chunyu Yue constantly shrinking, Zhao Fusu had also felt anxious, thinking about quickly preparing the bank's construction to facilitate...

With so much money, Zhao Fusu's confidence grew.

The blueprint planning for the Industrial Zone could now be initiated!

He was going to send a large amount of corvée labor to build the Industrial Zone.

The production lines for mingguang armor and Iron Pagoda must all be started!

The production capacity for Hexagonal Boron Nitride Release Agent was limited, so the production lines for mingguang armor and Iron Pagoda couldn't use a single cast-iron mold for mass production.

But he had money now; it was nothing more than spending more money and using more materials to forge mingguang armor and Iron Pagoda using the lost-wax method.

Armor in the Qin Dynasty was mainly leather armor made from rhinoceros hide, which was not only sturdy but also very flexible.

The head part of the armor is called the helmet, and the body part is called the cuirass.

The top of the helmet is circular, the second layer is trapezoidal, and the third layer is rectangular. The brow is pointed, the face is serrated, and the neck is imbricated.

The cuirass for the body is rectangular.

On both sides of the armor, there are also pauldrons for the shoulders to protect them.

Every rhinoceros hide scale on the armor was cut, ground, polished, and drilled using techniques imitating jade craft, then bound with ropes.

It took as long as a year to produce a single set of armor.

The State of Qin spent hundreds of years and a vast amount of money and manpower to achieve an armor coverage rate of seventy percent for its army.

Once the armor was worn, one became invulnerable to blades and spears.

Even bows and arrows found it difficult to pierce the armor.

Wearing armor could be said to make one's combat power skyrocket!

In ancient times, private possession of armor was not allowed.

One set of armor is worth three crossbows; three sets will send you to the underworld!

Having five hundred sets of armor meant having five hundred invulnerable men; even an emperor would be afraid.

In Zhou Yafu's later years, his son Zhou Yang, seeing that his father didn't have much time left, ordered 500 sets of armor out of filial piety, intending them to be burial goods for his father.

Han laws stipulated that the private possession of armor was a crime equivalent to treason.

After this matter was reported, Emperor Jing of Han ordered the Commandant of Justice to strictly interrogate Zhou Yafu.

Zhou Yafu was extremely indignant about this and protested by going on a hunger strike in prison; he died after vomiting blood only five days later, and after his death, all his fiefs were reclaimed.

Under such strict control, there was essentially no armor to be found in the world.

The mingguang armor and Iron Pagoda that Zhao Fusu forged from steel would only be more monstrous in defensive capability than armor made from rhinoceros hide.

The stronger the army's combat power, the lower the possibility that the Remnants of the Six States could overthrow him.

His control over the imperial court would also become stronger.

Zhao Fusu looked forward to the Iron Pagoda the most.

This Iron Pagoda was even more monstrous than the mingguang armor.

The Iron Pagoda belonged to the category of heavy cavalry.

The soldiers wore double-layered iron helmets and heavy armor, with gorgets protecting their necks; the horses were also entirely covered in heavy armor, leaving only their eyes, ears, muzzles, and limbs exposed.

The weapons held by standard Iron Pagoda soldiers were heavy lances and iron maces.

The heavy lance is a long weapon suitable for charging; the iron mace is a short weapon with great power in close combat.

The weapons for the unconventional Iron Pagoda soldiers Zhao Fusu wanted to create would retain the iron mace for close combat, but the heavy lance would be replaced by shotguns.

A shotgun's range is within a hundred meters, and a single shell contains fourteen pellets.

The strongest jungle assassin of the current era uses a shotgun.

There's no need to aim at all; once loaded, you just lift the gun and fire, spraying a whole area in one go.

Iron Pagoda soldiers wielding shotguns might not be effective against light cavalry, but against infantry, even the strongest man in history, the legendary warrior Xiang Yu who recorded two thousand-man slaughters in history books, would be scared witless upon seeing them.

Zhao Fusu's gaze turned toward Old Mo, Old Liu, and Old Yang.

"The Great Qin Empire Forging Workshop will no longer be under the jurisdiction of the Imperial Treasury, but will instead fall under the jurisdiction of the National Assembly and be renamed the Great Qin Empire Academy of Sciences. Besides cultivating technical talent for Great Qin, it will also research various technologies."

"The departments of the Great Qin Empire Academy of Sciences are divided into the Steam Academy, the Materials Academy, and the Defense Academy."

"As for the Steam Academy, Old Mo, you will serve as the dean."

Zhao Fusu's gaze turned toward Old Mo.

"This old man will never fail to live up to His Majesty the Head of State's high expectations!"

Old Mo said with an excited expression.

His Majesty the Head of State valued him so much, letting him ascend a high platform that only the First Emperor was qualified to sit on; how could he let His Majesty the Head of State down?

"Old Liu, you will serve as the dean of the Materials Academy."

Zhao Fusu said, "I hope you, Old Liu, can increase steel production capacity and improve its performance."

Although current steel is more than just a little bit stronger than bronze, there is still a certain gap compared to modern steel.

The performance of steel still needs to be improved by optimizing the process.

"This old man will serve His Majesty the Head of State until death!"

As Old Liu spoke, he rose from his seat and was about to kneel before Zhao Fusu.

"Old Liu, don't..."

Zhao Fusu hurried to stop Old Liu; he felt that having a white-haired elder kneel to him would shorten his own lifespan.

But although Old Liu was old, he could still swing a large hammer with one hand to forge iron; Zhao Fusu was not as strong as him.

Zhao Fusu couldn't stop Old Liu and could only watch as Old Liu knelt before him.

"Get up, quickly get up, Old Liu, please get up!"

Zhao Fusu went to help Old Liu up again.

Old Liu remained kneeling.

He said with a face full of gratitude, "Your Majesty the Paramount Leader, without you, this old man would never have seen iron undergo nirvana and be sublimated into steel in this lifetime."

"A thousand words cannot express my gratitude for Your Majesty the Paramount Leader's kindness!"

"Old Liu, you are overstating it, you are overstating it!"

Zhao Fusu went to help Old Liu up again.

"Please, rise quickly!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty the Paramount Leader!"

Only then did Old Liu get up from the ground, sobbing.

After seeing that Old Liu's emotions had calmed down, Zhao Fusu then said, "I will serve as the dean of the Defense Academy, with Old Yang as the vice-dean, to research national defense weapons."

"Old Yang, I will select a group of people from the army to learn the lost-wax method from you."

"Understood!"

Old Yang cupped his fists and responded.

"I will invest a large amount of capital into the Great Qin Empire Academy of Sciences so that you can conduct research."

"At the same time, I will also set aside a sum of money to build the Great Qin Empire Academy of Sciences Affiliated Technical School, where you will serve as principals and organize teachers for training."

"The talents you cultivate who have strong potential and top academic performance can be selected for the Great Qin Empire Academy of Sciences."

"As for the average talents, they will go to the factories to assemble steam threshers, steam rotary tillers, and steam tractors, or to cast components."