A week later, Roland received two pieces of good news.
The first was that Iron Axe, using solidified gasoline bombs, had dealt a head-on blow to the devils with extremely limited strength, temporarily slowing down the enemy's advance in the north.
The commander-in-chief described in detail in the letter the scene when the new weapon exploded, and it could be said that the results obtained from the experiment were even more amazing. In fact, using flames to contain devils had appeared as early as the First Battle of Divine Will, when humans had repeatedly circled around to the enemy's rear to ignite forests, causing wildfires that would not extinguish for days, making it impossible for the front-line red mist to gather, and ultimately achieving impressive results.
It was precisely because of this that the devils, learning from the lessons, would subsequently specifically destroy forests, grasslands, and even farmland to prevent supplies from being cut off. At the same time, even when they were in areas covered by red mist, they would establish small stone tower camps similar to outposts, in order to be prepared for any eventuality. As long as the camps stored red mist, they could hold out until the fire was extinguished, even if a fire broke out behind them.
There was no doubt that Iron Axe and the staff had been inspired by this battle example to plan this city-burning blocking battle.
The advantage of solidified gasoline bombs was that they came with their own fuel, and could ignite a raging fire even in an open space, and were extremely difficult to extinguish with water. It was just that no one had expected that the flames would not burn for long, but instead cause a city-wide deflagration.
If only Asha could recreate the situation on site, Roland thought with regret, if the reason could be found, then the burning gasoline bombs could be used to devastating effect against the devils in the future.
Unfortunately, according to the time calculation, Fangtooth City should have been re-swallowed by the red mist, and it was no longer possible to sneak in.
In addition, Roland felt quite distressed about using up more than five hundred barrels of solidified gasoline at once. After all, the fuel was easy to say, as long as more manpower was invested, production could be increased, but the animal blood that made the rubber worm mucus have affinity could only be slowly accumulated by the Department of Agriculture.
However, the victory was worth more than any immigrant, so Roland not only greatly encouraged Iron Axe in the reply, but also approved the newly produced hundred or so barrels of solidified gasoline for the front line.
The second piece of good news was that the assembly plant for the "Skyfire" finally welcomed the successful rollout of the first biplane.
After receiving the news from Anna, he rushed to the factory site with Tilly at the first time.
This brand-new factory building and the Air Knights Academy were built at the same time. Compared to the steam engine factory built of bricks and stones two or three years ago, it considered various needs of high-end manufacturing from the beginning of its design. The steel structure frame made its interior have extremely open space, which could simultaneously equip and repair more than ten aircraft, and the lighting fixtures were hung all over the ceiling. Coupled with the smooth and bright terrazzo floor, it could be completely described as magnificent.
Even Tilly couldn't help but exclaim when she approached the factory gate.
If someone who didn't know the inside story mistook it for a palace, it wouldn't be surprising.
In terms of personnel and equipment, Roland also invested heavily, not only transferring the most experienced managers and workers from various workshops, but also adopting the third-generation electrically driven machine tools for all processing equipment to meet the needs of cutting-edge production. This made it also become the leading electricity consumer in the industrial zone. If it were not for the appearance of the Mysterious Moon Instrument, it would have been necessary to suspend the power supply of other factories in order to allow it to operate at full capacity.
It could be said that the achievements and accumulation of Neverwinter in the past five years were all reflected in this new factory.
Roland even heard from Barov that the people of Neverwinter were proud to be able to work here.
According to the plan, when the new factory was officially put into operation, each of its workstations would undertake a specialized assembly task. From the first workstation to the last, it was basically the entire process of the aircraft gradually taking shape—the fuselage began to be riveted from a skeleton, the wings were installed, the parts were loaded, until the skin was attached and the factory test was performed.
But now, the factory was far from reaching the ideal state. Apart from a "Skyfire" undergoing painting work at the workstation closest to the factory exit, all other workstations were empty.
"How is it, are there any problems with production?" Roland walked to Anna's side.
"Countless," Anna shook her head, "you don't know how many accessories and materials the workers scrapped in order to make this qualified product."
Looking at the other party's helpless appearance, he couldn't help but smile wryly.
As early as when he made this decision, Roland had anticipated the difficulty—new materials, new installation techniques, it was almost impossible to understand them in a short period of time, and this was after he had tried everything possible to reduce the difficulty.
For example, the joint parts of the aircraft adopted a new single-sided riveting technology. For this reason, he specially opened a production line dedicated to manufacturing various drive-pin and draw-mandrel rivets required by biplanes. Compared to traditional double-sided rivets, this kind of fastener that only required tapping or draw-mandrel to complete the fixation had lower requirements for workers and was easier to install.
In addition, he also drew on the experience of later generations of model assembly, giving all parts a fixed number and expressing each assembly step in the form of illustrations. And fool-proof interfaces were set up on some easily confused parts to further reduce the possibility of incorrect installation due to carelessness.
Even so, in nearly half a month, the workers had only produced one finished product, and the difficulty was conceivable.
"Then have you been to the site yourself?" Tilly suddenly asked.
"Not really..." Anna shrugged - only in front of a few people would she show this kind of "unsteady" demeanor, "Roland told me to only be responsible for commanding, and no matter what troubles I encountered, I had to let them solve it themselves, although I almost couldn't help it several times."
Tilly laughed, "So you're actually still very happy, right? Because after all, one has succeeded."
Anna couldn't help but raise the corners of her mouth, "I knew I couldn't hide it from you."
"There will be a second one after the first one. When all the workers are skilled, I think qualified aircraft will soon increase." Speaking of this, Tilly paused, turned her head and glanced at Roland, "It would be even better if you praised her at this time."
"I never expected him to do that," Anna pouted.
"Eh?" Roland looked blank, what exactly happened? Weren't they discussing aircraft production, how did it turn to him?
At this time, a guard ran over, "Your Majesty, all the factory preparation work for the first Skyfire has been completed, and the celebration ceremony can begin at any time."
Roland turned his attention back to the biplane, and saw that the light gray fuselage had two newly brushed logos, one was the Greycastle royal emblem, and the other was a knight holding a spear and spreading his wings. The whole aircraft looked majestic, but it always felt like something was missing...
He pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized, waved his hand and said, "Ribbons!"
Soon, bright red silk ribbons were hung on the plane, and a big red flower was also worn on the propeller at the nose.
That's right, he nodded in satisfaction, this was the perfect factory condition of the Skyfire.
Then came the speech, ribbon-cutting, and group photo. Roland, Anna, Tilly... and all the heroes and workers who participated in the design and manufacture of the aircraft stood together, behind them was the brand-new biplane numbered 001, draped in red ribbons.
"Look at me... one, two, three!"
Soloya summoned her magic pen and recorded this historic picture.