Chapter 390: Surprise meeting after long separation
When the carriage arrived at the gun repair shop, Claude had already discussed with General Skerry the appropriation for the construction of five castles in the two direct territories of Cromwell and Beringana. It was nothing more than withholding the 100%
Sixty gold and silver mines produced.
However, in order not to anger the Kingdom's Ministry of Finance, General Skerry suggested a temporary period of three years, that is to say, the withheld gold and silver mine production will be used as construction costs in the next three years, and will be returned after three years.
Give it to the Kingdom’s Ministry of Finance, so that all aspects can be accounted for...
As for the Mining and Commerce Association, it is nothing more than changing 60% to 50%, which is to hand over half of the gold and silver mines produced to the war zone every year. In this way, they will get 10% more income every year, and they will not have to pay for it.
In exchange for the cost of long-distance escort and transportation of gold and silver ore ingots, it was not in vain for them to cooperate with Claude to calculate the 60% of the gold and silver ore production that was handed over for free.
Claude got out of the carriage and found that the carriage was parked at the intersection of a valley. In and out of the valley, one must go through the inspection of the sentry in front. General Skerry also got out of the carriage and introduced that the security of the gun repair shop was provided by the theater command.
The directly affiliated security battalion is responsible for this. A security squadron is deployed here, and inspection and registration are required for entry and exit.
A lieutenant wearing an epaulette with two black stars rushed over, stood at attention and saluted in front of General Claude and Skree, and at the same time ordered his guard soldiers to immediately remove the roadblock and let the carriages and accompanying guards of the two generals enter the valley.
Claude waved his hand to let the carriage go in first. He was going to walk around with General Skerry. He had been riding in the carriage for about three hours and needed some exercise.
General Skerry said that the gun repair workshop is located here mainly because there is a mountaintop lake on the nearby mountain with sufficient water source. After a little repair, an artificial waterfall is formed, with a sufficient height drop, which can provide sufficient water for the repair workshop.
Hydraulic machinery provides power to ensure that the workshop can forge supporting devices other than gun barrels.
The valley looks very large, estimated to be thirty to forty acres in area. The ground has been initially artificially repaired and is relatively flat. There are many bungalows built in the middle of the valley and near the cliff, as well as a stone wall more than two meters high.
All the houses were surrounded inside. At the gate of the stone wall, four security soldiers were standing on duty.
"That's the gun repair shop over there," General Skerry said.
Claude heard the rumbling sound of machinery coming from the gun repair shop, but did not hear the sound of splashing water from the waterfall. Looking up, he saw more than a dozen half-meter-diameter cast iron pipes hanging from the cliff.
The top falls straight on the roof of the bungalow at the bottom of the cliff.
"That's the falling water power pipe." Seeing Claude paying attention to the cast iron pipe hanging from the top of the cliff, General Skerry introduced: "This is from the lake on the top of the mountain to the bottom. The drop of the water is used as power to drive the bottom.
The hydraulic machinery in the bungalow..."
"It's breathtaking..." Claude sighed. He didn't expect that people in this world would use water power in this way. He originally thought that the height of the waterfall would be used to drive the water wheel structure of the mill to run the machinery, but he didn't expect that even this
The waterfall is not visible, but the cast iron pipe is used to fully utilize the falling water of the waterfall.
General Skerry smiled calmly: "What's so amazing about this? Compared with this gun repair workshop, the gun-making workshops in the Kingdom are really shocking and amazing. I once went to the Kingdom's gun-making workshops on official business.
The second largest gun-making base is Valencia United Gun-Making Workshop. The waterfall there has a drop of more than a thousand meters, and the cast-iron water power pipe is two meters thick. It is said that the water flows straight down, driving thousands of tons of forging
Mechanical and rolling machinery, only in this way can we forge the unique and excellent barrels of our kingdom and create the most advanced muskets in the entire Farea continent..."
Forget it, Claude didn't want to argue with General Skerry about the advanced nature of the matchlock gun. He pointed to the gun repair shop in front: "Are we going in?"
"No," General Skerry shook his head and pointed to the other side: "Let's go there. The new director was once a famous firearms master in the eastern region. He was awarded the title of honorary earl by the kingdom. After taking office, he did it himself
There is a firearms laboratory, and he spends most of his time in the laboratory doing his own experiments."
Following the direction pointed by General Skerry, Claude discovered that there was a sparse grove on the other side of the valley. Hidden in the woods was a three-story wooden villa and a row of four log bungalows. The environment was quite good.
, there are green grass in the grove, but what seems a little incongruous is that the outer walls of the row of log bungalows seem to have traces of smoke from the fire.
"It turned out that the newly appointed supervisor also lived in the gun repair workshop, but he accidentally burned down the laboratory twice when he was conducting experiments, which aroused strong protests from the inspector, who believed that his experiments were a waste of time for the gun repair shop.
The workshop brought danger. Finally, I sent people to build a residence and laboratory for him here, and this finally calmed down the conflict between them." General Skerry said as he walked.
Claude wondered: "Why do I feel like you take good care of this director of the gun repair workshop?"
General Skerry smiled: "Because I have been famous for this firearms master for a long time. One of my former subordinates has a very good relationship with his daughter. So I will help when I can, so as not to hurt my former subordinate."
Complaining that I didn’t take care of them..."
So that was it. Claude didn't think much about it and continued to follow General Skerry towards the wooden villa. After passing through the woods, he saw a teenage boy wearing a gray shirt and a small vest sitting there.
Reading under an oak tree.
"Hey, little Mark, where are your grandfather and your mother?" General Skerry greeted the little boy very friendly.
The little boy raised his head in surprise and jumped up happily when he saw Claude and General Skerry: "Uncle Skerry, why are you here?"
As the distance between the two parties got closer, Claude suddenly felt a palpitation in his heart. He looked at the little boy and saw that he looked familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before.
"Grandpa should be taking a nap, and he's about to get up now. Mom is in the laboratory," the little boy said.
"Then uncle, go find your grandfather. You go and call your mother over. We have distinguished guests coming today." General Skerry touched the little boy's head.
The little boy looked at Claude curiously: "Is he a distinguished guest? His epaulettes are the same as yours, and he is also a general?"
"Haha, he is not only a general, but also the supreme commander of the war zone. He is uncle's boss. Even uncle has to obey his orders. Today he came specifically to visit your grandpa. Okay, go call your mother."
The little boy jumped up and down to find his mother.
Claude stared at the back, very puzzled: "Skerry, this little boy is the grandson of the supervisor? But we came to visit his grandfather, that is, for his experiments, too many barrels were lost, why did you let him
He went to call his mother over?"
"The reason is very simple," General Skerry replied: "In fact, it was not the supervisor who lost the barrel, but his daughter, the mother of the little boy. She is also an honorary baron canonized by the kingdom. Like her father, she
She is also a firearms master. Since there are only three of them in the family, she took her children and accompanied her father to the territorial war zone to take up the post of supervisor of the firearms repair workshop."
"It turns out that father and daughter are both masters of firearms. This is a rare family inheritance." Claude praised: "It's just that she lost more than 800 gun barrels in half a year, which is too many.
, I’m very curious about what experiments she is doing..."
"I don't know about this, but I once heard her father say that she is now inventing a brand new firearm, a musket that is completely different from the traditional matchlock gun." General Skerry pointed to the wooden house in front and said: "
Let's not linger here and go inside the house first. If you are curious, you can ask the Baroness yourself."
Soon, in the hall of the wooden house, Claude met the new director of the gun repair workshop, the gun master in the words of General Skerry.
"Hello, general, welcome to your presence. I am Libweid Milosky, the newly appointed director of the gun repair workshop." This is an old man in his sixties, with gray hair and a bridge on his nose.
He wears black-rimmed crystal glasses. Although he is a little older, he is in good spirits. He has a gentle and elegant temperament and is approachable.
Claude suddenly became fond of the old man because he noticed that the old man did not report his title of honorary earl of the kingdom. He did not know whether he deliberately ignored it or simply did not care. If he reported his title, then Claude would
De had to pay tribute to him in advance, but now he only reported his own position, but he put himself in the position of Claude's subordinate.
But Claude was a little puzzled. He always felt like he had heard this name somewhere, but he couldn't remember it. After the two parties introduced each other and took their seats, the old man ordered his maid to serve tea to the two distinguished guests.
What was served was black tea, but lemon slices, honey, and a few flower petals were added to the black tea.
"Please taste it. This is the scented tea from our hometown. It is not like the plain tea that your kingdom is used to drinking. Nothing is added. It would be the original flavor of the tea." The old man pointed at the tea and invited.
Claude picked up the tea cup and took a few sips: "It tastes very good, fragrant, sweet, and has a refreshing taste. But we don't all drink plain tea. When I was a child, I liked to add milk and honey to black tea. Mine
My brother and sister both like to drink it very much, but my father scolded me that it was a waste, but I enjoyed it. When I grew up, I had an income and could add various things to the black tea at will, but I didn’t have the time when I was a child.
Instead of being interested in it, I fell in love with the original light bitter taste of black tea. Perhaps this is the price of growth..."
"Well said, General. You are in a high position at a young age. You have a bright future with such an understanding." The old man looked at Claude with admiration.
Claude was about to be modest when he heard a woman's voice coming from outside the door: "Little naughty boy, if no distinguished guests come, you trick me out of the laboratory and watch your ass. Uh, where did you get so many?"
guard?"
General Skerry's bodyguard who was standing guard at the gate clearly knew the owner of the voice. He greeted the big man Gemmi who was also standing outside the gate and moved out of the way. A woman entered holding the hand of a little boy.
into the hall.
"General Claude, this is the little girl Sonia, and she is leading my grandson Malex." The old man stood up and introduced.
With a "clang", the tea cup in Claude's hand fell to the ground. He was shocked and stared at the woman who came in with his mouth open.
When this woman saw Claude, she was also shocked. She exclaimed: "Why is it you?"
The hall suddenly fell into a strange silence. Claude and the old man's daughter Sonia looked at each other in confusion, and their moods had not calmed down. The old man looked left and right, wondering what was going on.
The little boy may have been a little frightened, so he hid himself behind his mother, and then poked out half of his face to stare at Claude. Only General Skerry, who was still there, lowered his head to taste the scented tea in the teacup.
"General, General, Sonia, do you know each other?" The old man couldn't bear his temper and asked cautiously.
"So you are the famous Bird Gun Master..." Only then did Claude understand why he felt familiar when he heard the name Libweid Mirowski. As for his daughter Sony
Ya, I can't forget that. After all, she is also the first woman in my world. A romantic relationship has healed the trauma in my heart from being born and died on the battlefield, and it has also transformed me from a young boy into a young man.
A real man.
Claude couldn't help but look at the little boy hiding behind his mother. From the palpitations he felt when he first saw him and the familiarity he felt, a thought naturally emerged in his mind. Counting the time, he and Sonia were almost ten years apart.
Years old, and the little boy was about the same age. When I met Sonia at that time, she was still a single widow with no children around her...
"He is..." Claude pointed to the little boy.
"He is my child, his surname is Libweid." Sonia reacted, knelt down and hugged the little boy, and said firmly. Is this a self-inflicted crime?
Claude smiled bitterly, he had no intention of competing for the child with Sonia: "Why don't you tell me in a letter about such a big thing..."
"What's the use of telling you? You were just a little lieutenant at that time..." Sonia looked a little excited: "It was during the war, I returned to Swan Castle, and my father was seriously ill, and then I
I found out that I was pregnant. If your kingdom’s army hadn’t besieged the city quickly, my father and I would have been forcibly sent to the Kingdom of Nasseri. After a year, I had given birth to little Mark, love.
Archduke Skilling also surrendered. I wanted to find out about you, but your kingdom was defeated miserably on the Karrnath Steppe. They said that the first guerrilla battalion you were in was also on the steppe, so I thought you were dead.
....”
General Skerry stood up: "Master Bird, I think we can go for a walk in the woods outside and leave this place to those in need."
The old man came back to his senses and said haha: "Yes, the weather is nice today, very suitable for a walk. Little Mark, come with grandpa, your mother has some personal matters that need to be dealt with."
Claude looked at General Skerry, and now he understood what General Skerry said, that is, one of his former subordinates had a good relationship with the daughter of the director of the gun repair workshop, so he had to take care of them: "
Old man, you just tricked me like this...Since you already know Sonia and her son, why didn't you tell me earlier..."
General Skerry shrugged his shoulders: "What do you want me to say, I just have some doubts. Besides, I knew that when Master Bird became the director of this gun repair workshop, he didn't know their relationship with you. It wasn't until I found out that little Mark and
You look somewhat similar, and Baroness Sonia had a relationship with you in Squirrel Village ten years ago, so I am sure that they have a very close relationship with you. And you are commanding operations on the front line at this time, and I can't put myself
There was a lot of speculation going around, and I was just planning to ask you to come when, so you just showed up at my door..."
Soon Claude and Sonia were left in the hall. Little Mark was also taken away by Master Bird. General Skerry thoughtfully closed the door when he left.
"Sonia, I'm sorry that you have suffered." Claude walked towards his lover ten years ago and wanted to hold her in his arms.
However, Sonia resisted Claude's hug very bravely: "Let's make it clear first that little Mark is mine. He will inherit our Miloski family name and will not change your surname."
Claude didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Okay, I promise not to take him back..."