Chapter 125: The Army Takes Shape
After finishing the Frost Knight's ability test, Rhodes returned to his second-floor cabin.

To be precise, it was into the laboratory of the house.

"The progress of the explosive bacteria experiment has been stuck until now, and we can finally move forward."

Rhodes picked up various instruments from the material rack and placed them on the laboratory table in front of him.

He looked at one of the flower pots, where fluorescent furry mycelium was growing.

This is geothermal fungus, a special fungus he discovered in the valley where the icebreaker beast lived.

Although it is just an ordinary plant, it can quickly decompose organic matter in the soil.

It nourishes the land while releasing heat, keeping the soil at a suitable temperature and resisting the cold.

Geothermal bacteria themselves have extremely high production value and are widely planted by Rhodes in the arable land in the river valley plains.

Combined with peat soil and hybrid barley, the grain yield per mu of cultivated land can be guaranteed.

Under the influence of the stimulating fluid of the ash furnace rat, the geothermal bacteria will evolve rapidly and become a high-energy explosive comparable to dynamite - the explosive bacteria.

The only problem is that the explosive bacteria is too unstable.

Often, a violent explosion occurs before leaving the laboratory.

This is also the problem that Rhodes needs to solve at this stage.

Just like the birth of nitrocellulose in the original world, this substance will decompose and spontaneously combust when the temperature exceeds 40°C. If it is not treated with solvents such as ether and chemical passivators, there will be no smokeless gunpowder that will subsequently change the war.

The same goes for explosive bacteria. If their safety cannot be guaranteed, they will always remain in the laboratory and cannot be put into production.

Rhodes placed the mycelium of geothermal bacteria in a petri dish, and then picked up the purified gray furnace rat stimulating liquid.

Gently shake the quartz tube, and the red stimulating liquid inside will seem to be burning with flames.

"The reason why the explosive bacteria is unstable is that, let me think about it, it is most likely because the blood of the gray furnace rat is too corrosive, and the simple fungal life cannot withstand it."

In theory, the concentration of the irritant fluid should be reduced.

However, if you continue to add water to dilute it, the magic concentration of the stimulating liquid will be too low, and the fungus will not be able to evolve.

Rhodes was stuck at this step before. The preparation of the stimulating liquid always failed, so he had to stop temporarily.

But now it’s different, thanks to the pure magic power of the magic pool, he has a new way to dilute it.

Open the quartz tube and inject a small amount of pure magic power into it.

Unlike when the red color becomes lighter when added with water, the color of the stimulating liquid at this moment appears a softer orange-red.

Rod poured the new stimulating fluid into the petri dish.

Ten minutes later, all the fungal cells were dyed orange-red, and began to divide in large numbers after successfully evolving.

Rhodes poured in barley nutrient solution to ensure the healthy growth of this new fungus.

Compared with the explosive bacteria, this time the fungal division is more stable.

Everything went smoothly until it grew to fill the entire culture dish.

Unfortunately, something went wrong in the end.

The continuously dividing hyphae touched the quartz wall. At that moment when their growth was blocked, strong fire magic expanded inside, bursting into a red flame.

It seems that the composition ratio of the stimulating liquid needs to be further improved.

Rhodes stretched out his finger toward the petri dish, and the frost-attached cold air spread from his fingertips.

The mycelium that was about to explode was frozen instantly, preventing the laboratory from being blown up.

After recording the results of this experiment, Rhodes was not disappointed, but rather happy.

Although the result was not successful, judging from the process, the direction of improvement was correct.

Having the supply of magic power pool means that Rhodes has ample room for trial and error.

Continuous control experiments began to be carried out in the room, with fire lights lit up from time to time.

Three days later, in a messy laboratory covered with ice debris, Rhodes picked up a flower pot.

He let out a long sigh, and a smile finally appeared on his sleepy face.

Meimei had a good sleep to recover.

Rhodes got up early in the morning and couldn't wait to hold the flower pot and go to the open space outside.

He looked at the flowerpot, and saw an oversized orange-red mushroom growing inside. It was half a meter long and had an umbrella-shaped cap one meter in diameter.

As the mushrooms come outdoors, they are exposed to sunlight.

Rhodes could feel the spirituality of the mushrooms becoming active.

The cap is stretched upward to maximize the area exposed to sunlight.

A golden glow that is invisible to the naked eye shines on it, and the cap is absorbing the magic of the sun!
In the experimental research over the next few days, Rhodes recorded the characteristics of this evolved fungus one by one and finally figured out its situation.

The evolution went smoothly, even more successful than he had imagined.

This fungus, which he named sun mushroom, is divided into three parts.

The main body of the sun mushroom is the mycelium underground.

When immature, it is reddish, non-flammable, can quickly decompose organic matter, and emits a bright red light.

When ripe, it turns dark red. At this time, it is collected, dried and dehydrated, and can burn violently without leaving any residue when ignited.

The second part of the sun mushroom is the fruiting body, which is the orange-red mushroom that grows out of the ground.

The fruiting body of the mushroom is responsible for absorbing the magic of sunlight and converting it into internal nutrients.

It is stable and non-flammable, non-toxic and harmless, and has extremely high nutritional value.

Not only is it delicious, it can also keep people from being afraid of the cold for a short period of time.

But one thing you must pay attention to is that when the mushroom changes from orange to dark red, it means it is mature and extremely dangerous!
Rhodes highlighted this in the experimental records.

When mature, the crimson mushroom will produce spores.

This is the third part of the Sun Mushroom, and also the scariest part of it.

During this period, most of the sunlight magic absorbed by the sun mushroom will be stored in the spores.

Rather than spores, they are more like highly concentrated high explosives.

Rhodes asked his men to build a brick hut in the open space.

It is about fifty square meters, and the four walls are thickened with clay bricks.

He then placed a box of explosives containing fifty grams of spores inside.

After stepping back, the Gray Stove Rat on his shoulder swung its tail and threw a small fireball over.

When the flame touched the explosive box, the next second, a deafening roar sounded from the cabin.

The blast and impact caused by the explosion razed the entire house to the ground almost in an instant.

"The explosive power of fifty grams is equivalent to the explosion of one kilogram of TNT." Rhodes nodded with satisfaction.

Although TNT is always used as a unit of measurement for other high-energy bombs, this is because it is powerful enough and was once known as the king of explosives with the strongest overall performance.

The TNT charge of a conventional grenade is only 50 grams, and a high-explosive shell is about one kilogram.

The power of the sun mushroom spores is equivalent to twenty times that of TNT.

Not only is it powerful in destructive power, it is also stable enough that it will not be detonated by ordinary friction and collision. It is an extremely excellent type of explosive.

After cleaning up the scene, Rhodes moved the sun mushrooms to the magic field area and prepared to plant them.

The mycelium of this fungus can be made into smokeless gunpowder, which becomes the propellant for propelling projectiles.

The fruiting bodies of mushrooms are rich in nutrients, and their spores are perfect explosives with great power. It can be said that they are full of treasures.

You just need to be extra careful when planting.

If you're not careful, you might blow up the entire territory.

Rhodes set aside ten acres of the magic field to grow sun mushrooms.

Transparent quartz walls were installed around the ten acres to form a sun room.

It does not prevent the sun mushroom from absorbing sunlight magic, and prevents its spores from flying everywhere. There is no need to worry about the mycelium underground, as the magic field will control its growth range and prevent the mycelium from spreading to other areas.

After finishing the cultivation of sun mushrooms, Rod was happy, but at the same time, he had new worries.

Nowadays, we have both gunpowder and explosives, which can be directly used in daily production to open roads, build roads, blast mountains and mine.

But if they want to unleash their power in war, they need matching launchers.

Rhodes has no plans to make guns for the time being, for one thing, he does not have the technology to do so.

On the other hand, it is not very useful and can be easily targeted.

Ordinary muskets cannot penetrate white steel armor.

Unless soldiers are equipped with large numbers of heavy machine guns, they will not be able to play a decisive role in the world's major wars.

Moreover, the portable nature of the gun is an eyesore and makes it easier to use for assassination than a crossbow.

It would instill fear in ordinary nobles of the kingdom and duchy, and make Rhodes a target of the nobles.

In comparison, the cannon does not have so many problems.

There are high-powered artillery pieces inside the kingdom, but they are expensive and require precious, high-concentration red sun crystals to drive them.

Now Dorod has nothing left, and he can openly fire in the war.

The problem lies in the manufacture of the barrel.

The Dwarven white steel gun barrels are famous for their quality, which is absolutely reliable and will keep you away from any risk of barrel explosion.

The price is expensive!
A small individual cannon costs 20 gold coins, a medium field cannon costs 400 gold coins, and a heavy siege cannon costs 1000 gold coins.

This is a list of goods from the dwarves of Ironforge. Prices are clearly marked and no bargaining is allowed.

To be honest, this price is actually very affordable, and it is a preferential price that Ironforge offers to the kingdom's own people.

When they are sold to western countries and overseas islands, the price will at least double or triple.

But Rhodes calculated the economic cost of the territory and said he could not afford it at all.

Soon, five thousand subjects from the southern part of the principality will arrive.

Although the labor force will increase, he is also preparing to expand the military, which will ensure the balance of income and expenditure in the territory.

The large-scale purchase of war horses and weapons had long since drained his treasury.

The blacksmiths in Moletown were not skilled enough to make cannon barrels.

What's more, they were busy producing heavy armor for the icebreaker beasts during this period and had no manpower to do this.

Fortunately, Rhodes also anticipated this problem.

Recently I am learning more about wizarding knowledge from the alchemy section of the wizard's manual.

During the day, he handles government affairs and learns wizard knowledge, and at night he goes to the Star Spirit Heaven to improve his spirituality.

In a fulfilling life, a month passes in the blink of an eye.

The five ice-breaking beasts are still in the process of evolution and need a month to settle down.

But forty snow foals have successfully evolved.

Standing on the top of the mountain, Rhodes looked around.

This group of agile and elegant white horses were parked in an orderly manner on the track halfway up the mountain.

Next to them were forty knights who had been selected and trained with enhanced potions.

The ten leaders were wearing light white steel armor, with upright postures and proud expressions.

They were the knights and attendants who had followed him from Jianling.

Behind these forty snowfield cavalrymen were three hundred cavalrymen from the Royal Guard Battalion.

The first one hundred were plate cavalry armed with three-meter lances, and the rest were two hundred rangers carrying swords and short bows.

At the front of the cavalry, Commander Noah stood in military posture, being inspected by Rhodes.

Seeing the lord coming, all the cavalrymen held their heads high and marched in unison.

"Very good! Keep up the momentum!" Rhodes shouted to them and nodded with satisfaction.

Although the fiscal treasury is at the bottom, as long as it can be converted into military power, it will be a huge profit.

Looking at this well-trained cavalry team, Rhodes truly felt his control over this land.

It's different from my previous weak state, he thought.

At that time, he did not have enough violence in his hands, and could only rely on his surname and connections from the principality to dispel the hostility of outsiders.

But now, his army was officially formed.

Without the blessing of Rosedale’s bloodline, his own name will truly have an impact!
Any noble who dares to challenge him must first carefully consider whether he can withstand the trampling of the cavalry's iron hooves!

"Well done." Rhodes came to Noah and handed him a potion.

This is the snow lotus potion made with the snow lotus petals, which can effectively strengthen the knight's physique.

The medicinal food given to Lunsa consumed less than one-tenth of the medicinal effect of the snow lotus petals.

The remaining part was extracted by Rhodes and divided into three portions as rewards for his three battalion commanders.

Noah in particular was enough to make him an elite knight and better perform the duties of the Royal Guard Battalion.

Since they grew up together, Noah had long been accustomed to Rod's peculiarities.

He silently recited his knight's oath in his heart and took the potion naturally.

After the Royal Guard Battalion was assembled, Rhodes began to arrange the Pingdingshan militia to maintain order.

He then took the lead and led the cavalry out of the territory and headed towards Hekou Town.

Not only him, but Loren from Mole Town will also bring the main soldiers of the Divine Arrow Battalion to assemble there.

Let the three military camps in the territory gather together and conduct a review of the entire army.

The 5,000 new subjects were about to arrive, and Rhodes calculated the time in his mind.

For these refugees, Governor Elena gave him two choices.

The first option is 4,000 ordinary refugees, all of whom are serfs and civilians who fled after the death of their lord.

There were many elderly, weak women and children, most of whom were frail.

They can only do some ordinary work such as logistics and farming.

The advantage is that they don't have a strong sense of resistance, and if you give them a stutter, they will stay and work willingly.

The second option is five thousand exiled nobles.

That was during the cold wave, when for various reasons they failed in their struggle in the southern part of the Principality, were stripped of their noble titles and exiled.

Although they were exiled, the Parliament of Nobles still preserved their dignity.

Allowing these nobles to bring along their private soldiers, most of their retainers and serfs gave them a glimmer of opportunity to rise again.

The branch that Rhodes could choose was once a viscount family in the southern part of the principality.

Together with their families, the number of people exceeded 5,000.

The advantage of choosing them is that most of them are in good health, and many of them are highly qualified and educated.

The disadvantages are also obvious. It is difficult to control and due to insufficient strength, it is easy to be outmaneuvered.

Rhodes chose this group of exiled nobles without much hesitation.

In this era, high-quality talents are hard to come by.

As the business of Hekou Town developed, more and more problems arose regarding commodity prices and taxes, which were beyond the management capabilities of the guilds and officials.

If it weren't for the support and help from the professionals of Jianling Chamber of Commerce, it is hard to imagine how chaotic the place would be.

But Jianling Chamber of Commerce belonged to his father. Rhodes couldn't rely on them forever and had to train his own people.

(End of this chapter)