The Lions Den's council chamber was relocated to the third level of the mountain, featuring a massive, yet-to-be-windowed, floor-to-ceiling platform.
It was simply too oppressive to be built inside, perpetually dark and illuminated only by torches and candles.
Currently, over three hundred people, comprising more than sixty families, reside within the mountain, and though small, it is fully equipped and still undergoing development.
At this moment, only Arthur and Evelyn remained in the hall; Olivier had previously taken people to the towns on the surrounding lords' lands to purchase seeds, grains, and poultry breeding stock.
The Lions Den currently had only three courtiers: Evelyn, Brin, and Lucien.
The mountain wind blew in, rustling the large parchment spread out on the table.
Evelyn leaned over, her golden hair falling forward, and her pale finger pointed at a brand new blueprint.
Although she drew this blueprint, she didn't fully understand it; the structure was several times more complex than the previous waterwheel, with a huge waterwheel connected to a wooden shaft full of protrusions, and the other end of the wooden shaft linked to an exaggeratedly shaped giant hammer.
Evelyn's voice was filled with pure curiosity: "Lord Arthur, what is this now?"
She looked up, her sapphire-like eyes fixed on Arthur.
"It looks like some kind of variant of a waterwheel, like the High-Rotation Waterwheel, but what is this big hammer for?"
Arthur traced the power transmission route on the blueprint with his finger: "Hydraulic forging."
"A tool that will reduce the physical exertion of our blacksmiths."
Evelyn repeated the unfamiliar term: "Hydraulic... forging?"
Arthur's voice was steady and clear, carrying a reassuring power: "You see, the principle is very similar to the waterwheel; both use the impact of water flow to turn the wheel."
His finger stopped on the shaft covered with protrusions.
"The key is this camshaft; every time the waterwheel rotates, these protrusions on the shaft will lift the hammerhead of this forging hammer to its highest point, and then release it."
He made a gesture of lifting and then suddenly dropping.
"The forging hammer will rely on its own weight to smash down heavily, again and again, repeating this motion continuously."
Evelyn's breath hitched for a moment; she instantly grasped the core of this design.
She looked at Arthur, her eyes sparkling: "A hammer that requires no human effort, never tires, and has more power than a blacksmith combined."
Arthur nodded, a smile on his face:
"Exactly."
He felt that his general education, which might be considered semi-illiterate, could still dominate in Westeros, which was truly remarkable.
Evelyn's gaze returned to the blueprint, imagining the scene: the roaring water, the huge waterwheel driving the heavy forging hammer with a whooshing sound, rising and falling repeatedly, smashing the red-hot iron blocks, sending sparks flying.
She had never seen such a design before; she had loved books since childhood, but was limited by her birth. Her father was unwilling for her to enter the Citadel but was willing to collect books for her, even spending heavily to purchase them, which allowed her to possess wisdom different from ordinary Westerosi noblewomen, and even not inferior to noblemen.
But all her pride was crushed by the young man before her. Evelyn looked up at Arthur, genuinely curious about what else this young man had not yet revealed.
From the moment she pledged allegiance to the young man before her, she had witnessed miracles again and again. Her voice carried a strange, unnoticed hint of a smile: "So..."
"We can use it to forge armor and weapons."
Arthur gave an affirmative answer: "Yes."
"Our blacksmiths will be freed from strenuous physical labor, focusing on more refined polishing and assembly."
Evelyn fell completely silent, staring at Arthur. This young man was too mysterious; he could always produce things that could change everything from an inconceivable angle, from the waterwheel to the High-Rotation Waterwheel, then to the unprecedented mountain terraces, and then to this behemoth called the hydraulic forging hammer.
He carried deeper secrets than she did.
Arthur did not continue the topic. He put away the blueprint and pointed to the regional map of the Brightmoon Mountains underneath.
His finger landed on a precipitous peak, Offshore Cliff: "Those refugees still scattered in various villages, our new subjects, must be given a permanent settlement."
"Offshore Cliff."
This was an extremely perilous, steep cliff, with rapids below and only a narrow mountain path leading to it, making its terrain extremely strategic.
If he hadn't used psychological tactics back then, this place would have been very difficult to capture.
"They cannot continue to live dispersed like that; it's neither safe nor conducive to effective management."
"We will establish a new military town on Offshore Cliff, the fifth one."
Arthur picked up a quill, dipped it in ink, and began to sketch on the blank space of the map.
"This will be our most important nail driven into the High Mountain, the first line of defense against the wildlings, a mountain city built into the mountainside, layered and progressive, easy to defend and difficult to attack."
His pen tip moved across the parchment, so abstract, yet vaguely recognizable as winding, meandering roads, layered defensive platforms, and finally, at the highest point of the cliff, he drew a square representing the main castle.
"The roads will be built around the mountain, narrow and full of turns, preventing any attacking enemy from deploying their formations."
"We will build flat terraces at different heights to house dwellings and defensive structures; each terrace will serve as a barrier for the one below it."
Evelyn looked at the sketch; although the drawing was not beautiful, and could even be described as extremely crude, a three-dimensional, menacing fortress seemed to emerge from the paper.
Arthur put down his pen, pressing it against the paper.
"This mountain city will be like a nail, a deep and hard nail, firmly wedged into the bones of the Brightmoon Mountains."
To control the Brightmoon Mountains, there must be people. Previously, there was no arable land or stable living environment in the mountains, but now that there is, he must begin to slowly advance his plan.
"Then, we will build a second, a third, a fourth."
"It will be our watchtower, monitoring movements inside and outside the mountains. It will also be a safe rear, storing food and weapons,
and it will be our bridgehead for continued expansion deeper into the mountainous region."
Evelyn looked at the deep nail on the map and then recalled the Three Elders system implemented in the other four military towns: "How will the people of this military town be managed?"
They were severely short of veteran soldiers now; the establishment of the four military towns was almost stable and could not be easily altered. There were no more veteran soldiers to allocate to the two towns and the villages where refugees were distributed to establish the Three Elders system.
However, Arthur's answer was without hesitation: "Of course, them."
"Those second sons who followed Brin to cultivate the terraces, and who bravely fought alongside me, earning their merits with sweat and blood."
He looked at Evelyn, his eyes gleaming with the light of a strategist.
Evelyn fell silent; these children were too young, the oldest probably only twenty, but she did not voice any objection. She knew that once Arthur made up his mind, he would not easily change it.
'This new military town will also implement the Three Elders system. The best-performing and most capable second sons will, according to their military merits on previous battlefields, successively become family heads, neighborhood heads, and household heads.'
"They will have their own status and the power to manage the subjects."
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