CHAPTER 467: CHAPTER 445 PLANNING FOR JOAN OF ARC CASTLE

Horn sat in the open carriage, flanked by two Saintesses, and got off in front of the Holy Arrival Hall.

Back in the familiar study of the Holy Arrival Hall, Jeanne effortlessly went to the bedroom inside the study to wash her face and change clothes, while Catherine sat somewhat awkwardly on a chair padded with straw.

Horn hung his hat on the coat rack and gave Catherine an apologetic smile, "I’ll go wash my face, you wait a moment... Jeanne, are you done? I’m coming in."

"Putting on pants, almost done."

Jeanne, now in a fresh set of men’s clothing, walked out from inside and imitated Catherine by gazing out the window, "What are you looking at?"

Catherine’s eyes were bright, "The square outside is surrounded by undamaged houses, why tear them down?"

Seizing a rare chance to show off in front of Catherine, Jeanne put her hands on her hips and raised her chin high, "This is our Salvation Army’s reconstruction plan for Joan of Arc Castle. Let me tell you, I’ll be the guardian saintess of Joan of Arc Castle in the future."

"Amazing." In a tone that seemed to humor a child, Catherine praised as if teasing a puppy, "Can you tell me why?"

Jeanne found it not strange, "Because Joan of Arc Castle needs to increase the city population, undergo pre-industrialization, and improve labor force and efficiency... Hey, you’re the one who asked, why aren’t you listening properly?"

"Sorry, I’m admiring the city." Catherine pointed at the hundreds of rising black smoke and asked, "Isn’t it noon? Why are they firing up?"

"Because today is Sunday."

In the Empire, meals are usually around nine in the morning and four or five in the afternoon, with lunch often consisting of a bit of black bread for those doing physical labor.

However, after the popularization of coal briquettes, the normalization of grain prices, and the abolition of harsh taxes, many citizens and artisan families gradually adopted a three-meal system under Horn’s advocacy.

Some town families would gather for lunch and offer pre-meal prayers on Sundays, treating it as a meal with religious ceremony.

"Do you know how to reconstruct?" Catherine continued asking.

Jeanne straightened her chest and said loudly, "I don’t know."

Then why are you shouting so loudly? Catherine leaned back in her chair speechlessly.

"It’s a very complicated plan." Horn happened to hear this sentence as he walked out from the inside, wiping the water from his hands with a handkerchief, and also went to the window, "Madlan will send you the relevant plans later, but it’ll be after your first Cardinal Conference."

"First Cardinal Conference? So soon?" Catherine had just disembarked, and now she had to attend a meeting without a break?

"Yes, our Salvation Army is quick on the trigger, and it’s not our fault if you can’t keep up." Now on her own turf, Jeanne was evidently more confident.

"It was supposed to be held on Friday, but was postponed to Sunday because of the city entry preparations, and now we need to introduce you to the other cardinals." Horn looked at the clock in the room, "Let’s have lunch first, rest a bit, and then have the meeting."

"Can I freshen up a bit?"

"Of course, Jeanne, take her."

Horn leaned alone by the window, watching the beams lifted by lever cranes and the surrounding commanding construction workers, lost in thought.

He currently plans to establish two districts in Joan of Arc Castle, located on both sides of the Rapids City-Joan of Arc Canal.

The north bank will be the industrial and port district, while the south bank will be the main urban district.

The main urban district comprises residential and commercial areas, with plans to demolish some residences and expand the Victory Square area by twofold.

Then install fountains and gardens from Rapids City to form a city island, with the sides serving as the main square for gatherings.

Official buildings will be concentrated near the square, forming a governmental district for better centralized management and security, much better than the previous scattered approach.

Residential streets will be expanded based on the original, though it will enlarge the city area.

To solve commuting issues, they need either to build apartment buildings or develop public carriages.

The street markets near the river on the east side of the main district will expand into a commercial area for trade with visiting merchants and village folk, and for commoners’ leisure.

Reflecting the northern industrial area will be the southern main district: all workshops must relocate to the northern industrial area. Horn plans to dig a few more channels for workshop waste and management.

The original Joan of Arc Castle housed four to five thousand people inside the city, with over ten thousand living in the suburban outskirts, contributing somewhat to the suburban markets and city operations.

In other words, including its suburbs, the entire Joan of Arc Castle had about fourteen to fifteen thousand people.

After the previous few battles, the situation has changed, and after the population flux, the total population near Joan of Arc Castle is approximately 9,500 people.

In the primary industry, around 2,000 people, including their families, are mainly engaged in fruit and vegetable cultivation, fish farming, and livestock farming.

The secondary industry consists of various workshops, including weavers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, bakers, potters, carpenters, and so on, with an estimated 5,000 people making a living this way.

The tertiary industry is commerce and services, with about 2,500 people, mainly small shop owners, accountants, agents (brokers), clerks, scribes, and notaries.

This commercial sector, the named merchants within the city, after a thorough cleanup from start to finish, left 40 merchant families and 12 loan agents.

These so-called loan agents are essentially the original lenders, just incorporated into the Saintess Bank of Joan of Arc Castle by Horn.

According to Horn’s plan, he aims to integrate the inner and outer city, relocating the large population living outside into the city, raising the population to at least 12,000 people.

This would first convert some villagers into citizens; otherwise, with the upcoming industrial transformation in Joan of Arc Castle, there would be a significant labor shortage.

As the capital of Langsande County, Horn’s expectation for its future lies in two industries: the first is tool manufacturing, including wood processing and metal smelting, and the second is the paper and printing industry.

The former is naturally easy to understand; Langsande County is an agricultural county, with no significant mines or forests nearby to allow for large-scale timber processing or metallurgy.

Therefore, relying on such simple basic industries for survival is impossible, hence the necessity to look to high value-added processing industries, but the local artisans’ technical level is inadequate.

Thus, Horn focused on tool manufacturing: hoes, pitchforks, ox and horse plows, hammers, craft equipment...

Especially in the upcoming proto-industrialization, Horn would substantially promote the establishment of workshops, with a considerable demand for the tools themselves, and not high technical requirements, making it ideal for gradual practice.

Elsewhere, such practice might result in significant losses, but in Langsande County, it’s different.

Because as an agricultural county, his governed farmers have money!

It’s simply miraculous!

In such an agricultural county, the farmers’ desire for land improvement and efficient production cannot be concealed, and the demand for good farming tools is immense.

Farmers sell grain to buy tools to enhance production efficiency, artisans sell tools to buy grain and hone their skills.

If in Joan of Arc Castle the tool manufacturing market already existed, Horn merely expanded it, then the paper and printing industry was absolutely a market void.

This is because, with the Salvation Army Government’s refined management, there has been an increasing demand for paper and ink, with scribes and paper shortage situations widespread in various departments.

Especially for notices sent to each Hundred Households District, scribes often need to work overtime to repeatedly transcribe, while printed reliefs are often discarded after a single use.

So many times, scribes and printers would cut down the reliefs, then reassemble and print them, leaving blanks where repetition wasn’t possible and manually inscribing those parts.

This live printing vaguely foreshadows the prototype of movable type printing.

Later, with the Salvation Army’s expansion, especially when Horn intends to establish archival and newspaper systems, there will be even greater demand for paper and scribes.

Compared to hiring a scribe, Horn believes it more cost-effective to make a movable type printing press, as a scribe cannot work non-stop around the clock.

Moreover, there aren’t enough scribes in Joan of Arc Castle for Horn to lavish upon.

So he has already offered a reward of 100 pounds for a usable adhesive ink design within the territory before the year ends.

Even the materials are provided by Horn: lampblack, soot, linseed oil, turpentine, as historically, Gutenberg developed ink suitable for movable type printing from these ingredients.

However, Horn is unaware of the specific ratios and preparation process and has to rely on artisans to experiment, as Horn taught them variable control and the experimental method, saving much time.

In movable type printing, the print quality is inferior to block printing, but it’s sufficient for one-time notices and documents, which don’t require high quality.

In addition, Horn has offered bounties for spiral hand presses and lead-tin-antimony type sets to various guilds and artisan groups, promising to give 3% of the revenue to the inventors.

Whether they can produce decent products, Horn can only leave to fate.

"I’ve finished my ablutions. Shall we go for lunch now?" With her hair tidied and makeup reapplied, a radiant Catherine walked out.

Behind her, the makeup-free Jeanne, though fresh and not in need of cosmetics, pouted discontentedly.

"Let’s go."