Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 358 Trading (Part 1)

  [The wasteland, the place where gold is buried]

  The tranquility of the valley is broken again, and the uninvited guests return.

  This time, unlike the last time, only the three cavalry sneaked in. This time, Winters led the team and drove into the valley openly.

  The Golden Horde Guards of the Chihe Department spread out riding posts on the periphery of the valley to intercept possible nomadic hunters.

   Tiefeng County envoys set up camp in the valley. The hoardings and hoods of the six carriages were removed for the first time since they left Iron Peak County, and it was the first time that Winters' subordinates saw the true content of the "mysterious cargo":

   Furnaces, crucibles, moulds, refractory bricks, blast boxes, hoisting prefabs…

   Seeing the familiar guy, a certain goldsmith who had repaired a horseshoe had a sour nose for no reason.

  …

   Long before setting off from Iron Peak, Winters, Bud and Mason had repeatedly discussed "How can we safely recover the Golden Man?"

   The three of them unanimously agreed that just exposing the position of the golden man would mean a huge risk to the weak mission;

  The wasteland is always a hostile land, and the best way to deal with the golden man should be to reach a deal with the Chihe Department to exchange the golden man for gold or equivalent goods;

  If the aforementioned plan cannot be realized, then under the premise of obtaining the understanding and protection of the Chihe Department, the person who pays the money shall be called up, and it shall be destroyed on the spot.

   That's right, it's destruction.

  Tianjin people can only be used as gold in Palatu, except that they can be used to show off their martial arts, they have almost no added value.

   Instead of walking around the wasteland with an eye-catching golden figure, it is better to destroy it and re-melt it into gold bars to take home.

  During the negotiation process with the White Lion, Winters found that the White Lion was not interested in the sacrificer, but at the same time he realized that the White Lion did not mind providing a reasonable help for the destruction of the Jinjian.

  The fate of the most holy things of the Heard tribes was decided in this way.

  …

   Lifted the tarpaulins of the last two carts, which contained not tools, but some kind of black-gray stone.

   "Stone?" Someone was puzzled.

   The mysterious goods that were transported so hard are just how many vehicles? And stones?

The blacksmith of the    mission stepped forward, picked out a black stone, weighed it, and turned around with a smile: "What stone? It's obviously coal!"

   "Coke," Berian said softly.

   "It's coke." Winters supported the cane as he walked into the crowd and nodded approvingly to Berrian: "Processed coal."

   Worried about not finding enough fuel in the wasteland, Winters even brought two truckloads of coke from afar. He was so prepared that he would never leave Heard Moor until two tons of gold were in his hands.

  Winters walked to the front of the crowd and glanced at his subordinates: "Enough of the excitement?"

   "[A sporadic monosyllabic word of obedience and approval]."

   He smiled: "Then go to work!"

   "[A one-syllable word of obedience and approval that is suddenly full of fighting spirit]!"

   Just do it.

  Charle led someone to find the stake, and immediately dig it up; Pierre led someone to unload the truck and set about assembling the crane; the blacksmiths and goldsmiths of the mission were busy setting up the furnace.

   Winters didn't say anything publicly about what he was digging, but anyone who's been through the Great Wasteland has guessed.

   As for those who joined the army after the first army was founded, even if they knew nothing about the existence of the Jin people, just by looking at the mysterious attitude of the tribunes, they knew that there was a lot going on in the underground.

  Although the sun is already in the west, everyone is very motivated to race against time.

   Only Vashka, whose head was wrapped in white cloth, leaned in front of Winters: "What are you digging? Centurion?"

  Because he is a wounded, Vashka can be dignified and lazy.

   "You... don't remember?" Winters laughed dumbly.

  Washka was quite aggrieved: "I fell that day..."

  …

   On the day of Qingqiu's hunting, Vashka fell from his horse and fell to the back of his head. He lost his life, but after a dozen stitches, he slept for a long time, and then he jumped up and down again.

   But the fall was not completely without sequelae, at least he couldn't remember the day of Qingqiu's hunting.

  After the incident, Vashka learned that the blood wolf was galloping across Qingqiu and was invincible, and also learned that other partners followed the blood wolf to the limelight, and her bowels were regretful.

   Whenever I think of my friends bragging about how to show their talents in Qingqiu in the future, I have no impression at all, and Vashka's heart throbs.

  So these days, Vashka has been beating around the bush to find out what happened on the day of Qingqiu's shooting. However, Pierre was tight-lipped, and his partners were reluctant to discuss in detail, and his father even scolded him severely.

   After thinking about it, only the first-hand information of the parties is the most credible. Therefore, Vashka will lean over to Winters whenever she has time recently, hoping to get something out of it.

  …

  Winters recalled carefully—the gold winner, the gold buryer, and Vashka were all present. Qingqiu fell on the day of hunting, so he didn't forget everything before, right?

   He looked at Vashka's happy expression and the white cloth wrapped around his head, and suddenly felt a little distressed. Because Vashka fell very hard, she was a little bit unlucky, and may have lost her life.

   But he kept coming up with another thought: "This kid probably fell stupid... No, he fell even more stupid."

   "You can remember that when you see it." Winters said as softly as possible: "Vashya."

  Washka nodded desperately, he actually didn't understand what the centurion was talking about, but he was flattered by the centurion's tone.

  Berion was installing the bellows, and Winters called him aside.

   "The people from the Chihe Department brought ore samples." Winters said, "Let's take a look."

  The two took their horses and rode slowly out of the valley to the camp of the people and horses of the Chihe Department.

   Winters recovered much faster than Kaman expected. He can already walk with a cane, but his limbs are still sore and weak, and his movements are stiff and uncoordinated.

   Therefore, Kaman strictly forbids Winters to ride a fast horse. If Winters said nothing, he would not ride an ox cart, Kaman would not even allow him to ride a horse.

   "The Chihe Department doesn't seem to be interested in mining iron ore." Winters held the saddle tightly, trying to maintain his balance, and said casually: "It always feels a little abnormal."

"Ore has to go through a lot of processes before it can enter the smelting furnace. If it is only rough ore, one hundred parts will not be able to smelt one part of pure iron. Steel can be sold far away, but iron ore is not worth buying far away. So famous The iron-smelting towns are all on the edge of the big mines, and when the veins are exhausted, the towns also decline."

Although Bellion is still taciturn, when discussing iron smelting with Winters, he knows everything and says everything: "The chief of the Chihe Department should think that you can't put the smelter in the Chihe Department. It’s not worth buying the ore from far away, so the attitude is indifferent.”

   Winters asked: "Nor water?"

   "I don't know." Berian answered honestly: "But I guess not. Because as far as the mining towns I know, even if the water transportation is convenient, no merchants hundreds of kilometers away will come to buy rough ore."

   Winters catches an unfamiliar word: "Rough mine?"

   "It is ore mined from the mine, mixed with stones."

   "Rough ore is not worth long-distance transportation." In front of experts, Winters has never been afraid to show his timidity. He asked curiously: "Is there any fine ore?"

"Corresponding to rough ore, blacksmiths are generally called concentrates." Berian explained carefully: "If the process of sorting, roasting, crushing, sieving and even [sintering] is handed over to the Chihe Department, it can be directly obtained from Chihe. The river buys the concentrate. By water, the concentrate may be worth the long haul.”

"I was visited by Mr. Leo when you weren't in Ironpeak—a very shrewd businessman." Winters mused: "He said, 'Things that are profitable enough are worth the long journey, If the grain is sold 200 kilometers away, the freight is more expensive than the grain itself'."

   "That's the truth, Your Excellency."

   "But you didn't bring it up right away." Winters sighed: "There must be something wrong."

   "There are indeed some..."

   "Tell me. You don't think it's possible, and I don't have any hope."

"Concentrate is only one step away from wrought iron. If you get concentrate, you can use an earthen furnace to smelt wrought iron." Berian said solemnly: "As far as I can see, it's not that the Hurds can't make iron. On the contrary, Their craftsmanship is exquisite."

   Winters recalled that the weapons and armors seized from the Heards were mostly old, but there were also new ones. It is also thought that the usage rate of iron tools in the Chihe tribe is much higher than that of other tribes—the poor tribes still use stone arrowheads and bone arrowheads, and everyone in the Chihe tribe already uses iron arrowheads.

   "I think." Winters smiled: "The Chihe Department may have been secretly mining and smelting iron."

Berian pondered for a moment: "Qingqiu is surrounded by red soil, and there really is a 'Red River' in the Chihe part. It is very likely that there are shallow iron ore veins. It is best to ask the local residents if there was iron ore in the past. ? Or are there traces of old iron smelting?"

"The Hurd tribes move around, how can there be local residents?" Winters laughed. After laughing, he still took a serious attitude: "I have asked the people of the Bad Earth. At least in recent decades, there has been no I've heard that there is an 'Iron Hill' in the upper reaches of the Chi River. As for going further, no one knows."

   "There is a possibility that the former Hurd people could not mine the remaining ore veins after mining the shallow ore veins, and they were abandoned and forgotten over time. So no one has heard of it, and no one remembers it."

  Winters wrapped the reins around his fingers: "Assuming this is the case, where did the Chihe Department come from to mine deep mineral deposits?"

  Berion did not answer, he vaguely felt that this was not a problem.

"Don't worry about it!" Winters stretched his waist on the horse's back and said with a smile: "Even if there is a map in war, you have to look at the terrain with your own eyes. If you can't check it on the spot, you and I are thinking about it here. It's useless. Oh, the Chihe Department won't let us explore on the spot, but I want to see what it is."

  The two of them rode for a while, and out of Taniguchi, the world suddenly opened up.

  Berion took the initiative to speak: "Your Excellency, in fact, many places know that there are ore veins, but no one is mining them. Either because the ore veins are too barren, or because mining is too difficult, or because transportation is too inconvenient."

   "Like Iron Peak?"

   "Like Iron Peak. Unless bar prices are too high or the veins are depleted elsewhere, Iron Peak is not worth mining because it's not worth it."

   Winters exhaled a long breath: "Mining if there is profit, and waste if there is no profit. In the final analysis, it is a business."

  Berion was silent for a long time, then asked: "What's wrong? Your Excellency."

   Winters laughed out loud and stabbed Chang Feng lightly: "There are still some things that are not."

  …

   Violating every doctor's order from Father Kaman, Winters galloped to the camp where the imperial guards of the Chihe Department were stationed.

  Although the Golden Horde Guards were ordered by the White Lion to protect the Iron Peak Mission from being disturbed, they did not camp in the valley and had almost no contact with the Iron Peak Mission.

   From the beginning to the end, the men and horses of the Chihe Department never stepped into the valley—this was another order from the White Lion.

   Therefore, the negotiation and exchanges were all conducted at the palace guard camp outside the valley.

  The two archers who came to deliver the ore greeted Winters one after the other.

   The archer standing in front is a typical Hed. The long-term wind meal and camping made his exposed skin keratinized, showing a unique texture.

  The one standing in the back was dressed in wasteland clothes, but no matter how he looked, he didn't look like a Heard.

   "Lord Batu." Unlike the Hurd archers, it turned out to be a common language with a little Monta accent: "What do you think about the conditions of the White Lion King?"

   [The day is not bright, and the day has not passed...]

   (end of this chapter)