"You said that in this place, the mountains are not high and the water is not green. Why do you want to climb the mountain?" A few people were climbing up an abandoned mine that was dug in a mess.
"I can't help it. I searched all over, but I couldn't even find a map. If I didn't come up and take a look, I wouldn't even be able to figure out the layout of this place for a long time." Bolu stopped and wiped his hair.
The sweat and mud on my hands left a few red fingerprints on my forehead.
"It's weird that you can't find it. Things like maps can only be stored in the military headquarters. Did you see your previous map, was it sent back to you?" Leah put her hands on her hips and looked up.
"Forget it if you come, why did you drag me to come too? The clean clothes that I finally washed are gone again! I can only wear clean clothes for two days a year!" Tezier and Dirk Schick were followed behind him.
We are left in the large army behind us. They are all moving and we need someone to take care of them.
"At least it's empty-handed." Dyke said little and did not speak harshly.
Behind them was a little girl, who was said to be only 14 years old, but looked quite mature. She was the mining assistant sent by Svito. She wore glasses and braids. She was the daughter of a local blacksmith, named Ai.
Lin Wuornos. Her father, mother, and two brothers were all killed in a furnace accident ten years ago. Most of the furnaces in this era were set up in family workshops. Once a furnace accident happened, it can be said that the family was really ruined. At that time, she
When she was still young, she ran out of the house to play. When she came home, what greeted her was not the arms of her relatives, but a blazing fire.
Svito, who was responsible for managing the local area, brought the little girl who suddenly lost everything back to the manor and raised her as a domestic servant. As a servant trained for the top level of society, it is necessary to know a few words. So Svito
He began to teach her how to read. To his surprise, Irene turned out to be very smart. Not only did she learn how to read, she could even help Svito complete some paperwork.
In this era, the experience of doing paperwork and numerical statistics, which are all written with a quill pen in hand, is probably almost like torture. The workload is so heavy that it is daunting. Seeing that someone can help, Svito simply let her work in the mining area later.
Nowadays, Irene can be considered a little accomplished. There are not many shadows left by the accident on her body. After all, according to today's moral standards, what Svito did can be called a model of kindness.
The hill is actually not too high. After a while, several people were already standing on the half-broken top of the mountain. Looking north from the top of the mountain, the mining area is on the east bank of the Durgild River. When the Iriri River flows out of the agricultural area, it is still a river.
The small river received input from several tributaries after crossing Krasnodar. As the terrain slowed down, the river swelled into a huge water body when flowing through the mining area, with an average depth of 6 meters and a width of more than 80 meters during the dry season.
So much so that he got another name Durgildjan.
The river is so wide that ferries can only be used to travel back and forth between the two sides of the river. To Polu's surprise, there were very few ships on the river. Except for small fishing boats along the coast, there were almost no scattered ships. Only the royal fleet each
Food is delivered once a month, and then the steel products for this month are taken away. Starting from the mine and going north, the ones displayed on the ground are Hongshan Town, the market, the warehouse area and the dock. The farthest north is the manor where Bolu currently lives.
.After crossing the manor, it returned to a farmland scene.
The mining area behind the mountain was so huge, and it was blocked by the hillside, that Bolu couldn't see clearly the situation in the mining area, so he had to ask Irene: "How big is this mining area?". Irene pushed up her glasses: "I just know
Approximate range. Starting from the intersection at the foot, it takes about 6 days to walk into the mountains before leaving the Hongshan area. It is roughly an oval shape and is full of mineral deposits."
"Is everything under our control?"
"It's all the territory directly under the royal family."
"How many workers are there here? Are there any professions like alchemists and mages? Are there no slaves?"
"There are more than 12,000 local workers, all of whom are free citizens. We have a purely employment relationship with them. There are no alchemists or mages."
The sight of a half-grown child holding a folder and reporting work to him made Polu feel very uncomfortable, and he had no sense of the fact that he was only 16 years old.
Polu looked incredulous: "It's normal that there are no mages in this place. How come there's not even an alchemist? Then what are they doing?"
"The alchemists are now customizing gadgets for the nobles in the association." Leah curled her lips, "The work of the little things is getting more and more sophisticated. As a result, no one can even repair the bridge now. Well,
Except for your department. Now do you know how precious your teacher’s knowledge is?”
"Then why haven't I heard that the teacher has accepted other students before? Are they here to strengthen the school?"
"I don't know either. Your department has always been sparsely populated."
This situation gave Polu a new understanding of the teacher's previous words. Polu was not a mining professional and could not calculate reserves. However, he could see with the naked eye that from the footing to the distance, the towering panorama
There are endless red peaks with rusty luster. No wonder the official name of the mining area is called Red Mountain.
"Isn't this mine a godsend? I'm afraid the golden thighs of this country are a bit thick. The freshwater valley in Brazil should be just like that. It's just a little bit worse than the piles of money on the ground like the Iwami Silver Mine. Back then,
How did the royal family keep such a fertile piece of land? Speaking of such a large mining area with such little productivity, all free people are allowed to do so? Isn't this social system a bit too advanced?"
Polu muttered while looking at the first half-excavated hill below. "It took so many years to dig half of the mountain. I don't think I have to worry about iron ore in this life." Half of the hill was missing at the foot of the hill.
It is a road with flying dirt, the road surface is extremely wide, and the carriage pulls the carts of ore slowly crawling
, the slag with too high iron content fell on the ground, and as the wheels rolled over it, the dust formed dyed the surrounding area red. The ore from the mountains was transported from here to Hongshan City not far ahead. Hongshan
It is more like a huge shantytown growing wildly along the ore transportation road than a town.
It is full of various elements that make the blood pressure of firefighters and city management workers soar. The center of the city is a huge ore dump. Surrounding the ore dump, generations of blacksmith workshops grow wildly, not far from the workshop area.
There are huge slag walls everywhere, hundreds of years of slag piled together, inadvertently forming a gentle platform surrounding the workshop area, so that people feel that this is a deliberately wide city wall.
But Polu searched for a long time and couldn't find another element that may be suffocating but indispensable: the fuel pile. Generally, the fuel pile, coal or coke in such a place will be piled into a pyramid like a hill, stretching for several kilometers.
But it seems that nothing similar has been found, which makes Polu feel very strange. "Eileen, what kind of fuel is used for local ironmaking? Why can't I find the fuel pile?"
Irene looked at Bolu and said in a surprised tone: "Are we using a magic furnace?"
"What the hell?" Bolu dug his ears hard, thinking he heard wrongly.
Erin repeated in a serious tone: "Magic furnace, don't you know?"
"All furnaces are?"
"They are indeed magic furnaces."
Bolu felt Spartan in his heart. It was as awkward as hearing that a group of people were playing the Galaxy Supercomputer at home.
"I know the magic furnace, but isn't that thing super expensive? Isn't it used to smelt mithril and higher-level magic materials? Is it so common? It's all over the street. I really don't know. Do you know when it started?
Are you using a magic furnace?"
"That's not right. Our magic furnace can only be used to smelt iron. About 100 years ago, an alchemist named Patrice made the current magic furnace in Red Mountain, which does not require any precious magic materials.
He created a furnace that can melt copper and lead and extract iron. He also taught a craftsman in the city how to make a furnace. So now every workshop has a magic furnace."
"Can you really cast iron?"
"Yes"
"What about steel?"
Irene was silent for a moment: "Steel is burned in another small furnace."
"The crucible method?"
"Ah, sir, do you know?"
"I am an alchemist after all."
Polu smacked it, Patrice? This name seems to have some impression? "Alchemist? 100 years ago? Magic furnace? Patrice? Well, the author of primary metal preparation technology. Semi-finished magic furnace? Ah, found it, in
Chapter 44 of the book on primary metal preparation technology, low-cost magic furnace design."
A set of design drawings appeared in Bolu's mind. Polu's hands went numb. These more than 100 drawings were a bit complicated. I must have been dizzy when I looked at them and passed them by. Otherwise, I'd better go back and study them at night.
Well. Polu raised his head: "Patrice, I remembered, it seems that he is my teacher's teacher's teacher. It's too confusing, I don't know how to call him old man."
Eileen suddenly became happy: "Ah! So that was your teacher and ancestor! We in Hongshan City all respected him, but then one day he disappeared and I don't know where he went. Do you know where he went?"
"
Bolu shook his head: "I don't know. I'll have to ask my teacher when I get the chance." While thinking silently in his heart, "Thank you, Teacher Zu, for helping me a lot! It seems like I'll have to review what I copied before."