Chapter 87 Coal and Iron

Today is the 155th day since Roman came to Sige Town.

He walked with heavy and tired steps, pulling the tired and heavy horse, and returned to the Origin Manor.

He was clean and handsome when he set out, as if he was going on an outing, but he looked like a beggar when he came back.

He was sweating all over and dirty, and his clothes were torn into strips. Fortunately, he applied a lot of mosquito repellent plant liquid on his body, otherwise the situation would be very bad.

The manor servants rushed over in the scorching sun.

Roman waved his hand and asked them to take the horse to a cool place to take a shower and give it herbal tea and salt water.

The horse's heat dissipation ability is not as good as that of humans, so it has been difficult for it these days.

Although Roman has been paying attention to its condition, it has accumulated a lot of fatigue after days of trekking. If it doesn't slow down, it will probably be useless.

After a week away, every day was spent in struggle.

The extremely high-pressure and hot environment and poor physiological feedback made Roman want to give up all the time.

But he persisted in the end.

After returning to the manor, the pressure suddenly eased, and the whole skeleton fell apart.

Roman was served by the maids, and cool well water was constantly poured on him. They carefully wiped the dirt and sweat on his body with a towel and tidied his messy long hair.

After a moment of care, Roman was revived and his sluggish spirit was revived.

He changed into new clothes and hurried to the canteen.

On the table were yogurt strawberries, nut cakes, and a jar of sweet jam - which could be spread on soft white bread.

A large bowl of vegetable salad made with cabbage, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, lemon juice and maltose.

The drink was honeysuckle herbal tea. The sealed wooden barrel was sunk into the well of the Origin Manor. After soaking all day and all night, it became cool and delicious.

Roman was hungry.

On the third day, he had eaten all the food he brought with him, and had to rely on hunting and gathering to supplement his physiological needs.

I have to say, looking at the constantly lit area of ​​the [Story of Life] interface. Roman felt motivated.

Part of the reason why he could persist was due to this.

Green and Aaron were not at the Origin Manor. They were sweating in the parade ground with more than a hundred guards.

Now only Gweiler and Seth could sit at the table. Gweiler looked at Roman's appearance. His skin color was originally wheat-colored and looked very healthy, but now it was like bronze. He was less energetic and more tough, and his three-dimensional facial features looked even tougher.

Roman must have suffered a lot. Gweiler thought, and she poured him a cup of cold tea.

Roman took it and drank it all, then turned to Seth and said, "I found an iron mine, but it's far away from here."

Seth had a straight figure, a rigorous look between his eyebrows, and deep nasolabial folds between his nose. He should have been at the dock, and after learning the news that Roman had returned, he rushed back directly, attaching great importance to the news brought by Roman.

This means the next development direction of Sige Town.

Hearing this, his serious expression turned serious.

"How far is it?"

Roman wiped his mouth: "Very far, more than 100 kilometers!"

He surveyed more than ten mineral veins during this trip, most of which were stone mines, which are not worth mining now. There are two coal mines and two iron mines.

The first iron mine he found was not suitable for mining, so he had to continue looking.

The second iron vein was found. Judging from the resource volume on the icon, it is only a small vein and is far away.

Go forward 30 kilometers along the flat salt road, and then build a road to the north. The straight-line distance is as long as 100 kilometers. Due to the terrain, you have to take a detour, and the final length is probably more than 150 kilometers.

But the good thing is that the small iron mine is an open-air rich mine with a high iron content, at least more than 50%.

The route was specially drawn by Roman himself. You only need to split another road in the middle and go forward more than 20 kilometers to mine another coal mine.

In this way, you have both coal and iron.

Seth's brows became more and more serious when he heard Roman's detailed description of the iron and coal mines.

"We don't have enough manpower."

"I know." Roman nodded.

The hot weather is also a problem.

Overwork can kill people. For him, it's not worth the loss.

But iron mining is necessary, and Roman's demand for steel can't be met by purchasing iron ingots alone.

In recent years, due to the publicity of Daken and Sger Town merchants and the preferential treatment of commercial taxes, the business of Sger Town has developed to a limited extent.

But commercial transactions need to operate in cycles.

Those merchants can go back and forth once a month or two months, which is considered frequent. The main reason is that those markets need time to digest the goods brought by the merchants.

The geographical location of Sger Town is bad. If the mountains are not cut open, it can only be transported by water, not by land.

Even if salt can be produced, it is impossible to attract many merchants in a short period of time - most merchants have fixed business routes, with stable sources of goods and sales channels, rather than buying and selling everywhere like headless flies - these can only be regarded as wandering merchants.

Only a few merchants who are ambitious and looking for business opportunities will take risks and make various attempts to increase their own profits.

If a merchant exposes his raw material purchase site, it is likely to attract competition from peers, which is of no benefit to him.

Moreover, exposing it does not mean that someone will come to the door immediately, and it is necessary to distinguish the authenticity.

This is easy to understand. If someone shouts in Pearl Harbor that the town of Sger produces salt, eight out of ten merchants will not turn back, and the remaining two will also wonder where this hellhole of a town is.

This remote town cannot be found on the map of the King of Black Iron.

Nothing else, the cost of trial and error is too high.

It is difficult to distinguish the true from the false of various information. Between the high return of risk and the low return of stability, most people will choose the latter.

Roman asked Morey to buy slaves, but more than a month has passed since Morey left, and he still hasn't come back.

This forced Roman to prepare for the worst.

He thought Morey might have encountered some difficulties.

This is not a fatal problem. Roman has always trusted himself and not others.

All his plans are planned based on the resources currently at his disposal, and they will be changed at any time.

It would be ridiculous to pin all the population growth of Sger Town on the merchants' slave ships.

Overcome problems when you encounter them, there is nothing to complain about.

Roman said to Seth: "It doesn't matter if there are not enough people, let them take their time. In summer, they only need to work seven hours a day, working until noon in the morning and until sunset in the afternoon. Now that they have axes and hatchets, they will be able to cut wood and build roads faster."

Roman's requirements are not high.

The laborers in Sige Town can build a rough outline of more than 100 kilometers of roads in two months.

In this way, in the fall, he can build villages there, deploy manpower, build resettlement houses, relocate people to settle, and mine coal and iron.

Roman crossed his hands and placed them on the dining table.

He frowned and thought for a while.

Then Roman looked up and said to Seth: "I want to forge shields and weapons for 400 warriors before the end of winter."