Chapter 87 Iron Ore

The brick kiln factory in Harland Territory now has a production efficiency of 70%, and can produce more than 600,000 bricks per week.

It takes about 36 weeks to complete Baron Sharp's order.

Bulk building materials such as bricks require a lot of money to transport over long distances. Even if the cost is very low, it cannot compete with local earth brick kilns at all.

The brick kiln factory in Harland Territory can only occupy the market within 100 kilometers at most, and it also needs to compete with the brick kilns in Flame Castle, Black River Castle, and Harden Castle.

On the contrary, the market for earth cement is larger, and the project is more promising.

Richard has been in the Dawn Continent for ten years and has not seen cement.

Although there is no cement, there are magicians in the Dawn Continent. Magicians can use the spell of turning mud into stone to turn mud into stone.

Important buildings in the Dawn Continent are all participated by magicians.

Buildings built by magicians have no gaps between stones, and the structure is an integrated building, which is much stronger than those glued with cement.

But the number of magicians is limited.

Especially in the Grant Kingdom, there are very few magicians. If cement can be produced, there will be very good sales prospects. However, the efficiency of producing earth cement in Harland Territory is very low. The production capacity is basically used for territory construction. It is difficult to sell a large amount of it for money in a short period of time.

Since two or three years ago, Richard has sent prospectors to look for ore in the territory.

However, the prospecting technology in the Dawn Continent is very primitive, and there has been no good news.

When Baron Sharp brought slaves into Richard Territory to build roads, he actually dug out iron ore on the surface six kilometers southwest of Sofia Castle.

After receiving this news, it was already mid-April. Richard and Sofia had just finished spring plowing and had a little free time.

With excitement, the two brought prospectors and territory blacksmiths to the vicinity of the mine. They carefully surveyed the mine and found that in addition to the high-purity iron ore, this vein was also accompanied by some precious blood steel.

Blood steel, mountain copper, mithril, and refined gold are all precious super magic metals. They can be used to make enchanted weapons and magic equipment.

Blood steel has the largest reserves, and the market price is six silver coins per pound.

Six silver coins can buy more than 500 pounds of food, enough for a family to eat for several months.

The prices of mountain copper, mithril, and refined gold have risen in a step-by-step manner.

The price of mountain copper is three gold coins per pound, the price of mithril is one hundred gold coins per pound, and the price of refined gold is more than two thousand gold coins per pound.

Blood steel and mountain copper are usually used to make enchanted weapons for the most elite soldiers.

Mithril and refined gold are used to forge high-level enchanted weapons and magic equipment for high-level professionals and magicians.

Sophia has three magic equipment, some of which increase mental power and some have spell effects.

Each magic equipment costs more than a few hundred gold coins, enough for an ordinary family of four to live for more than a hundred years.

The discovery of iron ore has greatly increased the economic value of Richard Territory.

The development of iron ore has become the most important thing for the Harland family.

The development of iron ore first requires a large number of manpower, from mining to building earthen blast furnaces for iron smelting.

In addition, the expansion of cement kilns has also been put on the agenda.

To carry out all these tasks, at least 3,000 people are needed.

The population controlled by Richard now can be transferred to 3,000 people.

However, transferring labor will affect other projects.

The construction progress of Sofia Castle will slow down, and it will also affect agricultural production.

Sofia Castle is related to the security of the territory, and the construction progress must not be slowed down. Food production is the top priority.

Therefore, to develop iron ore and build cement kilns, people can only be bought from outside.

With 10,000 gold coins in cash, 6,000 have been spent on buying slaves, and the remaining 4,000 gold coins are not enough.

Fortunately, Baron Sharp brought a part of the deposit for buying bricks, which finally solved the urgent problem.

The brick kiln factory is now running at full capacity, and all men, women, and children are on the battlefield. In addition to building Sofia Castle, the remaining bricks are continuously supplied to the Sharp Rafiel United Territory in exchange for much-needed development funds.

The Dawn Continent has not developed a machine revolution. Mining is a labor-intensive industry. From mining, ore dressing, smelting, casting, a series of links, all require a lot of manpower.

Without sufficient labor, it is difficult to burst out production capacity before the next orc invasion.

The territory does not have too many financial resources now, and the main income is the sale of grain. A large number of young and middle-aged laborers are used in planting and reclamation.

Food is a strategic material in the Dawn Continent and a guarantee of the stability of the territory.

If the territory wants to develop rapidly, population is the most important factor.

Therefore, as food reserves increase, the cash income of the territory decreases rapidly.

Although the sugar industry has prospects, it will take some time to develop.

The current Harland Territory is extremely short of funds.

Richard and Sophia are at a loss for this situation.

Anxiety cannot solve problems. In this anxious state, the Harland Territory spent April.

In May, Baron Sharp's funds were in place, and Richard arranged for his uncle Soros to go to the slave markets of Black River Fort, Flame Fort, Flying Bear Fort, and Light Fort to buy people.

Although the scale of these castle slave markets is not large, they are relatively close to the territory.

If the number of slaves purchased is small, it is more cost-effective to buy them nearby.

In this way, the slaves gradually arrived, and although the number was far from enough, the barracks were initially built.

In order to protect the mining area, Richard also asked the army to expand the patrol range to the vicinity of the mining area.

In addition, he also transferred half of the squadron of veterans to the mining area to prevent the mining area from being destroyed by monsters.

In June, although the living conditions in the mining area were still simple, they finally got rid of the embarrassing situation of sleeping in tents.

A lot of food has been stored, the forest has been almost cut down, and barracks have been built for slaves to live in.

The conditions of the ore vein are not bad, and many areas can be mined in the open air.

Under Richard's command, a brick and stone steelmaking furnace was also built.

In Richard's previous life, there was a small steel mill in the village that could produce 6,000 tons of steel every year.

In the 1990s, this small steel mill was closed and rectified and became an abandoned steel mill.

At that time, the adults were not at home, and the children liked to play in the abandoned steel mill.

When Richard was a child in his previous life, his favorite thing was to climb up the ten-meter-high steel furnace and hide in the steel furnace.

Richard was familiar with the structure of the blast furnace. Although there were no conveyor belts or ventilation equipment in the Dawn Continent, Richard had a large number of workers and could use large bellows to replace manual labor.

In late June, under Richard's command, the smelting workers who had completed the preparations began the first blast furnace ironmaking in the Dawn Continent.