Steel, gunpowder, and spellcasters

Chapter 357 Transaction (Part )

[The wasteland, the place where gold is buried]
The tranquility of the valley was broken once again as the uninvited guests returned.

Unlike last time, when only three riders sneaked in, this time Winters led his entire force and marched into the valley openly.

The Golden Horde of the Red River tribe deployed scouts extensively around the valley to intercept any herders or hunters who might appear.

The Iron Peak County delegation set up camp in the valley. For the first time since leaving Iron Peak County, the side panels and tarpaulins of the six wagons were removed, and Winters' men saw the "mysterious cargo" for the first time.

Furnaces, crucibles, molds, refractory bricks, blast boxes, prefabricated components for lifting machinery...

Upon seeing the familiar tools, a goldsmith who had repaired horseshoes all along the way felt a sudden lump in his throat.

……

Even before setting off from Iron Peak County, Winters, Bud, and Mason had repeatedly discussed "how to safely retrieve the Golden Man?"

The three agreed that even revealing the location of the golden statue used for sacrificial rites would pose a huge risk to the weak delegation.
The wasteland has always been a hostile land. The best solution to deal with the Golden People is to make a deal with the Red River tribe and exchange the Golden People for gold or goods of equivalent value.
If the aforementioned plan cannot be implemented, then the golden statue should be retrieved and destroyed on the spot, provided that the understanding and protection of the Chihe tribe are obtained.

That's right, it's destruction.

The golden statue used for sacrificial rites in Palatul can only be used as gold; aside from being used to boast about martial arts skills, it has almost no additional value.

Rather than carrying an eye-catching golden statue across the wasteland, it would be better to simply destroy it and melt it down into gold bars to take home.

During negotiations with the White Lion, Winters discovered that the White Lion had no interest in the sacrificial golden statue, but he also realized that the White Lion would not mind providing some reasonable assistance in destroying the sacrificial golden statue.

The fate of the sacred objects of the Hart tribe was thus decided.

……

Lifting the tarpaulins off the last two large trucks, one finds they are not carrying tools, but rather some kind of dark gray stone.

"Stone?" someone asked, puzzled.

The mysterious cargo that we painstakingly transported was just a few truckloads of tools? And stones?

The blacksmith from the mission stepped forward, picked up a black stone, weighed it in his hand, and turned back with a smile: "What stone? It's clearly coal!"

“Coke,” Berrian said softly.

“It’s coke.” Winters, leaning on his cane, walked into the crowd and nodded approvingly to Berrian: “Processed coal.”

Fearing he wouldn't find enough fuel in the wasteland, Winters even brought two cartloads of coke from afar. He was so well-prepared that he would not leave the Heard Wasteland until he had the two tons of gold.

Winters walked to the front of the crowd and scanned his subordinates: "Have you had enough of the show?"

"[Scattered monosyllabic words expressing obedience and agreement]."

He smiled and said, "Then let's get to work!"

"[A monosyllabic word expressing obedience and agreement, suddenly filled with fighting spirit]!"

Just do it.

Charles and his men found the wooden stakes and immediately began digging; Pierre and his men unloaded the carts and began assembling the crane; while the mission's blacksmiths and goldsmiths were busy setting up the furnace.

Winters did not publicly disclose what he was digging for, but those who had experienced the Great Wilderness War had already guessed.

As for those who joined after the first army was established, even if they knew nothing about the existence of the Jurchens, they could tell from the mysterious attitude of the protector that the things underground were of great importance.

Although the sun was already setting, everyone was working with great enthusiasm, making the most of every second.

Only Vahika, whose head was wrapped in layers of white cloth, approached Winters: "What are you digging for, Centurion?"

Because he was injured, Vahika could legitimately slack off.

"You...don't remember?" Winters chuckled.

Wahika said, sounding quite aggrieved, "I fell that day..."

……

On the day of the hunt in Qingqiu, Vashika fell from his horse and hit the back of his head. Luckily, he survived; he only needed a dozen stitches, slept for a long time, and woke up as lively as ever.

However, the fall wasn't entirely without its aftereffects; he couldn't remember anything about the day of the hunt in Qingqiu.

Afterwards, Vashika learned that Blood Wolf had been rampaging through Qingqiu and was invincible, and that his other companions had followed Blood Wolf and shone brightly. He was filled with remorse.

Vashika's heart aches whenever he thinks about how his friends will boast about how they'll make a name for themselves in Qingqiu, while he has no recollection of it at all.

So for the past few days, Vahika had been subtly trying to find out the details of the hunt in Qingqiu. However, Pierre remained tight-lipped, his companions were unwilling to discuss it in detail, and his father had given him a severe scolding.

After much deliberation, only firsthand information from the parties involved was truly reliable. Therefore, Vahika has been spending all his free time near Winters, hoping to extract some information from him.

……

Winters recalled carefully—the gold snatcher, the gold buryer, and Vahika were all present. He'd fallen on the day of the Qingqiu hunt; surely he wouldn't have forgotten everything that happened before?
Looking at Vahika's cheerful expression and the white cloth wrapped around his head, he suddenly felt a pang of heartache. Vahika's fall had been quite solid; had he been slightly less lucky, he might have already lost his life.

But another thought kept popping into his head: "This kid is probably stupid from the fall... no, he's even stupider from the fall."

“When you see that thing, you’ll remember,” Winters said, trying to be as gentle as possible. “Vasha.”

Vasika nodded frantically. He didn't really understand what the centurion was talking about, but the centurion's tone flattered him. Berion was installing the bellows when Winters called him aside.

“The people from the Red River tribe have brought ore samples,” Winters said. “Let’s go take a look.”

The two took their horses and slowly rode out of the valley toward the camp of the Chihe tribe.

Winters recovered much faster than Kaman had expected. He could already walk with a cane, but his limbs were still sore and weak, and he was stiff and uncoordinated when moving.

Therefore, Kaman strictly forbade Winters from riding fast horses. If Winters hadn't refused to ride in an oxcart no longer, Kaman wouldn't have even allowed him to ride a horse.

“The Red River tribe doesn’t seem interested in mining iron ore.” Winters gripped the saddle tightly, struggling to maintain his balance, and casually remarked, “Something feels off.”

“Ore has to go through many processes before it can enter the smelting furnace. If it is only roughly mined ore, not even one part of pure iron can be smelted from a hundred parts. Steel can be sold to distant places, but it is not worth going to distant places to buy iron ore. Therefore, famous iron smelting towns are all located next to large mines. When the ore veins are exhausted, the towns also decline.”

Although Berion remained taciturn, he was very open and forthcoming when discussing iron smelting with Winters: "The chief of the Red River tribe probably assumes that you would not put the smelter on the Red River tribe's territory, and that the ore is not worth buying from far away, which is why he is so cold."

Winters asked, "Not even by water?"

“I don’t know,” Berion answered honestly. “But I doubt it. Because in the mining towns I know, even with convenient water transport, merchants from a hundred kilometers away wouldn’t come to buy crude ore.”

Winters caught a whiff of an unfamiliar word: "rough?"

"It's ore that's mined from the mine, mixed with rocks."

“Rough ore isn’t worth the long distance.” Winters was never afraid to show his ignorance in front of experts, and he asked curiously, “Do you have any fine ore?”

“The blacksmith usually calls the coarse ore ‘refined ore,’” Berion explained carefully. “If the processes of sorting, roasting, crushing, sieving, and even sintering are handled by the Red River Tribe, then refined ore can be purchased directly from them. If transported by water, the refined ore might be worth the long journey.”

“When you were not in Iron Peak County, a Mr. Leo visited me—he was a very shrewd businessman.” Winters said thoughtfully, “He said, ‘Only things with high enough profit are worth transporting over long distances; the cost of transporting grain two hundred kilometers away is more expensive than the grain itself.’”

"That makes sense, Your Excellency."

“But you didn’t bring it up right away.” Winters sighed. “Something must be wrong.”

"There are indeed some..."

"Go ahead and say it. If you don't think it's going to work, then I'm not holding out much hope either."

“The concentrate is just one step away from wrought iron. If we get the concentrate, we can smelt wrought iron using an earthen furnace.” Berion said seriously, “From what I’ve seen, the Hed people are not incapable of ironmaking. On the contrary, their craftsmanship is quite exquisite.”

Winters recalled the weapons and armor captured from the Hed tribes; although most were old, some were new. He also thought of the Red River tribe's much higher iron usage rate than other tribes—poor small tribes were still using stone and bone arrowheads, while everyone in the Red River tribe was using iron arrowheads.

“I think,” Winters smiled, “that the Red River tribe might have been secretly mining and smelting iron for a long time.”

Berion pondered for a moment: "Qingqiu is surrounded by red soil, and the Chihe tribe really does have a 'Chihe River,' so there's a high possibility that shallow iron ore veins exist there. It would be best to ask the local residents if there were any iron mines in the past, or if there are any old iron smelting relics."

“The Herd tribes have migrated everywhere, where are the local residents?” Winters laughed heartily, but after laughing, he still adopted a serious attitude: “I have asked the people of the Badlands tribe. At least in recent decades, they have not heard of any ‘Iron Hill’ in the upper reaches of the Red River. As for further ahead, no one knows.”

"One possibility is that after the Hed people had exhausted the shallow veins, they were unable to mine the remaining veins, so they were abandoned and forgotten over time. That's why no one has heard of them and no one remembers them."

Winters wrapped the reins around his fingers again and again: "Assuming that's the case, where did the Red River Tribe get the technology to mine deep mineral deposits?"

Berrian did not answer; he had a vague feeling that this was not a problem.

“No more worries!” Winters stretched on his horse and laughed, “Even with a map, you still need to see the terrain in person before you can fight a war. If we can’t see it for ourselves, there’s no point in us racking our brains here. Heh, the Red River Tribe won’t let us explore on our own, but I’m actually more interested in seeing what’s there.”

The two rode for a while longer, and when they emerged from the valley, the world opened up before them.

Berion spoke up, "Your Excellency, in fact, in many places, even though it is known that mineral veins exist, no one goes to mine them. This is either because the mineral veins are too barren, or because mining is too difficult, or because transportation is too inconvenient."

"Like the Iron Peak Mine?"

"Take iron peak mines as an example. Unless the price of iron bars is too high or other ore veins are depleted, iron peak mines are not worth mining because it is not profitable."

Winters let out a long sigh: "If there's profit, we mine; if there's no profit, we'd rather leave it fallow. Ultimately, it's all about business."

Berlian remained silent for a long time before asking, "What is not, Your Excellency?"

Winters laughed loudly and lightly nudged Changfeng: "There are still some things that aren't true."

……

Disregarding every single one of Father Kaman's medical orders, Winters sped off like a madman to the camp where the Red River Palace Guards were stationed.

Although the Golden Horde was ordered by the White Lion to protect the Iron Peak County delegation from disturbance, they did not camp in the valley and had almost no contact with the Iron Peak County delegation.

From beginning to end, none of the Red River tribe's men set foot in the valley—this was another order from the White Lion.

Therefore, all negotiations and exchanges took place at the palace guard camp outside the valley.

Two archers, one in front and one behind, came to greet Winters as he delivered the ore.

The archer standing in front was a typical Hedman; his long years of exposure to the elements had keratinized his exposed skin, giving it a unique texture.

Although the people standing at the back were dressed in wilderness clothing, they didn't look like Hed people at all.

"Lord Batu," the archer, unlike the Hudson, spoke in Common with a slight Monta accent, "what have you considered of the White Lion King's conditions?"

[Before dawn, the day is already over...]
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(End of this chapter)