You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 219 Exploration and Gold Rush

Edible oils contain high levels of energy.

Pressed soybean meal can also be used to feed livestock; it is considered a concentrated feed.

And tofu goes without saying.

It can be eaten occasionally as a staple food, as it has extremely high nutritional value.

Moreover, it can adjust the dietary structure of Origin City and improve its overall ability to withstand risks.

Roman then established several more oil presses and tofu workshops.

They also produce about 100 jin of cooking oil and 1,000 jin of tofu every day.

Because the process wasn't very sophisticated at the beginning, and the workers were still figuring things out, neither the output nor the quality could be improved; it was a complete mess.

Things will get better gradually.

Half a month later, producing a thousand catties of oil and ten thousand catties of tofu per day was very easy.

However, these two workshops now only employ about five hundred workers.

Since the onset of winter, a large number of farmers have lost their jobs.

So Roman expanded the construction team to two thousand people and continued to make bricks, build houses and pave roads.

Wherever the land is cleared, roads are built, and houses are constructed, all in preparation for next year.

The thousand workers at the quarry have not been moved for the time being.

Roman needed them to continue quarrying stone for future use, and to try to make everyone a qualified stonemason.

Some infrastructure projects cannot be built without stone.

The more gravel and slabs you have, the better, as they will come in handy sooner or later.

However, there are still about three thousand people in the workforce who are available.

Because there is not much work to do in the winter in agrarian societies, production comes to a standstill.

In previous years, at this time, they would rely on counting the grains of food stored at home to make ends meet, and then suffer from hunger and cold throughout the winter.

If you have no clothes to wear and can't get enough to eat, what else can you call it but starvation and freezing?
Roman felt a wave of dizziness upon seeing this.

The current population of Origin City is nearly 30,000, while the military unit has about 3,000 personnel.

Then grit your teeth, unleash another thousand soldiers, and drain all the young people dry.

Dick and Dota's troops also returned and joined the training.

They are Roman's elite veterans, with enormous influence, and can play an excellent leading role.

The army's training has become increasingly sophisticated.

They're starting to look more and more like the same thing.

The rest of the farmers, having eaten their fill and dressed warmly, grabbed their tools and said, "Go dig for gold right now!"
The gold mine he found during his first exploration.

The gold mine is hidden in the mountains a hundred kilometers away.

Go dig now!

It's been over a year!
Roman never forgot the allure of the gold mine.

But you have to eat one bite at a time.

Otherwise, it can easily lead to indigestion.

Now I don't have that concern anymore.

The foundation has been laid!

"We must see the gold!!"

Roman was determined to do so!

He wasn't greedy, nor was he desperate for money.

Simply because gold can be transformed into extraordinary resources, into refined gold!
And refined gold is the key material for training apostles!
Every time he opened the Apostle interface, most of the Apostles had the same attribute: E.

Despite exhausting all his resources, Roman could only elevate Aaron, Green, Dick, Jet, Nathan, and others to the third or fourth tier of knights.

Kao has only reached the threshold of a second-tier knight so far.

Roman selectively chose about ten of the apostles who served as squad leaders and enhanced one of their attributes.

Even so, he spent all his extraordinary resources and ran out of money.

With such an extraordinary resource as adamantite, Roman can upgrade the Apostle Panel on a large scale and collectively!

Especially aggressive!
We absolutely must improve significantly!

To avoid labor shortages, Roman brought in another three thousand villagers from Kande in early winter, bringing the population to over thirty thousand.

It's still the same family-friendly model.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that nine out of ten houses in Kantling are now empty.

The villagers there are like the plush toys in a claw machine, being snatched away by claws that fall from the sky at random times, so that their numbers are dwindling.

But where can you escape to?
Heh heh heh, no one will save them even if they scream their lungs out!

Furthermore, their lord, Earl Condé, had long since humiliated them and left the land in the autumn. Whether he sought refuge with distant relatives or complained to the Black Iron King was beyond Roman's consideration.

Since troops cannot be deployed in winter, there is no need to worry about war.

Not to mention here, even the war between the pirates and Gael would have to stop; the battlefield is unbearably cold.

Next year... hehe.

……

The location of the gold mine is not very good.

To be precise, Origin City is located on a plain, at a relatively high elevation.

However, compared to the entire basin, the plain is only a small area.

Going north would be a bad idea.

Those dark, barren lands have become desolate and deserted.

Towering mountains, swamps and forests, treacherous terrain, a complete mess.

The development is very difficult. But that still requires building roads and mining.

How can a country become rich and powerful without mining?

The mountain roads are rugged and difficult to traverse, with steep passes or deep abysses and cliffs, requiring detours.

However, the initial requirements were not high. First, a small path was opened up, and even if it was done by manpower, the supplies had to be carried across.

He planned the route for this.

Roman began his third exploration of the basin.

This expedition was also the longest one.

It lasted for almost twenty days.

Roman eventually determined that the land was rich in mineral resources, perhaps due to its unique geographical structure.

Apart from resources that are temporarily unusable, the area has the most stone ore, a fair amount of iron ore, gold, silver and copper veins, as well as mirabilite, rock salt, and other minerals.

However, development is very difficult because it is too far from the plains.

The furthest mines are hundreds of kilometers away.

This gave Roman a bit of a headache.

Take it easy……

Take it easy……

He told himself this over and over again.

Land reclamation and development always take time.

After finishing his exploration, Roman returned to Origin Manor, exhausted, and rested for a day. After waking up, he was full of energy and set off for the gold mine again.

It snowed during this period, but the snowfall was not heavy and did not affect production.

The cotton, flax, wool, and sheepskin that were acquired earlier have been basically spun into winter clothing.

With thick clothes, the laborers immediately felt much better.

By the end of the first month of winter, the road had finally been built to the gold mine.

Then Roman started to frown.

The rocks are hard, the ravines are treacherous, and the elevation differences are extreme, mostly due to violent geological tectonic movements that have created fractured zones.

Generally speaking, gold deposits are related to fault structures.

So, gold does exist, but mining it is too difficult.

Roman, who was on the scene, also found it troublesome.

A moment later, he turned his head and stared at the mountain streams. In winter, when the water level was low, his eyesight was excellent, and he could vaguely see specks of golden light.

Okay, let's stop mining for now.

The next best thing is to dig for gold first!

Placer gold originates from lode gold, which is washed away by groundwater, underground rivers, streams, and other water flows, forming placer gold that settles in river sand.

Given the high difficulty of mining, gold panning is the best option.

Large-scale gold mining can only begin after the infrastructure is completed.

Roman knew this was a long-term project.

Many people spend the entire winter here.

The road leading here is rugged and bumpy, and even oxcarts and horse-drawn carriages cannot pass through. Roman has to build all sorts of sturdy and smooth bridges.

There's no rush. We can carry the necessary rations and supplies over by manpower first.

Various tools for panning for gold also needed to be made, such as winnowing baskets and sieves.

Turn this river upside down!

(End of this chapter)