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

Chapter 220 Gold Production
The camp was built very quickly.

Roman left over a thousand laborers here.

The other two thousand people were responsible for repairing bridges and roads and transporting various supplies.

Complete the initial construction. Once things stabilize, you can start withdrawing personnel.

But feeding three thousand people is no small feat; it consumes over ten thousand kilograms of grain every day.

Vehicles transporting supplies had to stop halfway, and the rest of the way had to be carried by people.

The logistics line is very long, so fixed personnel are needed to transport supplies back and forth.

Cooking utensils and wooden basins also need to be moved over.

Because gold panning in rivers during winter requires hot water, the panners must soak their hands and feet in hot water every night, otherwise they will suffer health problems.

After everything was prepared, the results were quite pleasing.

In early February during winter.

In the first three days of panning for gold, Roman had already obtained nearly sixty pounds of placer gold.

These are all treasures accumulated by nature and time!

Unfortunately, the gold content of this gold deposit is not high, only about 5%.

Sixty catties of placer gold is equivalent to three catties of gold.

This indicates that the gold mine Roman found was of poor quality, with only 2 to 3 grams of pure gold extracted from one ton of ore.

However, Roman was still very satisfied.

On average, one pound of gold per day translates to an income of over one hundred gold coins.

He stayed there for ten days and collected more and more gold dust.

The most surprising thing was that a gold nugget weighing about half a pound was found in the river sand.

Gold nuggets are products formed naturally from placer gold over thousands of years, resulting in extremely high gold content.

Roman immediately declared this land a forbidden zone.

He specifically dispatched fifty scouts from the military camp to guard this place.

These gold miners will not be leaving anytime soon.

But when it was time to leave, Roman warned them not to hoard gold dust and ordered a search of their entire bodies.

It would be fine if they handed it in voluntarily.

Once the hoarder is found, if the hoarded gold exceeds one or two ounces, he will hang the hoarder and send his family to the mines, where they will be treated the same as prisoners of war.

Only sufficiently cruel punishments can deter people's greed.

Roman never believed in humanity.

……

He took two hundred kilograms of gold dust to the foundry.

First, Ruto processed it into adamantite, and learned that adamantite is different from magic steel, and the former requires a hundred times more magic stones than the latter.

But it still needs to be smelted.

In the five-dimensional attributes, refined gold corresponds to the attack attribute.

The five attributes influence each other.

Suppose that if Roman raises an apostle with a constitution of E to D-, then the attack attribute, which was originally also E, will most likely also be raised to E+.

Increased attack power means the apostle's muscles become stronger and bones become harder, thus increasing their physical strength.

Improving physical fitness will also lead to an increase in energy, but the decrease will be significant.

This is the result of mutual influence.

"By the way, forge me a fine gold short sword, just melt in half a pound of fine gold."

Ruto opened his mouth, somewhat troubled, "My lord, my forging skills are limited. I can only process gold into refined gold at most, and I cannot make weapons made of refined gold."

"no?"

"It really won't work!" Ruto nodded.
“I can use the techniques for forging magic steel to forge adamantite, but that would be a waste; I wouldn’t be able to utilize its full potential.”

Roman could understand the technical difficulties Ruto was referring to.

For example, by folding and forging steel, brilliant and beautiful patterns can be forged on the blade, and its strength and sharpness far exceed those of ordinary swords.

The skill that blacksmiths pursue is to achieve the highest performance with the least amount of materials.

Ruto's meaning is very direct.

The magic steel sword he forged was made of pure magic steel. But can an adamantite sword be made of pure gold?

Of course, even a pure gold sword that has not been forged contains great power; an ordinary person wielding it can split rocks and cut through iron like mud.

But it's too expensive.

There's no way you'd waste so much gold.

The density of refined gold is much higher than that of steel, and a refined gold short sword weighs at least five pounds.

A master blacksmith can use one pound of gold, mixed with other materials, and adjust the different metal compositions to forge a weapon of refined gold with power far exceeding that of pure gold.

And it is light, sharp, and sturdy enough.

But he couldn't do it.

Ruto replied truthfully, "If you want to forge a weapon from half a pound of adamantite, I can either make you a nail clipper or seek out the legendary dwarves."

"Alright then." Roman had no choice but to give up on the idea.

From this perspective, Ruto could no longer forge mithril armor, thus he was considered a novice blacksmith.

Only certain powerful and influential forces possess advanced forging techniques.

But this cannot be blamed on Ruto.

The most gold he had ever touched in his life was probably the two hundred pounds of gold dust that Roman was now giving him.

With gold and silver resources monopolized, where would the poor get the capital to learn advanced forging techniques?

You've worked hard for most of your life to save up a hundred gold coins, but after melting them down, they're not even worth a pound of gold. Would you dare to try and fail?
The cost is too high.

The artisans in the Grand Duchy are more skilled, able to refine mithril and orogen, bringing out their full potential.

Roman rode back to Origin Manor.

He was lost in thought when a manor servant came to greet him.

"Is Garin there?" Roman asked.

"Sir, Lord Garin has just left, and a pregnant woman is having a difficult childbirth..."

Roman asked the servants about the general situation, but instead of entering the manor, he went to find Garin.

The stone paths in the fields are crisscrossed in a very regular pattern, and the roads are smooth.

Roman arrived shortly afterward and saw a brick house with several people outside the door in the distance, so it was probably him.

He dismounted, and the people outside who were peering into the house heard the sound of hooves and saw him dismount. They were all shocked and panicked.

"Oh my! Sir, what brings you here?"

Roman ignored them. He could faintly hear cries of pain outside the door, so he pushed the door open and went in. The cries of pain suddenly became clearer in his ears.

He was neither dead nor alive, groaning in pain, on the verge of death.

Roman entered the bedroom and, sure enough, saw the dirty doctor comforting the pregnant woman by the bedside.

A brazier was burning in the room to raise the temperature, but the bed was covered in blood.

Even if ten Garin came, it wouldn't make a difference. While their divine magic can heal wounds, that's a completely different matter from a difficult childbirth.

"Lord Garin, what should we do?" Several older women surrounded the bed, their hands covered in blood, and one of them asked in a panic.

The pregnant woman was covered in sweat, her face was sallow, her expression was bleak, and her eyes were lifeless. She could only moan from her physiological instincts, and she was about to die.

They surrounded him so tightly that he couldn't move. Roman pushed an old woman aside, and when he saw what was going on, he frowned deeply.

"Give her a C-section!" he shouted immediately.

"Ah! Master..." the old women exclaimed, thinking they had mistaken him for someone else.

"Get out of the way!" Roman ignored their greetings and quickly told them to make room. Then, with a clang, he drew his short sword from his waist and stuck it into the brazier.

He pulled out a small box hidden in the belt, which contained green stone powder.

Life-related gems have remarkable effects on injuries.

Roman tossed it to Garin, who, upon hearing Roman's words, knew what he was about to do.

Throughout history, there have always been people who have had to face the dilemma of protecting the elderly versus protecting the young.

Disembowelment is an extremely dangerous procedure. Although the mortality rate is not 100%, it is still a very risky one.

Now, with the gem and his divine magic, there might truly be a glimmer of hope.

Roman drew his short sword, which had been sterilized with fire, examined it carefully, and then reached out to find the right spot.

His heart was pounding, he was incredibly nervous, but his expression remained impassive as he approached with his short sword in hand.

(End of this chapter)