Wizard Farming Guide

Chapter 71 Iron Ore Situation

The search continued the following day.

As the shield-spear soldiers searched house to house, the fleeing enemy troops hiding throughout Mole Town had nowhere to escape and were dragged out one by one.

If they are smart enough to drop their weapons and surrender, they can save their lives.

If they attempt to continue resisting, the soldiers, eager for merit points, will not be polite and will gladly send them on their way.

It was noon, and the sun was shining brightly.

The battles on both sides of Mole Town have officially ended, and the chaos in various places is gradually subsiding.

Viscount Marcia and his border guards have already left.

After taking control of Mole Town, Rod, as was customary, ordered his soldiers to investigate their situation.

The officials who had helped Billard commit crimes were purged and hanged in the town square.

Other ordinary residents were gathered together to welcome the arrival of their new lord.

"The former lord, Billard, betrayed the duchy and has been put on trial. I am your new lord, Rod Rothdale, and from now on I will take over the rule of this town."

Rhodes stood on the high platform and announced to the townspeople who were gathering around him.

Upon hearing his words, the residents glanced at the soldiers around them and naturally knelt down.

Rhodes's gaze swept over the residents, but he didn't find anything unexpected.

The residents accepted his arrival as their new lord calmly and submitted without any objection.

This is not surprising, as there was an insurmountable gap between the lives of nobles and serfs in this era.

The change of lords has never been related to the thoughts of the serfs.

Moreover, the previous lord, Billard, ruled cruelly and was unpopular; few residents would reminisce about the past.

After the ceremony for the newly appointed lord concluded, Rhodes wasted no time and began to quickly familiarize his men with the town's production situation.

The mining area's production records, transactions, the number of blacksmiths and apprentices, and so on, were all investigated one by one.

"According to past records from Moletown, under normal circumstances, this place can produce about 80,000 pounds of pig iron per month."

Rhodes put down the scroll, somewhat puzzled.

Isn't this amount a bit too little?

However, after learning more about it, he quickly understood.

In the principality, the price of pig iron varies from 20 to 50 copper coins per pound, depending on its quality.

The pig iron in Mole Town is of poor quality, and the average price is only 22 copper coins.

In total, Mole Town produces 160 gold coins worth of pig iron per month.

However, 30% of that was for purchasing coal, and 20% was for taxes paid to the principality.

The remaining 80 gold coins, after deducting the basic food and clothing needs of a large number of miners and residents, were not even enough to cover the army's expenses.

The income is too poor.

From the records, it can be seen that in recent years, Billard's focus has been entirely on smuggling.

Mining and forging are time-consuming and labor-intensive, and cannot be compared with grain smuggling.

Iron mines are just sitting idle because it's a waste of money; even if they don't make much, people still have to work.

Ultimately, it's because Mole Town's smelting technology is too poor and it lacks core competitiveness.

The northern barbarians are supplied with weapons by the dwarven royal court, and the Duchy of Northfrost has the support of the dwarves in neighboring Ironforge.

Faced with fierce market competition, the iron ore industry in Mole Town has failed to develop.

Many miners were reassigned to transporting goods, and due to insufficient quantities, a large amount of open-pit iron ore on the surface of the mine has not yet been mined.

For Rhodes, this was actually good news.

The situation here has been relayed to Hekou Town via ravens.

The local artisan guild is making intensive preparations.

Craftsmen who have mastered blast furnace technology will come here and, with the help of the construction team they accompany, will transform the mining area.

Besides that, Rhodes was particularly concerned about the blacksmith's situation.

In Mole Town, there are about two hundred blacksmiths and apprentices.

Five of them reached the level of weapon craftsmen.

Take the standard cavalry armor, which costs 4 gold coins, as an example.

A weapon craftsman can forge such a plate armor in one to two months.

With the high-quality pig iron produced by the blast furnace, Rod estimated that the time required could be controlled within one month.

The main expense lies in assembling the various small parts of the full-coverage plate armor, which has strict dimensional requirements.

Components such as gloves require fine polishing, which is labor-intensive.

In contrast, infantry heavy armor can be produced much faster.

It is a half-body armor made of wrought iron, with a breastplate forged from a large iron plate, and is equipped with a helmet, arm armor and leg armor.

No complicated gauntlets or greaves are needed; even a skilled ordinary blacksmith can process and forge them.

Based on the blacksmithing situation in Mole Town, blast furnaces and coke were used for smelting.

Rhodes estimated that this place could produce five sets of cavalry armor per month, plus more than one hundred sets of infantry heavy armor.

He felt a little regretful that this was all without a water-powered forging hammer.

At this time, the Hanshui River next to Hekou Town had frozen over.

According to Adledge, the rivers in the North froze unusually early this year.

The river, which usually freezes completely in December, has already reached a thickness of half a meter in November this year.

If the Cold Water River is still flowing, a water-powered forging hammer can be used to hammer the iron block into a blank.

The blanks are then handcrafted by blacksmiths, allowing the armor to be produced four to five times faster.

Of course, Rhodes only felt a little regretful in his heart; his current gains were already more than enough to satisfy him.

Production will proceed according to plan in just two months.

He could transform the cavalry of the First Royal Guard into plate-armored cavalry.

The shield and spearmen of the Second Iron Wall Battalion were transformed into heavily armored infantry, resulting in a comprehensive improvement in the soldiers' combat effectiveness.

The Rosa Shield and Spear Formation, composed of two hundred heavily armored infantrymen, will become a true impregnable fortress on the battlefield.

Even if the cavalry regiment led by the Extreme Knights charged head-on into an infantry formation of this caliber, the only outcome would be certain death!

In its future development, Mole Town will focus on developing equipment for the military.

Therefore, Rhodes needs to calculate the costs involved.

Iron ore has no cost, but the coal required for smelting costs around 60 gold coins per month.

Once the artisan guild of River Mouth takes over, the treatment system in Mole Town will be completely changed.

They also need to cover the residents' food and salary expenses.

In particular, in the blacksmithing industry, apprentices earn 15 copper coins a day, ordinary blacksmiths earn 30 copper coins a day, and weapon craftsmen earn 1 silver coin a day.

The monthly wage for blacksmiths is 12 gold coins.

Including other miners and residents, the total monthly salary is 79.5 gold coins.

In terms of food, miners and blacksmiths do heavy labor, and at two pounds a day, their monthly food consumption is 60 gold coins.

"Ideally, I need to inject at least 200 gold coins every month to keep Mole Town running."

Rhodes made a note on the paper.

"It is estimated that this place can produce 80,000 pounds of pig iron for me every month, of which 10,000 pounds will be in the hands of blacksmiths to become five sets of cavalry armor and one hundred sets of infantry heavy armor."

"The remaining 70,000 pounds of pig iron, worth about 300 gold coins, can be sold directly to caravans. Alternatively, it can be used to train blacksmith apprentices to process it into tools such as shovels and axes, or ordinary weapons such as swords and spears, and then sold."

The plan for the future development of Mole Town was gradually formed by recording each step.

After finishing his notes, Rod put down his quill and stretched, feeling much more relaxed.

The addition of Mole Town brought a leap forward to his territory's development plan.

In the days to come, Pingdingshan will serve as the core of his wizardry.

They are responsible for developing special things like the Demon Field, and they try their best to keep it a secret from outsiders.

Hekou Town will serve as an open commercial town, responsible for the internal and external transportation of goods and materials within the territory.

Mole Town will become a foundry town, responsible for replenishing the army's armaments and leading the way in equipment.

(End of this chapter)