Lord Harland

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

It will take approximately thirty-six weeks to complete Baron Sharp's order.

Long-distance transportation of bulk building materials such as bricks consumes a lot of money. Even if the cost is low, it simply cannot compete with local adobe kilns.

The brick kilns in Harland's territory can seize up to 100 kilometers of the nearby market, and they also need to compete with the brick kilns in Flame Castle, Black River Castle, and Harden Castle.

On the contrary, the market for soil and cement is larger and the projects are more promising.

Richard has been in Dawn Continent for ten years and has never seen cement.

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

All important buildings in Dawn Continent have magicians involved.

The buildings that magicians participated in built have no gaps between the stones and are structurally integrated buildings, which are much stronger than those stuck with cement.

But the number of magicians is limited.

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

Starting two or three years ago, Richard has sent prospectors to search for ores in the territory.

It's just that the prospecting technology in Chenxi Continent is very primitive, and there has been no good news.

When Baron Sharp and his slaves entered Richard's territory to build roads, they discovered iron ore on the surface six kilometers southwest of Sophia Castle.

After receiving the news, it was already mid-April. Richard and Sophia had just finished their spring plowing and had some free time.

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

Blood steel, orichalcum, mithril, and fine gold are all precious super-magical metals. Can be used to create 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 kilograms of food, which is enough for a family to eat for several months.

The prices of orichalcum, mithril, and fine gold rise step by step.

The price of orichalcum is three gold coins per catty, the price of mithril is one hundred gold coins per catty, and the price of fine gold is more than two thousand gold coins per catty.

Blood steel and orichalcum are usually used to make enchanted weapons for use by the most elite soldiers.

Mithril and fine gold are used to forge high-grade enchanted weapons and magic equipment for use by high-level professionals and magicians.

Sophia has three pieces of magic equipment, some that increase her mental power and some that have magical effects.

The price of each piece of magic equipment is more than a few hundred gold coins, which is enough for an ordinary family of four to live for more than a hundred years.

The discovery of iron ore greatly increased Richard's economic value.

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

Developing iron ore first requires a lot of labor. From mining to building blast furnaces for ironmaking, a large number of people are needed.

In addition, cement kiln expansion is also on the agenda.

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

The population controlled by Richard now can draw 3,000 people.

However, the redeployment of labor will affect other projects.

The construction progress of Sophia Castle will be slowed down and agricultural production will be affected.

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

Therefore, to develop iron mines and build cement kilns, we can only buy people from outside.

Of the 10,000 gold coins in hand, 6,000 were already spent on the slave purchase, and the remaining 4,000 gold coins were simply not enough.

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

The brick kiln factory is now operating at full capacity, and all men, women, and children are on board. In addition to the construction of Fort Sophia, the remaining bricks were continuously supplied to the Sharp Raphael Union in exchange for much-needed development funds.

Dawn Continent has not developed a machine revolution. Mining is a labor-intensive industry. A series of links from mining, mineral processing, smelting, and casting require a lot of labor.

Without enough labor, it would be difficult to burst into production capacity before the next orc invasion.

The territory does not have many financial resources now, and its main income is from selling food. A large amount of young and middle-aged labor was used in planting and clearing up wasteland.

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

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

As a result, grain reserves increased and the territory's cash income decreased rapidly.

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

The current leadership of Haaland is extremely short of funds.

Richard and Sophia are also at a loss to deal with this current situation.

Things won't be solved by rushing. In this anxious state, Haaland 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 Wright Fort to buy people.

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

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

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

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

In addition, he transferred half of the squadron's veterans to the mining area to prevent the mining area from being destroyed by Warcraft.

Entering June, although the living conditions in the mining area are still crude, they have finally gotten rid of the embarrassing situation of sleeping in tents.

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

The conditions of the veins are pretty good, and many areas can be mined in the open.

Under the command of Richard, a masonry steel-making furnace was also built.

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

In the 1990s, this small steel plant was shut down for renovation and became an abandoned steel plant.

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

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

Richard understood the structure of the blast furnace fairly well. Although Chenxi Continent did not have conveyor belts or ventilation equipment, Richard had a large number of workers at his disposal and could use large bellows to replace them manually.

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