Chapter 71 Iron Ore Situation
The next day, the search continued.

As the shield and spear soldiers searched house to house, the roaming enemy troops hiding in various places in Mole Town had nowhere to escape and were caught one by one.

If you had been sensible enough to drop your weapons and surrender, you could have saved your life.

If they try to continue to resist, the soldiers who are eager for merit points will not be polite and will happily send them off.

It was noon and the sun was shining brightly.

The battles on both sides of Mole Town were officially declared over, and the chaos everywhere gradually subsided.

Viscount Marcia and the border guards have already left.

After Rhodes took control of Mole Town, he followed the usual practice and asked his soldiers to check their situation.

The officials who had helped Billad to commit crimes were purged and hanged in the square in the center of the town.

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

"The previous Lord Billard betrayed the Principality and has been put on trial. I am your new Lord Rod Rossdale, and I will take over the rule of this town from now on."

Rhodes stood on the platform and announced to the townspeople who were approaching.

After hearing his words, the residents looked at the soldiers around them and naturally knelt down on the ground.
Rhodes glanced at the residents and found nothing unexpected.

The residents chose to accept the arrival of the new lord calmly and expressed their submission without any objection.

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

The replacement and rotation of lords never had anything to do with the serfs' ideas.

What's more, the rule of the former lord Billad was cruel and unpopular, and few residents would miss the past.

After the ceremony of the new lord's appointment, Rhodes did not waste time and began to lead his men to quickly understand the production situation of the town.

The production records, transactions, the number of blacksmiths and apprentices, etc. related to the mining area were investigated one by one.

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

Rhodes put down the scroll, somewhat confused.

Is this amount a little less?
But after further investigation, he soon understood.

The price of pig iron in the Principality market varies according to quality, ranging from 20 to 50 copper coins per pound.
The quality of pig iron in Moletown is poor, and the average price is only 22 copper coins.

All in all, Moletown can produce 160 gold coins of pig iron per month.

But 30% of it is the purchase cost of coal, and 20% needs to be paid as taxes to the principality.

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

The income is too bad.

From the records, Rhodes could tell that Billard’s focus in recent years had been entirely on smuggling.

Mining and ironworking are time-consuming and laborious, and are incomparable to grain smuggling.

The iron mine is just a waste of time. Even if the profit is not much, people have to work there.

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

The northern barbarians have weapons supplies from the Dwarf Court, and the Northern Frost Principality has the support of the dwarves in nearby Ironforge.

Faced with fierce market competition, the iron ore industry in Mole Town could not develop.

Many miners were transferred to transport goods, and due to insufficient numbers, a large amount of open-pit iron ore on the surface of the mines has not yet been mined.

For Rhodes, this is actually good news.

The situation here has been transmitted to Hekou Town through ravens.

The local artisan guild is making intensive plans and preparations.

Craftsmen who have mastered blast furnace technology will rush here and transform the mining area with the help of the construction team that follows.

In addition, Rhodes focused on the situation of the blacksmith.

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

Five of them have reached the level of weapon craftsmen.

Take the standard cavalry armor of 4 gold coins as an example.

A weaponsmith can forge such a set of plate armor in one to two months. With the high-quality pig iron smelted in the blast furnace, Rhodes estimated that the time spent can be controlled within one month.

The main cost lies in the splicing of various small pieces of full-coverage plate armor, which has strict size requirements.

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

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

The shape is a wrought iron half-body armor, a breastplate forged from a large piece of iron plate, and a helmet, arm armor and leg armor.

There is no need for complicated hand armor and shin guards, etc., and ordinary blacksmiths with special skills can also process and forge them.

Based on the blacksmith situation in Mole Town, it is combined with blast furnace and coke smelting.

Rhodes initially estimated that five sets of cavalry armor could be produced here every month, plus more than one hundred sets of infantry heavy armor.

This was without a hydraulic forging hammer, and he felt a little regretful.

At this time, the Hanshui River near Hekou Town had already frozen.

According to Adrich, the rivers in the north froze unusually early this year.

The river surface would not freeze completely until December in previous years, but this year, the thickness of the ice layer on the river reached half a meter just as November began.

If the Hanshui River is still flowing, a hydraulic forging hammer can be used to hammer out the iron blocks into blanks.

The blanks are handed over to blacksmiths for fine manual forging, and the production speed of armor can be increased by four or five times.

Of course, Rhodes was just a little regretful in his heart, as his current gains were enough to satisfy him.

Next, production will proceed as planned, taking only two months.

He can transform the cavalry of the First Guard Battalion into plate cavalry.

The shield and spear soldiers of the Second Iron Wall Battalion became heavy armored infantry, which enhanced the soldiers' combat effectiveness in all aspects.

The Rosa shield and spear formation formed by two hundred heavily armored infantrymen will become a real iron wall on the battlefield.

Even if the cavalry regiment led by the Extreme Knight charged head-on at this level of infantry formation, the final result would be death!
In future development, Mole Town will focus on building equipment for the military.

To do this, Rhodes needs to calculate the cost.

Iron ore costs nothing, but the coal needed for smelting costs about 60 gold coins per month.

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

They also need to bear the food and salary consumption of the residents.

Especially in the blacksmith industry, the apprentice's daily salary is 15 copper coins, the ordinary blacksmith's daily salary is 30 copper coins, and the weapon craftsman's daily salary is 1 silver coin.

The monthly salary for the blacksmith industry 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 both perform heavy labor. Calculated at two pounds per day, the monthly food consumption is 60 gold coins.

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

Rod made a note on paper.

"I estimate that this place can produce 80,000 pounds of pig iron for me every month, of which 10,000 pounds will be made into five sets of cavalry armor and 100 sets of infantry heavy armor by the blacksmiths."

"There are 300 pounds of pig iron left, worth about gold coins. We can sell it directly to the caravan. We can also use it to train blacksmith apprentices and process it into tools such as shovels and axes, or ordinary weapons such as swords and spears and then sell them."

Record the future development of Mole Town one by one, and gradually form a clearer plan.

After finishing the recording, Rhodes put down the quill, stretched his body and felt a lot more relaxed.

The addition of Mole Town brought a leap forward in the development plan of his territory.

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

Responsible for developing special things such as the Magic Field, and trying not to let outsiders know about it.

Hekou Town will serve as a commercial town open to the outside world, responsible for the internal and external transportation of materials and goods in the territory.

Mole Town will become a foundry town, responsible for the armament of the army and the replenishment of territory iron machinery.

(End of this chapter)