my age of magic

Chapter 172 Chapter 172
The Beigou Valley mining site is an open-pit iron mine, and the entire iron mine is located at the northernmost end of the Beigou Valley.The catastrophe of the orc tribe has lasted since last fall and still hasn't improved.Everyone is looking forward to the spring hunting, when the hunters can bring back enough prey from the depths of the wilderness.However, in such a depressed environment, Horsens, the owner of the mining field in Beigou Valley, could not tell.

A large number of refined iron ingots brought in from the dwarf kingdom have greatly impacted the original mining industry on the plateau. Although it has largely improved the sophistication of the ironware of the orc tribes, countless metallurgical workshops have suffered under the impact of foreign refined iron ingots. It closed down, but the Beigougu Quarry is an exception. There is an iron-rich mine here, and it is a very rare open-pit mine. This inherent advantage has largely minimized the mining cost. Therefore, the Beigougu Quarry It is one of the few orc tribes in the western wilderness that can survive mining and metallurgy.

However, the catastrophic famine not long ago made the mining field even worse. During this period, the owner of Horsens made a very bold decision. He proposed to the Elders of Gluding Town An application for buying slaves is to buy the gray dwarf prisoners of war who survived the war as slaves and return them to the mine as coolies.

At the time, this was a move that caused a great sensation to the Gludin Presbyterian Council, and was supported by the Blood Wolf Clan in Gludin Town. A total of nearly a thousand gray dwarf prisoners of war were sold to Horsens as slaves.Soon after, the catastrophe spread to the entire orc tribe. As a result, many tribes gave up their plans to purchase ironware. It was under such a premise that Horsens' mine gradually declined.

The long winter has finally come to an end. The place is next to the Death Swamp. Hawkins can barely buy some sweet potatoes to survive in the winter. When the whole catastrophe comes, the orc tribe on the edge of the Death Swamp is considered the happiest. In that swamp full of unknown dangers, a large number of cheap sweet potatoes are buried, as long as the orcs are diligent enough, they will not starve to death.

It's just that this kind of good thing turned into a nightmare after the arrival of spring.The strongest wave of corpses in ten years erupted in the swamp of death. The tide of corpses swept across the edge of the swamp of death. Originally, every tribe sent the best hunters to the depths of the wasteland to hunt the magic antelope. , The tide of corpses is coming.

These tribes on the edge of the swamp were originally experienced in fighting these undead creatures.However, the huge group of corpses caused many tribes to join forces to wipe out the zombies. The smaller tribes were directly occupied and forced to leave the edge of the swamp. For example, the Raitu tribe was forced to migrate. one.

For the Beigou Valley quarry, under the invasion of corpses, the survival of all tribes on the edge of the swamp is in crisis, and Horsens has no source of food. There are more than 300 strong orcs and more than 500 ashes in the quarry. The dwarven slaves consumed a huge amount of food every day. For this reason, Horsens almost spent all his money and transported all the boxes of magic iron ore accumulated before to Gludin Town to sell them in exchange for a large amount of black flour.

Soon the scope of the zombie tide spread to the surrounding area of ​​the quarry, and what was even more serious was that the only way to Gludin Town was full of swamp zombies. These zombies blocked the road from the Beigou Valley quarry to Gludin Although there are nearly [-] strong orcs in the Hawkins quarry, a large part of the orcs have to take care of [-] duergars. It is no problem to guard the quarry from being captured by the tide of corpses, but I want to To open up the channel from the mining site to Gludin, but unable to do so.

Before Kurz led the Raitu tribe to the Beigou Valley quarry, Horsens had sent three batches of orcs into the Yelian Mountains to find something to eat, and the coke in the quarry had run out, and the metallurgical workshop had completely shut down. .It is also the task of these orc teams to enter Yelian Mountain to cut trees and make coke, but these orc teams have not returned yet.

Recently, some gray dwarf slaves have begun to fall ill and die one after another because they have been in a state of extreme weakness for a long time.

When Horsens heard that Kurtz led the orc female warriors to clean up the swamp zombies and came from Gludin.And the purpose of Kuz's visit this time is to disperse the tide of corpses at the edge of the swamp, and to build a new home for the Raitu tribe in Drowned Park.The purpose of coming to the Beigou Valley Quarry is to customize ten large iron pots and a set of special tools.

Sitting on the wooden box, Horsens finally saw a glimmer of hope in the quarry, and proposed that before Kurz regained the drowned berth, he could put the old and young in the tribe in the quarry, and the quarry could guarantee their safety. , Let Kurz take the beast female warrior to wipe out the zombies without any worries.But one thing is that the current situation is special, and food must be prepared by yourself, because the mining site has run out of food.

Kuz and I both looked at each other with pleasant surprises, and communicated with our eyes: This trip to Beigou Valley is really the right time. It should be absolutely safe to settle these tribes, old and young, who have no fighting ability here. There will be problems.The death scythe incident has made Kurz and I clearly realize the horror of undead creatures. For the old and young orcs in these tribes, there is really no need to follow our team every day in fear. , if they want to kill a few orcs in the dark, we have no ability to stop them.

"If all the warriors want to go to Drowning Po to clear up the swamp zombies there, I have a heartfelt request." Horsens said while sitting on the wooden box. At this time, his eyes looked a little unnaturally at the center of the cave. In the past, Kurtz's maid, Asakusa, was squatting on the ground wearing a linen robe, set up an iron pot, and casually spread the scroll of the gathering fire technique in her arms under the pot, and the raging flames suddenly burst out from under the pot come out.

During this period of time, the beast girls have long been accustomed to using magic scrolls, and they are extremely proficient in using them.Horsens probably isn't used to our extravagance!
Kurz coughed lightly, and then asked calmly: "If there is anything the owner of Horsens needs to say, as long as our Raitu tribe can do it, it will not be delayed. It can temporarily settle the old and young in the tribe. Here, we are very grateful for the friendship of the owners of Horsens, and the Raitu tribe knows how to be grateful."

Soon Horsens noticed that everyone was looking at him, looked away a little embarrassed, and said to Kurtz: "I want to send a team to follow the leader of Kurtz into the drowning berth, and now all the eatables in the quarry I have eaten all the food, and I thought that if I could follow your tribal warriors into the drowned berth, maybe I could dig some sweet potatoes in the swamp and bring them back."

"As a reward for this, I gave the ten large iron pots to Chief Kurtz!" Horsens added at last.

Soon Kurz agreed bluntly, and then invited Horsens to have a meal in the cave together. Originally, Horsens refused no matter what.Originally!As the host, it would be embarrassing for Horsens not to entertain Kurtz well, and it would be even more embarrassing for Kurtz to invite him to dinner at this time.

But soon Kurz noticed Horsens' embarrassment, so he said: "It's not just about eating, our brothers have other things to discuss with the host!"

It was only at this time that Horsens noticed me who had been sitting next to Kurtz, but at this time the water in the soup pot in the middle of the cave had already boiled, and Asakusa actually threw a piece of grilled sausage into it, and put it away. Some black flour was boiled into a large pot of thick porridge, and some meat floss was added at the end, and all the sweet potatoes brought by Horsens were poured into the pot, and my head grew a few times in an instant.

I have always been very disgusted with Asakusa's cooking skills. This girl is good in everything. She looks above average, but her figure is excellent. I can accept her silent personality. I am used to Leng's poker face, but for her I am absolutely terrified of my cooking skills. I really don’t know how Kurtz survived this period of time. Seeing the big pot of porridge like pig food in the middle of the cave, I didn’t even have the courage to taste a bite.

Instead, the orcs in the quarry beside Horsens stared at the iron pot with the smell of meat, and kept swallowing their saliva.

"It's just in time, so let's ask the owner to make some food. We still have black flour. Although we don't carry much, it's still enough to eat. We can give some to the owner. Our brothers also want to ask the owner to help make some I’ll let Jia tell you about it later.” Kuz was the first to take a large wooden bowl that Asakusa handed over, and when I saw the bowl full of black batter, my face turned green.

I quickly stood up and said to Kurtz: "I'll get the blueprint!"

Without waiting for Kurtz to reply, he ran out of the cave in a hurry.After deliberately dawdling for a long time, I returned to Kuz with a roll of parchment. Sure enough, this horrible dark meal was over. Glad to have escaped this.

At this time, the orcs around Horsens seemed to be sitting on the sidelines and couldn't even speak, and they didn't dare to bend down while licking their stomachs. Horsens was yelling at these orcs angrily, seeing me walk in Also quite embarrassed.

Kurz hurriedly said to Horsens: "Jia has brought back the drawings, so let's talk about our ideas with Horsens' owner first!"

Horsens said with some embarrassment: "Although there are some gray dwarf forging craftsmen in our workshop, they are not willing to work with their real skills. These stubborn dwarves would rather go to the mine to dig stones than Iron is smelted in the workshop. At present, it is not possible to carve patterns on iron in the workshop!"

At this time, I have unfolded the drawings to show the sieve-like utensils drawn inside. It roughly looks like a large iron pot below, with an iron bracket on top of the iron bracket, and a round funnel hanging on the iron bracket. The bottom part is full of small round holes, and there is a funnel with flat holes on the side.In fact, the tools for making vermicelli are very simple, I just want to customize a large set.Making vermicelli is very simple, as long as the sweet potato is crushed, the starch slurry is filtered out, and the starch slurry is boiled into a paste and put into the funnel. The starch paste flows into the hot water pot below in strips along the holes of the funnel. Take out these vermicelli and dry them in the sun, that's all.

The reason for making vermicelli is because the people of the Green Empire have always believed that sweet potatoes are food for slaves. This concept is deeply rooted in everyone's heart and it is difficult to change.But there are a lot of sweet potatoes growing on the Pai Plateau, and the tribal orcs in some places can only grow this simple crop. In addition, there are large wild sweet potatoes growing naturally on the edge of the dead swamp. These resources are all available. But it is very difficult to turn these sweet potatoes into golden coins.

I was a bit hungry at first, and in those days when I was freezing in the mountains of New Siakis, I missed the warm potato flour for a while.I remember that in my previous life, I found a small shop at random and called it a casserole. Inside it was a pot of potato flour cooked in a prepared broth. The owner would put some vegetables, seaweed, fish balls, quail eggs, and sliced ​​luncheon meat in it. If you like spicy food, you can add a spoonful of red chili peppers. The deliciousness makes me unforgettable.

I haven't heard of potatoes in this world, but I discovered sweet potatoes. Although they are hard to eat when boiled, they are very astringent. If you eat too much, you will be numb and speechless.But after the beating, the starch is filtered out, and the vermicelli made into vermicelli will not have the astringent taste of the potato itself, and I found that the Green Empire people in the caravan of the butler of Leippas especially love these vermicelli.

In this way, Kurtz and I came up with the idea of ​​making vermicelli.It is precisely in order to realize this idea that we come to Drowning Park.

"This is not difficult! It will be made soon." Horsens took a look at the blueprint I drew. He originally thought that the patterns drawn on the parchment were some magical patterns or the like, but he was surprised. ground cauldron.Although I don't understand the function of this pot, I know that it is not difficult to make.

I unfolded the second picture, which actually shows a round oil drum with a capacity of about [-] liters. The only difficulty is to have a seal and a buckle cover, and this kind of oil drum should be made as light and thin as possible.

Seeing the round oil drum, Horsens hesitated and didn't speak for a while.

Kuz said directly: "It doesn't matter if you can't do this, it should be possible to do it in Gludin's blacksmith workshop!"

Horsens raised his eyebrows, hesitated before saying, "It's not that our workshop can't make it, on the contrary, I've done this before."

Kuz and I looked at each other in surprise, and said to ourselves: Could it be that some orcs thought of using this method to pack corpses in fire oil before?

"This barrel is used to hold water!" Horsens said next, "The original idea was to use it to replace the water bag to hold water, just like clay pots, this thing is more convenient than clay pots, you can It can be burned on the fire. However, after making it, we found that there is a very serious problem, that is, these iron bars will rust, as long as they are filled with water, the bucket will rust and leak after a short time. I also thought about using raw lacquer to prevent rust, but in that case, the bucket is no different from a wooden barrel and clay pot, but it smells like lacquer."

Hearing what Horsens said, we know that he is a very smart businessman, but he was a bit unlucky and didn't come up with a way to prevent rust. Otherwise, I guess Horsens' iron barrels should have spread all over the Pai Plateau Every corner is gone.

Kurz quickly asked: "How much does it cost to build a barrel like this?"

"180 copper coins each!" Horsens blurted out without thinking. It seems that what he said was right, he must have done it.

Kurz and I exchanged glances, and wanted to discuss how many oil barrels needed to be customized when we first started making corpse fire oil.

Seeing that the two of us were silent, Horsens thought we were too expensive, so he explained: "This iron bucket needs to be made of good mild steel. It takes at least half a day for a blacksmith to knock one piece..."

"I want to make five hundred!" Kurz stretched out his fingers and said.

"Eh? What..." Horsens was stunned for a moment, and asked in bewilderment.

I added on the side: "He meant to order five hundred of these iron buckets, but you must remember to match the lid. There are also these tools, materials and small parts. I don't know if you have any..."

Afterwards, I handed a list of materials to the owner of Horsens. There were various things in it, including nails, steel bars, shovels, hoes, wheelbarrows, hinges, I-beams, etc., along with the thick stack of drawings. The owner of Horsens was dizzy. Many of these things had never been done before, so it was difficult to price them. The owner of Horsens frowned.

In the end, Horsens really had no way to answer, so he tentatively asked, "Do you want to build a castle?"

"We plan to rebuild the Raitu tribe. Since we are rebuilding, we should build it stronger." I replied, seeing Horsens hesitated, thinking that he was worried about money, so I untied the money bag He opened his mouth, revealing the yellow and orange gold coins inside, and said with a smile: "We have brought enough gold coins."

Horsens waved his hands again and again, and said with some embarrassment: "If it is to rebuild the tribal manor, I actually have a more affordable way!"

We both stared at Horsens curiously. The owner of the quarry who was in a dilemma finally hesitated for a long time before saying: "If you want to build houses, you must need a lot of labor. Why don't you buy some strong slaves to do such hard work?" , I have a group of duergar slaves idle here. They are very good at building masonry structures. Of course, they are better at mining and forging. If you buy a group of such slaves and go back, you only need to buy iron ore from me stone……"

Thus, the transaction list with Horsens became [-] gray dwarf slaves, the main catalyst blue alum crystal sand needed for refining corpse fire oil, [-] oil barrels, and a set of pots for making vermicelli. .

Each strong gray dwarf slave was probably sold for more than one gold coin in the trading market in Gludin Town, and the value of a gray dwarf slave with forging skills was even higher, worth at least three gold coins.Horsens was probably disheartened. In addition, the quarry was so sluggish that he thought of selling these gray dwarf slaves very early on.But in such a time of great famine, who would be willing to buy it?
Horsens really can't afford to feed these gray dwarf slaves who can eat and sleep. Even if they don't dig in the well, they still have to eat at least one cart of sweet potatoes every day, but now the orcs in the quarry are all Without sweet potatoes, these gray dwarves have naturally been out of food for several days.

If Horsens couldn't figure out a way to solve the food problem, these gray dwarves would starve to death in the work shed, which was one of the main reasons why Horsens decided to sell the gray dwarf slaves.Another reason is that the mining field is depressed, and the ore in the open field area of ​​the mining field has piled up into mountains.

Kuz and I want to buy some gray dwarf slaves. Now the Raitu tribe is basically composed of orc girls and children. Even if the orc girls in the tribe are physically strong, it is impossible to replace the strong men and rebuild Raitu. Horde needs a lot of manpower and material resources, it is a good idea to buy some slaves.

Finally talking about the price of the slave, Horsens stretched out one hand and spread five fingers.

"Ten pieces of silver, one!"

This was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The cheap price made Kurtz finally decide to buy these slaves.

In addition, Horsens agreed to arrange for the orcs in the mine to send these gray dwarf slaves to the drowned berth, and also gave Kurz some building materials for free, such as the lean iron ore on the roadside of the quarry.Of course, on the way to escort the gray dwarf slaves to drowning, we need to be responsible for the food of the orcs in the mine. I have to say that Horsens is really a very calculating businessman.

(End of this chapter)