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

Chapter 87 Coal and Iron

Today marks the 155th day since Roman arrived in Sig.

With heavy, weary steps, he led his tired, exhausted horse back to Origin Manor.

He was clean-cut and handsome when he set off, like he was going on a picnic, but he came back looking like a beggar.

He was covered in sweat and filth, and his clothes were torn into strips. Fortunately, he had applied a lot of mosquito-repellent plant liquid to his body, otherwise the situation would have been much worse.

The manor's male servants rushed over under the scorching sun.

Roman waved for them to lead the horse to a shady spot to cool it off and give it cool tea and salt water.

Horses don't dissipate heat as well as humans, so it's been tough on it these past few days.

Although Roman had been keeping a close eye on its condition, the long journey had left it exhausted, and if it didn't rest soon, it was likely to break down.

I spent a week away from home struggling every day.

The extremely high-pressure, sweltering environment and the terrible physiological feedback made Roman want to give up at every moment.

But he persevered.

Upon returning to the manor, the pressure suddenly eased, and my entire frame seemed to fall apart.

Roman was being served by the maids, who poured cool well water over him and carefully wiped away the dirt and sweat from his body with towels, tidying his messy long hair.

After a short while of treatment, Roman was completely revived, and his listless spirit was lifted again.

He changed into new clothes and hurried to the cafeteria.

On the table were strawberry yogurt, nut pastries, and a jar of sweet jam—perfect for spreading on soft white bread.

A large bowl of vegetable salad made with cabbage, onions, green peppers, tomatoes, lemon juice, and maltose.

The beverage is honeysuckle herbal tea, made by submerging sealed wooden barrels in the well of the Origin Manor and soaking them for a whole day and night, resulting in a refreshing and delicious drink.

Roman was starving.

On the third day, he ran out of food and had to rely on hunting and gathering to replenish his physiological needs.

It has to be said that watching the constantly lit-up areas on the [Life Story] interface gave Roman a sense of inspiration.

This is partly to say that we were able to persevere.

Green and Aaron were not at Origin Manor; they were at the training ground, sweating it out with over a hundred guards.

Now, only Gevil and Seth are allowed to sit at the table. Gevil looked at Roman, whose skin, which was originally wheat-colored and looked extremely healthy, was now bronze. He had lost his youthful vigor and gained a tough guy look, and his three-dimensional features appeared even more rugged.

Roman must have suffered a lot, Gweil thought, as she poured him a glass of cool tea.

Roman picked it up and drank it all in one gulp, then turned to Seth and said, "I found an iron mine, but it's far from here."

Seth stood tall and straight, his brows furrowed with seriousness, and deep nasolabial folds etched between his noses. He was originally supposed to be at the docks, but upon learning of Roman's return, he rushed back immediately, taking the news Roman brought very seriously.

This indicates the next direction for the development of Sige Town.

Upon hearing this, his serious expression turned solemn.

"how far?"

Roman wiped his mouth: "It's very far, a hundred kilometers!"

During his trip, he surveyed more than ten mineral veins, most of which were stone ore deposits that were not currently worth mining. There were also two coal mines and two iron mines.

The first iron ore he found was also unsuitable for mining, so he had to continue searching.

The second iron ore vein has been found, but judging from the resource quantity icon, it is only a small vein and is quite far away.

They traveled thirty kilometers along the flat salt road, and then built a road to the due north, which was tens of kilometers long in a straight line. Due to the terrain, they had to take a detour, and the final length was mostly around one hundred kilometers.

The advantage, however, was that the small iron mine was an open-pit rich mine with a high iron content, at least 50%. The route had been specially drawn by Roman; all that was needed was to fork the road again midway and travel several dozen kilometers to reach another coal mine.

In this way, we have both coal and iron.

As Seth listened to Roman explain the details of the iron and coal mines, his brow grew increasingly serious.

"We don't have enough manpower."

“I know.” Roman nodded.

The hot weather is also a problem.

Overworking can kill people. It's not worth it for him either.

However, iron ore mining was necessary, and the iron ingots purchased alone could not meet Roman's demand for steel.

During this period, thanks to the promotion by merchants from Daken and Sig Town, as well as preferential commercial taxes, Sig Town's commerce has experienced limited development.

However, commercial transactions require a cyclical process.

Merchants were considered frequent if they made a trip once every month or two. The main reason was that the markets needed time to process the goods brought by the merchants.

The town of Sige is in a bad geographical location. Without carving through the mountains, the only way to transport goods is by water, not by land.

Even if salt could be produced, it would be impossible for a large number of merchants to flock there in a short period of time—most merchants have fixed trade routes and stable sources and sales channels for goods, rather than buying and selling everywhere like headless flies—these can only be considered wandering merchants.

Only a few ambitious businessmen who are always looking for business opportunities dare to take risks and try various things in order to increase their profits.

If a businessman reveals where he buys his raw materials, it will most likely only attract competition from his peers, which will not benefit him personally.

Moreover, exposing something doesn't mean someone will immediately come knocking; you need to verify its authenticity.

This is easy to understand. If someone shouted at Pearl Harbor that Salt Town produces salt, eight out of ten merchants would not turn around, and the remaining two would wonder where this godforsaken place, Salt Town, was.

This remote town cannot be found on the map of the Black Iron King.

There's no other reason than the high cost of trial and error.

With so much information being hard to distinguish between true and false, and faced with the choice between high-risk, high-return opportunities and stable, low-return ones, most people would choose the latter.

Roman asked Morey to buy slaves, but more than a month has passed since Morey left and he still hasn't returned.

This forced Roman to prepare for the worst.

He believes Morey may also have encountered some difficulties.

This wasn't a fatal problem; Roman had always only trusted himself and not others.

All his plans are based on the resources he currently has, and they are subject to change at any time.

It would be ridiculous to pin all the hopes for population growth in Sig Town on the slave ships of merchants.

When problems arise, overcome them; there's nothing to complain about.

Roman said to Seth, "It's okay if we don't have enough manpower. Let them take their time. In the summer, they only need to work seven hours a day, from noon until sunset. Now that we have axes and machetes, their logging and road-building speed will also increase."

Roman's demands are not high.

The labor force in Sigge Town can level 100 kilometers of road within two months.

In the autumn, he will be able to build villages there, deploy manpower, construct resettlement houses, relocate people to settle down, and carry out mining operations for coal and iron ore.

Roman crossed his arms and placed them on the table.

He frowned, lost in thought for a moment.

Then, Roman looked up at Seth and said, "I want to forge shields and weapons for 400 warriors before winter ends."

(End of this chapter)