Three Kingdoms, I'm really not a general!

Chapter 109 Xing Daorong's Blind Spots
"Yun Chang, did you see it just now?"

On the boat, Xing Daorong felt that the scene just now was a good opportunity to warn Guan Yu about the "Jiangdong villain". Without taking a break, he started talking to Guan Yu directly.

But Guan Yu seemed to have misunderstood and just laughed and said, "Zi Yu crossed the river to pick up the beauty. This beautiful story will surely be passed down."

When Da Qiao heard "cross the river to pick up the beauty", her face turned even redder. She just sat on the boat, looking up at Xing Daorong talking to Guan Yu.

But she saw her future husband, or rather her current husband, with a heavy face, saying, "There are many villains in Jiangdong. If I hadn't caught Lu Su, the swordsmen would have rushed over."

"Although he is our ally at the moment, we cannot trust him!"

"Yunchang, you are in Jingzhou. If you don't want to march north, then that's fine. But if you want to march north to Xiangfan, you must pay attention to the land east of the Yangtze River!"

Xing Daorong spoke with great earnestness and sincerity, even at the cost of saying "there are many villains in Jiangdong", something that would offend most Jiangdong people.

Guan Yu's face changed when he heard this, and he snorted coldly, "Last time, my elder brother went to Jiangdong for a marriage alliance, and he was almost left behind. Today, Zi Yu is going there again, and it's the same thing!"

"Zi Yu is right. The people in Jiangdong are all villains! We really need to be careful."

When Xing Daorong heard this, he felt relieved immediately.

It was worth it!
It is really not easy to make such a proud person like Guan Yu say "be careful".

This trip to Jiangling was not in vain!
Although Guan Yu said to be careful, it is hard to say what the situation will be like afterwards, so we should just take it slow.

The people were brought back and the seeds were planted, so Xing Daorong couldn't stay in Jiangling forever.

News came from the blacksmith in West City that the forging of the Mo Dao had made great progress.

Through constant tempering, repeated hammering, and the brainstorming of the blacksmiths, the Mo Dao was finally able to meet the length and hardness that Xing Daorong expected.

Long enough and hard enough, that is the perfect Mo Dao!

Xing Daorong couldn't wait to return to Xicheng, and indeed he saw the finished product he had dreamed of.

He immediately couldn't let it go and said happily: "Great! This is exactly the effect I want!"

"Rewards, everyone will get rewards!"

The blacksmiths were naturally happy to hear Xing Daorong's generous words.

They all cheered "Long live the general", feeling that all their hard work over the past few days had not been in vain.

But it's not all good.

The old general from West City stepped forward hesitantly and said, "General, although it was made, it took us ten days to make it, and we spent countless amounts of ore."

"It's okay to get a handful, but if you get more... it's really difficult."

To put it bluntly, the current level of craftsmanship is not up to par, and even if a Mo Dao is made, it is just like a "luxury product".

According to General Xing's plan to allocate troops, it is far from possible.

But Xing Daorong didn't care at all. Instead, he began to comfort the old blacksmith in front of him.

But he said: "From zero to one is the most difficult. From one to ten, from ten to one hundred, it is much easier in comparison."

"Just study it slowly..."

The old blacksmith listened to Xing Daorong's comforting words and said with a wry smile: "General, you misunderstood. We can do whatever we want with our research, but there is not enough iron ore, so we have no other choice."

After hearing this, Xing Daorong realized that if he wanted to accomplish this task completely, he really needed Liu Bei's support.

Without Liu Bei's support, relying on myself alone... I might be able to form a group, but it is probably impossible to form an army.

After figuring this out, Xing Daorong said to the old blacksmith, "I'll figure out a way to deal with this matter, and you guys continue to study it."

When the old blacksmith heard what Xing Daorong said, he suddenly felt relieved.

He patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, General. We will continue to think of a solution." After receiving the reward, these blacksmiths will naturally work hard, so Xing Daorong was not too worried.

Now he had to explain the pros and cons and convince Liu Bei to support his "Modao Army" plan.

It’s just that Xing Daorong knows all the stories, characters, and plots of the Three Kingdoms, but he knows very little about the economy, people’s livelihood, and resource distribution.

Apparently he didn't realize that, as the blacksmith had said, the problem was the iron ore...

...

In this era, the distribution of iron ore is actually quite concentrated.

The iron mines in the Central Plains are mainly concentrated in the Dabie Mountains and Taihang Mountains, among which the iron mines in Taihang Mountains are the largest in scale and quality.

Therefore, Cao Cao's iron ore resources were the richest among the Three Kingdoms.

After Cao Cao occupied the north, he also began to vigorously restore the smelting industry, gradually using new technologies such as hydraulic blowers to smelt iron, which increased the efficiency three times compared to the original horsepower iron smelting.

The iron mines in the southern mountainous areas are distributed in Nanling and Wuyi Mountain, among which the iron mines in Nanling are also quite famous.

But the problem is that these iron mines are said to be in the south, but in fact they are all in Dongwu.

So in terms of iron ore resources, Wei was rich in iron ore, Wu had a small amount of iron ore, and Shu Han had almost no iron ore, so Zhuge Liang had to plunder the iron ore in Guanzhong of Wei through war in his later years.

However, this also consumed the national strength of Shu. In the late Wei Dynasty, the authority of private iron smelting was tightened and official smelting was required in order to concentrate the iron smelting industry in Guanzhong in large cities and reduce Zhuge Liang's opportunities to plunder iron ore.

However, Xing Daorong really didn't know these stories, so before he finished writing the letter and sent it out, he was stopped by Cui Yan.

...

"General Xing, if you really want to form an army with this kind of weapons, it is absolutely impossible with the current territory of Yizhou and Jingzhou."

Listening to Cui Yan's decisive words, Xing Daorong knew that he must have been wrong somewhere.

This famous scholar from the Eastern Han Dynasty must know more than himself. Xing Daorong was only slightly surprised, and then he quickly asked, "Mr. Cui, can you explain it clearly?"

Seeing that Xing Daorong's face was full of desire and he showed no impatience at all, Cui Yan also explained in detail the current situation of several major iron mines.

Only then did Xing Daorong realize that not only were there no horses in Yizhou and Jingzhou, but there was also a shortage of iron.

No wonder they were always defeated by Cao Wei. They lacked everything in terms of emotions.

Xing Daorong felt a little discouraged when he thought about this.

Without raw materials, even a god can’t do anything.

But the disappointment only lasted for a moment. Xing Daorong quickly realized that he could not do it, but he had Zhuge Liang!

Why think so much? Maybe if you tell Zhuge Liang, he will find a solution.

After comforting himself in this way, Xing Daorong immediately relaxed.

He just said: "I have no idea about this matter at the moment, so I can only leave it to Zhuge Military Advisor to think about it."

Having said this, he collected the letter without any intention of changing it and continued to send it to Chengdu.

Cui Yan saw clearly the change in Xing Daorong's expression.

The hesitation at the beginning and the determination at the end seemed to be just because Xing Daorong was ready to hand over this troublesome matter to Zhuge Liang.

"What kind of person is Zhuge Liang that Xing Daorong trusts him so much?"

Cui Yan couldn't help but have this question in his mind.

As soon as this thought came to his mind, Cui Yan finally couldn't help but decide to go to Chengdu.

(End of this chapter)