Taiheiki

Chapter 101 Ironmaking
Upon Emperor He's accession to the throne (88 AD), the iron officials were abolished, but they continued to levy taxes on smelting. But private iron smelting was one thing; secretly gathering people to mine ore and smelt iron, as Wei Cong did, in the wilderness was another. Although Yuan Tian was still a fugitive, his family background meant he couldn't afford to be a rebel against the empire. So he began meticulously counting the amount of iron ore Wei Cong received each day, estimating the amount of pig iron he could produce from smelting. He was astounded by the figures he came up with.

"Each ship can produce 30 dan of ore every day (a dan in the Han Dynasty was about kg)! He has four ships, so he can get dan of ore! If we calculate that one-quarter of the iron is produced, that means he can get dan of iron every day! This, this is too much!"

Obviously, even if Wei Cong's hundreds of men were covered in iron, how much could they use? This much iron was definitely not for their own use! With so much extra iron all of a sudden, no matter what it was used for, it would have a huge impact on the empire's rule over the local area. The thought of this made Yuan Tian feel uneasy.

"I must, I must find a way to find out the details of Wei Cong! Even if it costs my life!" Yuan Tian secretly made up his mind.

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"Here, here, yes, we need to build a dam, connect it to the shore, hold back the water, and form a small reservoir. The outlet will be used to build multiple water wheels, which can be used to blow air into the iron furnace or power hydraulic forging hammers!" Wei Cong stood on the dam, pointing to the small sandbar more than 20 steps away. "Also, building a warehouse? Forget it. We don't know how high the water level will be in the summer. What if it floods? The furnace will be built here, yes, on a higher ground. First, store more bricks, charcoal, and ore. Once the craftsmen from Jiangling arrive, we can start!"

On the third day after entering Pojiang River, Wei Cong realized that his plan to directly develop Dexing Copper Mine was a bit unreliable. The reason was simple: the development level on both sides of the river was too low: there were endless wilderness on both sides of the river, and the rising mountains in the distance were covered with virgin forests. It was not possible to see a village even if you walked more than ten miles on the river, and the plains and mountains farther away from the river were even less populated.

If I were to simply go ahead and develop the copper mine, even if God helped me find ore in the mountains right away (which was highly unlikely), clearing the surface vegetation from the mining area, building roads, and providing food and shelter for the miners wouldn't be something my mere few hundred men could handle. To put it in an extreme way, even axes for felling trees and clearing the mountain would have to be shipped from Yuhan County. This would be a daunting task. Therefore, my first step should be to establish a settlement near the copper mine. Ideally, this settlement could produce most of the tools and supplies needed for development (at least ironware). Only then could I consider developing the mine.

Iron ore deposits in Jiangxi Province are widely distributed, especially small-scale mines, which are ubiquitous, with one or two in almost every county. However, like the copper mines, these mines are mostly covered by dense forests, requiring extensive preliminary work to develop. Just logging and clearing roads would be exhausting for Wei Cong.

Fortunately, there's another way—iron sand deposits at the riverbed. Rivers like the Poyang, originating from the mountains, carry large quantities of sand and gravel, including abundant iron ore. Due to its weight, this iron ore gradually sinks to the riverbed in areas with gentle currents, while the lighter sediment is washed away by the current, leaving the heavier iron ore behind. After millions of years of sedimentation, a thick layer of iron ore has formed among the sand and gravel at the riverbed. Modern society can directly extract the sediment from the riverbed using dredging vessels and then use magnets to extract large quantities of high-quality iron ore. (During the peak of infrastructure construction in recent years, similar methods of obtaining iron ore were used in many places, but due to their destructive effects on the riverbed, they were later banned. Interested parties can look up "lugging iron bars" for this purpose.)

Wei Cong didn't have a sand dredging vessel, but he had acquired a large number of magnets in E County, which he placed in the Yuhuang's hold as ballast. He chose a particularly spacious section of the river where the current suddenly slowed from turbulent to gentle (this would allow for more iron ore to settle at the bottom of the river and make it easier to build a reservoir and hydraulic machinery). He then constructed a dozen wooden frames shaped like plows, fixed magnets to their bases, and lowered them into the river.

Then let the boat on the water slowly row, and the wooden frame on the bottom of the water will plow the thick sand layer on the riverbed like plowing a field. The iron ore with high iron content will be attracted to the magnet. Every once in a while, pull the wooden frame back to the surface of the water, sweep off the ore on it, and then put it back into the river to repeat the above operation. You can easily obtain high-quality iron ore. Although the efficiency cannot be compared with that of a sand-dredging ship, it is still much easier than mining in the mountains.

With the iron ore source solved, the next problem was fuel. Coke was the best, of course. Coal mines were easy to find, but like copper mines, they faced the same challenges: clearing vegetation, building roads, and the prohibitively high logistical costs, along with a shortage of manpower. Fortunately, charcoal was readily available, and as far as the eye could see, there was boundless forest, enough to burn until Wei Cong's great-grandchildren had to worry about environmental protection. The only remaining issues were fluxing agents like limestone and slag removers, which weren't difficult to find. Large expanses of limestone lay along the riverbanks, so we could just dig some up and burn it.

Finally, it is a matter of choosing the right technical route: the backward technology of block smelting must be eliminated, and blast furnaces and hydraulic blowers should be used directly to raise the furnace temperature, so that sufficient cheap pig iron can be obtained. Pig iron can be turned into wrought iron using a charcoal refining furnace, and armor plates can be first rolled into thin sheets with wrought iron, and then the surface is carburized and quenched and tempered, so that they can be manufactured cheaply in large quantities.

Crucible steel could be used for high-quality weapons and lathe tools. This technological improvement would be sufficient until he could find a coal mine to power a coke blast furnace. Fortunately, he had already trained a group of craftsmen in Jiangling. He would only need to provide technical guidance and not handle everything himself, which would be exhausting!
"Lang Jun!"

"Oh, it's Arden! What's the matter?" Wei Cong turned around and saw Diwu Deng with a ferocious look on his face and a bloody smell on his body.

"Someone's coming forward!" Diwu Deng lowered his voice, "A guy couldn't stand it anymore, so he contacted seven or eight people and tried to steal a boat and escape!"

"Escape?" Wei Cong was stunned when he heard this. He turned around and looked at the river surface. He was speechless for a long time. Diwu Deng could no longer wait and asked, "Excuse me, sir, how should we deal with these people?"

"Ah!" Wei Cong sighed. "These people are so impatient. If they had waited a few more months until the blast furnace was operational, I'd have some extra money and I wouldn't have treated them unfairly. They wouldn't have thought of running away!"

"They're just unlucky!" Diwu Deng snorted coldly. "You're supposed to have treated them well. They're a bunch of captured bandits. They didn't use any corporal punishment, and they're well fed and well provided. What else do they want? They're still not satisfied. They deserve to die!"

"Ah!" Wei Cong shook his head. "Everyone is very important to us right now. Forget it. The mastermind will be beheaded in public, and the rest will be lashed with twenty lashes and paraded in front of the camp for a day!"

"Sir, only twenty lashes, isn't that too light?" Diwu Deng said anxiously upon hearing this. "Deserting is a serious crime, not to mention planning to rob a ship. Twenty lashes for these idiots is like scratching an itch! Twenty military sticks are the minimum!"

"Military stick? That guy is useless. He won't recover without a few months of care. I don't keep idle people here!" Wei Cong snorted coldly: "In the final analysis, if we want soldiers to stay, the most important thing is to give them hope, not harsh punishments! That thing can only scare people temporarily! It won't last forever!"

"Yes!"

Perhaps because he felt his tone was too harsh, Wei Cong stopped Diwu Deng and said, "These are difficult times. You guys are my elders, so you have to bear more responsibilities in everything you do!"

Five days later, the ship from Jiangling that Wei Cong had long awaited finally arrived. On board were more than fifty artisans from Zhangjiawu Fort and their tools, as well as salt, sauce, and grain. Furthermore, Huang Ping, the escort, brought surprisingly good news.

"My dear, three days before I set out, Madam Jing gave birth to a son. Both mother and child are safe! This is the gift bag and letter Madam Jing asked me to bring!"

"Congratulations, my dear!"

"It is a great joy that my dear husband has a son!"

"Yes, my lord has an heir. As retainers, we now have someone to rely on. This is truly a matter of great joy!"

"Yes, with an heir, your family business will be as solid as Mount Tai, and we can rest assured!"

Before Wei Cong could recover from his shock, his subordinates rushed over to congratulate him. For them, their own futures, and even those of their descendants, were closely tied to the success or failure of this small group. If Wei Cong had a son, it meant that even if Wei Cong died, they could still support his young son and maintain the group, rather than collapse and become a lost cause. Their joy at Wei Cong having a son was genuine!
"Okay, okay!" Wei Cong took a deep breath, suppressing the complex emotions of new fatherhood. He took the brocade pouch and letter from Huang Ping. He opened the letter. Inside, Ah Jing hadn't described her birth process much, just a few brief mentions. She primarily inquired about Wei Cong's well-being and urged her husband to take care of himself, avoid excessive fatigue, and be moderate with his food and expenses. At the end of the letter, she mentioned that the brocade pouch contained a lock of the baby's hair, as well as her own hair. Finally, she asked Wei Cong to name the child. Seeing this, Wei Cong opened the brocade pouch and, as expected, found two separate locks of hair, each tied with silk thread. The soft, slightly yellowish strand was likely the baby's hair, while the jet-black, strong strand was Ah Jing's.

"What a shame I don't have a camera, otherwise I could have seen what the child looks like!" Wei Cong thought to himself. He carefully put the hair back into the brocade pouch, took out a gold chain and hung it around his neck. He asked Huang Ping, "Did your journey go smoothly? Did anything big happen in Jiangling?"

"Everything went smoothly on the way!" Huang Ping said with a smile. "But something big happened in Jiangling. Feng Cheqi led his troops across the river on the fifth day of last month!"

"Yeah!" Wei Cong nodded. He wasn't surprised by Feng Gun's crossing of the river. After all, Feng Gun had originally sent him to lead the troops to relieve the siege of Baqiu in order to open up a passage for the Han navy to enter the Dongting Lake system. After controlling Baqiu, he could use it as a logistics base, transporting food to support Feng Gun's army's offensive against towns and strongholds along the shores of Dongting Lake and along the Xiangjiang, Zishui, Yuanjiang, and Lishui rivers. According to the timeline, Feng Gun had almost finished transporting food to Baqiu, so it was time for him to cross the river.

"What else? Have the local wealthy families in Jiangling taken action against Zhangjiawubao?" Wei Cong asked. This was what he really cared about.

"There was no movement before I left!" Huang Ping said, "By the way, I also paid a visit to Kuai Gongcao before leaving. He asked about your current situation and said that the world is unpredictable and that fortune and misfortune are interdependent. In the long run, it might not be a bad thing for you to take a step back. He asked me to remain calm and wait for the right time."

"Kuai Gongcao is truly a sincere gentleman!" Wei Cong sighed. If there was anyone he felt sorry for when he killed County Magistrate Wang last time, it was Kuai Sheng. Before he left for the expedition, he had been given horses and arrows, a huge investment. But he had gotten into all the trouble that followed. Regardless, Kuai Sheng's initial investment had gone to waste. He might have paid the debt, but he certainly owed Kuai Sheng a favor.

"A real man can distinguish between gratitude and resentment. You should repay Kuai Gongcao's kindness in the future!" Huang Ping said with a smile.

"You're right!" Wei Cong laughed. "Huang Ping, this is your first time here. What do you think?"

"I dare not lie to you, sir. This place is very desolate!" Huang Ping said, "If the sailors on the ship had not insisted on it, I would have thought I had taken the wrong path when I came here!"

"Yes, it's really desolate here!" Wei Cong sighed. "Food, salt, clothing, medicine, sauce, and wine all have to be shipped in from outside. When I first arrived here, there were only seven or eight thatched huts, a few acres of vegetable fields, and over a hundred acres of thin farmland. There were only seventeen people in the village, men, women, and children combined. The first thing I did after landing was build a toilet so that I could pile manure to fertilize the fields. I told the family in the village to stop growing corn and grow vegetables instead. Then I cut wood, made charcoal and bricks, and built houses and a dock. It took me almost two months to get to this point!"

"We have to blaze a trail through the mountains and forests!" Huang Ping said with a smile.

"That's right!" Wei Cong laughed. "The former King of Chu, Xiong Yi, established himself in Jingshan. He blazed a trail through the wilderness, trekking through the mountains and forests to serve the emperor. He established a foundation for the kingdom that lasted eight hundred years. At its peak, it controlled nearly half the empire. Although this place is barren, the riverbed contains endless iron sand, which can be scooped up at will. The mountains are filled with fine wood, which can be burned for charcoal, used to build boats, and smelted for swords and axes. The mountains also contain copper, which can be used for military supplies. The Po River connects directly to Pengli Lake and the Yangtze River. A boat trip down the river would take you to Chaisang in just a few days. Furthermore, this area offers excellent irrigation, though few people have developed it. With dedicated development, it could become a major power in just a few years. How could we compare to the constraints we faced in Jiangling?"

Huang Ping was also inspired by Wei Cong's high spirits and said with a smile, "Since you have a plan in mind, I wonder what I will do?"

"You should wander around as you did in the past and see if there are any villages around!" Wei Cong said with a smile, "As soon as the craftsmen arrive, I will start smelting iron here. I noticed it when I came here. Although this place is desolate, it is not completely uninhabited. There are still scattered Shanyue and Ye villages. It's just that they are very scattered. The farm tools in the hands of these people are very poor. Take the village under your feet as an example: they still use wooden plows and clam sickles to cut millet. The only decent iron tool for the whole family is an axe, and they don't even have an iron pot. Once we open the furnace, we can produce at least a thousand pounds of iron every day. It is impossible for all this iron to be used to make military weapons. You find out where it comes from, and then you can use the iron tools to trade. First, you can exchange them for some food, livestock, and mountain products; second, you can make contacts to prepare for the next step! There are already four or five hundred people here now."

(End of this chapter)