Chapter 2606: Trade and Advancement (6)

Between gathering Nine Springs ore and crafting it into equipment, there is still one more step.

Smelting!

Smelting the ore into metal ingots.

Smelting tier-3 materials also requires skills and specializations...

And the smelting team led by Shen Lian... is also a soy-sauce team, often hanging around with Yang Lu and Xia Jing, frequently following Fang Li to build houses.

Actually, the smelting team had its glory days.

Previously, every battle Zhao Chi fought would yield large amounts of equipment. Those equipment were of very poor quality with very low durability—Zhao Chi couldn't use them, and they weren't worth selling.

So they were all melted down.

The iron ingots produced from smelting were given to the blacksmiths for crafting.

But later on, they could directly capture large amounts of iron ingots, so there was no need to smelt anymore.

And most of that equipment was given to Su Qin—some was sold, some equipped the melee soldiers.

So those low-tier smelters all switched to other professions.

Like blacksmiths, tailors.

The current smelting team only has 20 people.

Fortunately, all 20 of them are at expert level, so they have some foundation.

But the number is still too few.

Thinking of this, Zhao Chi felt a bit of a headache.

His territory had never developed this technology line before.

So from mining to smelting, there are no talents now—mining capacity and smelting capacity are both very limited.

This Nine Springs ore is hard to mine, and even harder to smelt.

What finally reaches the blacksmiths will probably be slow and little.

It's fine.

For now, treat it as mineral reserves.

From today on, all 80 new main-race women arriving each day will be converted into miners and smelters.

It won't take long before the numbers go up.

As for now...

Anyway, no changes for now.

Still let the blacksmiths craft steel equipment, and for now first raise the specialization in steel equipment.

Nine Springs equipment will be treated as the next generation.

You can't grow fat in one bite.

Taking too big a step might tear your balls.

For this kind of technical thing, it's better to play it steady.

Steel equipment is also very useful.

Steel is a fairly strong material among common metals.

And it only needs iron ore and charcoal to smelt successfully—the material sources are very wide.

Once these female blacksmiths fully master it, they can craft equipment in batches.

When the time comes, whether it's given to the female soldiers as backup equipment or sold outside, it's all very good.

Nine Springs ore has limited output after all, so it can only be used internally.

For equipment given to allied forces to upgrade, steel will do just fine.

Let's just leave it like this for now.

【Please set the mine location】

Where to set it?

Chaoge Town is definitely ruled out.

The territories of the branch races are also not suitable.

Taoyuan Town is also ruled out.

So only Penglai Town and Yunmeng County are left.

Yunmeng County is mountainous.

If setting a mine, mountainous terrain actually has an advantage—relatively easier to mine.

However, this isn't a natural mine, but an additional set mine.

So setting it in Penglai Town is also fine.

And there are also items to relocate mines—if it's not suitable later, the location can be changed. It just costs some gold coins, which is no big deal.

Then let's set it in Penglai Town first.

But Penglai Town has already been planned out, with large grazing areas, and no extra free space left.

Then just allocate more land plots and expand the area.

Allocate directly!

Spent 5 allocation points to increase success rate, then spent 10 allocation points to allocate 10 square kilometers of land.

In an instant.

The entire Penglai Town became a big oval.

A large brand-new territory quickly appeared on the west side—an endless stretch of brown muddy land, with nothing on it.

Then the west side will be temporarily planned as the mining and smelting area.

The enormous Jiushang Mine Vein was placed on the west side of Penglai Town.

【Configuration successful, you may begin mining at any time】

Very good.

Raising his head, he saw two female squad leaders bathing up ahead.