Daqin Engineers

The search for the iron ore went smoothly, but after more than ten days, Bo and others found the ore.

The nickname of Prairie Steel City is not a fictitious name. There are dozens of iron ore in modern Baotou, even in the urban area.

What surprised Shen Bing was that Bo and his team found saltpeter, sulfur, and limestone, which are urgently needed minerals in the North. In fact, there are other mines in Jiuyuan, such as copper, coal, gold, and petroleum, and they are here. 74 kinds of mines were found.

It's just that Bo and others didn't find it or even knew it.

Shen Bing immediately planned a large industrial area in the lower reaches of Jiuyuan City to prepare iron smelting and cast iron workshops, as well as textile workshops.

Among them, the textile workshops, on the one hand, are self-sufficient production of textiles for Jiuyuan City... Jiuyuan does not compete with Yunzhong County in the textile industry, but Jiuyuan City will have a population of more than 100,000 in the future. These people will have problems with clothing It can't all be transported from Yunzhong County. Of course, this is a huge waste of transport capacity.

On the other hand, in the future, Jiuyuan City will develop in the direction of silk export, and naturally it will also have a textile workshop.

In short, Jiuyuan focuses on the export of strategic military materials such as iron, horses, gunpowder and grain, as well as silk exports.Yunzhong County focuses on textiles and makes money for the Central Plains.

Fatty Tun had some doubts about Shen Bing's plan. He was mainly puzzled that Shen Bing had planned hundreds of iron smelting workshops in the lower reaches of Jiuyuan.

This is what Fatty Tun said:

"General, ironware is mostly used for farming tools and the sales volume is small and the profit is low."

"From the perspective of the iron workshop in Yunzhong County, there is even a tendency to make ends meet. Why do I wait to build an iron workshop in Jiuyuan?"

No wonder Fatty Tun asked that way.

The manufacturing method of the new iron and even its existence are the top secrets of the North. Only the blacksmith himself and people like Shen Bing and Fusu know about it. The others, even Wang Ben and Wei Wei, only said that the new iron was selected by the iron workshop.

Fatty Tun didn't know the existence of Xintie, and when he kept accounts in Yunzhong County, he found that the iron workshop hardly made any money.

Shen Bing didn't explain much, but just answered:

"At this time there are still many defects in the quality of ironware."

"I'm only waiting for more smelting to make it better for armaments."

Fatty said "Oh", and left without understanding.

Fusu also said puzzledly after Fatty Tun left:

"Fusu felt that Tun was right."

"If iron smelting cannot make ends meet, why don't I just focus on spinning and reduce iron smelting?"

Judging from the economic account, Fu Su is right.

Textiles make far more money than iron smelting, and from the current point of view, the demand for iron in the North is not large, at least the iron smelting workshops in Yunzhong County are enough for the iron demand in the North.

Under this circumstance, if Jiuyuan opened up a large area of ​​iron smelting workshops, wouldn't it mean that supply exceeded demand?

At the same time, the new iron cannot be sold, only inferior iron can be sold.

So much inferior iron produced at that time will have to be transported to the Central Plains for sale... Inferior iron will not only be difficult to transport, but also at a low price, it will really be unable to make ends meet.

But Shen Bing replied without thinking:

"I am not waiting for iron to make money, but to support people."

Fusu could not help but wonder:

"Raise someone?"

Shen Bing nodded:

"Raise people!"

To be precise, to raise blacksmiths, skilled blacksmiths.

Iron smelting itself is not difficult, even New Iron.

The difficulty is that the Northland has to maintain a large number of skilled craftsmen.

As long as these mechanics are there and there is iron ore, when you want to equip the new iron in large quantities or even replace the entire army's bronze equipment with new iron, it will be possible in a short time.

On the other hand, if there is no craftsman, there will be unexpected troubles in production at that time, and it will even require a master to teach an apprentice for a few years to be able to...

This craft includes iron smelting and iron making.

Therefore, many military factories in modern times are actually operating at a loss but still have to maintain it, for this.

Once the military factory can’t sustain, these skilled workers and talents will be dug away by other factories and even other countries. One day it will be difficult to build this factory again... This is definitely not a question of money, but Talent reserve and training are difficult to achieve within decades.

At this time, for Northland, these craftsmen who smelt iron, cast iron, and make equipment are military talents.

There is an iron smelting workshop in the process of retaining, cultivating and absorbing talents...there is a job in the north, which is not only highly paid but also stable, but also has various benefits. Of course, craftsmen are willing to go to the north.

Otherwise, if, as Fusu and Fatty Tun thought, iron smelting workshops would open less if they didn't make money. What can these craftsmen do when they come?

Even if they come to the North, they will be born after a few years of not doing their jobs.

Moreover, the demand for iron in the North is far more than Fusu and Fatty Tun imagined.

At this time, it is because the bronzes have not been completely eliminated, one day New Iron can be produced without any scruples...All the armaments, including armors, will become iron.

In addition, agricultural tools, daily necessities, building materials, industrial production, etc. all require large amounts of iron.

So this point does not need to be considered, even if it is losing money, Shenbing must maintain the scale.

After Fusu understood these principles, he exclaimed:

"The general has a foresight, help Su admire him."

"With the generals, why are you afraid that Zhao Gao is a villain secretly making trouble?"

Shen Bing just smiled without answering.

Fusu still underestimated Zhao Gao and Li Si, he didn't know that these villains could do more than just make trouble, they could take Fusu's life and establish a new emperor.

While Shen Bing and Fusu were continuing to plan for Jiuyuan, Cheng opened the door to report:

"General, Yan Wangxi has surrendered, and the Mongolian military has drawn troops to encircle it."

This was in everyone's expectation. At this time, Yan State still had the power to resist Qin. It was not bad to be able to survive the Qin army for more than a month until now.

And if the country of Yan is destroyed, it will be even more so if the dynasty who wants to live on the country of Yan is not a problem.

Sure enough, it took only two days for Zhao Wangjia to surrender out of the city.

The two countries of Yan and Dai were destroyed, and there was only one Qi country left in the Central Plains.

In fact, Qi will not last long.

In the history, Qi State only survived for more than half a year than Yan and Dai... In the second year, the Qin Army came to the Qi State City and surrounded Qi Wangjian.

At that time, the soldiers and people of the Qi State did not even dare to resist the Qin army.

Because the Qin army's unification of the Central Plains is unstoppable, fighting the Qin army is too late and meaningless.

So finally Qi Wangjian surrendered under Xiangguo's persuasion.

These do not need Shen Bing to consider.

What Shen Bing needs to consider is that Yan and Dai Yi die, and the people that Ying Zheng said that they will move to the north are also coming.

It is conceivable that this will not be a small number.

Shen Bing must be prepared to accept.