Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

The room fell into a profound silence; neither Sasha nor Carlos dared to breathe.

"True heroes emerge from youth, and I, an old man, am genuinely a bit scared," Old Poltan said with a bitter smile, shaking his head: "These thoughts of 'the more money circulates, the more it grows,' did you come up with them yourself? The sage, you're referring to yourself, aren't you?"

"No, I don't dare take the credit; it was truly a wise person who told me," Winters replied.

"Who is this wise person?" Old Poltan asked with some anticipation: "May I meet them?"

"Another day I will personally bring the sage to visit," Winters said with a hint of red on his cheeks, proudly telling the old man, "These were all taught to me by my wife."

"Ah? The She-Wolf? The female warrior?" Sasha thought in shock, "Could it be that Lady Montaigne is not just good at fighting?"

Old Poltan's smile grew more bitter, and after the bitterness, it turned into unconcern: "Hahaha! Heroes emerge not only from young men but also from young women!"

Winters laughed heartily too.

"Actually, I've had similar ideas to what you mentioned," Old Poltan said, sitting up straight: "Back then, I considered why Iron Peak Mine couldn't compete with the imported Steel Fortress bar iron, and it wasn't just because of poor quality."

"Because it's expensive, the cost is high, right?" Winters immediately understood.

"Exactly," Old Poltan nodded: "If it were cheap enough, even if it was slightly inferior in quality, the Steel Fortress bar iron would absolutely not be able to compete with Iron Peak Mine—the Steel Fortress bar iron has to be transported across the entirety of Paratu to arrive at Revodan, and the shipping costs alone are immense! How could it compete with them?"

The more the old man spoke, the faster his speech became; he reverted to the once booming-voiced Master Ironsmith Poltan: "If the iron smelting of Iron Peak County could turn into a big business like that of Steel Fortress, Revodan would be better off, Iron Peak County would be better off."

"But buying the mine costs money, buying charcoal costs money, flattening the furnace costs money, hiring people costs money; everything costs money. All these expenses added up end up being more trouble than it's worth compared to just buying Steel Fortress bar iron!"

Master Ironsmith Poltan cursed with fervor: "Especially the charcoal! You need good charcoal for smelting iron, but the forests belong to the legion. Want to cut down trees for charcoal? Fork over the cash! Money, money, money! That's all the goddamn garrison cares about! Selling land for money, selling trees for money, selling the mine for money—the legion has never thought about how important it is to support an industry for us common folk!"

Sasha's face turned pale with fright. Although Iron Peak County had changed hands, openly criticizing the New Reclamation Legion was still unimaginable.

This kind of insult to the old authority was fundamentally a disdain for authority. It could easily attract the resentment and suppression of the new authority, even if it was criticizing enemies of the new authority—a commoner could not publicly criticize a former duke.

"You're absolutely right!" Winters found a kindred spirit, unable to hold back: "The New Reclamation Legion doesn't care about the people's lives at all. What they want is money, grain, and soldiers. They don't represent the interests of the people of the Newly Reclaimed Land because they only have their own interests in mind! All their actions are aimed at extracting more and more!"

Left to the side, Sasha and Carlos watched as Winters found an unexpected bond with the bedridden, frail old man.

"Back in the day, I calculated carefully; using stone coal for smelting iron would greatly reduce costs. Then the iron produced by Iron Peak Mine could compete with the Steel Fortress bar iron." Old Poltan's pain, sorrow, and despair resurfaced.

Tears flowed down his face as he muttered, "Those years, not a day went by that I didn't study how to smelt iron with stone coal. I spent sleepless nights buying charcoal, setting up furnaces, sifting ore... But what did it get me? I ended up a wreck of a man. This is the blessing the gods bestowed upon me; this is the reward fate has given me..."

Winters was unaware of such complexities.

"Please rest assured." Winters could only try his best to console the old man, "The New Reclamation Legion has already screwed off! Iron Peak County is now under my control, iron ore, charcoal, you needn't pay a dime for them! I hope you won't hesitate to help me revive Iron Peak Mine."

"As one grows old, they tend to ramble on," Old Poltan wiped away his tears, striving to straighten his back, and asked Winters seriously, "You want to restart Iron Peak Mine?"

"Precisely."

"The trees and the iron mine are yours?"

"Yes."

"You'll also need manpower, lots of it. Do you have that?"

Winters softly coughed once, "Yes, I have more than a thousand captives."

...

Tang Juan had captured over a thousand captives from Vernge County; these captives couldn't be released, killed, or directly granted land to enlist soldiers—because there were not enough resources to maintain them.

Winters had decided to provide the captives with something to eat, but they had to work three years without compensation.

In name, the captives would perform labor due to their hostility towards Iron Peak County; in reality, they were slaves with a three-year term.

At present, the captives had already been taken to Forging Village, where under the supervision of the military, they were working with Winters' soldiers to rush the sowing of winter crops.

Once the winter wheat and winter barley were sown, Winters planned to group the captives into logging and construction teams to build houses for the refugees.

Selecting personnel to work in the iron mine from them posed no legal or logical problems.

...

"Then we can start working!" Old Poltan regained his decisive demeanor: "With the mine, the charcoal, and the people, what's to fear? If we encounter mountains, we pave the way; if we come across water, we build bridges. Let's strike the first blow! Whatever problem arises, we solve it then and there!"

The more Winters interacted with the old ironsmith, the more he admired his spirit: "Well said! Let's strike the first blow!"

"Sasha!" Old Poltan reached out for the paper and pen on the table.