Iron Harvest: When Farming Becomes Conquest
Chapter 97 - 1: Coal and Iron

Chapter 97: Chapter 1: Coal and Iron

Today marked Roman’s 155th day since his arrival at Sige Town.

Weighed down by heavy, weary steps, he led his equally exhausted and burdened steed back to Origin Manor.

He had set out clean and handsome, as if going for a jaunt in the countryside, but he returned resembling a beggar.

Drenched in sweat, filthy beyond words, his clothes were torn to ribbons; fortunately, he had smeared plenty of insect-repellent plant juices over himself, or else the situation would have undoubtedly been worse.

The manor’s male servants rushed over under the scorching sun.

Roman waved them off to take the horse to a shaded area to be washed down, and to give it cool tea with salt water.

A horse couldn’t dissipate heat as well as a human; these past days had been a trial for it.

Although Roman had constantly been mindful of its condition, the consecutive days of travel had still accumulated a great deal of fatigue; without a respite, he feared it might be done for.

A week outdoors, each day spent struggling.

The extreme pressure of a stifling environment and the dismal physiological feedback made Roman want to give up at every moment.

But in the end, he had persevered.

Upon returning to the manor and the abrupt release of pressure, his whole frame seemed to relax.

Attended by maids, cool well water was continuously poured over him, and they carefully wiped away the grime and sweat from his body, arranging his now disheveled long hair.

After a moment’s grooming, Roman was revived; his listless spirit perked back up.

He changed into fresh clothes and hastened to the dining hall.

The table was set with yogurt and strawberries, nut pastries, and a jar of sweet jam—perfect for spreading on soft, white bread.

A large bowl of vegetable salad, prepared with cabbage, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, lemon juice, and maltose.

The beverage was a Gold and Silver Flower iced tea, sealed in a wooden barrel submerged in the well of Origin Manor; after being soaked all day and night, it was now refreshingly delicious.

Roman’s stomach was growling.

By the third day, the food he brought had run out, and he was forced to rely on hunting and foraging to fulfill his physiological needs.

It must be said that looking at the sections of the "Breathing Story" interface light up was motivating.

His ability to persevere was in part due to this.

Green and Aaron were not at Origin Manor; they were at the training field, sweating with over a hundred Guards.

Only Gwivelle and Seth were at the table. Gwivelle looked at Roman; his normally wheatish complexion now more of a bronzed hue, less vigorous and more rugged, his features even more sharply defined.

Roman must have suffered greatly. Gwivelle thought as she poured him a glass of the cool tea.

Roman picked it up and drank it in one gulp, then turned to Seth and said, "I found an iron mine, but it’s quite far from here."

Seth’s figure was ramrod straight, his brow carried a meticulous expression, and the lines around his nostrils were deeply set. He was supposed to be at the docks but returned immediately upon hearing of Roman’s arrival, highly valuing the news he brought.

It indicated the next direction for Sige Town’s development.

Hearing this, Seth’s meticulous face turned serious.

"How far?"

Roman wiped the corner of his mouth, "Very far, a hundred kilometers!"

On his journey, he had surveyed over a dozen veins; most were stone mines with no current value in mining, two were coal mines, and there were also two iron mines.

The first iron mine he found was not suitable for mining, so he had to continue the search.

The second iron vein was found indeed, but according to the resource indicator, it was a small-scale deposit and considerably distant.

Traveling thirty kilometers along the flat salt road, and then forging a new route directly northward, he encountered numerous kilometers due to the terrain that required detours, the final pathway likely extended to a hundred kilometers.

The advantage was that the small iron mine was an open-pit rich ore with a high iron content, at least 50% or more.

The route was personally marked out by Roman, who only needed to divert another path midway, advance dozens of kilometers, and another coal mine could be mined.

In this way, they would have both coal and iron.

Seth listened as Roman described the specifics of the iron and coal mines, his brows becoming increasingly serious.

"We don’t have enough people."

"I know," Roman nodded.

The hot weather was also an issue.

Excessive labor could kill people. That would be a loss not worth the gain for him.

But the mining of the iron was necessary, as the purchased iron ingots were not enough to meet Roman’s needs for steel.

In recent times, due to Daken’s and Sige Town merchants’ promotion and tax incentives, Sige Town’s commerce had achieved limited development.

Only, commercial transactions required a cyclical operation.

Those merchants managing to make a round trip once or twice a month would be considered frequent. The main reason was that these marketplaces needed time to digest the goods the merchants brought.

The geographical location of Sige Town was poor; without opening up the mountains, they could only rely on water transport and were unable to use land transport.

Even with the ability to produce salt, it was not possible to attract a swarm of merchants in a short period – most merchants had fixed trading routes, with stable sources of goods and sales channels, rather than buzzing around like headless flies, buying and selling everywhere—those could only be considered itinerant merchants.

Only a few ambitious merchants, always searching for business opportunities, dared to take risks and make various attempts to boost their own profits.

If merchants disclosed their source of raw materials, it would most likely just attract competition from peers, which would not benefit them personally.

Moreover, disclosure did not equate to immediate visits; it required validation of authenticity.

This was easy to understand. If someone shouted in Pearl Harbor that Sige Town produced salt, eight out of ten merchants would not turn back, and the remaining two would wonder where on earth this godforsaken Sige Town was located.

The Black Iron King’s maps didn’t even have this remote town marked on them.

There were no other reasons; the cost of trial and error was too high.

With information hard to distinguish between true and false, and the high rewards of risk versus the low stable income, most people would choose the latter.

Roman asked Morry to purchase slaves, but since Morry had left, over a month had now passed, and he had still not returned.

This forced Roman to prepare for the worst.

He suspected that Morry might have encountered certain difficulties.

This was not a lethal problem; Roman traditionally trusted only himself and not others.

All his plans were based on the resources he currently held, and he was always ready to change them.

If he were to pin all hopes for Sige Town’s population growth on the merchants’ slave ships, that would be laughably naive.

When problems arose, he had to overcome them; there was nothing to complain about.

Roman said to Seth, "It’s okay if we don’t have enough people, let them take their time. In the summer, they only need to work seven hours a day, starting from when the sun is three poles high in the morning and ending when the sun sets. Now that we have axes and chopping knives, their speed of cutting wood and repairing roads will also increase."

Roman’s demands were not high.

The labor force of Sige Town only needed to smooth out a hundred kilometers of road in two months.

Come autumn, he would be able to build a village there, deploy manpower, construct housing, relocate people to settle, and proceed with the mining of coal and iron.

Roman crossed his arms and placed them on the dining table.

His brows were furrowed, contemplating for a brief moment.

Then, Roman raised his head to Seth and said, "I want to forge shields and weapons for 400 warriors before the end of winter."