Chapter 1244 The Most Toxic Iron

In the surging sea, fish gather at the lakeside. From the Kingdom's Xishan Port Jinwan, which is the San Francisco Bay in later generations, go north for another eight or nine hundred miles to the Lake Bay where the Wiyot people live, and to the Kingdom's Lake Bay Port.

This kingdom port, which was established by the heroic sacrifice of the young West Bee priest and the marriage with the Wiyot female chief, and absorbed hundreds of tribes, now has 1,500 people!

In just one year, the number of people in Lake Bay Port has increased by 700. Among these 700 people, there are more than 60 people from the headquarters supplemented by longboats, 400 to 500 local Wiyot people who have assimilated and married... and more than 200 Miwok Dingzhuang, who were specially dispatched from Xishan Port and migrated with a year's worth of grain.

Such preferential policies have never been seen in many kingdom strongholds on the west coast, making the priests from all over the world envious. The reason why Lake Bay Port is so favored is precisely because of the iron ore mountains in the eastern mountains and the iron smelting vertical furnace built by the blacksmith Otani with his apprentices before leaving! At present, this two-meter vertical furnace for iron smelting has finally accumulated 7,000 to 8,000 kilograms of pyrite ore, and it can be ignited and started!

"Lord God bless! Ignite, start the furnace! More iron material!..."

With the shouting of the West Bee priest, the fire was ignited. The charcoal was burning rapidly, the blower was constantly blowing in the air, and the black and gray smoke was rising, gradually becoming pungent.

The blacksmith apprentices of the kingdom were busy with their heads down, and almost all of them were surrounded by simple wet cloths to cover their mouths and noses. In the first few furnaces of iron, several apprentices inhaled too much smoke and fell into a coma, and one even died of a serious illness. After careful judgment, the West Bee priest determined that the pungent smoke was burned from pyrite, with an obvious "volcanic breath of death"! Although he didn't know what sulfur oxide was, according to the knowledge of the various tribes on the plateau using the stone sulfur of the dead, if this kind of smoke with special temperature was inhaled too much, it would definitely bring "the disappearance of vitality and death"!

According to the experience of various departments, from the perspective of "theology", the solution to this problem is also very simple. According to the teachings left by His Majesty at Shenwei University, "the breath of death of the volcano will be dissolved by the vitality of the water god and blocked by water"... So, just use a towel with some water and wear it on your face to cover your mouth and nose.

"Praise the Lord! It took two months from the beginning of the New Year to dig enough for a furnace of seven or eight thousand kilograms of ore, which can barely produce two or three thousand kilograms of iron... In this way, after working hard for a year, only six iron ore were transported back, and more than ten thousand kilograms of iron were smelted. Compared with the huge iron mountain, it is simply a hair on the rabbit's tail!..."

Looking at the black smoke rising from the vertical furnace, the Western Bee Priest stepped back, his face was happy, and there was some more urgent expectation. Seven or eight thousand kilograms of iron ore sounds a lot, but in fact it is only more than half a cubic meter. And just this little bit of iron ore actually took more than two hundred tribesmen two months to work hard, which is really outrageous!

However, the current situation of tribal productivity and transportation is like this. The location of the iron mine is not near the seaside, but in the mountains four or five hundred miles to the east. From Huwan Port to the iron mine, it is nearly a thousand miles round trip. Each person has to carry dozens of kilograms of iron ore and dry food, and it takes more than a month to walk. As for setting up camp at the foot of the iron mountain, it takes nearly a month to arrange people for vigilance, fishing, hunting, and sending people to mine, crush and screen the ore... It takes more than two months to open an iron smelting vertical furnace!

"The Lord God is witness! Two hundred tribesmen are mining and transporting, fifty warriors are on guard and guard, twenty blacksmith apprentices are forging iron, and one hundred people are needed to cut trees and burn charcoal... and more than a thousand tribesmen, all of whom have to fish and farm to support the four hundred people who smelt iron... After all the calculations, there is still a shortage of people!..."

"If the port has enough people, a new village can be built at the foot of the Big Iron Mountain, and people can farm and hunt, mine and smelt iron on the spot, and then transport the smelted iron materials out... It will definitely be much more convenient, and the output of iron materials can be increased several times!... What a pity, what a pity! We also have to consider the attitudes of the dozens of "singing tribes" in the mountains. After all, the area around the Iron Mountain has always been the hunting grounds of these tribes. At present, they only reluctantly agreed to our mining because of the friendly gifts..."

Thinking of the semi-nomadic and singing Kahosadi people in the mountains, that is, the "Shastan people" in the mouths of later colonists, the Western Bee Priest touched his smooth chin and showed a thoughtful look on his face. These mountain tribes love singing and are not aggressive. However, the tribes have been in the mountains for a long time, are familiar with the terrain, and have a large number of people, so it is difficult to force them to be conquered by force with the force of Huwan Port.

In fact, the West Bee Priest has never liked to use force, and prefers gentle assimilation and marriage methods. The kingdom's mining and stone drilling in Tieshan made a lot of noise, which also attracted some "singing tribes" and sent tribal scouts to investigate. The West Bee Priest greeted these tribal scouts in a friendly manner, invited them to eat and drink well, and gave them a few newly made iron axes for cutting trees. The tribal scouts were very happy, surrounded the West Bee Priest, and each of them sang a "hundred birds song" that was incomprehensible but very shocking.

The song was extremely cheerful and very special, with dozens of vivid bird calls, and the high pitch almost reached the limit of human beings! If these songs imitating bird calls can be passed down to future generations, it is estimated that each one will be a "high-pitched divine song" that can be sung to the point of exhaustion. And every Kahosadi scout who sings can probably dominate the stage of The Voice! This innate racial talent has been selected and inherited through hundreds of generations, and it is really not something that can be caught up with by a short period of acquired effort...

"Lord God! I asked the scouts to bring back the marriage and trade request, but I don't know how many singing tribes will agree? Unfortunately, the kingdom has limited priests. If we want to send people to the mountains for marriage, we can only send young warriors to slowly increase the influence on the tribes in the mountains..."

To convert the distant mountain tribes, it is destined to be a long process, even taking several years or more than ten years. What the Western Bee priests are eager to do is to reach a consensus with the tribal chiefs around the Iron Mountain and build a small kingdom village dedicated to mining there. Then, send dozens of devout tribesmen to stay there to dig iron ore, and transport food supplies at a time, or exchange with the surrounding singing tribes. As for the remaining one hundred tribesmen, they were responsible for transporting ore and clearing the passages that were half water and half mountain roads…

"The Lord God bears witness! By the end of this year, I must increase the output of iron materials by half! With this confidence, I can ask the chief priests of the kingdom and the Xishan Port in the south for more manpower and food support, so that Huwan Port can truly become a big town!…"

"Supreme Lord God! I will definitely work hard to preach, so that your glory will spread throughout Huwan and under the Iron Mountain in the east! And please guide me, so that Huwan Port, which I am in charge of, can become a kingdom town like the Black Rock Mountain Iron Mine!… As for my two newly born sons, please let them grow up healthily, inherit this kingdom stronghold that I opened up with my own hands and has unlimited potential, and even ascend to a higher position!…"

The young Xifeng priest opened his eyes wide, staring at the bright eastern mountains under the rising sun, praying devoutly, and his heart was filled with hope and desire. He has settled in Huwan Port for three years and has truly taken root. The fertile tribe leader Tulan not only gave him three adopted sons, but also gave him two more children, so that he could continue from then on...

Seeing that a brand new Xifeng family, integrating the blood of the southern and northern tribes, was about to be separated from the Crow Lord's family and established in this vast northern land! And the long-term bright future of the family has been tied to the infinitely vast northern land. From the growing Huwan Port to the red-topped Iron Mountain, the beginning is a vast land of 500 miles, with vibrant lakes, seas and mountains! …