Replicating Primitive Ironmaking Techniques

With the addition of this fertile land, Hudson's original land development plans were scrapped and had to be restarted. Mining was crucial, but food self-sufficiency was equally important.

Without maintenance, there's little hope for this season's harvest, but the next season can't continue to be wasted.

Regardless of what is planted later, a large amount of labor will be needed. To cultivate more than 20,000 mu of land with the current productivity, at least seven or eight hundred strong laborers will be required.

This is based on having enough livestock; without four or five hundred horses/cattle, it simply cannot be completed.

Mining is a labor-intensive industry, requiring a large amount of manual labor in every step from "charcoal burning - mining - ore beneficiation - smelting - continuous casting".

Without sufficient young and able-bodied labor, it will be difficult to restore previous production capacity in a short period of time.

As the territory's main source of revenue, mining production must be prioritized, leaving no surplus young and able-bodied labor to be devoted to land cultivation.

If the workforce were replaced by the elderly, women, and children, who are less capable of working, the manpower input would have to be doubled. Considering the severe shortage of livestock in the territory, which would also require manpower to fill the gap, the actual labor force needed would certainly be even greater.

With his solid mathematical knowledge, Hudson quickly concluded that his territory was severely underpopulated.

Even setting aside expanding production capacity, the territory's labor force is far from sufficient just to restore previous production levels.

Now it depends on how many people your subordinates can persuade to come. If there is a serious labor shortage, then we can only think of a solution later.

After all, at this critical juncture, even if they wanted to buy slaves, the Southeast Province were short of them!

The lords of Wright and Hutton Prefectures are desperately short of manpower, and a war to recruit them has already begun.

Even before the territories were determined, the price of able-bodied young slaves in the Southeast Province had already increased by a third. Now, it's likely that the price has skyrocketed.

Hudson, whose pockets were not full, didn't even have the means to be a sucker, let alone afford to buy slaves. He hadn't had enough money to buy slaves before, and he certainly couldn't afford them now.

A portion of the people were relocated to the newly acquired lands to resume cultivation, and the army's patrol range was expanded. Hudson's focus returned to the mining area.

Simple barracks have been initially built. Although living conditions are still rudimentary, at least they have escaped the embarrassing situation of "the sky as a blanket and the ground as a mat".

A considerable amount of charcoal has been stockpiled, and the mines have been largely cleared. Although the Rebel Army have caused significant damage, the Salam Mountain Range are primarily composed of shallow mineral deposits.

In the best locations, open-pit mining can be carried out directly. In less desirable locations, the mine shafts can only extend for a few dozen meters at most.

Mining technology is at this level; mining ore buried deep in the earth is practically suicide. Iron ore is profitable, but it hasn't driven the lords to the point of abandoning their principles.

If they encounter high-purity gold and silver ore, or even more valuable magic crystal ore, the miners can only pray for the protection of the Lord of Dawn.

With a severe shortage of labor in the territory and the presence of a conscientious Lord Hudson, it was natural for them not to covet the deep mines, even if the ore from the deepest depths was of higher purity.

At the lord's insistence, the ironworkers, having completed the initial preparations, began the first smelting operation since the war.

Watching the workers put the mined iron ore and charcoal into the clay furnace, they started to work.

The bellows, which replaced the alchemical blower, also began to work. It was clear that the workers were quite apprehensive about this new contraption.

Like an observer, Hudson only glanced at the smelter from afar before leaving.

The primitive iron smelting process, coupled with the use of charcoal that was not heated to a high enough temperature, almost inevitably resulted in substandard quality pig iron.

No miracle occurred. The iron blocks taken out of the furnace were extremely porous, like an anthill, with holes of all sizes. Hudson was too lazy to even complain about how low the purity was.

However, the workers were in high spirits, clearly because the pig iron they usually smelted was of a similar quality to this.

Without further ado, we proceed to the next process: hammering – calcining – hammering – calcining – hammering...

After repeated trials and errors, several hours later, when the iron block was almost solidified, the workers finally put it into water for quenching.

Inferior pig iron, after being processed into shape, can be traded on the market according to past practice, and at a fairly high price.

Depending on the quality of the pig iron, based on pre-war market prices, each pound of pig iron could sell for approximately 30 to 55 copper coins.

As for what it will be processed into later, that's the blacksmiths' business. In any case, the previous lord, Alphonse, never provided after-sales service, nor did he care what customers did with it.

Looking at the sample before him, Hudson abandoned his idea of immediate mass production. The pig iron before him was undoubtedly of inferior quality.

To improve its appearance, it must undergo continuous forging and tempering. Further processing was not undertaken because continuing the forging process would not be cost-effective.

After all, charcoal is used, and with the current technology, even if it is hammered a hundred times, its strength is unlikely to reach the standard for making weapons.

Under the original production model, selling pig iron could certainly make money, but the profits were far less than Hudson had anticipated.

Despite the seemingly high price of pig iron, the mine's low production capacity proved a major obstacle. According to workers' recollections, the Salam Mine Area once employed over four thousand workers at its peak.

According to Hudson, however, the Alphonse, the largest pig iron supplier in the Southeast Province, only shipped a paltry 180,000 pounds per month.

Even if they used some of it themselves, the average daily iron production per person was only about 1.5 pounds, which was so inefficient that it was beyond words.

Considering that some charcoal needs to be purchased externally, and that miners engage in heavy physical labor and require more nutritional supplements, plus taxes and infrastructure maintenance costs, the profit margin is estimated to be only around 50%.

Considering that most of the pig iron produced in the territory is of low quality and there are discounts for large-scale wholesale, if we calculate the price uniformly at 25 copper coins/pound, the monthly income for a shipment of 180,000 pounds would be only about 3,000 gold coins, and the profit would be around 1,500 gold coins.

While the returns seemed quite good, ranking among the top in the kingdom's many baronies, they were far less lucrative than Hudson had anticipated.

To achieve higher profits, it is imperative to improve smelting processes, increase production capacity, and enhance the quality of pig iron.

Without an industrial system to support it, high-tech technologies are out of the question; Hudson's only options are traditional processes.

Blast furnace ironmaking is a familiar concept to many, but actually operating it is by no means simple.

Fortunately, Hudson enjoys traveling around and has personally visited many blast furnace ruins, gaining a general understanding of the blast furnace ironmaking process.

Following the example blindly, they failed to build a blast furnace and instead taught the workers how to fire bricks.

After directing his craftsmen for more than half a month and experiencing many failures, Hudson finally produced the first batch of bricks.

Perhaps due to inadequate control of the firing temperature, perhaps due to substandard soil selection, or perhaps due to the workers' misunderstanding of Hudson's words, the quality of the kiln bricks was, to put it mildly, unsatisfactory.

Most of the kiln bricks had cracks, and only a small portion were decent enough to be used.

Directing the workers as they attempted to build the blast furnace, Hudson felt utterly exhausted. Climbing the tech tree was no ordinary feat.

Even the simplest, most primitive iron smelting process is this difficult to replicate. Imagine how complicated it would be if it involved more advanced processes that required supporting industries!