Departure and Survey
On the morning of May 25th, Victor took Vitri to the iron mine. Considering Vitri's health condition, Victor arranged a carriage for him. The two arrived at Green Valley Territory first, and then took James with them to the iron mine area. Since the iron mine belonged to Green Valley Territory, James, as the lord, had to participate.
However, according to the agreement between Victor and James, the iron ore mine was to be jointly funded and operated by the two companies. For the first three years, due to the difficulty of mining the iron ore and the large investment in infrastructure, Victor's Two Rivers Territory was also responsible for providing the mining tools and factory construction. Therefore, the profits were split equally between the two companies. After three years, Two Rivers Territory continued to invest in and maintain the iron ore mine, as well as purchase all the iron ore and guarantee production and sales. The profits were then split 20/80, with Two Rivers Territory receiving 20% and Green Valley Territory receiving 80%, and settlements were made every six months.
As for the purchase price of iron ore, Victor, based on the overall iron ore trading market in the duchy, stated that the price of iron ore with a grade of 30% to 40% was 1 gold coin per ton, while the price of iron ore with a grade below 30% was 2 Silver Maple per ton.
The group arrived at Green Ancient Town in Green Valley Ridge before noon. With the support and assistance of Two Rivers Territory, the entire Green Valley Territory has now built three settlements: Green Valley Town, located in the center of the territory; Harvest Village, which borders Two Rivers Ridge and serves as the agricultural production base for the entire Green Valley Ridge. It is situated on a plain with abundant water resources, allowing for the development of a large amount of arable land; and Iron Mountain Village, located near the iron mine, which mainly focuses on the operation and mining of iron ore.
After arriving in Green Valley Town, the group met up with James and set off directly for Iron Mountain Village.
Because of the long distance and the fact that the road was not yet built, the carriage that Vitri was riding in could not go fast, and the group did not arrive at Iron Mountain Village until around 7 pm.
Although Iron Mountain Village was the last settlement established in the entire Green Valley Territory, in order to speed up the construction of the iron mine, Victor arranged for the engineering team from the Two Rivers Territory to come here and build a large amount of infrastructure. Iron Mountain Village currently has a population of only 1,000, so there is no shortage of places to live in Iron Mountain Village.
Because it was too late that day, Victor and his group spent the night in Iron Mountain Village and headed to the iron ore mining area early the next morning.
The next day, Victor and his group arrived at the Iron Mine. Since this was an open-pit iron mine, the mining method used was the tunneling method, which only required clearing the surface soil and thin rock layers to directly obtain the iron ore.
The tools used were relatively simple, consisting of hammers, picks, shovels, and wooden winches provided by the Two Rivers Territory, as well as a movable wooden waterwheel specially designed by the Machine Factory, mainly used to drain water from some puddles.
The biggest challenge for the entire iron ore mine at present is not mining, but transportation. Mining has been underway for more than a month, but nearly 50 tons of selected high-grade iron ore are still piled up in the mine's open-pit yard. Normally, transportation can only be carried out by large trucks, but the speed is very slow and the transportation volume cannot keep up. So far, less than 50 tons of ore have been transported to the Steelworks in Riverside Village.
Therefore, James was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Barbarians slaves, hoping to get them in place as soon as possible, but he was not in a hurry to start mining the iron ore.
Most importantly, the construction of roads from the mine to the territory, as well as the construction of wooden tracks according to the iron ore mining plan, should be completed to facilitate the transportation of the iron ore.
Victor, James, and Vitri spent the morning surveying the entire iron ore mine. Vitri was very satisfied with the area and scale of the mine. Although the grade of the iron ore was not high, the mining difficulty was not great.
If Victor's Steelworks can, as he says, mass-produce pig iron from this iron ore, the mine will bring immense wealth to the two noble families and the Gorn Trading Company.
After the visit, Vitri did not linger in Green Valley.
He followed Victor directly back to the Two Rivers Territory, and later they needed to visit the Steelworks in Riverside Village.
Victor led Vitri on a tour of the Steelworks's small blast furnace area. Victor did not show Vitri the Steelworks's Martin furnace, after all, the technological advantages contained in the Martin furnace were too great. Although Victor did not think Vitri could see anything special, as a professional spy of the Raine Kingdom, Vitri was knowledgeable and experienced. If he could see something, it would not be good for either of them.
Currently, the entire Steelworks has only two small blast furnaces, which can produce 50 tons of pig iron per month. However, due to the slow arrival of ore, only one blast furnace is currently in operation.
Vitri saw the small blast furnace in the Steelworks and found it very amazing. It was very different from the blast furnaces commonly seen now, especially the blower, which was much larger. However, considering Victor's requirement for the secrecy of production technology, Vitri did not ask too many questions.
Vitri carefully examined the finished pig iron produced in the previous batch and felt that this pig iron was of good quality in the entire duchy's steel market. According to his estimate, this quality of pig iron could sell for about 12 gold per ton in the current market, which was 20% more expensive than normal pig iron. Vitri was very satisfied with this.
That evening, the two reached a loan agreement. Vitri handed over the prepared gold coins to Victor on the spot and promised to deliver the remaining Golden Sunflower Territory to the Old Baron Wembley by mid-June.
Early the next morning, Vitri left the Two Rivers Territory with the merchant guild's ship. The day before, the entire fleet had left first, and the troop relieving team returning to the Golden Sunflower Territory had also set off.
The fleet brought a total of 8,000 slaves. According to the previous plan, they were directly distributed to the already built settlements in the first, second, third, and fourth districts at a ratio of 2:1 between new and old serfs.
Each settlement will cultivate at least 800 hectares of farmland this year. The Two Rivers Territory has already prepared farming tools and livestock, and cultivation can begin as soon as the population is in place.
According to the plan, militia teams need to be established in each settlement. Currently, the Two Rivers Territory is building militia teams in the settlements with the militia from the early serfs as the core, and also sending a few disabled veterans as instructors.
Each of these four settlements will establish a militia detachment, which will train for five days at the end of each month. Weapons will be provided by the territory, and food during the training period will be provided by the territory.
After its establishment, the militia forces were also responsible for maintaining the outposts near the settlements. They were stationed at the outposts in small shifts, with a rotation every two weeks. These militia forces stationed at the outposts were under the unified management of the garrison regiment.
As one of the first settlements established, Victor paid close attention to the situation of these four settlements, checking on them every four or five days to ensure that any problems could be identified and resolved as soon as possible.