Rail Transportation

Luo Chong took the matter of Asphalt Lake very seriously. After confirming the strategic value of this resource site, he hurriedly wrote back to You Ye, asking him to immediately conduct a careful survey of the environment around Asphalt Lake.

This included the most convenient transportation routes for bulk mineral transport, the surrounding climate and land conditions, whether grazing or farming was possible, whether there were sufficient freshwater resources, whether the area was suitable for long-term human habitation, and so on.

After all, exploiting Asphalt Lake required sufficient manpower. With more people came the need for food and freshwater; otherwise, operations could not be maintained. Of course, the Han Tribe could transport provisions there from elsewhere, but that would drive mining costs far too high and run contrary to practical interests.

However, this matter could not be rushed for now. An undertaking this major, involving such a vast area that needed to be explored, certainly could not be completed in a few days. They would have to wait. Besides, the Han Tribe's current construction tasks were already extremely demanding. Even if detailed data and plans were available now, Luo Chong probably had no spare capacity to begin extraction.

Whenever manpower was needed for something like this, Luo Chong could not help thinking of the Tang Tribe and Xin Tribe. If only those two great population-rich tribes could immediately become available for his use.

But that was obviously impossible.

Han Tribe, Xingang Commandery.

At the beginning of the year, following the establishment of the Han Tribe's Coking Plant and Xingang Commandery, dozens of blast furnaces had worked day and night smelting steel. The Han Tribe's steel output had even reached a point of overcapacity for a time.

Luo Chong's research and development of cannons and shells consumed some of that steel