Manganese steel was one of the most suitable alloy steels for making rails, but the Han Tribe had none. The area around Xingang Commandery was full of magnetite, while Eight Treasures Mountain also had some iron ore—but it was all pyrite unsuitable for iron smelting, otherwise known as iron sulfide.
At present, manganese iron ore had only been discovered in the Tang Tribe's territory, which created a huge problem.
Setting aside whether the Tang Tribe was willing, even if they agreed, the Han Tribe still couldn't make it work.
After mining the Tang Tribe's iron ore, they would have to load it onto ships and send it north to Xingang Commandery for smelting. The transport process alone would take two months. Even if they had Flying Fish Express Ships in the future, it would still take around twenty days. That would drive up the cost.
If they wanted to lower the cost, the best solution would be to build an iron smelter and steel mill locally and produce the steel on-site. However, the Tang Tribe had no coal, which meant they had no coke for steelmaking. So, if they wanted to set up a factory in the south, they would still have to transport coke there from the north.
Therefore, no matter how they calculated it, the Han Tribe would have to make one north-to-south transport run to meet the production needs of heavy-duty steel rails.
This was simply too difficult!
That was why Luo Chong was considering whether to abandon the original heavy-haul railway construction plan. It wasn't that he truly wanted to give up; it was that the current plan looked unprofitable from every angle. Besides, the Han Tribe didn't actually need heavy-load trains that badly. Toy Trains would work just as well.
At worst, they could make