In the first month of winter, the Wood Elf village had already been thoroughly conquered by their Great Zhou's winter gear.
Was this winter really colder than in previous years?
In fact, it wasn't. It was just that the Wood Elves had now grown accustomed to the existence of winter clothing and heated stoves.
Once they had something to compare it to, the chill they had originally been able to endure gradually became unbearable.
It wasn't that the weather had grown colder, but that their tolerance for the cold had fallen.
The Wood Elves weren't the only ones who felt this way. In fact, the people of Great Zhou—and even Zhou Xu himself—more or less experienced the same thing.
Once one's living conditions improved, who could get used to returning overnight to the days before liberation?
However, comfortable days like these were destined to require a great deal of money to support them.
Let's set everything else aside and talk about the Smokeless Coal they burned every day. It was currently among the most expensive grades of coal in Great Zhou. The Wood Elves disliked inferior coal because its smoke irritated people, so they had gone on a massive purchasing spree for the highest-quality—and most expensive—Smokeless Coal on the market.
After winter began, the entire village had been using it, and the Smokeless Coal they had bought before winter was already nearly depleted.
If they wanted it to last until spring the following year, they would have to purchase more.
The cost of Smokeless Coal would most likely become the Wood Elves' biggest expense this winter!
Meanwhile, at the mining site in the basin forest, the first batch of ore extracted from the mine was officially transported out today and sent to the Military Equipment Forging Department in Xianyang City.