Luo Ning had already thought it through. As long as the idea of making armor and weapons from black ironwood could be realized, he would first equip every guard in the territory with a full set, strengthening their defense and combat ability.
Although ordinary guards were of little use against transcendents.
The number of transcendents was limited, after all. When both sides were evenly matched, ordinary guards could still play a crucial role.
And one must not forget that barbarian tribes lived in both Wubei Forest and Wudong Forest. If Luo Ning wanted to conquer them, then after eliminating their transcendents, matters such as management and control would still need to be handled by ordinary guards. Strengthening their combat power was absolutely necessary.
Of course, that was all for later.
What Luo Ning was considering now was that if Carpenter William could bring out the value of black ironwood as expected, he would establish an Ironwood Workshop to fully produce ironwood armor and weapons, while gradually attempting to sell them externally.
Although craftsmen were paid rather well—skilled carpenters like William generally earned a daily wage of between ten and twenty, even more than the castle steward—the value they could create was not low.
Luo Ning had considered that, aside from carpenters, the Ironwood Workshop would also need to recruit several strong young men as lumberjacks.
Black Iron Trees were not ordinary trees. For ordinary people, cutting them down would definitely be exhausting work, and the lumberjacks had to be physically strong enough. The investment in this area would not be small either.
Besides that, Luo Ning also had to prepare iron tools such as axes, machetes, and saws. He could not possibly expect lumberjacks to slowly grind through Black Iron Trees with Stone Axes or bone knives, could he?
Therefore,