Upon arriving at the site chosen by Qian Bingrui, Zhou Tieyi looked around, nodded, and said, "This will do. Make preparations for a groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow. Today, see to it that the laborers are provided with plenty of meat in town."
With Zhou Tieyi’s approval, Qian Bingrui hurried to carry out the orders. During this process, Zhou Tieyi gathered the people he had assembled into a circle. He first pointed to the pig iron mill not far away—the largest iron mill in the vicinity of Mount Baiqi. Half of the pig iron produced there was used for constructing support structures within the mine shafts, while the other half was sold across the empire via "iron permits."
In Daxia, ordinary pig iron did not hold nearly the same status as it had in Zhou Tieyi’s previous life. Weapons forged from pig iron were only slightly harder than wooden ones in the hands of cultivators; only special metals rich in the Primordial Qi of Heaven and Earth were considered primary items under the state’s strict regulation. Because pig iron itself was not highly valued, the entire industry failed to benefit from top-tier technological advancements, and production costs had never truly been pushed down to a level that the common people could fully afford. Looking at the huts built by the actual miners along the way—mere shacks of mud walls—how could they possibly afford to use iron as structural support for their homes? Thus, pig iron was like coal: neither here nor there. Cultivators looked do…
Chapter 347