Chapter 48: Iron Mine

A cavalryman cost seventy Gold Nars per year. Maintaining the horse took at least ten Gold Nars. Weapons and armor cost at least ten Gold Nars. The soldier’s salary was also a cost. In the Florence Kingdom, a cavalryman earned one Gold Nar per month. That was twelve Gold Nars per year. Besides these, a cavalryman needed at least two support soldiers. The cost of these support soldiers was not as high as the cavalryman, but it was still a large amount over a year.

This did not include the value of the horse. It also did not include the horse loss rate. A qualified war horse cost at least thirty Gold Nars. In battle, horses often got hurt. This was another big expense.

Also, as a Pioneering Territory, all early supplies had to be transported from the homeland. This made the cost of a cavalryman much more than seventy Gold Nars. Sometimes it even doubled. So, maintaining a basic Knight Order of one thousand people in a Pioneering Territory required one hundred thousand Gold Nars.

This was just the military cost. Later, building the territory, recruiting people, or buying slaves cost no less than this. So, although pioneering a territory seemed very glorious, when actually doing it, one would find that without strong financial support, it was impossible to make any progress.

A Count’s annual income from his territory plus other income was only about one hundred thousand Gold Nars. How many Pioneering Nobles could afford this money? Even if they could come up with this much money, an investment needed returns. What were the returns from pioneering a territory? The biggest return was land. If they only farmed, it would take at least twenty years to get the money back.

Of course, some pioneering territories did not cost so much. But most of those territories were close to human cities. The wilderness tribes around were not many and were weak. They only needed a small army to protect the territory. The distance for transporting supplies was also short.

The number of Gold Nars spent was not high. But these places were already taken by others. These pioneering territories were not for anyone to take. For example, Su Lun’s Land Reclamation Decree clearly stated that he had to go more than three hundred miles away from Blackstone City to establish his territory. Otherwise, the Florence Kingdom had the right to take back the territory.

Those with the closest Land Reclamation Decree only needed to be fifty miles from Blackstone City. Of course, this kind of decree had limits. The territory range was only ten miles around.

Although close pioneering territories had many benefits, the territory was very small. More importantly, there were very few mineral resources. After all, near the city, valuable minerals were mostly already found.

Su Lun’s territory was far away, but there was no area requirement. Theoretically, if one was strong enough, one could keep expanding outward. But in reality, most could barely hold their territory. Expanding outward was a fool’s dream.

So, did anyone succeed? Yes, some lucky people who had great luck found gold mines or silver mines and other valuable minerals when pioneering their territory. Then, many Nobles or merchants would come to support them. They would help build the territory and provide supplies. They did this for the mining rights of the gold mines and other valuable minerals.

Some with protagonist halos even found Mithril Ore in silver mines. Then they got support from many Wizards. Mithril Ore was a very important magic metal. Its output was very small. Even in the Second Age, the age of the Elves, it was a very precious metal. Many powerful magic items made by Elves used Mithril.

The distribution of Mithril had no pattern. Also, the currently found Mithril Ore reserves were very small. Most Mithril Ore was a companion ore in silver mines. If a mine could produce ten ounces of Mithril per year, it could be called a rich mine. But such mines were too few.

Many mines that produced Mithril only produced three to five ounces per year in total.

If Su Lun’s territory found Mithril, then within three days, a group of Wizards would come to support him in pioneering the territory. He would have supplies if he wanted supplies. He would have Gold Nars if he wanted Gold Nars. The Wizards might even personally help.

But Mithril was something one could hope for but not expect. Su Lun did not think he had such good luck.

Now, the territory had to find a profit point quickly. It could be a gold mine, a silver mine, or even a copper mine or iron mine. Or the territory could find other resources. Then, relying on these resources, they could attract merchants to come and trade. With merchants, Su Lun could get various supplies and collect taxes. Then the territory would have income. Then, using these resources, they could slowly develop the territory.

After solving the external threats, Su Lun took several Barbarian Warriors to search for minerals in the territory. His target was an iron mine. When fighting these Gnolls, Goblins, Kobolds, and Trolls, Su Lun found that these wilderness tribes had a small number of iron tools.

Those iron tools were poorly made and of low quality. Some even had slag not removed. Even a blacksmith apprentice’s skill was better than this. But they were indeed iron tools. Not long ago, Su Lun had interrogated the prisoners and got the rough location of this iron mine. Then he took several Barbarian Warriors to search for the mineral deposit.

Speaking of Su Lun’s Barbarian Guard, they had all advanced to Barbarian Champions. A small half had even become Barbarian Greataxe Warriors. Any one of them could easily defeat a Knight Rank.

According to the information from the Gnoll prisoners, the iron mine was located northeast of the territory. It was about fifty miles from the camp. Su Lun and the others moved quickly. In two hours, they were near the target area.

To Su Lun’s surprise, the iron mine’s location was easy to find. After just a few rounds of patrolling the area, they found the iron mine. The iron mine was on a small hill. The hill was bare with little vegetation. From a distance, there was nothing special. But when they got closer, they found many digging marks on the other side of the slope.

When they arrived, they also found some Kobolds gathered there. Finding a mine and getting miners as a bonus—Su Lun naturally accepted this good fortune with a smile.

Su Lun casually picked up a stone from the ground. It felt slightly heavy. It had a reddish-brown surface. Without a doubt, it was an iron ore. And from its appearance, the quality of this iron ore was pretty good.

“I didn’t expect this to be an open-pit mine!” Looking at the mine before him, Su Lun was very excited. He knew that mines could be very different from one another. Some mines had rich reserves but were very difficult to mine, or even impossible to mine. Some were buried inside mountains or underground, requiring tunnels to be dug for mining.

The simplest was this kind of open-pit mine before him. There was no need to dig tunnels. They could start mining directly.