Emperor: When will the Seventh Prince rebel? I will open the city gates to welcome him.

"Qilin Guards, listen to my orders!"

Hongxuan said while looking at his Qilin Guards.

The thousand Qilin guards in front of him bowed and obeyed his orders.

"Subordinates obey orders!"

"I order you to split into two groups! Gather all the blacksmiths in the Northern Yan land!"

The thousand Qilin Guards followed the order.

Divide into two groups

With the cooperation of the grain officials in various counties, Hongxuan quickly gathered seventy-eight blacksmiths.

These blacksmiths are considered all the blacksmiths in Beiyan.

Hongxuan was looking at these blacksmiths in the hall and felt unsure.

If we don't get the location of the iron ore from them, then we will have to search for it aimlessly in the most stupid way.

This will not only waste time, but also energy.

Therefore, Hongxuan attached great importance to this opportunity to ask questions.

The blacksmiths under the hall were all terrified. They were originally ordinary people and had never seen such a magnificent hall with carved dragons, painted buildings and golden splendor.

"I summoned you all here because I have something to ask you!"

The blacksmiths below were horrified when they heard this.

A sturdy blacksmith bowed to the King of Zhenbei and said

"I am a humble commoner, and I am not worthy of your advice, Your Majesty."

Zhenbei King Hongxuan sat high on the throne and said in a gentle tone:

"This king now commands the northern border!"

"Before we came here, the Northern Shang cavalry was stationed outside the northern border, and they were eyeing our Great Feng Kingdom covetously!"

"Now! Now that I have arrived, I will not allow them to do this any longer. I must completely eliminate these hidden dangers and bring peace and tranquility to the people of Dafeng!"

"What can I do? Now I am in urgent need of iron ore to forge composite crossbows and iron crossbow arrows."

When the blacksmiths in the hall heard about iron mine, they finally understood why King Zhengbei summoned them here.

These iron mines all come from ordinary people.

They naturally knew that the Beishang Kingdom's cavalry was eyeing them covetously.

"I summoned you all here because I want to ask you if anyone knows where there are iron ore veins in the territory of Beiyan."

Inside the hall, the blacksmiths started chatting with each other.

"King Zhenbei summoned us here just to ask us where we have iron ore!"

"Yeah, yeah, I thought they were going to arrest us, but it turns out they were just asking us about the iron mine!"

"That's right, you made me worry so much that I even asked for your wife and children in the future!"

Hongxuan listened to the discussions in the hall but did not stop them.

He knows the importance of free speech.

In a class society ruled by the monarchy.

The people were very afraid of the king.

After half a minute, Hongxuan interrupted their conversation:

"Does anyone among the people of Dafeng know?"

A tall and thin blacksmith came forward and prostrated himself on the ground:

"Reporting to the Prince of Zhenbei, most of the iron ore in my blacksmith shop was transported from Xichuan!"

"There is no iron ore production in the land of Beiyan yet!"

After the tall and thin blacksmith said this, the other blacksmiths nodded.

"Prince Zhenbei, some of the materials used by our blacksmiths to make ironware come from the discarded iron in Xichuan, which is used to reforge ironware. As for the land of Beiyan, I have never heard of iron mines being produced there."

Hong Xuan, sitting high on the throne, looked thoughtful and thoughtful:

"No iron ore?"

Of course Hongxuan didn't believe it.

Because he knew that iron was the most common and most abundant element in the entire metal chain.

The color of iron ore varies depending on its type. In addition to the common black magnetite, there is also cherry red or liver-colored hematite, brown limonite, bright gray ilmenite, bluish-gray siderite, and pyrite, which is often mistaken for gold.

Of course, pyrite does contain trace amounts of gold.

The more colorful the iron ore is, the more rare metals such as gold and silver it contains, as well as copper.

Hongxuan didn't even think that the people of this era could really distinguish the color of iron ore.

He said to the blacksmiths in the hall:

"What color is the iron ore that you blacksmiths obtained from Xichuan? How do you distinguish it from iron ore?"

The tall and thin blacksmith responded respectfully:

"Reporting to King Zhenbei, the iron ore we purchased from Xichuan is bright black!"

"To tell whether it is iron ore, you need to see whether it has natural magnetism!"

Hongxuan understood.

The blacksmiths in these smithies can only distinguish one color, and it is obvious that these blacksmiths do not know that there are other colors of iron ore.

Of course, only the King of Zhenbei who has the memories of his previous life can know this knowledge.

It seems that his attempt to use blacksmiths to search for iron ore in Beiyan failed.

Just when Hongxuan wanted to send all these blacksmiths back, a young blacksmith suddenly stepped out and spoke to King Zhenbei.

"King of Zhenbei! I, I found a reddish-brown stone on Mount Mangdang. It's very hard. I wonder if it can be considered iron ore!"

As soon as the young blacksmith finished speaking, the other older blacksmiths all laughed.

"Waitress Liu, do you have any common sense? Iron ore is bright black, how can it be reddish brown? Don't mistake the stone for iron ore!"

The blacksmiths in the hall were all laughing at Liu Wazi.

Liu Wazi was not angry, he just scratched his head, he also knew that iron ore is bright black, there is no reddish brown iron ore.

However, the reddish-brown ore he encountered was too hard and could be used as a sharp weapon after being broken into pieces.

When Hongxuan, who was sitting on the high seat, heard the news, he was stunned at first, and then he was overjoyed.

Other people don’t know that reddish-brown iron ore is iron ore formed after iron oxidation, but Hongxuan knows.

Hongxuan, who had originally had no hope, then his eyes lit up.

Hongxuan has suppressed his excitement:

"Your name is Liu Wazi, right?"

"Yes, my Lord, my name is Liu Wazi!"

The young blacksmith said:

"My father was seriously ill at home, so he didn't come. I came here in his place!"

Hongxuan looked at Liu Wazi and said:

"Waitress Liu, where did you see the reddish-brown iron ore?"

Liu Wazi said seriously:

"The prince is in Mangdang Mountain, which is about 200 kilometers away from us!"

"There are several mountains with stones like this!"

Hongxuan was overjoyed when he heard this. If there was reddish-brown iron oxide ore between several mountains, then the reserves for iron making would be truly astonishing.

"Hahaha, great, great!" Hongxuan couldn't help but say happily.

"If it is really the sharp reddish-brown ore you said, then I will reward you with a thousand gold coins! Not only that, I will also give you ten acres of good farmland and ten good horses!"

Although Hongxuan knew that this little bit of stuff was nothing, if there really were a few mountains full of iron ore, then even if he gave this young blacksmith tens of thousands of gold, thousands of acres of fertile land, and tens of thousands of horses, it would be very, very worthwhile.

The young blacksmith Liu Wazi stood there in a daze.

"Why don't you kneel down and thank me, you idiot? What are you doing?"

A fellow blacksmith reminded him.

Liu Wazi reacted and knelt down to pay his respects:

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your reward! Thank you, Your Highness, for your reward!" Liu Wazi knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

"No need to do that, please stand up quickly! I will now appoint you as a resource and mining officer, are you willing?"

The young iron ore boy hurriedly said:

"Your Majesty! I didn't find the real iron ore. I'm not sure if it's the real iron ore."

"If I have deceived the prince, I beg the prince not to punish me. My uncles all think that it is not iron ore because iron ore is black!"

Liu Wazi did not dare to accept the official position and benefits.