172 sluggish business

The North Gully Quarry is an open-pit iron ore mine located at the northernmost point of the North Gully. The catastrophic famine of the orc tribe www.biquge.info has continued since last autumn and has not improved. Everyone was looking forward to the spring hunt, when the hunters would bring back enough prey from the depths of the wasteland. But in such a Great Depression environment, the owner of the quarries in the North Gully, Horsens, is bitter.

A large number of refined iron ingots transported from the dwarf kingdom have greatly impacted the original mining industry on the plateau, although the sophistication of the iron tools of the orc tribe has been greatly improved, but countless metallurgical workshops have closed down under the impact of foreign refined iron ingots, and the North Valley Quarry is an exception, there is a rich iron ore here, and it is a very rare open-pit mine, this innate advantage, to a large extent, the mining cost is minimized, so the North Valley Quarry is in the western wilderness, the Orc tribe can survive one of the few mining and metallurgical mining。

However, the recent cataclysm made the already poor quarry even worse, and during this period, the owner of Horsens made a very bold decision, he submitted an application to the Elders of Gurudin Town to buy slaves, that is, to buy the gray dwarf prisoners of war who survived the war as slaves and returned to the mines as coolies.

This was originally a very sensational move of the Grudin's Presbyterian Church at the time, and with the support of the Blood Wolves in Gruuddin, a total of nearly a thousand gray dwarf prisoners of war were sold as slaves to Horsens. Soon after, the cataclysm spread to the entire orc tribe, and many tribes abandoned their plans to buy iron tools, and the mines of Horsens were under this premise. Gradually decaying.

The long winter has finally survived, and here is next to the bog of death. Hawkins was able to barely buy some sweet potatoes to survive during the winter, and the whole catastrophic famine came. The orc tribe on the edge of the Death Swamp is the happiest, and in that swamp full of unknown dangers, there are a large number of cheap sweet potatoes buried, and no hardworking orcs will starve to death.

It's just that this kind of good thing turned into a nightmare after the arrival of spring. The Death Swamp erupted in the strongest corpse tide in ten years, and the corpse tide swept the entire edge of the Death Swamp, and the tribes originally sent their best hunters to the depths of the wasteland to hunt demon antelopes. The corpse tide is coming.

These tribes on the edge of the swamp were originally very experienced in fighting these undead creatures. However, the sheer number of corpses has led many tribes to unite to wipe out zombies, and smaller tribes have been forced to leave the edge of the swamp, such as the Laitu tribe, which is one of the tribes forced to relocate.

For the quarry in the North Gully, the survival of all tribes on the edge of the swamp is in danger due to the invasion of corpses, and Horsens has no source of food, and more than 300 strong orcs and more than 1,500 gray dwarf slaves in the quarry consume huge amounts of food every day. For this reason, Horsens almost exhausted his family's funds, and transported all the boxes of demonic iron ore accumulated before to Gurudin Town to sell them in exchange for a large amount of black flour.

Soon, the infestation spread to the surrounding area of the quarry. To make matters worse, the road to Gurudin is full of swamp zombies, blocking the road from the North Gulf Quarry to Gurudin, although there are nearly three hundred strong orcs in the Hawkins Quarry. But a large part of the orcs had to watch over the 1,500 gray dwarves, and it was no problem to defend the quarry from being attacked by the zombie tide. But trying to open the passage from the quarry to Gurudin, it was not enough.

Before Kuz led the Raitu tribe to the Quarry of the North Gully. Horsens had sent three groups of orcs into Yelian Mountain in search of something to eat, and the coke in the quarries had run out, and the metallurgical workshops had completely stopped. It is also the task of these orc teams to enter Yelian Mountain to cut down trees and coke, but these orc teams have not returned so far.

Recently, there have been cases of grey dwarf slaves falling ill and dying due to their prolonged physical weakness.

When Horsens heard that Kuz had led the orc warriors all the way to clean up the swamp zombies, he came from Gurudin. And the purpose of Kuz's visit this time is to disperse the tide of corpses on the edge of the swamp and re-establish a new home for the Laitu tribe in Drowned. I came to the North Gully Quarry to customize ten large iron pots and a set of special tools.

Sitting on the wooden box, Horsens finally saw a glimmer of hope in the quarry, and proposed that before Kuz regained the drowned moor, he could talk about the old and young of the tribe to settle in the quarry, and the quarry could ensure their safety, so that Kuz and the orc warriors could eliminate the zombies without worry. However, one thing is that the current situation is special, and you have to bring your own food, because the quarry itself has run out of food.

Kuzi and I both glanced at each other with surprise on our faces, and said with eye contact: This trip to the North Gully Valley is really the right one, and there should never be any problems in terms of safety if these tribes, young and old, who don't have any fighting ability, settle here. The Death Scythe incident has made me and Kuz clearly understand the horror of undead creatures, for the old and young orcs in these tribes, there is really no need to follow our team every day to be afraid, once there are terrible ghost creatures like the Death Scythe again, if they want to kill a few orcs in the dark, we have no power to stop them.

"If you warriors want to go to the drowning area to rid the swamp zombies there, I have a reluctant request. Horsens sat on the wooden box and said, at this time his eyes looked a little unnaturally towards the center of the cave, and Asakusa, the maid of Kuz, was squatting on the ground in a linen robe, propping up an iron pot, and casually spread the fire-gathering scroll in his arms under the stove, and the raging flames suddenly burst out from under the stove.

During this time, the orcs had long been accustomed to using magic scrolls, and they were extremely proficient in using them. Horsens is probably a little unaccustomed to our extravagance!

Kuzi coughed lightly, and then asked calmly: "If there is anything that the Lord of Horsens said, as long as we of the Laytu tribe can do it, we will not postpone it." To be able to allow the young and old of the tribe to settle here temporarily, we are very grateful to the owner of Horsens for this friendship. The Raytu tribe knows how to be grateful. ”

Soon Horsens noticed that everyone was looking at him, and with some embarrassment, he withdrew his gaze and said to Kuz, "I would like to send a team to follow the leader of Kuz into the drowning pool." Now that all the food in the quarry has been eaten, I thought if I could follow your tribesmen into the drowning pool. Maybe you can dig some sweet potatoes in the swamp and bring them back. ”

"In return for that, the ten large iron cauldrons I gave to the chief of the Kuz!" Horsens added at last.

Soon Kutz bluntly agreed, and then invited Horsens to dine with him in the cave, which Horsens refused to do anyway. As the host, Horsens was very sad if he failed to entertain Kuzi properly, and at this time, Kuzi invited him to dinner, and he was even more unable to get off the stage.

However, Kutz soon sensed Horsens' embarrassment, so he said: "It's not just eating, our brother has other things to discuss with the owner!"

It was only then that Horsens noticed that I had been sitting next to Kuz, but by this time the water in the soup pot in the center of the cave had boiled, and Asakusa had thrown the grilled sausages into it. I put some black flour to boil into a big pot of viscous porridge, and finally put some meat floss, and poured all the sweet potatoes brought by Horsens into the pot, and my head instantly became larger.

I've always been very disgusted with Asakusa's cooking.,This girl is good everywhere.,The appearance is considered to be upper-middle.,The figure is excellent.,I can accept the silent character.,Even if it's cold, I'm used to this poker face.。 But I was absolutely terrified of her cooking skills, I really didn't know how Kuz survived this period of time, and I didn't even have the courage to taste it when I saw the big pot of batter porridge like pig food in the center of the cave.

Instead, it was the orcs from the quarries beside Horsens. His eyes were fixed on the iron pot wafting with the smell of meat, and he kept swallowing saliva into his stomach.

"Just in time, I asked the owner to make do with some food. We also had black flour with us. Although I didn't carry much, I still had enough to eat. We can give some to the owner, and our brother would like to ask the owner to help make a set of tools. Go back and let Jia tell you. Kuz was the first to take a large wooden bowl from Asakusa, and my face turned green when I saw the bowl full of black batter.

I quickly stood up and said to Kuz, "I'll go get the drawings!"

Without waiting for Kuz to reply, he ran out of the cave in a puff of smoke. After a long time of deliberate grinding, I returned to Kuz with a roll of parchment, and sure enough, this terrible dark meal was over, and I was secretly glad that I had escaped this catastrophe when I saw that the batter porridge in the iron pot had been eaten completely.

At this time, the orcs around Horsens seemed to be so stretched that they couldn't even speak, and they didn't dare to bend down when they licked their stomachs.

Kuzi hurriedly said to Horsens on the side: "Jia has already brought back the drawings, so let's talk to the owner of Horsens about our thoughts first!"

"Although there are some gray dwarf smiths in our workshop, they are not willing to work with real skills, and these stubborn dwarves would rather go to the mines to dig stones than make iron in the workshops. At the moment, it is not possible to carve patterns on iron in the workshop!"

At this time, I had already unfolded the drawing, showing the sieve-like utensils drawn inside, which roughly looked like a large iron pot below, and on top of the iron pot was an iron support, on which hung a circular funnel, and the bottom of the funnel was covered with round holes, and there was a funnel with flat holes on the side. Actually, the tools for making vermicelli are very simple, I just want to customize a large set. Making vermicelli is very simple, as long as the sweet potato is crushed and filtered out of the starch slurry, and the starch slurry is boiled into a paste and put into a funnel, the starch paste flows into the hot water pot below along the holes of the funnel in strips, and the vermicelli is fished out and dried.

The reason why vermicelli is made is because the people of the Grimm Empire have always believed that sweet potatoes are the food eaten by slaves, and this concept is deeply rooted in everyone's hearts and is difficult to change. However, there are a large number of sweet potatoes growing on the Pai Plateau, and the tribal orcs in some places only grow this simple crop, and there are large areas of wild sweet potatoes naturally growing on the edge of the Death Swamp, these resources can be used, but it is difficult to turn these sweet potatoes into golden coins.

I was a bit of a glutton, and for a while I missed the hot potato flour in those days when I was freezing in the mountains of Neusiacis. Remember in a past life. Find a small shop and call a casserole. There is a pot of potato flour boiled in a prepared broth, and the owner will put some vegetables, kelp, fish balls, quail eggs, and luncheon meat slices in it. If you like spicy food, you can also add a spoonful of red spicy seeds, which makes me unforgettable.

I haven't heard of potatoes in this world, but I discovered sweet potatoes, although this thing is very difficult to eat when boiled, very astringent, and if you eat too much, you will be numb and speechless. But after the pulping, the starch is filtered out, and the vermicelli is made into vermicelli, which is completely devoid of the sweet potato itself, and I found that the Grimm Empire people in the caravan of the steward of Le Yipas are especially fond of these vermicelli.

Officially, Kuz and I came up with the idea of making vermicelli. It is in order to be able to realize this idea. We're going to drown.

"It's not difficult! It will be done very quickly. "Horsens took a look at the drawings I had drawn, and he thought they were drawing on the parchment with some magic patterns or something, but he didn't expect it to be a strange cauldron. Although I don't understand the function of this pot, I know that it is not difficult to do.

I unfolded the second picture, which actually showed a round oil drum with a capacity of about 20 liters, and the only difficulty was to have a seal and a buckle cap, and the oil drum should be as light and thin as possible.

Seeing the round oil drum, Horsens hesitated and didn't speak for a long time.

Kuzi said directly: "It doesn't matter if you can't do this. It should be possible in Gurudin's blacksmith's workshop!"

Horsens raised an eyebrow and hesitated before saying, "It's not that our workshop can't make it, on the contrary, I've done this thing before." ”

Kuz and I looked at each other in surprise. The heart said: Could it be that some orcs have thought of using this method to fill the corpse fire oil before?

"This bucket is for water!" Horsens continued, "and the idea was to use it instead of a bladder for water, like a clay pot." This thing is more convenient than a clay pot, and it can be set up on a fire to burn. But after making it. Only to find out that there is a very serious problem, that is, these iron passes will rust. As long as it is filled with water, it will not take long for the bucket to rust and leak, and then we also thought of using raw lacquer to prevent rust, but in that case, this bucket is no different from the wooden barrel clay pot, but has a smell of lacquer. ”

Listening to Horsens say this, you know that he is a very clever businessman, but he was a little unlucky and did not come up with a way to prevent rust, otherwise I would have estimated that Horsens's iron barrels would have been all over the Pai Plateau.

Kuzi hurriedly asked: "How much does it cost to build a barrel like this?"

"One hundred and eighty copper plates!" said Horsens without even thinking about blurting it out, it seemed that he was right, he must have done it.

Kuz and I exchanged glances and wanted to discuss how many oil drums we needed to customize when we first started making corpse fire oil.

Seeing that we were not talking, Horsens thought we were too expensive, so he explained: "To make this bucket thin, it must be made of good mild steel, and it will take at least half a day for the blacksmith to knock a piece......

"I'm going to make five hundred!" said Kutz, reaching out and spreading his fingers.

"Uh, what......" Horsens asked in confusion for a moment.

I added, "He meant to make 500 of these buckets, but make sure you put them on the lid." And these tools, materials and small parts, I don't know if you have ...... here."

Then, I handed a list of materials to the owner of the Horsens, which contained all kinds of things, including nails, steel bars, shovels, hoes, wheelbarrows, hinges, I-beams, etc., and the thick stack of drawings made the owners of the Horsens field dizzy, many of these things had never been done, so it was difficult to price, and the owners of the Horsens farms frowned.

In the end, Horsens couldn't answer, so he tentatively asked, "Do you want to build a castle?"

"We are going to rebuild the Raytu tribe, and since we are rebuilding, we will simply build it stronger. I replied, looking at Horsens' hesitant look, thinking that he was worried about money, so I untied the mouth of the money bag, revealing the yellow, orange and orange gold coins inside, and said with a grin, "We have enough gold coins." ”

Horsens waved his hand again and again, and said with some embarrassment: "If it is to rebuild the tribal manor, in fact, I have a more affordable way!"

We both stared at Horsens curiously, and the owner of the quarry who was in a difficult situation finally hesitated for a long time before saying: "If you want to build a house, you must need a lot of labor, why don't you buy some strong slaves to do such hard labor, I have a group of gray dwarf slaves here, they are very good at building masonry buildings, of course they are better at mining and blacksmithing, if you buy a group of such slaves back, you only need to buy iron ore from me......"

As a result, the list of deals with Horsens became 1,300 grey dwarf slaves, the catalyst for refining corpse oil, blue alum crystal sand, five hundred oil drums, and a set of pots and pans for making vermicelli.

Each strong Grey Dwarf slave will sell for more than one gold coin in the trading grounds of Gruuddin, and a Grey Dwarf slave with a forging skill is worth even more, at least three gold coins. Horsens was probably disheartened, and the quarry's slump made him think about selling the Grey Dwarf slaves early on. But in such a time of great famine, who can afford to buy it?

Horsens really can't afford to raise these gray dwarf slaves who can eat and sleep now, even if they don't go down to the mine to mine, they have to eat at least one cart of sweet potatoes every day, but now the orcs in the quarry can't eat sweet potatoes, and these gray dwarves are naturally out of food for several days.

If Horsens couldn't figure out a solution to the food problem, it wouldn't be long before the Grey Dwarves starved to death in the shed, which was one of the main reasons why Horsens decided to sell the Grey Dwarf slaves. Another reason is the slump in the quarry, where the ore in the open field is piled up.

Kuzi and I want to buy some gray dwarf slaves, now the Laytu tribe is basically composed of orcs and children, even if the tribe's orcs are strong, it is impossible to replace the strong men to work, rebuilding the Laytu tribe requires a lot of manpower and material resources, it is a good idea to buy some slaves.

Finally, when it came to the price of the slaves, Horsens stretched out a hand and spread five fingers.

"Fifty silver hammers apiece!"

This was the last straw that broke the camel's back, and the cheap price made Kuz finally decide to buy the slaves.

In addition, Horsens agreed to arrange for the orcs in the mines to send the gray dwarf slaves to the drowning berth, and also gave Kuz some building materials for free, such as the poor iron ore on the side of the road in the quarry. Of course, on the way to drown the grey dwarf slaves, we need to take care of the food for the orcs in the mines, and I have to say that Horsens is a very calculating businessman. (To be continued.) )