Later, in order to avoid being hated by the soldiers' council, Laos, a shrewd weapon merchant from Turiyi, took the initiative to unite with the Legion Weapons Shop and handed over the excellent weapons produced to the Legion Weapons Shop for sale, so that the Legion Weapons Shop, which had been in decline in the kingdom's weapons market competition, was revitalized, and soon opened branches in various towns and cities in the kingdom within a few years, half of its employees were disabled soldiers, and their salaries were not low.

But Aristagras made a difficult choice – to start a business. He chose the industry he used to work in - stone mining, he asked his comrades to raise money everywhere, and with the strong support of the soldiers' committee, he brought a few disabled soldiers who were willing to work with him to the Ministry of Commerce, hoping to contract a stone mine.

After the establishment of Dionia, a resolution was passed: the minerals in the territory could not be sold to merchants, only they were allowed to contract, and important mines were not only to be auctioned, but also to be supervised by the Ministry of Commerce for a specified number of years after they were obtained, and neither allowed to produce too low nor to exploit excessively, so as to ensure that their annual share to the kingdom was constant.

The Ministry of Commerce finally agreed to let Aristaglas contract a stone mine in Lucania, not because he was a disabled soldier and should be taken care of, but because the stone mine was located in the middle of the mountains, inconvenient to transport, not abundant, and it was a limestone mine, and no businessman was willing to take over, so the Ministry of Commerce let him contract at a lower price, and only gave him a one-year contract, just with the mentality of trying it out.

Unexpectedly, after Arista Grass took over, he overcame many difficulties, not only did the production of the stone increase greatly, but also sold it at a good price (at that time, the Lucania region had belonged to Dionya for several years, and after a vigorous cultural diffusion, the local people had gradually accepted the Dyrian way of life, living in Greek-style houses, and building the temple of Hades needed a lot of limestone).

As a result, Aristaglas gained a lot of wealth and won the trust of the Ministry of Commerce, and he built on it, and with disabled soldiers as his backbone, he became a well-known stone merchant in the kingdom's stone market.

Four years ago, he did not join the Turii Chamber of Commerce organized by Laos and went to the Latin War Zone, because he had just contracted the Turii Stone Mine, which was of great significance to him and the kingdom, and he needed to solve all the complicated affairs one by one, and he could not spare time to go to Latinum, not to mention that there were no stone mines in the Latin area.

Today, he is a well-known stone merchant in the kingdom, and there is a group of shrewd and capable subordinates, and there is no longer a need for him to personally go to the mine to supervise and command, but this time the project to rebuild the main temple of Hades has a very significant impact, and the kingdom administration office issued an order that the marble mines needed for the temple are mainly provided by the Turiyi stone mine (because the stone mine is close, the cost is small, and it is not easy to damage), and also provides all the slaves of the kingdom of Turiyi to the stone mine to ensure that enough stone is provided for the construction of the temple in a short time. Because of this, Aristagras felt a great responsibility, and he dared to ignore it, and he was present at the scene every day, for fear that something would go wrong.

Aristagras first saluted the soldiers escorting the slaves and said earnestly: "Good work, brothers! ”

Then he asked the foremen, "What team do you belong to?" How many slaves did you bring? ”

The foremen reported the number and number of their formations, and Aristagras's men picked up the planks, checked them, and said, "Come with me." ”

The foremen led the slaves into the mine, and Arista Grass stood at the entrance chatting with the officers and waiting for the subsequent slaves to enter, until he was sure that all the kingdom slaves had arrived and that the number was matched, and then he said to his men, "Go and bring in our slaves and pack carts." ”

The subordinate responded, and did not leave immediately, but reminded: "Chief, according to the judgment of several old sailors, it is very likely that there will be heavy rain in Turiyi tomorrow, just in case, we must transport all the stones in the mine today, otherwise if it really rains heavily, the ground in the mine will become slippery and muddy, and it will become very difficult and dangerous to transport the stones." ”

Aristagas was well aware of the difficulty of mining ore and transporting it, and he immediately decided: "I will consult with Bloss [the officer who is in charge of transporting the slaves today] to extend the working hours of the slaves as long as possible, so that all the stones can be transported today." ”

After speaking, he remembered one more thing, and said, "You can take the time to go to the engineering academy of the Dionian Academy, contact the scholars there, and say that they have agreed to the matter they mentioned last time about building railroad tracks to transport ore, and when we are done with the matter of providing stones for the main temple of Hades, we will invite them to come here and do it...... Well, it's called a trial, as they call it. ”

"Whoever makes rails to transport ore?" The subordinates were a little puzzled, obviously not knowing about it.

"What's the specific situation?,I don't know too much.,After you get to the school park,Consult those scholars in detail.。 Aristagrass said with an impatient wave.

The Dioonian Lyceum Engineering Academy was established shortly after the end of the Western Mediterranean War, and most of the scholars came from the original Faculty of Mathematics, which is a discipline that puts theoretical science into practice, mainly responsible for the design of public buildings and various equipment. The construction of railroad tracks and minecarts came from the idea that Davers stumbled upon while inspecting the newly established college and talking to scholars, who made it one of the most important research topics for the new college to expand its influence.

Corsica and Sardinia belonged to the kingdom, and the entire Etruscan alliance with Dionya gave the kingdom an abundant supply of iron ore and solved the problem of resources, and Laos was willing to produce this special, high-quality railroad track, but it was more difficult to find a mineral merchant who was willing to cooperate, because the upfront investment was very large, mainly to spend a lot of money to buy enough rails (iron is not cheap in the kingdom, even if a few years ago some new territories with rich iron ore resources were obtained, But the difficulty of mining and transportation has undoubtedly pushed up its cost).

The scholars of the Academy of Engineering had consulted with Aristaglas several times, and he had been a little hesitant, but after taking over the task of providing stones for the main temple of Hades during this time, due to the tight time and heavy tasks, he had already lost seven or eight pack oxen and more than a dozen private slaves injured just by transporting ore to the main temple of Turiine, and he finally made up his mind to cooperate with the Academy of Engineering to improve the problem of transportation difficulties.

After making this important decision, he also felt a lot of pressure in his heart, and wondered if he could find a huge loan from Christoya's bank to relieve the shortage of funds, after all, according to the scholars of the Academy of Engineering, this is a very important research and invention in the kingdom, and the king of Dioonia also attaches great importance to it.

But before that, he had to do something else, and he turned to the other of his men and said, "You go to the port in a moment, book a passenger ship for me first, and if it really rains heavily tomorrow, I will go to Syracuse and inspect the stone mines there, after all, they are also responsible for supplying the limestone for the main temple, and there must be no mistake!" (Syracuse has the richest open-pit limestone resources in the entire Western Mediterranean, and Arista Grass has contracted the rights to one of the quarries.)

…………………………………………

Massimus brought 50 slaves to the mining area they were in charge of, and did not start immediately, but had to make a good judgment first, where to start mining, which had to be decided by him as the captain, if the initial location was chosen well, the next mining would be smoother, and there would be fewer casualties, which required the captain to have rich mining experience and vision.

The reason why Massimus was the foreman's most trusted captain was that he was very organized, not to judge on the fly, but to prepare for today's mining at the end of yesterday, a habit he had developed during his several terms as a Roman mayor.

The huge, flat rock in front of them had been poked out of several vertical and horizontal straight grooves, forming a rectangular stone outline.

At this time, Massimus had six slaves climb the rock on a wooden ladder, and in pairs, he hammered the dry wooden wedges into the trench with a wooden hammer, and when all the trenches were already embedded in the dense wood chips, the rock cracked slightly along the trench.

Massimus immediately ordered the slaves who had brought the jugs to pour water on the wooden wedges, and the water flowed into the trenches and soaked the wooden wedges, which swelled and swelled and became larger and larger, and the rock was stressed, making the cracks in the trenches bigger and bigger, and this process took some time.

Meanwhile, Massimus wasted no time, and after carefully observing the rock next to him, he began to take a tape measure and draw an outline line on the rock with an ink pen, and then several slaves took a board brush (with a chainsaw embedded in the board) and brushed back and forth along the outline, finally chiseling it out of a deeper groove.

At this time, the crack of the rock next to it became wider and deeper under the continuous expansion of the water-absorbing wooden wedge.

Feeling that the heat was almost over, Massimus sent five more slaves, each of them with a slender and sturdy wooden crowbar, which they inserted into the crack between the wedges, and began to pry the stones out with great force, which was an extremely laborious and difficult process. After several waves of slaves and a few broken poles, the stone finally separated from the rock.