It is a small canyon basin with a radius of nearly twenty miles, surrounded by high mountains. At the foot of the mountain, there are many primeval forests. Because it is difficult to be spotted and there are no people around, it is like a primeval forest.

To build a house here, wood does not need to be brought in from outside. Inside the wood, enough to last for decades.

From some rotten tree stumps, it can be seen that this place was once burned by heavenly fire. Otherwise! It is possible that the original area of the forest is larger and older.

Above the basin, there is a natural pond. The area of the pond is not large, more than a dozen acres. During the rainy season, the reservoir can store a lot of water. On weekdays, keep the stream flowing downstream.

Underneath the pond is a wide, flat land. The land is fertile, and dry crops can be grown in high places. In low places, aquatic crops can be grown. For example! Crops like rice.

"You can feed thousands of people here!"

After inspecting the terrain, Bai Gui sighed.

I thought to myself: it's better to live in seclusion here, than that mound in front of the grove.

What if you had discovered it first? He definitely wanted to build a castle here.

But that's fine! Now you can put the smelter and the foundry, all here.

You can station troops here, and at critical moments, you can also come in and hide to avoid risks.

The three caves of the cunning rabbit can be turned into a hidden hiding place and treasure hiding place.

Under the advice of experts, the first thing to do is to build roads, dig smelting furnaces and other infrastructure.

In the past, the smelting furnace was not a furnace made of any kind. But! In a well-ventilated and insulated place, dig a pit from the ground to make a natural large melting furnace, and then build a refractory liner around the melting furnace. Later! The ore is placed in this inner tank and melted at high temperatures.

Underneath the inner tank is a heated stove. Around the stove are ventilation ducts.

At the bottom of the inner tank, that is, at the bottom of the melting furnace, there is an outlet for the molten mineral product (molten iron). Underneath the outlet, is the mold slot.

Estimate how much "molten iron" this furnace can melt, and prepare as many mold slots as possible. In general, it is better to prepare more in case of accidents.

Because! Once the opening for the molten iron is opened, it can no longer be blocked.

After filling a mold slot, quickly pull the mold slot apart, and then put the prepared empty slot, and so on.

Because the furnace needs to be heated and the temperature is raised, it is necessary to have good ventilation conditions. So! Furnaces are generally placed in a well-ventilated place. Other than that! Artificial ventilation is also required.

Artificial ventilation, that is, the use of bellows to create wind. It is a large bellows, not the kind of bellows in the blacksmith shops of later generations, and the kind of large bellows that are generally pulled by several people. Under the breath of the bellows, a powerful suction force can be generated, allowing the air to breathe.

In one breath, it can blow out an ordinary small fire. That's the only way! In order to make the combustible matter fully and quickly, in order to increase the temperature of the furnace, in order to reach the temperature required for smelting.

The volume of the smelting scientific research test furnace does not need to be large. Because it is used for experiments, it is dangerous. So! Generally, the test furnace is built in a hidden place. Even if it explodes, it will not hurt anyone.

So! Generally, the test furnace is built in a cave with good ventilation conditions.

Here, there is a mountain that runs north-south. At the lower end of the mountain, there are many small natural caves.

"Here! We can build it into dozens of test furnaces. An old expert introduced.

"We use the mountain directly to build a furnace, and even if there is an accident, it will not hurt people, let alone destroy other furnaces."

Under the introduction of this old expert, Bai Gui couldn't stop nodding, feeling that it was really a natural smelting factory.

After planning the smelting side, everyone went to find the site of the foundry again.

The furnace in the foundry is much smaller. Just melt one mold or several molds at a time.

On the foundry side, furnaces are not a problem. The key technical activity is: molding.

The molten iron melted in the furnace is mainly used to test the mold. Once the mold is successfully made, it can be directly placed on the side of the smelting furnace and directly cast the finished product.

But! Some products require a combination of several metals to be successfully cast. And the furnace over there just melts some kind of ore.

For example, copper, the smelting furnace simply melts the copper ore to smelt pure copper. Later generations of bronze and other different varieties of copper were all melted twice, and other metals were added to it to form different copper varieties.

So! On the foundry side, a large number of furnaces are required.

And then! According to the data from the smelting test furnace, the melting is carried out. And then! Cast into molds to produce different products.

So! On the foundry side, a lot of space, a lot of workers and technicians are needed.

After expert arguments, finally! Still, it was decided to choose a suitable mountain and build the furnace inside the mountain. The foundry workshop is placed in the greenhouse outside. Workers and technicians, living on one side of the dormitory.

In order to allow workers and technicians to work with peace of mind, it is natural to arrange for family members to be stationed. Furthermore! Whether it is a worker or a technician, logistics are needed.

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes, and where there are people, there must be women and children! Where there are women and children, there is joy and the original of life.

After returning from the smelting base camp, Bai Gui got busy! Right now! There's that feeling of being left in ruins, and everything is starting from scratch. He has money, but manpower is really nervous.

Right now! It takes a lot of manpower to build roads. If the road is blocked, the ore and coal will not be used.

Secondly! It is to build a furnace.

Building a furnace is a technical job, and without a certain amount of technology, this work cannot be done. If you don't have a certain brain, you can't do this job either. If the workers are disobedient, they will not be able to do it either.

And then there's the idea: building a house.

Once the smelting base camp was settled, countless houses needed to be built to ensure the livelihood of specialists and technicians. Other than that! Ordinary smelters and their families also need a house to live in.

The problems of the house are easier to solve, first build some thatched houses for them on the high ground, and the high-rise buildings will be built slowly.

The people who migrated from the Wei State, Bai Gui didn't want to use them. These people should step up efforts to open up wasteland for farming and engage in agricultural production. Other than that! These people have another great use. That is: open a canal to divert water, and divert the river that flows to Zhongshan and then to Qin to Linquan.

Anyway, it's the Ji River, and if you don't divert the river, the water will flow and be wasted.

Right now! Again, the labor force can only count on the people of the deer park.

The Deer Park people are a half-farming, half-nomadic tribe, so! There are a lot of miscellaneous people. As long as you give them what they need, they will be willing to work for you.

(End of chapter)