In the Northern Expedition to Linhu, Zhao opened up its territory and gained great benefits, but Taoqiu, who was standing behind Zhao Guo, also obtained unimaginable benefits through this war!

Not to mention the huge amount of war debts and the huge profits made by the military products produced by the various factories in Taoqiu, even other indirect transactions also made the merchants of Taoqiu a lot of money.

Zhao Guobei conquered Linhu and grabbed a large number of livestock of the Linhu people, for these livestock, Zhao Yong also handed over most of them to Taoqiu merchants in order to repay debts. For these livestock, apart from a small number of them returned to Taoqiu, the vast majority of them were sold to the surrounding nations.

And even if it was the four newly built cities of the Zhao Kingdom, the Taoqiu merchants made a great effort in them! Most of the castles of this era were made of rammed earth, but they were not strong. And after the Taoqiu merchant showed Zhao Yong a magical material, cement, Zhao Yong immediately spent a lot of money to purchase this material!

Cement, even in Taoqiu, was produced in extremely low quantities, so the cement materials that Taoqiu could sell to Zhao were extremely limited. The part of cement obtained by Zhao Guo was far from enough to build even a city, and the Taoqiu merchant recommended a simple way for Zhao Yong to use!

That is, cement was pasted on the walls of the city where it was built, so that the whole city was protected by cement, and the whole city became a strong fortress!

With a strong fortress and an overwhelming cavalry over the Linhu cavalry, the Yanmen County and Yunzhong County of the Zhao State can be truly stabilized, thus becoming the territory of the Zhao State!

Such a big victory also brought about a great change in the domestic political pattern of Zhao, and the strength of Zhao's western government has begun to surpass that of Dongfu, and their political voice has also begun to rise.

And in the process of Zhao Yong's expedition to Yunzhong and even the return of the class teacher, Taoqiu's exploration near Handan has new results. In the vicinity of Xishan, about forty miles south of the discovery of iron ore, the explorers found high-quality coal mines in this area!

Such a discovery has given the iron ore mine in Dewu'an an an sufficient source of fuel, and there is no longer a problem in making iron near Handan!

Since the iron ore and coal mines discovered are located in the western part of Handan, it is located in the upper reaches of Handan City. In order to prevent the powerful people of Handan from making trouble in the future, Puyangxing accepted Dai Yan's instructions and built the ironworks downstream of Handan City.

As a result, the cost of the entire transportation is greatly increased. The coal mine near Xishan is fine, and there is a river in Niushoushui near the mine that can be navigated by boats. However, in the vicinity of the Wu'an iron ore mine, there is no river that can be transported by water road.

The Linzhang Commercial Bank had to invest a huge amount of money to build a track near Wu'an that could go directly to Zhangshui. Such a track that is more than 30 miles long, although the cost is huge, but the effect is still very good. Especially under the premise that Zhao Guo has sufficient cattle and horses, it can completely achieve uninterrupted operation!

And the construction of this track also made the high-level of the entire Zhao State begin to pay attention to such a new mode of transportation.

Handan's iron ore and coal mines, after being mined, were transferred together by different modes of transportation, and then smelted by ironworks began to become a steady stream of pig iron. Except for a small part of the pig iron smelted, which was still transferred to Taoqiu by water, just like the iron produced by the Xiangyi Ironworks, most of the pig iron was turned into iron farming tools for the Zhao Kingdom, Zhongshan Kingdom and Yan Kingdom!

The people of Zhao Guodongfu also thought about making the iron smelted in the ironworks directly into weapons, and their requirements were indeed satisfied, but the pig iron weapons obtained, although they could indeed kill pigs and sheep, but as soon as they came into contact with the bronze weapons, the weapons they obtained were easily cut off!

This is, of course, the initiative of the Taoqiu merchants. The iron and coal mines near Handan are of high quality, but they still contain sulfur and phosphorus. Even when the pig iron obtained occasionally is of too good quality to be directly manufactured into weapons, Puyang Xing will take the initiative to invest part of the pyrite according to Dai Yan's instructions to make the pig iron brittle again!

This is determined by the interests of the entire Taoqiu! Dai Yan saw very clearly that if other countries were able to produce raw iron to make agricultural tools, enhance the level of agriculture, and increase the output from the land, it would also mean that the total wealth of all countries in the world would be more, which would be beneficial to the commerce-based Taoqiu! If other countries can smelt refined iron and even steel weapons, this will directly impact Taoqiu's military industrial system, which is of course not good for Taoqiu!

Although Zhao Guo is Taoqiu's biggest ally and backer, Dai Yan still has a hand in this "high-tech" aspect! Dai Yan, who traveled from later generations, is very clear: even the US imperialists, who claim to be free dishes, will spy on their allies!

That's not to mention the difference in the standards of weapons they sell to different allies!

Therefore, steelmaking, the most powerful black technology of Taoqiu, Dai Yan must take it into his own hands! Of course, because Tao Qiu invested in the construction of an iron-making plant in Zhao State, the iron-making technology that Zhao Guo could not master before has now begun to exist, which is actually another form of technology overflow.

After Handan has a coal mine, the fuel structure of the entire Handan has also undergone great changes!

The coal mines near Xishan are transported to Handan through Niushou Shui, and their prices are much cheaper than those in Xiangyi that are transported to Taoqiu through the Heshui River of Surabaya, so the coal excavated is almost the price of a cabbage in the Handan market, and everyone can afford it!

Of course, the social structure of Handan and Taoqiu is also different, except for the Dai Yan family, the people living in Taoqiu are either merchants or workers, and the scholars are very few, and there is little difference in identity between everyone, so the coal in Taoqiu is supplied with a unified standard.

And Handan is completely different, there are elites and nobles in the entire Zhao State concentrated here, even if it is the fuel used, the Handan magnates must be distinguished from the mud legs, otherwise how can they distinguish between the high and the low!

Therefore, the coal used by the powerful people of Handan is not only specially selected, but also specially washed, whether it is the color of the coal or the effect of burning, it must be distinguished from ordinary coal!

Such a way of differential treatment really made the Handan nobles extremely happy!

When Zhao Yong returned to Handan City again, it was already February of the following year. At this time, the changes in the whole city made him a little unbelievable! Between Handan and the surrounding Wu'anyi, there was already a track made of wood, on which countless iron ore were transported by mules to the Zhangshui River!

As a small tributary of Zhangshui, Niushou Shui, the previously quiet and unusually quiet river is now driven by small boats. Looking at the depth of the draft and the speed of the boat, you can see that all the ships are full of cargo and running!

In the east of the downstream of Handan, several tall furnaces have begun to rise, and around the furnaces, there are raging flames, and thick black smoke rises upwards, which can be seen in the whole Handan!

However, for Zhao Yong, the changes in the appearance of the entire Handan only made him feel a little curious, but it could not really touch him. Because at this time, he has shifted his attention to another extremely important matter!