In the workshop town hall in the mountains near Kishigatakeyama Castle in Matsuura County, Hizen Province, Kyushu, Masara was carefully examining the account book in his hand.

In addition to the gold, silver, copper, tin, lead and coal mines previously described in the account books. This time, sulfur, china clay, and limestone mines were also added to the books.

In terms of sulfur mines, high-quality sulfur mines have been found in the Tenzan Mountains in Matsuura County, Hizen Province, and on Mt. Aso in Aso County, Higo Province. Among them, there is only one sulfur mine in Hizen Kunaka, but three sulfur mines have been found in Mt. Aso Higo.

Sulfur is a good thing for the territory, firstly, it is an important raw material for the production of gunpowder in the Roche family's weapons workshop, and secondly, it can also be used in the marching camp. Just sprinkle a little brimstone around the camp (be careful not to use it as a fire to the enemy) to avoid being harassed by snakes, insects, rats and ants at night.

Finally, it can also be mixed with other fertilizers as fertilizer for crops. The excess sulfur could also be sold to Ming merchants and the Nanban to increase the income of the territory.

Now that the four sulfur mines discovered have entered the mining stage, it is estimated that new sulfur deposits will be discovered in the Aso Mountain area as the Cabinet further explores the territory.

In terms of china clay mines, with the help of several Ming ceramics craftsmen, the Luo family has discovered a large amount of china clay mines in Imari Bay and near Arita Village in Matsuura County, Hizen Province. In addition, porcelain clay was also found near Okada Village, at the foot of Sayama, Hita County, Bungo Province.

Ceramics were quite popular in the Wa Kingdom, especially those that used the Ming Dynasty ceramics making techniques. Although there are only a few ceramic craftsmen from the Ming Kingdom in the Luo family, Masahiro still decided to harvest after this autumn. Workshops were set up in the vicinity of each of the three china clay mines discovered above. Production of its own ceramic ware belonging to the Roche family. These produce ceramic vessels. On the one hand, it is used for external sales, and on the other hand, it is used to supply the needs of its own territory.

In terms of limestone, a large limestone deposit has been found in the Hizen Province Void Mountains, the Kishitake Mountain Range, the Chikugo Province Peak Mountain, and the Higo Province Aso Mountain.

In fact, although the country lacked minerals such as iron ore, it did contain a large amount of raw materials for the manufacture of cement, especially lime ore, which could be found in the mountains of the Luo family's territory. However, the mineral deposit that was eventually selected as the mining site was the best quality and the largest reserve of many limestone mines.

What's more, the surrounding areas of these deposits have easy access to raw materials for cement production. Therefore, the Roche family has already established a cement production workshop in the local area. Just like the paper workshops, villages have spontaneously formed in the vicinity of these workshops, mainly artisans, workers and their families. They provided cement for the various marching avenues and buildings in the territory, and also provided a fuel for the local economy.

Of course, due to the lack of advanced equipment (which simply did not exist in this era), the cement produced by these workshops was of inferior quality, but it was able to fully meet the needs of the use of the marching avenue. In addition, when combined with local mud, it can also be used as a building material. It is better formed than mud alone.

Generally. At present, the Luo family has a total of one gold mine, four silver mines, four copper mines, one lead mine, one tin mine, four sulfur mines, one coal mine, three china clay mines, four limestone mines, as well as a paper workshop, a textile workshop, and four cement workshops. and three ceramic workshops to be built soon.

After learning about all the current mineral deposits of the Luo family, Masaro inspected the various workshops in the workshop town, accompanied by the retainers.

In the armory workshop, Masarashi carefully observed the production process of weapons and armor such as spears, bows, feathered arrows, katanas, black hawk daggers (assassination weapons, black eagles and reconnaissance equipment), flying fire meteor projection vehicles, ladders, city breakers, new types of armor (a mixture of leather armor and iron pieces), and other weapons and armor.

For the Flying Fire Meteor Projection Vehicle, Masahiro hopes that Guoyoubei and Liu Ye will find a way to improve it, so that these projectile vehicles that can only project fire oil stone tanks will be transformed into catapults that can project boulders. Currently, these projectile vehicles are unable to launch boulders due to the fact that the materials that activate the boulder cannot withstand the excessive pull caused by the boulder.

For this question, Masahiro's first thought was rubber. Just to have rubber, you have to have rubber trees. However, rubber trees are native to South America and were not transplanted to Kew Gardens in England until 1873, 22 clover trees were shipped to Singapore in 1877, and were introduced to the Malay Peninsula in 1898, and China only began to be introduced in 1904. At this time, it is impossible to find the rubber tree species in the local area or in the Ming Kingdom (as for sending someone to find it back or entrusting the Nanban people to help you find it, you can only let the Nanban people and Ming merchants help you pay attention to it). So rubber is not to be considered.

Then the only way left is to go out to sea and kill whales. The rubber bands on the whale can be used as a material. It's just that it's not very easy to hunt whales, although there will definitely be no fewer whales at sea at this time, but after all, the area of the ocean is also quite a lot, and it is not easy to find them immediately, and with the current strength of such a ship, recklessly going to hunt whales is likely to cause their own losses. So the whale thing can only depend on the opportunity.

After thinking about it, there was no very good way to solve the problem that the projection car could not launch the boulder, so Masahiro had to give some suggestions, and then let everyone in the workshop think about it slowly.

Later, Masashi inspected the firearms workshop and carefully observed the production process of gunpowder, bullets, cannonballs, iron cannons, and large cylinders. For the production of large cylinders, Masa's only requirement at present is to find a way to increase production. At present, the Luo family only has one big cylinder (which was placed on the fort in Qibu City as a defensive weapon), and there will be two large cylinders produced next month, but even if all the large cylinders produced this year can be tested and successfully put into use, there are only five large cylinders at most, which obviously cannot meet the needs of the Luo family's military strength. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the production efficiency of large cylinders.

As for gunpowder and iron cannons, Masashi put forward suggestions for improvement. At present, the gunpowder manufactured by the Luo family itself contains many impurities and the proportion of materials in the configuration process is inconsistent, resulting in the problem that the gunpowder is not very powerful and the power of the gunpowder produced in different periods is inconsistent, which brings great inconvenience to the iron cannon standing when using the iron cannon, and even causes accidents, resulting in unnecessary casualties in the iron cannon standing room.

For this reason, Masashi asked the firearms workshop to create a special proportional instrument, so that every gunpowder made is placed with this kind of equipment, so as to avoid the situation that the power of gunpowder is reduced or too high due to the inconsistent amount of various materials.

Regarding the problem of impurities in gunpowder, Masara asked the smelter to participate in the study of this problem, and find a way to solve the problem of the decline in the power of gunpowder due to the impurities contained in various raw materials.

As for the iron cannon, the iron cannon of the Luo family is much more advanced than the iron cannon in other regions in terms of overall structure and use in wet weather. Masarashi once sent Kizuku Shigetada to spend a lot of money to purchase an iron cannon from Kyoto, Omi, Saga, and Satsuma, and then test fire it at the same time with the same ammunition to compare the differences between these iron cannons and the iron cannons of the Luo family.

In the end, it was found that the iron cannon of the Luo family was better than the iron cannon in other regions in terms of the structure of the gun body, the convenience of carrying, and the convenience of use. After the test firing, it was found that the iron cannon of the Luo family was not only able to shoot in wet weather, but also its firing distance was farther than that of the iron cannon in other regions, at least more than ten meters away.

Of course, even so, Masahiro still hopes that the firearms workshop can continue to work the range of the iron cannon, the accuracy of the shot, and the power of the bullets, and completely open the distance between the iron cannon of the Luo family and the iron cannon in other regions, so that the iron cannon team of the Luo family will have a greater advantage in the face of the enemy's iron cannon team. (To be continued......)