This heavy snow can be anxious to draw a sword and ask the sky. Snow covers the mountains, but there is no shortage of food for a day.

He organized as many as 7,000 grain carriers of the logistics corps at one time, and each NPC soldier dragged 150 catties of food, medicine, and other ordnance with wooden planks, and walked on the thick snow of Beiling to the front line of Beishuiquan. The soldiers had one foot in a deep pit, their legs pulled out a foot thick, and they walked like turtles.

From Zhoushui City Walled City to Beishui Spring, there are about 110 miles away, and it takes nearly 1 day to run forward normally, and now I am afraid it will take at least 2 days to arrive. Once they came and went, the grain transporters had to eat at least 48 catties on the way, and the rest was for the food of the four main legions. The difficulty of this supply is really enough.

The NPC soldiers on the front line have to eat 4 catties of food twice a day when they are not fighting, and 6 catties of food three times a day when they are fighting. Of course, in fact, if you starve NPCs for a day, it's okay not to feed them, but morale will drop sharply, and morale will fall to the most serious extent, let alone fight against Shanjung, I'm afraid it will be a direct riot. As soon as 50,000 NPCs rebel, the chaos will be big, and no one will be able to clean it up.

The player leaders of the four main legions know that logistical supplies have become very difficult, and they don't know when the next batch of food will arrive, and they have begun to cut the food supply to save food.

A heavy snow froze the battle.

Qin Xiaobai also temporarily withdrew from the dispute between the five player legions, and threw himself into his Xiaobai camp and sheep camp, thinking about how to maximize the production capacity of bronze artifacts.

The day before yesterday, he spent money on some NPC Shanjung slaves in the slave market, bringing the two tribes to 100 full, and there are currently 44 coppersmiths and 144 Shanjung slaves in the two camps producing bronze tools. There are also more than a dozen NPCs guarding the shops in the city, and wizards staying in the tribal temples to study herbs.

There are 17 copper smelting workshops and 20 casting workshops, a total of 37 workshops. Usually the coppersmiths work 14 hours, and when they are nervous, they use 24-hour shifts, so that the copper smelting capacity of the two tribes reaches the limit. It can even refine up to 1,530 catties of pure copper liquid in a day, consuming raw materials per unit of copper ore.

Qin Xiaobai has no plans to introduce a third cooperative site for the time being, although this is an easier way to expand production capacity. The reason is simple. There is a clear shortage of copper ore in the market. These days, he has hoarded, absorbed, and consumed a large number of copper ore raw materials, which has caused the price of copper ore raw materials in the Zhoushui trade market to soar all the way, rising to about 1 unit of copper ore copper coins.

What is this concept?

When Qin Xiaobai first entered the strategic map, the price was about 1 unit of copper ore copper coins. Later, when there were more players, the copper ore was useless, and as a result, it dropped all the way to an extremely cheap 1 unit of copper ore copper coins, a drop of 99.5%. Copper ore is now consumed in large quantities. The demand has increased dramatically, soaring all the way to 1 unit of copper ore copper coins, and almost rising back to the level of 1 unit of copper ore / 1 copper coin that Qin Xiaobai first entered the strategic map period.

These days, the price of raw materials for copper ore is soaring, but the selling price of various copper weapons, equipment, and tools has not risen, and the selling price is very stable. Take a copper axe that consumes 2 catties of pure copper for example, the current market uniform price is 350 copper coins. It requires 400 units of copper ore to smelt 2 catties of pure copper, and the cost price is variable: 20 copper coins, 80 copper coins, and 400 copper coins.

This can be seen from the cost price. 1 unit of copper ore coins period. The profit of a copper axe is very staggering, and the net profit is as high as 330 copper coins. However, at the time of 1 copper ore/1 copper coin, selling a copper axe will cost you 50 copper coins.

The above large number of data can be summed up in a very simple sentence: with the soaring price of copper raw materials, the profits of Xiaobai Camp and Sheep Camp in copper smelting, casting, and selling copper tools began to decline sharply.

The soaring price of copper ore raw materials has made Qin Xiaobai very dissatisfied. He could almost predict that it would not take many days for the market to break through the price of 1 copper ore per 1 copper coin. What can he do when this happens? I am afraid that I will only be forced to raise the price of copper weapons and equipment to recover losses.

Qin Xiaobai didn't want to do this.

After the sheep dealt with the affairs of the Sheep Chamber of Commerce in the morning, they came to Qin Xiaobai. Speaking of the fact that the raw materials of the copper mine have risen too fast. He said with a sad face, "Big brother, if this continues, our profits will soon be greatly reduced." Can we find a way to keep the price of copper ore down? ”

Qin Xiaobai shook his head and said, "How is this possible?" Our daily demand for copper ore raw materials is so large. We are the ones who are driving up the price of copper in the market. How do you fight yourself? Buying a lot of money and raising the price, and at the same time asking its price to fall? ”

The sheep laughed dryly: it seems impossible to do. So what to do? Increasing the price of copperware? ”

Qin Xiaobai still shook his head. "No, the price can't be raised anymore, and raising the price of copper to keep your own profit is a very bad vicious economic circle. The only way is to increase the number of copper mines on the market, and this is the only way to solve the problem. ”

Sheep is a little puzzled, although he is a merchant player, but he belongs to the kind of businessman player who is full of energy and does not have a solid knowledge base, and has very little research on the operation of the economy.

Qin Xiaobai briefly told him that this vicious economic cycle includes 5 links.

1。 The price increase directly leads to a large number of ordinary players who cannot afford to buy bronze equipment, weapons, and tools, making bronze weapons unpopular. 2. The number of players who can buy bronze tools will decrease, and the demand for copper tools in the market will decrease, and the small white camp will be forced to reduce production. 3. Once production is reduced, the demand for copper ore in the market decreases, and the price of copper ore falls. 4. The price of copper ore has dropped significantly, and the motivation for players to find copper ore has begun to decrease. 5. No one is looking for copper mines, the market for copper mines decreases, and the more difficult it is for him to produce copperware, in order to maintain profitability, he has to continue to increase the selling price.

Raising the price of copperware -- reducing the demand for copperware -- reducing production capacity -- reducing the demand for copper mines -- raising the price of copperware -- until the copperware workshop closes down, it is a vicious circle that suffers not only them, but also the players of the entire Zhoushui Walled City.

Because bronze tools represent production capacity, copper tools are used to produce more efficiently than stone tools. The more widespread the use of bronze ware, the stronger the production capacity of the entire Zhoushui will be, and the richer and stronger the tribe will be.

And the less copper is used, the lower the tribe's production capacity and the poorer it becomes.

Yan has a national capital and more than 300,000 large chieftain NPC tribes. Which tribe has more bronze directly represents the strength of that tribe. If there is a fight between these tribes, the tribe with a high popularity of bronze will undoubtedly have a better chance of winning.

Similarly, among the nine major vassal states of Qin, Chu, Qi, Wei, and Yan, which vassal state has more bronze artifacts, it also represents which vassal state was the most powerful in the Bronze Age. If there is a war between the vassal states, then the one with more bronze will undoubtedly take a greater advantage.

In the same way, the popularity of bronze in each country on the strategic map also directly represents the level of strength of a country. Advances in the tools of production, such as bronze, bronze, iron, steam engines, electricity, nuclear energy, and computer chips, are a direct demonstration of the changes in the power and prosperity of these countries.

Qin Xiaobai said: "Our current ability to produce bronze artifacts is sufficient for the time being. The most important thing now is to get more raw materials for copper ore. Only by obtaining more cheap raw materials can the production cost of bronze ware be reduced, and the copper ware can be popularized on a large scale in the Zhoushui tribe. We made a lot of profit in order to develop bronze technology, more technology, in the shortest possible time. In a way, the availability of raw materials also determined the prosperity of an early tribe. ”

The sheep nodded, his eyes shining, and he took note of it.

Qin Xiaobai actually had some words, but he didn't say them.

In his heart, there is only one core issue to consider, that is, to let the Zhoushui tribe enter the virtuous economic circle of "bronze as the core". Copper ware and copper ore raw materials are an important part of it.

In addition, the interests of all other players, such as laughing proudly, bloody killing, becoming a king, traveling for thousands of miles, mountains and seas, etc., the personal interests of these people are in a secondary position, and they can be sacrificed, traded, supported, and destroyed at any time to ensure the economic stability and rapid advancement of the Zhoushui tribe.

Qin Xiaobai didn't mind who had a conflict with whom between them, or because of some interests. He didn't even mind that he had suffered some small loss.

The only thing he minded was that no matter who it was, it could not hinder him from achieving the goal of the Zhoushui tribe entering the virtuous economic circle of "bronze as the core". Whoever stands in the way of this core goal will pay a terrible price.