Time flies, and by noon, there is still nothing, and after everyone has eaten, they have not taken a nap, and they have come directly to the mountains to prospect for minerals.

Seeing the sun gradually set, the temperature gradually cooled, and under the rocks turned over were either thick soil or a large pile of gravel, and there was no trace of iron ore.

Just as Fang Ling was about to call it a day, an exciting voice suddenly came from the mountainside, and then he saw Hao Tieniu running down the mountain happily and presenting a dark stone.

Huang Jian took it and looked at it, and immediately said with great joy: "Your Highness, this is it!"

Fang Ling was overjoyed, and hurriedly asked Hao Tieniu to lead the way, and at the same time directly took out an ingot of 10 taels of silver and stuffed it into his hand, not only the soldiers were envious, but even Cao Jingyuan was a little envious, because even if he was a county order, his monthly salary was only five taels of silver a month.

The place where Hao Tieniu found the iron ore was on the south side of the stone mountainside, and when they came to the discovery site, they found that Hao Tieniu had actually dug a large hole of nearly one meter horizontally here, and the hole was full of dark and black iron ore, and it only needed to knock it hard, and it would fall down.

Before the sun set, the soldiers and guards began to dig along the hole to a depth of about one meter, and found that the ore could be dug in about half a meter in many places on the south side of the mountainside.

Since it was too late, the prospecting work was suspended, and when he left, Fang Ling specially told him that the work of discovering the iron ore must be kept secret, and no mention of it was allowed to be mentioned to anyone, including family members.

Over the next few days, the group surveyed six stone mountains outside the city, and the conclusions they came to were quite astonishing. Each of the six stone mountains has considerable reserves of iron ore beneath the surface of the gravel, and also penetrates deep into the strata below the mountain, connecting them to form a large vein, four of which are high in iron and the remaining two are slightly lower.

The excitement of this news even Fang Ling couldn't help but jump up with excitement, not to mention other people, Cao Jingyuan sighed even more, for more than ten years, he had been running for the people and all living beings, where did he expect that there would be six golden mountains outside the city gate.

That night, Fang Ling, Dong Canghai, Chen Mou, Cao Jingyuan, Huang Jian and Meng Zhiyuan began to discuss the development of iron ore in the hall of the house.

Chen Mouxian said, "Your Highness, since the content of iron ore is so abundant, it seems that it is necessary for us to build a smelter in imitation of the checkpoint fortress. ”

Fang Ling nodded and said: "I also have this idea, just when I was in Qingshui Pass, I once visited the smelter and made detailed inquiries about the equipment inside, I think with Uncle Huang here, it shouldn't be a problem to build these equipment, right?"

Huang Jian said: "The uncle of the grass people also used to work in the smelter in the county, and I have also heard of these equipment, as long as there are materials, and then the specifications are clear, the refining should not be a problem, but some helpers are needed." ”

Cao Jingyuan said on the side: "There are two blacksmith shops in the county, and there are several blacksmith masters and apprentices, who should be able to help." ”

Fang Ling asked again: "Then where is the most suitable place for the factory to be built?"