Jiang Wei's words shocked everyone present, especially Xiao Zhuge was even more excited, and hurriedly asked:

"Brother Boyo, is there a gold mine in this Panzhihua?"

Jiang Wei shook his head and said:

"It's called a parable, do you understand the parable? I have read in ancient books that there are a large number of iron ore in Panzhihua, and the scale of iron ore is huge, counting hundreds of millions of stones. ”

Everyone gasped after hearing this, what a large-scale iron ore this is? Shu Han has such a scale of iron ore in hand, wouldn't he be able to enrich the world?

Jiang Wei suddenly felt excited, he was not interested in the banquet at all, and his mind was full of Panzhihua affairs, after all, the main task of his trip to Nanzhong was to find the Panzhihua iron mine.

In the early morning of the next day, Jiang Wei dragged Zhang Xue together to find the iron ore of Panzhihua, Guan Yinping and Zhuge Zhan also had great expectations for this, so they had to follow along.

Before leaving, Guan Yinping handed over the Qinglong Yanyue Knife handed down by Guan Yu to Guan Suo, asking Guan Suo to use this knife to guard the southern Xinjiang for the Han Dynasty, maybe after finding Panzhihua this time, she will go all the way north and return to Chengdu.

Ma Zhong and Hua Fei also came to see him off, and Ma Zhong sent Zhang Xue with two thousand Wudang Fei troops to assist Jiang Wei in his search for iron ore.

Hua Wei called Jiang Wei aside and instructed: "Jiang Wei, remember to find your old mother when you go back, tell her about our relatives, and marry me in the spring of next year!" ”

Under Guan Yinping's close gaze, Jiang Wei had to blush and say: "I have to ask the opinion of the old mother at home on this matter first, and then write back to you!" ”

After saying goodbye, Jiang Wei led everyone and set off for Gufu County, as Zhang Xue said.

Five days later, everyone arrived in Gufu County, and under the guidance of Zhang Xue, they found the ancestor of the kapok.

Sure enough, as Zhang Xue said, this kapok tree is tall, majestic and burly, with a trunk like a dragon and a crown like a cloud, and it does have the momentum of a single tree.

So Jiang Wei ordered to camp under the giant tree, and sent craftsmen with the army to search for iron ore in the nearby mountains.

In less than three days, the craftsmen found a number of veins, all of which were iron ore of excellent quality.

This made Jiang Wei's heart excited, if the iron ore here is developed on a large scale, within three years, the overall economic strength and military strength of Shu will definitely reach a new level.

Over time, even if you bring 100,000 armor, it will no longer be an unattainable dream.

Seeing that he helped Jiang Wei find Panzhihua, Zhang Xue asked Jiang Wei for his life and returned to Jianning. And Jiang Wei also officially opened the curtain on the construction of Panzhihua Iron Mine.

With the memory of the previous life, Jiang Wei remembered Panzhihua's Pan Gang, which not only produced a huge amount, but also produced steel of excellent quality.

Because the ore of Panzhihua is mainly vanadium titanomagnetite, which is a natural alloy, the steel produced is widely used in railway steel, seamless steel pipes, special steel and other purposes.

In particular, the seamless steel pipe, which was originally a civilian use, was used by some modifiers in the Middle East to make rocket artillery, and it was really done.

You must know that rocket artillery has extremely high quality requirements for the steel itself, which shows in disguise that the steel produced by Panzhihua is of excellent quality.

Of course, Jiang Wei hopes that everyone in the Shu army will use hundreds of steel-making and steel weapons, and when facing iron weapons or bronze weapons, although it is not said that iron is like clay, it also has an overwhelming advantage.

As the saying goes, steel is made into steel, and the acquisition of steel needs to be based on a large amount of iron.

In this era, the supply of iron is still lacking, not to mention that the whole army has been equipped with steel weapons, throughout history, it seems that only in the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Army's horizontal knives and Mo knives have made the whole army steel weapons.

But the national strength of the Tang Dynasty and today's Shu Han are completely a difference between heaven and earth.

Therefore, as long as the development of the iron ore in Panzhihua goes smoothly, I believe that the weapons and equipment of the Shu army will gradually catch up.

Thinking of this, Jiang Wei couldn't help but feel excited, and he immediately appointed Liang Qian as the general of Panzhihua Si Jin Zhonglang, responsible for the opening of Panzhihua Iron Mine.

And allocated him 100,000 baht to recruit craftsmen, and he must make iron and steel in Panzhihua on a large scale, and turn Panzhihua Iron Mine into a super iron mine, which is firmly the first mine in the world.

The entire Panzhihua suddenly turned into a lively big factory, and the first task of all the soldiers was no longer training, but temporarily became miners.

In this era, soldiers have no salary to get, and they often need to bring their own rations, but Jiang Wei is very generous and promises to give all soldiers who participate in the construction a monthly payment of six baht.

You must know that in this era, even the income of the county order is only 70 yuan a month, which is equivalent to about 8,000 yuan.

But the straight 100 baht of ten baht Shu Han has an income of about 2,000, which can definitely be regarded as a high income, and everyone praises General Jiang Wei for his righteousness, and everyone is in full swing.

Under Jiang Wei's command, iron-making furnaces were built one by one, and workers' barracks were also built.

During this period, Zhuge Zhan also showed amazing management talent, assisting Jiang Wei in the construction of Zhang Luo's workshop, and many details became orderly after he took care of them, and sure enough, there was the legacy of his father Zhuge Liang.

Guan Yinping also helped Jiang Wei recruit workers and organize logistics, especially helped Guan Yinping save the family of King Wei Wolf at the beginning, and now arranged for them to be miners, but did not include them in slavery.

This made Wei Wolf's relatives very grateful, and helped Guan Yinping recruit a large number of barbarians from the local horse catching department to join the miners' team.

These barbarians have very low requirements and are willing to contribute when they are given food. However, Jiang Wei insisted on equal pay for equal work, so a large number of people came to work as absentees every day.

The scale of the Panzhihua Workshop has expanded to nearly 10,000 people in a short period of time.

After January, when the first furnace of pig iron was smelted, everyone was excited, even if it was just pig iron, but no matter the color, hardness, and flexibility could be called superior, it can be seen that Panzhihua's workshop was completed.

Jiang Wei summoned Zhuge Zhan, Guan Yinping, Liang Qian and others to discuss the matter, and praised several people.

Several people's faces were full of a sense of achievement, especially Zhuge Zhan, who commanded so many people to work for the first time, and everyone respectfully called him "Mr. Little Zhuge ", which greatly satisfied his vanity.

Jiang Wei asked a few people: "At present, the Panzhihua Workshop is newly opened, what difficulties do you still have?" ”

Liang Qian, as the chief officer, hurriedly said: "General, the biggest problem at the moment is the lack of charcoal, in order to make iron, the nearby mountains and forests are about to be cut down, and the demand for food is also very great!" ”

Jiang Wei thought for a while and said: "Just cutting wood and burning charcoal to make iron is never the way, not only destroying the environment, but also the temperature is often not easy to control, it is best to find a coal mine nearby!" ”

When everyone heard that Jiang Wei received the coal mine, they did not think it was unusual, since the Han Dynasty, people began to use coal.

Li Daoyuan's "Notes on the Book of Water" contains: In the fifteenth year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao built a large-scale Tongque Terrace, Jinhu Terrace, and Bingjing Platform in Ye County, and there were hundreds of houses, among which the ice well platform was stored with inexhaustible coal.

It can be seen that coal has been widely used in this era, but Panzhihua has inconvenient transportation, if you purchase coal from Wei, I am afraid that it will not be able to quench your thirst.

Jiang Wei remembered that there was a coal mine near the Panzhihua Iron Mine, but he didn't know where it was at all, so he had to say:

"I remember that there are also coal mines near Panzhihua in ancient books, Liang Qian, you can send more craftsmen to survey the nearby mountains and forests, if you find a coal mine, the fuel problem will be solved."

Jiang Wei thought about it again and said:

"As for the food issue, I will write to Your Majesty and ask for grain, Panzhihua has a steep terrain, and it is difficult to cultivate the fields, so I can only reach out to Your Majesty to ask for food. In addition, the official road from Chengdu to Gufu needs to be expanded, and you need to implement this matter as soon as possible. ”

Liang Qian hurriedly received the order and said: "Obey!" ”

Jiang Wei said with a smile: "I will return to Chengdu tomorrow to ask Your Majesty for food, and at the same time ask Jiang Wan to give me the 200,000 baht he owes me. ”

When Guan Yinping heard that he was going back to Chengdu, he immediately showed a happy smile.

Zhuge Zhan still looked a little reluctant.

Everyone was discussing the development of the Panzhihua Iron Mine, and suddenly an urgent report came.

After seeing Jiang Wei, he hurriedly bowed down and reported: "General Jiang Wei, Governor Ma Zhong has an urgent military situation and asks the general to decide, please leave for Jianning to discuss." ”