In the flat valley, there are not many trees due to the lack of sunlight, but there are quite a few shrubs and ferns. Because of the geography, it seems that it is not bound by nature, the autumn wind does not blow the yellow leaves, and the summer does not steam a trace of heat.

The cool valley is secluded and independent, like a fairyland. And in this fairyland-like place, everyone suddenly found that there were a few wooden houses faintly covered at the far end.

The gray-yellow façade, dotted with green moss, seems to blend in with the valley, and if it weren't for the curling smoke from the rooftops from time to time, they wouldn't even be noticeable.

Apparently, there are still people living in these houses.

"Herod!" The sound of neighing horses woke up the sleeping valley.

"Herod...... "Zhao Kuo and the others' war horses also neighed.

It turned out that the horse roar just now was not made by the war horses of Zhao Kuo and others. In the valley, there were other horses.

Before everyone was surprised, the door suddenly opened in the distant wooden house. A few guys dressed in Zhao Jun's red clothes suddenly appeared at the door.

Looking at the figures of Zhao Kuo and others in the distance, they rushed to Zhao Kuo's side in a hurry.

"General!" Several eager voices came from afar.

Zhao Wei is confused, this is his own army? What is the purpose of the general's arrangement here?

In a daze, Zhao Kuo had already led everyone forward, and Zhao Wei also hurried to catch up.

"General!" Several people quickly rushed to Zhao Kuo's face, knelt on their knees and gave Zhao Kuo a solid knock, then raised their heads and looked at Zhao Kuo with burning eyes, the expectant eyes seemed to say, "General, you can be regarded as coming."

Zhao Kuo smiled and helped the people up one by one, and then said, "You have worked hard!"

"Don't dare, don't dare!" Naturally, people don't even dare to say it.

"How's the mountain going?" Zhao Kuo then continued to ask.

"General: Many mineral deposits have been discovered in the mountains, and the general said that there are many coal and iron ore, but the iron ore deposits are slightly deep, and if you want to mine them, it is quite difficult, I am afraid that there are thousands of strengths, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to complete." The leader immediately replied.

That's right, these people were sent by Zhao Kuo to find mineral deposits.

By the time Lian Po led the Wei army to arrive, the defeat of the Qin army was almost doomed. And Zhao Kuo has already begun to think about the next battle.

Whether it is for himself or for Zhao Guo, Zhao Kuo must improve the power in his hands as soon as possible. In this barren Shangdang land, although the land is vast but mostly mountainous, it is basically impossible to make the country rich and the people strong. It's just that the geographical location is really important, which provokes the covetousness of all countries.

Barren land, meagre people, to be honest, no country would really want to run it. Although there are dozens of cities, their tax revenues are not even as much as one city in Taoyi.

The countries that have always occupied Shangdang have only used Shangdang as a military fortress, or a springboard for attacking Zhao, Wei and the Central Plains. The historical Han State is like this, and the Qin State that won the Shangdang is still the same.

However, others may not know, but Zhao Kuo from the 21st century knows very well: Shangdang is begging for food with a golden rice bowl.

At the bottom of the barren mountains of Shangdang, there are countless treasures buried - coal mines! Coal and iron ore to be exact. Therefore, when his victory was almost certain, Zhao Kuo decisively scattered hundreds of elite people and distributed them in various parts of the Shangdang to inquire about the location of coal mines and iron mines.

Luckily, the news came that not only did I find the coal mine, but there was also an iron mine not far away. This made Zhao Kuo very excited, and even letting Qin Jun go was not so painful.

Because Zhao Kuo knows that a mine is in hand, I have it in the world!

You must know that although iron tools have been used on a large scale in the Warring States period today, the method of iron-making is still in its infancy. As we all know, the most important thing in ironmaking is temperature, and only when the temperature is high enough can the iron ore become molten, so that more impurities can be precipitated.

In the Warring States, where charcoal was the main combustible, the maximum temperature of iron smelting was only about 1,000 degrees Celsius. Even if it follows

With the help of bellows and other materials, the temperature of ironmaking is difficult to exceed 1,200 degrees.

The approximate effect of the so-called "mining the English of the East China Sea" and "feeding the sword with one's body" and other metaphysical sword casting legends is that the melting point of the iron is lowered, so that the molten iron in the molten state is obtained, and the entry of trace elements leads to higher quality steel.

The weapons made of this steel naturally have an absolute advantage in both strength and hardness compared to weapons made of pig iron with a lot of impurities, so they are also called divine weapons, and the myth is still handed down.

Today, Zhao Kuo uses coal, the so-called coal, as the combustible material, and even if it is not coking, the temperature can easily rise to more than 1,300 degrees.

If you add the blast furnace and manpower-driven blower designed by Zhao Kuo, and work harder to coke the coal, the temperature easily exceeds 1,500 degrees.

Even without the addition of an inexplicable flux, iron can be easily melted. Of course, the higher the temperature, the higher the steel, the softer wrought iron may be. As for this, it's up to the blacksmith, it's just a matter of experimenting a few more times.

What's more, the higher temperature also speeds up the progress of iron ore melting, which greatly increases the speed of iron smelting, and the improvement of efficiency allows Zhao Kuo to have enough iron weapons to arm his team in a short period of time.

It can be said that once Zhao Kuo's iron-making career is successful, this will be another leap forward in Zhao's national strength. The suppression of pig iron by steel, which is all-encompassing, although it is not like the crushing of iron against bronze, is enough to change the situation on the battlefield. Imagine, on the battlefield, the two sides are slashing each other, the two sides are fighting, their own knives are suddenly broken, but the long sword on the opposite side is not damaged at all, how can this battle be fought!

And this is also the method that Zhao Kuo can think of to suppress the rest of the countries in the medium and long term.

In this way, in the near future, there is the suppression of the troops after the selection of the front, the advantage of iron weapons in the medium term to suppress the countries again, and in the long term, there are things such as Quyuan plough and Tun Tian Ce, so it can be said that Zhao Kuo has used all the black technology from the later generations that he can think of.

In the past twenty or even thirty years, Zhao Guo under the leadership of Zhao Kuo will maintain an absolute scientific and technological lead over other countries in the Warring States.

Steam Warring States, just ask if you are afraid?