Cao Jingyuan said: "There is a vacant land near the north gate of the city, where a mile out of the city is a mine, which is more convenient, and there are no houses nearby, so it will not affect the lives of the people when making iron tools." ”

Fang Ling bowed slightly: "Lord Cao is very thoughtful, then the matter of setting up a factory for smelting is solved, and the next thing is about the sale of ironware, Lord Chen can investigate clearly?"

Chen Mou replied: "The minister went to Xihe County and Maling County to investigate in the past few days, and found that these two counties are indeed much richer, and the iron tools used by the people are basically produced by the blacksmith shops in their own counties, and they are self-sufficient, and the iron ore of the blacksmith shops is purchased from other counties, and as for military weapons and the like, they used to be sent by the county every year. ”

Fang Ling pondered and said, "So, iron products can only be sold to other counties to make a profit?"

Chen Mou nodded and said, "Other than that, there is no other way. ”

At this point, everyone's faces became heavy again, the iron ore of the Chu State was controlled by the provinces, and its ore was not only used for the smelting of military weapons, but the inferior ones could be purchased by merchants and sold to blacksmith shops and other places that needed iron ore for refining civilian iron.

Because of the discovery of iron ore, everyone was naturally excited, which was definitely a treasure for a fiefdom, so that there was no need to pay a high fee to buy iron ore from other provinces.

However, after the development of these ores, they must be used for profit, and it is impossible to invest all of them in refining military weapons, because the labor and cost required to develop iron ore itself are very high.

However, if you want to sell the refined iron to other places, you must pass through Gukou Avenue, which is a place where bandits haunt.

Fang Ling was silent for a while, and suddenly smiled: "Then recruit troops." ”

"What, recruitment?" everyone was taken aback.

Fang Ling smiled slightly: "Yes, this king is going to recruit one hundred young and middle-aged soldiers in the county, and after training them, divide them into several batches, first, to protect the county's ironware to reach Gukou Town safely and sell it, and second, to protect the opposite merchant traveler through Gukou Avenue at the same time, so that not only can you successfully sell ironware, but also more and more merchants who feel safe, and when the county becomes richer, they will also be stationed." ”

As soon as these words fell, everyone couldn't help but applaud loudly, and Chen Mou said with admiration: "Your Highness's trick is really clever, it can be described as a strategy to draw salaries from the bottom of the kettle, with Dong Guards and others here, why worry about not being able to train a hundred elite soldiers." Although we can't go into the mountains to fight bandits, we can ensure that these bandits don't rob on the mountain roads. As long as there are safe entrances and exits, there will naturally be more business travelers willing to come to the three counties. ”

Meng Zhiyuan asked, "Then do you want to charge a certain fee for this escort?"

Chen Mou said, "Don't charge a fee, these business travelers are a live reputation, free escort, and you can make His Royal Highness's prestige deeply rooted in the hearts of the people at once, and through these business travels, you can pass on all parts of the Chu State." ”

Meng Zhiyuan nodded again and again when he heard this, but Cao Jingyuan said with difficulty at this time: "Your Highness, the smelter wants to recruit a large number of people to do things, and now it has to recruit soldiers, this silver is a lot of money, and now it is in the county treasury...... It's really difficult. ”