Chapter 48: The Foodie Zheng Lun

Stepping onto the Militia Training Ground, Mo Xiaobai asked the question he cared about most: “Jianli, how is the combat power of the over 60 Village Soldiers in Daming Village these days?”

Previously, while he was in Juancheng, Mo Xiaobai could only observe changes in his territory through data updates every day. Although he knew He Chun had started training the troops, he did not know what the results were, nor whether these Village Soldiers were worthy of trust.

Without seeing it with his own eyes, he would not feel safe making his next plan.

“My Lord, most of these Village Soldiers were selected from some of My Lord’s former subordinates. Simple training cannot raise their skills much further; they must now leave the village for practical experience.”

“Oh? What does Maogong say?”

“General Li also has the same idea, but the use of troops in the Territory still requires My Lord’s decision.” He Chun spoke, then immediately mentioned another matter: “A day ago, a blacksmith came to the Territory. He can craft some simple iron tools. This subordinate wishes to ask My Lord to allocate some pig iron for military use.”

Hearing that a blacksmith had arrived at the Territory, the light in Mo Xiaobai’s eyes brightened: “Have the iron ores been smelted?”

“Some of it has been smelted.”

“Good. I will speak to Maogong about this matter in a moment. He will arrange everything uniformly. Currently, there are not many places in the Territory that need iron tools, so we can start by crafting some weapons for the Drill Ground.”

Mo Xiaobai thought for a moment and nodded immediately. It was not good for the Village Soldiers to keep holding wooden spears. Although He Chun and the others had brought some from Eagle Beak Mountain, the Territory would surely need to expand its troops, so sufficient weapons had to be prepared.

“Thank you, My Lord.”

“I do not listen to empty words. Training the troops well is the best gift you can give to me and Daming Village.” Mo Xiaobai inspected the Drill Ground, left these final words, and turned to leave.

This was the space for He Chun to show his skills. As a Lord, Mo Xiaobai actually could not visit often. Frequent inspections would have a bad effect on the generals, making the soldiers feel that their Main General was just an empty shell.

The negative emotions caused by such bad effects had far too many painful lessons from his past life.

Leaving the Drill Ground, Mo Xiaobai continued his inspection. As He Chun had said, the blacksmith’s shop was already operating. A fat man with a bare chest, a big face, and a thick neck was hammering a long iron sheet with loud bangs.

Behind the fat man, two iron smelting furnaces were all spewing thick flames.

“The temperature is really high.”

Even before Mo Xiaobai entered, he could feel waves of heat. When he walked into the blacksmith’s shop, he felt as if he had stepped into a high-temperature sauna.

“Bang~ Click~”

At that moment, a breaking sound came from the forging table. The fat blacksmith looked at the iron sheet broken into two pieces, sighed, said nothing, and directly threw it into a wooden box filled with water nearby.

“Hmm~ Charcoal was used? Are there too many impurities?”

Mo Xiaobai did not disturb the burly man working. He reached out, picked up the iron sheet that had cooled down, and looked at it twice. He immediately noticed some details.

Mo Xiaobai had not been very successful in his past life, but he had at least fifteen years of experience in the Plane. Plus, some ancient historical records from Water Blue Star existed. Therefore, he understood some things about iron smelting. Mo Xiaobai could not build a blast furnace, but he clearly knew that smelting iron ore using charcoal would not produce very good iron ore.

“You also understand iron smelting?” At this time, the blacksmith also noticed Mo Xiaobai. Hearing his words, he immediately let out a light laugh.

Mo Xiaobai looked clean and white, and his figure was quite thin. He really did not fit the profession of a blacksmith.

“I do not understand it, nor do I need to understand it. Take these iron ores here and practice with them first. I will bring you enough coal in the shortest time possible. Then we will try to see if we can smelt some slightly qualified pig iron.”

“You speak with great confidence. Even your deputy Village Head has never made such a promise to me.”

“Maogong might not be able to, but that does not mean I cannot.” Mo Xiaobai touched his chin and smiled, then introduced himself: “I am Daydreaming, ranked as a First-Class Baron, and the Lord of Daming Village.”

“Are you the Lord?”

“You should call me My Lord.”

“Then tell me first, can you guarantee that you will let me show off my blacksmithing skills here?”

“My Territory certainly cannot use such bad iron. From now on, you will have plenty of work to do.”

“Very well, I, Zheng Lun, pay my respects to My Lord.”

The Fatty was a straight-shooter. After getting the promise he wanted, he thought for no reason and immediately bowed. After bowing, he immediately started complaining:

“My Lord, this blacksmith’s shop is terrible. It can at best make iron shovels; it simply cannot forge good iron. The iron smelting furnace is also wrong. Please come and take a look. Here is the air vent. The wind blows into the furnace from the side, and then the charcoal fire grows toward the southeast. One side of the furnace gets hot while the other stays cold. Half of the iron ore melts, and half remains…”

The burly man spoke a lot in a rush. Mo Xiaobai basically understood everything.

Alright, when Li Ji originally brought so many people and worked so hard to build this blacksmith’s shop, it turned into a broken sieve in your hands.

However, Mo Xiaobai knew the reason for this. A Village Level 2 blacksmith’s shop simply could not forge qualified pig iron weapons.

According to the burly blacksmith, what he wanted was at least a Small Town Level blacksmith’s shop.

This was particularly awkward!

To build a structure by crossing territory civilizations, relevant construction blueprints were required. Without those, Mo Xiaobai could not build them.

This was also a restriction from the Intellect Brain to the Players. If there were no such restrictions, the ten Level 10 technicians from Water Blue Star who entered the Plane could use the simplest pure manual methods to bring the Plane directly into an era of firearm civilization.

“The blacksmith’s shop can currently only be upgraded, but I cannot guarantee it will meet the requirements you mentioned. Also, switching from a charcoal stove to a coal stove should provide some improvement.”

Mo Xiaobai thought for a moment and made his own promise: “I will quickly search for construction blueprints for a higher-level blacksmith’s shop. I will build a qualified blacksmith’s shop. By no later than half a month, you will be able to see it.”

“Hehe~ That is great.” Zheng Lun rubbed his head and laughed twice. Then, his stomach began to rumble loudly.

“Uncomfortable? A doctor has arrived at the Territory today. I will take you to see him.”

This person in front of him was the only blacksmith in the Territory currently. He looked quite capable, and Mo Xiaobai certainly did not want anything to happen to him.

“No, no, no, I… I am just a bit hungry.”

“Hungry? That is easy. The Territory now has plenty of good food and drink, and absolutely enough to fill you up.” Mo Xiaobai waved his hand, just about to say he would take him to eat, but he remembered that when he returned, it should have been the You hour.

The Territory usually served meals at twelve noon. Only two hours had passed since then. Was this Fatty already hungry?

Seeing Mo Xiaobai’s surprise, the Fatty rubbed his big head: “Hehe~ My appetite is quite large. The village where I lived before suffered a disaster, and grain production dropped severely. The village could not feed me, so I had to come out and wander to try our luck. Fortunately, My Lord took me in. Otherwise, I would have starved to death on the mountain peak.”

He can eat that much?

No problem!

You eat what you earn!

Fatty, just wait. I will help you lose weight successfully.

Leading the Fatty out of the blacksmith’s shop, Mo Xiaobai told him to go to the Lord’s Manor to find Cheng Liya. Then Mo Xiaobai inspected the Territory again and happened to meet Li Ji, who had just settled several doctors and old farmers.

“Maogong, it is time to use the Items we previously stockpiled.”