Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1794 - 1288: North, North

The Talas River rushed southwest, flowing past Atoyac Lake, where the reflections of long sails lingered, until it reached the estuary of the Western Sea. Billowing black smoke rose ceaselessly day and night from the workshops of the Black Rock Mountain iron ore district. The newly constructed smelting blast furnaces, like giant whales, devoured iron ore and charcoal, then spewed out streams of scorching, dark red molten iron!

"Chief Divine's blessing! Open the furnace!..."

To keep these furnaces running continuously, over a thousand able-bodied men, part of the mining district, worked tirelessly thirty miles from the iron ore site, chopping wood and burning charcoal, nearly stripping a whole mountain bare. Every few months, high-quality coal from Reagan Town on the Northern Continent would be transported by merchant ships in tons.

This coal from future Sonora contains low sulfur and low ash content, making it high-grade bituminous and anthracite coal. When used for iron smelting, it does not make the iron brittle like the coal from Blackstone City's Qinganbate mine. It replaces the expensive charcoal, but due to the kingdom's current transport capacity and speed, the quantity of these "Northern Firestones" remains limited...

Of course, the newly appointed "Craftsman Master" and master blacksmith Otani, who primarily served as a samurai, did not know the real reason why the iron became brittle. If the quality of the output iron was too poor, he would simply order the craftsmen and apprentices under him to refill the furnace and smelt it again. To the kingdom's Divine Revelation Priest's inquiries, he always responded with a respectful smile, praising the Chief Divine's blessing and the divinity of the furnaces, while inwardly complaining.

"Great Bodhisattva, Chief Divine! Such terrible iron ore, such excellent coal! Such incompetent local craftsmen, such hardworking civilian laborers! And these high-ranking Shrine Priests, instead of praying and chanting, watch me work every day and ask about blacksmithing skills... so strange and frightening!..."

Otani's cautiousness was not unfounded. The entire iron smelting workshop was like a large military camp. With distinct divisions of labor and strict adherence to military discipline, raw materials and supplies were sustained by the efforts of thousands, far exceeding the scale of traditional blacksmith workshops in the Wa Country.

At present, over two hundred leather-armored samurai, armed with spears and carrying bows or javelins, guarded various parts of the workshop. The number of samurai alone surpassed the size of the Kaozaki Family. After all, the Kaozaki Family was just a small clan with a few thousand people and about Ten Thousand Stones. Moreover, combined with the eight hundred samurais guarding the mining district and overseeing the mine slaves, the kingdom's thousand disarmed samurai were almost half the force of the main house of the Kaozaki Family, the Guardian Daimyos of the Ezo land overseeing Hiyama Anton Clan with sixty thousand stones! And this was just a corner of the so-called "Kingdom of the Lake's" strength, like a single feather on an eagle...

"A mighty Guardian Daimyo... no, a truly noble General of the Eastern Sea!... As for me, Otani Takegou, I am a retainer under the General, a highly esteemed blacksmith commissioner... uh... no, I haven't reached 'commissioner' yet, probably still a 'group leader'... but with my skills, becoming a commissioner is just a matter of time!..."

Blacksmith Otani was full of confidence and very satisfied with his current status as a "Craftsman Master" and "Blacksmith Group Leader", seldom thinking of the distant Ezo land. He had married a Prepetcha wife, ready to extend his suddenly elevated samurai family in this faraway "Eastern Sea country". He also repeatedly inquired with the Tecos Warriors with the surname "Lo", considering if he might have a chance to be bestowed the "Lo" by the "Eastern Sea General", and then rename himself "Otani Rakugo"...

"Chief Divine's blessing! A new batch of mine slaves has arrived! Quick, get them off the ships and bring them to the mining area as soon as possible! Feed them well with pumpkin and sweet potatoes, nourish them for a couple of days, and then let them start working in the mines!..."

Not far south of the Black Rock Mountain iron ore is the port of Trout Town. Hundreds of southern naval forces' war boats and over a dozen oar-sailed longships had just docked. Over a thousand Mistec able-bodied men, with numb expressions, were driven off the ships by a large group of samurai. After being fed with mixed grains, they were led in groups to the Black Rock Mountain iron ore district, formally becoming mine slaves of the open-pit mining site... for now, the surface of the Black Rock Mountain iron ore has not been entirely excavated. Hence, they can work under the sunlight instead of delving into the dark and endless depths like in Blackstone City's coal copper mining district, enabling them to live a little longer...

However, their fate was already set, using their labor for the rest of their lives to serve as the fuel for the progress of the era, gradually illuminating the Iron Age across Central America.

"Chief Divine's blessing! The captives were successfully transported... Quick! Now load food on the ships, enough military provisions! Load more mixed grains, not so many corn cakes! This batch of military provisions is for the Alliance Army... Ha! Fully twenty thousand people are at the seaside, besieging the Mistec people's River Bean City, all relying on our food supply... We couldn't possibly have enough corn cakes for them all!..."

The port warehouses were opened, and baskets full of provisions were loaded onto the ships. Soon, the shouts of rowers echoed as the kingdom's southern naval forces set sail again. However, the besieged River Bean City lay beyond the conquered Eastern Coast, beyond the surrendered and affiliated Sea Woman City and Wind Origin City, far over a thousand and a hundred miles away!

Of course, the cost of transporting supplies a thousand miles by sea is nearly only one-tenth of that by land, with food loss being incomparably less. Without maritime support for food, it would be an impossible task to penetrate deep into the expansive Mistec mountain forest by land to besiege the coastal city-state determined to hold its ground...