King of The Wall

2021-01-06

Chapter 51 Dragonglass Mining

“I want to mine obsidian here, what do I need?” Igor Use the torch to get close to the cave wall, illuminating the large dark Fire Mountain Cliff.

“It turns out that obsidian mines are like this… What’s the use of Night’s Watch?” The old mine head muttered, handing the torch to his younger son, and oneself took out a small iron from his waist bag Hammer, beat on the wall of the cave, studied for a while, straightened up, shook his head: “The mine is ready-made, the structure is stable and above sea level, and the air circulates naturally – no need to worry about collapse, water seepage and poisoning. ;The ore itself is directly obsidian, it does not need to be refined, and the mining difficulty is almost zero, just find someone with strength, and it is not like the gold mines worrying about the workers hiding kotou gold… tsk, if you have to say something What needs to be paid attention to is that you have to build a shelf to lay some slabs to prevent people from being injured by falling rocks during mining.”

Igor is not stingy. Experts in this world ask: “Can you determine what you need? When can you mine it at the fastest time? How much will it cost?”

“What do you need, we can’t tell you here. , you have to make a list; if you talk about mining, the conditions of this mine are so good, if the money and tools are in place, it is not impossible to start construction tonight.” The old miner said ambiguous, “As for the cost, it depends on your opinion of obsidian. Is the need urgent, how much is needed, and what is the requirement for ore.”

“What is the requirement for ore?”

“For example, if you want to Obsidian is carved into the shape of the two faucets we saw on both sides of the castle gate, and large pieces of source stone are needed, so mining is extremely difficult. But if you just want to make some beads and string them into bracelets to sell for money, then let The workers can just smash it with a hammer, and the difficulty and cost of mining will be greatly reduced.”

It turned out to be the case, Igor touched the chin and thought about it for a while. Obsidian is just glass after all, and it is impossible to make a huge weapon like a long sword. The Dragonglass daggers and arrows used by the Children of the Forest thousands of years ago are the most feasible solutions that have been tested in practice. This means that the mined ore can only be carved It can be polished into a dagger, no matter how big it is, it is a waste. In the face of intelligent Magic creatures like Others, it is difficult to replicate the successful case of oneself killing them in close combat. The most reliable solution is to rely on a huge amount of Dragonglass arrows – using hiding the sky and A ranged weapon that covers the earth, with quantity over quality.

“The ore doesn’t need to be too big, just follow the circumstances.”

“Hmm.” The old mine head nodded: “I will make a list for you later, in In this regard, you can give me the required quantity after looking at it, and I will find someone to buy it, which is definitely a lot cheaper than oneself. In addition, mining needs a Chief-In-Charge to manage and guard, arrange work, and prevent Workers grind foreign workers or steal tools and sell them for money. My youngest son grew up in a mine near Casterly Rock City. Although he is not as good as me, he definitely knows a lot better than laymen…”

… …

Igor laughed, although he was not a leader before crossing, but Old Ancestor has summed up the truth very concisely: benefit can be shared but not alone, and it can be done with few but not many. That is to say, when planning a major event, must choose the most critical and assertive small group of people to discuss, absolutely cannot be “democratic”; but when doing business, must let all participants benefit, it must not be done Do things yourself, for fear of letting others share a little bit of oil and water.

When the water is clear, there are no fish. Stannis Baratheon just doesn’t understand this truth, so he is hated by almost all nobles of Westeros size. Igor admires his fairness, but doesn’t want to imitate him to be a loner and negotiate a major event – just talk to Tyrion alone, and the old miner comes to help oneself see the obsidian mine, and then wants to find a way out for oneself’s son, even from It is understandable to rub a little oil and water in the purchase of tools.

“Okay, since the expert has spoken, I naturally trust you. Then assign your youngest son to be the Chief-In-Charge of this Dragonglass Mine, and be solely responsible for all matters of mining. For wages, press one first. How about a month of Silver Stag, if you do a good job, you will be rewarded.” Igor nodded: “But there is one thing, tool procurement, personnel hiring, travel expenses, in short, all expenses must be recorded perfectly and clearly, and I will use them. Reimbursement to superiors… Night’s Watch’s funds are not rich, it’s too outrageous.”

“Thank you, sir.” The monthly salary of one hundred Silver Stag itself is not low, even more how Chief- In-Charge’s work is easy and there are other things to do? The old miner patted the youngest son, who hurriedly did what he said.

Hey, even the title has changed, Igor shook his head: “I’m not an adult, you can call me by my name, the work here should start as soon as possible, and the initial capital should be controlled at 100 Golden Dragon. Within a month, the first ship of obsidian will be delivered to Eastwatch within a month, and the quantity… Let’s aim to fill the small ship we took to Dragonstone.”

“That’s not much, it seems that it is directly from the It’s enough to recruit a dozen workers in the small village of Dragonstone.”

“Well, discuss the details with your father and son. Tyrion introduced you to me, and I trust you.”

“Thank you sir.”

“I said I’m not… oh, forget it.” Igor shrugged, “Let’s go, before it gets dark, let’s go back to the village, I I also promised you a big meal.”

＊＊＊

Igor soon encountered a very embarrassing thing, he wanted to invite oneself to watch the mine today with oneself The promise of a big meal for three people is a bit difficult to achieve.

It’s not the lion’s big mouth slaughtering people from the fishing village. With the temper of Stannis, if this happens on the oneself Fiefdom, the slaughtering people will be thrown into the sea in minutes. The problem Igor encounters now is that he has money and can’t spend it: I want to order pork, beef and mutton, no, I want to order chicken, duck and goose, no, the only thing that Dragonstone can provide is fish, and this thing, the young man who leads the way lives here for a long time , must be tired of eating.

“Is it the same in the castle?” Igor asked in confusion, “If Lord Stannis wants to eat something other than fish, what does the chef do?”

” Every ten days and a half months, a ship will dock here, and the number of ships on board determines the food in the castle until the next ship docks.” The young man who led the way replied helplessly: “It doesn’t matter, You can eat whatever you want, fish soup and grilled fish, as long as you are willing to add seasonings, they are all good.”

“In the future, a ship of obsidian will need to be shipped out here every month, so that when they come, they will Don’t empty the boat, bring some chicken, duck, beef and mutton, etc., which will be included in the food bill, and give half of it to Lord Stannis. It is love to mine on his island, and he didn’t talk about tax collection, Night’s Watch can’t be regarded as it should be by rights.”

I haven’t eaten pork or watched the pig run. Igor rarely dealt with these trivial things before crossing the road, but how to do things decently and beautifully makes people speechless, he It’s still clear – and there’s some truth to it, it’s universal in every era and everywhere.

The old miner said that the obsidian mine can operate with a minimum of a dozen people. With such a small number of people, no matter how much you eat, it will not cost much. If Tyrion agrees to join his fund-raising plan, the money will be quickly It will become a small amount of money that does not even count the interest in the capital chain. Not to mention, the food expenses of the obsidian miners are theoretically reimbursed by Night’s Watch.

 …

In the end, Igor forced his promise—he paid three times the market price to let the villagers of the fishing village kill an egg-laying hen as the main course, and then served with A few side dishes made of various fish, rewarded the youngster who brought oneself to find the ancient obsidian mine, and looked at him voraciously nibbling on chicken legs, obviously he hadn’t eaten chicken for two months.

＊＊＊

Full of food and drink, the four of them drank ale and continued to discuss all kinds of mining. The slightly drunk old mine has become the protagonist. He talks dangerously about the various stories of managing the gold mine for House Lannister when he was young. He is in high spirits… With his experience, he is indeed qualified to brag in front of three youngsters. force.

Now, he tells the story of Duke Tywin, who returned to Casterly Rock from King’s Landing after the death of his father, Titos Lannister, and paraded the streets of Lanisport after ordering the father’s mistress, who had intended to take power in Casterly Rock, stripped naked. Heterosexuality can always be a topic of conversation when people get together, even Igor, although he thinks this topic is vulgar, he still hears it with keen interest pleasure… Just when the old mine started to describe the woman’s white body vividly, The door of the house suddenly opened.

A woman entered the house.

“Dragonstone has a Night’s Watch visitor for the first time, and you didn’t even notify me?”

Igor didn’t have time to look back, the youngster sent by Stannis to lead the way. Having put down his glass, he stood up in awe: “Ms. Melisandre, why are you here?”

——

(end of this chapter)