The excavation of the iron mine required a large number of workers.
And the source of workers was not something that could be obtained as and when.
To recruit workers, it would cost a lot of money.
After all, he could not let the soldiers mine.
Originally, Cao Cao had some mining teams, but the number of people was too small.
Less than a hundred people were mining, which was far from enough.
Therefore, the first thing Bai Feng did was to gather the miners.
Of course, with Boss Cao's current financial resources, he could not gather a large number of soldiers.
However, this was not a problem for Bai Feng.
If there was no one, he would use free labor.
For example, the surrendered soldiers who had been imprisoned during the previous battle, as well as the prisoners imprisoned in the prisons of various states and counties.
These people..,
As long as they were provided with three meals a day, they would work more actively than anyone else.
Of course, these people alone were definitely not enough.
Bai Feng found some disaster victims around Xuchang.
Most of these disaster victims had fled from various disaster areas.
They were the same. As long as they were provided with three meals a day, they would work willingly.
Of course, there were also some old, weak, women, and children among the disaster victims. These people could not work at all.
Bai Feng first recruited the labor force among the disaster victims. Then, he announced that as long as they came to participate, their families would be provided with three meals a day.
Hearing this, the disaster victims were even more excited.
This kind of killing two birds with one stone naturally had to be done more.
And now, what Cao Wei did not lack the most was food.
There was a lot of food.
After all, before potatoes, corn, and other crops were planted, Bai Feng found a treasure land and planted a lot of rice.
The growth cycle of these rice grains was very fast. They could mature once in less than a month.
Now, they were already mature.
However, their yield was much lower than corn and other crops.
The yield of corn and other crops was about 20,000 catties per mu, while the highest yield of these rice grains was only 10,000 catties.
But even so, it was completely enough. There was no problem in providing for these miners.
After all, for them, it was already very good to have something to eat. As for the taste, they did not even think about it.
Bai Feng would definitely not be harsh. He told them to eat as much as they could. After eating, they would rest for half an hour and then continue to work.
This way, they could strike a balance between work and rest. Only then would these miners have the strength to continue working.
Before they entered the mine, Bai Feng had specially given everyone a face mask to protect them from dust.
This mask was very important.
If one didn't wear a mask while mining in the mine, it was easy to get a nasty disease like pneumoconiosis.
Although Bai Feng could cure these diseases very well.
However, treating them one by one was too troublesome. Where would Bai Feng find so much time?
Moreover, after contracting the disease, a person's bodily functions would rapidly decline, which would only affect the efficiency of the miners.
Therefore, masks were a necessary expense.
Moreover, it didn't cost much to make the masks.
Under the operation of Bai Feng, a large mining system was quickly formed.
All the miners were deeply grateful to Bai Feng.
For these criminals, other than those on death row, most of them could earn merit by mining.
If he performed meritorious deeds, his sentence would be reduced.
However, it was different for prisoners on death row. Prisoners on death row could not be pardoned. Bai Feng would only draw a special case if they had committed a strange crime.
After all, some of the regulations in ancient times were extremely harsh. Some inexplicable things could lead to the death penalty.
However, such cases were still relatively rare.
Of course, if they killed someone or committed other unforgivable crimes, these people would eat and take the money obediently.
For the disaster victims, although there was no source of income, they would have food to eat!
Moreover, they would work alone and their family would not be hungry!
Of course, there were also some people who did not have young adults in their families. Bai Feng also gave them food as appropriate.
After all, most of these people were young adults in their families who had joined the army.
As for the remaining few lonely old men, they were negligible.
Bai Feng ordered that they could secretly give them food to ensure that these disaster victims could settle down smoothly.
In this way, they only needed to hire some cooks and send some overseers to mine.
As for the overseers of these miners and the people who mainly managed them.
Bai Feng chose Man Chong.
It was true that Man Chong was a cruel official, but he was also strict with people who made mistakes.
This was just right for overseers.
In particular, most of these overseers were criminals and surrendered soldiers, so they needed to be strictly guarded.
No one was more qualified for this job than Man Chong.
Soon, the miner system was established, and there was no shortage of steel for steelmaking.
As long as there was an endless supply of steel, the efficiency of these blacksmiths would be very high.
Because of such a favor, these miners worked hard.
Moreover, it was not like they had to dig for a whole day without stopping until they died of exhaustion.
Bai Feng specially divided the miners into three shifts.
They only needed to dig for eight hours a day and could rest for the rest of the time.
And they only needed to work for eight hours to have three meals a day. This was undoubtedly the most cost-effective for these miners.
One had to know that it was not that they had not been pulled out to work before.
However, they had to work for 12 hours or more every day. Sometimes, they had to work all day except for sleeping.
In this way, they would get tired very easily.
After implementing the eight-hour three-shift system, although the efficiency was lower than working all day, it was more stable.
Moreover, it had to be said that the Wei Kingdom had too many mineral resources.
Compared to the modern era, it was more than a hundred times more.
This was only the discovered mines.
There were still countless undiscovered mines.
After all, during the Three Kingdoms period, the demand for iron was far less than in the modern era.
At most, they used it to make armor and some commonly used iron products.
How much money could these cost?
After the arrival of the industrial era, the consumption of iron materials increased by many times.
Therefore, there was no need to worry about the source of iron ore.
Now, what Bai Feng needed to follow up on was the research and development of firearms.
The firearm blueprint that Bai Feng first took out was a relatively old firearm.
This type of firearm could only fire one bullet, and it needed to be reloaded. It was very slow.
Even if it was created, Bai Feng would definitely not let it be used in battle.
There was only one use for making firearms, and that was to improve the skills of the blacksmiths.
Moreover, it was a good opportunity for them to practice and familiarize themselves with the creation of firearms.
If they could not even understand how to make firearms, then there was no need to think about the future.
Compared to firearms, firearms that appeared later were not only very complicated, but also very difficult to make.
If one did not have the experience of making firearms, even if one had the blueprint, they could only be blind.
However, after becoming proficient in making firearms, they could research and develop firearms that they really needed.
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