The entire afternoon seemed to pass in a blink of an eye to Chu Mu who was focused on the book.
The patrol inspector who came to change the shift had arrived, and the patrol inspectors who had been on duty for a day left each other with shouts.
Chu Mu silently put the book into his arms, raised his head and glanced at the dim sky. A gust of evening wind blew by, but he couldn't help tightening his armor.
"It's probably going to change..."
Chu Mu pursed his lips. The seasonal divisions in this era were no different from those in the previous life.
Spring, summer, autumn and winter, the four seasons reincarnate.
The current season is late autumn, winter is approaching, the sun is about to set, and the evening wind is already a bit chilly.
Chu Mu glanced at the laborers who were still working not far away. They were all in ragged clothes, and they were all still wearing thin summer clothes.
With just one glance, Chu Mu withdrew his gaze, straightened his clothes, and then followed the patrol of the subordinates and walked out of the mine.
Nanshan Town is located at the foot of the mountain. From the A-shaped mine, you only need to go straight along the mountain road down the mountain, and then pass by the iron smelting plant on the mountainside to reach Nanshan Town.
It was dusk at this time, and on the mountain road, apart from the inspections of off-duty and patrol guards, there were only corvee workers carrying baskets to and from the mines and ironworks.
The iron smelting plant is located on the mountainside between the two mines A and B. From a distance, the black smoke billowing from the iron smelting plant can be clearly seen.
The iron smelting plant was not far away, and Chu Mu also slowed down.
When he first arrived, Chu Mu had many puzzles about this era, and the ironworks in front of him was the one that confused Chu Mu the most.
Normally, a mine with thousands of people and an iron smelting plant would undoubtedly drive the development of a large area around it.
Not to mention anything else, as it is a location for mining and smelting, the most basic iron tools will definitely be much cheaper than other places, not to mention all the other aspects driven by the mining and iron plants.
But in this Nanshan Town, in Chu Mu's view, it seemed to be the complete opposite.
The Nanshan Iron Mine and the iron smelting plant in front of them not only failed to benefit the surrounding people, but instead weighed down on the people of Qinghe County like two huge mountains, becoming an almost unbearable burden.
The reason is also very simple.
The mine is a government operation, nothing more.
The mine is government-run, Qinghe County collects corvees to mine the ore, and the iron smelting plant smelts the ore. As far as Chu Mu knows, except for a very small number of craftsmen employed by the Qinghe County government, most of the others in the iron smelting plant are Part of it is also corvée.
It is not difficult to see that this is almost a completely costless transaction.
The Qinghe County government paid almost nothing and took everything into its pocket, and almost all of the price was passed on to the people of Qinghe County with an order to collect corvees.
If it were just like this, it would not be difficult to understand that it is nothing more than oppression and being oppressed.
This kind of thing has been happening in the world of Chu Mu's previous life for thousands of years!
But the problem lies in this. Among them, the Qinghe County government, or "official", seems to be a completely empty-handed white wolf, occupying all the interests.
But as far as Chu Mu knows... among these links, Qinghe County Government is just one of them.
All the ore mined in the mine is transported to this iron smelting plant, where the ore is smelted into crude iron, and then stored in the warehouse in Nanshan Town.
Every three months, Qinghe County will send patrols and escorts to the county.
And Chu Mu's doubts lie precisely in this.
Supply and demand supply and demand. When there is supply, there will be demand. In the same way, when there is demand, there will be supply.
Qinghe County mines ore and then smelts it into crude iron, which is the supply side. Every three months, the stored crude iron is transported to the county, which is the demand side.
But the problem is...the county's need for mineral materials is nothing more than forging weapons and tools.
But the county town is at least hundreds of miles away from Qinghe County. With the transportation conditions of this era, just the process of transporting mineral materials does not know how much manpower and material resources are consumed.
In this case, why not directly generate demand in Qinghe County?
Isn't it true that mining of ore in mines, smelting and processing in iron smelting plants, and direct transportation of the required finished products are much stronger than today's abnormal supply and demand relationship?
Chu Mu knew that every time the mineral materials were transported to the county town, Qinghe County had to make a big move, which consumed countless manpower and material resources!
Chu Mu estimated that in terms of money, the manpower and material resources required to transport the mineral materials to the county were definitely much higher than the value of the mineral materials themselves, not to mention the terrible costs of mining and smelting.
If we go through each link one by one, it seems that everyone involved is doing business at a loss!
The people of Qinghe County bear an unbearable burden of corvee work, with almost no reward and a high possibility of paying the price with their lives.
The Qinghe County government also struggled to maintain order and suppress the boiling public complaints, but the mineral materials eventually mined and smelted had nothing to do with Qinghe County.
Over there in the county, countless manpower and material resources were mobilized just to obtain mineral materials that would inevitably result in a loss of money?
Even if there are benefits that Chu Mu cannot see now, no matter how Chu Mu sees it, those hidden benefits cannot be compared to the countless manpower and material resources expended on the surface!
Chu Mu stopped where he was and stared for a while before slowly looking away.
Maybe...it's not necessarily because he is ignorant.
After all, the original owner's knowledge of this era was limited to a small area due to his withdrawn temperament and age. In fact, if the original owner's father hadn't been transferred from Qinghe County to work in Nanshan Town, the original owner would probably not even be able to leave Qinghe County. once.
And his own understanding of this era, to a large extent, only comes from the memory of the original owner.
His true understanding of this era is less than half a month old.
Chu Mu took a long breath, and as usual, once again suppressed the doubts in his heart, stepped forward, and headed down the mountain road towards Nanshan Town.
The afterglow of the setting sun was still lingering, and Chu Mu had already entered Nanshan Town. Perhaps due to the repeated corvee levies, the streets were obviously quite empty, but it did not seem to affect the popularity of Nanshan Town.
After all, there are more than 500 inspectors at the Nanshan Inspection Station alone. Counting the family members of the inspectors, this is a permanent population of at least thousands.
Moreover, according to the county's standards for collecting and issuing corvee, inspection relatives can be exempted from corvee, and the only condition for exemption is that they need to pay some money.
Compared to being conscripted into a corvee, where one's livelihood is precarious and one's life is in danger, some money is obviously insignificant.
In my memory, the original owner was forced into corvee service the year he turned fourteen, but his father spent money to avoid the disaster.
Later, the original owner's father also made connections here and there, trying to get an official status for the original owner to ensure his safety, but he never succeeded.
Who would have thought that this official position would eventually fall on the original owner in the way that his father died in the line of duty.
But in the end, it actually benefited him, a person from another time and space.
"Keep it safe..."
Chu Mu touched his patrol armor and murmured to himself...
…
