Zhao Ming frowned. “Is it within Xiping County? How come I’ve never heard of an iron mine in the county?”

“With so many mineral deposits in the world, you can’t possibly know about every single one.”

Thinking about it, Zhao Ming agreed and asked, “Where is the iron mine?”

“In a wilderness area. There are fields that have been abandoned for several years, and the land is somewhat barren. If it weren’t for the possibility of enemy troops coming down from the north, I wouldn’t have thought to establish a resettlement point there.”

“After all this, you still haven’t said exactly where it is.”

“Well, because it’s wilderness, there’s no place name, and the mountain has no name either. I named the resettlement point Wushan because at noon, the sunlight there is particularly good…”

Zhao Ming narrowed his eyes and silently repeated the words “Wushan” several times in his mind. It was in the north too. He pursed his lips. “Is this Wushan very close to Wuyang?”

Zhao Hanzhang pinched her fingers together. “Just a tiny bit close.”

Zhao Ming’s face darkened considerably. “Don’t tell me the iron mine is on Wuyang County’s side?”

Zhao Hanzhang grinned at him sheepishly.

Zhao Ming turned to leave. He was truly confused—why on earth did he stop to listen to her?

Zhao Hanzhang quickly caught up and followed behind him, chattering away. “Uncle, that mountain isn’t entirely on their side. Part of it is on our side too, really. I’ve asked around. There used to be a village there, and some people’s land was at the foot of that mountain…”

“The divisions between counties, apart from the area around the boundary markers being relatively clear, are fuzzy in other places. I’ve had people investigate—Wuyang County has also abandoned that area.”

Zhao Hanzhang continued, “We’re going to mine there, and no one will know at all.”

Zhao Ming stopped and frowned. “Then why are you telling me?”

If you want to mine, just do it secretly. Why tell him?

Was this to make him stop her, or not stop her?

Zhao Hanzhang said, “But smelting iron requires graphite.”

She looked at Zhao Ming expectantly.

So she had her eye on the clan’s graphite mine.

Of course, this graphite wasn’t that graphite.

The ancients called coal “graphite,” while what later generations considered graphite was here called “black edge.”

So the graphite mine in the Zhao clan’s hands was actually a coal mine.

Zhao Ming was straightforward and said, “You want to buy graphite from the clan? I’ll call the person in charge of this matter later, and you can negotiate with him.”

“Could it be cheaper?” Zhao Hanzhang said. “When I smelt the iron, I’ll also sell it to the clan cheaply.”

Zhao Ming fell into thought. Seeing there was hope, Zhao Hanzhang pressed on. “Moreover, to be honest with you, Uncle, we’ve newly developed higher quality iron that we call steel. Although the yield is very low, the weapons forged from it can be called divine weapons. This unique item—I would never sell it outside, only to the clan.”

Zhao Ming pondered, glanced at her, and said, “Let’s go. We’ll talk at home.”

Zhao Hanzhang happily followed along.

Negotiating with others was nowhere near as satisfying as negotiating with Zhao Ming.

They both knew what kind of person they themselves were, and what kind of person the other was. Zhao Hanzhang could push the price down without any qualms.

The coal mine didn’t belong to Zhao Ming, but to the entire Zhao clan. However, it was he—or rather, his father—who managed the clan’s affairs, so he could make some decisions.

Not knowing what Zhao Ming was thinking, he agreed without making Zhao Hanzhang work too hard, selling the coal to her at a very favorable price.

Zhao Ming also wanted to see just how far Zhao Hanzhang could go.

If she truly managed to control all of Yuzhou, then with the Zhao clan fortress in the heart of Yuzhou, as long as Yuzhou didn’t fall, the Zhao clan would be the safest.

Based on this, Zhao Ming was willing to help her where he could.

When Ji Yuan learned that Zhao Hanzhang had acquired coal, he was overjoyed. “This way, we won’t be at anyone’s mercy regarding weapons.”

Zhao Hanzhang had taken in so many displaced people. Of course, not all of them were soldiers—more were in the nature of long-term workers.

Only twelve hundred were truly being trained by her as soldiers.

But these people needed quite a few weapons.

As for the remaining people, they also needed to do some military training during their leisure time, equivalent to militia—farming during busy seasons, going to battle during wartime.

They also needed some weapons.

Moreover, she now needed a large quantity of farm tools.

All of this required iron. The iron mines within Yuzhou territory were either in government hands or in Governor He’s hands.

Everything was exposed under Governor He’s watchful eye. Buying iron from him would be equivalent to exposing her situation and ambitions, wouldn’t it?

So Ji Yuan had always wanted to bypass Governor He and buy ironware from outside Yuzhou. Zhao Hanzhang was more straightforward—she wanted to find an iron mine herself.

Yuzhou wasn’t lacking in mineral resources. Although she didn’t remember the specific locations, since Xiping County had coal mines, there should be iron mines nearby.

If not in Xiping, then in the neighboring county.

So Zhao Hanzhang had always had people keep watch.

Finding the iron mine at Wushan was pure accident. Zhao Hanzhang had previously bought a batch of iron ore and had shown the stones to the various squad leaders and section chiefs, asking them to memorize what they looked like. If they discovered similar stones in the wild, they should report immediately.

A squad leader, leading his assigned troops to the resettlement point for settlement, found that the pre-stored firewood wasn’t enough because of the cold weather. They went a bit farther to chop wood and inadvertently discovered Wushan.

It was an extremely low hill with just a few trees growing on the edges, but it blocked the wind, so when resting they hid there, finding it not so cold anymore.

Then they touched a stone. With just a bit of force, the stone scattered into a pile of sand and gravel. The color was extremely similar to the iron ore Zhao Hanzhang had shown the section chiefs.

So the section chief picked up a bagful, and when the squad leader from the Wushan resettlement point returned to the county to report, he brought it along.

Zhao Hanzhang hadn’t expected to get what she wished for, and had quite a feeling of being destiny’s favored child.

Fortunately, things weren’t that smooth, which weakened this feeling, because Wushan was a bit far from the resettlement point. After everyone’s detailed research, they determined that the nameless mountain Zhao Hanzhang had named Wushan had already left Xiping County’s boundaries and belonged to neighboring Wuyang County.

Because of this, Zhao Hanzhang was very unhappy and had been gloomy for an entire evening before deciding to send an additional squad to the Wushan resettlement point. Both squads quietly moved the resettlement point to not far from the mountain’s foot.

Fortunately, Wuyang County’s population loss was equally severe, and the trees on their side were much denser than on this side, which meant there were no villages near Wushan on that end, not even cultivated fields.

So they could temporarily occupy it quietly, and deal with it when discovered.

Oh, right, there was another problem—privately mining iron was illegal.

However, with Governor He’s precedent, Zhao Hanzhang didn’t care much. But she was still weak and helpless now, so she had to keep it covered and not speak about it outside.

For this reason, those who knew about this matter were all confidants of Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan.