For Chu Mu, who was engrossed in his book, the afternoon seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.
The next shift of Inspectors had arrived, and those who had been on duty all day called out to one another as they left.
Chu Mu silently tucked the book into his robes and glanced up at the dimming sky. A gust of evening wind swept past, and he couldn't help but pull his Armor tighter around him.
'Looks like the weather's about to turn...'
Chu Mu pursed his lips. The division of seasons in this era was no different from his previous life.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter—the four seasons cycled in turn.
It was late autumn, with winter on its way. As the sun began to set, the evening wind carried a growing chill.
Chu Mu glanced at the forced laborers still toiling nearby. Every one of them was dressed in rags, still wearing thin summer clothing.
After a single glance, Chu Mu looked away. He straightened his clothes and followed the other off-duty Inspectors away from the mine.
Nanshan Town was located at the foot of the mountain. From Mine A, one only needed to follow the mountain path straight down, pass the Iron Refinery on the mountainside, and they would reach Nanshan Town.
It was dusk, and the mountain path was occupied only by Inspectors—either heading off-duty or on patrol—and the forced laborers carrying baskets between the mine and the Iron Refinery.
The Iron Refinery was located on the mountainside between Mines A and B. Even from a great distance, one could clearly see the billowing black smoke from the Iron Refinery.
The Iron Refinery was not far off, and Chu Mu slowed his pace.
As a newcomer to this world, there was much Chu Mu didn't understand about this era. The Iron Refinery before him was one of the biggest puzzles.
Normally, a mine employing several thousand people, combined with an Iron Refinery, would undoubtedly drive the development of the entire surrounding region.
For one thing, as the site of a mine and refinery, the most basic iron tools should have been far cheaper here than anywhere else, not to mention all the other economic activity it should have spurred.
But here in Nanshan Town, as far as Chu Mu could see, the opposite seemed to be true.
The Nanshan Iron Ore and the Iron Refinery before him had not only failed to benefit the local people, but instead weighed down on the people of Qinghe County like two great mountains, becoming an almost unbearable burden.
The reason, ultimately, was quite simple.
The mine was government-run. That was it.
The mine was government-run. The Qinghe County Magistrate's Office used forced labor to excavate the ore, and the Iron Refinery smelted it. As far as Chu Mu knew, aside from a tiny fraction of artisans employed by the Qinghe County Magistrate's Office, the vast majority of workers at the refinery were also forced laborers.
It wasn't hard to see that this was, for all intents and purposes, a business with zero overhead.
The Qinghe County Magistrate's Office paid next to nothing, yet pocketed everything. The cost was passed almost entirely onto the people of Qinghe County, all with a single paper decree levying forced labor.
If that was all there was to it, it would be easy enough to understand—just a simple case of the oppressor and the oppressed.
This kind of thing had played out for thousands of years in the world of Chu Mu's previous life!
But that was precisely the problem. In this whole scheme, the Qinghe County Magistrate's Office—or rather, the "government"—seemed to be getting something for nothing, taking all the profits for themselves.
But from what Chu Mu understood... the Qinghe County Magistrate's Office was merely one link in the chain.
All the ore excavated from the mine was transported to this Iron Refinery to be smelted into pig iron, then stored in the warehouses of Nanshan Town.
Every three months, Qinghe County would dispatch Inspectors to escort it to the Commandery City.
And this was the very source of Chu Mu's confusion.
Supply and demand. Supply exists to meet demand; likewise, demand creates supply.
Qinghe County mined the ore and smelted it into pig iron; they were the supplier. Every three months, the stored pig iron was transported to the Commandery City; they were the demand side.
But the problem was... the Commandery City's demand for Ore Materials was surely for forging armaments, tools, and the like.
But the Commandery City was hundreds of miles from Qinghe County. With this era's logistics, the sheer cost in manpower and resources to transport the Ore Materials must have been staggering.
'In that case, why not fulfill the demand directly in Qinghe County?'
'Mine the ore, smelt and process it at the Iron Refinery, and then ship the finished goods directly. Wouldn't that be far more efficient than this warped supply chain?'
Chu Mu knew for a fact that every shipment of Ore Materials to the Commandery City was a massive undertaking for Qinghe County, consuming an immense amount of manpower and resources!
'Chu Mu reckoned that if you calculated the cost in silver coins, the logistics of transporting the Ore Materials to the Commandery City would far exceed the value of the materials themselves—and that wasn't even counting the terrifying costs of mining and smelting.'
'If you analyzed it step by step, it seemed like everyone involved in the process was losing money!'
The people of Qinghe County shouldered the unbearable burden of Forced Labor with almost nothing in return, and a high probability of paying with their lives.
The Qinghe County Magistrate's Office also struggled to maintain order and suppress the seething public resentment, yet in the end, Qinghe County saw none of the benefits from the mined and smelted Ore Materials.
'And the Commandery City? Were they mobilizing countless men and materials just to acquire Ore Materials that were guaranteed to be a catastrophic loss upon arrival?'
'Even if there were some hidden benefits he couldn't yet see, no matter how Chu Mu looked at it, there was no way those secret profits could outweigh the massive, visible cost in manpower and resources!'
Chu Mu stood rooted to the spot, watching for a good while before slowly looking away.
'Or maybe... I'm just being ignorant.'
After all, the original owner's understanding of this era was limited to a very small area due to his reclusive nature and young age. In fact, if his father hadn't been transferred from Qinghe County to take up a post in Nanshan Town, the original owner probably would have rarely even left Qinghe County.
And his own knowledge of this era came largely from the original owner's memories.
His own true understanding of this era was less than half a month old.
Chu Mu let out a long breath and, as usual, pushed his confusion to the back of his mind. He started walking, heading down the mountain path toward Nanshan Town.
The last rays of the setting sun still lingered in the sky as Chu Mu entered Nanshan Town. The streets were noticeably emptier, perhaps due to the successive waves of Forced Labor conscription, but the town's general vitality seemed unaffected.
After all, the Nanshan Inspection Office alone had over five hundred Inspectors. Counting the Inspectors' families, that was at least a thousand permanent residents.
Moreover, according to the county's rules for Forced Labor conscription, an Inspector's relatives could be exempted by simply paying a fee.
Compared to being conscripted for Forced Labor—a precarious life with the constant threat of death—a sum of money seemed trivial.
He recalled that the year the original owner turned fourteen, he too had been conscripted for Forced Labor, only for his father to pay for his exemption.
Later, the original owner's father had pulled all sorts of strings, trying to secure an official position for his son to ensure his safety, but he never succeeded.
Who could have imagined that this official position would ultimately fall to the original owner through his father's death in the line of duty.
But in the end, the benefit fell to him, a person from a Different Space-Time.
'Keep him safe, huh...'
Chu Mu touched his Inspector Armor and muttered to himself...
...