Ed wanted to cultivate new land as soon as possible because the fir trees and others had been waiting for it for a long time, and the territory also needed more food.
Therefore, Ed needs to make new iron farm tools as quickly as possible, and Red Iron Village is the place Ed must go.
Ed hasn't been back here since his first hunt.
Actually, the castle isn't far from Chitie Village. Now that the surrounding trees have been cut down, you can see the castle in the distance from Chitie Village.
Ed stood in front of the old wooden house, which is now Smith's ironworks.
The old wooden huts, which had been fitted with walls for iron smelting, have been removed, leaving only a simple roof for shelter from the rain. The rest area for the workers has been built further away.
Inside the ironworks, several people were hammering away at the smelted iron ore. Some of these people were those left behind by Shan Shu and his group, while others were from the original village.
However, there weren't many people; the entire Chitie Village probably only had twenty or thirty people.
Aside from blacksmithing-related items, there are no other living facilities here. Ed arranges for many things to be delivered.
The current iron smelting methods are somewhat primitive, involving constantly hammering and pounding the heated iron ore, which is very inefficient. The furnace structure is also inadequate, the manual blowers are not very efficient, and the furnace temperature is not high enough.
Ed wanted to make some improvements, but there was no large flow of water here, so he couldn't change it to a water-powered blower.
Actually, the place where the iron ore was discovered is the best place for iron smelting; there's definitely a significant drop downstream from that stream. Installing a waterwheel there would make iron smelting incredibly fast.
If we modify the charcoal and furnace, and add some limestone, we can directly produce molten iron, which is much faster than this hammering and banging.
That place is quite far from here, so Ed can't do anything about it right now. However, the bellows can be made to be pulled by livestock, but it needs to eat grass and be fed by people.
Ed planned to talk to Smith, but he couldn't find him anywhere in the ironworks. After asking around, he learned that Smith was elsewhere, forging farm tools.
"My lord, what brings you here?" Smith immediately saw Ed coming over and quickly came out to greet him.
"Hmm, you don't come back to the castle in winter, so I came to check on you."
Fat Smith gave an awkward smile and said nothing.
Ed glanced at Smith, who remained silent, and continued, "Your iron smelting is way too slow!"
"My lord, it is a bit slow. With only so many people, and we need to mine, smelt iron, and forge, we are indeed short-handed!"
Actually, he misunderstood. Ed meant that he was inefficient at smelting iron, not that the whole process was slow.
Seeing that he had misunderstood, Ed could only repeat himself:
"Have you ever thought that when smelting iron, you don't have to repeatedly hammer and pound it, but instead you can directly burn the iron ore into molten iron?"
"Huh?" Ed's words startled Smith.
He asked incredulously, "My lord, is that alright?"
"I think it's a good idea, Smith."
"Do you have a solution, my lord?" Smith looked at Ed uncertainly.
"Yes, Smith," Ed answered Smith with certainty.
Smith suddenly grabbed Ed and hugged him tightly. Ed tried to push him away.
Ed's small frame couldn't withstand his hug; he was a little out of breath.
"I'm sorry, my lord, I lost control. I apologize for my recklessness just now." Smith looked at Ed with an innocent expression.
"No need to apologize, really, Smith. I just hope you can give people some time to react next time." Ed just hoped that next time he would make a hugging motion instead of launching a surprise attack.
"Okay, I'll let you know in advance next time, my lord. May I have a hug?"
"no"