Castle of Black Iron

Soon after Lu Yishan left with excitement, Liu Xing had brought in another 3 people.

They all had private alcohol breweries.

Like Lu Yishan, the three people also behaved very meticulously when they entered.

The slightly younger one was more than 30 years old, the other two were at their 50s. All of them behaved politely and looked rich.

Zhang Tie told them to sit. After exchanging a glance with each other, the three guys also put a small half of their butts on the edges of their chairs in a very meticulous way like how Lu Yishan did.

"Well, you can introduce yourselves now!" Zhang Tie said as he waved his hand.

"Hermit, this humble man is Fang Tong, the master of Fang Clan in Qinghe City!" The eldest one stood up on his own initiative and introduced himself after throwing a glance at the other two.

"Do you have a private alcohol brewery?"

"Fang Clan indeed have an alcohol brewery in Qinghe City!"

"How large?"

"It could produce over 2,000 tons of alcohol each year!" Fang Tong answered respectfully when he just lowered his head and looked at the ground.

"Hmm, not bad, take a seat!" Zhang Tie nodded.

After Fang Tong sat down, another 50-year old guy in a blue silk robe picked himself up.

"Hermit, this humble man is Chen Zihui, from Chen Clan, Muqing Palace, Langyun City. I'm the younger brother of Chen Zihao, the master of Chen Clan. As my elder brother is in Guanzhou Province, he could not come back to pay a formal visit to Hermit on time; after knowing that Hermit is arriving at Xuantian City, he especially told me to come to Xuantian City to learn from Hermit on behalf of Chen Clan!"

After throwing a glance at Chen Zihui, Zhang Tie revealed a smile, 'This guy is really talkative.'

"Do you also produce alcohol?"

"Chen Clan has produced alcohol for over 50 years. We could produce over 40,000 tons a year!"

"Hmm, take a seat!" Zhang Tie nodded.

After Chen Zihui sat down, the youngest one hurriedly stood up. After bowing deeply to Zhang Tie, he opened his mouth, "This humble man is Li Tao, the head of Zhongpin Business Group in Dongyang City!"

Zhang Tie threw two glances at Li Tao and found that he was a shrewd and able man with flickering eyes. Additionally, he had already reached LV 13 4-star battle general and was one with the greatest battle strength among the 3 people.

"You're not a native of Dongyang City, right?"

"I really admired your insight, Hermit, this humble man is indeed not a native of Dongyang City. This humble man comes from Li Clan, Wansheng Palace, Wuhua Prefecture, Zhuozhou Province. As I'm a branch of Li Clan and the second son in my family, I went out to survive myself and expand undertakings outside after becoming mature. Fortunately, I have some undertakings in Dongyang City. I have a business group and a small alcohol brewery which could produce 1,000 tons of alcohol a year."

'Li Clan from Wansheng Palace?' Zhang Tie's heartbeat accelerated faintly when he recalled the major clans in Taixia Country, 'Li Clan is a major clan in Zhuozhou Province. Li Clans are all very famous in Taixia Country. It's even more powerful than Huaiyuan Palace. In such a large clan, as there are too many descendants from branches, not each of them could be well taken care of. Therefore, such a clan would encourage young descendants to establish undertakings outside. Li Tao must be one of them. There are many people like Li Tao in Huaiyuan Palace.'

'However, even after coming from major clans in Taixia Country, not each of these clan descendants who established undertakings outside could make a success. Sometimes, the signboard of major clans just granted them with a background of a young member of a family holding official rank for generations. There were numerous youngsters like this. If they wanted to establish some undertakings, they had to exert their utmost efforts. Big billows beat the sands, many young men who had the background of major clans could achieve nothing after making efforts many years in Taixia Country. By contrast, Li Tao is an able man as he could establish a bit undertaking in Dongyang City. Even guys like Zhu Dabiao was almost stewed alive by Master Jiang when he came to Youzhou Province for investment with the background of the grandson of the provincial governor of Yanzhou Province.'

Zhang Tie nodded and told Li Tao to sit down.

"I'm a straightforward man. I need your favor!"

"Hermit, what can I do for you?" Fang Tong asked as he slightly inclined forward.

"I will build an alcohol brewery in Fire Dragon Bounty Territory. Hmm, it's a bit large..." Touching his bald head, Zhang Tie continued, "Precisely, it should be an alcohol production base. As you're all running alcohol breweries and are familiar with this industry, I want you three to do that for me!"

"How large do you want, Hermit?" Chen Zihui asked as he was a bit shocked by the word "base".

"At least 500,000 tons of alcohol a year!" Zhang Tie answered casually.

After hearing the figure, Chen Zihui and Fang Tong were startled so much that they almost slid off their chairs when their mouths could almost hold a duck's egg.

"5...500,000...tons?" Fang Tong would treat it as a joke if it was not from Zhang Tie's mouth. At this moment, there was not even an alcohol production plant that could produce over 100,000 tons of alcohol a year across Taixia Country. If this plant was founded, it must be the largest one in Taixia Country. However, it might also be a joke in the end...

"What? You cannot do it?" Zhang Tie looked a bit solemn.

"We can, but..." Fang Tong became silent after looking at the other two.

"Go ahead..."

"If so, this humble man will put it straight. If Hermit wants to build an alcohol production base which could produce 500,000 tons of alcohol a year, we will have no technical problems as technologies on this aspect have been very advanced; however, after the alcohol production base is established, it might not run smoothly!" Fang Tong said while gritting his teeth.

"What do you mean by not run smoothly?"

"Hermit, you might not know much about business. In the industry, we have to consider the market demands. There's not such a large market in Fire Dragon Bounty Territory the neighboring Youzhou Province, Tongzhou Province and Yanzhou Province. Now, the alcohol production capability and market in the three provinces are already saturated. The fluctuations in both supplies and demands are very small; additionally, the profit of alcohol in the three provinces has reached its lowest limit. Take Fang Clan's alcohol brewery as an instance, after deducting the depreciative cost of equipment and the cost of labor forces, the profit of alcohol of Fang Clan is only 4% these years. Additionally, as long as the transportation distance is over 600 miles, our profit will reduce to zero. If our alcohol was transported to other places, it would become very expensive plus the cost of transportation. As a result, it could not match the alcohol that's produced in the other places. Even if we make a discount, we will sustain loss too. The more we produce, the more we will lose. Even if you could afford it for the time being, you could not afford it forever. It's the law of market, therefore..."

Fang Tong stopped because he had made it clear. It wasn't a problem for them to produce an alcohol production base which could produce 500,000 tons of alcohol a year; the problem was that such an amount of alcohol could not be consumed in the region within 600 miles with Fire Dragon Bounty Territory as the center. Such a production base would definitely sustain a loss; the more it produced, the more it would lose. Therefore, the three people didn't promise Zhang Tie at once.

Based on Fire Dragon Hermit's social status, it was normal for him to not know much about business. Nobody dared mock him. However, the three people understood it. Because they were alcohol producers and had been in this industry for so many years. They must know this industry clearly. If they ruined the task assigned by Fire Dragon Hermit, they would not bear it. It was not a joke. If Fire Dragon Hermit mistook that the three people were cheating him, they could only chop off their own heads so as to seek for the forgiveness of Fire Dragon Hermit.

After hearing Fang Tong's words, Zhang Tie revealed a smile. As he grew up in a family which sold rice brew and always did a part-time job in a grocery when he was young, of course, Zhang Tie knew the relationship between the cost of the commodity and the market capacity. Of course, these people didn't know about his background.

After looking around Fire Dragon Bounty Territory these days, Zhang Tie saw exuberant corn fields in the wild as it was August. As corns were drought-resistant, worms-proof with a high yield, many places in the north of Taixia Country were planting corns; especially in the provinces of Northeast Military Region. After the holy war broke out, out of the demand of the war, many places started to expand the planting area of corns. Across Fire Dragon Bounty Territory, the corn plantation area almost reached 1 million hectares.

Through Zhang Tie's preliminary calculation, the over 1 million hectares of corn fields could produce over 12 million tons of maize straws in total in the standard that each mu of land could produce 800 kgs' maize straws.

Previously, most of these maize straws would be burned by local framers after summer harvest; only a few parts of them would serve as fuels in rural areas. A small part of fresh maize straws could also serve as fodder. However, generally, over 80 of maize straws were burned and used to fertilize the arable lands.

Two months later, when the autumn began, black smokes caused by burning maize straws would be seen everywhere in the fields of Fire Dragon Bounty Territory.

'Although maize straws are useless to others, they are valuable to me.'

'Because nobody could imagine that I have gained the latest variant of essential-energy aura yeast. I could produce high-power alcohol only with maize straws...'