217 Modern Transportation

Once again, Corco had traveled down his new road from Saniya, east along the Narrow Sea. Once again, he had reached the lands of Cashan south of the Narrows and Qarasi Castle, the estate the Villca brothers had fought so hard over for the past year. And once again, Corco had brought a whole convoy of people with him.

However, this time he hadn't brought his army. Rather than soldiers, the bulk of the convoy consisted of various craftsmen. Chief among them were several Arcavian clock makers, together with their new Yaku disciples. Almost of the same importance were Corco's accountants and diplomats, who would do all the boring legwork for him in the upcoming discussions. Of course, the king and his guards stood at the very front of the formation.

Although they were still an hour's journey away from the city of Cashan, they had already reached their destination. While the gentle hills along the Tunki River weren't much to look at, beneath them lay treasures worth traveling for.

Though at first, they would have to deal with the locals. When they arrived, they were greeted by Guachimine Villca, youngest of the Villca brothers, who had come together with his own entourage of guards.

"King Corco, what a great honor it is for House Villca to be blessed with your visit."

"Since you're here by yourself, I take it Uchu is in charge of Cashan now?" Corco asked. By the time he had returned to Saniya after the war, the two brothers Uchu and Pahuac Villca had driven their eldest brother out of the city, but had still not decided who between them held ownership of Cashan. It seemed like the former bandit Uchu had won the race, since his personal advisor Guachimine had arrived by himself to greet the king.

"Oh no, far from it," Guachimine denied. "For now, the sons of the former lord Villca have decided on a compromise. Both Lord Uchu and Lord Pahuac will be in charge of the entire estate and rule the lands together, for the harmony and prosperity of the southern kingdom. However, for now Lord Pahuac has been forced to take some of Cashan's army and occupy the various fortresses along the eastern Anticasa mountain pass. After all, there are new enemies in the east, and they have shown already that they dare attack Cashan without warning. Thus, only Brother Uchu sits the city at the moment, with this servant as his advisor. If Lord Pahuac had known of the king's arrival earlier, he would surely have sent his own delegation, so please do not consider his negligence an affront to the throne."

Even though Corco felt that the simpler Pahuac was being pushed aside with this sort of excuse, the king didn't comment. Neither did he say anything about Guachimine's obvious attempt at framing Pahuac. Even though Corco was sure that Uchu had withheld information of the king's arrival on purpose to get his brother in trouble, this was an internal family matter, and he wouldn't let himself get dragged into a mess he didn't stand to benefit from.

While he felt like their treatment of their brother Pahuac was quite nasty, he wanted them to resolve the issue of succession as soon as possible and didn't really care who won. All that mattered to him was that they guaranteed peace in the eastern parts of his kingdom.

"Right, sounds like you've got things figured out then. Since we're meeting here in the middle of nowhere, I assume that your copper mine is here?" the king changed topics.

"Ah yes, it is only across these hills, King. Please let this servant act as a guide."

Superficially servile as ever, Guachimine led Corco's party up one of the gentle hills, away from the river.

"You're not afraid someone's gonna steal your copper? I mean, the mine's just sitting here and I don't see any defenses."

Not only was the area devoid of any defensive structures like towers or walls, he couldn't even see a single guard besides the ones Guachimine had brought.

"Theft is not much of a concern."

"Any reason for that?"

"Once King sees the mines, King will understand." With a mysterious smile, Guachimine led the group over the hill's crest. Although Corco wasn't big on mysteries, at least the mystery wasn't retained for too long.

As soon as Corco crossed the hill and saw the open-shaft mine in the basin below, he understood. Between three hills, the entire earth had been dug up and turned into a muddy mess. However, while there were at least ten pits dug out from the ground, places where the people of Cashan should have found copper, none of them were deeper than a few meters.

Even worse, there was almost no infrastructure here. A few shacks sat to the side of the pits, with a handful of rusty tools leaned against them. No workers could be seen anywhere. Rather than a mining operation, the site looked like a long-abandoned ghost town. No wonder they weren't concerned about theft, it didn't look like there was much to take.

"So... you're not actually using the mine?"Corco asked his guide.

"No, the mine is in use most days, but since King's arrival is such a grand event, work rests for today so as to not bother King's ears with the noise."

"...you're saying this is an active mine? This? It's not some archaeological site where you're digging out ancient tools? You're actually mining copper here?"

"Indeed we are." Despite his attempt at a calm demeanor, Guachimine's smile began to look a bit strained.

"How can you call this an active mine?" the king asked again and spread his arms to encompass the drab picture. "How many workers can you possibly support with this sort of infrastructure?"

"Because of certain issues, the mine does not employ too many miners for now. At the moment, only around ten miners collect ores on any given day. The facilities on site are perfectly sufficient for these numbers."

Again, Corco looked at the disorganized mess before him. The basin itself was huge, and the people seemed to have found copper close to the surface in no less than ten places. Ten people would barely be enough to post as guards for such a large operation, let alone be enough to work the pits. Before he had come here, he had imagined something... grander.

Still, there was no reason to despair just yet. At least the mines looked large enough to fit his plans. If their yield was fine, increasing their output wouldn't be too difficult either. All it took was a bit more investment.

"Okay, I'd say we should go talk about the details somewhere more private. In the meantime, my people will take a look at the area and assess what can and can't be done here," Corco said to Guachimine.

"Although this servant does not understand King's precise goals, this servant will act as ordered. Please follow along, King."

After Corco had motioned for the clock makers to survey the basin and the surrounding area, he and the Villca advisor went inside one of the small wooden sheds to the side of the mines. Up close they looked even worse than from a distance, but they were the only buildings around, so they didn't have much of a choice.

Once inside, the darkness was soon driven away by candles spread around the room. Rivers of wax had long dried at their bottom and formed bizarre formations, to show the room's age and the lack of care it had received. What Corco found beyond the candles were a shabby little table and a few chairs, as well as several crates in the corner. Even so, his attention was robbed by the contents of the crates, all of them filled with dirty, green chunks of metal.

"I know the place looks like a dump on the outside, but still. Isn't this dangerous? Leaving all your copper out like that? That's some copper compound in those crates, right? I thought you would at least have some guards here, but I still haven't seen any," Corco asked.

"There is no danger," Guachimine replied with a bitter smile. "All bandits who wish to steal our copper are free to do as they please. Yet they never do. There are many better things to rob on Villca lands. So these mines are not worth the ire of House Villca. In fact, they may not be worth the effort of transportation."

"Why? To me it looks like you've got a solid amount piled up here. Don't the mines hold enough copper to be properly exploited?" Corco asked, this time with real concern. If there wasn't enough copper in the ground, he would have to readjust his plans. Again.

"No, as far as anyone can tell, there are large copper deposits hidden below the basin. However," he picked up one of the dirty-green rocks from within a crate, "almost everything below the ground is this sort of malachite rock. Getting the pure copper out of it is quite a challenge for our local blacksmiths, so profits would be low even if we mined more of the ores. In addition, we cannot mine too deeply either, even though there might be purer ores hidden further below the earth. After all, we are very close to the river, and within a basin. The groundwater is too close to the surface, so all our attempts at deeper mines simply flooded after a few days. As for the final reason,"

Guachimine motioned out of the room's open door, towards the pristine wilderness around their mining operation.

"The mines are, frankly, in the middle of nowhere. Transport of goods from here to Cashan is too expensive and not worth the cost. In the end, the mines barely turn a profit for Cashan. It is impossible for this project to compete with our other mines set up farther up the mountains, especially our iron and crystal operations. In truth, our father only began to mine the copper here in an effort to become less dependent on products from the outside, especially from the mines of House Ogulno in western Saniya. However, now that the political situation in the south has changed, we have decided to close them down, as they serve no more purpose... not unless King wishes to make a good offer."

Corco grinned at Guachimine's little story. The fourth Villca brother had always been clever, but as a merchant Corco had far more experience than him. Even though Guachimine's story appeared like rambling without purpose, it created the perfect backdrop for negotiations on a sale.

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*He probably thinks I want to buy the mines.*

After the Villca had explained their troubles with the mines and even emphasized that they wold be closed soon, he had made clear that they would lose their value to the king in a short while. If Corco insisted on buying them anyways, he would admit that they had value for him beyond their obvious profits.

Maybe Guachimine thought Corco wanted them for the same purpose as the old Villca had, to become less dependent on Lord Ogulno. To the king's good fortune, he wasn't here to buy anything. First and foremost, he had made his trip as a salesman.

"What if I tell you that I can solve all your problems and make your mine profitable?" the king asked. "Even better, it will barely cost you anything. I think we can enter into a mutually beneficial cooperation."

Caught unawares, Guachimine thought for a while with furrowed brows. Only after he had observed the king's invariable smile with great care did he speak up again.

"This servant is deeply honored to receive such attention from the king of the south. However, I would like to hear the details of this cooperation first. Also, please note that this servant is only an advisor, and thus not qualified to strike any deals of this magnitude. Though of course, King's offer will be forwarded to Lord Uchu as soon as possible."

"No need to be on guard that much. The arrangement I've brought will benefit us both, honest. Maybe it'll benefit you more than me, actually." Corco grinned as he leaned back in his rickety chair. "As far as you've told me, there are three problems with the mines: Water in the ground, an inefficient refining process and inefficient transportation."

Corco raised three of his fingers and continued his sales pitch.

"First off, I brought a number of my clock makers with me when I made the trip. If you paid attention or maybe did some spying or something, you'd know that we've been building waterwheels all over the Chawir marshes, equipped with then technology of the clock makers. For now, aside from milling grain, these wheels will power pumps, which in turn will drain the areas around them of water. That's quite a useful tool for a marsh, but it's even more useful for a mine like yours. Of course you could install your own pumps, but we already have the expertise and the experience in putting them together, so relying on us will be a lot cheaper for you. Plus, our pumps are way better than anything your local craftsmen could come up with. I'll offer you the services of our workers for a good price, so that solves your first problem."

One of Corco's fingers disappeared behind his palm, leaving only two standing.

"Second, refinement. I'm sure you've seen the occasional smoke above Saniya when you were there. We have already set up a massive furnace for metal refinement inside the city, and I aim to set up several more over the next couple years. While it might not be worth it to refine all this ore individually, things become much easier once we do so in bulk. So all you need to do is sell us the ore at a decent price and you won't need to bother with the refinement anymore. Let's say we'll be buying the ore at a third the equivalent price per stone of copper. Since a lot of the material will be lost in the refinement process, that's more than a fair offer I think. Ah, though since we'll be needing bulk, it might be better if you upgrade your tools to keep up with Saniya's production. We can help you with that too. We've been producing some high-quality tools recently and would love for you to take them off our hands."

Although Guachimine looked like he wanted to interrupt and start negotiations in detail, he could see that Corco still had one of his fingers up, so he let the king finish first.

"Finally, Transport wouldn't be difficult either. The river is not too far from your mines, and Saniya is right downstream from there. Boat transport seems like the most economical way of doing things."

"However, the river is still around a mile away from the mines. While shipping it downstream is easier than upstream, getting the ores to the river in the first place would be very expensive and time-consuming," Guachimine tried to haggle.

"I knew you'd say that." Corco stood up. "And I have the perfect answer for you. Follow me, they should already be done outside. Let's take a look at the third product you will soon buy from Saniya, after the pumps and the iron tools."

Without looking back, the king strode out of the dim shack and back into the light. When he looked towards the mines, he could see that his craftsmen had indeed set up their little demonstration already. Two perpendicular metal rails were laid out on the ground over a short distance of ten meters or so, and a small mine cart was put on top of them.

Although the technology was hardly revolutionary, it required an amount of iron and a level of precision that was uncommon for the blacksmiths of this era. While it wasn't the train Corco had envisioned quite yet, the southern kingdom was about to install the world's first railroad track.