“It looks like it’s going to snow.”

Li Mu looked at the sky with a little emotion.

Beside Li Mu, Xu Li also sighed: "Yes, the snow in the north is indeed much earlier than Handan. Handan will take at least ten days to be the time for light snow."

Li Mu nodded and said, "I'll talk to the supervisors to speed up the construction of those prison slaves."

Xu Li nodded and said, "Don't just drive it. Remember to tell them that if the city is not built before it snows, they will have no place to keep the cold and will die of starvation!"

Li Mu smiled at this: "Don't die, you'll die, there are just a group of Qin and Qi prisoners!"

Looking at Li Mu's strode away, Xu Li shrugged his shoulders, and suddenly his body kept saluting to Zhao Kuo who had just walked up with Guo Zong: "I have met the Lord."

Zhao Kuo nodded and smiled, "Uncle Xu, what did you say when you were chatting with Li Mu just now?"

Xu Li also smiled and said, "Actually, I didn't say anything, just talk about the weather and the construction of the city."

Zhao Kuo raised his eyebrows and said, "Uncle Xu, do you think this city can be built before it snows?"

Xu Li nodded and said, "For this construction, Da Zhao recruited a total of 8,000 prison slaves. Judging from the current progress, eight days should be enough to build the city wall and the necessary houses for winter."

Zhao Kuo said: "That's good."

At this moment, Zhao Kuo and Xu Li were standing on an unfinished city wall. Looking around from their perspective, you could see a new city built of rammed earth slowly taking shape.

Hundreds of workers are working hard under the supervision of the supervisors. As long as the wall where Zhao Kuo is located is poured, the outer wall of the new city will be basically completed.

There are still many workers in the city who are busy building many houses with wood. Many areas are divided into the city, and many areas are still a piece of wasteland. Currently, only a small part of them are under construction.

This is a new city and the location of the camp where Zhao Kuo, the general of Zhao State, will be stationed in the future.

As an important official of Zhao State and a well-deserved leader of the military, Zhao Kuo certainly could not condescend to stay in the same city with the small county magistrates.

The dragon naturally has its own dragon palace. Who would squeeze into a nest with the reptiles?

Therefore, the new city came into being.

Guo Zong, who followed Zhao Kuo, smiled and said, "Has the Lord thought about what name to give this city?"

Zhao Kuo smiled slightly and said, "I have thought about it for a long time, and it is called - Datong City!"

Yes, the location of this Datong City is actually the location of the Datong City in later generations, and there is no difference at all.

There is certainly a reason why you are in this position.

Datong City is located in the northern part of Shanxi Province in later generations and is the northernmost end of the "Central Plains" in a broad sense.

From Datong City to the east, passing through the Taihang Mountains in the north is Yanguo Jidu.

From Datong City to the west are Wuyuan and Jiuyuan counties north of the Yellow River in Zhao State. The Yinshan defense line here plays a decisive role in resisting the nomadic peoples' southward travel.

Not to mention going south from Datong City, you can go straight to Zhongshan and Handan after leaving Dai County.

From Datong City to the north is an endless grassland, which happens to be near the dividing line between the two major tribes of the Xiongnu and Donghu tribes. From then on, the dispatch of troops can divide the grassland occupied by these two northern nomadic peoples into two.

In history, Datong City was once the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the accompanying capital of Liao and Jin Dynasty, and was also the most central position of the northern defense line of the Han, Sui, Tang and Ming dynasties to resist the grassland ethnic groups.

The "Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun" occupied by the Liao Kingdom during the Song Dynasty, Youzhou refers to the area around Beijing in later generations, and Yunzhou is the area with Datong City as the core.

It is precisely because of the lack of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun that the Northern Song Dynasty was at a strategic disadvantage in the confrontation with the Liao Kingdom and had to pay annual monies for peace every year.

As a time traveler who was foresighted and passionate Chinese, Zhao Kuo certainly needed to develop this place that no one has paid attention to and build it into a super fortress that Chinese people have been for a hundred years and never lost for a thousand years! Of course, when Zhao Kuo's position, he must have a passion for China, but it is imperative to develop his own power. These two are not conflicting for Zhao Kuo.

Zhao Kuo turned his head and said to Guo Zong beside him: "Mr. Guo, how are the exploration activities of those smelting craftsmen going?"

When asked about this, Guo Zong immediately looked up and said with a smile: "I'm not hiding the Lord, I'm a little worried before, but judging from the return on exploration, the result is great! Lord, you don't know that the neighborhood of Datong City is full of coal!"

Zhao Kuo smiled and said nothing.

I don't know?

Damn, this place in later generations was a famous large coal production area in China. It is a place where the "coal bosses" make their fortune! This is also the second reason why Zhao Kuo chose to build Datong City - inexhaustible coal! What is the use of coal?

In addition to the well-known role of heating, coal also has a very important industrial use - steelmaking! In this era, the best fuel for steelmaking is undoubtedly coke, and coke is extracted from coal.

Although there is some coal in Handan, compared with the coal reserves in Datong, it is simply a gap between the stream and the Yangtze River.

Not only that, there are iron ore in Datong area! In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Datong area was the most outstanding steel weapon smelting place in China. This is because Datong has coal and iron ore. The most basic and important raw material origin identity is the origin of coal.

The reason why modern Datong iron ore is insufficient reserves is actually because of the ancients' thousand-year mining.

But now, this area is a treasure land that has not yet been cultivated.

Zhao Kuo said to Guo Zong: "Mr. Guo, hurry up and immediately move the craftsmen from the workshop in Handan after the beginning of spring next year. We want to build the largest smelting workshop in the world here!"

This is why Zhao Kuo specially brought Guo Zong, the financial steward.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as this smelting factory is built, the steel output of Zhao State will definitely increase several times, or even dozens of times in just a few years.

Imagine that in the future war, the Qin people were wearing leather armor and holding bronze swords, while the Zhao soldiers were wearing steel armor and holding steel swords... It should be said that who will win the war?

This is the power that Zhao Kuo has brought to this era as a time traveler, the power of technology! When Zhao Kuo thinks of this, he can't help but feel funny.

Empress Dowager, Empress Dowager, you think you sent me to the marquis, but you never thought that you were actually taking the initiative to send me to a mountain of gold and silver, right?
Chapter completed!