When the exploration team led by Lei Wenjun arrived at Sheepback City, staff members quickly came forward to make arrangements and brought him to Lin Ziming.

Upon meeting, Lin Ziming politely shook hands with him:

"Director Lei, it's been some time since we last met. Thank you for your hard work."

Lei Wenjun held his hand firmly and shook it, showing a sincere smile that only a true practitioner can possess.

As Lin Ziming mentioned, over the past period, Lei Wenjun had been tirelessly collecting structural information of various geological layers.

If a ranking was to be created based on the physical exhaustion of each project team in the camp, Lei Wenjun and his team would definitely be in the top three, competing for first and second place.

What's that saying?

To determine if someone is a true geologist, just look at their skin tone.

This saying applies equally to the fields of geological exploration.

Of course, even though it's exhausting, the rewards are there.

Thanks to Lei Wenjun's team's efforts, the rabbits have gained a rough understanding of the geological structure of the Damo Realm.

Don't just regard the concept of geological structure as seemingly unimportant, geology is one of the standard fundamental sciences and is an essential support for industrial development.

Geology studies the events in the lithosphere over the past billions of years, including mountain-building movements, sedimentation of strata, metamorphosis of rocks, evolution and extinction of ancient organisms, and so on.

For example, we know the Carboniferous-Permian era had a lot of large trees, so if we want to mine coal for heating and industrial development, we should mine these strata. Oil mainly comes from the remains of plants and animals, so you shouldn't be digging before the Cambrian, and if rabbits need to build houses, rocks for foundations from marine sediments should be used with caution, as too many pores are not good.

Not to mention in a world like the Damo Realm, filled with extraordinary powers, the evolution of ancient species is actually a very important unknown field.

For instance, there are legends that thousands of years ago, Nascent Souls were as common as dogs and Divinity Transformation was everywhere, even though most of them have perished today, there should still be some buried in the ground, right?

If we can find such a sedimentary block, the rabbits can dig out more information.

Therefore, those voices advocating for the uselessness of geological studies can certainly quiet down now.

In addition, Lei Wenjun's team discovered several small special metal veins, with limited reserves but they are rare. These have been designated by the command center as the next extraction targets.

Now with the change in ownership of Sheepback City, Lei Wenjun's team is preparing to conduct an iron ore volume survey in this city located a hundred miles from Chixian City.

Because there was no message yet from Wei Fan about the complete takeover of the iron mine, Lin Ziming took this opportunity to introduce some situations to Lei Wenjun:

"Director Lei, your team's task this time is extremely crucial, and I must ask you to be more attentive.

According to the information we currently have, this iron mine owned by the Mo Family should be at least a medium-sized vein, with an annual mining volume of 60-200 million tons.

Of course, this is just an estimate we've made based on appearance, and the specifics will require your professional team's survey.

The command center's future positioning of Sheepback City will largely depend on your team's exploration report this time."

Just as Lin Ziming said.

Just talking about Sheepback City itself, its value, to be honest, is only so much.

Capturing Sheepback City merely gives the rabbits an additional subbase, plus some civilian labor force.

In the absence of railways and concrete roads, relying solely on the local major roads and minor paths of the Damo Realm, this labor force is actually rather limited.

Not to say the rabbits don't have plans or the ability to build roads.

It's because Sheepback City's location is southeast of Chixian City, completely contrary to the core layer's original plan to develop northward.

Given the limited transportation capacity and the current weak industrial foundation of the Damo Realm, road and bridge resources should prioritally favor major developmental directions.

But once the iron mine concept is added, Sheepback City's nature almost instantly changes significantly.

After all, steel's importance was previously detailed once, to summarize, it's just like WeChat balance and doesn't really last long.

In the morning, there's a plan about spending a certain amount of funds within a week, and by evening, more than half of it is gone.

Under such circumstances, an iron mine from the original Damo Realm appears very important.

Of course, how important it is, and Sheepback City's future position in the rabbits' plans, will still depend on the actual reserves of the iron mine.

If Sheepback City's iron mine is just a small one, the rabbits might just give it a little attention, develop for a year or two, and then withdraw.

But if this iron mine's reserves are medium-sized, or even large...

Then it's predictable that sheepback City will inevitably become a crucial pivot, and the template could refer to today's steel city!

Compared to iron and coal mines, iron ore is mostly open-pit mining, and even if underground, the difficulty is much lower than coal mining.

At the same time, there's a Baosteel Group in Modu, and after mining, it can pretty much proceed directly to the smelting stage.

Therefore, in terms of overall efficiency, even if iron ore will be in hand two months slower than coal, it may very well be iron ore that first enters mass extraction.

Having heard Lin Ziming, Lei Wenjun recognized the gravity of his responsibility this time, immediately collected his sincere smile, and his dark face was filled with determination:

"Colonel Lin, please rest assured and provide full assurance to complete the mission!"

After exchanging a few more words, Lin Ziming received a message from Wei Fan:

The iron mine has been captured.

Upon hearing this good news, Lin Ziming grabbed Lei Wenjun and headed towards the helicopter:

"Let's go and take a look at the iron mine!"

.......

The location of the iron mine is approximately twenty kilometers from Sheepback City, nestled among a series of rolling small hills.

Its main working face is circular, with a diameter of about one kilometer, visible from the air and extends eight or nine meters down into the ground.

Besides the main working face, there are more than ten smaller auxiliary working faces scattered around, ranging from a few meters to a few dozen meters.

As an experienced geology exploration expert, Lei Wenjun's eyes shone the moment he saw the iron mine:

"Colonel Lin, this is a standard open-pit mine. These encircling working faces indicate it's sloped and ideal for mining!

Additionally, do you see that fracture on the western side? The base has a lot of reddish-brown sediments, which means the underground structure is quite massive!"

Although Lin Ziming couldn't quite grasp Lei Wenjun's assessment criteria, it was apparent that what Lei Wenjun mentioned was a typical and intuitive external feature in the exploration industry.

Like recognizing a certain indicator that denotes something unmistakable.

Thus, his anticipation for the mineral reserves in the iron mine grew stronger.

When Lin Ziming and others arrived at the iron mine by helicopter, Battalion Commander Deng Feng from the subordinate forces of Longxing River had been waiting for quite a while.

Even though Deng Feng's aptitude in the Art of Beast Control revealed an awkward data of one inch three, when it comes to combat, he is a standard tough commander; otherwise, he wouldn't have been entrusted with such an important mission.

Seeing Lin Ziming's helicopter land and stabilize, Deng Feng quickly ran forward:

"Report to the superior, the commander of the XX Group Army XX Brigade's Third Composite Battalion, Deng Feng, has cooperated with Clan Leader Wei Fan to complete the battle mission, please review, superior!"

Lin Ziming solemnly saluted him:

"Comrade Deng Feng, thank you for your hard work, could you please brief me on the situation at the iron mine?"

Deng Feng nodded and gestured for him to proceed:

"Colonel Lin, with the assistance of Clan Leader Wei Fan, we successfully killed the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer cultivator from the Mo Family, Mo Longtao, who was guarding the mine.

We also captured eighteen cultivators stationed at the iron mine from the Mo Family, along with more than a hundred non-cultivator vassal overseers.

Besides that, we have gathered over six thousand displaced individuals at the mine, temporarily assembled in the southeast direction, and we're having comrades from the propaganda department explain and reassure them.

Moreover, several miners in critical condition are receiving medical treatment from colleagues at the field hospital, numbering roughly in the dozens, mostly older individuals."

As Lin Ziming listened, he suddenly asked:

"Battalion Commander Deng, you mentioned there are only about a hundred overseers? How do they manage the six thousand displaced persons, aren't they worried about them escaping?"

Deng Feng shook his head, pointing to the forest to explain:

"According to our sudden interrogation of captives, there's a sensing-type array at the outermost area of the iron mine.

This array issues an alert sound once it detects anyone escaping, and the foot speed of the displaced persons is nowhere near that of cultivators; they get caught before running too far."

Lin Ziming pondered for a moment and suddenly asked:

"So they can't escape by digging either, like if they dug one or two hundred meters?"

Deng Feng: "...Short distances are probably impossible to escape, but for long distances, I'm not sure."

Lin Ziming shook his head:

"This needs to be clarified, otherwise it might become a vulnerability."

Deng Feng: "...?"

While the two were talking, Wei Fan also arrived at the scene:

"Colonel Lin, you're here."

After a hurried handshake with Lin Ziming, he pointed to a certain direction:

"Colonel Lin, come and take a look, we found something over there."

Lin Ziming gave him a slight look, curious about what could make this Gatling cultivator so urgent:

"Oh? Clan Leader Wei, what did you discover over there?"

"...A cremation pit."

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