Oldstrand

"Well charcoal itself is made from hardwood, but there is something very similar called coal that you can mine from the ground" she answered cautiously, she didn't want to explain about natural gas or oil, she didn't think that the people of Telia were quite ready for that, but if they could find a coal deposit, then it would really help the people of Telia.

"There is a difference though, you can not use coal for cooking as it will poison your food, and charcoal itself burns a little bit hotter than coal, but it burns quicker too. Coal is good to use in forges and to generate heat in winter, also charcoal does take a lot of wood to make, so you would need to plant trees to ensure that you don't destroy the forest around you, whereas coal you can just get from the ground."

"Really?" Master Whitestone exclaimed.

"Where could one find this coal?" Elder Ryunzo asked.

"The best place would be where there were ancient swamps or peat areas."

Hearing Jayde answers Elder Ryunzo's eyes lit up. There just happen to be a large area to the East where it was rumored that there used to have been huge swamp thousands of years ago. While Tardide village itself was small, they did own a vast amount of land.

Well, the land was actually owned by Elder Ryunzo, when he moved to this area as a young man, the current warlord had been desperate to raise gold, which he needed to raise his army. While he couldn't just confiscate the young Ryunzo money, that would have alarmed many of the nobles and rich merchants, he did force him to buy a vast amount of land that no one was interested in.

Elder Ryunzo owned just over a million hectares most of it was forests and mountains as well as some areas that humans couldn't inhabit. Elder Ryunzo at the time had been very bitter about having to buy all this land, but now it looked like that forced deal was about to pay off.

"Jayde would you be willing to teach us how to make charcoal?" Elder Ryunzo asked.

"Of course"

"Excellent, let me call some of the young men together, where would be the best place to set up the charcoal manufacturing?" Elder Ryunzo asked.

"It would be best if it was in an area that would not catch fire" Jayde answered, "Also we will need a lot of wood."

Laughing with delight Elder Ryunzo replied, "Wood is no problem, I have had many of the youngster chopping trees to clear some more land for next year, we must have over ten tons of wood stored already."

Leaving to arrange everything, Jayde and Master Whitestone sat and chatted for a while, while Mrs. Ryunzo served them some fresh tea and cakes.

Half an hour later Elder Ryunzo returned to collect Jayde, Master Whitestone was really interested in this charcoal so he tagged along.

Coming to a cleared area, that was a large dirt patch, Jayde started to instruct the young men on how to build an igloo shape with the wood that lay in piles nearby. After the wooden igloo was built she had them fetch dry grass which she used to cover the wood igloo.

She then instructed some of the young men to dig up the dirt, and once the soil was loose, she had them add water to the dirt to make mud. Using the mud she then showed them how to cover the wood igloo with the mud.

Similar to her clay igloo, she had then place holes in the bottom and then open up the top she started a small fire. Once the wood inside was burning nicely, she closed up the holes in the bottom and on the top.

"And that's all you need to do, in two days time, we just need to break open the mud, and we will be left with charcoal," she said.

Elder Ryunzo and Master Whitestone were shocked at how easy the whole process was. They instructed each of the men to build their own igloos so that Jayde could inspect them, and give them instructions if they were doing it wrong.

Jayde spent the whole afternoon going from one igloo to another, checking on the men's progress, after everyone had finished, there were more than thirty igloos burning and converting the hardwood inside to charcoal.

Elder Ryunzo already had a plan to go to Oldstrand to see if he could sell this charcoal once it was done. He was sure that something this great would make a lot of money.

While Jayde returned to her cave, Elder Ryunzo visited quite a few of the young women of the village to instruct them to make hemp sacks so that the could pack and transport the charcoal.

***

Two days later, Jayde and the young men broke open the dry mud mounds, Elder Ryunzo was pleased with how much charcoal they had made. Giving everyone the hemp sacks he had, they packed up the charcoal. With nearly fifty bags of charcoal collected. Elder Ryunzo had the men load up two of the wagons he had bought with him.

He instructed the men to carry on and make the next batch. Then inviting Jayde to accompany him and Master Whitestone to Oldstrand, the three of them climbed up onto one of the wagons, while three of the elders climbed onto the other one.

After three hours the two wagons drove into the city gates of Oldstrand. Jayde wasn't sure what she was expecting, but Oldstrand was totally different from what she thought. The city was huge, the city must contain over two to three hundred thousand people who lived in Oldstrand.

In the part of the city that they had entered, the area was dirty with many beggars on the street corners, most of the beggars were young children and old men.

Seeing Jayde looking at the filthy children begging for food, Elder Ryunzo grimaced.

"War orphans" he said.

Seeing Jayde confused look he explained.

"All these children are war orphans, their parents were killed in the wars, and with no one to care for them, this is the only way they can survive, and the old men are war veterans, too old to fight anymore."

Jayde was shocked, didn't Telia have orphanages, and what about retirement benefits for the war veterans, and shouldn't there be death benefits for the family members when someone died in the wars Jayde asked Elder Ryunzo.

Elder Ryunzo was really surprised at Jayde's way of thinking, he had never heard of anything like what she described. Although when thinking about it, it really made sense.

Smiling sadly at Jayde he said: "Ah young Jayde, the warlords don't give a damn about these people, they need bodies to fight their bloody wars, that is the only thing they care about."

They quickly left the slum area and entered the market area, the change in scenery surprised Jayde, everywhere she looked she could see how affluent the people were. The shops were filled with luxury goods, the people were dressed in fine silks and satins. Restaurants and tea houses lined the street filled with people eating and drinking — all of them laughing and gossiping.

It was amazing how different one city block made, it was two totally different worlds. One full of abject poverty, and the other overflowing which wealth and privilege. Jayde just shook her head at the unfairness of it all, but then when was life ever fair, the rich and powerful always abused and took advantage of the weak and helpless.

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