In the center of the Gulag Monastery courtyard stands an electric arc furnace, taller than a person.
This furnace is cylindrical overall, with a square box on one side and an iron outlet as thick as a wrist at the bottom.
The furnace is made of mud bricks and salt soil, with a layer of mortar applied around the outside.
Unlike Horn's homeland, where producing a blast furnace for smelting iron requires first advancing in coke technology, blast technology, refractory brick technology, and even some engineering mechanics.
But here, with Jeanne's lightning smelting technique, a simple blast furnace is enough to produce good iron.
Beside the arc furnace are baskets of collected iron items, some rusty, some intact.
A few strong-armed villagers swing large hammers to smash these iron items into pieces for easier smelting.
The Gulag Monastery, after all, is not a blacksmith's shop, nor a castle, and naturally doesn't have much iron ore or ingots in its warehouse.