Ma Du was very envious of the luxury of the coal boss, but now he has the opportunity to make him an "iron boss". Later generations of people with a little knowledge of geography knew that there were two cities with similar names in the north and south of China, and both were rich in iron ore.

One is Anshan in Liaoning and the other is Ma'anshan in Anhui. Although Ma'anshan belongs to Anhui, it is very close to Nanjing. Ma Du grew up in Nanjing, and of course knew that Ma'anshan was close at hand.

However, the current Ma'anshan may really be just a mountain, where the rich iron ore has not yet been discovered, and it is lying underground to sleep.

Ma Du is determined to dig them all out and exchange them for money to enrich his money bag, thinking about the high price of iron, Ma Du can wake up with a smile in his dreams, and the mansion has fallen.

The iron boss of this era will definitely not be worse than the coal boss of later generations, and this is a long-term business, with the steel consumption of this era, it is not a problem to end the Ming Dynasty.

Ma Du was impatient, and went to prepare all kinds of supplies, tools, and manpower early the next morning, and despite the dissuasion of Lao Liu and the guards, he drove a few mule carts in the afternoon and went in the direction of Taiping Mansion.

accompanied by Chang Mao and his guards, Mrs. Chang couldn't rest assured of him after all, and sent someone to find him early the next morning, but he didn't go back, and followed Ma Du to Taiping together.

There is no trace of the prosperous steel city in the later generations, but the location is very certain. There is a very famous scenic spot in Taiping Province - Quarry Rock.

It was here that Lao Zhu crossed the river and landed to capture Taiping, and he also fought with Meng Yuan's reinforcements here, and Chen Youliang also killed Xu Shouhui here and became the emperor.

Looking at the verdant Cuiluo Mountain in the distance, Ma Du knew that his destination had arrived, so he asked the convoy to stop.

As soon as he heard that this was the quarry rock, Chang Mao's words began to increase, "This is the quarry rock, my father said that he beat the Hague barbarian to cry his father and call his mother here." ”

Chang Mao gushed endlessly, even talking and making comparisons, none of which was not talking about Chang's courage and invincibility. When he bragged, he just said that if he was given 100,000 elite soldiers, he would be able to run rampant in the world, so he was called Chang 100,000.

Chang Mao almost blew his Lao Tzu into the sky, as if the fierce battle in Quarry Rock was fought by his father alone, it is estimated that Lao Chang himself had to blush when he heard it, anyway, Ma Du should listen to the commentary to relieve his boredom.

Quarry Rock Madu has been visited in later generations, except for Li Bai's tomb, there is nothing to see, and now there is not even a decent road, Ma Du has no heart to look, it is still important to find money.

More than 20 miles south from Quarry Rock is the main mining area of Ma'anshan in the later generations, and Ma Du also took photos on the edge of the huge pit. After traveling more than 20 miles south along the Quarry Rock, Madu chose several sites for exploration.

There was no drilling, so the most primitive methods could only be used to dig deeply, and some were still in the fields, and the landlord naturally did not allow it, so Ma Du had to take the silver to open the way.

He also asked Lao Liu to hire a nearby young farmer to work for him, but when people were not willing to do it during the busy farming season, Ma Du had to pay a high price of 100 yuan a day to hire 100 people.

In addition to leaving a hundred taels of silver for the family, I bought some tools and materials, planed to eat and drink, wages, and compensation for the land, but there were less than fifty taels of silver left in two days' work, and the key thing is that I have not found the slightest clue.

Ma Du's heart is congested, no wonder the country is often engaged in exploration with hundreds of millions of billions of funds, and his own hundreds of taels of silver are really not enough, and it is good to barely support him to go home.

But Madu is not reconciled, many iron mines in Ma'anshan are open-pit iron mines, and they are not buried deeply, so why can't they be dug up. With the red bonfire, Ma Du kept flipping through the encyclopedia in his hand, hoping to find a little knowledge about exploration.

A burning, oily rabbit leg was lowered in front of him, and Madu was about to reach out to catch it, but it was jerked away again. Chang Mao's annoying face leaned over, "Tell me what treasure you're digging, and I'll give you this rabbit leg to eat." ”

Ma Du continued to flip through the book without raising his head, "Why do you think I will dig up treasures again?" I'm just digging around, don't think too much about it. ”

"Hey...... You still want to lie to me! If you are such a picky, if there is no benefit, will you spend so much money in vain? Chang Mao pointed to the book in Ma Du's hand, "You must have a treasure map in this book, right?" ”

Madu glanced at his big head, it was really not in vain, it was really imaginative. He pointed to his nose, "Am I slamming the door?"

"It's a little better than your poor relative, but it's definitely not as bold as my Master Mao." He handed the rabbit leg over again, "Tell me about it, there's a treasure, right?" ”

Ma Du took it and tore off a bite of rabbit meat, which was charred on the outside and tender on the inside, and it tasted good, so he nodded: "It's okay." ”

"I knew there was a baby!" Chang Mao clenched his fists excitedly, his eyes full of anticipation.

"Alas...... What's the use of knowing, but I can't find it. ”

"Keep digging, a hundred people can't work, let's find a thousand people, if we can't dig in two days, we'll dig for twenty days!" You can always find it! Chang Mao seems to be very interested in treasure hunting.

Ma Du knew that he had something to say, and he was very helpless, "But I have no money, only more than fifty taels of silver left, and we can only go back tomorrow!" ”

Chang Mao patted his chest, "You don't have what I have!" Madu waited for him to say, "That's not good, well, how many do you have?" ”

Chang Mao pointed two fingers in the depths, "One hundred taels!" Without waiting for Madu to show a disappointed expression, he added, "It's gold!" ”

I didn't see that this kid was really a rich man, and he was in the golden days of antiques and troubled times. Now the exchange ratio between gold and silver is still very high, one tael of gold can be exchanged for more than a dozen taels of silver, which is more than a thousand taels of silver.

"You're not going to steal from your house, are you?" Mado didn't want to come to the door and ask him for gold when he met the spring road.

"No, I had an illness the year before last, and it took a long time for me to get better. My mother found a Taoist priest to come to the house to exorcise evil spirits, and the Taoist priest said that I was short of gold in the five elements, so my mother gave me 100 gold to press the bottom of the box. If you use it, I'll give it to the guards tomorrow. ”

"Mrs. Chang is really a good mother!" Ma Du thought to himself that if Chang Mao was short of fire in the Five Elements, would his mother get him a jar of gunpowder and put it under the bed.

Ma Du never treated honest people badly, and patted Chang Mao's shoulder, "Brother Mao, you take one hundred taels of gold to buy shares, if your brother finds the baby, he will share you with two percent, if you can't find it, you can't blame me, what do you think?" ”

"What! Do you give me a share? Originally, I felt very happy and exciting to be able to find the baby with you. ”

Ma Du felt that he looked down on people, and he didn't expect Chang Mao to be a very pure person. Who wants Chang Mao to pat his thigh again and said: "Isn't the two components too little, or give me fifty percent, let's split it in half." ”

Ma Du didn't know what to say, he was willing to follow if he didn't give him a share, but it was too little to take the initiative to give him.

Ma Du directly refused, "Fifty percent is too much, give you thirty percent, if you can't find it, you can't blame me." ”

Chang Mao has always been very straightforward, "Three achievements and three percent, I just let the guards go back overnight, and I can come back tomorrow afternoon." As he spoke, he got up from the ground, and as soon as he got up, he was stunned, and stretched out his hand to knock on Madu. Brother Du, look, the grass over there is on fire. ”

"Where?" Ma Du raised his head and looked at Chang Mao's fingers, and sure enough, he saw a faint fire in the grass not far away, although it was very faint but it was still very conspicuous in the dark night, but the thatch did not burn, which was very strange.

They don't live in the city, and there are still thirty or forty miles away from the nearest county seat of Dangtu, so they have been living in the wilderness. This is the core ruling area close to Lao Zhu, there are no bandits and bandits at all, plus twenty guards, the safety is absolutely guaranteed.

The place where the camp was set up was a relatively flat barren beach, and I had been staying here for two nights, and all of them were uneventful. The guards were also very relaxed, and they went to sleep in the tent early, only Lao Liu and the two roasted rabbits on duty at night, chatting while drinking.

Chang Mao whispered: "Did you say that is the baby you are looking for?" I think it must be, and if I want to say that it must be a big piece of bullhead gold, at least it must be so big. Let's go over and see! ”

"Okay, I'll call Lao Liu!"

Chang Mao hurriedly stopped, "Don't call them, otherwise it won't be exciting." "For scavenger hunts, this kid seems to be very experienced.

"Good!" The two of them took small steps and quietly walked towards the small patch of grass. The closer he got, the more suspicious he became.

There was no one around the grass, and the faint light seemed to come from the ground, faintly and occasionally flickering. Of course, Madu didn't believe in bullshit bullhead gold, and if gold could emit such a light, there would be no need to light it.

There was also a faint sound of talking, which seemed to come from the ground, distant and dull, and Ma Du's scalp was about to explode when he heard it.

This is definitely a supernatural phenomenon, Madu has studied medicine and dissected dead people, and he doesn't believe in ghosts, but he can't help but be nervous. He took the pistol out of his purse and quietly pulled it on. Chang Mao's nerves are obviously much bigger, and he pulls Ma Du forward hard.

As soon as they stepped into the grass, the two of them stopped in unison, and they both saw the hole in the grass that was more than two feet long and more than a foot wide. Chang Mao said excitedly: "I knew there was a treasure here." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a black hand suddenly stretch out from the entrance of the cave, and with a click, the hole widened, and then a black head poked out.

Ma Du and Chang Mao glanced at each other and screamed, "Ghost! ”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wang Dazhui is a blacksmith, his ancestors have been, he relied on the craft of ironsmithing to support his family, marry a wife and have children, thinking that he would also be a blacksmith for the rest of his life like his grandfather and father.

But this world didn't let him serve this bowl of rice, and since he beat the red scarf thief, life has become more and more difficult, pig iron is getting more and more expensive, business is getting worse and worse, and a family of four can only barely survive.

However, since October last year, there has been no pig iron at all, and I heard that all the pig iron trafficked from Hebei to Jiangnan was bought by Yingtian's Zhu thief.

This made his business completely unsustainable, although he had some meager savings, but he couldn't sit on the mountain, who knew how long Zhu Thief would fight, and he decided to change his career in desperation.

In later generations, this is nothing, and there are more people who change jobs several times a year. However, in ancient times, if a person chose a line, he almost had to work for a lifetime, just like a woman choosing a son-in-law, otherwise how could there be a saying that men were afraid of entering the wrong line and women were afraid of marrying the wrong man. For a middle-aged man, changing careers is tantamount to a life-and-death decision for the whole family.

Although everything is inferior, only reading is high, but Wang Dazhui is more than 30 people, of course, it is impossible to change careers to be a scholar, and not everyone can be a showman.

So being a farmer was his best choice, and he heard that a merchant who knew him well wanted to sell his property and move his family to Yingtian, and he had land to sell, so he immediately came to the door.

In these years, the land is not expensive, and the other party has given him a discount for the sake of the old acquaintance. So he happily sold the blacksmith shop, bought ten acres of fine paddy fields from the merchants, and left a sum of money after the yamen was transferred.

But when he happily went to receive the land, he found that the land belonged to someone else, and his title deed was clearly written that it was not ten acres of fertile land, but ten acres of barren beach.

By the time he hurried to the merchant, the family was long gone. It was really a life-and-death choice to change careers, but he chose a dead end.

He really even had the heart to die, thinking that he was familiar with the other party, so in order to save a few silver coins, he didn't look for a tooth shop to be a middleman, and he was cheated most of his belongings alive.

He really wanted to find a rope to hang himself, but when he looked at his wife, children, and mother, he couldn't bear to leave them behind. What kind of person is he, a man who strikes iron, and he is also a man who beats iron, he will not fall down so easily.

Isn't it just ten acres of barren beach, shovel off the gravel, cover it with new soil pond mud, and plant soybeans for a few more years, he doesn't believe that the barren beach can't become fertile land.

If there is a construction machinery in the future, it is nothing, and now it is definitely a big project, otherwise so many barren beaches would have been dealt with a long time ago.

I have to say that Wang Dazhui has a bit of the spirit of foolish people moving mountains, and God helps him when he helps himself. During a digging in the ground, he dug up a stone in his own field, which was iron ore, iron ore of very good quality. Because he was a blacksmith, he recognized iron ore, and the path of his life changed again.

Pifu is innocent and guilty, and he has naturally known this truth in the market for many years. He didn't dig a big hole, he just dug a small hole and slowly dug it down, like digging a cellar.

The entrance of the cave has also been specially treated, and a lot of grass has been planted around the entrance of the cave, and even the lid of the cave entrance is wrapped in mud to grow grass, and there are few people coming to such a barren beach, so there is almost no possibility of being found.

So he took his teenage son and hid underground to mine, and once he got in, he would go in for days, eating and living below. Because the light below is not good and it is stuffy, the work is very slow, and it often takes two or three days to dig enough for a truckload.

When the cart was full, the two of them took advantage of the night to transport the ore to a more remote valley, and it didn't matter if someone met them on the way, iron ore was not recognized by everyone.

In the valley there is his large furnace for smelting iron, and in order not to be discovered, he always opens the furnace at night to make iron, after all, the smoke from ironmaking is not the same as ordinary smoke, and it is easy to attract attention.

His caution was not in vain, more than half a year has passed, and no one knows that he has made a fortune under the ground, although the life of the local rats is very hard, but his heart is steady.

The smelted pig iron is sent to Yingtian, and it is often bought before entering the city gate, and he can catch up with his income from the previous year in one trip, which is a business without capital.

Although the price of pig iron and ironware in the city was higher, he knew that no one would buy such an outrageous price. With his current income, he is already very content, and the money he has saved in half a year has made him dare not imagine.

Taking advantage of the high price of pig iron now, he is looking for more work, and when he builds a big yard on this barren beach in the next year, the two of them don't have to work so hard secretly.

With the dim oil lamp, Wang Dazhui opened the oil paper bag, which was wrapped in an osmanthus duck, which was bought in the big restaurant of Yingtiancheng, and the taste was much more authentic than that made by the chef of Dangtu.

He tore off a duck leg and handed it to his son, Wang Xiaohammer stretched out his dirty black hand to take it, and when he put it in his mouth, there was only one bone left.

"Isn't it delicious?" He snatched the bone from his son's hand and chewed it in his mouth.

"It's delicious, Dad, let's eat it every day in the future!"

"Nonsense! We still have to keep the money for you to marry a daughter-in-law, hurry up and open the lid to breathe, and panic. ”

Wang Xiaohammer climbed a low ladder, stretched out his hand to hold the net, and a cool evening breeze came in, Wang Dahammer couldn't help but take a deep breath, tore off the remaining duck leg and handed it to his son, "Hurry up and eat, after eating, Dad will go and pull the car over." ”

The father and son ate the seaweed for a while, and the son who was gnawing on the duck's wings suddenly stopped moving, "Dad, I seem to hear someone talking." ”

"Nonsense, no one comes during the day in this place where birds don't, and someone will come at night......"

"There really is! I'll take a look! Wang Xiaohammer put down the chicken wings and climbed the ladder again.

Wang Dazhui then heard a terrible scream from above, "Ghost! ”

(Thank you, Lone Feng, Ziao, Xuanyuan Jiu, Li Feitian, really like a ghost hexiaodong floating life is empty, touching the face upstairs, Sun Shituan, book friends, 161002225340211 monkeys, rice worms, fat river crabs, and the god drives to Dad is a cat Daqiang brother QQ pay attention to my old Wang Yuyu next door 2015coke丨Huan even rain and dust wind for three minutes, hot Fengshen twelve, gentle Lori four-eyed birdman, I am the eldest brother≮? Against the odds. Tickets to give! And those friends who didn't see the name, thank you)