It had only been a few days since the officials of the Ministry of Industry left, and there were new changes in the area under the jurisdiction of the 101,000 households, and several circular "bunkers" more than one zhang high had been erected beside the small river outside the gathering place, and there was still green smoke rising from the "bunkers," as if they had lit a beacon fire.

These bunker-like circular buildings, about a foot wide, are surrounded by a layer of adobe bricks, sealed tightly with mud, and tied around with finger-thick hemp rope, which looks like an oversized chimney.

These were not really bunkers, of course, but brick-burning brick enclosures, which were not hollow, but stuffed with small sun-dried adobe bricks, briquettes, fine firewood, and hay.

This is the most earthy method of burning bricks in the countryside, that is, first set up a hollow round bottom that can stuff firewood into it, and then put the small adobe bricks to be burned and the dried briquettes and fine firewood and hay into sandwich biscuits, put them up layer by layer, put a layer of them, pile up large earth bricks on the periphery, and tie them with hemp rope to prevent collapse, and then continue to put on a layer.

At this time, Luo Zongshan is following the master with experience in burning bricks to learn how to put this sandwich biscuit, the mineral deposits in the jurisdiction are over after the previous exploration, according to the Ministry of Industry professionals, where the coal mines are dense, there will be basically no other mineral deposits, Luo Zongshan simply stopped prospecting, and burned red bricks with three hundred strong people.

On the issue of coal mining, Lu Nanfeng, a member of the Ministry of Labor, also said that they do not care about small-scale mining, and if they want large-scale mining, they must wait for all the areas under the jurisdiction of the capital to be explored, and the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War have negotiated and coordinated to repair the railway.

Luo Zongshan is not in a hurry, anyway, he has nothing to do, he simply took them to burn red bricks, thousands of households will build red brick houses in the coming year, I don't know how many red bricks are needed, start burning now, and in the coming year, I can squeeze more time to come out and build houses, everyone is busy, he can't let his three hundred strong people idle.

It was near noon that day, and he was fiddling with the brick fence, when there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves in the distance, and more than ten horsemen came from the direction of the No. 5 fortress and went straight to the gathering place of the 101 guard.

Luo Zongshan stood up, put his hand on his forehead, and saw that the leader was Zhang Yue, who hurriedly jumped down from the brick fence and greeted him.

He trotted all the way, and finally met Zhang Yue and others at the mouth of the gathering place, where he built a wooden archway, and hung a sign on it, which read, Xibo Fifth Division, Twenty-first Guard, One Thousand Households, and two guards standing guard there under the archway.

Zhang Yue and the others didn't seem to plan to beat their horses through the archway and enter the station of the 101,000 households, but slowly slowed down and stopped in front of the archway.

Luo Zongshan greeted him and said enthusiastically: "Xiaoyue, why are you here?" “

Zhang Yue directly arched his hand on the horse and said: "Lord Luo, all command to make Master Qiao Lieqiao arrive, and order all the thousands of households to rush to the No. 5 fortress tomorrow for a meeting." “

When Luo Zongshan heard this, he nodded hurriedly and said, "Okay, okay, I'll go over tomorrow, when will the meeting be?" “

Zhang Yue pulled the reins and said, "The meeting will not be held on time tomorrow afternoon, and Master Ma asked me to tell you that Master Qiao should personally give you a reward for finding a large coal mine, and you should bring a few more people over at that time." “

When Luo Zongshan heard this, he was overjoyed, his final appraisal result was a large coal mine, and the reward was 10,000 taels of silver!

He was excited, looked up, but found that Zhang Yue had already begun to turn around, as if he was about to leave, he hurriedly rushed up with an arrow step, grabbed Zhang Yue's reins, and said: "Eh, eh, Xiaoyue, don't go, it's time to eat, let's have a meal and then leave, I haven't seen you for so many days, let's have a few drinks." “

Zhang Yue arched his hand and said: "Lord Luo, next time, I will go and inform the other thousand households, I want to eat here with you, I'm afraid I won't be able to go back at night." “

When Luo Zongshan heard this, he had to give up, but he heard that there were two thousand households in the twenty-first that had also moved over, but there were dozens of miles in between, and he didn't know the specific location, so he didn't visit, but this meeting was a good opportunity to get close to them.

Since he had to receive a reward of 10,000 taels and arrive at Fort No. 5 for a meeting before mid-afternoon, Luo Zongshan specially selected a hundred sturdy young men from his group, and set off early the next morning with ten carriages fully armed.

This, anyway, is a hundred guards, fully armed and wearing Chongzheng uniforms, it looks similar to the regular army of the Ming army, and it seems a bit nondescript to ride in a carriage, but there is no way, he only has a total of ten war horses in his hands.

If he didn't take the carriage, he could only bring a total of nine people, and nine people would protect 10,000 taels of silver, and he always felt a little unsafe.

If you walk all the way, you can't get to the place for half a day, and if you are late for the first meeting, the consequences are worse than losing money.

He had no choice but to set off in a carriage with the men below, so that he could bring enough men with him and ensure that he would arrive at Bastion No. 5 before noon.

The speed of the carriage naturally cannot be compared with the war horse, although they got up early, but they still arrived outside the No. 5 fortress at about three o'clock in the afternoon, Luo Zongshan did not dare to take a hundred or so people to swagger through the city, he let one of his hundred households with the accompanying guards guard outside the city to guard the carriage, and he took another hundred households, each carrying a large handful of bacon into the city outside the fortress.

He was going to visit the commander Master Ma Kai first, inquire about the situation, and have a bottom in his heart, after all, he had never heard of Qiao Lie, the new commander of the capital, and he didn't know where it was sacred.

It stands to reason that a thousand households can be regarded as a quasi-member of the fifth grade, and a hundred households are all positions of the sixth grade, but in the Ming Dynasty, especially in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, civil officials are called officials, and no matter how high the position of the military generals is, they have to listen to the civil officials, especially the thousands and hundreds of households like them, who have to nod their heads in front of the county orders of the seventh grade, and they can't talk about their identity according to their grades at all.

Therefore, civil officials will pay attention to their status, even if it is a seven-grade county order, they will not do rough work by themselves, and the military generals are different, like Luo Zongshan, a thousand households of five grades, a hundred households with six grades, one person carries a large handful of bacon in his hand, walking on the street, no one thinks it is strange, if a seven-grade county order carries a pile of meat on the street, it will definitely cause a sensation!

The No. 5 fortress is the base camp of the commander of the fifth capital of Xibo, Luo Zongshan has come more than once, and even the guards at the gate of the first layer of the fortress know him, so he took a person, carrying a lot of bacon, and went straight to the study of the commander Ma Kai, not only did no one stop him along the way, but someone saluted him.

As a result, he had to change the meat to his left hand, which was not very strong, and returned the salute vigorously.