After dinner, Li Zicheng first asked Feng Minghuan and Liu Taiqing to register the home addresses of all the soldiers, so as not to let them flee, and implement the policy of joint sitting, one person escapes, in addition to Xiaoqi beheading, the family members of the prisoners of war will also be beheaded, on the contrary, if the prisoners of war are content to accept reform, they can eat enough on weekdays, and after a year, they will either be released and go home, or join the Mandate of Heaven Army, and officially become a member of the Mandate of Heaven Army.

He then summoned the craftsmen in the Great Tent.

"Knock on the Grand Duke!" The craftsmen knew that Li Zicheng was the leader of the Heavenly Mandate Army, and they rushed to kowtow one by one.

"No need to be polite, let's all get up!" Li Zicheng asked the craftsmen to sit on the opposite horse, and said, "You have preliminarily inspected the iron mine, how is it, it has not been destroyed, right?" ”

"Back to the Grand Governor, the damage will not be too serious, as long as the pumice on the surface is cleaned a little, the ore can be excavated," said one craftsman, "I don't know when the Grand Governor is going to start work?" ”

"Three days later, these miners need to be trained for some time, otherwise I am afraid that they will not obey the discipline," Li Zicheng said leisurely: "It just so happens that I have cleared out some thatched huts in the fort, so that you and the miners can live!" ”

"Inside the castle?" The craftsman's mouth suddenly opened wide in surprise, and even his eyes widened, "Does the Metropolitan Governor mean that the ore will be transported to the castle for smelting?" ”

"Huh?"

"Grand Duke," said the craftsman, arching his hand, "the grass people used to smelt iron here, and if they smelted iron in the fort, they would need to transport ore to the fort, and the number of men needed would almost be doubled!" ”

"Then, according to you, where will you smelt?" Li Zicheng didn't think of this problem, he was used to war, he just felt that it was safer to smelt in the fort, at this time, he thought about it, there were hundreds of prisoners of war living in the mine, who would dare to come here to make trouble? Besides, there are no other armies in the vicinity except for the Mandate of Heaven Army, and there is no security problem.

"If you build a thatched hut at the mouth of the mine, set up the smelting furnace, and then build a simple thatched hut, let the grass people and others live in it, and watch the smelting furnace day and night, as for the miners, they can go back to live in the fort at night."

"That's fine," Li Zicheng said in his heart, maybe he could save some manpower, but the craftsmen lived outside the fort and didn't seem to be very safe, so he said: "I'll build a few more thatched huts, leave some miners, and guard you day and night!" ”

"Thank you, Governor!"

"Don't be polite, I've always been polite," Li Zicheng smiled faintly and said, "What's your name?" In Ningyuan County, how much income can you have? ”

"Back to the Metropolitan Governor, the grass people are called Lai Qiang, this income, there has always been no accurate number, just barely making ends meet!"

Li Zicheng saw that the clothes on his body were a little ragged, and knew that life would not be easy, so he smiled and said: "Lai Qiang, you are responsible for the iron mine here, and the remuneration is one and a half taels of silver per month, as for these two, it is one tael per month, if there is a lack of land at home, how about distributing enough land to you according to the standard of thirty acres per ding?" ”

Lai Qiang was surprised, first glanced at Li Zicheng, then looked at the other two craftsmen, and hurriedly bowed to the ground, "Grass people...... Thank you, Governor! ”

The other two craftsmen also knelt on the ground and kowtowed in thanksgiving.

"Get up," Li Zicheng said with a smile: "I have already said that I am not a good person, but I will value your attitude towards doing things." ”

"The grass people and others have been paid handsomely by the Metropolitan Governor, and they should do their best to serve the Metropolitan Governor!"

"Then let me ask you, once the mine is opened, when will it be able to produce raw iron? What is the yield? This is the problem that Li Zicheng is most concerned about, this time in the Guangwushan Iron Mine, in addition to these craftsmen to pay a small amount of remuneration, the miners are all prisoners of war, as long as they are fed, there is no need for additional silver, therefore, the cost of iron smelting is extremely low, the key is how much pig iron can be smelted.

Lai Qiang thought for a moment and said: "Dadu Governor, according to the previous experience of the grass people, the iron ore in Guangwu Mountain is very shallowly buried, and the content of pig iron is also very high. ”

Three thousand pounds? Li Zicheng silently muttered about 3,000 catties a month, which is 36,000 catties a year, if all of them are used to make guns, how many Xining rifles should it be? He suppressed the ecstasy in his heart and said lightly: "If you open a blast furnace enough, how many miners will be needed?" ”

"If it is to excavate iron ore, three hundred strong men are enough, plus charcoal mining and other aspects, a total of four hundred people are needed, if the governor can give four hundred strong men, it is enough!"

Only four hundred? Li Zicheng was overjoyed, he had more than 1,000 ready-made strong men in his hands, and there were more than 6,000 people, and now as long as these prisoners of war were trained for a few days, they could dig the ore, everything was ready, only the east wind was owed! The arrival of this shareholder wind is only three days!

Li Zicheng decided to camp in Guangwu Mountain for three days, and then leave for Lanzhou after the prisoners' training was over.

During the training the next day, Li Zicheng redistributed the prisoners of war, and Feng Minghuan's department was streamlined, with one small flag for every ten people, one of whom was designated as a small flag officer, five small flags as a general flag, and another chief flag officer, two general flags for 100 households, and another 100 household officials.

Feng Minghuan is still a thousand households, commanding these four hundred households, eight general flags, and forty small flags, plus the chief flag officer and the hundred household officials, with four hundred and twelve people.

This is completely the establishment of the Ming Army and the Mandate of Heaven Army, but the chief flag officer, the hundred household officials, and even the thousand household officials do not have their own personal soldiers.

After the rectification was completed, Li Guo led Feng Minghuan's troops to the training ground in the fort to continue the training, and they would stay in Guangwu Mountain as miners to accept Lai Qiang's guidance and assignment.

The rest of the prisoners of war were incorporated into Liu Taiqing's department, a total of 722 people, divided into 800 households, of which the 800 households were not members.

Liu Taiqing's department did not need to become a miner, so he temporarily gave up his training, and was led by Gao Yigong, who first built a thatched hut at the entrance of the mine, and repaired the thatched hut in the fort as a residence for craftsmen and miners.

Once the repairs were completed, Li Zicheng had already made plans, and they did not need to go to Qingshui County for the time being, where enough prisoners of war had been gathered, and the number of them was too large, crowding the site, and the efficiency of the work was not high.

After the three-day drill is over, Liu Taiqing's department will repair the road from Ningyuan County to Gongchang Prefecture, although Li Zicheng will repair the road along the way, has been allocated to the prefectures and counties, but the prefectures and counties are redistributing the land, once the land is allocated, but also busy with the autumn planting, after the autumn planting is completed, the weather may turn cooler, in case of catching up with the freezing or even snowy days, the repair of the road must be stopped, he really can't predict, whether the roadbed can be completed on time, can be repaired a section is a section.

Li Zicheng returned to the camp tent, spread out the marching map, and calculated the distance of this section of the road, but he found that on the right bank of Weishui, between Ningyuan County and Gongchang Mansion, there was a river, and the road was repaired to this point, and it would inevitably be blocked by the river.

This river is Zhangshui, and after receiving the Guangwu water, the downstream confluence into the Weishui should be wider.

Li Zicheng once again encountered the river problem, this problem has been bothering him, although it is possible to build a pontoon bridge, or even a wooden bridge, but there are certain drawbacks, and like Weishui, the Yellow River, such a wide, canyon structure of the river, it is difficult to build a pontoon wooden bridge, crossing the river can only rely on wharves, boats, it is too time-consuming, it just happened that he has ordered Tang Ruowang to rush over, simply pour the cement bridge here first, it is regarded as a test.

The production technology of cement is almost mature now, and a large amount of cement is needed to repair roads in the future.

Since the cement avenue will have to be poured between Lanzhou and Qingshui County sooner or later, it is better to pour the section between Ningyuan County and Gongchang Mansion first, which can not only test the possibility of building a cement bridge, but also transport the pig iron produced by Guangwu Iron Mine to Xining through Lanzhou in time.

Just do it.

Li Zicheng immediately flew a pigeon to pass the book to Malushan, and asked Wenming to temporarily take charge of the cement factory, Liu Zhuang took his handrail, and immediately rushed to Guangwu Mountain, Ningyuan County, to prepare to reopen the cement factory.

Three days later, Feng Minghuan officially became a miner and accepted Lai Qiang's control, and Liu Taiqing's department began a three-day drill, and the training was handed over to Gao Yigong, and Li Guo took the rest of the cavalry and Tian Fen galloped in the vast land north of Weishui in Gongchang Mansion, and they played red faces and black faces respectively.

Li Guo's cavalry traveled through various counties in units of 100 households, and resolutely exterminated all alien races who resolutely refused to "join the Han nationality and serve God", and Tian Fen always followed behind the cavalry, soothing the wounded hearts of the remnants of the alien race as her former Hui woman and today's Dadu Governor's wife.

Tian Fen can speak some words, and the face of a natural descendant of the Ya'an people often ripples the tears of the aggrieved aliens, but comfort is comfort, if they can't follow the trend, even God can't save them.

Because it rides a little white horse, its skin is particularly fair, and it has won the reputation of "White Lady" among the Hui people.

After pacifying the north of Weishui, Tian Fen followed the pace of Li Guo's cavalry, crossed Weishui, and came to the south of Weishui, continuing her great cause of pacification.

Except for meeting Li Zicheng when crossing the Weishui, the rest of the time, she has been under the escort of soldiers, passing through the mountains and rivers of Longyou.

When Li Guo left Guangwu Mountain, Li Zicheng also left Ningyuan County, went north along Weishui, passed through Gongchang Mansion and Anding County, and finally arrived in Lanzhou.

This time he came to Lanzhou from Qingshui County and crossed the entire Longyou, and he used his footprints to declare to the garrisons and people along the way: The entire Longyou has belonged to the Mandate of Heaven Army!

Coupled with Li Guo's cavalry and Tian Fen's "comfort group", Li Zicheng believed that as long as the army of the imperial court did not come to harass, it would not be long before the entire Longyou would be completely included in the category of the Heavenly Mandate Army.

Lanzhou is the first state and county taken by the Mandate of Heaven Army when it conquered Longyou in the east, and it is a strategic place that Li Zicheng attaches great importance to, and the future Mandate of Heaven Army, money and grain will definitely move eastward, concentrated in Lanzhou City, as the rear of Longyou, Lanzhou has a very convenient distance advantage than Xining.

Li Zicheng stayed in Lanzhou for a day, and was about to return to Ningyuan County to see the Guangwushan Iron Mine and the prisoners of war of Liu Taiqing's troops who were repairing the roadbed, and Tang Ruowang arrived in Lanzhou in time.