The people in the Shengli village didn't expect the Han people to follow behind. In the past, they also arrested lonely Han people, and they all let their families bring salt and grain to redeem them.

Unexpectedly, today I ran into a hornet's nest, and a large group of Han soldiers came, each with firearms. These Li people did not have never seen the Han Chinese army, and the suppression army of the Li uprising in Guangdong, which spread across the island thirty years ago, was equipped with a Franc machine gun. But the muskets in the hands of these Han people were very sharp, and they didn't even use the arquebus to ignite them.

Originally, the leader of Shengli saw that there were only more than 50 Han people, and wanted to gather a team to drive away the Han people, but he didn't expect these Han people's weapons to be so sharp. Horde warriors fell in front of the muskets in droves.

These Li people were not well-trained warriors, they were just some natives, who had seen this kind of massacre, and after killing more than twenty people, they shouted and fled in all directions.

Wang Dazhuang commanded the team to divide into small groups to sweep away the remnants of the enemy room by room, and when they encountered resistance, they killed the more than 100 people.

Someone here rescued the captured Zhang Tou, and Zhang Tou shouted: "The team led by the general? ”

Wang Dazhuang came to Zhang Tou and said, "It's down that the foreman is looking for me?" ”

Ignoring the scars on his body, he shouted: "The general asked your people to keep a few alive, I saw that there is hematite in their house, and they may know the location of the iron mine." ”

Wang Dazhuang knew that the purpose of coming this time was for the iron mine, so he hurriedly notified to catch a few live people, or his subordinates would kill them all.

Soon, the soldiers brought a few Shengli, and among them was the leader of the Shengli who led the team to resist.

Zhang Tou took the red hematite that he had found out of the shed and asked, "Where did you get this stone?" ”

Wang Dazhuang called the guide, asked him to be the interpreter, and asked, "Can you ask him if there are red stones here?" ”

The guide's chattering translator, but he didn't expect the leader to be a tough guy, and he also said it. Wang Dazhuang didn't listen to the translation, he knew by looking at his look that this guy didn't say anything.

Wang Dazhuang saw several other captives and picked a young one, about eleven or twelve years old. Wang Dazhuang took out a bayonet* knife and put it on the gun, stepped forward and stabbed that Shengli to death with a bayonet.

The leader yelled and said something he didn't understand.

The guide on the side looked unbearable and said, "General, he said that this kid is his son." ”

Wang Dazhuang said: "You tell him that if you don't say anything, you will kill them all, and feed the body of his son to the dogs." ”

The guide's eyelids jumped, he didn't expect this Qiu Ba to be so vicious, and hurriedly stepped forward to talk to the leader.

When the leader heard that Wang Dazhuang was going to treat his son like this, he glared angrily, but after thinking about it, he still said a series of words.

The guide's face was overjoyed, and he said, "General, they said that the red stones were picked up from the mountains ten miles upstream of the Shilu River, and there are a lot of them. They exchanged the stone for salt with the Han Chinese, and he wanted the general to release his people. ”

When Wang Dazhuang heard the news of the iron mine, he laughed and said, "Damn, I've been in this ravine for ten days, and I finally found it, and the prince is really right." ”

After Wang Dazhuang finished speaking, he ordered his subordinates to tie up and take away the young Li Du, and kill all the old and weak.

The guide was shocked and asked, "The general won't let them go?" ”

Wang Dazhuang said with a smile: "Our prince taught us that to be merciful to the enemy is to be cruel to oneself, and the most important thing after defeating the enemy is to step on ten thousand feet, so that he will never be able to turn over." ”

After saying that, Wang Dazhuang didn't care which guide he had, and led people to start burning Shengli's house, killing the old and weak, and taking away the young and strong.

The leader saw that Wang Dazhuang was not trustworthy, and couldn't help but scold there, and Wang Dazhuang, who was scolded in the end, was upset and stabbed him to death with a stab. He's not the only one who knows about that vein anyway.

This Shengli village is poor, there are a few loads of rice, half a bucket of salt, and they are all mixed with stones, and a few taels of broken silver. Wang Dazhuang couldn't help but scold these poor ghosts when he saw it, and ordered nothing to do, they were all burned.

Half an hour later, smoke rose from the stockade, and Wang Dazhuang returned to the camp with a dozen young and strong Li people.

In the camp, Tong Tuchang was waiting anxiously, and the guards brought from Guangdong had all gone out, and now the camp guards were all military households of Changhuawei. Tong Tuchang has no confidence in these beggar-looking military households, but he is afraid that these guys will disperse as soon as the Li people come.

Wang Dazhuang's safe return made Tong Tuchang feel at ease, but he didn't expect Wang Dazhuang to bring him a good news, there should be an iron mine in the upper reaches of the Shilu River.

Tong Tuchang was overjoyed when he heard the news, and said: "Platoon Commander Wang has made a great contribution this time, and I will make a note on the merit for the prefect." ”

Wang Dazhuang is also very happy, you must know that although he is now a platoon commander, his military rank is only a first-class soldier, and because he has no military merits, he has not yet entered the officer class. Wang Dazhuang knew that the king of Chu had the most important military merits, and this time he would definitely be rated as a second lieutenant, and he would be considered an official at that time.

Wang Dazhuang hurriedly arched his hand and said: "This is also the meritorious command of Lord Tong." ”

Tong Tuchang, like his second uncle, asks for a lot and doesn't look down on this credit, but befriending officers has always been the way of life for the two of them, so Tong Tuchang didn't even dare to say it.

Tong Yangjia was in the army as a secretary when he first joined the gang, and when he was in Xinyang, he got the wife and concubine of the Dong family, and Zhao Guodong, one of the two division commanders now, is still a relative, so the relationship between the uncle and nephew of the Tong family and the army is very delicate.

This is also the result of Zhu Hongsan's arrangement, after all, the Ma family is too powerful, and if Tong Yangjia is alone, it is easy to be killed by Ma Mingyuan, so Zhu Hongsan also turned a blind eye to Tong Yangjia and the army.

Tong Tuchang was not at ease, so he found Zhang Tou and the captives, and was overjoyed after asking that the red stone was hematite, and ordered him to go upstream early tomorrow morning to prospect.

Early the next morning, Tong Tuchang took all the craftsmen and guards and began to set off upstream to find ore veins. This time, with the captives leading the way, it went well, and a vein was found in a valley.

What was discovered this time was the Tengtian vein of the later Shilu iron ore, an open-pit vein with reserves of 5 million tons. Although it is pitifully small compared with the hundreds of millions of tons of reserves in the main veins of Shilu, it is necessary to know that the annual pig iron output of Guangdong is only more than 2,000 tons, and the annual pig iron output of the six government-run iron factories of the Ming Dynasty is only more than 6,000 tons.

The five million tons of Tengtian vein are enough for the current Guangdong production for hundreds of years. Even if the Tengtian vein is mined, it is not afraid, five miles away from here, is the main vein of Shilu, which is a large mine that has not been mined from 1935 to 2015.

After discovering the iron ore, Tong Tuchang ordered the hundred craftsmen he brought with him to start prospecting. After a while, the kung fu foreman came back to report that the iron ore mining in this place is easy, and the iron ore taste is very high, which can reach sixty percent, which is much higher than the iron ore bought in Guangdong. This also means that the same weight of iron ore can produce more steel.

Tong Tuchang knew that his second uncle was waiting for this iron mine, and he didn't want to delay, so after asking about the situation, he took the foreman, took a few ore samples, and prepared to go back to Qiongzhou to report the good news.

Tong Tuchang told Wang Dazhuang to manage the people who stayed behind, saying that he would be able to return in ten days, and then take a few people along the Shilu River to Changhua County and return to Qiongzhou by boat.

The brigade of Qiongzhou Mansion has already arrived, and Zhou Yu and the sixth regiment have already arrived three days ago. The 20 big ships of the Guangdong Patrol Road ran twice before transporting the equipment and personnel for the development of iron ore to Qiongzhou.

Tong Yangjia waited here to see what he wanted, Tong Tuchang had been gone for half a month, and now there was still a month and a half left before two months. Tong Yangjia was so anxious that his mouth was full of foams.

At this moment, Tong Tuchang came back, and Tong Yangjia knew that he was very happy, and immediately ran to the dock to pick up his nephew. He asked, "Chang'er, how is it?" ”

Tong Tuchang said happily: "Second uncle, there is really a big iron mine in that place, and the foreman said that the grade is good and the reserves are large. After speaking, he took out the ore he brought and showed it to Tong Yangjia.

Tong Yangjia has been in industry for several years, and he has also seen iron ore on the mainland, and the iron ore in his hand now is obviously not the kind of ore on the mainland. This piece of ore is gray-black, the structure is dense, and it is very pressing, and Tong Yangjia knows that this is a high-quality magnetite in iron ore. The iron content in the hand is about 50% to 60%, which is much stronger than the iron ore on the road, which is only 20% or 30%.

Tong Yangjia was overjoyed and said: "Chang'er has worked hard, I have a night's rest tonight, this side is all organized, and the day after tomorrow, Chang'er will lead the team to set off, let's go to mine this big iron mine." ”