From the fourth day onwards, half of the manpower that had been used for logging was reduced and the kiln was started. Yu Guozhen put the brick kiln and the cement kiln together, and prepared a total of six caves, which were of course earthen kilns at the beginning.

By this time, the ten potters he had invited came in handy, and these potters had been helping to do the chores for the first few days, according to their advice, sticking to the hillside, first digging out the kiln pit, then sealing the kiln with rammed earth, and then first burning the kiln, and then the kiln walls were solid, and then began to officially burn bricks.

"Childe, the villain is back!"

On the sixth day, Huang Shun, who was sent back to Qinzhou City by Yu Guozhen, ran back with a happy face. After Jiang An was able to have a simple exchange with those laborers, Yu Guozhen asked Huang Shun to inquire about one more matter, and promised a reward of one or two silver, but it took two days for him to run back.

At first, all he thought about was the one or two pieces of silver promised by Yu Guozhen, but soon he realized that something was wrong and stopped: "Huh! ”

By the time he was gone, six rows of houses had been built, and when he came, six rows had become seven, which was nothing, and most importantly, a fence of stakes and planks had been built around them.

At present, the fence has only been repaired in a small way, but according to Huang Shun's judgment, it will only take half a month at most for the fence to be completely repaired.

At the four corners of the fence, there was a watchtower, on which a young man guarded.

Yu Guozhen never dared to put his safety on luck, no matter how insufficient manpower was, he would not give up his vigilance against safety, belligerent will die, forget the war will be dangerous, and the final result is to let those who are so weak that they can be twisted to death with one finger can also show off their might in front of them.

"Huang Shun, what's wrong with you?" Seeing that Huang Shun said something and was stunned, Yu Guozhen asked while looking at the people who came with him.

Five people followed Huang Shun here, each carrying a basket on their backs. Huang Shun came back to his senses and said with a smile: "Gongzi is really a divine gift from Patriarch Luban, and even the fence has been erected at this time...... Ah, look at my words, but I forgot my son's business. A few of you, bring things up, hurry up, don't be clumsy, your reward is indispensable, Yu Gongzi is generous! ”

Those people put down the basket behind them and brought it to Yu Guozhen, which was full of black stone-like things. Yu Guozhen was overjoyed after reading it: "You really found it!" ”

"Live up to the child's trust!" Huang Shun learned from the young man of Jiawei and said.

He felt that those teenagers who were always energetic and high-spirited always said this sentence with a sense of spirit. He is in his thirties and in his forties, and he can also be infected by this spirit.

"Where did you find it, far or not, buried deep or not?" Yu Guozhen raised a series of questions.

The reason is very simple, what Huang Shun found was coal, although Yu Guozhen could see that the quality of this coal was not very good, but what he wanted now was to use coal as fuel to burn the kiln, and it didn't matter if the quality was poor.

"Near the village of Nahuai...... In the north of the city, there are more than 50 miles away from Gongzi in the north of the city and the North Langling and Nahuai Ridge. The villain had heard before, the villagers in the vicinity had picked up the charcoal when they were picking, the previous time the son asked, the villain was not sure and did not dare to say, and then went to inquire, the villagers said that there was indeed a matter, and picked five baskets to present to the son. ”

Yu Guozhen's face showed obvious joy, coal was extremely important to his plan, because even this kind of coal, which was not of very good quality, was much better than ordinary firewood. In addition, mining coal is also more harvesting than going up the mountain to cut firewood.

He beckoned: "Come with me!" ”

Huang Shun led several villagers of Nahuai Village into the fenced yard, Huang Shun had seen simple wooden houses, but these villagers saw it for the first time, and found that the rows of houses had gathered into a village scale, and they couldn't help but ask.

They were speaking in the local dialect, and Yu Guozhen could understand a little bit now, as if he was asking what kind of place it was.

Sure enough, Huang Shun responded casually, and then said to Yu Guozhen: "Son, these countrymen ask the villain, is there a name here?" ”

This is a problem, since the landing, the people have been so busy that they have seen a village built in front of everyone, but they have forgotten to name it. Yu Guozhen groaned slightly, he didn't know what the name of the future life here was, so the name could only be taken now.

"New Xiang'an...... Let's call it Xinxiang. Yu Guozhen said: "The old and the new are new, the Xiang of Xiangyang." ”

He led them into a room, the largest of all, just before Yu Guozhen's residence, and there were windows on all sides, each of which was much larger than the average house's window. After they entered the house, Huang Shun was stunned again, because he saw two teenagers smearing mud on each other's bodies.

In front of the two boys, there is a wooden platform, on which the clay kneading ground is undulating, and you can even see mountains, rivers and roads.

Seeing Yu Guozhen come in, Jiang Youzhong and Lei Dafa immediately withdrew their hands, and the two stood up in an orderly manner, Jiang Youzhong knew that Yu Guozhen would not be angry with their naughtiness, but Lei Dafa was a little afraid.

"Let's take a look at the sand table, that's it, because of time, I can only make the terrain near our Xinxiang, here is the Yuhong River, this is the Qinjiang River, this is the Qinzhou Prefecture, do you think, where is the place where the coal was found, not far from the Yuhong River and the Qinjiang River?"

Huang Shun was familiar with the surroundings of Qinzhou's capital city, he moved his finger on the sand table, and then placed it slightly east of Qinzhou: "It is thirty miles north of Qinzhou...... Where does Childe think? ”

Yu Guozhen pointed out a place thirty miles north of Qinzhou according to the proportion, and Huang pointed there by the way: "This is it." ”

Then, he asked the villagers in local dialect, and after a while, he smiled and said, "They said that they found that the coalstone place is separated from the Yuhong River by two mountains, about twenty miles away. ”

"Twenty miles...... Is there a creek around? Yu Guozhen asked with a little disappointment.

"There is a small river that leads to the Fishing Flood River, about ten miles from where the carboniferous was found." Huang Shun said a little nervously.

"Is the road difficult?"

"Countrymen, don't be afraid of difficult roads." This time, Huang Shun replied without asking.

"Well, in the nearest place to mine coal, I will send someone to build an improvised wharf, and then I will prepare boats for them, and send craftsmen to teach them how to mine coal." Yu Guozhen thought about it for a while, he originally wanted to recruit people to dig coal by himself, but now it seems that the distance is farther, and the involvement is too wide, it is better to hand it over to their locals. Therefore, he stretched out a finger: "Tell them clearly, every thousand catties of coal...... That is, the charcoal, I will give them one or two silver for the dry, and I will pay six coins of silver for the wet, the dry and wet standards, only judged by whether there is a drop of water under the basket, how? ”

"Per 1,000 pounds...... A tael of silver! Huang Shun was taken aback.

He went to see it, although there were not many carbons near Nahuai Village, but because it was an outcrop mine, it was really not too troublesome to mine, it was nothing more than a waste of energy. A strong laborer, digging a thousand catties a day is not a problem at all, a little more difficult is to transport it to Xinxianglai, but as Yu Gongzi said, if you take the waterway, that is, let people carry ten miles to the river, and then you can completely rely on the boat.

He quickly estimated in his heart that this was much more cost-effective than him charging ten cents per head!

"Childe, the villain should be ...... in this matter" Huang Shun gritted his teeth and made the most important and proud decision in his life: "One tael of silver per thousand catties...... Childe, is there how much you charge? ”

"If you can transport 10 million catties, I will naturally bring you 10,000 taels of silver from Guangzhou." Yu Guozhen laughed.

A thousand catties and a tael of silver, he made a lot of money, if it weren't for the fact that the coal mines here were easy to mine, and for the local villagers, it was like dirt and useless things, he would never have been able to take it at this price.

For Huang Shun, this is a windfall, only the few outcrop mines he saw, it is estimated that there are always hundreds of thousands of catties of coal, that is to say, as long as these outcrop mines are dug out and sent to Yu Gongzi, he can get a few hundred taels of silver, and hiring labor is at most to cost him more than 100 taels.

Fortunately, those villagers couldn't understand the conversation between him and Yu Guozhen, otherwise where would those villagers allow him to profit in the middle, which is not a small amount!

"Childe, the boat villain will prepare by himself, when will Childe want this charcoal?"

"The sooner the better, just park in the kiln area over there, if you can send five thousand catties of coal within five days, I will thank you for another five taels of silver."

At this time, the brick kiln and lime kiln have been prepared, just waiting for the incoming materials to start. Huang Shun was about to leave, but Yu Guozhen said: "There is one more thing, I want to collect limestone and clay, how do you think it should be collected?" ”

"Hand over to the villain, hand over to the villain!" Huang Shun couldn't wait to be authentic.

"I'm afraid it's a shortage of manpower, right?" Yu Guozhen smiled.

"It's okay, the villain has his own point, limestone and clay are easy to handle." Huang Shun muttered secretly in his heart, not knowing what Yu Guozhen was doing with so many materials.

"Okay, I'll leave this matter to you, as for the price...... What do you think the price of limestone and clay should be? ”

Yu Guozhen now has a lot of money, not only the tens of thousands of taels of silver he has accumulated in the past two years, but also the gold he has stolen from Zhuangzi outside Nanjing, and in Xiang'an, several of his industries are also accumulating wealth for him. Therefore, the price is really not too big a problem for him, and the most urgent thing for him now is to rush to September and roughly plan for the new Xiang.

Huang Shun left with those villagers, he was a local, and he had a lively mind, as long as there was money to be made, he would surely be deadly. However, Yu Guozhen is not ready to put all the threads in his hands, which is an extremely dangerous move.

"Now it seems that it is time to go to Qinzhou City, I have been here for nearly ten days, and I have not been to Qinzhou City." Yu Guozhen thought to himself.

He didn't know that almost at the same time, a person in Qinzhou City was also pondering him: "What kind of person is this person who built Zhuangzi on the other side of Changmen Dun, and he has such a skill!" ”

(To be continued)