When everything was arranged, Xiao Yi and the others also found a few local people, and these people took them to the ochre mine in this ditch to have a look. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Xiao Yi was flanked by several local people, who kept telling Xiao Yi stories about the ochre mine and this poor area, Xiao Yi kept nodding, and his expression changed with the expressions of the people, obviously listening carefully.

Xiao Yi was followed by Shi Gang and Wang Dayong, and the two of them led the horse while Wang Dayong told what had happened in these days, and Shi Gang was amazed to hear it.

Liu Sheng, Yang Xiao, and Wang Dashan, Liu Shiren, and Gao Liang, who arrived later, walked at the end, chatting with some ideas in their hearts while watching the grass and trees in the ditch along the way.

This Tujiagou was a barren place a long time ago, but there have always been people living here, and the locals know very little about this ochre mine, most of them just know that this ore is not ordinary, but many people don't know what to use it for.

The further you go in the ditch, the more weeds, shrubs, and tall trees there are.

The people who led the way were very talkative, talking all the way, and kept telling them about some of the things that happened here in the past, and when it came to the atrocities of the hob meat, several people were resentful, but fortunately, the hob meat had been wiped out by Xiao Yi, and the people laughed when they talked about it.

They can see that Xiao Yi does not have the official frame of a military master at all, and the officers and soldiers behind Xiao Yi do not have the impression of the fierce and vicious appearance of the officers and soldiers, and the conversation is very relaxed.

A few people walk together with Xiao Yi without a sense of restraint, and they are often attracted by Xiao Yi's calm look, after hearing Xiao Yi's deeds, they are surprised and continue to praise Xiao Yi Now there are not many approachable officials.

Shi Gang behind him was talking with a big grin, and he first talked to Xiao Yi about what had happened in Changning Town and Yong'an Fort in the past few days when he left.

Ran laughed loudly, and said hob meat again, saying that when he arrived with the army that day, hob meat saw him like a ghost.

Several people laughed, Wang Dashan laughed a few times, his eyes were sharp, and his steps suddenly accelerated, and he took a few steps over, breaking a dead branch in front of Xiao Yi.

Liu Shiren's eyes widened, "Brother Dashan reacted so quickly!" Xiao Yi also smiled and patted Wang Dashan on the shoulder, he looked back at Shi Gang and didn't pay attention to the front, but he didn't want Wang Dashan to notice, and after chatting, a few people followed the people and continued to walk forward.

When they reached a bush, which was overgrown with weeds, they carefully walked through the bushes and the grass and stopped outside a large cave.

Several people looked inside the cave outside the cave, Liu Shiren took a few steps forward cautiously, frowned and said, "Why is it so dark that I can't see anything clearly, is it really here?" ”

The man replied, "That's it, this place is not dark for us ordinary people who live here all the year round, and we have escaped by relying on this." ”

Xiao Yi stood on the boulder at the entrance of the cave, looked carefully into the cave, and at first looked at it because his eyes were not very accustomed to the light, he felt very dark, but after getting used to it for a while, it was not so dark, and Xiao Yi even saw the rugged path inside.

In the next few days, Xiao Yi found Qi Lao and the three of them, carefully surveyed this ochre mine, and the results were the same as last time, the quality of this ochre mine was quite outstanding, Qi Lao and the three of them said again and again that as long as they were mined, the ordnance and armor made must be of the highest quality, Xiao Yi was also very happy after hearing it,

Regarding transportation, this Tujiagou has been pacified, and there is no disturbance, from here to Yong'an Fort is completely within the jurisdiction of Xiao Yi, this side of the bandits have all been cleared, and from this Tujiagou to the south for a few miles, you can see the pier guard of Yong'an Fort, which is also quite convenient.

Xiao Yi discussed with the three of them that night, iron smelting and military training were the most important things at the moment, but Qi Lao and the others told Xiao Yi that if he wanted to smelt all the mined pig iron into mature iron, he needed to add limestone and other materials.

There is no place to produce coal in Tujiagou, the nearest one is in Qijiazhuang, where coal has always been abundant, but it takes nearly 20 miles from Qijiazhuang Road to Changning Town, and it takes more than 10 miles from Changning Town to Yong'an Fort, so it is too far to go to Tujiagou.

The manpower and material resources for transporting coal and mining alone are not a small amount, and although the bandits have gained a lot, they will not last long in this way, and it seems that if you want to make iron and mine coal, money and grain are still the most important factor.

At this time in the late Ming Dynasty, there was a method of making iron with coke, and generally only need to be calcined at high temperature to smelt pig iron into mature iron.

According to the estimation of Qi Lao, smelting a ton of pig iron generally requires more than one ton of coke. At present, Daming coke is about seven or eight taels of silver per ton, and even that kind of ordinary coal costs about four or five taels.

And if you want to make fine iron, the coal used must be selected coal, which is more expensive.

In addition to the above, there are also transportation costs for these things, and new miners and masters are needed for coal mining, and various equipment needs to be purchased and imported from the state city, and some other expenses are also a lot.

Xiao Yi has been one of the first two big things in the past few days, he has always wanted to be self-sufficient in iron-making so that he can equip the iron armor in advance, but iron-making needs to open coal, and there are a lot of other things and expenses. After careful calculation, most of the money he earned from his hard work to suppress the bandits had to be spent here, and Xiao Yi couldn't help but twitch when he thought of this.

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This Tujiagou affair has been temporarily dealt with, and as for the mining and other matters, Xiao also plans to return to Changning Town to discuss it in detail.

On the way back to Changning Town, Xiao Yi looked at the scenery along the way, but he didn't have the heart to appreciate it when he came, he didn't want to take a second look, and he kept thinking about the coal mine in his heart.

A group of soldiers are less high-spirited when they came, more mature and steady, everyone's faces are full of fatigue and anticipation of going home, and there are soldiers in pairs carrying burdens, and on the burdens are the soldiers who died in Tujiagou.

Qijiazhuang is a strong village, the degree of armament and training is not compared to the thieves of this Tujiagou, plus the Yong'an Army has just gone through a period of fighting, the soldiers are thinking about going home to report the good news, and they need to recuperate for a while.

It seems that this Qijiazhuang can't be dealt with by strong means, at least for now, it can't be evil.

After more than a day's journey, Xiao Yi finally saw the second guard in the farthest part of Changning Town. On a hill in the distance, the soldier who was guarding the second guard stood upright on the second floor, and only a figure with a spear could be seen standing in the distance.

The warriors all shouted at the guards, some laughed, some cried, and they were all full of joy to go home anyway. (To be continued.) )