The old man of Zhaoqu habitually got up early, drank a bowl of hot porridge, ate a few hot buns full of fat, and felt much more comfortable, and then put on his silk coat and slowly circled along the mine with his hands behind his back, like an old wolf patrolling his territory.

A few months ago, with the support of the Great Song Dynasty, the old Han of Zhaoqu took the initiative to provoke the Fork River Pass with his own people of Wulietong, and when the other party couldn't help but start a war, Wulietong finally destroyed the other party in one fell swoop, and annexed the territory and population of Fork River Mountain, becoming the overlord of the Li tribe within a radius of 100 miles, and also included Shilu Iron Mine into his own jurisdiction.

However, although the old man of Zhaoqu knew that his strength had increased a lot, this qiē was actually because of the support of the imperial court, and in the eyes of the imperial court, a force like him was nothing at all, plus he was also old, and he just wanted to live the rest of his life in peace, so he was very honest and cooperated with the imperial court to develop Shilu iron mine.

In fact, it is a bit too much to say that it is cooperation, and they are at most helping the imperial court to help, such as sending some manpower to help build roads and do miscellaneous things. The main miners are recruited from Cochin, where manpower is cheap, and a miner only needs to pay a few cents a month.

After the arrival of these miners, the men of Wulietong began to act as supervisors, and they only needed to monitor the work of others every day if they did not work, and the wages were higher than that of the miners who worked, and such good things were naturally scrambling to do, and in the end, almost all the men of Wulietong came to the mine to do things, so the old man of Zhaoqu gathered the clansmen together to discuss, and simply moved the stationing of the tribe to the side of Shiluling, which made it more convenient for the men in the clan to go home often to reunite.

Several sons and sons-in-law of the old man Zhaoqu are also working in the mine, and he is also a small leader, earning a lot of money. In addition, the mine also gave him a separate salary, and he usually didn't need to do things, but whenever there were Li people from other mountains who came to interfere with the mining of iron ore, the old man Zhaoqu was responsible for persuading the other party to leave the work, if it really didn't work, then he could only use force. Of course, nominally, it was the old man Zhaoqu who led Wu Lietong to destroy the other party, and he had nothing to do with the imperial court.

When the mine first started, the surrounding Li people often came to make trouble, which was nothing more than the income of the red iron mine, so they planned to take a piece of the pie, but this was simply snatching food from Wu Lietong's mouth, so the old man of Zhaoqu naturally disagreed, and he couldn't persuade him to go back, and finally quarreled and fought. After several armed conflicts, it ended with the complete victory of Wulietong, which made the surrounding Li people finally honest, so now the old man of Zhaoqu is also very leisurely.

The sun in the east had just shown half of his face, and the miners in the mine had already begun to work under the supervision of the overseers. It was under the leadership of the old man Zhaoqu that he lived a prosperous life now, so he was naturally very respectful to him.

The old man of Zhaoqu looked at his clansmen and was also very satisfied. Although the mine gives priority to using their Wulietong people as overseers, if anyone dares to be lazy, the mine will also dismiss the overseers, so he gets up so early every day to come to the mine, in addition to being a daily habit, he also wants to see if there is any cheating and cheating. If there is, he will not open his mouth in the mine, and he will send people back to the clan to continue farming and hunting, so as not to be dismissed by the mine in the future.

Shiroku iron ore has only just been mined, so the scale of mining is not very large. This is mainly due to the lack of miners, although the deep-water port has been recruiting miners from the local Jiaozhi people, and the Jiaozhi people also like this relatively well-paid job in China, but the Jiaozhi country has been secretly resisting this matter, and the recruitment of people in the deep-water port is very unsmooth, so the mine has been short of miners, fortunately it is open-pit mining, otherwise I am afraid it will not be able to open until now.

The old man of Zhaoqu walked around the mining area, and at this time it was already three poles in the sun, he found a big stone on the hillside and sat down to rest, and at the same time reached out and beat his sore legs and back, which also made him sigh: "Old man, it is really useless, if I were young, this road is not a matter of one step!" ”

After resting for a while, the old man stood up again and prepared to go home to see if his little grandson was awake, but not far after he walked out, he suddenly saw someone running towards him from the mining area, shouting loudly as he ran: "Hello...... Oh no, there are dead people in the mine again! ”

"What!" The old man of Zhaoqu also shouted when he heard this, and then gritted his teeth at the mountains outside the mining area, "These bastards, if they can't beat us, they will use this kind of trick to fight us!" ”

It's not the first time that there have been dead people in the mine, since some time ago he took the people of Wulietong to drive away the other Li people who tried to come to get a piece of the pie, those Li people were not reconciled, but they couldn't beat Wulietong, so they came up with a way, that is, to secretly attack the people in the mine, as long as someone accidentally got away from the mining area, or even in the edge of the mining area, they would be attacked by these people, and the dead people were Jiaozhi miners and their supervisors of Wulietong, but no one dared to kill the officials and craftsmen sent by the Han people, because they are not stupid, they know that if they kill the people sent by the imperial court, they will definitely attract the encirclement and suppression of the imperial court's army, let alone a piece of the pie, and it will be good if they are not destroyed by the imperial court.

At the moment, the old man of Zhaoqu hurried to the place of the dead, and what made him even more angry was that this was the interior of the mining area, because the mine opened a lot of stones, so it was piled together to form a pile of rocks, and the person died in the pile of stones, and the head was cut off by someone, the only thing that made the old man of Zhaoqu more pleased was that this time it was a Jiaozhi miner who died instead of their Wulietong clansmen.

"Brother Zhaoqu, last time you promised that you would not let those Li people outside sneak attack the personnel on the mine again, but now that the other party has touched our mining area, if it goes on like this, I'm afraid I won't be able to explain it to the top!" Seeing Zhaoqu coming in, one of the Han officials who had already arrived here said with a stern face.

This official's surname is Wu, is an official sent by the imperial court to be in charge of the entire Shilu iron mine, Wu Yi is very kind, usually has no shelf, often drinks with the old man of Zhaoqu, he especially likes the bamboo tube rice made by the old man of Zhaoqu, but personal friends are private friends, and now the mine is attacked by the Li people outside one after another, if Zhaoqu does not come up with a solution, then he can only ask the court to send troops to encircle and suppress.

"Wu Mine Supervisor is angry, this time the matter is indeed Xiao Lao'er did not handle it well, but I have already sent someone to investigate which one did it these times, and now I have some eyebrows, as long as I find out who the other party is, Xiao Lao'er will definitely destroy the other party, and I will definitely not let them sneak attack the people in the mine!" Old man Zhaoqu assured again, but this was not the first time he had assured Wu Yi, so he was also ashamed when he spoke.

Seeing the expression of the old man Zhaoqu, Wu Yi actually knew that such a sneak attack was beyond the ability of the old man Zhaoqu to deal with, after all, as long as he was a thief for a thousand days, how could there be a reason to prevent thieves for a thousand days? What's more, the old man of Zhaoqu is only the head of a tribe, and only his own clansmen can be used in his hands, and most of his clansmen are now overseers, and there are only some old, weak, sick and disabled people left in the tribe, and they are unable to provide protection for the mining area.

Thinking of the above, Wu Yi couldn't bear to blame the old man Zhaoqu anymore, so he asked the dead miner's body to be cleaned up at the moment, and then took the old man Zhaoqu aside and said: "Brother, I don't need any guarantee from you, but the matter of the successive deaths on our side has been reported to the imperial court, and now it has attracted the attention of the imperial court, and an important person is also coming here, you should be careful at that time, in case you make that important person unhappy, I am afraid that even you Wu Lietong will be implicated." ”

"Someone important?" The old man of Zhaoqu also raised his head in surprise when he heard this, and then asked with some doubts, "Didn't Su Zhizhou come in person last time, is there anyone more important than him?" ”

In the heart of the old man of Zhaoqu, the Yamen of Qiongzhou Zhizhou is actually the imperial court, and Zhizhou Su Song is naturally the most important person in his heart, but after Su Song came last time, he summoned several nearby heads in the name of Zhizhou to warn them, but this only made them honest for a while, and now it has intensified.

"It's not just Su Zhizhou who is here this time, there are a few more important people than Su Zhizhou, you have to be prepared, don't let people collide with a few big shots!" Wu Yi said solemnly at this time, he had just received the news, and he was also shocked when he learned that the person who came was His Royal Highness King Yue of the Great Song Dynasty, so he warned the old man Zhaoqu so solemnly.

"Someone more important than Su Zhizhou, could it be them?" The old man of Zhaoqu was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then said to himself, he thought that when the mine was not opened, Su Zhizhou had accompanied a few young people to his home, and those young people were all extraordinary, and even Su Zhizhou had to sit on the side, could it be that this time how many of them were coming?

"They? Brother Zhaoqu, do you know who is coming? Wu Yi couldn't help but be stunned when he heard the words of the old man Zhaoqu, he didn't know that Zhao Yan had brought people here before the mine was opened, and of course he didn't know that Zhao Yan had also eaten at the old man's house in Zhaoqu.

The old man Zhaoqu and Wu Yi have a good relationship, and there is no need to hide these things from him, so he told him about the things that Su Song had accompanied a few young people, and finally asked Wu Yi curiously: "Brother Wu, what is the identity of the young man who came with Su Zhizhou?" (To be continued......)