Zhao Yan's fleet left Qiongzhou again, turned a small half circle along the coast of Qiongzhou Island, and finally came to the location where the original Wulietong was located, compared with the humble small tribe half a year ago, although the current Wulietong moved away, but because the mined iron ore needs to be smelted into iron on the spot and transported out, so in the original place where Wulietong lived, a new town has been established, the whole town is mainly engaged in ironmaking, and the port has also been rebuilt to facilitate the entry and exit of ships transporting steel.

When Zhao Yan's ship came to this place named Wuli Harbor, he couldn't believe his eyes, because he really couldn't connect the busy port in front of him with the remote fishing port in his impression, only to see that there were large and small ships docked in the port of Wulie Harbor in front of him, and people came and went on the clean and tidy dock, and many naked coolies carried heavy sacks to the ship.

"Brother Zirong, I haven't seen you for more than half a year, and Wulie Harbor has been built like this, it seems that you must have put a lot of effort into it, right?" Zhao Yan looked at the busy scene on the port, and said to Su Song next to him with a smile.

"Your Royal Highness praised it, this is not only my credit, the main thing is that the imperial court attaches great importance to this place, so not only the officials sent are very capable, but also in terms of financial and material resources, which makes Wulie Harbor built so fast, and now the iron-making workshop here in the port has begun to produce iron, it is said that the quality of iron is excellent, this first batch of iron will be sent to the capital first, presumably Your Majesty must be a dragon face after seeing it!" When Su Song talked about things related to iron ore, he was also frowning for a while, as a magistrate, being able to benefit one party is the greatest political achievement.

While they were talking, Zhao Yan and their boat finally stopped on the dock. Zhao Yan and the others also disembarked in turn, but Zhao Yan did not leave the dock immediately, but walked to the side of a cargo ship that was being loaded, and then opened a sack to reveal the iron blocks the size of a human head inside, these iron blocks and sacks are specially made, and a small sack can only hold one iron block. Otherwise, it won't be able to move at all.

Zhao Yan didn't understand the quality of the iron, but Niu Lie, the head of the guard next to him, understood, after all, a military general like him dealt with the opening every day, and he was very clear about the quality of steel, so he saw him step forward and stretch out his two big hands to grab an iron block, and then take a serious look at it, and let people draw a knife to cut it on the iron, and then nodded with satisfaction and said to Zhao Yan: "Your Highness, although it is a rough iron block." But the quality is quite good, better than the Dali iron I have seen, I believe that after the creation of master craftsmen, it will definitely be possible to create a weapon that is sharper than the Dali knife! ”

Hearing that even a military general like Niu Lie praised the iron produced in Qiongzhou, Su Song couldn't help but show a smiling expression again, and then he led Zhao Yan into the brand-new Wulie Town, only to see that the original bamboo building here had not been demolished, but had become the residence of the craftsmen. In addition, a series of iron-making workshops were built on the east side of the town, and iron-making furnaces were erected one after another. Billowing black smoke poured into the sky, and while this will certainly have an impact on the environment, it is also the price that human progress must pay.

Walking around the town of Wulie, there is really nothing to see in the whole town except for those iron-making workshops, and the craftsmen in the town are all drawn from all over the country. Speaking dialects from all over the world, according to Su Song, although these craftsmen were a little uncomfortable at the beginning, as time went by, they slowly adapted to the climate here in Qiongzhou, which is also an important reason why the torch iron workshop can start normally.

Zhao Yan originally wanted to meet the old man Zhaoqu. But they didn't expect that they had already moved to live in the mine, and it just so happened that Zhao Yan came this time mainly for the iron mine, and by the way, he also took a look at the mining progress of the iron mine, so they didn't stop in Wulie Town, and went directly to the Shilu Iron Mine.

Zhao Yan was rushing in the direction of Shilu Iron Mine in a carriage, but at this time, Su Shi suddenly pointed to the road below and said with a smile: "Brother Zirong, it seems that the imperial court really attaches great importance to you here, just now I found that the wharf is full of cement used, and now this road is also paved with cement, with the current output of cement, it is not easy for the imperial court to allocate so much cement!" ”

Since Zhao Yan developed cement, he dedicated the manufacturing method of cement to Zhao Shu, and as a result, Zhao Shu handed over the cement to the Ministry of Industry and the Ordnance Supervision to jointly open a workshop to burn cement, at the beginning of the Ministry of Industry and the Ordnance Supervision wanted to control the production of cement alone, but in the end it was found that the demand for cement was too great, and the cement workshop opened by the imperial court was in short supply at all, so later there was a cement workshop run by the official superintendent, but even so, cement production is still in short supply, plus cement has an important role in building the city, Therefore, the cement is allocated to various places by the imperial court every year, which is regarded as a semi-military item, and it is generally impossible for places like Qiongzhou to be allocated to cement, but now because of the emergence of Shilu iron mine, cement wharves and cement roads have been built here, which is enough to show that the imperial court attaches great importance to here.

"Haha, this is just the cement allocated this year, according to the requirements of the imperial court must be used in the construction of iron mines, and the imperial court will allocate some cement next year, then I can use it in the construction of Qiongzhou City, you have also seen, where is Qiongzhou City like a state capital, it is not even comparable to the county near the capital, so after the state's finances are abundant, I will definitely re-scale Qiongzhou City, and the wharf also needs to be expanded, so that the cement allocated by the imperial court is not enough at all." Su Song laughed out loud and then said ambitiously, he had already made up his mind to make a huge change in Qiongzhou in his hands, and now Yiqiqi was developing in the direction he expected.

"Don't worry about cement, I have applied to the royal brother to build some cement workshops in the south, after all, whether it is the construction of wharves or roads, a large amount of cement needs to be used, and the cement allocated by the imperial court is not enough at all, so you still need to produce it yourself, it is estimated that by next winter at the latest, those cement workshops can produce cement, and then there will be no need to worry about the problem of enough cement here in Qiongzhou." Zhao Yan also smiled when he heard this.

In fact, he sometimes does not agree with some practices of the Great Song Dynasty, such as cement such widely used building materials, the Great Song Dynasty Imperial Court is very strict, although the official supervision of the private cement workshop has long existed, but the general business wants to open a cement workshop, but it needs to be extremely strict and lengthy review, which also makes the cement workshop increase very slow, and the output of cement has been in short supply, which should also be regarded as a disadvantage of the Great Song Dynasty, but unfortunately Wang Anshi's new law does not involve this aspect.

Zhao Yan and his entourage soon arrived at the mining area of Shilu Iron Mine, as a mine supervisor Wu Yi heard the news of Zhao Yan's arrival, and immediately took Zhaoqu old man to greet him, it is also a coincidence, Zhao Yan and Wu Yi also had a few faces, Wu Yi used to work in the Ministry of Industry in the capital, at that time Zhao Yan was still lecturing in the microscopic mode, Wu Yi went to listen many times, Zhao Yan had some impression of him, so now when he saw his old man as a mine supervisor in the iron mine, Zhao Yan was also very happy.

Wu Yi didn't expect Zhao Yan to remember him, and he was very excited at the moment, but the old man of Zhaoqu next to him was not as talkative as last time, but he was very restrained in front of Zhao Yan, because he had learned Zhao Yan's identity from Wu Yi, when he heard that the other party was the younger brother of the current Great Song Emperor, that is, His Royal Highness King Yue, he was so frightened that he didn't close his mouth for a long time, but when he thought that he had eaten with His Royal Highness King Yue, he was also very honored, but when he saw Zhao Yan again, He didn't dare to talk nonsense, after all, the gap in this identity was too big.

When Zhao Yan saw the appearance of the old man in Zhaoqu, he guessed that he already knew his identity, but he didn't care much, he still laughed with the other party, and then he visited the mining area under the leadership of Wu Yi, in fact, there is nothing to see here, because this is an open-pit mine, so the miners only need to knock down the ore with a pickaxe, and then load it on the big country and transport it to Wulie Town, in addition to the mined mine, the rest is where the miners live, and there is also the place where Wulietong migrated, It looks much bigger and cleaner here than the old bamboo buildings in Wulie Town, and most of the women in the annex Wulietong are wearing new clothes, and they can't even find any patches, it seems that their living conditions have also improved a lot, otherwise the old man of Zhaoqu would not laugh from beginning to end.

After taking a turn in the mining area, Wu Yi took Zhao Yan and them to his office together, and when everyone sat down and Wu Yi asked people to bring tea, Zhao Yan asked: "Wu Mine Supervisor, some time ago you reported that the surrounding Li people were waiting for an opportunity to sneak attack the miners and supervisors in the mine, and many people died, does this kind of thing still happen now?" ”

Hearing Zhao Yan ask about this matter, Wu Yi and Zhaoqu Lao Han both glanced at each other, both of them saw a bit of a bitter smile in each other's eyes, and finally Wu Yi replied: "Don't hide it from Your Highness, in fact, just the day before you came, there was another case of a miner being killed by a sneak attack in our mine, and this time it also happened in the mining area, it can be said that the other party is getting bolder and bolder, although Brother Zhaoqu has worked hard to investigate, but now it is still impossible to determine which one is the hand." ”

Zhao Yan was also stunned when he heard this, he didn't expect that not only did the matter of the dead people in the mining area not be explained, but it became more and more serious, it seems that he came at the right time, just to solve this matter, after all, it is not a way to always have dead people in the mining area. (To be continued......)