001 Iron Works

When Liu Ziguang woke up, he found himself in a rumbling car, he could only lie flat, with a wooden plank under his body, and a wooden plank on top, as if the carriage was divided into many layers, moving his hands and feet, his hands could still move, and his feet were locked by something, and it seemed to be an iron ring fixed on the carriage, and the wooden planks on the upper layer were very close to his face, and he couldn't look up, so he could only turn his head to look at the situation in front and behind.

The carriages were framed, so he could see outside, and the carts were framed in black iron, one after the other, with a huge front in the front, ugly black steel behemoths, high chimneys emitting thick dark gray smoke and large clouds of white steam, driving on the gravel roadbed, two jet-black railroad tracks stretching into the distance. The road is flanked by farmland and large trees. When turning the corner, you can see that the two wagons behind the front of the car are stacked with neat and clear charcoal, the top of the carriage exposes the upper body of a person, several rows of sparse embroidered iron pieces are strung together to wear on him, and there is a concave and convex deformed heart guard in the middle, and a long knife and leather whip are hung around the waist, as if he is a car escort.

What kind of place is this, this strange train, even rougher and more simple than the steam train I took when I was a child, the scenery on the side of the road is so strange, there are no telephone poles, no cars, no roads, and the occasional villages are all thatched roofs, shacks with yellow mud walls, and peasants in ancient costumes carry hoes and walk on the sunset.

What the hell is this place? Liu Ziguang was very frightened in his heart, the fear came from the unknown, everything was not the world he was familiar with. Puzzled, he fell into a deep sleep again in a state of hunger, exhaustion, and nervousness.

I don't know how many hours I was groggy and jolting, the sky gradually darkened, a huge moon climbed up on the horizon, the train stopped, Liu Ziguang rubbed his eyes full of, and saw a group of people getting down from the board car in front of him, it was the gang of fierce knife men who were sheltering from the rain in the broken house, the knife men were busy, some made a fire to cook, and some took the knife handle to knock on the wheels of the train one by one, as if they were checking the axles. One of them walked to the carriage next to Liu Ziguang, dragged down a sack from the bottom board, poured the yellow sand-like powder in the sack into a large bucket, picked up a dirty kettle, poured water into the bucket, poured not much kettle and dried, the man muttered, ripped open the hem of his clothes, sprinkled a soak of urine in the vat, picked up a stick and stirred it in the bucket, Liu Ziguang saw inexplicably, the man had already come over with a bucket, with a long-handled iron spoon, A lump of yellow paste was poured on the wooden board next to each passenger's head, "There is not enough water today, and it is cheaper for you dogs to produce such thick rice." Apparently the man was very indignant. Liu Ziguang was disgusted and wanted to vomit, but all he could vomit out of his stomach was sour water.

The person next to him had already swallowed his share of dinner at an incredible speed, and was surprised to find that Liu Ziguang had not moved, so he unceremoniously picked up Liu Ziguang and ate it, and after eating, he stretched out his tongue and licked the residue in the gap between the wooden boards. It can be seen that Liu Ziguang even spit out the last bit of sour water.

The swordsmen sat around the fire, the roaring bonfire roasted the meat of unknown animals, there was a burst of meat aroma, the hooked Liu Ziguang gluttonous insects moved, the stomach turned over the river and the sea, the gluttonous insects began to protest, the upper compartment partition seemed to know the thoughts of his stomach, from the gap in the upper partition began to drip stinky water, mixed with thin feces and urine drops fell on the lower passengers, the indescribable stench permeated the carriage, and suppressed his appetite in a special way, fortunately, the carriage was an open structure, ventilated on all sides, If it's a stuffy tanker, it has to smoke people to death.

After three days of trekking, Liu Ziguang was so hungry that he had to accept the kind of food made of hybrid noodles mixed with water, and his whole body was covered with wind and sand, feces and urine, and bloodstains, and there was no clean place. Just when he was about to reach the limit of his patience, his destination arrived.

From a distance, a desolate land is impressively black and oppresses a huge machine, towering chimneys, dense pipelines, thick black smoke and white steam swirling over the factory, the surrounding small peaks are not grassy, occasionally there are a few dead old trees in the wilderness, and a small river on the side of the railway is flowing with red water.

The train stopped, and the knife man unshackled his legs, whipped the "passengers" with a whip, and drove them off, but due to the long-term inability to move and the blood was not smooth, most of them could not get up, Liu Ziguang touched his numb legs and staggered off the train.

As soon as he stepped on the ground, Liu Zi's bare feet were weak, and he fell to the ground, and immediately a leather whip was drawn in the air, beating him screaming, and there was a warm liquid flowing down his back, and the knifeman wielding the leather whip shouted violently, "Line up and enter the factory!" ”

The tired "travelers" slowly lined up in a line of high and short indistinct times, and walked to the factory gate in a messy manner, the majestic city wall stretched far away, outside the city wall was a wide moat, the river was still the earthy red river, a row of ragged and withered people knelt on the bank of the river, behind each person was a big man with a black hood holding a snow bright knife, with the leader of a big man with a "cut" word, the knife flashed, a row of blood rushed out of the neck, and more than a dozen good heads were gurgling everywhere. Then a group of men with the same blank faces came over with a small wheelbarrow, loaded the corpses into the cart and pulled them away.

The people on the city wall moved the huge winch, the drawbridge was slowly lowered, and the travelers slowly walked into the city gate surrounded by swordsmen, Liu Ziguang squinted his eyes and looked up, under the dazzling sunlight, the head of the city was a warrior in black iron armor, holding an iron spear, under the battlement of the city wall, there was a row of iron cages, which were full of rotten and stinky human heads! Looking further down, there is a huge iron plaque hanging above the city gate, on which there are four black reliefs in large characters of Lishu.

"Liguo Iron Works"

*****************************************************************

"Snap" a leather whip came from afar, leaving a bloody mark on Liu Ziguang's bare back, he gritted his teeth and did not make any sound, there were already many intricate whip marks on his back, long-term torture and heavy physical labor had made this originally weak urban youth a slave with high tolerance.

"Don't be lazy," shouted the black, oily, meaty guard as he waved his whip and shouted at the people who were working.

This is a huge pit, iron ore is different from coal mines, mostly on the surface of the plains, so the pit is not deep, it belongs to the scope of open pit mines, there are also some vertical shafts, horizontal shafts, mining ore stored on the shallow surface. Thousands of ** slaves worked hard under the scorching sun to dig iron ore with iron axes, hammers, iron cones, and iron pickaxes, and put the mined ore in bamboo baskets and carried them to the concentrator for washing.

After washing, the dark red hematite ore is picked out, and the red muddy water flows into the moat of the iron works, staining the river like a corpse dumping ground after a massacre. Surrounded by walls, the iron works are lined with blast furnaces and chimneys, with special railroad tracks leading to the mines, and small coal-burning locomotives spew steam to transport iron ore to the factory for refining.

The huge blast furnace swallows countless ores, coke, and limestone every day, and discharges thick smoke and dust from the chimney, dark red and high-temperature molten iron flows out of the taphole, and waste slag is discharged from the slag outlet. In addition, there is a coking workshop for coking carbon and a casting and forging workshop for the production of iron tools, and countless tools, agricultural tools, and weapons are transported to various places by train every day.

Trains, railroad tracks, towering city walls, iron-making furnaces full of evil beauty, knights riding war horses, spears in armor, bows and arrows at their waists, and the fiery sunset on the horizon make up a strange picture.

Liu Ziguang was bent over by the heavy ore basket, sweat flowed down the dirty hair and fascinated his eyes, the wound on his back was hot and painful, he had been in this world for more than a year, and he had to engage in such heavy hard work every day, almost all the slaves who mined together were prisoners of war, and there were also a small number of exiles who were kidnapped like him, slaves were different from the workers of the iron factory, they had no personal freedom, no dignity, after the slaves fought and died or were beaten to death by the overseers, Thrown like a dead dog into a deep natural cave nearby, with no tombstones, no wreaths, and no one can even remember their names.

The place where it is located is the territory of Xuzhou Mansion in Huaihai Road of the Ming Dynasty, the iron factory covers a very wide area, and there are private soldiers, in this era of war, it is like a prince, and the power cannot be underestimated.

There were prisoners of war from all countries in the slave army, and most of these prisoners of war were brave and ruthless, often fighting for a mouthful of food, even to the death. Liu Ziguang had to change in such an environment, he was originally gentle and kind, but now he is no longer the original Liu Ziguang.