Volcanic ash was falling like gray snow in the sky.

There is a strong smell of sulfur in the air, and the air inhaled is dry and hot, and the body is easily dehydrated when working in this dry and hot environment.

A group of stonemasons with white cotton masks on their faces and long leather boots on their feet, carrying iron pickaxes, sledgehammers, crowbars, chisels and water bladders hanging from their waists, and wicker baskets on their backs, came out of their tents at dawn and entered the volcanic rock channel full of stalagmites.

It was the first day of coming to Pubao Mountain, and everyone was full of energy in their hearts, ready to gather a batch of goods as soon as possible, so that the transport horse team could leave in time.

More than 20 horses were parked at the camp at the foot of Pubao Mountain, chewing more than the villagers every day, and the stonemasons were worried that once they ran out of beans, they would not compete with them for wheat cakes......

The sulfur texture is loose, as long as the part of the surface of the stalagmite is exposed, the iron pickaxe will be broken immediately, and the fine sulfur ore is all packed into wicker baskets, these stalagmites are very hard, and if you want to mine the sulfur ore hidden in the stalagmite, it takes a lot of effort, and sometimes even the whole stalagmite is smashed.

To avoid dehydration, Surdak asked the villagers to drink some light salt water every once in a while.

And the climatic conditions in this area are too hot, Surdak set the time of quarrying around dawn and dusk, once the scorching sun climbed to the mountainside of Pubao Mountain, he asked all the villagers to withdraw their tents to rest, some villagers encountered stalagmites exposed to the sulfur ore outside, and had already mined a wicker basket of sulfur ore, some difficult to mine stalagmites, and the villagers also dug out at least half a basket of sulfur ore.

The villagers were busy in the stalagmite forest, and when they heard the whistle of the end of work, they were a little confused for a while, but they still walked out of the stalagmite forest in the rocky area with wicker baskets on their backs.

Back at the camp, Surdak found the people huddled in a tent, whispering and discussing.

Waiting for Surdak to walk in from outside, he sat down in the middle of the tent and asked the villagers about the sulphur mining.

"I think we can do it a little longer, don't you guys? Dark...... "The big black man, instigated by the others, was the first to stand up and fire.

Behind the big black man sat a middle-aged uncle, who reached out and slapped the back of the big black man's head, and angrily scolded: "You want to honor the Lord Surdak Knight, you stinky boy!" ”

The big black man covered his head, and dared not speak out against the middle-aged uncle's violent behavior.

"It's better for everyone to just call me by name." Surdak smiled and said to the villagers in the tent.

A villager sitting next to Surdak took the opportunity to say: "Dak, I think we can increase the time to work a little, how can we just come out of the tent, the food in the stomach has not been digested, we have to return to the tent to rest, if Uncle Bright knows that we are so lazy, maybe he will deduct our subsidy, you see how difficult it is to earn some subsidy......"

The villagers in the tent nodded their heads, apparently agreeing.

Surdak shook his head, signaled everyone to be quiet with his hand, and then said: "You may have to continue digging here for more than half a month, the environment here is difficult, and a lot of water is lost every day, although we are not short of drinking water, but the body is always in such a hot state, it is easy to have problems, so everyone must maintain their physical strength." ”

"The autumn harvest is going to be carried out in half a month, everyone's body can't be dragged down, this time I will return to Vol Village with this batch of goods, and I will definitely bring enough supplies."

After Surdak finished speaking, most of the villagers fell silent, obviously everyone also had some concerns.

The big black man shouted in the back again: "Then we have to at least follow the rules of other quarries, this is the sulfur mine in our Vol Village, there is no reason for such a high salary, oh phew!" Subsidies, but less time than other quarries! ”

Surdak glanced at the big black man a little speechlessly, are you a spy sent by the old village chief?

"Considering environmental factors, it is still very reasonable to take these subsidies, and at present, I have the final say here, everyone will temporarily implement this standard, Uncle Bright, then I will personally persuade that the conditions here are still a little harder, and in the future, when life in our village slowly improves, everyone's subsidies can be increased." Surdak said in a final word.

……

By the evening of the third day, the first batch of sulphur mines had been prepared and packed into canvas pockets and hung on both sides of the saddle. Each horse carried two bags of sulphur ore, a total of 20 horses to carry the goods, and the remaining three horses were exclusively for riding, and the first sulphur mine transport team in Wall Village was officially established.

Surdak, Charli, and Val were responsible for transporting the first batch of sulphur mines back to the village of Wall, while Luke and two other young men stayed at the temporary camp on Pubao Mountain, taking care of the sulphur mines here.

After the horse team also walked out for about thirty miles, the floating volcanic ash in the sky was reduced to almost nothing, and when a small amount of sea buckthorn grass appeared on the limestone ground, a group of sand wolves appeared at one end of the horizon vision, and the gray fur on their bodies could almost be integrated with the limestone.

And this group of sand wolves probably also found that there were only three people in Surdak's group, so they dared to appear so blatantly at the back of the horse team, there were about thirty sand wolves in this group, and the head wolf stood at the forefront of the entire wolf pack, which was a wolf king who was much larger than other sand wolves.

Charlie noticed that Surdak's horse had suddenly stopped, and he followed Surdak's gaze and saw the sand wolves in the distance, so frightened that he almost fell off his horse.

When Charlie calmed down, he thought that he was a team of horses, and if these horses ran, the sand wolves would not be able to catch up with them anyway, so he said to Surdak, "Dak, it's the sand wolves...... Let's hurry up, if we travel overnight, we can return to Vol Village in a day and a half, they don't dare to approach the vicinity of the human village easily, as long as they ......"