The county seat of Quxiong is not very large, there are only three or five slightly prosperous streets. When I got up that morning, a few miners who were unwilling to be occupied by the mine sneaked to Flame Mountain to check what was going on, but they unexpectedly found that the soldiers of Pingxi Wangfu who blocked the road up the mountain were gone. Just yesterday, many people in the city were still rumoring that those soldiers from the palace occupied the intersection of the Flame Mountain and did not allow anyone to go up the mountain, just for the Red Flame Spirit Stone.

Now that the soldiers of the Pingxi Palace, who had closed the mountain, quietly left, it seemed that the job was guaranteed again, and several workers full of joy ran back to the county seat, eager to tell the others the good news. When the people who had been mining red flame stone for a living for generations heard the news, they were overjoyed and took up their tools again to mine in the mountains. Sometimes people's happiness is as simple as that, having a job that can support a family, and seeing hope, will be happy.

In the afternoon, there was a teenager named Li Da Hammer mixed in the crowd of people who went up the mountain to mine, Li Da Hammer is 14 years old this year, he has no mother since he was a child, his father Li Shi encountered a mining disaster when he went up the mountain to mine red flame stone three years ago, and was buried in the collapsed pit. With the help of several miner uncles, Li Dazhui risked his life to dig up his father's body, and with the help of the miner uncles, buried his father Li Shishi. The mine owner paid only a modest pension.

Since then, the young Li Dazhui has been alone in this world and has no worries. Li Da Hammer doesn't know a single big character, but he likes to listen to Mr. Tian in the Jianghu bookstore in the county town, Li Da Hammer listens to Mr. Tian said, there is everything in the book, there is Yan Ruyu in the book, there is a golden house in the book, and there is a thousand Zhongsu in the book...... But those are not important, Li Dazhui feels that there are stories and heroes in the book, which is better than anything else, Li Dazhui envies heroes.

Last year, thirteen-year-old Li Da Hammer found his father Li Shishi's former employer, the little mine owner surnamed Wang, who was a little black and sturdy, and Li Da Hammer also wanted to go up the mountain to mine red flame ore.

The small mine owner in his forties is surnamed Wang, and his name is Wang Yulin, but everyone is used to calling him by his nickname Wang Ergou, Wang Yulin doesn't mind people calling him Wang Ergou, he is used to it. Wang Ergou looked at the thin Li Da Hammer, shook his head, and said earnestly: "Big Hammer, although you have a big sledgehammer in your name, it doesn't mean that you can smash those ores like a hammer, and it takes a lot of strength to do this job!"

Li Da Hammer didn't say anything, picked up a sledgehammer and slammed it open, smashed a big stone in front of Wang Ergou, and then dropped the hammer, hugged his arms in front of his chest, looked at Wang Ergou with very determined eyes, and raised his eyebrows, which means, look at how my strength is? Is it enough to knock those stones? The dumbfounded Wang Ergou immediately promised Li Da Hammer that he could go up the mountain to mine, but only half of his wages were paid, because he was a child laborer.

Li Da Hammer didn't care about the issue of wages, he just wanted to see the road his father had walked, the ores that his father had smashed, his father Li Shi was not a hero, but in Li Da Hammer's heart, his father was a miner, mining in the mountains, feeding him, and he was the hero in his mind. Li Dazhuzi inherited his father's business and began a boring life of mining ore in the flaming mountains day after day. Occasionally, when he returned to the county in his spare time, he would still go to the bookstore to listen to Mr. Tian's storytelling.

Today, there are five new people who have joined the team of Li Dazhui and others, a small man surnamed Xin, a tall and thin man surnamed Yu, and three people surnamed Zhang, who are said to be three brothers. Li Dazhui does not discriminate against people, but he always feels that the little man surnamed Xin seems to be unable to do this job and endure this hardship. Although Li Dazhui is thin and weak, he is born with strength

, can a person with the surname Xin who is so thin and small like a big child do it?

There are more than 20 people in Li Dazhui's miner team, each of whom carries forty or fifty pounds of daily necessities, and only Li Dazhui, who has great strength, carries hundreds of catties on his back, and can still hum a minor tune while climbing the mountain.

The team of miners climbed along the sparsely vegetated Flame Mountain for an entire afternoon, and finally arrived at the camp tent outside the mine cave of the mine owner Wang Ergou's house, everyone was exhausted. But the five newcomers have persevered, which is really commendable. The miners, who had been climbing the mountain all afternoon, were tired like dogs, and after a hurried dinner, they fell asleep. I didn't say anything all night, and slept peacefully until dawn.

In the early morning of the next day, the miners invited by Wang Ergou's family entered the mine with tools such as axes and chisels, steel drills, etc., and the foreman took two small night stones, led everyone slowly to the depths of the mine, walked to the fork in the road, and divided into two teams, one to the left and one to the right, to two different directions to prepare to start work.

Li Dazhui and the newcomers, Brother Xin, Brother Yu and the three brothers of the Zhang family, formed a team, followed Uncle Niu, the foreman, to an old pit that had already been mined and might produce red flame stone.

Soon, Li Dazhu, who was doing the work, found that he was wrong, the little man surnamed Xin was very strong, and the three brothers surnamed Zhang were also quite strong. Li Dazhui shook his head, grinned, and muttered in a low voice: "People must not be disgraced." He continued to do his job with a sledgehammer. The work of mining ore is bitter and boring, and people with poor concentration may go crazy after staying in this dark pit for a long time.

The little man surnamed Xin will occasionally make a joke and sing a little song to liven up the atmosphere, so that the work in the pit will seem less boring, which can be regarded as a bitter pleasure. Li Dazhui's favor for this big brother Xin has increased significantly.

The mining cave of the red flame stone is usually the higher the mountaintop, the better, like Wang Ergou's house, which is dug in the middle of the mountainside, most of the mines can only be mined to the red flame stone, and the red flame spirit stones produced in the past are dug out of the upper mines. The owners of those mines are either rich or powerful, or they have both money and power, and ordinary people can have a mine like Wang Ergou's house It is very good.

Under the faint light of a small luminite, the mining work proceeded slowly, and the miners chiseled down the stone little by little from the red rock layer that may produce red flame stone, and then the miner responsible for opening the eyes identified the stone that might produce red flame stone, and carefully knocked off the outer layer of the rock, so that the part of the red rock that may contain red flame stone was exposed.

The production of red flame stone is extremely low, for more than three years, only seven red flame stones have been produced in the pit of Wang Ergou's family, the small one is only the size of a fingernail, and the large one is the size of two fists of a strong man. The money from the sale of the seven pieces of Red Flame Stone, in addition to the workers' wages, tools, and all the consumption, was only more than three hundred taels of silver. Wang Ergou dreamed that his family's pit could produce a Red Flame Spirit Stone, and then it would be developed.

In the dark pit, the tired miners rest in the pit, eat their own dry food when they are hungry, drink the water in the kettle when they are thirsty, and solve it themselves when they have a good place to dig it. After digging for a long time, dozens of stones were smashed, and I didn't even see the hair of a red flame stone, and the newcomers seemed to be a little discouraged.

I don't know how long it took, the dry food had been eaten, and there was not much water left, so the team had to leave the mine to rest and refill the dry food and water. Uncle Niu, the foreman, held the luminite in front of him, and slowly withdrew from the pit with the team.

Mine Caves.

When everyone came out of the pit, it happened to be early in the morning, and Li Dazhui, who saw the light of day again, looked up and greedily breathed fresh air, and it was good to be able to live in the sun. The two exhausted teams returned to the camp one after the other, buried the pot outside, prepared plenty of dry food and water again, rested until the afternoon, and re-entered the mine before evening.

After breakfast, everyone fell asleep tiredly, and slept until the afternoon when the sun was in the west, the foreman Uncle Niu woke everyone up, everyone got up and packed up their things, and the two teams entered the mine again, and after they arrived at the mine, they rested on the temporary bunk, and woke up to work again.

In the middle of the night, Li Dazhui, who didn't know what was wrong with eating, felt that he was going to have a stomach, so he hurriedly pulled his shoes and pants and ran out of a distance, and found a special number to solve the big hand that had been dug before. Li Da Squatted on the pit, solved the problem of internal urgency with a bang, wiped his butt with a small wooden stick, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Dazhui was about to stand up with his pants lifted, when he suddenly heard someone talking not far away, although the voice was not loud, but because it was very quiet in the mine, he heard it very clearly. I only heard one of them say: "Third child, I've been digging for several days, and I haven't even seen a ghost! Is what that god stick surnamed Lan said reliable? Lao Tzu's dignified palace guards are mining with a group of stinky miners, and it's a shame to say it!"

The other person said: "Big brother, Nalan Immortal Master is thousands of miles away, and he has said that the things in this Wang Ergou Mine Cave are ten percent accurate, then his words must not be wrong! Maybe tomorrow the Red Flame Spirit Stone will be dug up, and when it is dug up, we will start and slaughter all these miners, so as not to leak the news!"

The third voice said: "That one surnamed Xin has at least a five-rank martial realm, and we will kill him first when we do it?" The other two people said disapprovingly: "Joke, the five-rank martial realm also wants to jump in the hands of the three of us?"

Li Dazhui, who hadn't stood up yet, heard the conversation between the three people, and quickly squatted down again in fright, suddenly remembering that this was the third brother surnamed Zhang. Li Dazhui was scared into a cold sweat, these three turned out to be some kind of palace guards, who wanted to grab the Red Flame Spirit Stone, but not to mention the Red Flame Spirit Stone, even the Red Flame Stone didn't have a word!

Li Dazhui was frightened into a cold sweat, and he didn't dare to move when he squatted in the pit, for fear that these people would kill people if they found out. After waiting for a long time, I heard the three of them talking farther and farther away. Li Dazhui's heart was beating wildly, and he thought to himself, I have to secretly tell Uncle Niu about this later, otherwise everyone will have to let the three palace guards kill them.

Li Dazhui made up his mind, stood up again, lifted his pants, tightened the hemp rope, and quietly slipped back to his temporary bunk, pretending that nothing had happened, and sleeping with his head covered.

After waking up, the miners got up and continued to work, Li Dazhui saw that everyone was not paying attention, and quietly came to the foreman Uncle Niu, and told Uncle Niu everything he heard last night.

Uncle Niu, who knew that Uncle Niu, who was five big and three thick, rolled his eyes and glanced at Li Dazhui, and said impatiently: "You kid, you were stunned last night, right? They are the guards of the palace? Oh, that Lao Tzu is still a heavenly soldier! Hurry up and play with the birds, don't delay your work! Bear child, what do you say in your dreams, what the yes!"

Uncle Niu scolded and urged everyone to work, and Li Dazhu's head was smoking, what a whole thing is this!

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