Entering Dayi County, the road is still desolate and there are very few people to see. Although the trail leaves the mountainous area and continues northward along the plains in front of the mountains, the road conditions are much better, but the 140-mile journey

Miles away, the trade team still walked for four full days before reaching Hengyuan Town. In addition to marching with heavy loads,

, and because this road was quite unsafe, we also encountered several thieves who coveted property in Dayi. Although these small groups of thieves only dared to harass from a distance and did not dare to come to rob, they also made the trade team tense at all times.

Nerves, careful precautions, which slowed down the march. There were even bumps during this trip

By chance, he met a small group of Mongolian cavalry that were on their way in a hurry. At that time, the trade group was wading across the river around the city to avoid Dayi County. Hearing the rapid sound of horse hooves in the distance, Huang Dagen urgently ordered the entire group to form an emergency formation.

When the Mongolian cavalry that was galloping approached and saw that the defensive array was in place, they circled on their horses toward the merchants.

The trade team fired arrows, but these rounds of arrows were blocked by the trade team's folding shields. Huang Dagen ordered the grenadiers to throw multiple grenades at the Mongolian rangers. Although they did not kill any of their men or horses, the explosions shocked the people.

The war horses neighed and ran wildly. The Mongolian knights were in panic and saw that they could not get any advantage, so they rode away.

When they returned to Hengyuan Town, everyone was tired and tired, but the trading team did not rest on the second day and began to work separately. Zhu Tiaozi and his people began to pack the goods and prepare to transport them to the mountains. Dong Hu and his people rushed to the secret place.

Xiao Xiao met the people waiting here and asked them to go back to Liuliba to find someone to carry the goods. Wang Youfu took the people to Chongqing Fucheng to return the borrowed mules and horses.

On the fourth day after returning to Hengyuan Town, the trading team, which had regained its strength, set foot on the secret path back to the village with the support of the civilians from Liuliba. After another two days of arduous trek, everyone returned to Liuliba, and

At this time, it had been half a month since the caravan set out.

Although the trade team went out to the mountains this time, it took a lot of time, but they gained a lot. The goods they brought back broke the dilemma of daily necessities in the mountains, especially the lack of salt. The salt they brought back this time, if used sparingly, can be used by thousands of villages in the mountains.

People can eat it for more than a year. In addition to obtaining the much-needed salt, this trip also made extremely generous profits. This first pot of gold not only gave the trade team the capital to operate, but also solved the problem of the recent formation and training of the Perak Army.

For urgent needs.

In addition, more than 30 young men from Hengyuan Village were accompanying them back to Liuliba. When they learned that Du Daquan was going to Liuliba with the trade team, Hengyuan Village, which had suffered from excessive taxation and banditry by the government,

The people came to Ouyang Xuan through Du Fu one after another, and wanted to bring the son of the family to justice.

Sun was sent to Liuliba in search of a way out. Such a good thing made Ouyang Xuan secretly happy, so he agreed. Most of these young men in Hengyuan Village are blacksmiths, pottery makers, carpenters, and masons. These are the skilled personnel urgently needed for the development of Liuliba.

, there is no reason to refuse.

As soon as the trade team returned to Liuliba, Yu Zhu, Lu Dezhi, Cao Ergou, Yang Xiucai and others found Ouyang Xuan one after another. In addition to visiting Ouyang Xuan, they also reported to him the situation in the mountains during the past half month. Everyone

The reported situation was mixed, which made Ouyang Xuan feel mixed with joy and worry. The good news was that while he was away, the work

The mining industry developed extremely rapidly under the management of Yu Zhu. In addition to the large number of new labor reformers, people also witnessed the huge power of firearms, which made everyone more supportive of Ouyang Xuan's policies. At present, the mining team has opened new doors in various villages in the mountains.

Established more than ten iron, coal, fire salt, sulfur and lime mines and supporting selection and cleaning operations

The workshop, coking kiln and steel-making blast furnace will be put into operation in a while. On the industrial team side, based on the original blacksmith shop and other workshops, a new pottery workshop, a gunpowder workshop and three firearms manufacturing workshops were added.

A new cement workshop has also been built to prepare for trial production of cement according to the method taught by Ouyang Xuan. The mines and mines are located in each village.

They are all distributed differently. Yu Zhu built all the industrial workshops in Liuliba. When the workshops in the cluster are producing, there is a constant sound of smoke and clanging, which is a faint sign of industrial pollution. Fortunately, Ouyang Xuan has the foresight.

, the originally planned industrial workshop area was far away from residential areas, so there was no disturbance to residents.

Worrying news came from several aspects. The first one came from Cao Ergou. During this period, in addition to training the Perak Army, Cao Ergou was also responsible for the security. Due to the tight defense of Liuliba, the Wanjiaping bandits turned their harassment direction to Xinjiang. In addition to sending spies to spy on the mining industry, the villagers who surrendered to the village also carried out sneak attacks and sabotages. Although they were caught by the Perak Army and beaten up once, they calmed down a lot, but Cao Ergou was still exhausted and unbearable.

Lu Dezhi's worries stemmed from two things. His eldest son Lu Wen'an was the head of the engineering team. During this period, due to the rapid expansion of industry and mining, the engineering team was extremely busy, and Lu Wen'an was also too busy. Occasionally, there was an incident During dinner, Lu Wen'an mentioned to his father that his biggest headache was not that there were too many things to do, but that there were too few knowledgeable people. This problem was also mentioned many times by the heads of mines and workshops in the industrial and mining industries. The reason for Rude's worries The second thing is because of his compassion. After the Wanjiaping bandits were defeated, each village stopped paying "taxes" to them. In order to maintain his arrogant and luxurious life, Xiong Ben not only did not change his oppressive behavior of breaking bones and sucking marrow, but also Instead, they intensified the oppression of Yanfeng Village and two small villages. More than 20 people from these three villages have fled to Liuliba, and the remaining people who have not escaped are under the pressure of Xiong Ben and his accomplice Yanfeng Village Master Zhong Zhui. Life was miserable. Many of the people in the villages in the mountains were related by marriage to each other. Lu Dezhi really couldn't bear to see the people in Yanfeng Village and other mountains suffering.

Although Yang Xiucai's news seemed to be a casual complaint, it aroused Ouyang Xuan's high alert. Yang Xiucai complained that due to the rapid development of industry and mining and the launch of a large number of engineering projects, coupled with the newly formed and trained Perak Army, the consumption of materials was extremely high. Although the mountains are rich in resources such as wood, iron and stone, they only need to send people to cut down and mine them. However, these intensive labors have caused the consumption of food to rise sharply. At present, the food that Yang Xiucai can control can last for another month at most. , are now ready to borrow grain from various cottages. Although a large amount of iron ingots, sulfur, nitrate and other industrial products are now produced, which can be sold for a big price if transported outside the mountains, they are currently only used to build artillery to equip the Perak Army. Except for grenades and grenades, the rest can only be stored in the warehouse.
Chapter completed!