The ground was paved with two thick planks, each eight feet long, one foot wide, and half a foot thick. They were made of five overlapping carriage boards and were fixed with iron nails on the edges.
The two wooden boards are roughly parallel, and a shelf made of hardwood and iron fittings runs across the top. On the beam at the top of the shelf is a flexible rotating structure, like a windlass placed at the mouth of a well to draw water. Several men are shouting. Turn the windlass and lift the stone slabs placed on the carriage.
As the stone slab was completely raised, the wheels of the cart, which were sunk in the soil, moved vaguely. The mule responsible for pulling the cart keenly felt the change in force on the shaft of the cart, chewing grass happily and snorting.
This stone slab is the last piece of structure used to cover the surface of the ditch. It is very large and heavy. In order to prevent damage during transportation, it is also wrapped with withered grass and felt blankets. After being pulled up into the air, it left a huge footprint on the ground. shadow.
"Okay, okay! It's high enough, stop! Now move this way!"
After the slate was hoisted, Shi Qing, who was standing on the roof of the car nearby, shouted repeatedly. However, the laborers did not listen to him and looked at the foreman next to Shi Qing. When the foreman put two fingers in his mouth, there was a rhythm The ground whistled. The man responsible for turning the pulley stopped and instead pulled the rope at one end of the beam, slowly moving the entire beam forward.
The windlass was heavy, and the places where the two sides of the beam and the shelf received force would make a harsh crunching sound every time it was dragged. Fortunately, the materials used for the shelf were solid and they were assembled with care, and the stone slab finally landed safely on the Above the water channel, it was placed at the pre-drilling position.
The peasants immediately pushed the beam back. Next, they had to dismantle the windlass, lower the frame, and transport it with the base to another location to continue installing stone slabs for the canal.
The civilian husbands were both Han and Mongolian, and most of the delicate work such as disassembly and assembly was done by the Han. At this time, the Mongolians took out their leather bags, drank large gulps of water mixed with a small amount of soju, and waited happily.
According to the official records of the imperial court, this area near Yuerluo is not under the jurisdiction of the Zhou Dynasty for the time being, but is the sphere of influence of the Mongols. From here, 200 miles east to Linhuang Mansion, it was also under the control of the Mongols not long ago. Ultimately, it was the Emperor of Zhou who led his troops in a battle that forced the Mongolian forces to withdraw.
Although Linhuang Mansion has been restored, the garrison and civilians are small. Not far from the city, you will encounter Mongolian herds. Experienced frontier veterans say that this criss-cross situation almost certainly represents a fierce fighting. , under the constant harassment by the Mongols day and night, the soldiers and civilians of Linhuang Prefecture could not sleep for half a day. They would be like a flock of sheep attacked by wolves, constantly losing blood and dying until they were completely lost.
However, what actually happened was different from what the veterans expected.
Perhaps because the wolves are not as ferocious as before, or perhaps because the sheep are mixed with many sharp-toothed dogs, the Han and Mongolians near Yuerluo have maintained a harmonious and friendly relationship during the past six months. When stationed in When Shi Qing, the general manager of Linhuang Mansion, was building roads and bridges, many Mongolians responded to his recruitment and came to work hard in exchange for food.
Some people also advised Shiqing, saying that hiring Mongolians could be done in the rear areas. But would it be too dangerous to do so at the border, deep in areas controlled by the Mongols?
These advices were ignored by Shi Qing.
First of all, no matter how fierce the Mongols are, the soldiers guarding the border are all elite soldiers who survived the chaos in the Central Plains. There are tens of millions of people in the Zhou Dynasty, and there is no reason why tens of thousands of people selected from tens of millions of people are inferior to the Mongols. As for being afraid of them.
Secondly, the Mongolian tribes in the eastern part of the grassland have suffered successive losses from the Zhou army in recent years. Large-scale tribes have been dispersed one after another. The thousands of Nayan tribes left by Genghis Khan are shrinking in strength. The Mongols who stayed in the local area will inevitably compete with them. The Zhou army established contact with the fort, and inevitably suffered from the Zhou army's silver bullet offensive repeatedly.
Under this situation, the Mongolians were very willing to work hard, and Shi Qing didn't have to worry too much about their treatment or even their life and death. They were indeed qualified cattle and horses.
It's nothing to take a little risk for this.
As a ruthless figure who has been rebelling for many years and the most powerful general of the Da Zhou faction in Linhuang Mansion, Shi Qing is well-known along the entire border... He is the most adept at making money among the generals who can fight, and he is also the most courageous in making money. , the one who dares to fight the most.
Many people secretly said that Shi Qing was thrown by the emperor from the post of Tongzhou Defense Envoy to Linhuang Mansion, probably because he was too ruthless in making money and violated the emperor's taboo. Shi Qing had heard all these rumors, but he was all He didn't care, because he knew very well that Northern Xinjiang needed a flexible thinker like him. After arriving in Northern Xinjiang, he quickly found a new source of money.
For example, the largest felt shop in Linhuang Mansion was funded and built by Shi Qing and his subordinates. Including himself, more than 40 old brothers who worked together to lick blood each took a share, and everyone became rich. Moreover, relying on the close contacts with countless former members of the Red Coat Army, he had already opened up the sales channel from Linhuang Mansion to Qingyuan Mansion in the Southern Dynasty.
But Shi Qing was born to be a flexible and bold person. The profits from selling felts were lucrative for ordinary soldiers and low-level officers, but they were far from satisfying him. What's more, when the trade between the Great Zhou Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty reached such a scale, the figures seemed Every day it forces him to jump around and look for more sources of wealth.
Huangtian paid off, and new sources of wealth appeared a month ago.
After Shi Qing stationed in Linhuang Mansion, he strictly arranged the sentry riders as usual, covering a wide area of hundreds of miles away. One day, a sentry rider wandered to the hilly area east of Yuerbo and brought back a few shimmering stones. Put it in Tunpu as decoration...
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Unexpectedly, he had a companion who was an early miner in Shandong and started working in the mines at the age of eleven. The man recognized the stone at a glance as it was an ore with a high copper content.
This companion reported the news to Shi Qing, and Shi Qing was a thoughtful person and immediately led people to search the hilly area. As a result, they discovered a copper mine relic left over from ancient times, and it can be mined again.
What is a copper mine? That’s money!
A hundred years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Dajin has been troubled by the low output of domestic copper mines and low coin-making technology. Although Dajin has improved in this regard, after all, the foundation is too poor. In recent years, as the expenses of all parties have increased sharply, more and more It relies on several money prisons shared with the Song people in Huainan. But the annual output is only 600,000 guan, how can it be enough? In recent years, Song coins have become more and more popular in the Zhou Dynasty. I heard that Yelu The Prime Minister is already jumping on the bandwagon to resume issuing banknotes.
At this time, if Shi Qing can develop a copper mine with large enough output on the grassland...
Shi Qing initially thought about the possibility of seizing the copper mine and making a fortune secretly. Later, after thinking about it for a long time, he estimated that such a benefit was definitely not something that a military commander could grasp. If something went wrong, he would not be afraid. He lost his head. So he sent the news back in confidential form, and soon a specially formed team was ushered in to start serious development.
To say that this mining team is really skilled, they only spent two months exploring the mining area, and then spent a lot of time repairing roads, connecting canals, and leveling the site, using tools such as windlass for transporting historical materials. It's a fresh guy with a lot of iron parts.
More importantly, this mining team had similar ideas to Shi Qing. They recruited a lot of Mongolians and paid them well. At the peak, more than two thousand Mongolian men gathered at this construction site, making it a bustling and busy scene. After the Mongols obtained money and cloth, many of them rushed to Linhuang Mansion to exchange for salt, tea and wine. The merchants of Linhuang Mansion also benefited.
Only in the past few days, the peripheral projects have gradually been completed, and the number of talents used is less, but it is still maintained at around a hundred people.
The strange thing is that since yesterday, the number of Mongolians who were supposed to arrive on horseback to start work suddenly decreased a lot. Yesterday, only more than forty people actually arrived, and today only a dozen came, and they didn't say hello beforehand. Even if there was nothing wrong, After all, it makes people feel uncomfortable.
Seeing that the stone slabs of this section of the waterway had been laid, Shi Qing jumped down from the cart and prepared to go to the guard leader of the mining team to ask about the situation. After taking a few steps, he suddenly saw a cloud of dust in the distance, and there were knights. Coming at speed.
