Entering Dayi County, the road is still deserted, with very few people visible. Although the trail continued northward along the plains in front of the mountains after leaving the mountainous area, and the road conditions were much better, the trade team still traveled four full days of the 140-mile journey before reaching Hengyuan Town. In addition to marching with heavy loads, due to the unsafe conditions along the way, 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 caused a lot of commerce and trade. The team was always tense and cautious, which slowed down the march. During this trip, we even happened to meet a small group of Mongolian cavalry 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 team to form an emergency formation. After the Mongolian horsemen who were rushing in approached and saw that the defensive array was in place, they circled on their horses and fired arrows at the trading team. However, these rounds of arrows were all blocked by the folding shields of the trading team. Huang Dagen ordered the grenadiers to throw multiple grenades at the Mongolian rangers. Although they did not kill any of their men, the explosions shocked the horses and caused them to neigh and run around. The Mongolian knights were in a panic and saw that they could not get any advantage, so they fled away on horseback.
When they returned to Hengyuan Town, everyone was tired and exhausted, but the trading team did not rest on the second day and began to work separately again. Zhu Tiaozi led people to pack the goods and prepare to transport them to the mountains. Dong Hu led people to the hidden path to meet the people waiting here and asked them to go back to Liuliba to find someone to carry the goods. Wang Youfu took people to Chongqing Fucheng. Return the borrowed mules and horses.
On the fourth day after returning to Hengyuan Town, the trading team, which had regained its strength, was assisted by the civilian husband from Liuliba and embarked on the secret path back to the village. After another two days of arduous trek, everyone returned to Liuliba. It was already half a month before the caravan set out.
Although the trade team's trip took a lot of time, it gained a lot. The goods brought back solved the dilemma of lack of daily necessities in the mountains, especially salt. If the salt brought back this time is used sparingly, it can be consumed by 10,000 people in various villages in the mountains for more than a year. In addition to obtaining the much-needed salt, this trip also earned extremely generous profits. This first pot of gold not only gave the trade team the capital to operate, but also solved the urgent need for the recent formation and training of the Perak Army.
In addition, there were more than thirty young men from Hengyuan Village accompanying them back to Liuliba. After learning that Du Daquan was going to Liuliba with the trade team, the people of Hengyuan Village, who had suffered from excessive taxation and banditry by the government, approached Ouyang Xuan through Du Fu and wanted to send their children and grandchildren to Liuliba to find a way to survive. Such a good thing made Ouyang Xuan secretly happy, so he agreed wholeheartedly. Most of these young men in Hengyuan Village are blacksmiths, pottery makers, carpenters, and masons. These are the skilled people urgently needed for the development of Liuliba, so 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. The situation reported by everyone was mixed, which made Ouyang Xuan feel mixed. The good news was that during his absence, the industry and mining industry developed extremely rapidly under Yu Zhu's management. In addition to the large number of new labor reformers, people also witnessed the huge power of firearms, which made everyone doubt Ouyang Xuan's policies. Be more supportive. At present, the mining team has opened more than ten iron, coal, saltpeter, sulfur and lime mines and supporting selection and cleaning workshops, coking kilns and steelmaking blast furnaces in various villages in the mountains. They will be put into operation in a while. On the industrial team's 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 was also built to prepare for trial production of cement according to the method taught by Ouyang Xuan. Unlike the mines that are distributed in every village, Yu Zhu built all the industrial workshops in Liuliba. When the various workshops clustered together were producing, there was endless smoke and clanging sounds, which was a hint of industrial pollution. Fortunately, Ouyang Xuan had the foresight to plan the industrial workshop area far away from residential areas, so there was no disturbance to the residents. Condition.
The worrying news comes from several sources. 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 the newly attached village. In addition to sending spies to spy on the mining industry, they also carried out sneak attacks and sabotage everywhere. Although they were caught by the Perak Army, they gave up after being beaten once. Less, but it still made Cao Ergou 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 to touch the ground. One day 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 people who knew how to do it. This problem was also mentioned many times by the directors of various mines and workshops in the industrial and mining industries. The second thing that worries Rudd is 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 bone-breaking and marrow-sucking, but instead increased the pressure on Yanfeng Village and the two small villages. The squeeze of the village. More than 20 people from these three villages have fled to Liuliba, and the remaining people who have not escaped live in misery under the oppression of Xiong Ben and his accomplice Yanfeng Village leader Zhong Zhui. The people in the various villages in the mountain were often related by marriage to each other. Lu Dezhi really couldn't bear to see the people in Yanfeng Village and other mountain villages suffering.
Although the news about Yang Xiucai seemed to be a casual complaint, it aroused Ouyang Xuan's high vigilance. Yang Xiucai complained that due to the rapid development of industry and mining and the launch of a large number of engineering projects, as well as the newly formed and trained Perak Army, an extremely large amount of materials was consumed. 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 skyrocket. At present, the food that Yang Xiucai can control can last for another month at most, and he is now ready to borrow food from various villages. 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, but currently except for the artillery and grenades used to equip the Thunderbolt Army, the rest can only be stored in warehouses .
Regarding the problems reported by everyone, Ouyang Xuan thought about it for a while and had a plan in his mind, but he did not say it out on the spot. For major issues, he firmly believes that the best decisions can only be made through brainstorming. He decided to hold a meeting tomorrow for the leaders of each team and the leaders above the Perak Army company to put out his ideas and obtain everyone's consent. Policy policies are decided upon by everyone, not only from a political perspective, but also for better implementation of decisions.
