mesbooks Chapter 188 Goodbye Zhang Erhe
Chapter 188 Goodbye Zhang Erhe
This time, Luo Xiaoran did not ask Qiu Niang for help. She dealt with the opponent by herself. Tang Tian and his men were defeated and fled.
Luo Xiaoran's murderous eyes swept over the villagers, scaring them so much that they quickly continued with their work, lighting the fire and cooking, not daring to look up at Luo Xiaoran.
Luo Xiaoran's eyes softened immediately. She turned to look at Qiu Niang and Du Kongqing and said in a disappointed tone, "I'm afraid that the weak, low-key, quiet and gentle image that I worked so hard to cultivate is gone forever."
Qiu Niang: ...
Du Kongqing: ...
At noon, Zhang Changzong brought a man over. The man hid behind Zhang Changzong and did not show his face. He just coughed from time to time.
This person might have lung disease, Luo Xiaoran thought.
But when she actually saw his face, Luo Xiaoran was still a little surprised, but soon accepted it calmly.
The man turned out to be Zhang Erhe. He and Wang Xiaofeng instigated Zhang Xiaohe to steal his property, and were sent to a mine by An Luhai to do hard labor. The mine must be this Chui Mine.
Zhang Changzong obviously remembered the reason why Zhang Erhe was here, so after he brought Zhang Erhe over, he looked at Luo Xiaoran uncomfortably, and hesitated for a long time before slowly speaking:
"Xiao Ran, Zhang Erhe heard that we were here to burn ash, and offered to help us. He has been here for several months, and is very proficient in everything from quarrying to burning. With his help, we can save a lot of time."
Zhang Erhe was now very thin, with sunken cheeks, making his already not-small eyes look even bigger. He glanced at Luo Xiaoran abruptly, then quickly lowered his head.
Luo Xiaoran showed no emotion on her face, and said calmly, "The village chief will make the decision on everything."
Zhang Changzong took Zhang Erhe to make arrangements. Luo Xiaoran called Du Kongqing over and told him, "Try not to leave my side. I'm afraid Zhang Erhe is in danger. Please remind Niu Shubao later."
The days of doing corvée labor were naturally not as easy as those at home, and the injury on Du Kongqing's back recovered a little slowly. However, Luo Xiaoran's constant care ensured that she did not suffer any substantial fatigue.
"Xiao Ran, Zhang Erhe has been sent here to do hard labor. How dare he harm us?"
Luo Xiaoran looked at Zhang Erhe, who was emitting a dead aura, and shook her head. "I don't know. I brought you and Niu Shubao to capture him and Wang Xiaofeng. There's no guarantee that he won't hold a grudge against us. It's better to be careful."
……
Zhang Erhe explained the whole process of ash burning to everyone in detail. First, you have to mine the stone, which is to drill holes in the mine with a steel drill and a sledgehammer, and then use a hammer to hit the holes. The ore knocked out is the limestone.
The mined stones are transported to the lime kiln and are cut into similar sizes before being sent into the cave to facilitate uniform firing.
When arranging, a layer of stone and a layer of coal are stacked layer by layer, and then ignited and fired at high temperature.
When the limestone in the kiln reaches a certain temperature, it turns into white quicklimestone. After the temperature drops, it is taken out of the kiln.
Luo Xiaoran frowned as she listened. It seemed that mining stones was purely manual labor, and lime was burned in earthen kilns. The transportation of stones up and down the mountain was purely by carrying them on shoulders and people, which was extremely inefficient!
"I have a question. How long will it take for the people from both villages to produce the total amount of lime needed for road construction?" Luo Xiaoran asked.
Hearing Luo Xiaoran's voice, Zhang Erhe's body stiffened for a moment, but he quickly reacted and quickly replied: "At least three months."
"Three months? We only have two months to build the road. By the time the lime is ready, the flowers will be cold!"
The person who said this was a villager from Hexi Village.
"I thought the county magistrate was kind-hearted, but now it seems that he still wants to force us to death!"
This sentence was said by someone from Hedong Village.
Then the scene became noisy, with complaints and fears ringing out.
This time, even Zhang Changzong and Village Chief Wang had no intention of maintaining order. They both looked dazed and didn't know what to do.
"Xiao Ran, do you have any ideas?" Qiu Niang came over and asked softly.
She doesn't care so much about life and death now, but seeing so many villagers crying and shouting, she is still deeply shocked and wants to see if she can help.
Luo Xiaoran looked at the towering and endless mine in front of her and remained silent.
She did have a solution, but once she came up with it, she was afraid that she would have to go against her principle of keeping a low profile.
But if she doesn't take action, what will happen to the people in these two villages?
After struggling for a long time, Luo Xiaoran still leaned close to Qiu Niang's ear and whispered a few words.
A look of astonishment flashed across Qiu Niang's calm face. Is this possible?
But her unconditional trust in Luo Xiaoran made her firm her mind without hesitation.
Two days later, a convoy loaded with goods arrived at Chui'an Kiln, led by the owner of Yizhou Dongfeng Post Station.
Qiu Niang, who was asked by Luo Xiaoran to call the innkeeper, quietly mixed into the corvée team. Except for Luo Xiaoran and Du Kongqing, no one knew that she had ridden out on horseback.
"Miss Luo, we meet again. The master asked me to bring everything you want." The shopkeeper pointed to the convoy behind him.
Luo Xiaoran opened the lid of one of the carriages and saw the saltpeter that had been ground into powder inside. She nodded slightly.
She had asked the mine supervisor to allocate a separate mine for their group to mine stones, and warned everyone not to step into the area she had specified, otherwise their lives would be in danger.
Luo Xiaoran's method is to use black gunpowder to blow up the mountain. This can greatly shorten the time of stone mining. The only drawback is that it is unsafe and can easily hurt people accidentally.
Making gunpowder is already a familiar thing for Luo Xiaoran. At the end of the world, her search team once went to a fireworks factory, where they were hunted by zombies that were several times their number.
The captain led everyone to search for materials in the factory temporarily and make gunpowder on the spot. This prevented them from being trapped to death in the factory. It was at that time that Luo Xiaoran learned the technology.
These raw materials for making gunpowder, including the food used to feed everyone later, were all bought on credit by Luo Xiaoran from Chao Yunhu.
Luo Xiaoran asked Qiu Niang to take Yun Hu's token to find him and told him to lend her the things first, as she would not run away anyway and would find a way to pay her back later.
Moreover, Luo Xiaoran smiled bitterly, Yun Hu might not want her to pay back the debt with money, but with other things, such as the formula of gunpowder.
Of course, this is just Luo Xiaoran’s current guess.
Luo Xiaoran's original words were just to ask Qiu Niang to emphasize again and again that she would definitely settle the debt, and asked Yun Hu to make sure to deliver the things she wanted first, but she did not mention what she wanted these things for.