I

  Chapter 561 558【Miner】

   "The county has Benxi Lake, and the city has built Weining Camp. Kaiyuan has 30,000 guards, and Tiechang Baihu City."

  In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Daming set up 30,000 guards in Kaiyuan, and recruited and resettled a large number of nearby Jurchen people. Although Kaiyuan's grain output was only enough for its own use, the iron smelting industry prospered rapidly, and the weapons manufacturing tasks assigned by the imperial court became heavier and heavier.

  Kaiyuan’s weapons factory soon ran out of raw materials, so an iron factory was set up in Weiningying to provide Kaiyuan with wrought iron materials.

  The iron factory was located next to Weining Yingcheng, and was garrisoned by a hundred households leading troops, and a small town was specially built.

  As for Benxi Lake, it was originally called Cup Rhinoceros Lake, which was named after its shape like a rhinoceros horn cup. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Benxi County was set up, and the county seat was set at the edge of Benxi Lake, about ten miles away from Weining Camp.

  Hearing that the Weining camp was besieged, why did Daishan rush to bring his troops back to help?

  Because as early as the Jiajing period, the iron output of Weiningying Iron Works accounted for one-seventh of the entire Liaodong.

   And 150 miles to the east of Weiningying, that is, Pingdingshan Town, Xinbin County, where the main gold mines of the Tartars are!

  In addition, Xiaosiping Village in Xinbin County has an arsenal established during the Nurhachi period. "Siping" is a transliteration of Manchu, meaning "arrow shaft", and it is the arrow shaft production base of the Eight Banners Army.

  Once the Weining Camp falls, the Iron Field will definitely be gone. Gold mines and arsenals will also be threatened by the Datong Army.

  Daishan had enough reasons to return to the teacher, and Dorgon couldn't stop him at all.

Li Laixiang was like an idiot, running all day long to see Lu Xiangsheng: "General Lu, the iron smelting plant in Weiningying was not built in Baihu City, but in Mingshangou and Antgou on the north bank. When the heavenly soldiers approached, the Tatar The son moved all the iron smelting craftsmen to Weiningying City and Baihu City. But none of the miners in the valley were taken away, probably because they were afraid that the Han Chinese miners would cause trouble in the city.”

   "The miners are all Han Chinese?" Lu Xiangsheng asked.

  Li Laixiang replied: "Ten years ago, the miners were all Han. But now, 40% are Han and 60% are Korean. Most of those Han miners... have died, and the Tartars can only kidnap Koreans to mine."

  When Lu Xiangsheng got the exact news, he immediately ordered his troops to cross the river and go to Mingshangou and Antgou to appease the miners.

  Mingshangou has the most miners, and the iron smelting furnace can illuminate the valley until it is bright at night. This is the source of the place name "Mingshangou".

   Li Kun is a miner in Mingshangou. His father is a military officer in Baihu City, and he belongs to the resident military household of Weining Battalion dispatched by Kaiyuan 30,000 Guards. After Li Kun's father was captured, he was thrown into Mingshangou to dig mines, and his family moved to nearby Mingshangou to farm.

  Father, eldest brother and second brother died of exhaustion in the mine one after another. Li Kun took over the job at the age of fifteen, and now he has been mining for three years.

   "Brother Li, why are the Tartar supervisors gone?" Yan Hong asked early in the morning.

  Li Kun was also very puzzled: "I'm afraid something serious happened."

  There is no sun and moon in the mountains, they don't even know that the Ming Dynasty has collapsed.

  The whole family of these miners lives in the mine, and even the iron smelting plant in the valley is not allowed to contact them. Every year, people try to escape, but most of them are unfortunately caught, and the bodies are hung on the wooden poles in the mine to dry.

   "How about going to the ravine to see?"

   "If you don't go, if you don't go, if the Tartars find out, at least you will be given a whip."

   "Last night, there seemed to be no fire in the ravine. The iron is not smelted. Something must have happened. Could it be that the emperor (Chongzhen) sent troops to kill him?"

   "If the imperial army could come, it would have already come, so is it still needed?"

   "Calculating the year and month, isn't it the eighteenth year of Chongzhen?"

   "It was the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, and I started mining in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen."

   "..."

  In the mine, there are also some hillsides that can be cultivated, which are allocated to the families of the earliest miners. The harvested food is definitely not enough to eat, so there is no need to pay food, and it is purely based on mining to make a living. Regularly, Tatars send supplies such as rice and salt.

  The follow-up miners were even worse, all of them were captured from the customs and North Korea.

  Frowning, Li Kun walked to the col and observed the situation of the Shangou iron smelter. There has been no smoke, and the iron smelting furnace is obviously turned off. What happened?

  Their information about the outside world comes from North Korean miners who were supplemented two years ago.

   What did they say that the Tartars were fighting with the Datong army.

   Even if asked in detail, the North Korean miners could not understand. I only know that the Datong Army is a Han Chinese army, and there seems to be a Datong Emperor, but I don't know where it came from.

   "I'll go down the mountain to have a look." Li Kun said to Yan Hong.

   "You don't want to die?" Yan Hong said in surprise.

   Li Kun showed a sad smile: "My father and brother died in the mine, and my mother died of illness last winter. There is no one in the family. It doesn't matter if they are caught and killed, the whole family can still be reunited under the nine springs."

  Yan Hong gritted his teeth and said, "I'll accompany you. Anyway, if you don't have any concerns, you might be able to take the opportunity to escape."

  Both are children of local military households, and they were not even born when the Tartars occupied this place.

  Since they can remember, they have never seen the outside world. When they were young, they followed their mother to farm on the hillside. Once an adult, the male in the family will go to mine, and then wait for the day to die of exhaustion and illness.

  Li Kun hated the Tartars very much, but he had no sense of belonging to Daming.

  He only knew from the words of his parents that he was a Han. There was a Han court in Beijing called Daming. Where is Beijing? Li Kun didn't know.

   Some Han people in the pass were also captured by the Tartars to work as miners.

   These miners told Li Kun that Beijing is the largest city in the world, and the city walls are so high and large that the Tartars will never be able to break through.

  But in recent years, there have been no Han Chinese miners, all of them are miners from North Korea, and the news about Ming Dynasty has been completely cut off.

  After walking down the hillside for about half an hour, Li Kun and Yan Hong finally came to the ravine.

  There are iron smelting kilns everywhere, but there is no one there, and all the wrought iron has been transported away, leaving only a lot of iron ore that has not been smelted.

   "Da da da da!"

   There was a sound of horseshoes, and there were hundreds of majestic cavalrymen.

  The two were so frightened that they quickly hid.

  Yan Hong looked at the horses of the cavalry and asked curiously, "Are those animals horses?"

  Li Kun guessed: "It must be a horse. My father said that a horse can be ridden to fight, and it is bigger than a mule in a mine."

   At this moment, the cavalry began to shout: "Are there any Han Chinese? We are the Datong Army, and we are here to rescue you!"

  Lin Zhidong rode his horse and ran through the Ming Valley, frowning and said: "There are no ghosts in the ditch, let's go to the mining area on the mountain to see."

   As soon as he finished speaking, he saw two savages rushing towards him.

   What a savage, unkempt, ragged, and I don't know if I haven't washed my hair and face in months.

   "Li Kun, a son of the 30,000 Guards, meet General Daming!"

  Li Kun knelt on the ground and shouted, this is what his mother taught him when he was alive. When the officers and soldiers came, they would kneel and kowtow to them, begging the officers and soldiers of Ming Dynasty to take them away.

  Lin Zhidong reined in his horse and asked, "Are you all Han Chinese?"

  Li Kun said: "I can recite the Three Character Classic. My mother said that if I can recite the Three Character Classic, I am a Han Chinese, and I will not be killed by mistake when I meet the officers and soldiers."

Looking at the two savage-like Han people, Lin Zhidong couldn't help feeling pity, and said: "Lead the way to the mountain and rescue all the Han and Korean people in the mine. I went to the camp and boiled water for you to take a bath. If you are full, you will be healthy and healthy." Body."

  The mine near Mingshangou has more than 1,000 miners and dozens of miners' families.

  They didn't care whether the army coming was from Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty or Datong, they followed them very obediently anyway. The courageous ones either escaped successfully, or were caught and hanged, and the rest chose to live cowardly and humblely.

   Li Kun followed the dragoons out of the ravine, and soon saw Baihu City, which was next to Weiningying City.

  Li Kun excitedly whispered to Yan Hong: "My mother said, there is a small town next to the big city, and the small town is our home. Yan Er, let's go home, let's go home!"

   "Yes, I'm home." Yan Hong had tears in his eyes. His mother died early, dying of illness and starvation more than ten years ago, but he still remembers his mother's description of home.

  The Datong Army has camps on both sides of the Taizi River.

  The camp on the north bank is near Baihu City. The intention is obvious, that is to take Baihu City first, and then go to attack Weiningying City, which is high in the city and deep in the pond.

  The miners like Li Kun were taken to the North Shore barracks, and they were all placed in one corner.

   Some folks came over to set up a pot to boil water for them, and they had to line up to take a bath.

   To be honest, Lu Xiangsheng's military rations are almost running out.

  Because the supply line was too long, food had to be transported from the Yalu River all the way from the mountains to Benxi. The food eaten by the civilian husbands along the way was more than what was actually transported to the barracks!

  The traitors like Qiao Mali could not provide much food, because they had been confiscated by the Qing Dynasty long ago.

   Fortunately, they broke through the pass fortress along the way and seized a lot of food and livestock, otherwise Lu Xiangsheng would have run out of food at this time. Even so, Lu Xiangsheng's military rations could only last for another two months.

   If the city cannot be breached within two months, Lu Xiangsheng's army will have to go back hungry.

  In the case of a shortage of military rations, Lu Xiangsheng still distributed food to the miners. Moreover, regardless of whether the Han miners or the North Korean miners, they will all be given food.

   Li Kun washed his body and got another set of clothes, which I heard belonged to a Datong soldier.

  He soon smelled the aroma of food, couldn't help swallowing, and then heard someone shouting: "Get dressed, go to queue for porridge!"

   Porridge is miscellaneous grain porridge, such as sorghum, which was seized in Phoenix.

   There is some salt in the porridge, and it smells like oil. It was an animal carrying grain. It was killed after being injured in the mountain, and the fat was thrown into the pot to cook with the porridge.

  No vegetables, but a bowl of pine needle tea.

  It is boiled water with pine needles to drink, which can supplement vitamins and treat night blindness.

   Li Kun ate the extremely simple food, but was moved to tears. There are clothes to wear and delicious food here. Unfortunately, my mother died of illness last winter, otherwise my mother could enjoy this kind of good life.

   Those responsible for managing the miners are all peasant and soldier cadres accompanying the army.

  Li Kun finished a bowl of porridge, ran over and knelt down to the peasant and soldier commander: "I want to be a soldier, and I want to fight with you!"

  The peasant and soldier officer smiled and asked, "You've just had enough to eat, why do you want to go to war?"

   "The Datong Army treats me well, but the Tartars treat me badly. I will follow the Datong Army to kill the Tartars!" Li Kun already knew the name of this army.

  (end of this chapter)