kvmb Chapter 189: Ash burning and road repair, carried out simultaneously
Chapter 189: Ash burning and road repair, carried out simultaneously
When the sound of gunpowder explosion sounded in the Chui Mine for the first time, everyone in the mine was stunned by the deafening sound and the unprecedented scene.
The mine supervisor looked at the ore rolling down, and a gleam of surprise flashed in his stagnant eyes, but it quickly disappeared.
Especially when he saw Tang Tian and his men heading towards the "culprit" Luo Xiaoran in a threatening manner, the mine supervisor smiled coldly and returned to his previous unmoved appearance.
The prisoners who were doing hard labor were so scared that they ran around in panic, not caring about the work in their hands at all. They ran away in groups with their heads covered, but because of the shackles on their feet, many of them fell before they could even start running.
Although they knew that the earth-shattering sound was caused by Luo Xiaoran and not some divine manifestation, some villagers still knelt on the ground, clasped their hands together, and chanted: "The Thunder God is angry!"
Tu Ye and his three companions were also frightened, but they were determined not to join in the fun. The reason was because of Tang Tian.
Since Tu Ye became a constable, he would send the prisoners sentenced to exile by An Luhai to Chui'an Kiln from time to time, so he was not unfamiliar with this place.
So he also knew something about Tang Tian. He knew that Tang Tian was indeed from the Tang family in Kyoto and that the power behind him was very powerful.
But behind Luo Xiaoran was the King of Yan, and he could not afford to offend either side. Therefore, he simply did not get close to Luo Xiaoran and did not get involved in anything. He just waited for them to burn the lime and then go back to Yangliupo together.
"Luo Xiaoran, what did you do!"
Tang Tian had been severely beaten by Luo Xiaoran before, and he immediately shouted at the mine supervisor to bring all the supervisors in the mine to deal with Luo Xiaoran.
However, the mine supervisor refused Tang Tian's order on the grounds that Luo Xiaoran was not an exiled prisoner and was not under his jurisdiction.
Although Tang Tian received extraordinary treatment in Chui Mine due to the reputation of the Tang family, he was exiled there by the emperor himself after all, and his father had instructed him not to act too ostentatiously.
Since Tang Tian did not get the support of the mine supervisor for his plan to retaliate against Luo Xiaoran, he just held his breath for the time being, thinking that there was still a long way to go.
Now that Luo Xiaoran has made such a big fuss, Tang Tian will certainly not miss such a good opportunity and plans to force the mine supervisor to help him deal with her.
"Mine Supervisor! Luo Xiaoran disturbed the security of the mine, causing chaos among the prisoners. This should be within your jurisdiction, right?"
After hearing Tang Tian's words, the mine monitor came over with a long whip in his hand. He looked between Luo Xiaoran and Tang Tian, and after a moment's silence, he said:
"Luo Xiaoran, no wonder you asked me to allocate a mine just for you, otherwise someone might die."
Luo Xiaoran glanced at Tang Tian who was looking for trouble without leaving a trace, then looked at the mine supervisor and spoke calmly:
"Time is tight and the task is heavy. This method is fast at quarrying, but it makes a lot of noise.
But I have informed you in advance that what I did was to complete Lord An's corvée task as soon as possible, and there is no such thing as disturbing public order."
"You are a man who is always quibbling!" Before the mine supervisor could say anything, Tang Tian jumped out and said, "That damn thing you made scared a lot of prisoners and delayed their working hours. Why don't you accept your punishment quickly?"
Luo Xiaoran had a look of indifference on her face and didn't want to pay attention to Tang Tian, but she was in a hurry to inspect the success of the gunpowder explosion and really didn't want to be entangled in this.
Patience was exhausted, Luo Xiaoran's charming black eyes were filled with gloomy coldness, she exhaled deeply, and said in a deep voice:
"My actions did not violate any of Daliang's laws. If you keep jumping around like a clown and delaying our progress, I will use the thing I just used to blow up the mountain on you."
"What is a clown?" Tang Tian spoke faster than his brain.
Luo Xiaoran sneered, "You don't need to know what a clown is. You just need to know that gunpowder can blow up a mountain. If it were on you, your three-pound bones would probably turn to ashes."
Tang Tian thought of the collapse of rocks after the loud noise just now, and he couldn't help but shudder. There was fear in his eyes when he looked at Luo Xiaoran.
Tang Tian and his men were defeated for the second time, and this time they escaped even faster than last time. Seeing this, the mine supervisor sneered and left.
"Xiao Ran," Zhang Changzong and Village Chief Wang came over at this time, both of them looked happy, "Your idea is really good, this will save us a lot of effort in quarrying stones."
"Using gunpowder can indeed increase the speed of quarrying, but firing and transportation take too much time. In general, there is still not enough time to build roads."
When Luo Xiaoran said this, the two village heads were all stunned. It was indeed too early for them to be happy. Apart from anything else, just transporting the lime to Yangliupo was already difficult enough.
The shopkeeper of Dongfeng Post Station had not left yet. He received Yun Hu's order to see what Luo Xiaoran wanted to do with the materials.
No matter how hard he tried, he could not imagine that Luo Xiaoran actually blew up the mountain!
Luo Xiaoran had already set her sights on transportation via the Dongfeng Caravan. Since they had brought several horse-drawn carriages with them to deliver the materials, wouldn't it be the best of both worlds if she could lend the caravan to her first?
The innkeeper was a little hesitant about borrowing the caravan, but after Luo Xiaoran took out Yunhu's token and tried to trick him, he agreed.
He was still able to decide on a few carriages, and now he understood Luo Xiaoran's purpose in wanting these things. He just needed to go back and report quickly.
"With these carriages, we only need one day and one night to travel between Chuian Kiln and Yangliupo. So now the only two problems left are burning lime and repairing roads, and these two are the most troublesome."
After bidding farewell to the owner of Dongfeng Inn, Luo Xiaoran told him her final plan, "So I suggest that we carry out the two tasks of burning ash and repairing the road simultaneously."
"Simultaneously?" Zhang Changzong and Village Chief Wang asked in unison.
"That's right! The mine supervisor is only willing to lend us a lime kiln, so we don't need to keep too many people here.
Some people took the first batch of lime to build the road, and the rest were responsible for transporting the stone down from the mountain and burning and transporting the lime. "
Zhang Changzong and Village Chief Wang only gave it a brief consideration before agreeing to Luo Xiaoran's suggestion.
They had to admit that Luo Xiaoran was really smart, and her method currently seemed to be the most promising way to build the road within the specified time limit.
So, some people, led by Village Chief Wang, went down the mountain to transport the stones down, while the other people followed Zhang Changzong and, under the guidance of Zhang Erhe, prepared the preliminary work for firing.
In addition to making the stones that were transported into similar sizes, a lot of firewood also had to be collected, because the firewood would be exchanged with the mine supervisor for charcoal for burning ash.
The first kiln of lime took three and a half days to burn. Zhang Erhe said that before, it usually took five days to complete the burning because the time of quarrying in the mountains had to be taken into account.
Now we can produce a kiln of lime in three and a half days, which is very fast.