In Jinniuling Mountain, Qiongzhou, two roads paved with sleepers and wooden tracks connect the mining area to the riverside wharf. If Wang Xinyu comes here, he can find that this kind of wooden track is very similar to the later railway, and a large number of broken stones are also laid under the sleepers, but this is a wooden road, not a railway. The wooden track surface is ground very smooth, and the trolley specially placed on the wooden track is equipped with four iron wheels, each wheel has a raised rim on the inside, which just clamps the main track, so that the trolley can run smoothly on the track. On both sides of the wooden track, there was a passage for people to walk, and there was a crossbar on the trolley, and the captured Eight Banners and Green Battalion soldiers walked on the pedestrian passage on both sides of the wooden track, pushing the crossbar, pushing the empty trolley, and pushing the cart into the mining area.

After the Zheng army broke through Hangzhou, a large number of banner people were also captured and sent to Qiongzhou as coolies. Although they were not prisoners of war, Wang Xinyu did not be soft on these banner people, because almost every banner man's father and grandfather owed the Han people a blood debt, and only by turning them all into coolies and producing weapons to destroy the Qing Dynasty through labor could these banner men repay the blood debt owed by their fathers and grandparents!

In those days, every provincial town was settled by banner people, who lived in the inner city and led the hardcore crops. Hangzhou was breached, and these banner people suddenly changed from pampered idlers to coolies.

After the empty cars entered the mining area, the Eight Banners and the Green Camp captives sweated like rain, loaded the iron ore onto the car, and then pushed the car onto the track down the mountain, and the car automatically slid down the mountain. Because the slope is very gentle, the speed of the car will not be too fast when going down the mountain. When entering the dock, another Eight Banners captives came up and unloaded the iron ore from the cart and loaded it onto a bamboo raft.

After the iron ore is loaded onto a bamboo raft, it is carried down the mountain stream to the seaside wharf, and then loaded onto a ship to the Yanpingcheng Iron and Steel Plant in Dingguo Bay, thousands of miles away.

With this kind of wooden tracks and iron wheeled cars. Iron ore is transported extremely efficiently. The trolley runs on a wooden track, the friction is much lower than that on the road, and the axle is also coated with grease to reduce the friction generated by the axle when the wheels rotate, and the trolley loaded with iron ore slides on its own when it goes down the mountain, saving a lot of manpower.

If it weren't for the fact that steel was too expensive and the bearing manufacturing was too complicated, Wang Xinyu wanted to directly manufacture iron tracks and vehicles with rolling bearings, which would not only have less friction, but also after the invention of the steam engine. It can be upgraded directly to a train. But steel was too expensive in these years, and Wang Xinyu was reluctant to use iron to build the track, so he replaced it with wood.

Because the prisoners of the Eight Banners were important objects of care, Wang Xinyu did not worry about putting them at the seaside wharf, which was relatively easy to escape, but concentrated in the iron mines in the mountainous areas, surrounded by the Ming army.

As for some of the more stubborn Green Battalion soldiers, they were also sent to the mining area to work as coolies with the prisoners of the Eight Banners. The people who worked on the seaside pier were all relatively honest prisoners of the Green Battalion.

Wooden tracks on wooden piles on both sides of the road. Also hanging the captive's head. These heads were all Qing soldiers who tried to rebel and make trouble, and the Ming army who was in charge of guarding them naturally did not hesitate to kill the troublemakers on the spot. Since the development of the iron ore mine in Qiongzhou, more than 600 captives have been killed.

Heads marinated in lime, warning the Eight Banners captives. Tell them to work honestly and don't make trouble, otherwise these heads will be their fate.

The captives' residential area was lined with rows of bamboo buildings, and the dwellings were ventilated and ventilated. Dozens of captives lived in a large room. Outside there is a restaurant and communal toilets. The residential area is surrounded by a wooden fence, a tower every twenty steps, on which are standing murderous Ming archers.

Sixteen-year-old Ai Lanzhu was originally a woman from Hangzhou Eight Banners. was originally going to marry Haoge's sixth son, Xingbao, but who knew that five months ago, the Zheng family army broke through the city of Hangzhou, and the Han people in the city took the opportunity to rebel, and many banner people were killed. Ai Lanzhu and her younger brother fell into the hands of the Zheng family army and were sent to Qiongzhou to serve. Her brother was not in Qiongzhou, and was reportedly sent to the Annam coal mine.

Because she is a woman, the house where Ailanzhu lives is not bad, she and her maid have a separate room, and the work here is very simple, only responsible for cooking for the captives.

"Miss, look! Why did so many Ming troops come? Just as Ailanzhu was about to go to cook, the maid Xiaoqing pointed to the team of Ming soldiers who broke in outside the gate in horror.

On other people's territory, they didn't dare to call the Ming army a southern barbarian, a thief, a Ming dog or something like that. Someone scolded the "Ming dog thief" before, but it was heard, and the fierce mine head pulled the green camp captive out and hit him with a board in the mouth, until he was drenched in blood and all his teeth were gone, and this was not counted, and the sentence was increased by two years.

"Could it be that the Ming army is going to kill people again?" Ai Lanzhu's face turned pale, and her body shook.

Every time a large number of Ming troops came in, it was a time to kill. The last time the Ming army came in to kill people, Ai Lanzhu still remembers it vividly. On that occasion, it was said that someone had reported to the mine owner that a group of prisoners wanted to rebel. After the Ming army came in, they arrested people according to the list, and more than 100 prisoners were escorted out, pushed directly to both sides of the track road, knelt on the ground, and cut off their heads.

At that time, the Ming army massacred prisoners on a large scale, and every banner person was cut off by his head, and Ai Lanzhu's heart twitched. There are not many flag people, and every flag man is precious.

"A lot of Ming troops!" The maid Xiaoqing's face turned pale.

Last time, more than 200 Ming troops came in, and as a result, more than 100 people were killed, of which 86 were banner men, and the rest were prisoners of the green battalion. The Ming army that came in this time, to say the least, there were five or six hundred people! Is it going to be mass murder again?

"My lord, what's going on here? Why did the Ming army come to kill again? Ailanzhu couldn't bear to see a large number of banner people being slaughtered again, so she had the courage to ask the little foreman here, Ilgen Jueluo.

Ilgenjuoro was a Mongol who had been captured in the Battle of Xiamen two and a half years earlier. Because of his good performance, and he also reported many Eight Banners and Green Battalion soldiers who tried to rebel, he was promoted to a small foreman, with a lot of freedom, and he could also eat with the Ming soldiers in the mine. Although Ailanzhu hated Ilgen Jueluo very much, thinking that this person had the blood of the banner man on his hands and climbed to this point, she was very afraid of this person, because such a little foreman had the power to kill and take away the captives.

"No, I'm not here to kill people today, I'm here to send you to a new place!" Ilgenjuro replied. To be honest, Ilgen Jueluo still likes this young lady a lot. If it weren't for the fact that they were all captured by the Ming army. Just a soldier like him from a small tribe on the grassland, he didn't even want to get close to a big lady like Ailanzhu.

"What about us? Do you want to get out of here? Ailanzhu asked.

Ilgenjuoro replied: "You ladies don't have to go, I'm the foreman here, and you don't have to go." ”

The Ming soldiers put all the prisoners in the mining area into small carts, and some of them pushed the carts to the wharf by the stream.

"Hurry up! Don't grind! A Ming sergeant whipped a slower captive.

The captives were loaded onto rafts and rafts, after which they sailed down the river in the direction of the sea.

It didn't take long for the mines to be almost empty.

"Everyone's gone? Isn't this mine going to work? Ailanzhu asked curiously.

"Don't ask what you shouldn't! Do your own thing! Ilgen Jueluo originally wanted to answer, but when he saw a Ming army officer coming in from outside, he warned Ai Lanzhu with a serious face.

However, Ailanzhu later learned what was going on. She asked a Ming soldier in the mine, only to learn that it was Hong Chengchou who sent troops to attack Qiongzhou. Although the Qing army could not necessarily find the mining area, these captives were loaded onto ships and sent to Yanping City in Dingguo Bay to serve hard labor just in case. After the war in Qiongzhou is over, it will be sent back to open a mine.

The raft raft follows the creek downstream, and the river widens the further down it goes, until it enters a large river and sails westward. When they arrived at the seaside wharf in Thanksgiving County, the Ming soldiers on the boat urged the prisoners to get off the ship.

The captives were escorted to the docks. At a glance, you can see the large ships moored neatly on the pier. A heavily armed Ming soldier had already come up and escorted the captives onto the ship. After that, they will arrive at Dingguo Bay after a long voyage of seven days and seven nights.

Fang Yizhi was worried that after Hong Chengchou came, the captives would take the opportunity to make trouble. And I heard that one of the reasons why Hong Chengchou came. It was the Qing court that knew that there were many banner people who were captured in Qiongzhou, if it weren't for this reason, Hong Chengchou would not have come to Qiongzhou in person, he only needed to sit in Leizhou and command. But in order to rescue the captured Eight Banners. Hong Chengchou personally came to Qiongzhou to show his loyalty to the Qing court. As for the possibility of dying in Qiongzhou, Hong Chengchou is not worried. He knew that he had lived enough, he was already so old, and he didn't have a few years to live anyway, so it was better to dedicate the last residual heat to the Qing court.

In Haikou City, there are a group of Ming soldiers standing on the city wall.

The people shouted and sweated like rain, and carried cannonballs, gunpowder, wood, stones, fire oil, ten thousand enemies, lime bottles, dung and other weapons to defend the city. Although it is already the eleventh month of the lunar calendar and the Gregorian calendar is already January 1663, the climate is still hot in Qiongzhou, where there is no winter, and the people are sweating profusely as soon as they work.

Bucket-thick logs were carried up to the city, and thick iron nails were driven into the wood, and two thick sticks were driven into the ends of the wood, chained, and hung on a winch. This kind of wood is the wolf tooth slapper, when the enemy comes, you can put the wolf tooth slap down to smash people, and then use the winch to recover it after putting it down, which can be reused.

Hong Chengchou concentrated more than 100,000 troops to invade Qiongzhou, and at this time the defenders of Qiongzhou were only more than 10,000 people, most of which were auxiliary troops and second-line combat troops. Some small county towns have long been cleared by Fang Yizhijianbi, and the people of small county towns have moved out and concentrated in several big cities such as Haikou, Yazhou, Lingao, and Wenchang. The main force of the Ming army was in Haikou New Town, with a total of more than 5,000 officers and soldiers, and Fang Yizhi also recruited more than 20,000 people to cooperate with the defense of the city.

In the four large cities where the Ming army was concentrated, enough grain was stored to cope with the siege of Hong Chengchou for a year. As long as Wang Xinyu can solve the civil strife in the Zheng family army within a year, he can rush back to the rescue.

Because of the arrival of the Qing army, all commercial activities in Qiongzhou stopped, and everyone was preparing for war.

The Ming army in the city was preparing for war intensively, making weapons to defend the city. The people of the armory filled the clay vases with quicklime and sealed them with paper. When used, simply uncover the mouth of the lime bottle, fill it with water, and throw the lime bottle to kill enemies. Some of the auxiliaries and craftsmen worked together to move 10,000 enemies out of the warehouse.

Behind the city wall, a lot of pulleys are installed, and the rolling wood and cannonballs used to defend the city can be directly sent to the city head with pulleys, saving a lot of manpower.

The people at the head of the city set up a cauldron, lit a bonfire, poured dung and poison into the pot, and when the dung boiled into golden juice.

Behind the city walls, a mortar was placed. These cannons were placed behind the city walls, and the direct fire of the Qing army could not attack them, but they could bombard the Qing soldiers outside the city from across the mountains.

On the fort at the head of the city, the Hongyi cannons with the longest range were erected, which could suppress the siege cannons of the Qing army.

Outside the city, Miao Li's soldiers and Minzhuang ran back and forth, preparing dry food, carrying heavy supplies, and preparing to deal with the Qing army. These Miao Li soldiers, who were familiar with the local mountainous terrain, did not enter the city to defend, but were placed outside the city as a mobile force. After the Qing army came, they hid in the mountains and waited for an opportunity to attack the Qing army.

In the fortress, Xia Wanchun's daughter Xia Yunshan sat in the corner of the wall with a bird gun in her arms. At this time, she was dressed in a military uniform, wearing a red mandarin duck battle jacket, and a bright helmet, looking heroic. Inside this fortress, there are five female soldiers.

If female soldiers go to the battlefield to fight with the Qing army, their combat effectiveness will definitely be inferior to that of male soldiers. But hiding in a protected fortress and shooting outside with a bird gun, the female soldiers may not play a worse role than the male soldiers.

"The princess has arrived!" There was a long shout outside.

Xia Yunshan hurriedly stood up, only to see a woman in a silver helmet and silver armor, wearing a red cloak, elegant temperament, and beautiful as a flower walked outside the fortress. Beside her, there was a young woman who resembled her, who seemed to be her sister. The young woman also carried a child with a flintlock pistol.

"What a heroic girl!" Zheng Yun walked straight to Xia Yunshan.

"Humble to participate in the princess!" Xia Yunshan saluted.

Zheng Yun looked at Xia Yunshan intently for a minute before asking, "You're new here, right?" Why haven't I seen you before? ”

"Back to Niangniang, the little girl only joined the Qiongzhou Women's Barracks three days ago." Xia Yunshan replied.

Liu Er leaned on the side and whispered in Zheng Yun's ear: "Miss, she is Xia Wanchun's daughter Xia Yunshan." Three days ago to join the women's barracks. Originally, the slave didn't want her to go to war, but she said that she wanted to avenge her father. ”

"It's the daughter of a young hero! Sure enough, it's a tiger father and no dog girl! You've been here for three days, will you use a bird's gun? Zheng Yun asked with a smile.

"Yes! One day after the humble job came, I learned to play a bird! Xia Yunshan replied.

"Good!" Zheng Yun smiled, "You kill the enemy well!" When the Tartars come up in a moment, Lady Ben will fight alongside you! There aren't many men in our city, and women are going to war! I believe that women do not lose their eyebrows! (To be continued.) )