Lu Xiangsheng visited an iron factory. After he saw the melted iron wire flowing out, it cooled to the point where it turned into a red iron sheet. Then the iron sheet was sent to a special machine. Someone turned the handle and a red iron wire passed through the sink. The iron wire cooled after it was cooled out when it was exposed to water.

The produced iron wire was transported to another workshop. After that, someone twisted three strands of iron wire into one. Every distance, a short wire was placed on it to form iron barbs. A bundle of barbs were made and placed on the ground of the workshop. The made barbs of iron wire were loaded into a truck and transported into the warehouse.

"Guodong, what's the use of making so many barbed wires?" Lu Xiangsheng asked in confusion.

"When you go back to the army to supervise the war, these wires can be pulled up with wooden stakes to form wire mesh, which can block the attack of the cavalry." Li Guodong replied.

Barbed wire is an excellent defensive weapon to block cavalry attacks. As long as the barbed wire is pulled up behind the trench and there are various long-range firepower behind it, it will be difficult for the opponent to rush over.

"This barbed wire is indeed easier to use than a tripping rope. The tripping rope wire is pulled up to a layer. Jiannu rushed over and could trip over a few horses in front and break it. The wire will not break. But this iron wire is expensive. Guodong, how much money does it cost to build so many barbed wire?" Lu Xiangsheng asked curiously when he saw the mountains of barbed wire.

Li Guodong coughed lightly and replied, "Iron is refined by Beizhi himself. There is iron ore on the Yicheng line of Pingyangfu not far away. Beizhi bought the iron ore for 50,000 taels of silver. In this way, you don't spend a penny of silver to obtain iron ore. Just send someone to transport it."

"How much charcoal will it cost to refine so much iron?"

"When I returned to the commander, I didn't need charcoal. I asked someone to spend 30,000 taels of silver to buy a piece of land in Pingyang Mansion, dig out coal, and then turn the coal into coke, so that I can smelite, which doesn't cost much."

Li Guodong's Xiangling Camp is located in Pingyang Prefecture. There are both iron ore and coal mines near Pingyang Prefecture. Li Guodong bought both iron ore and coal mine land. The coal seams of Linfen Coal Mine are shallow, simple in mining, and convenient for transportation of the Fen River, which saves a lot of costs.

Lu Xiangsheng proposed to visit the coal mines and iron mines.

First, I rushed to the Yicheng Iron Mine thirty miles away. I saw that the road leading to Yicheng from Xiangling was clean and hard. The road surface was two meters wide, very hard, flat and smooth. I could hardly feel a trace of vibration when the carriage walked on it.

"How is this road surface repaired? How much money does it cost?" Lu Xiangsheng asked in surprise.

"The road surface is made of new lime created by Beizhi. After the lime is dried, it will be as hard as the stone, and it is smoother than the stone, with almost no bumps." Li Guodong replied.

In fact, the construction of this kind of road surface is paved by the new building materials fired by Li Guodong. After the roadbed is dug, wooden boards are placed on the ground on both sides, and then gravel, yellow sand and this new building material are mixed and stirred, poured into the wooden boards. After drying, it becomes a hard and hard road. The vehicles walk on the road without any vibration and drive very smoothly, which greatly increases the transportation capacity of the carriage.

When he arrived at the iron mine, Lu Xiangsheng discovered that from the mountain to the bottom, a kind of wooden slide rail was laid. Vehicles loaded with iron mines slid down from the mountain. After unloading the iron ore, workers pushed the empty truck up the mountain.

"Why won't the wheel fall out with such a thin slide rail?" Lu Xiangsheng walked forward strangely, bent down, and looked at the wheels and tracks carefully. He found that the wheels were actually made of iron, and there was a raised inside the wheel, which happened to be stuck on the inside of the track, and the vehicles on both sides had raised areas, which just happened to be stuck, so that the vehicle would not derail when walking on the track. The wood that made the slide rails was hard boxwood, which could withstand heavy iron ore vehicles.

Lu Xiangsheng remained silent, but Lu Xiangtong beside him exclaimed: "It's so clever! Who created such an excellent plan?"

"It was created by craftsmen under Beizhi." Li Guodong did not say that it was himself, but instead recommended it to craftsmen.

"I see the craftsmen here. Everyone is energetic and working hard. I wonder how much money Guodong will give them every month?" Lu Xiangsheng asked.

"When I returned to the commander, I always thought that without craftsmen, there would be nothing now. I needed craftsmen to build houses, craftsmen to build roads, and craftsmen to build weapons. In order to create more sophisticated weapons to deal with Jiannu, I always treated craftsmen well. The craftsmen who worked here all paid tribute to the level of craftsmanship. The highest-level craftsmen could get 16 taels of silver every month; the lowest-level craftsmen would only care about food and accommodation every month, without giving a penny of copper."

"Sixteen taels of silver a month?" Lu Xiangsheng gasped.

This income was very high. The county magistrate at that time only had less than eight stones of grain per month. Based on the two taels of silver per stone, the county magistrate's income was only fifteen taels of silver per month, which was not as good as the senior craftsmen here.

"That is limited to the most advanced craftsmen. There are very few such craftsmen, so they will still be able to bear it. The miners working here only earn half a tael of silver every month, and give them a bite of food."

After visiting the iron mine, Lu Xiangsheng asked Li Guodong to take them to visit the coal mine.

Following the original road back to Xiangling, Li Guodong took Lu Xiangsheng and others on a small boat and went upstream along the Fen River to a small hill outside Pingyang Prefecture City.

The ground at the hill is black, covered with coal ash. Tracks like iron mines enter the mountains. Walking along the tracks for a short distance into the mountains, you can see the coal mine cave. The black-clad refugees push the cart and push out the mine cave. Then the vehicles filled with coal slide down the track to the bottom of the mountain, and then load onto the boat, and then transport it downstream to Xiangling Camp.

Lu Xiangtong looked at the hard-working miners and saw that they were covered in black all over their bodies. The miners who were panting and pushing the cart left sweat. The dripping sweat was dyed black by the coal ash on their faces and necks, and flowed into their necks. It was imagined that it felt so uncomfortable.

"These people work so hard, General Li, how much money do you give them a month?" Lu Xiangtong asked.

"Half a tael of silver, but I will give them and their families a bite of food."

“How long do they work every day?”

"The work starts at the Yin hour (6 o'clock) every day and ends at the Xu hour (20 o'clock). You can rest for one day every month." Li Guodong replied.

If it were later generations, Li Guodong would be the black-hearted mine owner of a small coal mine, and his heart was even darker than coal. The miners' work system was 687, working fourteen hours a day, and their wages were extremely low! But the miners' food was pretty good, not only the miners themselves, but their families could also eat for free in the canteen.

But in this era, it would be great for those refugees who were homeless who were bandits and were already homeless to have a meal. If Li Guodong had not taken them in, these refugees would either fall on the side of the road in hunger or be eaten by others.

In this era, life is not worth much, it is not as good as a wild dog! The refugees are already content to survive, so what higher requirements can they have? Originally, when their hometown was not yet thieves, the court repeatedly sent additional Liao pay, and all kinds of tyrants and miscellaneous taxes were oppressed so that they could not survive. When the bandit army arrived, no grass was born, and they were also entangled in the bandit army, becoming cannon fodder for the bandit army, and rushed in front to die.

For homeless refugees, being able to survive is a luxury. Li Guodong not only lets them survive, but also lets their wives, children, brothers and sisters survive. Such a bad-hearted boss is simply a life-saving benefactor!
Chapter completed!