It is winter now, and winter wheat has been planted on large areas of farmland on both sides of the Baihe River. The black soil is crisscrossing, and there are small villages mixed with them. The sound of chickens crowing and dogs barking comes from time to time, which seems to be no different from the rural areas in later generations.

But seven or eight miles away, thick smoke rose into the air, densely packed like smoke columns spreading in the sky, and at the same time, you could hear the sound of dinging and dinging and beating constantly.

Soon, the four of them approached the smokey area. The air was filled with a strong smell of charcoal fire and sulfur iron. Chen Xu then realized that it was extremely prosperous here. There were copper and iron smelting and processing workshops everywhere. Countless black and thin ragged work slaves smelting copper and iron to make utensils under the surveillance of supervisors. There were ox carriages and horses and carriages everywhere along the way. There were dozens of carriages in large carriages that could not be seen at first sight, and they all walked with loads. They squeaked and bumped all the way. From time to time, copper ore and charcoal fell down. At the entrances of all workshops, there were also cattle, horses and mule carriages coming and going. Among them, there were many officials in blue clothes who kept patrolling the army and patrolling. From time to time, loud scolding and scolding could be heard.

This scene, when Chen Xu's eyes fell, made him feel inexplicably angry and excited. Anger was for the miserable experience of the work slaves who were beaten and scolded by the supervisor, and was excited because Daqin actually had such a vigorous metal smelting and processing base.

Although they are all small local smelting furnaces that consume and waste a lot of charcoal and copper and iron ore, and these copper and iron are still useless after repeated smelting, it has to be denied that the basic industry of metal smelting, such as Daqin, has already had a certain scale, and naturally there are a lot of output. Looking at this scale, it should be considered one of the top among the major empires on earth today.

The four of them rode their horses all the way north, and there were copper and iron workshops along the way. In order to maintain the food and drink of the work slaves and other personnel in so many workshops, in addition to the caravans transporting copper and iron and ore charcoal, caravans selling grain were also in constant force every day.

"Xiao Langjun, there are more than 600 copper and iron smelting workshops outside Wancheng. They produce countless copper and iron every year, and there are no less than 30,000 workers. The daily supply of food and drink is an uncalculable number. This also allows many merchants selling grain to make a mountain of money!" Seeing Chen Xu curious, the man leading the way explained carefully.

Chen Xu also understood why Qin Shihuang had to migrate all copper and iron merchants from all over the country to Nanyang County. First, not only Nanyang is the hinterland of the Central Plains, but also in the center of north-south transportation. The copper and iron smelted here can be transported to the country through a well-connected transportation network, but also the most important reason is food.

To concentrate these hundreds of copper and iron merchants together to manage the food, the food consumed must be astronomical. Only agriculturally developed areas like Nanyang County can support such a large amount of daily consumption. Moreover, this is only near Wancheng. In the entire Nanyang County, more than 30 counties, except for extremely remote and poor mountainous areas like Chi County, almost every county has a large number of copper and iron workshops. The number of people participating in copper and iron smelting and processing in the entire Nanyang County is close to 100,000, which is not counting the surrounding personnel who burn charcoal, mine, transportation and other supporting facilities. Therefore, in addition to grain cultivation, the metal processing industry has become a pillar industry in Nanyang, absorbing hundreds of thousands of people to participate in it.

Although most of these people were slaves arrested from the six countries, there were also many refugees, prisoners, bandits, criminals, and even civilians who were sold after being simply forcibly deprived of their household registration.

No matter who you are, once you are bought and become a slave, you will basically be extremely miserable all your life. Just work hard and tired every day for a meal, and you cannot eat enough or wear warm. It is worse than the poorest poor. If you accidentally get sick or injured, the owner will never give him treatment and can only wail and wait for death. Moreover, this primitive smelting workshop is filled with a strong aroma of sulfur and carbon. After a long time of cultivation, the disease will inevitably occur, not to mention that the furnace collapses and overturns. Therefore, death is common for these labour slaves, and everyone is in a state of insecurity.

It is entirely unknown how many of these copper and iron merchants who were forcibly migrated to Nanyang County were loyal to the Qin Dynasty, and how many of these work slaves were willing to live such an oppressed life that was worse than death.

Although the slavery system of the Great Zhou Dynasty had completely collapsed, slaves still existed.

Get up, people who don’t want to be slaves have cast our flesh and blood into our new Great Wall...

Chen Xu suddenly rang this song for no reason, and at the same time, countless red flags swept in front of him, and the work slaves in ragged clothes and whipped and scolded roared with sickles and axes...

Damn, did I not sleep well last night?

Chen Xu shook his head and drove this weird scene out of his mind.

Half an hour later, under the leadership of a man, the four of them came to a small hill, and dozens of yellow or black smoke columns soared into the sky. Judging from the scale, there must be a very huge copper and iron workshop inside.

"Little Langjun, it should be here!" the middle-aged man turned around and said.

The four of them rode their horses along a relatively flat and wide road for about three miles, and then they saw a huge fence composed of sharpened thick logs blocking the road from the valley. There were two towers several meters high behind the fence, and on both sides were steep mountain walls that were dug out and were no longer accessible.

"Who is sneaking? Let's sign up!" Suddenly, a rough voice came out from the tower.

"I am Hu Kuan, the subordinate of Mr. Ma Teng. If you have something to do, you will see your master!" The man rode on the horse and shouted.

"Let me go and report later!" One of the people on the tower went down the wooden ladder and left on a horse. After waiting for almost a quarter of an hour, several people followed and looked at Chen Xu and others through the fence and then one of the middle-aged men shouted: "The master is not here today, you should come back another day!"

"Bold, a merchant dares to do whatever he wants to do to me. Be careful, I tell Mr. Ma that you masters will follow him to the county lieutenant prison!" Hu Kuan was furious.

"Haha, we have heard that Ma Teng is not in Xianyang now, so why should you scare me? Hu Kuan, it's not that we don't want to let you in, but that the master of the shop is not here today. He has not returned since he entered the city yesterday. If you are lucky, you can meet him in the city today. If you have any important matters, just tell the master in person. There are only workshops for burning charcoal and copper smelting and hundreds of work slaves in the mountain, we won't let you in for fun!" The middle-aged man said lightly through the fence.

Hu Kuan turned his head to look at Chen Xu helplessly, with a slightly pale face. Yesterday, Chen Xu said that he had to take his family back today, but now he didn't see him and was still slandered and disgraced.

"Little Langjun..."

Chen Xu waved his hand to stop Hu Kuan from saying that the businessman could dominate a hill with dozens of chimneys inside, which showed that this person had extremely strong financial resources.

But no matter how strong the financial resources are, the merchants are extremely low in the Qin Dynasty and will be cautious at any time. However, the people in front of them are a bit outrageous. Regardless of whether Ma Teng returned to Xianyang or not, he would never contradict or ridicule his subordinates like this. He also blocked the valley with sharp fences and set up a watchtower tower inside. All of this was extremely abnormal.

There is something wrong with this mountain!

Chen Xu instantly had some enlightenment.

But soon he threw this idea behind his mind. Since ancient times, there have been too many tricks in collusion between officials and businessmen. Those who have no tricks collapsed early. Therefore, this is not a problem. The problem is that I can't go this trip in vain. It takes at least two hours to travel around for more than 20 miles. The back of my back hurts when I ride a horse.

"Wang Wu, can you score in!" Chen Xu turned around and asked.

"Haha, Chen Lidian is optimistic, Xiaoqi will hold me in the formation!" Wang Wu slowly pulled out the big sword from his waist.

"What do you want to do?" The few people inside the fence were suddenly panicked, and the middle-aged man shouted angrily at Chen Xu and others.

"Haven~" Wang Wu clamped his legs with his horse's belly, and the horse under his crotch was skillful in cooperating. Each person and a horse rushed out like a dragon, like a horse's hooves flying in the size of a rice bowl splashing large pieces of mud, sand and gravel. In the blink of an eye, Wang Wu rushed to the front of the fence.

"Get up~" With a roar of Wang Wu, the reins in his hand were lifted up, and the horse rose up in the air and directly crossed the fence more than two meters high and landed in the valley. Several people fled in panic, but the middle-aged man was caught up by Wang Wu in an instant, and a big sword shining with cold light was placed on his shoulder.

The middle-aged man was so scared that he was trembling and insisted on shouting to spare his life.

"Go and move the fence away!" Under Wang Wu's forced, the middle-aged man had to return to the fence in horror, lifted down a giant tree as thick as a waist, and then pushed the fence away from the passage that only allowed a carriage to enter.

"Several, the owners are really not here today..." The middle-aged man was extremely frightened.

"I'm just here to find a few people. It doesn't matter if the owner is not here. Hu Kuan, tell him, if I can't see anyone within half an hour, don't blame me for being rude!" Chen Xu said condescendingly on his horse.

Just as Hu Kuan told the middle-aged people about the appearance and trading time of the family, the sound of kicking and squeaking horse hooves and squeaking wheels came from outside the valley. Chen Xu looked outside and soon saw seven or eight guards riding horses and swords carrying swords coming along the way.

"Several, the owner is back. If you have any questions, just ask him!" The middle-aged man also breathed a sigh of relief in an instant.
Chapter completed!