Nanming Engineer

Chapter 54: Three levels of enlightenment
At dawn, there was a depression tens of feet away from the official road ten miles away from Xinyangzhou City. Occasionally passers-by pass by, even if they pay attention to it, they can't see the scene inside clearly, and who will take a closer look.

Li Tingyu led four hundred subordinates, who were falling asleep inside in disorder, snoring loudly. If it wasn't for being far away from the official road, Wang Huan, who could not sleep even with his ears covered, was really worried that people would notice.

Running all night last night, the soldiers in Sichuan, who are used to walking on mountain roads, have amazing physical fitness and endurance. They ran nearly [-] miles in six hours. When the rooster crowed, they rushed from Guangzhou to Xinyang Prefecture. The iron army was not far behind, and it was obtained with dozens of catties of cloth weapons, which was even more rare and valuable, which deepened Wang Huan's understanding of white soldiers.

Even compared with Wei Wu's fierce soldiers, this level of physical fitness is not bad.

Wang Huan endured the thunderous snoring around him, and thought to himself that, last night, with all his life, he was only able to barely keep up with the marching speed of the white soldiers in the first hour. Two hours later, he was like a dead dog, paralyzed on the back of a strong soldier, with his tongue sticking out and being carried down all the way. He also saw that his group of buddies young monks, such as Chen Ergou, Xu Gou Dan and the like only persisted for half an hour longer than themselves, and then they were also carried on the backs of others as cargo and ran until dawn.

"Are these guys still human? I'm afraid I can't go faster than these humanoid motorcycles on an electric bike." Wang Huan couldn't sleep, so he just sat up, beat his legs and pinched his waist, and recovered his sore body, thinking while beating .

"Huh? Councilor woke up so soon?" Someone called softly in the shadow of a tree. Along with the voice, there was a smell of rice. The aroma of rice cooked in an iron pot with water, which filled the hungry people. It smells like an irresistible temptation.

Wang Huan heard the sound and looked around, but saw that Li Yanzheng was squatting under a ridge not far away, cooking with an iron pot.

"The porridge is cooked. Come and have a bowl, Councilor." Li Yan said with a smile.

Wang Huan jumped up, ran over with a few steps, grabbed a handful of soil with both hands, and threw it under the pot, screaming in his mouth: "God! You are burning fire and smoking, and what will happen if you are seen by the tartars?" Is good!"

Li Yan was taken aback at first, and when Wang Huan sprinkled a few handfuls of soil, he quickly took Wang Huan's hand after he figured out what he was going to do, and shouted anxiously: "Speak up! Don't, don't sprinkle it. If you sprinkle this porridge again, you won't be able to drink it." Got it!"

He grabbed Wang Huan with both hands, but Wang Huan was still struggling endlessly, with his legs stretched out to reach the pot, trying to kick the pot over, Li Yan was so frightened that he hurriedly dragged him away a few steps, knowing that Wang Huan was really in a hurry , hurriedly shouted again: "The councilors don't worry! My cooking method does not emit smoke! The tartars can't see it."

As soon as these words came out, Wang Huan, who was so flustered that his head was smoking, calmed down and stopped twisting violently. Seeing that he was quiet, Li Yan released him with lingering fear, first scooped out the soil in the pot with a wooden spoon, and then Explain to Wang Huan carefully.

"Consultant, you see, before I cooked, I dug a hole under the ridge, and then dug another hole above the hole on the ridge. The two holes were connected, and three shallow pits were dug in the upper hole. The pits are used to disperse smoke. The pits are covered with wet leaves and branches. A fire is lit from the hole under the ridge to set up firewood. The smoke disperses along the three shallow pits and is absorbed by the moisture, leaving only a small amount. Small smoke comes out and is blown by the wind. Even if the Tatars look outside the woods, they will not see any smoke coming out." Li Yan said.

While listening, Wang Huan took a closer look at the earthen stove under the pot, and found that it was indeed as Li Yan said, the fire in the cave was blazing, and there was no smoke on it, only a faint white mist floating from among the leaves. But this little white smoke can't be gathered into shape at all, and it will disperse as soon as it floats out.

"It is said that this is the method of Zhuge Wuhou. It has been passed down from generation to generation among the residents of central Sichuan. Back then, the imperial court set up mines in Shizhu to mine silver. The mine supervisors were even more cannibalistic beasts. The people hid in the mountains and forests. In order to prevent the mine supervisors from searching and discovering, This is the way to cook hot rice." Seeing Wang Huan's surprised face, Li Yan couldn't help showing off his face and said.

Wang Huan couldn't help nodding. This kind of smokeless stove is similar to the method used by later generations. I have seen my colleagues use it when I was exploring ore veins in the wild. Just now I was in a hurry, worried that the smoke would be noticed by passers-by, and I panicked if I didn't take a closer look. Acting, but a little embarrassed.

But when he heard the second part of Li Yan's words, Wang Huan's eyes widened and he raised his head and asked urgently, "Silver mine? Shizhu has already mined silver mine?"

Li Yan said with a smile: "Where there are silver mines, it's just a trick for the mine supervisors to collect money. They falsely claim that there are mines under the houses, and force the owners to pay silver money and extort bribes. Otherwise, they will demolish the houses and build mines. In fact, there are no mines underground at all." .”

Wang Huanzhi felt relieved when he heard that, secretly thinking that it was very dangerous, if the mine supervisor of Ming Dynasty dug the mine before him, and he would rush to go again at this time, wouldn't it be a waste of time to fetch water from the bamboo basket, and nothing could be dug.

This sudden surprise made Wang Huan's already tired body soften. Li Yan saw him lying down against a tree again with his feet in the air. He scooped up a bowl of porridge and handed it over with a smile, and said: "Since the counselor is awake, let's have a bowl of porridge first and eat something to recover quickly."

Wang Huan reached out to take it, but before he could catch it, a pair of big hands stretched out from the side and snatched the wooden bowl away. A rough voice shouted: "It smells good, it smells good! Who is cooking the rice? It smells good." It smells so good!”

The wooden bowl was in the hand of a giant hand, as small as a teacup. Li Tingyu had not yet opened his eyes, closed his eyes and raised his head, drank the hot porridge in the bowl in one gulp, and then smashed it twice with his mouth, confused. Understanding opened his eyes and asked sleepily: "This rice doesn't taste good. Why does it smell like mud?"

Li Yan and Wang Huan looked at each other, grabbed bowls of rice and scooped up rice at the same time, and advised diligently: "Sir, have another bowl!"

Running around at night, for the iron-like white-armed soldiers, although they persevered, it was also suffocating. They rested until the afternoon of the same day, and everyone woke up one after another, and then set up a smokeless stove to cook. Wang Huan took advantage of this In time, he quickly lay down and closed his eyes and took a nap. Before he had a dream, he was woken up again, saying that Mr. Li was looking for him to discuss important matters.

Wang Huan rubbed his eyes and found Li Tingyu. The big man, Li Yan, Zu Bian and several thousand officers were frowning at the map, thinking about something. When Wang Huan arrived, he looked like he was yawning from lack of sleep. , Li Tingyu couldn't help but frown deeper: "Wang Huan, the young man is full of energy. You have rested for most of the day, and you still look like this. What do you look like?"

Wang Huan said happily: "Brother, your snoring is louder than a galloping elephant. I haven't slept a wink, okay?"

Of course, it is inconvenient to put forward this reason confidently, otherwise it will lead to reprimands for not being one with ordinary soldiers, so Wang Huan admitted his mistake and said: "My lord said that Wang Huan is lazy, and I must pay attention to it in the future."

Li Tingyu snorted dissatisfiedly, and quickly pulled him over, and said babala: "From Xinyang to Xiangyang, there is Dabie Mountain in the middle. There are two roads to cross, how should we go?"

He pointed to the map and said: "If you choose from whether the road is smooth and easy to walk, Nanyang Road is selected. This road is a good official road, wide and flat, and it is as flat as a map. It is only four hundred miles from Xinyang to Nanyang, and another three miles from Nanyang to Xiangyang. One hundred miles, the total is seven hundred miles." With a flick of the finger, he pointed to another black line on the map: "The other road is from Xinyang to Xiangyang through Lishan County through the Dabie Mountain trail. The whole journey is 620 miles, and the distance is shorter. A little bit, but you have to pass through the thirteen passes of the Dabie Mountains, the road is rugged and the difficulty is a bit greater."

Wang Huan stared at the map for a while, and said without hesitation: "Let's go to the three gates of Dawu!"

(End of this chapter)