Legendary Ma Ti Ling Mine

  Wang Dacheng understood Luo Yi's intention and began to make arrangements. He chatted with the miners for a while, selected a few experienced ones as team leaders, and started digging at the place pointed out by Luo Yi. Among the 20 soldiers, except for a few who were responsible for sentry duty, the rest were incorporated into the miner's group to work together.

  Luo Yi did not know the specific direction of the ore vein, only that it was behind this piece of rock wall, but the exact location still needed to be explored. Wang Da Cheng followed Luo Yi's introduction and divided the miners and soldiers into seven or eight small groups, each group digging in a different place, excavating a mine tunnel on the stone wall. The surface of the rock wall had already been weathered, and the miners swung their pickaxes, slowly opening up the rocks, inch by inch, as the mine tunnel extended deeper.

  Apart from Luo Yi and Wang Da Cheng, no one knew what they were looking for. Everyone was clear that with this digging method, it was definitely not coal mining. The coal seams in the south are generally buried thousands of meters underground, and this excavation method would not be able to dig out coal. Miners were required to strictly prohibit discussing work-related issues. 20 soldiers and more than 20 miners were mixed together, and any irregular speech or behavior would be discovered in time. The miners had already been intimidated by Luo Yi, so they kept silent. Fortunately, this Old Master Luo was only occasionally fierce and evil, usually looking quite kind... even a bit mischievous. The treatment promised by Old Master Luo was not discounted, with meat in every day's meals and rice to fill their bellies, which was much more comfortable than farming at home.

  Luo Yi handed over the specific affairs of finding mines to Wang Dacheng and Su Xiaofeng. Su Xiaofeng has a strong momentum, can lead his subordinates to fight hard battles; Wang Dacheng is thoughtful and steady in doing things. The two men cooperate with each other, complementing each other's strengths, and really don't need Luo Yi to worry too much.

  Luo Yi came to have nothing to do, so every day he wandered around the surrounding mountains, both touring and slightly examining the terrain. In the future, once the mining area takes shape, it will inevitably attract the attention of various forces, and how to protect this mining area from harm is also a troublesome thing. Luo Yi brought paper and pen, walked and drew, and in a few days, he almost painted a set of battle maps, and the rest was just doing paperwork with the officers.

  Apart from the time spent on mountain climbing, Luo Yi also took out time to have separate conversations with the soldiers. He remembered a sentence in the Art of War, "Those who share the same desire will win." To lead an elite army, the commander must fully understand the mentality of each soldier. Luo Yi's understanding of people from this era was limited to book knowledge, and he used this period to supplement his learning. The soldiers were mostly simple-minded and hadn't learned to hide their true thoughts, so when Luo Yi asked them something, they would answer truthfully. After summarizing, Luo Yi found that everyone's ideas mainly revolved around two points: First, they became bandits because life was too bitter, but now that they had become soldiers, their demands were not high, as long as they could eat their fill; Second, being a soldier meant fighting wars, and as long as the officers treated them well, they would be willing to die for their superiors.

  Having realized this, Luo Yi couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder. Soldiers in this era are really easy to lead. Due to the low level of productive forces, the people's lives are difficult and they often die from hunger or illness, and with frequent wars, human life is not worth much. Although being a soldier comes with the constant danger of death, for those who have no livelihood, it's just a different way of dying. Luo Yi thought that in the future, as long as the assault battalion's financial problems can be solved, recruiting soldiers shouldn't be too difficult.

  The excavation progressed rapidly in the first few days, but after removing the surface weathered rock layer, they encountered hard granite ahead, and the entire work pace slowed down. The miners were not stingy with their efforts, but unfortunately, the rocks were too hard, and it often took a long time to knock down some stone blocks. Wang Dacheng saw that things were not going smoothly, and he came to discuss with Luo Yi with a worried look on his face.

  "Luózi, it can't be done like this, the stone is too hard, we've only dug a few feet deep in one day. If we drag on for a few more days, our money won't be enough."

  "What to do?" Luo Yi was also at a loss, it seemed that he had not considered the difficulty of mining enough, and mistakenly thought that digging with a pickaxe would work. In later generations, mining used wind drills and wind picks, which were completely different from the purely manual tools used now.

  "Why don't we hold a Zhuge Liang meeting and gather our thoughts?" Luo Yi suggested.

  What is Zhuge Liang's assembly?

  Luo Yi said: "As the saying goes, three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang. What is called a Zhuge Liang meeting is to hold an all-staff meeting, let everyone come up with ideas, and solve problems encountered through collective wisdom."

  Zhuge Liang's approach was very common in the Eighth Route Army and later in the People's Liberation Army. Before each major battle, every company would hold such meetings to discuss tactics collectively. Someone once summarized that one of the PLA's traditional strengths is learning warfare from warfare itself, and this democratic thinking is an important means of learning warfare.

  "Alright, let's have a Zhuge Liang meeting." Wang Dacheng agreed.

  Miners and soldiers were all summoned to attend a meeting where they had the right to speak for the first time in their lives. At first, everyone was very reserved and didn't dare to speak. Later, a few bolder soldiers took the lead, although the suggestions they put forward weren't very useful, but still received public praise from Luo Yi. Others saw that everyone else was speaking up and were encouraged, so they started discussing one after another.

  "Officer, in situations like this, we used to use explosives at the mine. I don't know if we can find any now?" a miner asked.

  "Are you taking medicine? This idea is not bad. What's your name? What did you used to do?" Luo Yi asked.

  The miner replied: "My name is Feng Mugen. In the past, I was a stonemason and also dug coal. I have fired cannons before, so I know a bit about how to use explosives."

  Luo Yi nodded: "Good, you're a talent." After that, he turned his head and asked Wang Dacheng and Su Xiaofeng: "Do we have any anesthetics?"

  Wang Da Cheng shook his head: "No. We had a package of anesthetic before, but we used it up during the battle."

  Luo Yi thought for a moment and asked Feng Mugen: "If it's not a medicine package, but a hand grenade, can we use it?"

  Feng Mugen said: "I've never used a hand grenade before, I don't know how powerful it is. However, we can give it a try."

  The original hand grenades of the assault regiment were all used up in this resistance against the National Army, and now only one box was left, which Su Xiaofeng had snatched from Bai Yunfei's command post. Su Xiaofeng heard Luo Yi and Feng Mugen's conversation, shook his head and said: "We are now extremely short of ammunition, and we finally managed to get a box of hand grenades, which we rely on for self-defense."

  "Let's deal with the immediate matter at hand," Luo Yi said. "If we can dig up the mine, what's to worry about not having grenades? I can even get you a mortar."

  Luo Yi was the captain of the assault battalion, and his decisions were final. Su Xiaofeng had no choice but to comply, even if he didn't want to. Moreover, everyone in the assault battalion now looked up to Luo Yi with a kind of reverence, so Su Xiaofeng gave up insisting. This time when the assault battalion went into the mountains, they brought several hand grenades with them. Luo Yi ordered Wang Dacheng to collect the hand grenades and hand them over to Feng Mugen.

  Feng Mugen held the grenade for a while, then began to arrange the explosion. He first dug a small hole about one foot deep on the rock layer with a chisel, and then inserted a grenade into it. The grenade's pull ring was pulled out and tied with a rope, which was pulled out of the hole. Feng Mugen asked everyone to hide far away, and then pulled the grenade cord. A dull sound was heard, and a blast of air rushed out of the hole, sending dust flying everywhere.

  The smoke in the cave dissipated, and Su Xiaofeng and Feng Mugen led the way into the cave. After a closer look, they found that there were no rocks that had fallen out on the ground, and it seemed that this explosion did not have any results.

  Su Xiaofeng felt a pang in his heart for his grenade and complained to Feng Mugen, "How come it just made a loud noise without blowing anything up?"

  Feng Mugen smiled, swung his pickaxe and struck the stone wall. A pile of rubble fell down with a loud crash. It turned out that Feng Mugen had inserted the grenade very deeply, and the explosive force was only enough to shatter the rock, but not enough to make it fall. Several miners followed up, and everyone worked together to quickly clear away the blasted rocks. In practice, Feng Mugen's method proved to be correct - inserting the grenades a bit deeper would only loosen the rocks, rather than blasting them off. This way, they could save as much explosives as possible.

  "Not bad, let's have another one," Luo Yi said.

  Su Xiaofeng said with a crying face: "You're still coming?"

  Luo Yi said, "It's nothing, if there aren't enough hand grenades here, tomorrow let Fei Lele collect all the ones from down the mountain. We'll just celebrate New Year's early and consider it a firework."

  Feng Mugen cleaned up the rubble on the cliff and blasted another new hole, then inserted a hand grenade, following the same procedure. The work of several tunnels stopped, and everyone gathered outside this tunnel, waiting for the blasting to make progress. Several miners kept checking the four walls of the tunnel to prevent collapse due to blasting. Fortunately, the power of the hand grenade was very limited, and the granite was very solid, so there were no cracks in the tunnel.

  As the blasting continued, the tunnel extended further inwards, and the color of the rocks gradually deepened. Wang Dacheng had been observing the stones being transported out of the cave, and when he picked up a fist-sized piece of rock, he stopped, looked at it against the light for half a day, and suddenly crawled out of the pile of ore with his hands and feet, holding the rock high and shouting: "Luo Zi, found it! Found it!"

  Luo Yi had been standing outside the cave, observing the stones that were being dug out. When he heard Wang Da Cheng's shout, he rushed over and took the stone from him. Everyone gathered around, and on this stone, there were some yellow grains inlaid, sparkling brightly under the sunlight.

  "Good heavens, it's gold!" exclaimed a seasoned miner.

  "Ha ha! That's right, this is gold! This is the legendary Ma Ti Ling gold mine!"