Lord of the Desert

Chapter 413 Stay
The hot flashes were like a barrier, preventing everyone from getting close.

Shen Tiexin was the last one to arrive at the water pit. He looked up and saw two huge egg-shaped machines attached to twisted pipes in the dim firelight. Their steel surfaces reflected indigo in the dim firelight, revealing their rugged hardness.

The two machines are operating alternately.

Shoveling coal, burning, steam intake, cooling...

Then when the valve is turned on, a small vortex appears in the puddle and the liquid level drops.

This process was completed silently by several skilled workers, and in Shen Tiexin's eyes it seemed like some kind of strange witchcraft.

She held onto the wet stone wall, and heard her heart beating rapidly amid the long "hiss" sound of steam pressure release. She thought for a moment that she had traveled to a different world beyond her imagination.

At this time, Hong Fan's steady and calm voice interrupted Shen Tiexin's thoughts.

“How effective is this machine? Are there any problems using it?”

he asked.

“Things are naturally good.”

Deng Xian didn't seem to expect his boss to ask this.

"In the past, there were no pumps, so the black-faced people had to use buckets and pumps to move water up and down manually. If there was a lot of water seeping in, there were far more people pumping water than mining."

"As for the problems, first, it took a lot of effort to move it down and assemble it. The other thing is, well, it's not very convenient to do everything underground..."

The old man tried hard to summarize, but after changing his words several times, he still couldn't describe it clearly, and even sweat was dripping down the back of his neck.

"You mean the pumping height of this machine is too low, otherwise it can be installed outside the mine and only need to lay pipes to bring it down?"

Hong Fan interrupted.

"Yes, yes, sir, what you said hits the nail on the head. This is exactly what I meant."

Deng Xian slapped his thigh and his expression immediately relaxed.

Seeing that the two were chatting enthusiastically, Shen Tiexin, who was standing aside, finally couldn't help but interrupt.

"Hong Fan, do you recognize this thing?"

"It's a steam pump."

Hong Fan replied, feeling a little apologetic for having unintentionally neglected the investor just now.

"The working process is to burn out the high-temperature steam and send it into the egg-shaped container. Then the workers pour water outside to cool it down, so that a vacuum is formed in the cavity. After that, the water inlet valve is opened, and the atmosphere will press the accumulated water into the container through the pipe. At this time, the water inlet valve is closed and the steam inlet valve is reopened. The water in the container can be pressed to a high place through the drain valve by the steam pressure."

Taking Shen Tiexin's level of knowledge into consideration, he tried to explain the principle as simply as possible.

"As the saying goes, what goes up must go down. This machine pumps water at atmospheric pressure, so the upper limit of atmospheric pressure naturally becomes the upper limit of the pumping height."

When Hong Fan said this, he saw that Shen Tiexin still looked confused, and couldn't help but smile.

"This is a physics-related problem, and it's hard to explain it to you right now. Anyway, I've made a note of it, and I think I can solve this problem by changing the model later."

He finally said this to Deng Xian, which made the latter very happy.

After the two of them, Shen Tiexin grasped the edge of her skirt with both hands and said nothing.

Returning to the main road, the group went further down. The road became increasingly steep and narrow, and they encountered miners more frequently.

This made Deng Xian feel pressured.

"This is where the lowly people work, and the road is not very smooth, otherwise..."

As he spoke, he glanced at Shen Tiexin's long skirt, obviously hinting to turn back.

Hong Fan was a little hesitant.

Shen Tiexin gritted his teeth and said nothing when he saw this. He pulled out a thin and delicate short knife with gold thread from his belt and cut the horse-faced skirt open on both sides, revealing the silk skirt and pants underneath.

When the sound of silk tearing was heard, both men were awed.

"Let's go."

Shen Tiexin put the golden knife back, tied up her skirt, and spoke softly.

Hong Fan looked at her, nodded, and went downstairs with Deng Xian.

The depth gradually exceeded 100 meters.

The turbid air was filled with a sour and foul smell. The miners passing by were all black, and even their saliva was black.

Seeing all this, Shen Tiexin's face turned pale and his brows furrowed.

"Excuse me, young lady. We are now deep in the mine. Everyone here is like a piece of meat sandwiched between four pieces of stone. We can't tell each other's identities without talking to each other."

Deng Xian looked embarrassed and spoke in a sullen tone.

"Once the black-faced people come here, they will stay here for a whole day. Even if there is an emergency, they have to solve it here..."

Shen Tiexin was already feeling nauseous, and after hearing this he almost vomited, but when he saw that Hong Fan was still calm, he forced himself to hold it back.

At this position, the three of them could clearly hear the sound of shovels hitting each other. Some of the mine tunnel branches even required them to bend over to go further.

"That's it."

Hong Fan glanced at Shen Tiexin's pale and bloodless cheeks and said, then he released the sand world's true energy for the last time to sense the structure and force of the mine tunnel.

After checking, they found nothing wrong and the three of them turned around and went back.

On the way, Hong Fan asked again about the treatment of the miners.

"Two taels of silver a month is not a small amount of money, but the mines lose workers every year. Those who are willing to join the industry either have no land at home or are in urgent need of money. The rest are mostly refugees from other places."

Deng Xian replied, "How will the compensation for the dead and wounded be calculated?"

Hong Fan asked.

"Compensation? In this industry, everyone signs a contract that says they won't ask about life or death. If they die, it's just bad luck. There's no need for compensation."

Deng Xian smiled back, but saw that his boss's face had turned serious.

"Wages are determined by industry profits and the supply and demand of workers. I have nothing to say about that, but there should at least be pensions in the future."

Hong Fan said, and after a moment's hesitation, he gave a number.

"Let's set it at thirty taels per person for the time being."

Deng Xian disagreed when he heard this. He just thought that the new boss wanted to win people's hearts by doing favors. However, this was a good deed to accumulate merit and he didn't have to spend any money, so he naturally agreed.

After chatting, they returned to the ground.

The four guards finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw their master coming out, but they were even more surprised when they saw the cut and tied dress clearly.

The sun was high in the sky and it was time for lunch.

Some miners who were responsible for pumping water and transporting water came out of the mine in groups of three or four to eat, while the people in charge of mining at the bottom of the mine could only eat the cold food they brought down early in the morning because it was too troublesome to go up and down.

The Shen family's convoy naturally brought luxurious meals for their eldest daughter to enjoy. The housekeeper even prepared a few special meals for the guests out of consideration for the social etiquette, but Hong Fan politely declined and instead asked Deng Xian for a miner's set meal.

Shen Tiexin didn't understand why, but he felt that he couldn't be looked down upon, so he followed suit.

It was only when the food was delivered that she realized the problem.

A pair of bamboo chopsticks were placed on a shallow clay bowl, which contained two gray hard steamed buns, with some Chinese spinach and kohlrabi boiled in water placed on the edge. The only oil and water was a piece of fatty cured pork.

Even compared with the swill that the Shen residence used to feed the dogs, it was far inferior.

Shen Tiexin bit his lip and was about to speak, but saw Hong Fan calmly took it, holding the bowl and walking towards where the miners were squatting.

Although she couldn't possibly eat the food, she made up her mind and followed him anyway.

Even though the crowd coming out of the well gathered at the vent, there was still a strong sour smell in the air.

When Shen Tiexin saw Hong Fan squatting next to a circle of elderly miners, she stood three or four meters away with a frown on her face - fortunately, no one dared to look up at her face, so no one saw her disgusted expression.

The two nobles interrupted the crowd's originally pleasant meal time. Even though Hong Fan tried his best to be pleasant, he could only get some stiff and brief responses.

After several rounds of ineffective questions and answers, Shen Tiexin gradually became impatient. Suddenly, he heard Hong Fan speaking in a dialect he had never heard before. With just a few words, the group of men with smoky faces started smiling and talking.

"We are all refugees who escaped from Huaiyang State. I came here four years ago, and he came here two years ago. About 30% to 40% of the people in this mine are like us."

Shen Tiexin realized that Hong Fan had just spoken the dialect of Huaiyang State.

"The scariest time was when we were transporting goods out of the mountains at night. We were surrounded by wolves. The green eyes of the animals were as bright as beads and frightening. Later, we all used hatchets to hit the car board hard to scare them away."

Shen Tiexin thought that he had only seen dogs in his life, but never seen wolves.

"If I have to say I'm not satisfied, it's mainly because the house is too damp. The place I live in now is made of wooden poles with grass as the roof, surrounded by mud walls, and a wooden board as the bed, which makes me feel like I'm lying on a coffin. Sometimes I feel a chill on my waist and back in the middle of the night, and I can find a long worm when I touch it with my hand."

Shen Tiexin took a breath of cold air from between his teeth.

"It is inevitable that people will die in mining. People die every few months in the mines. Roof collapse (rock collapse), gas (methane), water seepage (groundwater gushing out through cracks and flooding the mine), rock burst (impact ground pressure, accumulated internal stress causes rock to burst and shoot out), if you encounter it, it is very difficult to survive.

Fortunately, there are still cave pigs in the mine - cave pigs are mice. They often steal the food hanging on the pillars, but not only do we not get angry, we also leave some leftovers for them at every meal. Cave pigs are smarter than humans. Once there is a disaster like water seepage or rock burst, they will run around frantically. Two months ago, the roof of the iron mine next door collapsed, and three young men escaped the disaster by relying on this..."

It was the first time that Shen Tiexin heard that mice were actually useful.

After chatting for two quarters of an hour, Hong Fan finished the food in the earthenware bowl, stood up and said goodbye to the black-faced people, indicating that Deng Xian did not need to follow him.

On the way back, Shen Tiexin followed quietly for half the way, then suddenly looked up and asked.

"How do you know that?"

"what?"

Hong Fan was stunned.

"You are a star god. You like numerology and practice martial arts diligently, and you have achieved good results. This is what my ancestors told me. But a person needs to put in effort to do everything. How come you know so much about people's livelihood and mining, and you can even speak their dialect?"

Shen Tiexin spoke a long sentence in one breath, with stubbornness in his words.

“You’re talking about this…”

Hong Fan suddenly understood.

"In fact, there are many things that you don't need to learn deliberately. You will naturally know them after traveling thousands of miles. From September last year to March this year, I stayed in Anmin County of Huaiyang State. I learned the local dialect by osmosis. I also fought in the war for a year. I had to dig the ground and walls many times when attacking cities. So I learned a lot about earthworks."

He smiled sadly and stopped talking.

"This is the end of the mine. You just didn't have lunch. Take a break for half an hour. Then we'll go look at the iron ore."

After saying this, Hong Fan turned and left.

Shen Tiexin was helped onto the carriage and allowed Lingxi to change her dusty dress.

The low table was already filled with freshly cooked delicacies.

As she looked at it, she was reminded of last year’s three-day banquet.

It was the spring of April, when the grass was green and the birds were singing. Warm blood was spilled between the two people.

Now, a year has passed, one person has traveled light and crossed the distant mountains and rivers, while the other is still walking alone and cannot leave the starting point.

Shen Tiexin thought so and shed tears of grievance.

(End of this chapter)