"You lazy black birds! The brick kiln has already been fired up, and you all better sleep on it and watch carefully! The Samurai in the county are waiting for the bricks. If the bricks are burnt, I'll pluck all your feathers and hang you naked from a tree!"
Outside Apa County, at the newly built brick kiln site, the charcoal kilns merge into a single stretch, puffing blue smoke like tombstones. Dozens of tall kilns are lined up in a row, with lots of brick batches drying under straw shelters, and piles of charcoal stacked in the corners. A robust middle-aged leader, dressed in short clothes, stood in the middle holding a staff. In front of him were over 400 craftsmen and apprentices, shirtless, sweating profusely, and busy with their heads down.
