Fenghou

Chapter 439 Accident
Yang Zaixing gritted his teeth with hatred, and asked, "Who is this Chief Steward Ren?"

"His full name is Ren Zhongqun. He was sent by Wen Siyuan from Xixia, and he was in charge of smelting gold and silver in Xixia."

"Is he a party member?"

The little steward shook his head quickly, "He is Han, one of the few Han officials in the Western Xia court."

At this time, Yang Zaixing had vaguely understood that this batch of silver should not have been transported to Xixia, otherwise Cao Baozong would not have sent someone to transport the silver, and it must have been embezzled by Ren Zhongqun.

"Where is Wang Lun?"

A commander stepped forward and said: "Humble post!"

"Lead a thousand soldiers to chase westward, don't ride a horse, chase to Dingxi Walled City, if you don't find the enemy, immediately withdraw!"

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Commander Wang Lun chased westward with two thousand soldiers
Yang Zaixing was really frustrated, his first mission failed, how could he explain to Du Tong when he went back?
But he still had a task ahead of him, and he had to force himself to order the steward to find the leader of the miners.

Yang Zaixing used an empty warehouse as the meeting hall. Not long after, more than a dozen mining slave leaders walked into the warehouse. There were Han, Qiang, and Tubo people in the warehouse, almost all of whom were middle-aged.

These people have been miners since they were young, and they have been miners for almost [-] years. They have been infected with diseases, so their life expectancy will not be too long, and they will be about [-] years old.

It is precisely because they have accepted their fate and stopped fighting that the Xixia people let them be the leaders of the mine slaves and implement self-government management. As long as they don't run away, Xixia people generally don't care about their daily life.

The dozen or so people were very calm, completely devoid of the joy and excitement of being liberated, and there was no difference between attending the discussion as usual.

"Everyone, please sit down!"

More than a dozen people sat down expressionlessly, looking at Yang Zaixing blankly.

"We are not the Xixia army, but the Song army. The Xixia army has already run away. From now on, you will no longer be slaves."

More than a dozen mine slave leaders finally responded. They discussed in low voices for a while, and an older man asked, "Is Song Jun going to let us go back?"

Yang Zaixing heard what he said awkwardly, frowned and said: "Why do you want to go back, aren't you from Song Dynasty?"

"We have nowhere to go in the Song Dynasty, and we still have at least one home in Xixia."

Another younger miner leader was afraid of angering the Song general, so he quickly explained: "The general doesn't know, we have lived in Xixia for more than [-] years, and we are already free. We have contacted the Song Dynasty family for several years, but they have long since disappeared, and the village has been destroyed, so we decided to spend the rest of our lives in Xixia."

Yang Zaixing nodded, "Okay! I'll give you two choices. The first choice is to let you be free. You can go wherever you want, whether you go back to your hometown in the Song Dynasty or go back to Xixia for the elderly. Everything is up to you. Two options, you stay and continue mining, and change your status from miner slaves to miners."

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, and the leader of the younger miners asked, "Is there any difference between the two?"

"Of course there is a difference. Miners are slaves, and miners are civilians. Miners sign a three-year agreement. You get wages, one hundred yuan a day, and one day off every ten days. If you are sick, you will see a doctor. Your family will move to Guichuan County. You can still read."

"What about food? Although Xixia people don't pay wages, they give us food."

"How much food do the Xixia people give you a day?" Yang Zaixing asked.

"One liter per day for adults, half a liter per child."

"Okay! Even if a family of three, two and a half liters of grain per day, seventy-five liters a month, less than eight buckets of rice, now thirty yuan for a bucket of rice, and only two hundred and forty yuan for eight buckets of rice, you can earn it in less than three days. Let me tell you, we are recruiting miners to open iron mines in Gongzhou, and the price is only [-] yuan a day, which is only half of your wages. You should think about it carefully, do you want money or rice?"

More than a dozen people discussed for a long time, and said one after another: "General, let us go back and tell everyone, let them decide for themselves, whether they want to go or stay?"

"Okay, I'll give you two days to make a decision!"

Two days later, Chen Qing led two thousand supporting cavalry to the silver mine, and Yang Zaixing came to plead guilty.

After listening to Yang Zaixing's report, Chen Qing was also speechless for a while. He waved his hands and said, "The contract was dropped a few months ago. This matter has nothing to do with you. How is the situation of the mine?"

"They have been allowed to choose by themselves according to the will of the government. Most of them are willing to stay and be miners. Only a few want to find their families. The humble job gave them a little travel expenses and food, and let them go. There are about four hundred miners. The remaining people are all Qiang and Tubo people, and they can start working tomorrow.”

Chen Qing nodded, turned his thoughts back, and asked, "I believe you are also investigating the situation of Ren Zhongqun these two days. Don't you have any clues?"

"There is one clue. It is the warehouse manager in Didao County. He is a fellow of Ren Zhongqun. He may know the details of this person."

"You mean Li Hua, who is in charge?"

"It's him. I heard that he has been to the mine several times, and Ren Zhongqun warmly entertained him every time."

Li Hua was the warehouse steward who first revealed to Chen Qing that there was [-] catties of crude silver in the silver mine, and now Chen Qing continues to let him be the steward.

Chen Qing frowned. It was this person who told him the news, so he sent Yang Zaixing to the silver mine. In the end, he intercepted two thousand boxes of 'coarse silver' in time. Got it, they had no idea it was two thousand boxes of stones.

Could it be that this Li Hua is from Ren Zhongqun, and he deliberately leaked the news of Yinzi to himself?

Chen Qing was also suspicious, he had to rush back to find this Li Hua as soon as possible.

"What else is there? Didn't you send Wang Lun to lead the army to the Dingxi Walled City? What happened?"

"We couldn't catch up with the retreating army, they should have retreated to Fanghan County, Hezhou.

Chen Qing got up and said: "I came to the silver mine this time because [-] Xixia troops came here from the abandoned official road in the north. I was afraid that you would suffer, so I came to support you, but it was strange. I sent scouts to I searched on the abandoned official road, but didn't see any traces of the Xixia army, I don't know if they walked too slowly, or they got some news."

"Should have gotten the news!"

Yang Zaixing said: "Half of the cavalry guards were wiped out by the humble officials, and the other half ran away. Their route back to Lanzhou had to take a section of the abolished official road that everyone said, and then fled north. They must have encountered this Xixia army, and There are [-] cavalry in the humble position, enough to deal with the [-] Xixia army."

Chen Qing took two steps with his hands behind his back, and his eyes became more puzzled, "This is even more unreasonable. The opponent has seven thousand troops. Even if they don't participate in the robbing of silver, as long as you shoot down a thousand camels with random arrows, your transportation will be huge. The problem is, this is one hundred thousand catties of crude silver, and neither side will give up easily."

"Is it because they are worried that they will turn around and intercept our team on the way?"

Chen Qing shook his head, "I'm worried that the other party just made a feint and never left Didao County at all. Their goal is still Didao County."

"But. Didao County has Niu Gao and Liu Cui, and [-] troops. It shouldn't be so easy for the other party to take back Didao County!"

"That's the way it is said, once the inside and outside cooperate, even if Didao County is kept, there will be heavy casualties."

Chen Qing's worries deepened, and he said to Yang Zaixing: "Although your cavalry is strong, you still can't be careless. I will lead the army back first, and you can wait a few days to make sure there are no Xixia troops before returning. Arrange for the army to take over, and you don't have to worry about it,"

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Chen Qing only rested for an hour in the mine, and immediately led his army back to Didao County.

(End of this chapter)