The storyteller who walks the rivers and lakes

Chapter 22 Intrigue

The Heishan mining area is located in the Heishan outside Guangning City and belongs to the Heishan Mountain Range.

Yandi is mountainous and sparsely populated, so bandits and bandits abound and wreak havoc on the land.

Ten years ago, the four bandits gathered in the mountains and forests, gathered tens of thousands of people, and ravaged the land outside the pass.Massacring villages and villages, intercepting and killing merchants coming and going, the land outside the customs is full of mourners.

In the end, it was the imperial court who sent hundreds of head hunters to defeat the four bandits in one fell swoop in conjunction with the strength of the local martial arts.

Among the four bandits, the eldest is the black-faced Yan Luo Cao Yingtai, Chidiqianli Jiao Wenlong, chicken and dog don't leave Xiong Baitong, and Wang Hu who cut the grass and wiped out the roots.

The weakest of the four, Wang Hu, has the innate Aperture Melting Realm, and the boss, the black-faced Yan Luo, Cao Yingtai, is said to be at the peak of the Innate God-Treasure Realm, and he is only one step away from being a great master of the Yuanshen Realm.

However, although the four bandits at that time were powerful, they still could not escape the fate of being wiped out in the face of the alliance of the imperial court and many martial arts forces.

Among the four bandits, Chidiqianli Jiao Wenlong was punched and killed by an innate master of the Tibetan realm in Tiexinbao, while Xiong Baitong and Wang Hu were captured alive by Zheng Zecheng, the chief arrester of Yan County.

The only remaining boss, the black-faced Yan Luo Cao Yingtai, was also seriously injured, and took dozens of remnant guards into the Montenegro Mountains and disappeared.

Although initially those Jianghu forces that participated in the alliance were worried about whether they would be retaliated by that Cao Yingtai, but ten years later, there was still no trace of that Cao Yingtai, so everyone believed that the black-faced Yan Luo should have died of a relapse of his injury. In the deep mountains and old forests, gradually no one paid attention to it.

Because they are all mountain roads, even after so many years of construction by the Lu family, the road to enter the mining area is still rough and bumpy, so Lu Fei and the others walked this way for several days.

After entering Montenegro, a large-scale cottage appeared in front of Lu Fei.The front is a wall made of bluestones, standing against the mountain, it is more than ten meters high, and there are high-rise arrow towers around it, which looks much more formal than the chaotic mining area in Lu Fei's mind.

The car stopped in front of the gate of the village, Lu Fei opened the curtain and walked down, Fu'er followed closely behind him.

As soon as he got out of the car, he saw the huge wooden gate in front of him slowly open, and then a middle-aged steward in brocade clothes trotted out from inside.

The visitor had a humble smile on his face, and he saluted Lu Fei, saying: "Little man Liu Qing, Tim is the general manager of the Black Mountain Mining Area, and I have met the fourth son."

Lu Fei frowned slightly.

He also heard about this Liu Qing from Fang Luoyun when he came here. His identity is not simple. He is the elder brother of his aunt. The old man of the Lu family.

However, this person is narrow-minded, always flattering his master and being mean to others, and he likes to play tricks behind his back.Lu Hai was a little uncomfortable with it, but due to the face of the eldest lady, he couldn't really deal with him before the other party made a mistake, so he just threw him to the Black Mountain mining area, out of sight and out of mind Don't bother!
Nodding his head, Lu Fei entered Dazhai and asked Liu Qing, "Guard Liu, show me all the account books of the mining area later."

Liu Qing bowed his body and said humbly: "Young master, if you want to know anything, you can just ask me, Lao Liu. There are too many books, and the records are complicated. If you haven't really learned it, you might be able to figure it out in ten days and a half months." Not sure."

Lu Fei paused slightly.

Obviously, this guy has something to say...

But at this time, the gate of Dazhai was full of people waiting to greet him, and Liu Qing's attitude was extremely humble. Without a reason, Lu Fei couldn't possibly turn his back on him directly.

"Okay, so Guanshi Liu, what is our monthly output, how many miners, and how many guards?"

"Returning to your son, now our mine can dig out 50 catties of ore every month, but these ores must be refined once before they can be sold, so after refining, we can get [-] catties of refined ore."

"Three-fifths of these refined ores are usually sold directly, and all the proceeds will be handed over to the family. The rest will be directly melted into iron in the mine, and part of it will be used to make family weapons. Some will be sold at high prices."

Lu Fei nodded.

"Then what are the prices of these refined ores and iron?"

Liu Qing said without the slightest hesitation: "The refined ore produced by our Lu family is of the best quality even in Liaodong outside the customs, so the price is relatively high. For refined ore, on average, it costs one tael of silver per catty. As for the iron, it is an excellent material for casting weapons. Even an ordinary blacksmith who makes weapons can easily forge weapons of a higher grade with this iron. As long as it is a casting master, it can forge third-grade weapons. Even the famous swords of the fourth grade come out, so the price is more expensive than gold, and it costs 2000 taels of silver per catty!"

Lu Fei raised his brows. Calculated in this way, the mine in the eastern district is almost the most profitable business of the Lu family.

"As for the personnel in this mining area. Now we have three open-pit mining areas, and there are a total of four mines being dug. There are more than 60 people in each mine. These mines are full of slaves and prisoners, so There are a total of 500 miners. A month ago, more than 30 people died due to the collapse of the mine. Therefore, the mine bought another batch of prisoners from Quang Ninh Prefecture, and they will come back in three days.

As for the guards, there are a total of 120 three people, led by Captain Song Shan.It's not a coincidence for you to come, my lord. Captain Song took people to make an inspection just now, so I didn't have time to greet you, my lord. Please forgive me! "

Nodding his head, Lu Fei looked at Liu Qing and said, "Okay, it seems that Manager Liu is very attentive to the mining area."

Liu Qing smiled slightly, and said, "Young Master, you are overwhelmed. Since the Patriarch entrusts such an important place as the mining area to the villain to take care of it, then the villain must not be careless, otherwise it will not be a disappointment to the Patriarch's trust."

"Okay. Although my father asked me to be the person in charge of the mining area, firstly, I don't have much experience in management, and secondly, I don't understand things in the mining area, so everything will be as usual in the future."

The corners of Liu Qing's drooping eyes unconsciously leaked a hint of color, and said: "Yes, young master! The villain has already prepared a place for you, the mountain road is rough all the way, young master, do you want to take a rest first? I have prepared a reception banquet for the young master, and I also invite the young master to honor it."

"Hehe, thank you, Guanshi Liu."

With a faint smile, Lu Fei went down to his residence under Liu Qing's hospitality.

On the other side, a young man wearing the Lu family's black guard uniform quickly came to an open-pit mining area, and ran towards a middle-aged man surrounded by everyone.

"Sir, something happened!"

Song Shan, the captain of the Lu family mining area guard, was a dark-complexioned, muscular middle-aged man with a two-meter long sword behind his back, looking mighty and domineering.

Seeing the person coming, Song Shan's expression darkened, and he said coldly, "I'm in a panic, what happened?"

"My lord, the family sent the fourth son Lu Fei to manage the mining area, and now he has been welcomed into Dazhai by Guanshi Liu!"

Hearing this, Song Shan's face suddenly darkened.

"The fourth son is here today, why didn't I know? Why didn't anyone notify me?"

Seeing this, the other guards looked at each other in blank dismay, but they didn't dare to speak out.

This kind of thing is too obvious, obviously that Guan Liu accidentally didn't tell Song Shan about it.

"Damn Liu Qing, you dare to trip me up behind my back!"

After a little thought, Song Shan understood, and immediately gritted his teeth and said, "Let's go, let's go back!"

(End of this chapter)