The late Ming Dynasty in the living room

Chapter 49 The Beginning of the Black Brick Kiln

He originally thought that with Chongzhen's suspicious character, he would send a eunuch to investigate first. (The incident at the Great Court meeting seriously irritated Chongzhen)
The three of them walked to the foot of the bell tower. Pang Tiande had seen it many times and was not surprised.

But Min Wen Gong's eyes had stopped moving.

In fact, clocks had been introduced to the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli period. As a member of the scholar-bureaucrats, Min Wengong had also seen clocks.

But how could the crude, bulky driven iron bell brought by the missionaries compare with what was in front of us?

At this time, there were many ordinary people who had the same expression as Min Wenggong in front of the bell tower. They all came from the county to see the "sacred object".

Since the bell tower was erected, people from nearby areas have come here every day. Some of them have dull expressions, some have greedy eyes, and some simply kneel down to worship.

Now there is a man kneeling down to worship. Not only does he worship himself, he also brings his son from Shiting Village to worship with him.

This person is Old Man Fan, the "technical consultant" of the brick kiln, who just escaped death from the beggar gang.

Old Man Fan and his son Fan Laoshi took out a chicken, a fish and a piece of meat from a bamboo basket.

When these things were taken out, everyone around them immediately looked at them, and many people swallowed their saliva involuntarily.

In this day and age, if an ordinary person can serve these things when worshiping gods, it is already an absolute generosity.

"From now on, every fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, you will come here with me to pay homage to Immortal Pan. When I die, you will come too."

Old Man Fan was setting things up and talking to Fan honestly.

Fan Laoshi didn't dare to speak, but there was a reluctant look on his face: Instead of coming to worship God, he might as well be tending the crops in the fields.

Old Man Fan glared at him and said, "If it weren't for Pan Shenxian, I would have died in the hands of those Huazis. Who else will make money for you to find a wife in the future?"

When money and wife were mentioned, Fan Laoshi immediately understood.

He nodded quickly and said, "Come on, I'll come. When daddy dies, I'll come too!"

The brick kiln is still in a state of disarray.

In addition to the mud bricks and hay that were all over the floor before, there are now a lot of messy things.

Among them were various "weapons", tattered clothes, bamboo poles and cloth flags (from the Beggar Clan), many broken bowls and two corpses.

Although more than a dozen people from the Beggar Clan were seriously injured, they are still holding on (you can work after you hold on, come on!). These two unlucky guys were trampled by their own people when they were escaping.

These two people were seriously injured and were already cold.

When Fang Yu, Min Wen, Gong and Pang Tiande arrived, they saw more than 80 beggars captured today busy in this mess.

They picked up the smashed mud bricks with their hands and put them into the basket, and neatly stacked the discarded refractory bricks. They were cleaning up the garbage and rags all over the floor.

Surrounding them were more than thirty blue dogs carrying sticks. If they saw anyone who dared to be lazy or slow to move, they would rush up and hit them with sticks.

Although there were more than twice as many of them, and weapons could be found everywhere on the ground, they were all honest and no one dared to complain.

They are now in a state of disarray (Big Bone and the leader have been dragged away to build roads), and they are also frightened by the strange scene.

"It is said that the people in the Beggar Clan are lazy and unwilling to work. Isn't this a good job?" Fang Yu looked at it.

Min Wen Gong also stroked his beard and nodded, obviously very much in agreement with this "beggar gang's labor reform plan."

After all, there isn’t that much food to eat in other county jails.

You can't kill them all, right?In that case, Min Wen Gong would be known as an executioner.

Pang Tiande worriedly said: "There are still too many people, so we should take more precautions." This is for sure. There are more than 80 of them now. If Min Wenggong's work of eradicating the beggar gang goes smoothly, there may be hundreds more. .

With Lan Gouzi's small number of people, they would definitely not be able to suppress them.

But Fang Yu had already thought about it. From now on, this brick kiln might as well become a place of exile.

Now it is a beggar gang, and there may be bandits in the future (there are quite a lot of bandits near Qifengkou), and maybe there will be slaves (there will be, such as slaves who enter the customs and rob).

In short, this brick kiln will completely turn into a black brick kiln full of oppression, blood and tears.

Therefore, it should be sealed as soon as possible, and the blue dogs guarding it should be equipped with guns as soon as possible, so that they are not afraid of tormenting them.

Wang Mouse was also among the beggars working. He was hit on the head with a stick and his forehead still hurts.

Those blue dogs have already said that they will work here from now on. They will clean up the brick kiln first, and then the next work will be to lay bricks and burn the kiln.

And they didn't say the time limit. Is it one or two years?Or five or ten years?

Even if he is sentenced to jail in the Yamen, doesn't he still have to have a sentence?If they don't say anything, that means they don't intend to let them go, and they might have to work until they die.

Wang Mouse thought that he would have nothing but work to do in the future, and he felt extremely sad in his heart.

He, Wang Shu, must not like to work, otherwise why would he join the beggar gang?
Although I ate two steamed buns for lunch (I really couldn’t find any worse food, I will switch to buckwheat and sweet potatoes in the future), the king mouse was weak and weak when it came to work.

Others can move six or seven refractory bricks at a time, but he always finds ways to take two less.

At this time, Wang Mouse saw the county minister Min coming over, and he suddenly became excited.

The relationship between the Beggar Gang and the Yamen is very good. Maybe the County Lord is here to rescue them!
Not only Wang Mouse was excited, but also the beggar who was working was very happy to see Min Wen Gong.

Unfortunately, things backfired as Master Min was patronizing Mr. Fang and completely ignored Wang Shu and the others.

Well...not only did he not take the beggars seriously, he also planned to demolish the beggar gang's home and send more beggars to keep them company.

a few days later.

"Raise the gun! Shoot!"

"Team [-], stand back and recharge, team [-], step forward!"

On the training ground of the Security Department, there are four teams of players wearing blue clothes lined up neatly.

They all held a long black wooden stick in their hands, which they raised or put down at the command of the instructor, or pretended to load it with gunpowder.

Because the matchlock guns for them had not yet been made, Fang Yu asked Pang Tiande to find two newer ones from the county weapons depot and give them to the training officer to get familiar with them first.

Fang Yu also pulled out the matchlock training manual from his mind and told them all.

So now the team members are doing fake movement training.

You need to master the movements and drills first, and then you can start using it directly after the gun is built.

By the way, because there are patrols in the camp and guards at the brick kiln, the security department has now expanded to 90 people.

Among the 40 newly joined, only 15 are from Xincheng, and the other 25 are from the county and nearby villages.

The one who was shouting commands from the front now was the top leader of the security department, Chief Gao.

But he's not a sophomore in high school, but a senior in high school for his good brother.

(End of this chapter)