Yang Zaixing gritted his teeth with hatred and asked, "Who is this Manager Ren?"
"His full name is Ren Zhongqun. He was sent by Wen Siyuan of Xixia. He was responsible for smelting gold and silver in Xixia."
"Is he a party member?"
The young steward quickly shook his head, "He is a Han, one of the few Han officials in the Xixia 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 came forward and said: "I have a humble duty!"
"You lead a thousand soldiers to chase west. Don't ride on horseback. Chase them to the Dingxi Walled City. If you don't find the enemy, withdraw immediately!"
"I humbly obey my orders!"
The commander, Wang Lun, led two thousand soldiers and chased west...
Yang Zaixing was really frustrated. His first mission failed. How could he explain to the capital when he went back?
But he still had a mission, and he had to brace himself and ordered the steward to find the leader of the mine slaves.
........
Yang Zaixing used an empty warehouse as a meeting hall. Not long after, more than a dozen mining slave leaders walked into the warehouse. There were Han, Qiang, and Tubo people inside, almost all of whom were middle-aged.
These people have been working as mining slaves since they were young, and they have been working as mining slaves for almost twenty years. They have contracted various diseases, so their life span is not very long, and they are almost forty years old.
Precisely because they had accepted their fate and no longer fought, Xixia people made them leaders of the mining slaves and implemented autonomous management. As long as they did not run away, Xixia people generally would not interfere with their daily lives.
The dozen or so people were all calm, completely devoid of the joy and excitement of being liberated, and there was no difference from those who came to participate in discussions in normal times.
"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 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 then a slightly older man asked: "Does the Song Army plan to let us go back?"
Yang Zaixing heard what he said was awkward and frowned: "Why do you want to go back? Aren't you from Song Dynasty?"
"We have nowhere to go in the Song Dynasty. At least we still have a home in Xixia."
Another slightly younger mining slave leader was afraid of angering the Song general, so he quickly explained: "The general doesn't know that our group of people have been living in Xixia for more than 20 years, and we are actually free.
We had contacted our family members from the Song Dynasty in the past few years, but they had disappeared and their villages were 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 go freely. You can go wherever you want, whether you go back to your hometown in the Song Dynasty or go back to Xixia to retire. Everything is decided by you. The second
Two options, you stay and continue mining, and your identity changes from mine slave to miner."
Everyone looked at each other, and just now the younger mine slave leader asked: "Is there any difference between the two?"
"Of course there is a difference. Mine slaves are slaves and miners are civilians. The miners sign a three-year agreement. You are paid one hundred cents a day and have one day off every ten days. When you are sick, you will be treated by a doctor. Your family will move to Guichuan County. The children
You can still study.”
"What about food? Although the Xixia people don't pay us wages, they give us food."
"How much food do the Xixia people give you per day?" Yang Zaixing asked.
"One liter per day for adults and half a liter per day for children."
"Okay! Even if a family of three eats two and a half liters of grain per day, which is seventy-five liters per month, it is less than eight bushels of rice. Now it is thirty cents per bushel of rice, and eight bushels of rice is only two hundred and forty cents. It can be earned in less than three days.
Let me tell you, we are recruiting miners to open the iron mine in Gongzhou, and the salary is only fifty cents per day, which is only half of your salary. Think carefully, do you need 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 so that they can decide for themselves whether they want to leave 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 speechless for a while. He waved his hand and said: "The contract was switched a few months ago. This matter has nothing to do with you. How is the situation in the mine?"
"We have allowed them to choose according to the wishes of the capital. Most of them are willing to stay as miners. Only a few want to find their families. The humble post gave them some travel expenses and food and let them leave. There are about four hundred
The rest are Qiang and Tubo people, and we can start work tomorrow."
Chen Qing nodded, turned his thoughts back, and asked, "I believe you have also been investigating Ren Zhongqun's situation in the past two days. Don't you have any clues?"
"One clue is that the warehouse manager in Didao County is a fellow villager of Ren Zhongqun. It is possible that he knows this person's background."
"You mean Li Hua, the manager?"
"That's him. I heard that he has been to the mine several times, and Ren Zhongqun always entertained him warmly."
Li Hua was the warehouse manager who initially revealed to Chen Qing that the silver mine had 100,000 kilograms of crude silver. Now Chen Qing continues to make him the manager.
Chen Qing frowned. It was this person who told him the news, and he sent Yang Zaixing to the silver mine. In the end, he intercepted two thousand boxes of 'crude silver' in time. In the eyes of the Xixia people, these one hundred thousand kilograms of crude silver had been stolen by him.
When they got it, they had no idea it was two thousand boxes of stones.
Could it be that this Li Hua was from Ren Zhongqun and that he deliberately leaked the information about the money to him?
Chen Qing was also very 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 Dingxi Walled City? What was the result?"
"They were unable to catch up with the retreating army. They should have retreated to Fuhan County, Hezhou.
Chen Qing stood up and said: "I came to the silver mine this time because seven thousand Xixia troops were coming from the abandoned official road in the north. I was afraid that you would suffer a loss, so I came to support you, but strangely, I sent scouts there.
I searched along the Abandoned Official Road, but I didn't see any trace of the Xixia Army. I don't know if they were walking too slowly or if they got some news."
"You should have gotten the news!"
Yang Zaixing said: "Half of the cavalry guards were wiped out by me, and the other half ran away. Their route back to Lanzhou had to take a section of the Abolition of Officials Road, which was mentioned by Tongtong, and then fled north. They must have encountered this Xixia army, and
I have five thousand cavalry in my humble position, which is enough to deal with the seven thousand Xixia army."
Chen Qing took two steps with his hands behind his back, and his eyes became more confused, "This is even more unreasonable. The opponent has seven thousand troops. Even if they don't participate in robbing the silver, as long as you shoot down a thousand camels with arrows, your transportation will be huge."
The problem is, this is a hundred thousand catties of crude silver, and neither party will give up easily."
"Are you worried that they will turn back and intercept our team halfway?"
Chen Qing shook his head, "I'm worried that the other party was just a false shot and didn't leave Didao County at all. Their target is still Didao County."
"But... there are Niu Gao and Liu Cui in Didao County, as well as 7,000 troops. It shouldn't be that easy for the other party to take back Didao County!"
"That is to say, once the inside and outside cooperate, even if Didao County is saved, 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. You wait a few more days to make sure there are no Xixia troops before coming back. I will send another message to the mine."
Arrange for the army to take over and you don't have to worry about it,"
"I humbly obey my orders!"
Chen Qing only rested for an hour in the mine, and then immediately led his army back to Didao County.