Speaking of which, Zhang Xianzhong, the most heinous bandit leader, was sent to the mines instead of being sent to Lingchi, the capital.
Originally, his fate after being captured was that he would be sent to the capital and then be cut into pieces.
Unexpectedly, there was a conflict between the imperial court and Xujiazhuang.
Damn it, the civil servants revealed everything.
Xujiazhuang did not suffer any losses.
It's just that the three generals Yang Yufan, Wang Hong, and Deng Qi who cooperated with Xujiazhuang, as well as Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army, were all in bad luck. They had made great achievements, but not only did they not receive any rewards from the court, but they were also treated by the court's envoys.
The harsh warnings, in the end, equaled the merits and demerits, and achieved nothing.
But do the three commander-in-chiefs care about the rewards from the imperial court? Will they feel heartbroken and regretful?
It was indeed a little heartbreaking, but when I entered the baggage camp and saw the boxes of white silver coins, Xujiazhuang canned meat, ham, woolen coats, mechanical watches, half-body plate armor and other materials, I felt heartbroken and regretful.
The love is gone at all.
The officers and soldiers at the middle and lower levels have no feeling at all, and even feel angry. What is the imperial court? It is better to cooperate with Xujiazhuang forever, at least give Xujiazhuang a prisoner, and immediately give real silver coins, which is better than the imperial court.
Ten times.
Only Lu Xiangsheng, the military commander of the Tianxiong Army, could not bear the blow of not being trusted by the court. He was depressed for many days, as if the sky was falling. He even wanted to die to show his loyalty, but was stopped in time and dissuaded. Now the Tianxiong Army
Everyone from top to bottom is doing his ideological work, trying to persuade him not to think too hard.
Since they were no longer trusted, and there was no possibility of being promoted to a higher position, they simply smashed the jar and sent the more than 30 thieves who were originally planned to be prisoners to the court, except for the leader of the alliance, King Zijin Liang, for his own use.
All the other thieves in the capital were sold to Xujiazhuang and asked to go mining in Shandong!
After all, these more than thirty young men can be exchanged for a bounty of thousands of silver dollars.
If the court doesn't give any rewards, can it still prevent them from finding ways to make money on their own?
Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong was lucky enough to save a life. Although his legs were broken, they could still be cured. When he regained his mobility, he would still be a capable miner. In addition to the atonement silver, he would still be able to work.
Just pay back the medical bills you owe.
This made Zhang Xianzhong, who had been in despair and despair, suddenly come to life, and he was ecstatic. He was saved from a desperate situation, and survived again from a desperate situation. It seemed that the court could not do anything to him, and the king of hell was reluctant to take him away in advance.
Destiny.
Even the destiny may be in him. As long as the destiny is not lost, he will have a chance to make a comeback!
Zhang Xianzhong has the same idea as Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang. There are too many poor people in the world, and there are too many common people who are oppressed to the limit by the government and gentry. As long as he can start and incite them, he can have an army of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
, and then it grew like a snowball, and one day it could overwhelm the imperial court.
So he was escorted to a mine to mine and was about to become a miserable mining slave. He did not feel the slightest despair, but instead saw an opportunity.
Take the Fengming Mountain Coal Mine in front of you, for example. In the eyes of ordinary bandits, this is a mine, a prison they cannot escape from, and the end of their lives and hopes.
But in Zhang Xianzhong's eyes, this place is a volcano, a volcano that can be incited to explode. The poor people here are waiting for his spark to ignite.
But the poor people came running over with happy faces.
Not ignited by his spark.
Instead, he slapped himself hard in the face.
Zhang Xianzhong was stunned, but he was also very shocked and stunned. What happened to this man? We are all oppressed poor people. It would be fine if we didn't get set on fire by him immediately. He actually beat himself indiscriminately.
What's the point of calling him "grandpa"?
"How can you hit someone?"
"Why did you hit my Ah Da?"
"Do you still have Wang Fa? How can you bully people like this?"
"Master Steward, I hit someone for no reason. Please make the decision for me."
Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong's four adopted sons - Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi - all stood up and protected Zhang Xianzhong. They kept using Shaanxi accents and asked Mao Xilong why he hit people, and hoped that the stewards would
Help uphold justice - it's not that they don't want to fight back immediately, but there are hundreds of rebel miners from Dongjiang Town who came, all of them big and round, and they, the bandits, have been traveling in the ice and snow for more than a month and can only eat half a meal every day.
No one has the strength to resist.
You can only talk the truth verbally.
"Haha~"
After listening to the accusations of these teenagers, Mao Xilong laughed, his face stained with coal dust, showing a few white teeth, and said: "Why do I hit people? This is a good question. No why, I see this
Having a broken leg is not pleasing to the eye, so I need to teach him a lesson and let him know the rules here! And don’t forget to call me “grandpa”, otherwise I’ll beat you every time you see me!”
"You, you are so unreasonable!"
The young man Li Dingguo had no choice but to confront each other tit for tat, glaring at the opponent with an unyielding expression.
"Be reasonable? Is this a place to be reasonable? When you Shaanxi thieves go to kill the whole families of those big families, will you reason with them or listen to them? Remember! In the future, we will be the ones in the coal mines.
Third Master, you newcomers are the grandsons. From now on, you must listen to us and let us go. Otherwise, you Shaanxi thieves will look good!"
Mao Xilong said loudly, which attracted the approval and applause of the rebel miners in Dongjiang Town.
Even the free miners and Jiangnan miners standing aside to watch the excitement held their hands and didn't think there was anything wrong with it. They all thought it was natural and natural.
Li Dingguo and other young men looked around and found that none of the local miners were on their side. They had no choice but to come to the steward in despair and beg him to make the decision for them, Shaanxi people.
Manager Hu shook his head and said: "According to the rules of the mine, fighting is allowed, but if the injury results in serious injury and cannot go down to mine, the compensation will be 300 yuan per day until the ability to work is restored. Slapping and other minor injuries will not be treated.
You might as well forget it."
"Since minor injuries don't matter, can we fight him back?" Sun Kewang said sadly and angrily.
"No, the faulty party will be fined 100 silver dollars. If you can afford the money, you can pay it back. In addition, if you accidentally beat someone to death, you will have to pay 500 silver dollars." Manager Hu said.
"Obviously we were beaten first, how come we are the ones at fault?" Looking at the complacent faces of Mao Xilong and others, Liu Wenxiu found it hard to accept.
"This is the rule in the mine. You can't accept it but you must abide by it!" Manager Hu said with a straight face and no expression.
"Little brat, come on, come here and beat your third master so that he can make some money."
Mao Xilong stretched his face over and started provoking more unscrupulously. It felt so good to be a master. As long as these Shaanxi bandits accompanied him in the mines, he was willing to dig mines here for the rest of his life!
"That's enough. Hopefully, Dingguo, all of you will stand down!"
Zhang Xianzhong opened his mouth and said to Mao Xilong and others: "Masters, Zhang is new here and doesn't understand the rules. He deserves the slap he just received. If he doesn't feel relieved, it doesn't matter if he slaps a few more times. I just hope that you will give him a lot of help."
Don't argue with the younger generations."
"Huh, he's flexible and flexible, he's quite a character... Brothers, let's go to the cafeteria to eat. We'll have an extra meal today!"
Mao Xilong, who was almost satisfied, waved and left with hundreds of brothers.
Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and other young men clenched their fists tightly, never forgetting today's humiliation.
…
soon.
The T-shaped work shed area was built just a few days ago.
Under the arrangements of the mine managers, more than 5,000 new miners were all properly accommodated. Although the accommodation was a bit crowded, it was much better than sleeping outdoors.
In addition, they also had a warm stomach-nourishing porridge, in which you could see some diced eggs and diced meat, which was nutritious and delicious. The manager said that if they drank this kind of stomach-nourishing porridge for three days in a row, they would have the strength to work in the mine.
, they can support themselves by digging coal.
Zhang Xianzhong's leg has not healed yet, and he will have to recover for another two months before he can go to the mine. However, he has no interest in mining, and it is impossible for him to do this.
So as soon as he settled down, he couldn't stop thinking. He ordered Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and other adopted sons to inquire about all the information about the mine, looking for escape routes, or investigating the living conditions of other miners.
See if there is any possibility of co-opting and inciting.
Three days later.
Like a jigsaw puzzle made up of different pieces, Zhang Xianzhong basically understood all the information about Fengmingshan Coal Mine.
But as he learned more and more information, Zhang Xianzhong did not see more and more hope, but gradually felt despair.
Escape is impossible.
There is a nearly ten-foot-high fence outside the work shed area, and there is a dock blocking the intersection at the foot of Fengming Mountain. There is also a wire fence surrounding the entire mining area, and multiple fences are set up high up.
There are three sentry posts - it is difficult to break through any of these three lines of defense.
And even if you are lucky enough to pass through the three lines of defense, because the captive miners are all wearing more conspicuous yellow miners' uniforms, even if they escape from the mining area, nearby villages and towns, important intersections, and even the government, because the miners who are returned can get a reward,
Therefore, they all took action enthusiastically and laid out layers of dragnets.
That is to say, as long as you are a miner in Shandong, if you wear yellow miner uniforms, or if your accent is found to be wrong by the locals, and you do not have identification documents to guide you, there is a high probability that you will be turned away and the probability of successful escape is infinitely close to zero.
Moreover, the punishment for failing to escape was very high. The first time he was beaten severely, he was fined silver for the second time, and the third time he had nothing to say and was sent directly to Lu Youxing's flesh and blood iron mine. It was said that there would be death but no life.
Zhang Xianzhong had to give up his escape plan.
Is it possible to incite rebellion in the mines, rise up, and lead tens of thousands of miners to resist and rebel?
This is Zhang Xianzhong’s specialty, surely it would work here, right?
Sorry can't.
Because free miners come to mine voluntarily to make money, not for rebellion.
The Jiangnan miners will become free miners if they persist for another year or two, and they are all very motivated.
As for the rebel miners in Dongjiang Town, Mao Xilong's slap told Zhang Xianzhong that it would be difficult for these third masters to incite and bribe them.
As for the more than 5,000 new miners who came with Zhang Xianzhong, although many of them were fellow Shaanxi residents of Zhang Xianzhong, most of them were not his subordinates. They had been severely disrupted and scattered. Except for the four adopted sons around him, there were only a few of them.
Damn him - what's more, even if these five thousand people listen to him, they won't have an advantage in the mines, and most of them are old and weak. Once they start an incident, they will only be suppressed quickly.
"Hiss~ What a powerful strategy of differentiation and disintegration. Who designed it? It is extremely vicious and treacherous!"
Zhang Xianzhong took a deep breath and felt that it would be difficult for him to display his best skills here.
There was only one last way before him: to mine honestly and save enough atonement silver.
"The atonement silver for our bandits is the same as that of the Dongjiang Town rebels. It is also 500 silver dollars. Add 30 silver dollars for leg treatment, and you can save up to 530 silver dollars."
"I'll let the four of them, Ke Wang, Ding Guo, Wen Xiu, and Neng Qi, earn this money. Each of them only needs to save more than a hundred silver dollars."
"Put their wages in advance, and in two to three years, I, Lao Zhang, will be able to escape from this prison."
Zhang Xianzhong told his four adopted sons this plan, saying that when he got out, he would soon pull out a large army to break through the mine and rescue them all.
Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and other young men looked at each other, then shook their heads.
"Ada, you can't do this. According to the mine's regulations, you can only earn the atonement silver yourself and cannot be advanced by others."
"The mine manager has thought of this move for a long time, so people who are familiar with him, except for the free miners, will not be placed in the same mine, but will be scattered in different mine tunnels."
"Ah Da, it's better not to think about it. It's useless. I've already considered everything."
"This place is like a web of heaven and earth. The only thing we can do is to dig hard and try to save enough money to redeem ourselves as soon as possible."
Hear the words of these adopted sons.
Zhang Xianzhong felt as if he had been struck by lightning, as if he was watching the last door close.
He realized that he would have to mine for at least ten years before he could leave this place and continue to pursue his destiny.
"In more than ten years, I am twenty-eight this year, why can't I dig mine until I am more than forty? By that time, will Zhang Xianzhong still be able to use the knife, kill people, and enjoy the glory and wealth?"
Poof~
Thinking of this, he raised his head and spurted out a mouthful of blood, scaring the adopted sons into panic.