Chapter 516: Angry Miners
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Cheng Shan sneered. “So what if he can’t spare me? I’m still the next head of the Cheng family. Your two sisters can forget about escaping from the private residence for the rest of their lives.’
Cheng Xu lowered his head and thought for a while. He looked up at him. “Auntie Qiong’s family lives on Bamboo Street.&125;”
Cheng Shan patted his face a few times in satisfaction and sneered, “It’s good to be so obedient early.” With that, he laughed and walked out.
Ding Yi and Hu Cheng worked day and night in the mine valley. They realized that the miners in the mine had long collapsed under the constant lack of food and rest. There were often miners who fell and were dragged into the small cave.
The two of them waited until the time they had planned, but Chu Shan and the others had yet to arrive. They were afraid that if they continued to slog inside, they would probably not even have the strength to escape in the end. The two of them began to look for an opportunity to escape.
On this day, the guards at the mine brought in more than ten people. When these people went down to the mine and saw the scene inside, a few tall men immediately began to resist and shouted, “On the way, you didn’t say that we would be working in the mine. We don’t do this kind of work. Let us out.”
“Your skin is itchy. Be good and behave yourself. Otherwise, my whip won’t recognize you.”
A few supervisors shouted loudly and walked over arrogantly with whips. They raised their whips fiercely and whipped them.
The burly man suddenly reached out and grabbed the supervisor’s wrist. In the blink of an eye, the whip in his hand was snatched away by the man.
“Someone, come quickly. These are martial arts practitioners,” the supervisor shouted.
“I think you have a death wish.” The guard pulled out his long saber and rushed up. The few men squatting on the ground suddenly pulled out their daggers and went up to fight the guard. One of them took out a firecracker-like thing from his sleeve cage and lit it. Red smoke rose into the sky.
Ding Yi and Hu Cheng realized that they were on the same side. They picked up the stones and threw them at the supervisor guarding them. The supervisor fell to the ground. The dagger slid from his wrist into Ding Yi’s hand and he flashed forward to cut the supervisor’s throat.
Hu Cheng shouted at the miners standing there in a daze, “Brothers, let’s fight it out with them. If we kill one of them, we’re a step closer to freedom. It’s better than being exhausted and thrown into the cave.”
They began to reveal angry eyes and looked at the supervisors with hatred and anger.
“Son of a bitch, I’ll kill you.”
A miner shouted and raised the shovel in his hand as he rushed towards the supervisor. Right on the heels of that, there was a second one. The supervisor was so frightened that he covered his head and fled. The miners rushed forward and greeted him with hoes and shovels. In the blink of an eye, the supervisor was badly mangled by the angry miners.
More and more miners joined the battle. The blacksmiths who were forging weapons picked up their forged swords and surged forward. War cries filled the valley as more overseers and guards were cut down and killed.
Ding Yi, Hu Cheng, and a group of secret guards became the nemesis of the insufferably arrogant guards in the past. The secret guards raised their knives and slashed down, destroying one of the guards.
Suddenly, a large group of officials and soldiers came down from the stone steps and raised their crossbows. A loud voice came from above. “The Imperial Court has sent troops to save you. Everyone, stand aside.”
When the miners heard the shout, they all stepped aside and slumped to the ground, hugging their heads and crying. Soldiers and soldiers tied the guards and supervisors who had not been killed with ropes.
Chu Shan and General Liu walked down the stone steps. Ding Yi and Hu Cheng walked forward. Hu Cheng reported, “Shopkeeper Chu, they were the ones who threw the corpses of the miners in the cave over there. Those furnaces don’t stop day and night. We don’t know where the forged weapons have been transported to.”
Chu Shan looked at both of them, who had lost weight. He comforted them. “You’ve suffered. We’ll find out where the weapons are.”
General Liu brought people over and grabbed a supervisor. He shouted, “Tell me the place where you hid the weapons. Otherwise, I’ll hand you to the miners and let them beat you into a pile of meat paste.”
The supervisor looked at his companion who was so badly mangled that his limbs could not be distinguished not far away. He was so frightened that his face turned green. He knelt down and kowtowed. “General, spare me. I’ll bring you there now.”
The supervisor led everyone to a place separated by wooden rows. He took out a key from a crack in the stone and opened the round wooden door. After walking for more than a quarter of an hour, he walked to a huge rock and pointed at the dark cave hidden behind it. “After the weapons are forged every day, we’ll send them here. Steward Cheng will bring people to move in from here.”
Chu Shan got someone to tie him up and throw him aside. The soldiers carried torches into the cave. The cave widened as they walked. After an hour, light gradually shone in. Two men were sleeping soundly on wooden beds at the entrance of the cave. Two secret guards went forward and controlled the two of them.
Further in, he saw a dense array of spears and arrows in the cave. The waist knife shone with a cold light. There were crossbows in a cave beside it. There were even many crossbows.
Chu Shan and General Liu gasped and looked at each other in unison. If they hadn’t discovered these things, the consequences would have been unimaginable.
They checked them one by one and found a stone step at the end of the cave. After climbing up and down, they saw a wooden walkway.
They walked along the boardwalk and heard the sound of rushing water. They followed the sound to the river and saw a wooden boat tied to a wooden stake on the shore.
Chu Shan looked at everything in front of him and was enlightened. “So they’ve always transported weaponry by the river. No wonder we didn’t find any traces of heavy carts on the mountain path.”
General Liu looked around. “The Cheng family spent a lot of effort on this mine. It’s not something that can be done overnight.”
Chu Shan nodded. “General. let’s send someone to watch this place first and
interrogate those guards and stewards. We also have to move all the miners in the valley out and interrogate those blacksmiths to find out how many weapons the Cheng family made. We need to find out how many weapons have flowed out.”
“I’ll leave a group of guards here and bring another group back to Yuezhou immediately to control the garrison first.” General Liu turned around and walked back.
Chu Shan nodded in agreement and sent secret guards to guard the shore. He told the secret guards that if anyone came, they would immediately capture them and kill those who resisted.
Ding Yi led Hu Cheng and a group of miners into the cave where the miners were thrown. Everyone walked in and saw a dark pit that emitted a foul smell.
Everyone retreated and found tattered clothes to cover their mouths and noses. When they entered, they stuck their heads out and saw a few corpses of miners that had only been thrown in for two days. There were rats crawling in and out of them, and there were piles of bones below. Everyone’s hair stood on end. Some miners knelt by the pit and cried.
Hu Cheng said to them, “Everyone, listen to my advice. Don’t stay inside anymore. When the government sends someone to deal with the corpses of these friends, everyone can pay their respects and let them rest in peace as soon as possible.”
The miners followed Ding Yi and Hu Cheng outside the cave. General Liu returned to the valley and left with his men. Chu Shan led his men and began to interrogate the stewards.
Ding Yi and Hu Cheng found food in the storeroom in the cave and cooked thick porridge to eat with the miners. The miners drank the porridge and tears flowed down their faces.
Everyone rested in the cave for the night, after which Chu Shan asked Ding Yi and Hu Cheng to bring them out of the valley.
When they were outside, the miners looked at the verdant forest and felt the breeze gently on their faces. Only then did they feel that they were not in a dream and had really escaped..