It was cold, and the workers' clothes were thin and brown, and many of them were walking around with holes in their shoes, their toes were outside, and their hands were chapped and turned into dry soil.
It's like this outside the well, but it's even more difficult inside the well. They can only use pine wood strips to illuminate the well, and the workers can't rest for a moment.
The workers only took one look at the arrival of Xu Laiyu and his entourage, and continued working under the whips of the Yamen. In the entire smelting field, there were less than a hundred people placing black gold back and forth, and the rest were underground.
The pungent smell of black gold drifted away in the cold wind. Xu Laiyu rubbed his nose and asked the Yamen to lead the way to see Judge Li.
The officer said: "Xiangong Li has gone down the well. Mr. Xu, please go and sit in the duty room. I'll call someone right away."
Xu Laiyu couldn't believe it: "Going down a well? Is it raining red from the sky today?"
This was truly a rare thing that happened once in a hundred years, and he actually encountered it.
After saying that, he realized that King Jin was still around, and quickly said to King Jin who was wearing a warm hat to cover the dust: "Sir, I have no intention of slandering Xianggong Li."
He was afraid of King Jin, and he didn't even know where this fear came from. In fact, King Jin was so kind that he never said a harsh word to him.
The King of Jin waved his hand and was very tolerant of the county magistrate who was so stubborn that he could not be promoted.
While Xu Laiyu led King Jin and his entourage to the check-in room, he lowered his voice and said: "This Wujin Smelting Factory has become a worry for the lower officials. They all say that it is a good thing to have the Wujin Smelting Factory here. Workers spend a day
They could get forty cents, and the wages were high, but they didn't let people go back to rest all year round. They kept digging indiscriminately underground. It collapsed twice, and more than a dozen workers died before it got better. Some people didn't want to work anymore. Mr. Li
They also forced people to do it, trying to save trouble and not digging ventilation channels. How much air can be sent down by using the air blower alone? People are suffering from troubles underground, and the nearby villages are in a mess. "
Seeing that King Jin was so kind and listening to him attentively, he suddenly couldn't help but say something that spoke to his heart: "The village is not as good as the county. The banker is the most important. The strong laborers don't even farm. What can we eat? Forty coins a day."
Money means that the family needs to eat and drink, and if something goes wrong, it will be over. Some people have six or seven people in the family, just one strong worker."
After hearing this, the King of Jin pondered for a long time and said to Xu Laiyu: "These words of Magistrate Xu must not be told to others. The metallurgy is for the benefit of the country. What Magistrate Li did, even if it was written in the book, was also for the sake of the country."
It is rare for the imperial court to share its concerns and the magistrate Xu's concern for the people."
Xu Laiyu didn't expect that King Jin would say such intimate words, and his fear of him was greatly reduced. He immediately regarded King Jin as a close friend, and he talked about everything he knew, and invited King Jin to see his tent in the yamen.
Thin.
King Jin gathered his crane cloak and listened attentively. The two of them were talking and listening, but they actually stayed where they were.
The officer told them that there was a fire in the duty room, an iron pot was set on the fire, and mutton was stewed in it, but they couldn't move.
Just when the two of them stood still, You Song suddenly twitched his nose and smelled an increasingly pungent smell in the air.
At the same time, he smelled gun smoke in the cold wind.
The smell of the smelting field itself was very pungent. This subtle change did not attract anyone else's attention, but You Song intuitively felt that something was wrong.
"Your Majesty!" He didn't care about concealing his identity anymore and rushed towards Prince Jin with all his strength.
As soon as he moved, the most astute Huang Ting followed him, throwing King Jin to the ground like crazy, one on the left and the other on the right, tightly covering King Jin under him.
When other people saw this change, they were at a loss at first. They didn't expect that the person who came with Xu Laiyu turned out to be King Jin. Then, when they saw the people brought by King Jin arriving, they all thought it was an assassin and followed him.
glance right and left.
Finally, a loud thunderous noise interrupted all their thoughts.
Amidst the loud noise, the hard Wujin Well turned into soft soil and collapsed irreversibly. Air waves overturned the smelting field and erupted from the ground, beating everyone to the ground.
Xu Laiyu was rolled on the ground by the air waves, unable to stop like a kite with a broken string. He struggled to grab something, and finally a hand stretched out and grabbed him.
It was the hand of a guard beside King Jin who held him firmly.
Once he was able to stop, he felt that his brain was also roaring, and his ears seemed to be deaf. He could only hear a buzzing sound. When he looked up again, he saw that the earth was turned upside down, and countless figures scattered in all directions and were slapped to the ground.
, unable to get up.
Wujin Metallurgical Factory exploded!
We can't stay here. The underground shafts are criss-crossed one after another. Once they explode, they will explode in a series, which is powerful enough to level this smelting site.
He struggled to raise his head and shouted in the direction of Prince Jin: "Your Majesty! Run!"
He didn't see King Jin's figure, he only saw a few people stacked together, probably protecting King Jin.
Run!
The further you run, the better!
Little did he know that his voice could not be heard in the chaos. Fortunately, King Jin stood up on his own. You Song and others protected King Jin from the front and left, and began to stagger out of the smelting field.
Xu Laiyu also struggled to stand up and ran in the same direction as King Jin. Just after running two steps, there was another earth-shattering explosion.
This time, the mountains collapsed and the ground cracked, everyone was falling and sinking, but the air waves sprayed out the trapped people, scattering them everywhere like a goddess scattering flowers.
Xu Laiyu felt like someone was pulling him tightly all the time. The person's other arm was attached to someone unknown, causing him to just bounce up and down without being thrown far.
Something fell from the sky and landed in front of him. He took a closer look and saw that it was a bloody thigh.
Xu Laiyu was so frightened that all the clarity in his mind was squeezed out by the stump of his limbs, and he howled heart-breakingly. His voice became hoarse and hoarse, and he did not stop even if his throat was broken.
Nearly five hundred people are gone, all gone!
The heat wave swept over, and another bigger explosion was coming. You Song ran wildly with King Jin on his back. He couldn't control the other people, so he could only let King Jin escape first. Huang Ting was in the presence of other disciples.
He was dragged along and followed closely behind.
King Jin opened his eyes in the overwhelming black ash and looked back at Xu Laiyu.
Xu Laiyu ran wildly with hands and feet, his eyes were as wide as copper bells, and his face could not be seen, because everyone had a dark face.
With a roar, the ground was shaking, and the last explosion finally came, crushing everything to pieces.
This time, everyone threw themselves on the ground and there was no movement.
The huge smelting field was silent and messy, and the snow melted under the light of the fire, unable to cover up the tragic situation on the ground.
Bodies were lying in all directions, and there were very few people alive. The busy smelting well was nowhere to be seen, and the workers underground were buried on the spot and turned into ashes under the fire.
After a while, King Jin moved slightly on the ground. There was still a roar in his ears, but he could already hear the whistling wind. In the cold wind and snow, he gradually came back to his senses.
There would not be such a huge explosion in the field for no reason, and it was when he was around.