The night was deep, and in the dark mountain col, under the dense shadow of the jungle, there were only dim stars and dots of light in a small area, which gave it a rather eerie feeling.
When I walked in and took a look, I realized that the lights were all torches, some were inserted into the wall, and some were held by patrol members.
This seems to be a village located in the mountains.
The village is neither big nor small, with dozens of large and small houses built in a well-proportioned manner.
The strange thing is that this place is very different from an ordinary village. It is extremely heavily guarded. It can be said that there are five steps and one post and ten steps and one sentry, and there are even patrol teams interspersed among them.
The most exaggerated thing is that there is a high and thick stone wall built outside the village like a city wall. There are also hidden sentries buried on the wall and in several big trees outside the wall.
A patrol team passed by the wall, and a slightly fat team member yawned and complained: "Brother, why do we need such troublesome patrols every night in this land? It makes me sleepy."
The man who was called the eldest brother also had a sleepy look in his eyes and looked uninspired, "Stop talking, we will do whatever the superiors tell us to do. We only have five taels of silver a month, so we can just come and walk around a few times at night.
Where can I find such a good thing?"
At this, the team members chuckled, stopped babbling and continued to yawn and look around meaningfully.
They were just street gangsters on the streets of Zhongcheng, a group of people who formed a group to make small businessmen and hawkers pay a fee for protection.
Although they are all young and middle-aged, and all of them have the strength, no one dares to resist, but in Zhongcheng, they are disgusting to a person, and they can't make much money in a month. Read a book
The protection fee of ten or twenty cents for this or that one only amounts to a few dozen taels a month. Hundreds of brothers can get one share, and none of them can even get one tael for each person.
But it's different here. An ordinary team member earns five taels of silver a month, and the captain earns seven taels, which means he helps manage the group of people underground and provides food and accommodation.
After walking for a while, another team member's voice sounded timidly, "Captain, do we, do we really want to stay here forever?"
The captain paused, then walked forward again without saying anything after a few breaths. His back looked very heavy.
The slightly fat player elbowed the team that had just spoken out, and asked in a low voice: "What the hell? Are you not going to continue?"
The monkey's eyes were red and his voice was trembling as he said: "Fat brother, I saw with my own eyes those people beat a man down there to death this afternoon. Fat brother, I want to go home."
The fat man's eyes also turned red, "I think so too, but monkey, once we enter this mountain, we can never go back, you know?"
This group of people are all orphans, all from Jixiang Building in Zhongcheng.
Captain Wang Yong is the oldest, seventeen in his thirties this year; among the others, the oldest is in his early thirties, and the youngest is in his late thirties or fourteens.
There is only one Jixiang Tower in Zhongzhou, which is the Zhongcheng Jixiang Tower they came from.
Today's Jixiang Tower in Zhongcheng does not have the silver coins issued by the imperial court, but the three armies in the northwest have to save some from their own rations. Although they may not be able to eat well, in the end the children will not go hungry.
But for at least nearly ten years, it was normal for people to die from starvation, freezing, and illness in the Jixiang Building in Zhongcheng. The Fat Man and the Monkey happened to be caught up in those unfortunate ten years.
Wang Yong has a sense of responsibility and love as a big brother. He has always tried his best to help the children in the building.
But he is just an ordinary person, and the little money he saves is just a drop in the bucket for a group of children.
Because of this, his wife felt that it was impossible to live a good life with him, so she took his daughter, who was just one month old, and ran away with him.
Wang Yong, the more you don't let him help the children in the building, the more he will help them.
Even if the children who left the building were unable to hang out outside, he would pick them up and take care of them after learning about them.
But again, he is just an ordinary person.
There are too many people, but we can’t afford to feed them.
What to do?
There was no other way, so everyone put away the "protect one fee".
They are not the kind who just collect money and do nothing. After receiving the "protection fee" from others, they will naturally take on the responsibility of protection.
But you guys are not from the government at all, not to mention that there is no protection for setting up stalls in the city. The government itself has yamen patrolling from time to time.
Regardless of whether your so-called protection has worked or not, the vendors simply don't appreciate it.
They were properly grouped into the crowd of people walking around the streets in the city.
It can be said that if they were all young and had not been looked down upon by a few or even dozens of people, they would have been kicked out of the Central City while smashing rotten eggs.
It's not that Wang Yong and Fatty didn't know that everyone disliked them, it was precisely because they knew that someone asked them to look after their house, so they packed their bags and followed without saying a word.
Unexpectedly, they were brought to this mountain col with no village or shop. Even if they realized something was wrong halfway, it was already too late. They only had some strength, but the person who 'led' them here was...
Everyone has skills.
And the so-called housekeeping does not mean looking at a certain mansion or a certain yard, but requires them to keep an eye on the people digging underground.
Yes, there is an iron mine beneath the ground their feet are stepping on.
Fatty, Monkey and others are still young and don't know much. The older Wang Yong is different. He knows that this iron mine used to be the iron mine of the imperial court. He died ten years ago when the mine collapsed due to unknown reasons.
After killing many people, the iron mine was closed down by the imperial court.
At first, Wang Yong thought that the imperial court had reopened the iron mines, and he was lucky that his group of "street gangs" had a chance to work again. But when he saw that none of the guards were wearing official uniforms, he knew what he was thinking.
But I just thought.
Therefore, Wang Yong did not dare to gamble with the lives of his brothers.
Those who dare to privately exploit the imperial court's iron mines, such as "street gangsters" who have no father or mother and no one knows about their death, will die in vain, not to mention fighting or being slaughtered for disobedience.
The monkey hummed, wiped his tears and said, "Brother Fatty, I know, the captain said, as long as we obey, we can survive."
The fat man was choked and speechless.
It's not that easy. They are now working against the imperial court. No matter whether the person who tricked them here will kill them or not, once the imperial court learns that the iron mines here have been exploited privately, there is no way they will let it go.
He didn't believe that the people above would care about the lives of these people.
The result is still the same.
Now, all they can say is that they live day by day, and sooner or later they will all die. The only difference is whether they die in the hands of people above them or in the hands of people in the court.
He could only pat the monkey's shoulder, which was still trembling slightly, and comforted him in a low voice: "Just understand, and you must listen to big brother. Big brother will not harm us."
Monkey sniffed and nodded heavily, "Don't worry, Fat Brother, I just haven't calmed down for a while. I'll be fine after I get some sleep."
However, reality no longer allowed him to wait any longer.