All the migrant workers who had heard the rumors about Suijin Town were panicked and frightened. Only Song Zhenping, brother and sister, were confused and didn't know why.
Song Liyun pulled Song Dekui, whose expression was changing from happy to sad, and asked, "Uncle Kui, what happened in Ruijin Town to make everyone so scared?"
Before Song Dekui could answer, a thick voice sounded behind Song Liyun, startling several people.
"My sons, drive all those cowards over here, and I will put them in jail."
Song Liyun turned around sharply and saw the bearded general commanding the convoy standing behind him.
The other soldiers were shouting and driving over the civilians who were hiding far away.
"Master, this place, this place cannot be inhabited! We are willing to work elsewhere." A man walked out from the group of civilians and begged boldly.
"You can't live in it! Who said it can't be lived in? Are we who eat military rations not humans?
I want you to come here to build a military camp, so you should be paid a penny.
Since you are already here, don't even think about leaving. When you can leave, someone will take you back. If you run away, don't blame the military law." The bearded man shouted sharply with a voice like a bell.
Song Liyun frowned slightly: What kind of place is this? How can you force people to come here so hard? Can you explain it clearly in advance?
She wanted to build a border village, but she didn't want to lead her brother to death.
Before Song Liyun went to question him, Song Dekui pulled her aside and whispered: "This is Lord Luo Baihu of the Zhenbei Army. He has a very bad temper. Don't provoke him.
I heard there is a gold mine in Broken Gold Town, and since there are so many people there, we won’t be afraid to go in and have a look."
Song Liyun was stunned: "Gold mine? Real or fake? Uncle Kui, what are they afraid of if there is a gold mine?"
Song Dekui: "...!"
In front of Luo Baihu and other sergeants, he couldn't explain some things clearly in just a few words!
At this time, everyone was silent, and even the cries were suppressed in their throats.
Under the urging of the surrounding sergeants, they could only gather together, trembling step by step past the boundary markers, and stepped into Broken Gold Town like moths rushing to the flame seeking their own death.
After Song Dekui was frightened, he became excited again.
He even told some people, including the three brothers and sisters of the Song family, who didn't know the specifics what happened.
Of course, he also heard it through hearsay.
From his narration, Song Liyun finally understood the origin of Ruijin Town.
Suijin Town is a widely spread "ghost town" in Yunzhou.
It is two hundred miles away from Qingping Town and one hundred miles away from Dilu Grassland. It is a small mountain town with a population of less than five hundred.
But since someone found gold sand in the Huangsha River outside Suijin Town more than ten years ago, this town has become famous far and wide.
The alluvial gold here was carried by flash floods and deposited in a river outside the town. The production is not large, and it is not even considered a gold mine.
It is also located in a mountainous area, and management is difficult. The local government does not collect taxes, but lets others collect them. The county government only comes to collect high taxes every year.
As a result, the news spread that there was an unowned gold mine here, and people from all over the place who wanted to make a fortune sneaked in quietly.
At its peak, the town with a population of 500 had a population of 5,000, and the miles-long river was filled with gold diggers.
Houses were also built in the town, and there was a buzz of people everywhere.
Where there is gold, there are casinos, there are brothels and restaurants.
The town of Suijin is bustling with entertainment and entertainment, and in terms of liveliness, it can't even compare with the Qili County where it belongs.
Some people get rich overnight, while others work hard in vain.
Gold panning is an adventure. No one knows whether there is any attractive gold in the handful of sand, or whether they can walk out of Broken Gold Town when they get the gold sand.
There is only so much alluvial gold, and every grain of sand in the Huangsha River has been sifted countless times. The gold production is getting worse day by day, and when the gold diggers can't even make ends meet, the gold diggers lose their jobs.
Some people are not convinced and just leave like this, wanting to take a big shot in the end.
So, one night in the late autumn five years ago, a group of red-eyed sand workers, together with rogue bandits, colluded with the Dilu Prairie Cavalry, evaded the border army's defense post and sneaked into Suijin Town.
After five days of killing, robbery, and bloody plunder, Ruijin Town became a hell.
When the escaped people went to Qili County to report the news, no one believed that Di Lu would come to kidnap the people, and even beat the reporter as a madman.
It took more than ten days for the government to realize that the streets of Ruijin Town had already been covered with blood, and the town was emptied of people. Only a hundred residents were left who escaped into the mountains and forests to save their lives.
This tragedy caused the Wu Dynasty to lose as many as 3,000 people. For a country where population is wealth, it had more casualties than a major war.
Moreover, it involved collusion between Dilu cavalry and bandits, making the border defense ineffective.
The whole country was shocked, and the emperor was furious. He ordered the Zhenbei Army to wage war against Di Lu and the important people, and also punished the government to arrest the prisoners.
The border was not strict, allowing the Dilu cavalry to enter, and the government's poor management was ineffective in suppressing the bandits, so the rogue bandits were allowed to communicate with foreign enemies.
Several officials were beheaded, and the Marquis of Zhenbei, who was the commander-in-chief of the Zhenbei Army, was also ordered to reduce his salary.
The Zhenbei Army has been guarding Yunzhou for twenty years. Although it cannot be said to be watertight, it has been back and forth with the Dilu Royal Court, with wins and losses, and it has never suffered such a big mistake.
Zhao Yanjiao, the Marquis of Zhenbei, personally led his troops into the Dilu Grassland and fought several battles with the Dilu Royal Court. Both sides lost hundreds of soldiers, and also brought back some people.
Unfortunately, those abducted Wu Dynasty people either died on the way, or were sold to various tribal pastures in the grassland, and very few of them could be recovered.
After several battles, the Zhenbei Army had an account with the imperial court, but its relationship with the local officials also became deeper and deeper.
These things are all official battles, and even the flurry of impeachment memorials cannot save Ruijin Town from the tragic fate of becoming a "ghost town".
It has been five years now, and walking in the sun-drenched Broken Gold Town is still eerie.
Song Liyun calmly looked at the situation in the town.
The town is actually not very big. Except for the decent and neat buildings in the center, almost all the edges are wooden houses with earthen walls built randomly by sand workers.
No one had taken care of it for five years, and the wooden house, which had a bloody history, was in disarray.
The weeds growing up to the knees on the ruined walls are now withered and yellow, rustling in the wind, and look particularly scary.
In broad daylight, a wild dog would pop out of the house from time to time, baring its fangs at the strangers who suddenly broke in.
The tragedy in Suijin Town was caused by gamblers and gangsters. In the final analysis, it was the Dilu people who crossed the border.
The rogue gamblers wanted money, while the Dilu people wanted slaves. They could kidnap thousands of strong laborers at once, which was a huge fortune.
The Zhenbei Army made a mistake and was punished unjustly.
This is indeed a flaw in the entire Yunzhou defense line.
Yunzhou is mountainous, and the defenders mainly guarded the intersections of various mountain passes, and only roughly passed through the natural rivers flowing into the grasslands.
In particular, the Huangsha River, which is hundreds of miles away from the border, did not appear within the inspection scope of the border sentry.
Under the leadership of the bandits, the Dilu people chose the dry season and followed the complex river course of the Huangsha River to easily enter the Wu Dynasty.
It was such an inconspicuous ordinary river that disgraced the Zhenbei Army.
Now the Zhenbei Army has built a garrison at the mountain pass outside Suijin Town, with a hundred people stationed there.
With the river route, the Zhenbei Army could also enter the grassland along the Huangsha River.
This ordinary river that originally flowed with golden sand has become a folded steel knife that can penetrate directly into the hinterland on the other side of the Dilu Grassland as long as it is unsheathed.
The notorious Suijin Town suddenly became an important military pass.
Of course, this information is not available to ordinary people like Song Liyun. They only know that people are needed to repair houses and build camps here.