For the villagers who have already mastered the brick-making technique, making tiles is not difficult.
It's simply a matter of replacing the brick-making molds with tiles.
There's no need to build new kilns; just pay attention to the different firing times for tiles and bricks.
The villagers were full of energy and felt that life was full of hope every day.
But Fang Dayong didn't think so.
The mine foreman didn't care about the miners' lives at all; if they worked a little too slowly, he would whip them.
And they don't even feed them properly.
The black cornbread that the miners ate was mostly filled with wild vegetables.
The food was poor, but the work was heavy.
It was not only arduous work, but also extremely dangerous.
The mine shafts were pitch black, and one wrong step could bury you. Every trip they made to transport ore was like walking on a tightrope along a cliff edge, with the constant threat of death.
Within a few days, Fang Dayong became skin and bones, and his entire eye sockets were sunken.
Thinking back on their time in the valley, Fang Dayong was filled with regret. How could he have been so bewitched as to follow Guo Xuantong out of the valley?
In the past, in the valley, although the villagers often looked down on them because of what the Fang family had done, they would just gossip behind their backs or simply not want to associate with them and were unwilling to marry their daughters to them.
They could also work in brick kilns and lime kilns, just like the villagers, and earn rice and grain through their work.
While in the valley, they mostly ate rice and wild vegetable porridge. Although they could only eat porridge, rice was nourishing. He slowly regained the weight he had lost while fleeing the famine.
But now...
Fang Dayong was filled with regret, but it was too late. Things had already come to this point.
He regretted it for a while, but was unwilling to give up.
At that moment, he thought of Lu Shiyan. What would he do if he encountered such a situation?
He certainly wouldn't have been tortured like him. With his abilities, he might have taken over the entire mine.
Fang Dayong finally admitted, unwillingly, that he was no match for Lu Shiyan.
If only Lu Shiyan knew about this place. If he knew, wouldn't he come to save me?
Lu Shiyan, whom Fang Dayong had high hopes for, was currently busy with mining.
He felt that mining in the mountains could be done simultaneously with military training.
Let's take this opportunity to select a group of elite soldiers and send them for secret training in the mountains. We'll train a highly effective army.
This group of people not only needs to be selected based on their physical attributes and suitability for intensive training, but also on their character. It is absolutely forbidden for any people with ill intentions to infiltrate the group.
Liu Chengfeng had already followed the clues from Wang Shuncai and found Jia Mingzhou and others, and had also determined that they were Duan Wang's men.
He had already reported this matter to Lu Shiyan.
If Prince Duan's men can infiltrate the recruit camp, then other people might also be able to get in.
Therefore, we need to pay special attention to the selection of personnel.
He didn't delegate this task to anyone else; he handled it himself.
Although he couldn't immediately identify who had sent the spy, his eyes were as sharp as X-rays. He could tell who had good potential, who was suitable for training, and whether their character was upright...
With just one glance, you can almost always tell the difference.
Lu Shiyan did not leak any information about this selection process, but instead observed from the shadows, waiting to transfer the right person once he had chosen them.
Jia Mingzhou had always been very attentive to gathering information.
He quickly noticed this situation and guessed that Lu Shiyan must have some new moves.
Unfortunately, none of the other recruits in the boot camp knew the specifics. He tried to bribe his superiors to find out more, but in the end, he knew nothing.
The less information he could gather, the more suspicious Jia Mingzhou became. His actions became increasingly frequent.
Liu Chengfeng silently observed and used him to figure out the routes they used to send messages to Prince Duan, as well as the coded messages they used.
The culprit who caused the exposure of a group of people was completely unaware of all of this.
That day, because Lin Erzhu interfered, Wang Shuncai and the others ultimately failed to catch up with Fang Dayong.
Lu Fusheng felt deeply guilty and kept apologizing to Wang Shuncai. He then repeatedly promised that once he met his third cousin, he would definitely introduce him to him.
Wang Shuncai had already sent the message over there, but it all fell through at the last minute. What else could he do but make amends?
In the end, all they could do was keep an eye on Lu Fusheng and work on his family.
And so, the group stayed in Puzhou City.
Lu Fusheng went to the yamen every day to wait for Lu Shiyan, but he never saw him, and no one would inform him.
Unable to find Lu Shiyan, he hoped to meet the villagers of Dawan Village as soon as possible, just like he had met Fang Dayong. However, after spending many days in the city, they still did not encounter any more villagers from Dawan Village.
Wang Shuncai finally ran out of patience and felt that Lu Fusheng's family was no longer of any use to him, so he tricked them out of the city and sold them to human traffickers.
Because Wang Shuncai had been in charge of the family's food and drink for some time, Lu Fusheng's family trusted him completely. When he told them that he had run out of money and had found a way to make money outside, none of them doubted him at all.
Even when they were being led onto the carriage by human traffickers, they were still grateful to Wang Shuncai repeatedly. It wasn't until they were taken to the illegal mine that the family was dumbfounded.
Looking at the miners who were so thin they were skin and bones, Liao said with trembling teeth, "What... what's going on? Didn't they say they were taking us to work for the master and that we'd never have to worry about food or drink again?"
The coachman sneered and shoved Liao off the carriage. "What are you dreaming about in broad daylight? You've been sold out by your good brother."
As he spoke, he spat at Liao with a hint of disgust.
Those who engage in human trafficking certainly don't just send people to illegal mines. Selling women to brothels is far more profitable than mining them.
Unfortunately, the old woman was too old and not good-looking, so no one would want her even if she were sold to a brothel, and she could only be sold to a black mine.
Selling to illegal mines involves a long journey, and the price isn't even as high as selling to brothels. How could he not find it undesirable?
Liao knelt on the ground, looking as if she had been struck by lightning, clutching her head in disbelief.
He muttered to himself, "Impossible, impossible..."
Lu Fusheng wasn't much better off than his mother; he was completely stunned at that moment.
Actually, he had sensed something was amiss halfway there. But because he didn't believe Wang Shuncai was lying to him, he suppressed his suspicions despite discovering many things to be wrong.
Only at this moment did he have to accept reality.
But it was all too late.
The mine foreman didn't care whether he'd been cheated or whether he could accept the reality; once he arrived at the mine, he was put to work. From then on, his life and death were entirely in his own hands.
Lu Fusheng and his family worked in the mine in a daze.
But to their surprise, they would encounter Fang Dayong in the mine.
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