Chapter 612 Changjia Village 27
Jiang Chen didn't mention that his injury had healed, but continued, "The country doesn't allow private mining, so how do they sell the minerals they dig?"
"There are so many ways to do that," the old man sneered. "We can register it with another village that has a mining license, pay a registration fee of three yuan per ton, and the ore can be completely 'laundered'."
Jiang Chen thought about the old man's words about not being able to go west, and understood, "So those two villages to the west have mining licenses, and Changjia Village registered all the illegally mined minerals under their names?"
The old man nodded in appreciation: "In addition to paying the registration fee, they can also contact the mine rats..."
Afraid Jiang Chen didn't understand, the old man explained, "That's the ore middleman."
Jiang Chen had mined in his previous life, so he was not unfamiliar with these words and nodded in agreement.
The old man continued, "These mining thieves have private trafficking chains, and they can also "launder" these minerals, but it takes some effort."
"Chang Fei from Changjia Village borrowed the mine carts, claiming to be selling ore, but in reality he was selling people."
Jiang Chen immediately understood why Cheng Gang had been squatting in Changjia Village for so long but still hadn't figured out how they were transporting people.
It turned out that when Changjia Village had gathered enough people, Chang Fei took them to the other two villages in Xishan, loaded them into mine carts, and shipped them out under the pretext of selling ore.
"These beasts don't care about anything else for the sake of money." The old man cursed.
"Why are the two villages in the west cooperating with Changjia Village in human trafficking?" As far as Jiang Chen knew, the profits from selling minerals were enough to support a village. In addition, they had a license, so there was no need to take risks and participate in the human trafficking of Changjia Village.
"Because... the current Changjia Village is fake." The old man's voice was gloomy.
Jiang Chen suddenly raised his head and stared at the old man.
"There's nothing to hide." The old man calmly turned the wooden stick with the piece of meat on it. "Chang is a common surname. The so-called Changjia Village is actually the collective name of three villages. The other two villages in Xishan were originally called Changjia Village, but Changjia Village at the foot of the mountain didn't have a good relationship with the other two villages."
There are no mines on the mountain behind Changjia Village, but the mountain is full of medicinal herbs. Relying on collecting and selling herbs, Changjia Village is in much better conditions than the other two villages.
Because of the mines, crops cannot be grown and the other two villages are always on the brink of starvation.
The first woman appeared...
"That woman discovered there were mines in the mountains, and since then, people from the other two villages have been secretly mining. They initially traded the mines for food, and for a long time, they went undetected by the government, so they grew bolder and bolder."
The people of Changjia Village were closest to the two villages, so they naturally noticed something was wrong.
In order to silence them, the two villages recruited people from Changjia Village to join them.
They mined privately without any tools and had to make their own detonators, resulting in frequent deaths.
The village chief of Changjia Village saw the trick and didn't want to get involved, so he refused.
I never expected that it was because of my refusal that I was hated by people from the other two villages.
At night, people from the two villages kidnapped the people from Changjia Village, threw the men into the mines to dig, locked the women in the back mountains to be used as entertainment for the beasts, and secretly sold all the children who were too young to remember...
In five years, Changjia Village is still Changjia Village, but the people in it have changed.
The other two villages also changed their names, one to Zhaojia Village and the other to Lijia Village.
Jiang Chen looked at the old man and asked in a deep voice, "You are the head of Changjia Village, right?"
The old man paused as he turned the fire with the tongs. He didn't admit anything, but said, "I've said all this just to tell you that the people in the mine are all vicious and cruel. You won't get any advantage by going there alone, not to mention that you're injured now."
Jiang Chen was not scared off by the old man's words. He slowly stood up, his tall body feeling very oppressive. He lowered his trouser legs to cover the wound that had completely healed.
"You must have a way of sneaking in without alerting the overseer."
He said it with certainty, his eyes filled with a determined gloom.
The old man stared intently at his legs, which were now able to move freely. He smiled when he heard Jiang Chen's words: "Just because I escaped from the mine? After all these years, they might have discovered my escape route and blocked it."
Jiang Chen pointed to the pile of traps in the corner and said, "You stole these from the mine."
The mountains behind Changjia Village are connected together. Only the mountain in front is lush and green, while the two mountains behind are bare.
Jiang Chen had mined before and could tell at a glance that these two mountains were mines.
Based on his experience in his previous life, he successfully found the mine hidden in the mountains.
In order to prevent people from approaching the mine, the people of Changjia Village buried many animal traps around it.
The pile of traps collected by the old man were covered with black coal slag, and it was obvious at a glance that they were dug from near the mine.
After hearing his speculation, the old man did not deny it anymore. He shook his head and sighed, "Young people nowadays are not easy to fool."
"Even if I could find a way to get in," the old man said in a disapproving tone, "what can you do alone?"
Jiang Chen stretched his wrist, took down the crossbow that the old man had hung on the wall, and tried the tension of the bowstring.
"Don't worry, I'm just going in to check out the situation."
The old man pointed to his ankle and said, "I can tell you, but you have to tell me why your injury healed so quickly."
The animal traps buried near the mine are iron clamps used to hunt large animals. They have amazing bite force and once stepped on, the bone is visible.
An old man once stepped on it and his leg was lame for a whole year.
But the young man in front of him healed his wound in less than half an hour. It was amazing.
The old man hadn't been out of the village for a long time and didn't know the situation outside Changjia Village. He thought that the country had developed some miracle medicine.
Jiang Chen did not hide it from him and lifted up his trouser leg to show the old man. He saw that the wound that was so deep that the bone could be seen had completely healed, leaving only the scar of the skin and flesh stretched.
He did not tell anyone about the powerful effects of Ye Rou's medicine, but only said: "I have had a good healing ability since I was a child."
The curiosity in the old man's eyes faded, and he explained the route to sneak into the mine as promised.
Jiang Chen shook the arrow and bow in his hand, "I'll send you back to the west, old man, please lend me this."
The old man rolled his eyes at him and waved his hand impatiently: "Take it away."
Cheng Gang only gave Jiang Chen two days of free time. Jiang Chen planned to sneak into the mine at night. He put on his bow and arrow and suddenly asked before leaving: "Old man, I don't know your name yet."
"Come back alive... and I'll tell you." The old man sat facing the fire, turning the pieces of meat over and over in his hands.
Jiang Chen didn't ask any more questions. He pointed at the fire and reminded, "The meat is burnt."
The old man took out the meat and found it was indeed mushy.
He looked up and saw that the young man was no longer at the entrance of the cave.
As expected, I’m getting old. My eyes don’t work well and my nose can’t smell burnt food anymore.
But he had a vague premonition that the arrival of this young man might be able to completely dispel the haze hanging over Changjia Village.
On the other side, Jiang Chen put on the mask given by his wife, completely changing his appearance. Following the route given by the old man, he indeed found an abandoned mine along the west ditch. He moved away the weeds and indeed found a dark cave entrance.
Jiang Chen stretched out his arms and went into the mine.
After crawling in the dark and narrow cave for an unknown amount of time, he heard the familiar clanging sound of mining.
Jiang Chen did not show his head rashly. Instead, he poked his head out of the mine from a high vantage point and secretly observed the situation inside. When he caught a glimpse of two familiar figures among the miners, Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.
Why are these two guys here?
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