Not long after Zhao Ji received the notice, several people who looked like officials came and said directly that they wanted to take Zhao Ji away.

Zhao Ji subconsciously glanced around the entire store, randomly asked what the reason was, and then began to think about what to do.

But since he was already here, he might as well make the best of it. Zhao Ji pretended to be ignorant and followed these people.

Sure enough, these people took Zhao Ji to a remote place.

Even in this godforsaken place, there are still some people staying here.

When Zhao Ji took a quick look, he saw people wearing patched clothes, probably from poor families.

Probably because he had seen those notices, he came here to seek the job that paid a half tael of silver a month.

"How long have you been here? I just arrived today. When can we go to work?"

Since Zhao Ji was planning to go deep into the enemy camp, he must want to obtain some information. It just so happens that Zhao Ji also looks harmless.

When he wants to, he can naturally disguise himself.

A half-grown boy next to him said, "We just came here the day before yesterday. The guy who just took you here brought us here. He said he would gather enough people before bringing us to the mine!"

Zhao Ji narrowed his eyes. That was a bit strange. No one was going to the mine, so how come Zhao Ji didn't find the emperor among this group of people?

"Didn't a group of people leave when you came?" Zhao Ji asked deliberately.

The boy said, "I am one of the first to arrive, but there were no other people when I arrived. The leader said that they would send us over together only after they had gathered at least 15 people!"

Just as he finished saying this, he saw the man coming over with another person, who was cursing as he came.

Zhao Ji looked over quickly, and as expected, he saw a familiar face. It was none other than the Emperor.

But now the emperor looks a little miserable.

During this short period of time, the emperor actually changed his clothes.

The comfortable clothes he was wearing were changed into beggar's clothes.

There are a lot of patches on it.

There was also a wound on the emperor's forehead.

I won’t talk about all that. The most important thing is that the emperor looked a little frightened.

When Zhao Ji saw this, he hurriedly pretended not to know the emperor and approached him, trying to greet him.

The emperor was originally very nervous, but then he saw Zhao Ji appear, and it was like seeing a miracle soldier descending from the sky.

"Why are you here too?" The emperor widened his eyes in surprise.

Zhao Jize frowned and said, "You ran away from home. I have used up all my money to find you. So I can only look for a job to earn some money for my return trip, right?"

Zhao Ji was very aware that there were other people in the room, and everyone's attention would definitely be on him after he spoke, so Zhao Ji deliberately said these half-truths, actually hoping to dispel other people's vigilance while not exposing the emperor's identity, so that he could find an opportunity to act later.

The emperor was not so stupid as to do this. He immediately realized his current situation and swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

"I won't dare to do it next time..." As others looked at him vaguely, the emperor could only sigh and say something irrelevant in a low voice.

The emperor was the fifteenth person, so not long after he came in, the man who looked like a supervisor came in again.

"Now that everyone is here, you all should hurry up and follow me. Don't be so hesitant when walking. This half tael of silver is not easy to earn. If I find out that any of you are hesitant, I will simply not take you with me and leave you here. You can walk back to the county town by yourselves when the time comes!"

The supervisor said in a hoarse voice.

Zhao Ji came close to the emperor and walked forward next to him.

No one spoke along the way. The atmosphere was very suffocating and depressing. The emperor could not bear it any longer for a while and wanted to talk to Zhao Ji, but Zhao Ji stopped him with his eyes.

We are almost at the mine. If our identities are exposed, who knows what will happen.

After all, the fact that these outsiders can be blatantly exploited in the mine is enough to show that the governor has deployed a lot of manpower here, otherwise he would not be able to suppress these people.

The fact was just as Zhao Ji had guessed. When Zhao Ji and his team arrived at the mine, there were more than thirty soldiers patrolling at the first checkpoint.

"The mines here are the specialty of the county, and they are also public property, so you must mine honestly after you go in, and don't try to do anything sneaky. You can't take even a single cent from it!"

"Otherwise, don't be a soldier. You are just here to do nothing. If we catch any of you with dirty hands, we will beat you to death in the mine!"

The supervisor snorted coldly and said.

Zhao Ji and the emperor looked at each other. They didn't expect to be shown a show of power as soon as they arrived here.

At the same time, Zhao Ji also took a special look at the expressions of the people around him.

Some people were indeed frightened by the supervisor's words, and their behavior revealed restraint and caution.

There were also some people who looked very numb and indifferent. It was obvious that these people had never had any thoughts in their minds, so naturally they ignored the threats.

At this moment, a young boy suddenly spoke. Zhao Ji turned around and saw that this person was the boy who had just talked to him.

"Master Jun, I want to know how we are going to get paid. My mother is seriously ill and I won't have money to buy medicine next month..."

When the boy spoke, there was a hint of flattery in his voice, and he asked the supervisor very carefully.

Zhao Ji noticed that there was a flash of disdain in the supervisor's eyes, but he still said nicely: "If you work honestly and don't get your work done, we can't pay you even if we want to. We are paying tribute to the government, not charity for you. If you want to get paid early, you have to work hard..."

"If the higher-ups see your efforts and that you have mined enough coal, I will help you apply for wages in advance without you having to ask, so that you can have more money in your pocket!"

As soon as Zhao Ji and the emperor heard it, they knew that this man was talking nonsense.

But the young boy, who was not very worldly-wise, really believed it and returned to the crowd with clenched fists.

The first checkpoint was passed very quickly. There wasn’t much inspection involved. It was mainly just a search to see if anyone had anything on them.

A big part of the reason why these people were able to come for this job was because they were penniless, so it was very easy to search these people's bodies, which were cleaner than their faces.