It took them more than an hour to search every corner of the farm and finally confirmed that everyone inside had been burned to death. Fortunately, they found a few survivors in the area near the entrance.
The entire farm, except for the area around the gate, was basically burned down.
At this moment, the eastern sky began to lighten, and dawn was approaching. I wondered what the situation was like over at the mining area, and whether they had taken it over yet.
Is Yang Hong still in the mining area? Has he been rescued?
Zhao Xian came to the door and looked in the direction of Yuanxi City, seemingly lost in thought.
In the hazy dawn light, several fast horses galloped towards them and arrived in front of Zhao Xian in the blink of an eye. It turned out that Princess Li Xue had come with her guards.
Zhao Xian quickly stepped forward, and Li Xue only then saw Zhao Xian clearly. She reined in her horse and jumped off.
"Sir, are you alright? How's it going over here?"
"I'm fine. The entire farm was burned down, with only a few survivors. How's the mining area?"
"Things went very smoothly at the mine. They heard the explosion here and immediately took action."
Since the mines stopped operating at night, Xiao Taiyuan's men were all asleep, and most of them were killed in their beds without any chance to resist. The situation there was quickly brought under control by the government.
Some of the night guards, realizing something was wrong, fled to the farm to seek help.
But they hadn't gotten far when they saw flames shooting into the sky over the farm, and then they remembered that the explosion had come from the farm.
Seeing that the farm had been taken over and they could no longer go there, they prepared to escape.
Just then, Zhao Cheng arrived with his men. Upon seeing these people, he captured them all without saying a word.
Because the farms and mines were all outside the city, and the city gates were closed, people outside couldn't get in, so the people inside the city had no idea what was happening outside.
Therefore, Xiao Taiyuan and some of his men were unaware that the farms and mines had been seized; they were still fast asleep in the restaurant.
"That's great! This operation was a great success, and all our hard work over the past few days has paid off. Have the slaves in the jade mine been rescued? Have we found Yang Hong?" Zhao Xian asked eagerly.
"After Xiao Taiyuan's men were dealt with, the slaves were automatically rescued. I heard that there were many people doing hard labor there, at least more than a thousand."
The government will next verify their household registration and then send them back to their place of origin. It is estimated that Yang Hong will be found soon.
"I hope Yang Hong is alright. I plan to take him back directly. After this experience, he should have changed," Zhao Xian said.
"I want to see the extent of the fire at the farm. The Registrar has done a great service this time. When I return to the capital, I must ask my father to take me to meet the Emperor and tell him everything that happened here."
After Li Xue finished speaking, she walked towards the breeding farm, and Zhao Xian led the others to follow her quickly.
By this time, it was already daylight, and the scene at the farm was completely different from what I had seen at night.
What we see now is even more shocking; almost everything inside is charred black, even the yellow earth has been burned.
There are still some iron frames in the farm, some of which have collapsed from the heat, showing how high the temperature was inside at the time.
Looking down at the ground, she saw charred corpses lying haphazardly everywhere, which both excited and frightened Li Xue.
Next to the burned-down military camp, they saw a house that had been largely unaffected by the fire.
The group went over to take a look. The house was made of blue bricks, had no windows, and had a flat roof without any tiles.
The house has only one main entrance, which is not very big. There is a wooden door on the outside, which has been burned down, and an iron door on the inside.
The iron gate looks very sturdy, with two large padlocks on it. The first impression this house gives is that it's a vault.
"My lord, I have a feeling this house is a vault, and there must be a lot of gold and silver treasures inside. What do you think?"
“Great minds think alike. This house originally had two doors. The wooden door has been burned down, but the iron door is still intact, so it was heavily guarded. There should be some valuables stored inside. It can be confirmed that it is a vault,” Zhao Xian said.
Although the phrase "great minds think alike" originated from later generations, it is not unreasonable for Zhao Xian to use it at this time.
"Could you open the iron gate? I want to go in and see what's inside," Li Xue said.
"Alright, let's have it opened and see what treasures are inside." Zhao Xian also wanted to know what was inside, so he ordered the soldiers next to him to open the iron gate.
Several people immediately stepped forward, preparing to open the iron gate.
The lock on the iron gate was quickly removed, but the gate still couldn't be opened.
It seems there's a mechanism inside this iron gate; only by finding the mechanism can the gate be opened.
However, despite their best efforts, they could not find any mechanism on the door. The entire iron door was just a solid sheet of iron, and they could not find any place to set up a mechanism.
"What should we do? We can't open the iron gate," Li Xue said.
Zhao Xian was also very curious. In his previous life, he was a mechanical engineer, so he had no trouble figuring out such a small thing as a mechanical device.
But after groping around on the door for a long time, he still couldn't figure out where the mechanism was. It seems that the ancients were quite clever.
"The only option is to use bombs, but bombs are too powerful. They might blow this house up and we won't be able to see anything then," Zhao Xian said.
"Then let's just forget about it. If we really blow up the house, we still won't be able to see what's inside. It's better not to blow it up at all and leave it to the government to handle," Li Xue said regretfully.
Now that it was confirmed that the house was a vault, it was necessary to arrange for people to guard it. Zhao Xian then arranged for two people to stay and guard the house.
Li Xue continued to inspect the farm, and soon they arrived at the cowshed.
To Zhao Xian's surprise, none of the yaks in the cowshed were dead; they were all standing in the cowshed, seemingly waiting for people to feed them.
The others were also very surprised. This was unbelievable. When they came to check at night, there weren't many yaks alive, but quite a few yaks had been suffocated by the smoke. They could clearly see a whole bunch of dead yaks scattered all over the ground.
Perhaps those yaks were stunned by the smoke, and after such a long time, they came back to life.
This is indeed a good thing; all the yaks here will be confiscated, and Prefect Jin is going to make a fortune.
After taking a walk around the breeding farm, Li Xue prepared to return to the city.
Zhao Xian also planned to go back together. He left a few people here to guard the place and told them that outsiders were not allowed to approach.
The events that occurred outside the city last night quickly spread to the city, causing an uproar. Residents were discussing the matter everywhere in the streets and alleys.
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