Ever since he failed to ambush the thieves in the mine that day, Meng Zhongsi has been in turmoil.

He had already let people investigate, there were no more than fifty thieves in Mengjiazhuang, and he wanted to lead people to kill to recapture Zhuangzi, but those miners refused to work hard for the Meng family, even if they gave silver, there were very few who were willing to go with him to seize the village.

Meng Zhongsi knew that staying in the mine was not a long-term solution, and when the thieves grew stronger, they would inevitably attack the mine.

Although most of those hundreds of miners signed long-term labor contracts equivalent to deeds of sale, Meng Zhongsi knew that these people were unreliable.

They only came to the Meng family to work in order to survive, in order to have a mouthful of food, and the Meng family treated them not lenient at all, and even a little mean, and it was not unusual for them to turn around and sell the Meng family at a critical moment.

Now, it's time to think about your own way out.

Meng Zhongsi has more than 200 taels of cash in the mine, which is enough for him to go to the south to buy a small courtyard in Xingwang Prefecture, and then do some small business, so that he can live a good life.

However, he was not reconciled to this, there were still more than 40,000 catties of pig iron piled up in the mine, as long as the pig iron was sold, it would be silver for nothing.

In the past, the pig iron in the mine was sent by the Fan family to Zhangjiakou Fort at a fixed time, and the Fan family had a doorway to get out of Ningwuguan, and when they arrived at Zhangjiakou Fort, they could also take it out to the Tartars or Jurchens.

But there was still half a month before the Fan family sent a cart to come, and Meng Zhongsi had to find another way to sell these tens of thousands of catties of pig iron.

To this end, he sent a few people out, both Taiyuan and Datong, to see if he could find a buyer and sell the pile of things at a low price within a few days.

At the same time, he asked the miners to strengthen the fortifications, build wooden walls around the two furnaces, dig deep trenches, and strengthen the sentinels to prevent thieves from attacking the mines.

He also hoped that the thieves would attack the mines, which were only thirty or fifty men, and it was impossible for them to defeat a mine with hundreds of men stationed with three heads and six arms.

As soon as the thieves are defeated, he can lead people to chase them out and take advantage of the situation to recover Mengjiazhuang.

Meng Zhongsi had a good calculation, but he didn't know what kind of thieves he was facing.

As soon as he sent someone out to find a buyer of pig iron, a sentinel came to report the arrival of more than 20 people from the direction of Mengjiazhuang, all riding sturdy horses, carrying a few firearms, carrying two cauldrons and two sacks, one of which seemed to be Master Meng.

Meng Zhongsi hurriedly climbed up a simple arrow tower and looked southeast.

It wasn't long before a team on horseback came into his sight.

When the other party approached, Meng Zhongsi saw clearly that his uncle Meng Guiming was among them.

The group stopped a hundred paces away from the mine gate, and then Meng Guiming and two strange men stepped out of the crowd.

"Listen, the head of the Meng family, Master Meng, is here, why don't you quickly put down your weapons and come out to greet Master Meng?" As he approached, one of the men, who looked like a thief, shouted.

The miners inside did not move, except for a few who hesitated, and the others still clutched their weapons and stared warily outside.

Meng Zhongsi, the manager of the mine, told them that Mengjiazhuang had been occupied by thieves, and Master Meng was held hostage by thieves and was preparing to capture the mine.

But there are only a few dozen thieves, and as long as they guard the mine and don't let the thieves succeed, they can still start eating in a few days, and each person can get a reward of one or two silver.

Meng Zhongsi stood on the arrow tower and shouted angrily outside: "Shameless thief, don't think about fooling people, even if my master falls into your hands, you don't want to step into the mine." ”

The thief outside stared at him fixedly, a strange smile on his face.

Meng Guiming, who was next to him, suddenly spoke: "Listen up, Meng Zhong's heir has rebelled against the clan and betrayed his family, which is already a rebellion, and when the imperial army arrives, it will definitely wipe out the Black Mountain Mine, do you want to be killed with him?" ”

The voice was weak, with obvious helplessness and panic, but there was still a commotion in the mine.

In these years, the reason why people who are still alive is because they have a strong desire to survive, try to find a way to live, and when they are in danger of being killed, they will try their best to avoid being killed.

Seeing that the miners were starting to commotion, Meng Zhongsi hurriedly shouted, "What are you panicking about? That's a thief's ploy to trick you into opening the door so that you can come in and kill all you fools. ”

"They should be killed, as long as we hold on until the imperial army arrives, none of them will be able to escape, and when the time comes, in addition to the silver reward, I will give the big guy processing money, plus five copper coins per 100 catties of iron ore, and 50 wen per 100 catties of pig iron."

Hearing Meng Zhongsi's words, the originally tumultuous crowd quickly quieted down.

The reward and processing money were very tempting to them, because most of the miners were unpaid, and they could barely eat enough to eat if they worked too much, and they could not even eat enough to eat if they worked less, let alone any wages.

Seeing that Meng Guiming's words didn't work, the thief outside raised his voice and shouted: "Since you are obsessed and would rather die to rebel against Meng Zhonghei, then I will first say the ugly things ahead." ”

"From today on, the Meng family will stop your wages and food, and we will always stay here, you don't want to transport a grain of grain into the mine, even if the imperial army does not come, you can starve to death."

"Of course, if anyone doesn't want to die and rebel with Meng Zhonghei, they can put down their weapons and come out and surrender, we will never kill and surrender, we will only give preferential treatment to the brothers who surrendered, take care of the food, and give meat to eat."

"Moreover, the Meng family's nursing home and Xiangyong have died a lot, and Master Meng is planning to reorganize a Xiangyong, so he will select people from the mine, with a monthly income of 600 Wen, food and housing, and the disabled will be transferred to the family, and each person will receive a pension of five taels of silver per household when he dies."

"Whether you want to eat enough or wait for the head to be killed, think about it yourself."

With that, the thief led the people back to a mountain beam a hundred paces away.

Soon, those people set up a fire on the mountain beam, then set up a cauldron, took water, and boiled the rice and meat in a cauldron.

It didn't take long for the unique fragrance of yellow rice porridge and the rich aroma of broth to waft into the mine, and the hundreds of miners gradually became restless again.

Meng Zhongsi scolded a few times before he could barely silence the miners.

But he knew that people's hearts had begun to waver.

The Meng family never stored too much grain in the mine, mainly because they were afraid that those miners and bandits would rob the grain, and now there were only seven days of grain left in the mine, and if there was no grain to be transported in after seven days, he would definitely not be able to control the hundreds of miners.

The mine was built on a gentle slope, with mountains behind it, and undulating ridges on the left and right sides, so to bring in the grain, you had to take the road in front of you that could lead to donkey carts, but now, the gang of thieves was guarding the mountain beams next to the avenue, and even if they pressed the wings on the donkey carts, they could not enter.

Unless, lead someone out and kill or drive away the gang of thieves.

The other party is only about 20 people, and he has hundreds of miners, are you afraid that he will not succeed?

Thinking of this, Meng Zhongsi recruited a few henchmen, and after giving some orders, he was ready to gather people.

At this time, a strong man with leopard eyes and raised eyebrows suddenly came down from the mountain beam outside, gnawed a softly boiled horse leg, and shouted in a rough voice to the mine, "If you want to eat meat, take it yourself."

After saying that, the strong man walked back to the mountain beam and gnawed on his meat.

A man wearing a Confucian robe and behaving like an elegant scholar walked down again, shook his head and said: "Meng Yasheng said, if it is not fate, obey it, it is the one who knows the fate does not stand under the rock wall, so the one who dies in his way is the right life, and the one who shackles the dead is not the right life." ”

"Kong Sheng also said, prevention is not to cause injury later, know and act carefully, the gentleman does not stand under the dangerous wall, then Meng Zhonghei is bent on rebellion, and you wait for the miners to live all day long just to eat and warm clothes, why do you want to risk killing your head and stand under the dangerous wall?"

After that, in the eyes of hundreds of miners with blank eyes, the scholar in the Confucian robe shook his sleeves, and Shi Shiran walked back to the mountain beam.

Then, a little old man with a simple face came down, grinning with big yellow teeth and smirking: "Did the big guy eat it?" If you haven't eaten it, come and eat it with us, there is golden yellow rice porridge, and hot broth, come, we are all honest croppers, we don't eat human Dili, we are very ...... Our big steward said that the big guys are all hard-working people, as long as you take that Meng Zhonghei, you can't embarrass the big guys. ”

After the little old man finished speaking, he did not go up the mountain beam, but squatted at the foot of the mountain, grinning at the mine with big yellow teeth.

There was a half-sized boy who was as thin as a monkey from above, and shouted in a childish voice: "We were originally homeless people, and we were all dying of hunger, it was Master Meng and the chief steward who took us in, and let us be the caretakers, give us food, clothing, and meat to eat at both ends for three days, that is called a happy life, you don't come to be kicked by donkeys, and you have to grab meat to eat when you come, I am not uncommon for you to be kicked by donkeys." ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhongsi couldn't hold back any longer, jumped up on the arrow tower and said angrily: "You dog-friendly fool Lao Tzu, just your skinny monkey-like body, only one pound and three taels of meat, who the fuck would ask you to be a caretaker?" ”