Wang Rentong's daughter Wang Yun'er was not afraid of Li Tong's intimidation, this sixteen-year-old girl took advantage of the unpreparedness of the soldiers, drilled through the wall and rushed to Meng Bochang's horse, and shouted at Meng Bochang, who was sitting on the horse: "As long as you can forgive your father, I am willing to repay your kindness as a slave for the third generation." Meng Bochang did not answer with a cold face. The soldiers flicked their guns, and Wang Yun'er immediately fell into the muddy water. Rushing into the coach before the formation is an unforgivable crime. The Chinese guards stepped on her back and raised their knives to stab her.

Yang Hao hurriedly shouted, "Stop!" He turned over and dismounted to protect him, and the Chinese guards retreated in a daze. Wang Yun'er raised her head, and her eyes shot a resolute and unyielding gaze. She shook Yang Hao away and stretched out to pull her hand. Biting his lip and staring at Meng Bochang, his chest rose and fell for a while, and then he knelt on his knees and kowtowed.

Yang Hao sighed and retreated in a daze. Meng Bochang squinted at him and sneered: "You have taken a fancy to her again?" ”

Yang Hao glanced at Wang Yun'er, who kept kowtowing, and felt sad in his heart, so he said: "It's easy to kill Wang Rentong with one knife, but I'm afraid that this mine will be abandoned from now on." You might as well save his life before you take care of it. Meng Bochang snorted coldly and said, "Okay, I'll hand over the person to you to deal with." The horse was about to leave, and then turned back to warn: "She looks a little like Lu Rui." Don't mistake him for Lu Benzhong. ”

Meng Bochang's attack on the Meishan Coal Mine had two intentions. The first is conscription, the battle of Fengzhou Tiande's right army suffered heavy losses, and nearly 800 were killed in the battle with the left army, and Meng Chu defected after his sudden death. Don't think about it, when the rest of the army was gathered to attack the city, there were less than 3,000 people left in the right army plus the patrol battalion and the guards of the Assassin's Mansion, and half of these 3,000 people were divided by Han Sui, and when Zeng Chongyang left the city and moved to Feng'an, Meng Bochang only had less than 1,000 people left in his hands. After Zeng Chongyang left, Meng Bochang appointed himself as the deputy envoy of the Tiande Army, and issued a list to recruit soldiers, and only recruited fifty-eight people in three days.

On the way to Yongfeng City, he heard that there were 3,000 miners in the Meishan Coal Mine, and more than ninety percent of them were coolies abducted by human traffickers. The work in the coal mine is extremely arduous, and the living conditions are extremely harsh, and the people who can survive here are resolute and hard-working. If you deliver them out of the sea of suffering, they will be faithful to themselves. has military power in his hands, and he can do it steadily as the deputy envoy of the festival.

It is natural for a soldier to eat food, and if you want to support an army of thousands of people, you will not be able to do it without sufficient food and salary. When the Fengzhou rebellion, the grain depot in the city was burned to ashes by a fire, and although the silver depot fell into his own hands, the treasury silver had already been transferred.

Meng Bochang suddenly faced the dilemma of having no food and no salary, instead of going to Yongfeng to beg for scraps, it was better to do it yourself.

It is not difficult to capture a coal mine, but Meng Bochang also knows that the reason why this coal mine that eats people and does not spit out bones can flourish is not unrelated to the protection and connivance of officials at all levels in Yongfeng. The attack on the Meishan coal mine meant a complete break with the Yongzhou bureaucracy. But Meng Bochang didn't flinch, he wanted to do it drastically - the knife handle was in his hands, and he was afraid that they would turn the sky upside down?!

The miners, who have been bullied and oppressed and have had enough of living like cattle and horses, almost without exception want to throw away their pickaxes, but most of them do not want to take up knives and guns to eat food and become soldiers. Meng Bochang was angry and simply ordered all miners to join the army, otherwise no one was allowed to leave Meishan.

……

It was a cellar where the miners lived, with four earthen platforms in the seven-foot-square cellar, crowded with eight miners, and a broken clay pot containing feces and urine at the entrance. When Wang Rentong came in as soon as he first came in, he was almost fainted by the stench. The cellar was dark and wet, cold as an ice cave. For three days and three nights, except for two meals, no one said a word to him.

Accustomed to eating the dishes made by the high-paying imperial chef in Beijing, Wang Rentong really couldn't swallow this kind of black and sticky batter. He didn't eat a bite for the first two days, but on the third day, he found that this batter had suddenly become a rare delicacy in the world. With food in his stomach, Wang Rentong's thinking became clear, although he was a prisoner, he couldn't just admit defeat, he still had cards in his hand, and only by fighting could he live.

Early in the morning of the fourth day, the door to the cellar opened. Wang Rentong was lying in a pile of lice-infested rotten quilts at the moment. Hearing the sound, he hurriedly jumped up and stood with his hands down.

The person who came was Yang Hao, who still had a smile on his face when he entered the door. The attendant put a leather cushion on the earthen platform, and after Yang Hao sat down, he motioned for Wang Rentong to also sit down and talk. Wang Ren thanked him, but still stood with his head down.

"Ninety percent of the miners in the mine were abducted and trafficked, and with this one, your boss Wang needs to die 4,600 times." Yang Hao's tone was very flat when he spoke, and he still had a smile on his face. Wang Rentong nodded, he didn't deny it.

"We found 1,300 bones in a cave in the back mountain, and the death of these people, your boss Wang is afraid that he can't get out of it." Yang Hao said that this is already a mask frost.

The cellar was as cold as an ice cave, but Wang Rentong's forehead was oozing with sweat: Yang Hao's data was very accurate, and it was obvious that he had not been busy in vain in the past three days.

"Wang deserves death." Wang Rentong wiped his sweat, raised his head, and showed a pleading gaze, "Please give your lord a way to live." As long as he can save the lives of his family, Wang Rentong is willing to sacrifice all his wealth. ”

Yang Hao didn't speak, he looked at the pile of messy cotton wool on the soil platform, so he stood up, walked to the door with his hands behind his back, he raised his eyes and looked at the sky above his head, and said slowly: "I heard that the wages you give to the miners are not small, three or five yuan per person per month, and two yuan will be raised every year." If a person works hard for two years, he can save a hundred and ten taels of silver, and go home to buy a few acres of land or do some small business. ”

Wang Rentong opened his mouth in surprise, he couldn't figure out what Yang Hao meant by what he said, so he said carefully: "Wang is not a stingy person, if they save enough money, they can redeem themselves......"

"yes, I've heard that, too. However, in the seven years since the Meishan mine was opened, no miner has redeemed himself. Boss Wang, can you tell me why? ”

"Maybe, maybe it's because there is too much fun in the mine, eating, drinking, prostituting and gambling everything, they can't resist the temptation, so that they ......" Wang Rentong stumbled at this, and suddenly found that Yang Hao was staring at him with a knife-like gaze, flustered for a while, and hung his head silently.

"So that everyone runs out of savings and can't redeem themselves for the rest of their lives, right?"

Wang Rentong hesitated for a moment, and said: "Wang is guilty, let the adults deal with it." ”

"Boss Wang doesn't want to defend himself? For example, those trafficked miners were bought from the ghost gang by the people below without your knowledge, and you yourself were completely kept in the dark. You have set up a liquor store, a bathhouse, a casino, and a brothel in the mines, and although you sell a roast chicken for a tael of silver, after all, one is willing to sell and the other is willing to buy, and no one forces anyone. In order to surpass those lonely souls and wild ghosts who died in other places, you even funded the construction of a small temple in the back mountain, and raised two monks to chant scriptures for them. If you, Boss Wang, say that, how can I convict you? ”

Wang Rentong snorted coldly, lowered his eyes and said, "Wang said, do you believe it?" ”

"What I have to say is reasonable, why should I not believe it?"

"Oh......" Wang Rentong opened his eyes and raised his head, bowing to Yang Hao, "Please command." ”

"Mr. Wang is a smart person, so I won't go around in circles." Yang Hao paused slightly, "First, hand over the shareholder register." Second, burn the deeds of sale of the abducted persons and return their freedom. Third, help us capture the leader of the Ghost Gang. Fourth, take out 500,000 taels of silver to reward the army. Fifth, allow miners to form gangs and govern themselves. Sixth, compensate the disabled miners, and those who are willing to return to their hometowns will be entangled in their feet. ”

Wang Rentong replied: "I can't take out 500,000 taels of silver." I will take 100,000 taels to the army, and then I will pay tribute to the lord 100,000 taels. ”

"You take 200,000 taels out to reward the army, and the remaining 300,000 taels should be regarded as the share capital in which we have shares."

"From today onwards, you will be the major shareholder of Meishan Coal Mine." Wang Rentong smiled slightly, and then asked, "What the Lord said today, how can Wang believe it?" After all, the handle of the knife is in the hands of an adult, and you can turn your face and deny it at any time. ”

"We can make a contract with you, and you can make it public. If we want to gain a foothold in Yongfeng, we naturally have to win the trust of others. ”

"In this way, Wang is willing to follow the work of dogs and horses."

……

Meng Bochang was a little dissatisfied with the contract reached between Yang Hao and Wang Rentong, he slammed the twenty-page contract on the ground, and asked Yang Hao in a mocking tone: "Are you idle?" Or did he let his daughter fall for it? Just let him go like that? ”

Yang Hao bent down to pick up the deed, sent it to dust, and handed it to Meng Bochang again. Yang Hao originally intended to sign this contract with Wang Rentong by the Assassin Mansion, but Wang Rentong refused, he insisted on only signing a contract with Yang Hao and Meng Bochang, and the two must sign the contract to be valid.

"I have checked, Meishan Coal Mine is worth 800,000 taels, and Wang Rentong has 300,000 yuan in cash. After killing Wang Rentong, all we get is 300,000 taels of silver and a coal mine that we don't know when we will get rid of. ”

Meng Bochang interrupted him rudely: "What a joke! If I can't get rid of it, can't I do it myself? He Wang Rentong can dig coal, but I can only dig out stones? ”

"My good big brother! You can dig up coal, but who do you sell it to? Wang Rentong has accumulated contacts for 20 years, but our eyes are black. The coal from the government-run coal kilns in Hedong and Guannei is ten yuan per 100 catties, but Wang Rentong's coal can be sold for 30 yuan per 100 catties, a difference of three times! Can you do it without him? ”

Meng Bochang snorted angrily and said: "Then spare him from dying, hire him as a steward, and give him a few thousand taels of silver every year, why bother to make him the second shareholder of the coal mine?" You still don't admit that you have a crush on his daughter. ”

"It is the nature of a businessman to pursue profits, and it is even more beneficial for us to give him a little sweetness and let him manage the mine well. The hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit, and the sky is ......" Meng Bochang glared at him fiercely, Yang Hao hurriedly swallowed back the second half of the sentence, and said with a smile, "As for why you want to give him so many shares." After all, he set up this mine, and when he started it, he sold his ancestral property and borrowed a loan shark, which was not easy for so many years of ups and downs. In addition, as far as I know, the Tiande Army still has a few such coal mines and iron mines, and treating Wang Rentong well can also stabilize them, so as not to let people go to the mountains. ”

After hearing this, Meng Bochang sneered: "You have a long heart." ”

Yang Hao took the opportunity to say again: "Now that we have few soldiers, tens of thousands of taels of silver a year are enough for the province, and there will be more people in the future, so ......" Meng Bochang waved his hand impatiently: "Okay, okay, I know what you mean: the water flows for a long time, don't kill chickens and take eggs." It seems that letting you lead the army really bury your talents, I think I still recommend you to do the history of Yongfeng Thorn. ”

Yang Hao smiled: "I'm afraid that there are no sixteen-year-old assassins in the hundreds of state capitals of the Tang Dynasty, right?" ”

Meng Bochang said: "You are still a little self-aware. Okay, I still have the seal letter of the judge, let you go on the horse to manage the army and dismount to govern the people, and it can be regarded as enough face for you. ”

"There is one more matter, please make it clear to the Deputy Envoy."

"Say!"

Wang Rentong was willing to increase his salary by 20% to recruit miners, and he promised to rebuild the shed and improve the food. In my opinion, the recruits are willing to go back to work as miners. Alas, you listen to me. Let's create a gang of workers among the miners, led by our people, one for autonomy, the other for military training, and the first can be beckoned by the soldiers. In this way, the army can be used for the people, and a lot of military salaries can be saved. ”

Meng Bochang snorted coldly, didn't speak, but acquiesced.

"There's another thing I don't know if I should talk about or not."

"Speak!"

"Qing'er said that it was inconvenient to live in Beiying to buy groceries, and she wanted to move out."

"Oh, what do you think?" Meng Bochang was interested.

"I think I will depend on her, and the house in Lu Benzhong should be lived in by you."

"It's up to you, you'd better find a courtyard next to the Assassin's Mansion, and it will be more convenient for them to meet you, the judge, in the future."

The two looked at each other and laughed.