Zhang Laogen, according to Xu Youde, was not called Zhang Laogen before, and there was a scientific name named Zhang Guangying.

He is more than ten years older than Xu Youde, he was very smart when he was young, he could do farm work, weaving utensils, carpentry, everything, and knew hundreds of words, so he was a very capable person in Hewei.

This small village has little land, and there are no landlords, but there are a few village elders who are responsible for dealing with the government's tax collection and other things. Everyone said that Zhang Guangying would be the material for the village elders in the future.

"The bad is bad in that thing!" Xu Youde said.

About fifty years ago, there was a big incident near Hewei Village.

At that time, the empire was in the post-war period of great development, and the demand for coal and iron ore suddenly became very large, and several large iron and steel factories were opened in Yuanshan City, because it was located in the southwest mountainous area, the transportation was inconvenient, and the price of ore transported from other places was very high, so the government began to encourage those who knew a little about geology and exploration to look for small ore veins nearby, and promised that as long as the ore veins were found, the discoverer would have a ten-year priority to develop.

All of a sudden, whether they are rich or not, they are like crazy, digging holes and looking for minerals all over the mountains.

There were no outsiders in Heihezi, but in this environment, there were two teams of people who bumped into it ignorantly, and the captain of one of the teams had a daughter, eighteen years old, who looked very smart, but there was no Xu family, and he had been following his father to be responsible for cooking for the prospecting team.

In fact, there are few people in the prospecting team, and their approach is very similar to what we do today, that is, the management personnel and technicians have their own, and the labor force is found locally.

But Heihezi is a very special place, and almost no one is willing to work for outsiders.

Legend has it that their ancestors and the Han people have a mortal enemy, so it is easy for outsiders to come in and have trouble, and they may be killed by their ancestors one day when they work for outsiders.

These two prospecting teams had no choice but to go outside to recruit people and bring them in.

At that time, the prospecting team was stationed not far from the vicinity of today's project department, and they dug a lot of places in the mountains, but did not find coal and iron mines, but unexpectedly found a small copper mine.

But whether it is a rich mine or a poor mine is worth investing more resources in developing it, and it must be determined by further exploration.

That's why they've stayed here for a long time.

It stands to reason that Zhang Laogen could not have anything to do with the prospecting team, but the things of the prospecting team were broken, and they looked for carpenters everywhere to repair them, and finally found Zhang Laogen here.

Although Zhang Laogen was reluctant to deal with outsiders, it was rare to be able to do some carpentry work in such a ravine, so he repaired things and took them to the camp of the prospecting team, and met the girl.

Heihezi has a bad reputation outside, and few girls from other places are willing to marry in, Zhang Laogen is literate and can do carpentry, so he is a little arrogant, and he doesn't look down on the local girls, so if it drags on year after year, he will be about to be thirty years old. At this time, he saw a beautiful and knowledgeable girl from a foreign country, and he didn't care about the old man's rumors, and he got along with that girl after coming and going.

It was also at this time that another prospecting team had an accident first, and the whole team disappeared in the mountains.

Xu Youde was only in his teens at that time, he was still a fun-loving and troublesome age, and he didn't know a lot of things, he only remembered that it was quite a sensation at that time, and the township also sent a few people over to organize a big search in the surrounding villages.

The result, of course, was nothing.

Some people began to talk about the rumors of the old people, and the prospecting team naturally inevitably made holes everywhere in the mountains, and everyone said that they disturbed the ancestors and suffered retribution.

But the people in the government have a different view.

In fact, at that time, there were many bandits in the mountainous areas of the southwest, especially those where barbarians lived, because the mountainous areas were few and barren, but the population was increasing, and many villages went down to farm during the day and went out to loot at night.

If you don't, the barren land won't be able to support your family.

In order to clear their suspicions, some places often make up a lot of stories of demons and monsters to cover up the facts of their crimes, and over the years, they have even become legends.

In those years, the empire has been committed to Westernization, civilization, literacy of the common people, and the elimination of bandits. Encouraging prospecting is a new policy that Yuanshan City is vigorously promoting for industrialization, and at this time, the entire prospecting team has all disappeared, and such a thing immediately attracted the attention of the National Police Agency.

A platoon was transferred from the Yuanshan City garrison, plus the police and assistant inspectors from the Wengen County Police Station and Heihezi Township, and 50 or 60 people entered Heihezi in full gear and began to search house to house.

This investigation really found a lot of weapons, caught more than a dozen bandits who were scattered and fled home to hide, and also cleared up a lot of unsolved cases, but the missing prospecting team has never been found.

Finally, the experts invited by the Yuanshan City Police Department finally found some clues in their camp, and the search team followed the clues all the way, but they didn't expect that such a search would bring disaster to everyone, and also involved the prospecting team near Hewei Village.

"What the hell is going on?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I was young at the time, so I didn't know exactly what happened, but I heard that they were alarmed and didn't know something, and they suffered heavy casualties, and finally fled all the way down the ravine, and they just escaped to this neighborhood."

When this sentence was said, everyone shuddered in unison.

"And then?"

"I heard that the monster destroyed the prospecting team here, and the people in our village had already gotten the news and hid in the ancestral hall, only Zhang Laogen couldn't worry that the girl took the risk and ran out, but in the end she came back alone."

"That's the end of it?" When Boss Xie heard the story of heavy casualties, his face became extremely ugly.

"Of course not." Xu Youde shook his head. "Later, many more mages came from the distant mountains, and it is said that many more people were killed and wounded before the thing was wiped out. But I haven't seen any of these things with my own eyes, I've only heard about them. The only thing I know is that there were three people in our village at that time, one was the village chief at that time, he was a guide for the military police, and he didn't come back after going up the mountain. Another was called a guide and porter for the second time and did not return. There is also Zhang Laogen, I heard that he also went the second time, and he came back with good hands. It's just that after this incident, he became silent, as if he had changed a person, and he didn't do carpentry work anymore, but just changed his good land to the slopes of the mountain, and lived alone on the mountain for decades. ”

"What a wreck!" He shook his head and said. "It's been almost 50 years since this happened, but I didn't expect the rumors at the beginning to be true, and that thing is still there."