The weather was hot and the road was steep, but the end would eventually be reached, and after four hours of rough mountain road, Jonas and his party finally arrived at the mine, a huge place that smelled of foul and rust.

Jonas didn't come out of the sedan chair, he hadn't reacted before the sedan chair had stopped, they had reached their destination, he was now under the huge blow of the phrase "slaves are not people", and his mind was full of afterimages of the 10 people.

Deep down Jonas disagrees with this, and if this is true, why would future generations, whether black slaves or serfs, stand up against the oppression of their people?

But Jonas's reason is also telling himself that in this era, if he makes a sympathetic act for slaves, it is tantamount to a very abrupt thing, and even allows himself to be ostracized by the upper class, and even more unable to integrate into his own class, sacrificing his own interests to help others, Jonas can't do it.

"Sir, we're here. Doron lifted the curtain in front of the sedan chair from the outside, looked at Jonas who was thoughtful inside, and whispered, interrupting Jonas at the same time.

"Oh, I'll come down now. Holding the left and right walls of the sedan chair, he carefully walked out of the sedan chair, his body was too short, this sedan chair was still a little big for him, and he accidentally stepped on the air.

Out of the sedan chair, a strong mountain monsoon wind blew sand on Jonas's face, so he had to squint, and when the wind passed, the cracks of the clothes on his body, layers of black mud and sand formed a sand table in it, it can be imagined that his face must not be very clean at this moment.

Jonas glanced around, he originally wanted to talk to Kadir to reconcile their relationship, but after looking around, he found that Kadir had already walked with Vig and was not by his side, Jonas thought about it, but he was still not ready to say it.

"This is the mine?"

Reflected in Jonas's pupils, is a fairly large construction site, the surrounding trees have been cut down, leaving only a black land, this should be because of the lot of iron elements in the land, the ground is full of human footprints and wheelbarrow ruts, presumably there are many people working here, Jonas took a cursory look and found that several people similar to the ones he met on the road were pushing their wheelbarrows, transporting the iron ore collected underground from the entrance of the cave to an iron mountain of about 16 meters or so not far away。

"Yes, this is the Iron Mine under the command of Eagle Castle. Doron said respectfully, everything in front of him made him feel an indescribable emotion, how many Jewish bodies were buried here?

A group of people set off along a small road towards the mine, along the way can often see workers with their heads down, see Jonas and his party retreat to the side, if it is a cart, stand and wait for Jonas and others to pass, if it is a cart, put the car on the road, kneel on the ground and wait for Jonas and others to pass and then stand up, no one speaks, very quiet.

Jonas stopped looking at the slaves on the side of the road after glancing at them, I don't know why, whenever he saw these people, Jonas would always have an inexplicable sense of guilt that kept wrapping around him, making him feel as if all this in front of him was his fault.

Doron has been paying attention to Jonas's expression from the side, seeing that he has stopped looking in the direction of those people except for squinting at the slaves next to him, the corners of Dolon's mouth have a hint of a nonchastalgic smile, Jonas is still different from other nobles after all, in the face of slaves, Jonas has never shown the smugness of the nobles, and his guilt makes him dare not look directly at their rickety bodies.

"Doron, could you please go and talk to Mayor Kadir to give these people a little better food. Jonas's voice trembled a little, he wasn't sure if his kindness would have some terrible result that would give these slaves other ideas, or that the nobles would have other ideas about their attitude toward slaves?

Jonas didn't dare to take risks, but looking at these people who were prostrate on the ground and bowed their heads and didn't speak, their soles of their feet were cracked, there were countless fleas jumping on their heads, their ribs were clearly visible, there were more cracks on their hands than on their feet, and the whip marks on their backs Jonas couldn't count, Jonas still couldn't help but put his eyes on them again and again, as a young man who had embraced modern ideas, even a person who would give money if a beggar in tattered clothes came to him and howled a few words, in the face of these poor people, his sympathy was really uncontrollable。

"I'll go and say, my lord, don't worry, some of them have been living like this since they were captured, some of them have been like this since they were born, they will not resent you, and they will be grateful for your kindness.

But after all, this is only temporary, food will not be permanently supplied to these people, only the prosperity of the territory can make these people live better, as long as you can improve the economy of the territory, make the territory richer, then these people's lives will be much better, doing so, is the real benevolence. Doron doesn't call them slaves when he speaks, subconsciously, people are the name that Doron identifies with.

Doron's words reminded Jonas, and also made Jonas feel heavy, and finally had some fighting spirit, if the citizens can eat white bread, and the villagers can drink barley wine, then these people must be able to live a little better, with such a mood, Jonas also walked from the mine to the edge of the mine.

It is a 2-meter-high, 1.2-meter-wide mine, very small, supported by wood on the outside to prevent the mud from falling and blocking the mine, and the inside is pitch black and nothing can be seen.

Just as Jonas poked his head into the room, a beam of sparks suddenly appeared in the dark cave, and Jonas noticed that as time passed, the light grew brighter and brighter, and then it became a glowing dot, moving up and down.

Jonas was fascinated by it, he thought it was some precious material that glowed on its own, and suddenly a soldier next to him stopped Jonas and said to him: "Lord Lord, please let me go, someone is coming out." “

Jonas was invited aside by the soldiers, and sure enough, with a photoelectric light, a man carrying a basket of iron ore came out of it, wearing an iron hoop on his head, and in front of the hoop was a small piece of iron with a burning candle attached to it, and the light that Jonas saw was emitted from it.

The slave was visibly startled when he saw so many people looking at him, and the candle on his head shook violently, and a few drops of wax oil were thrown out of the candle and splashed on him, and he had no pit, but like his own companions, he fell to his knees and spoke some language that Jonas did not understand.

"He spoke Yiddish. Doron's voice trembled a little, for he understood the language spoken by the man in front of him.

"Yiddish, Jews?" Jonas didn't know much about Yiddish, except that it was a language that was spoken among the Jewish community in Europe, born out of Latin, through which they found companions, told information, and shared secrets, and was a language exclusively for the Jews.

But how did Doron, a Middle Eastern Jew, understand Yiddish? Jonas didn't think about it, the Jews were notoriously united, and it was normal for Doron to come to Europe to learn Yiddish in order to be able to communicate with his compatriots.

"Soldier, get him out of here, don't be harsh on him. After saying that, a soldier walked out, and just as he wanted to take the shoulder of the man on the ground, he was strongly shaken away by the other party, raised his head, glanced at Jonas, and his mouth was full of words and supplication.

"What is Doron talking about?" the man clearly had something to say, but Jonas didn't understand the language and could only ask Doron.

"He's saying, 'Please don't kill him, he'll work harder.'" Doron's voice was flat, but his words left Jonas a little speechless.

The man was just surrounded by a group of soldiers after coming out of the mine, and he thought he was going to be executed.

"You tell him that he has made no mistake and that he will not die. Jonas asked Doron to convey the meaning of his words to the slave in front of him.

Doron repeated it to the slave in Yiddish, and when the man on his knees heard it, he kept kowtowing to Jonas, saying something that sounded very excited, and then, without the support of the soldiers, he stood up and walked towards the Iron Mountain next to him, and soon disappeared in front of Jonas.

"What's wrong with him?" Jonas asked, somewhat confused, to Doron.

"He said, 'Praise be to you for your kindness, for sparing my life, and God will bless you.'"

Jonas couldn't help crying and laughing, the emotions in his heart were a little complicated, he looked at the crowd behind him, and saw Kadir who was still talking to Vig, Jonas called at him.

"Kadir, come here. “

Hearing Jonas's voice, Kadir hesitated for a moment, and was a little frightened by what he had just said to Jonas, and walked over and said, "My lord, do you have any instructions?"

"Is there anything going on with this hole?" Jonas didn't mean to find Kadir's stubble, but Jonas was still a little uncomfortable with Kadir's attitude towards slaves, so his words seemed a little blunt.

"I don't know if there was before me, and nothing happened after me. Kadir replied.

Afterwards, Kadir explained to Jonas in detail that when he took over the mine, it was a far worse hell on earth than it is now, and every month people would die and be stripped of everything they had and dragged away like worn-out tools.

After Kadir took office, after investigating the main factors of the death in the mine, he spent a lot of effort to rectify the situation, such as planting trees around the mine to prevent mudslides in rainy weather, widening the mine, and replacing manual transportation with wheelbarrows and three-wheeled carts, so that the death rate was greatly reduced, and the number of deaths in the mine is now about 20 per year.

After listening to Kadir's description, Jonas was a little impressed with him, whether it was cost saving or expanding production, the fact that he made people die a lot did make Jonas feel better, at least he was not a person who disregarded his life.

"Can I go down this hole?" Jonas still attaches importance to his personal safety, and now, this issue is in the hands of Kadir, which obviously gives Kadir some courage to face Jonas.

"My lord, I advise you not to go down, if you want to find the associated ore of the iron ore, we can go to the Iron Mountain to check, although this mine is much safer, but the environment inside is very harsh, for you, it is a bit cruel. "Kadir's sincere suggestion.

In fact, what he said was polite, the height of this mine is lower and lower the further you go inside, but in the end, many people can only engage in mining work with their backs hunched inside, and the air is even more conceivable.

"Well, let's go to Iron Mountain. Looking at the dark entrance of the cave in front of him, Jonas nodded and agreed to Kadir's suggestion, he didn't want to suffer in vain, since all the stone mined would be stored in the Iron Mountain, it was obviously much better and more convenient to go there directly than to enter the cave.

"I hope I can find something that interests me there. ”