CHAPTER XVIII
Two days later, the day of departure for conscription arrived, and Wu He and his party assembled at Cunbeikou. After a few words of condolences from the relatives of the villagers, they were depressed and reluctant to set off to Puyang with the messenger.
In order to avoid encountering strange things, Wu He's team wanted to bypass the peaks and mountains. So when the sun sets in the west mountain, they are also a little far away from the peaks and mountains, and it is not easy to hurry at night, especially in the strange territory in recent years, they have to find a safe place to spend the night, and then go during the day.
There are almost no safe places between the mountain and forest trails, and a place to rest is a good place.
Wu He and the others found a relatively spacious rocky high ground and rested. The villagers sat around the fire in piles with bitter faces, all of them were in a dull mood and couldn't speak, and suddenly some people sighed, and the day after tomorrow, some people echoed it, and some people comforted it......
As the words came and went, the chatterbox among the villagers suddenly opened, and the people began to talk about their thoughts.
The villagers are the best at talking, and when they are worried, they will say that they are idle, and when they are idle, they are happy, so the atmosphere gradually becomes lively. Wu He sat in the middle of the villagers, gossiping about joy and not mentioning sorrow, which was his responsibility.
At this time, the messenger ruined the mood of the villagers and said abruptly:
"Lifeless during the day, so restless at night? Don't be confused about day and night and disturb others' rest! ”
Hearing this, the villagers all looked at the messenger. Although his tone was not as bad as when he recruited people, it was really unpleasant to listen to, and he was reproaching the villagers, and some of the villagers immediately lowered their faces and stared at him unkindly.
Being present means that one person is not in the lively atmosphere, and this "rest of others" refers to him alone. It's still early tonight, but he wants to overwhelm more than 30 people with one person's will, how can he make the villagers not angry?
The messenger saw that more than thirty young men of five or three thick were looking at him at the same time, and his heart suddenly burst out, and his face could still be compodate, but after seeing the very unkind faces of several of them, he couldn't help but feel afraid, and his face was stiff.
He tilted his head and closed his eyes suddenly, as if he didn't pay attention to the appearance of the villagers, but he didn't know if he was arrogant or what, but he had to snort to the villagers, as if he was disdainful and contemptuous.
This really caused the villagers to be angry, and a few people stood up directly, wanting to go to the messenger to teach this Puyang guy a good lesson. But Wu He stopped them and said:
"Forget it, there's no need to be angry, let's rest early now, wouldn't it be better to talk during the day?"
Before leaving, the villagers listened to the instructions of the village chief appointing Wu He, and they themselves already had great trust in Wu He, and now Wu He is the village chief to them, so they should be able to listen to what Wu He said and think about it seriously.
So, everyone believed in Wu He, dissipated their anger and stopped moving, and gradually fell asleep with their voices down.
In the past three days, Wu often remained silent and meditated, as if he was worried, and whenever the villagers glanced at him, if he noticed, they would smile in response.
This appearance gives the villagers a great sense of reassurance, and everyone is gradually more condensed in chatting and comforting, and those sorrows are difficult to suppress and distress their looks and figures.
After three days of travel, I also arrived at the Puyang realm. The messenger did not take them to Puyang, but directly led them to the foot of the Lianmai Mountain, which was some distance away from Puyang.
There is a clean cut down near this mountain, which is used to pile up some kind of large equipment, its appearance is like the tripod described in the book, but it is much larger than it, the mouth of the sky is sealed, there are more iron mouths connected sideways, rope gears and handles are exposed, when people operate its movement, its body shape is fixed and does not move at all, only the "veins" around the body move, it looks like a monster big pimple.
Next to the tripod, at the foot of the mountain, there is a big hole, and the servants always transport a cart of turbid white ore out of it, and transfer it to the tripod to fire to divert the muddy white liquid.
This should be the place where Wu He and them carry out their conscription, and before they start, they still have some arrangements.
The messenger took them to a test device. Seeing that someone was recording the age of the laborers and the village, they told them to step forward and strike the big wooden stake in the middle of the instrument, and after a blow was struck, the big fastening stake, which looked thick, vibrated slightly, and attracted the silk threads tied to the upper and lower ends, making many small pieces of wood on it rattle, and after the people on the side stared at it, they shouted to the person who recorded it:
"The force shakes the strong wood
In this way, it is the turn of the next person. When the people in front of them were about to measure, he understood that there were three levels of division - force breaking, force shaking, and force shock.
Wu He and they finished the test immediately, and most of the people in the village were rated strongly, and a few were rated strongly, and Wu He was rated strongly.
This is mostly because Wu He has been wandering in the mountains and forests since the beginning of the construction of the village, and the strength can only be regarded as solid, not thick. The villagers work day and night, even if they are not as good as Wu He, the force sent out should be stronger than Wu He's unintentional blows.
After that, a new messenger came and led them to start arranging. Because they came late, the nearby resting place had been divided among the other villages, and the group of laborers who had been assigned to Puyang was farther away and more crowded.
Those three evaluations are used to allocate the conscription area. The force earthquake excavates the outer layer of the cave and refines and transports it to Puyang, the latter two types are one dug in the inner layer and the other is dug in the lower layer.
When the matter was decided, the messenger immediately took the villagers to excavate, which seemed to be very urgent. When you come to the cave, you will be greeted by flying dust, and there are few light sources in the cave, but it is very clear. Walking inside, there were scattered pieces of cloth from people digging around.
This hole has been dug widely, and it is only a little crowded when Wu He and his more than 30 people walk, and it has not yet reached the point of hindering, I am afraid that it has been dug for several days.
With the advance of Wu He, the entrance of the cave is gradually shrinking and becoming fixed, and the excavators can be seen everywhere, and the turbid white ore on the cave wall is becoming more and more dense and numerous.
Wu He stayed at the junction of the outer cave and the inner cave to excavate, and he saw the strangeness of the turbid white ore in the mountain. Its distinct magic, the outer hole is a scattered, impurity fusion appearance, and once to the division of the inner hole, it becomes free of impurities, all composed of turbid white ore.
What's more amazing is that there is almost no light source in the inner hole, as if it is slightly illuminated by the light of the outer hole, but it is stronger than the outer hole into a bright appearance, and I don't know whether it is the reason for the light, the turbid white ore in the inner hole is not the appearance of turbid white, but almost translucent, only when digging down into a single to restore the turbidity of the white unknown appearance.
Wu He was digging at the intersection point, and his eyes couldn't help but be attracted by the inner hole. This inner cave that looks like a fairyland passage is really hard not to make people pay attention to it and take a few more looks.
At this time, the official who supervised the cave saw Wu He's glance in a blink of an eye, and immediately scolded:
"What do you see? Don't cheat on me! Weak lazy goods, or you will be rewarded with a few whips! ”
When Wu He heard this, he immediately turned his head and continued to dig his mine, he didn't want to be beaten because of curiosity. Protecting the whole body and surviving his life is what he has to do here.
One day of digging, Wu He and they just lowered their eyes and bent over to rest. When I came to the resting place of the Puyang laborers, I saw that there were more people who had been conscripted from the mountain villages.
Nearly 600 people. In the thatched huts, large and small, they lie and lean on randomly, and even some sleep directly on the ground, resting between heaven and earth without care.
Wu He and the others just found a less crowded thatched hut to rest at random. Wu Heduo was in a gloomy mood, and when he saw it one day, this conscription was really difficult and difficult, and even the most basic food was just grass porridge and the like, and he was injured and injured, but in exchange for a bowl of pig food, it was so unworthy of people's eyes...... But he can only be helpless and listen to the fate of the times.
In this way, this tiring and helpless time will paralyze people's hearts the most, and the villagers should gradually obey and bear it in it.
Wu He rested with Puyang servants and listened to a lot of Puyang's shady deeds, which can be said to have added a large piece to Wu He's cognition and made him have a more detailed and real understanding of Puyang.
To summarize what they say: Puyang officials have one appearance and one appearance. greedy for money and deceiving the people, colluding with businessmen, and harming people abound. There is also a group of bastard children who are even worse, beating the public at will. I thought that King Hua's appointment would improve, but I didn't expect that he hadn't done anything in the past two years, and now he was forced to conscript them, which really didn't make people live!
In this regard, Wu He was first of all extremely grateful to the village chief, if he had come to Puyang with a really hot head at that time, he might have been killed by those rich and powerful people.
Then, Wu He was not afraid of what he had done, and now after hearing the tragic experience of the Puyang laborers, Wu He had an idea - how good it would be to kill them at that time......
As for the consequences...... Maybe you can't escape death......
There are so many delusions, but they are just Gu Zi's illusory dreams, which were in Pingchuan, and even more so when they came here......
Wu He often transported the mine to Puyang, and their route was set to be vacated, so they did not meet many people from Puyang, and most of them were poor people sitting on both sides of the road, with dark expressions.
Although he only sent ore and only stayed in Puyang for a while, he also saw the miserable reality of the servants along the way in the city.
The most obvious thing is the bright color and various sounds of the strong buildings on the far side of the transportation road, and the transportation road is dilapidated and bleak. Most of the people who want to come over there are gorgeous clothes and glory, and they live a very leisurely and wanton life, which is very different from the hard work of the gods and weaknesses here.
Hi! is in the same heaven and earth, but there are two contrasting appearances, that is, the timbre over there is too moving, which also makes Wu He intoxicated, but obscure and slight.
This is just like what Wu He wrote in the book he read, some people are dressed in gorgeous clothes, drink and eat meat, and some people are dilapidated and homeless, eating grass and digging trees, making people helpless and angry.
And Wu He himself is also in a bad situation, eating grass porridge, working hard, and sleeping in the mountains and wilderness every day, but in turn he empathizes with others, which causes Wu He to joke in his heart.