In the northern suburbs of the capital, on the Qiaojia mine outside the city.

The steward Qiao Laiwang was looking at the ore production record of the past five days with a sad face.

Although the Qiao family compound in the capital was seized, the mine was not closed.

Maybe because they were worried that something would happen to the Qiao family, they would not be able to make money in the future, and it was late autumn, and it would be winter soon, and the miners on the mine worked hard every day to dig more stones, looking like they were risking their lives, and even called their families to help.

Because the mine is more work and more pay, the money is calculated by two catties, resulting in the minerals of these five days are worth a month in normal times.

However, the output is so high that those ceramic kiln factories that usually have to buy ore have unilaterally terminated their cooperation with the mines.

"If it was when the Qiao family was gaining power, who would dare to unilaterally terminate the contract with the royal Qiao family, but now that the Qiao family has been removed from the position of imperial businessman, not to mention, even the prince of Jin, who was supposed to support the Qiao family, also left the capital and went to Luohe Road, those people fell into the ground, and even wanted to force the master to transfer the mine at a low price of 10,000 taels, it was simply a loss of conscience!"

Although the Qiao family capsized in the gutter in this transaction with the Western Regions, they are usually serious businessmen.

In the past, Qiao Laiwang interacted with the bosses of those ceramic kiln factories, and no one looked down on him.

But now that the limelight has turned, those people who usually call them brothers and sisters have stepped on the Qiao family, which makes him very angry in his heart, but he is helpless.

Qiao Laiwang was thinking about sleeping after settling the accounts, and went to the Qiao family's compound tomorrow morning to ask the master, should the mine be temporarily closed, and let the miners go back to their respective homes to go to the cat winter in advance.

Or mine it out and pile it up first, and wait until the price rises in the future.

As soon as he lay down, the subordinate who was in charge of guarding the miners to prevent the miners from stealing the mine rushed in.

"Steward, it's not good! The miners said that they had been mining for a month, and that they had to settle the wages, and that they would move the ore if they did not pay the wages, and now all the miners are no longer going to the cave to mine, and they are gathering together and rushing over here, so that the steward can give them an explanation. ”

"Let me give them an explanation?!"

Qiao Laiwang sat up in shock, heard the noise coming from outside the tent, for fear of provoking the officers and soldiers patrolling nearby, and carrying out another exploitation, so frightened that he didn't have time to put on his shoes, and trotted out on the ground barefoot.

Outside.

As his subordinate guards said, hundreds of miners carried torches, illuminating the not-so-spacious plains.

The firelight flashed on the faces of every miner, looking very hideous, like a ghost in the night, which frightened Qiao Laiwang's heart.

"Brothers, old and young masters, don't you want to be so messy at night, let's talk about it tomorrow morning, I'll go to the master's house and say okay?"

Qiao Laiwang lowered his voice and comforted him with a smiling face.

In the past, when he encountered a disobedient and ignorant miner, he was kind enough not to pick up a whip and whip it a few times.

But today's situation is different.

The master said that from now on, the people of the Qiao family will live a dog-like life with their tails between their legs, even if these miners in front of them are some coolies, they can not be offended, so as not to cause other incidents, so that they can secretly stare at the Qiao family, thinking that the people who take advantage of the decline of the Qiao family to bite the meat have a chance.

"No way!"

A strong man with a thick shoulder and a round waist stepped forward, holding a mountain-opening axe in his hand, and stabbed Qiao Laiwang directly.

"The Qiao family used to say that mining is paid according to work, but if there is not enough to harvest a certain share every month, it will be postponed to the next month, this rule is set by the Qiao family, right?"

In the face of this question, Qiao Laiwang knew what the comer meant, but under the persecution of the mountain axe, he couldn't open his eyes and talk nonsense, so he could only nod quickly.

Reaching out and pushing away the axe that was about to shave his chin.

"Since we don't have enough shares and the wages have to be postponed, then we have collected enough of this month's shares in advance, shouldn't we settle the wages immediately?"

"Or is your Qiao family now that the imperial court has raided their homes and has no money, and they can't afford to pay our wages? If you can't afford it, we just picked up the mine we mined and sold it for money, what do you say? ”

As soon as these words came out, the crowd immediately cheered up and shouted "good, good".

Qiao Laiwang knew that the leader of the troubles must have been bought by those ceramic kiln factories.

While breaking the contract with the Qiao family, those ceramic kiln factories wanted to secretly buy the Qiao family's mines, and when they saw that they couldn't make a plan, they simply regenerated the plan, and first used these miners to resell the mined ore to them at a cheap price.

In this way, they will have more time to continue to consume the ore with the Qiao family.

He was about to appease the miners when he heard a shout from someone not far away.

"What's going on over there? How did so many people gather? ”

"It seems to be the Qiao family's mine, it can't be that the Qiao family has an accident again, right?"

Qiao Laiwang saw an officer and soldier on horseback coming this way in the distance, and he couldn't hide his excitement in his tone, he gritted his teeth and made a decision immediately.

"Everyone disperses tonight, I'll go to the master to advance your salary for this month, you give me a day, if I can't do this, I'll take off my head and kick it for everyone!"

Qiao Laiwang was ruthless and took a step forward.

The blade rubbed a bloody line out of his jaw.

Seeing the blood flying out, the strong man who was bought was so frightened that the mountain axe fell to the ground, and he didn't dare to pick it up.

"Get out!"

Qiao Laiwang roared vigorously.

The strong man was directly scared away, and after the group of dragons had no leader, the remaining miners also dispersed in a hurry.

By the time the officers and soldiers arrived, there were few people present.

"What happened?"

The officers and soldiers looked towards the sparse crowd.

Qiao Laiwang also looked at the remaining miners with a smile.

"What is the matter with you?"

"I, we ......"

Rumble!

Before a few miners could finish speaking, suddenly a thunderclap came from the southwest not far away.

Immediately after, two more lightning flashes flashed over there, frightening the few remaining miners who also fled with their heads in their hands.

Seeing this, Qiao Laiwang hurriedly took out a piece of broken silver from his arms, and smiled at the dumbfounded officers and soldiers: "A little thing also alarmed the big brother to run in vain, and you can take these to have supper." ”

The officers and soldiers saw that there was no oil or water to fish except for the broken silver in front of them, so they could only leave with the supper money.

When he left, he didn't forget to look up at the thunder flashing in the distance, and muttered in his mouth.

"It's late autumn and it's thundering, and the weather is really weird this year."

"What's strange, the old people in the village who have lived for a long time also say that they have seen many thunderstorms in winter."

Thunder vibrates, from far and near.

People in the capital gradually heard clearly, and many people who were light asleep woke up from their sleep.

And Hua Yi, who had not slept, was coughing, and was so startled by the thunder that a mouthful of phlegm stuck in his throat couldn't come up, and his eyes suddenly widened.