In the northern suburbs of the capital, at the Qiao family mine outside the city.
Steward Qiao Laiwang is looking at the ore output records of the past five days with a sad look on his face.
Although the Qiao Family Courtyard in Beijing was sealed, the mine was not closed.
Perhaps because they were worried that something happened to the Qiao family, they would not be able to make any money in the future. It also happened to be late autumn and it would be winter soon. The miners in the mine were working hard to dig more ore every day, as if they were risking their lives. It seemed that I even called my family to help.
Since the mines require more work and pay is calculated on a per pound basis, the mineral output in these five days is worth a month's worth.
However, the output is so high that the ceramic kilns that usually purchase ore have unilaterally terminated cooperation with the mining factory.
"If the Qiao family was in power, who would dare to unilaterally terminate the contract with the royal Qiao family, but now that the Qiao family has been dismissed from the position of imperial merchant, even Prince Jin, who was supposed to support the Qiao family, has also left the capital. When we went to Luohe Road, those people added insult to injury and even tried to force the master to transfer the mine at a low price of 10,000 taels. They are simply unscrupulous!"
Although the Qiao family was overturned in the gutter during this transaction with the Western Regions, they are usually a serious business family.
In the past, when Qiao Laiwang interacted with the owners of ceramic kilns, no one would look down upon him.
But now the limelight has turned, and those people who usually call him brothers have stepped on the Qiao family. This makes him feel very unhappy, but there is nothing he can do about it.
Qiao Laiwang was thinking about settling the accounts and going to bed. He would go to the Qiao family compound tomorrow morning to ask the master whether the mine should be temporarily closed and the miners should go back to their homes to prepare for the winter.
It is better to mine it and accumulate it first, and wait until the price increases in the future.
As soon as he lay down, his subordinate Gu Yuan, who was responsible for guarding the miners to prevent them from stealing the mines, rushed in.
"Manager, it's bad! The miners said that they had mined for a month and needed to pay their wages. If they didn't pay the wages, they would move the ore away. Now all the miners have stopped mining and have gathered together and are heading here. Come over here and ask the person in charge to give them an explanation."
"Let me give them an explanation?!"
Qiao Laiwang sat up in shock and heard the noise coming from outside the tent. He was afraid that he would provoke the patrolling officers and soldiers nearby and exploit him again. He was so frightened that he had no time to put on his shoes and trotted out with his bare feet on the ground. .
Outside.
Just as the guards said, hundreds of miners held torches and illuminated the not-so-large plains.
The firelight flashed on each miner's face, looking very ferocious, like an evil ghost in the night, which scared Qiao Laiwang's heart.
"Brothers, young and old, you don't want to be so messy at night. If you have anything to do, let's talk about it tomorrow morning. Is it okay if I go to the host's house?"
Qiao Laiwang lowered his voice and comforted him with a smile.
In the past, when he encountered a disobedient and ignorant miner, he would not pick up a whip and give him a few lashes, just out of kindness.
But today's situation is different from the past.
The master said that from now on, the people of the Qiao family will live like dogs with their tails between their legs. Even if the miners in front of them are all hard laborers, they will not offend them as much as possible to avoid other troubles. Let them keep an eye on the Qiao family secretly, thinking that people who want to take advantage of the Qiao family's decline to take a bite of meat will have an opportunity.
"no!"
A strong man with thick arms and round waist walked forward, holding a mountain ax in his hand, and stabbed Qiao Laiwang directly.
"The Qiao family has said before that mining is paid according to work, but if you don't mine a certain share each month, it will be postponed to the next month. This rule was set by the Qiao family, right?"
Faced with this question, Qiao Laiwang knew what the visitor meant, but under the pressure of the mountain axe, he could not open his eyes and tell lies, so he could only nodded quickly.
He reached out and pushed away the mountain ax that was about to hit his chin.
"Since we haven't harvested enough quota and the wages have to be postponed, then we have harvested enough quota for this month in advance. Shouldn't we pay off the wages immediately?"
"Or is it that your Qiao family has been confiscated by the imperial court and has no money, so you can't afford to pay us? It doesn't matter if you can't afford it. We can just pick up the ore we mine and sell it for money. What do you think?"
As soon as these words came out, the crowd immediately cheered up and shouted "Okay, okay".
Qiao Laiwang knew that the leader of the trouble must have been bribed by those ceramic kilns.
Those ceramic kilns broke the contract with the Qiao family and wanted to secretly acquire the Qiao family's mines. Seeing that their plan failed, they decided to try another plan and use these miners to sell the mined ore to them at a low price.
In this way, they would have more time to continue to consume the Qiao family's ore.
He was about to appease the miners when he heard someone shouting not far away.
"What happened over there? Why did so many people gather?"
"It seems to be at the Qiao family mine. Could it be that something happened to the Qiao family again?"
Qiao Laiwang saw officers and soldiers on horseback approaching in the distance. He couldn't hide his excitement when he spoke. He gritted his teeth and made a prompt decision.
"Everyone is leaving tonight. I will go to the master to advance your wages for this month. You give me a day. If I can't do this, I will take off my head and let everyone kick it!"
Qiao Laiwang became fierce and took a step forward.
The blade scraped a line of blood on his chin.
Seeing the blood flying out, the strong man who had been bribed was so frightened that he even dropped his mountain ax to the ground and did not dare to pick it up.
"roll!"
Qiao Laiwang roared with all his strength.
The strong man was frightened away, and after the leaderless group, the remaining miners dispersed in droves.
By the time the officers and soldiers arrived, few people were already present.
"What happened?"
The officers and soldiers looked towards the sparse crowd.
Qiao Laiwang also looked at the remaining miners with a smile.
"Brother Chai is asking you a question. What's wrong with you?"
"I, we..."
boom!
Before the miners had finished speaking, there was suddenly a sound of thunder from the southwest not far away.
Immediately afterwards, there were two more lightning flashes over there, which frightened the few remaining miners and ran away holding their heads.
When Qiao Laiwang saw this, he quickly took out a piece of broken silver from his arms and smiled apologetically at the dumbfounded officers and soldiers: "A trivial matter has alarmed Brother Chai and made his trip in vain. You can use these for supper."
The officers and soldiers saw that there was nothing to gain except the scraps of silver in front of them, so they could only take the money for supper and leave.
As he was walking away, he didn't forget to look up at the lightning flashing in the distance and muttered.
"It's late autumn and it's thundering. The weather is really weird this year."
"What's weird? The old man who has lived a long time in the village said that he has seen many thunderstorms in winter."
Thunder shakes from far to near.
People in the capital gradually heard it clearly, and many light sleepers woke up from their sleep.
Hua Yi, who had not slept, was coughing. He was so startled by the thunder that a mouthful of phlegm stuck in his throat and his eyes suddenly widened.
