Four-wheeled carts were parked at the intersection below the Dongshan Railway Station, forming a long queue.
Usually these four-wheeled carts go up the mountain to pull iron ingots from the iron yard, but this time it was different. There was no cart going up the mountain.
At this time, in the iron yard of Dongshan, the iron furnaces began to shut down one by one.
The miners were not working. A small number of miners gathered in the open space in front of the iron yard, and most of the miners returned to their homes.
Du Yan began to select miners based on the usual list of miners' training results, while Ye Yuncheng took several staff officers and a team of soldiers to maintain the miners and their families who were packing up their belongings.
In order to prevent panic, the miners were not informed that the Ming army was preparing to encircle and suppress the Tiger Flag. They were only told that they would take the miners and their children to the grassland.
For some miners who were unwilling to leave Lingqiu, Ye Yuncheng did not force him. He only took away those who were willing to leave. At the same time, he also informed these miners that the iron yard on Dongshan Mountain would be suspended, which meant that they would never get anything if they stayed here. wages.
As a result, more miners are willing to leave. After all, if the iron furnace is not turned on, the whole family is likely to starve to death here if they stay.
There is a team of thousands of people stationed at Dongshan Iron Yard to maintain order, and almost all the miners have been trained more than once and have a certain degree of discipline, so there is no chaos among the miners in Dongshan.
As teams of miners formed temporary camps, more manpower was available on the mountain, making it easier to maintain order.
And in order to ensure that people on the mountain can go down as soon as possible, miners are only allowed to bring food, bedding, clothing, and iron pots for cooking. As for the various pots and jars in many people's homes, they are all discarded and are not allowed to be brought.
To a certain extent, it is even mandatory for miners and their families to do so.
Fortunately, the miners have received formal training from the Tiger Flag soldiers and have kept the discipline in mind. More importantly, Ye Yuncheng promised them that as long as they went to the grassland, they could be allocated a piece of land belonging to their own family on the grassland, which was considered right. Compensation for this move.
Land has an unimaginable attraction for people of this era.
Not to mention miners, even high-ranking officials in the DPRK are trying their best to obtain more land for their families.
Just over an hour later, the first team of miners and their families left their residence and began to queue down the mountain.
Each of the first batch of miners and their families who came down the mountain had simple luggage that could be carried away on their shoulders. The heaviest thing inside was food.
Because the miners do heavy physical work in the iron yard, there are very few elderly people and there are some children, most of whom are old enough to run around on their own.
As more and more people came down from Dongshan, the noise became louder and louder. All the forces living in Lingqiu County received the news.
The first person to receive the news was Fatty Xu.
When Manager Xu of Xujiazhuang saw something was wrong with the movement of the Tiger Flag, he immediately sent someone to pass the news back to the county seat. The news about the Dongshan Iron Station was not sent until later.
After all, although the Dongshan Iron Works is managed by the Huziqi family, the people working on Dongshan Mountain also include people appointed by the proprietors of various iron works.
Many fat people are fat, have big heads, and have quick brain reactions.
As soon as I received the message from the people below, I immediately realized something was wrong and quickly called in Yang Yuqian and Li Lidong, who were the best friends.
Wang Shuochen, who used to be with them all the time, parted ways with them because of something that happened later.
Lingqiu County is not a big town, and within half a stick of incense, Fatty Xu sent his subordinates to leave. Both Yang Yuqian and Li Lidong arrived at Fatty Xu's house.
As soon as these two people arrived, Fatty Xu asked straight to the point: "Have you heard about the commotion caused by the Tiger Flag?"
"Are you talking about the Dongshan Iron Station?" Yang Yuqian asked.
As one of the most powerful proprietors of Dongshan Iron Field, Dongshan naturally cannot do without his people.
Fatty Xu nodded and said: "My people sent news that several workshops in Tiger Banner will no longer accept iron ingots and will no longer sell them to the merchants who come to Xujiazhuang. Now even the iron ingots from Dongshan Iron Field All the furnaces have been sealed, and I feel something is not right, so I asked my servants to find you all and discuss it together."
"We are also directors of the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce. Tiger Character Banner cannot just shut down the furnace. I think we should contact other members of the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce and ask Tiger Character Flag for an explanation. Maybe we can also take this opportunity to seize the Dongshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. Field." Yang Yuqian said to the two people in front of him.
After the establishment of the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce, Dongshan Iron Station has been controlled by the Hu Ziqi family. Other members of the Chamber of Commerce are only qualified to share dividends and have no qualifications to intervene in the management of Dongshan Iron Station.
Originally, the tiger-character flag was so popular and could bring a lot of dividends to members of the chamber of commerce that many people tolerated it. However, now that the court had begun to target the tiger-character flag, Yang Yuqian saw the opportunity to replace it. .
"There is one thing that I find quite strange." Li Lidong frowned and said, "On the way here, I saw that Wang Shuochen and his family seemed to be traveling away from home."
When Fatty Xu heard this, his small eyes suddenly widened, he stared at Li Lidong and asked solemnly: "Are you sure you read it correctly?"
"It's absolutely true. When I passed by, I took a special look and saw that my luggage was all loaded into the car. If I hadn't been traveling far away, there would be no need to take my luggage with me on the road." Li Lidong said with great certainty.
Yang Yuqian on the side asked curiously: "Could it be that their family is visiting relatives?"
"Hmph, if only his family traveled far away, they might be visiting relatives, but so many miners from the Dongshan Iron Works have left Dongshan, so they can't all be visiting relatives!" Fatty Xu snorted coldly.
However, Li Lidong frowned and said, "Dongzhu Xu, do you mean they are fleeing?"
"Nonsense. There are no natural or man-made disasters. There is no difficulty in escaping. We have enough food to sustain ourselves. Now Lingqiu is the richest place in the nearby state capital." Yang Yuqian said disapprovingly.
Under the management of Huzi Banner in Lingqiu over the years, it is rare to see beggars freezing to death on the road. It can be said that as long as you are willing to work, you will not be without food.
Huziqi has opened many workshops in Lingqiu, and there is never a shortage of work.
"It was a man-made disaster," Li Lidong said to Yang Yuqian.
"How can there be any man-made disaster in Lingqiu? It's nonsense." Yang Yuqian still didn't react.
At this time, I heard Fatty Xu say: "Dongzhu Li means that if the Tiger Flag made such a big noise, he might have known something in advance. The most likely reason is that the imperial court is going to take action against the Tiger Flag."
Li Lidong on the side nodded.
"This, this is impossible! We haven't received any news at all." Yang Yuqian's brows were squeezed together, still not convinced.
After all, it’s not like they don’t have their own news channels.
There are many of their people in the sixth house of the county government, and Zheng Shoubei from Lingqiu is their backer.
No matter which way you look at it, if the imperial court really wants to take action against the Tiger Flag, they won't be able to get the slightest hint of it.
