Chapter 2 Becoming a Miner

Although he was full of doubts, along the way, the hundreds of soldiers surrounded them from all sides, as if they had already prevented them from escaping, which made Xiao Lin choose to endure.

"Xiao Lin, do you think they are really going to wipe out the bandits?" Xiao Shi came to Xiao Lin and whispered, obviously he also felt something was wrong.

"No matter where they go, just follow them." Although Xiao Lin's heart had long been sunk, he still understood the current situation. People had to bow their heads under the eaves. Along the way, every hundred feet or so, Xiao Lin would inadvertently scratch the tree trunk with the stone in his hand.

After walking for another three days, the trees in front of them suddenly became sparse, and a bare mountain appeared faintly in the distance. It was not accurate to say that it was completely bare. When they walked in, Xiao Lin found that the mountain was bare below the halfway point, and above the halfway point, it was covered with hurried green. There were more than a dozen dark holes in the bare part below the halfway point.

On the right side of the mountain, next to the forest, there is a three-story wooden building. Next to the building is a neat thatched house. There is a tower around the thatched house. Xiao Lin saw at a glance that there was a sturdy man holding a crossbow standing on each tower.

On the left side of the mountain, there is a lake of dozens of acres in size. The lake water is lush and green, and with the breeze in the mountain, ripples are formed.

Xiao Lin saw that after they approached the thatched house, several sturdy men came out from the three-story attic next to the thatched house, which looked more impressive. They were all wearing green linen gowns, with a palm-sized metal shoulder guard on their left shoulders, and on their chests, there was a small knife and a small sword embroidered, the two in a cross shape.

The man in the front of the group had two cuffs of gray on his coarse cloth gown, which was very conspicuous. Obviously, this man was the leader of the group of men.

Seeing those people, the scar on Liu Dali's face shone brightly, and a strange smile appeared on his face. He got off his horse and went to meet those people with a few trusted followers.

The leader of the group and Liu Dali kept discussing something in a low voice. Not long after, Liu Dali took a bag from a big man next to the leader. It looked heavy. He weighed it and showed a satisfied expression on his face.

Seeing this scene, Xiao Lin's heart sank completely. He understood that his group of people had been sold out by Liu Dali.

Sure enough, after a while, Liu Dali came back, and then ordered his subordinates to drive hundreds of laborers to the front of those big men, then greeted the leader, and left with his subordinates.

There was a commotion in the crowd.

In this situation, even the dumbest person knew that he had been sold out by Liu Dali, and those big men didn't know who they were. Many people were guessing that they were not bandits, right?

"Are you wondering where this place is?" The leader glanced at everyone and said with a sneer on his face.

"First of all, let me introduce myself to you. I am Wu Lian, the leader of the Huai County branch of Bailian Hall. The mountain you see is the mine of our Bailian Hall in Huai County. You have been sold to our Bailian Hall as miners. Your job in the future is to mine. You must hand over a certain amount of ore every month, otherwise you will be whipped." After saying that, he looked at everyone with a sneer on his face.

"We are civilian workers who carry siege equipment for the government army, not miners. If we don't go to collect the bandits, we would rather go back to Huai County." A very strong man stood up. He was about 30 years old. His clothes were tattered, but they did not cover the exposed tendons. People could tell at a glance that this man was very strong.

"Yes, we want to go back. We are not miners."

As soon as they saw someone taking the lead, several people jumped out and clamored to go back.

Xiao Lin grabbed Xiao Shi, who also wanted to stand out, and winked at him, signaling him to calm down.

Wu Lian looked at the people who came out, with no expression on his face, and the sneer on the corner of his mouth disappeared. He said nothing, but just snorted coldly.

Suddenly, a big man beside him jumped two feet away and suddenly appeared in front of the 30-year-old strong man. The strong man's face changed, and he punched out instinctively, but his punch hit nothing. As soon as the word "not good" came to his mind, he felt as if his chest was hit by a thousand-pound boulder. His eyes went black and he completely lost consciousness.

What Xiao Lin and the others saw was that the big man from Bailian Hall lightly pressed his palm on the chest of the strong man, and then the strong man flew out, spitting blood in the air, and he was completely dead after landing.

Seeing this scene, everyone was stunned. Xiao Lin and Xiao Shi were also stunned. Two words emerged in Xiao Lin's mind: "Martial arts."

Back when he was in the village, he heard from the old people in the village that there were some gangs in Huai County. These gangs would accept some qualified disciples and teach them martial arts from a young age. After practicing for more than ten years, these people were not only extremely powerful, but also came and went without a trace. Ordinary people could not beat one of them even if they were more than a dozen. These people were also called Jianghu people.

Xiao Lin suddenly envied the big man. With such skills, who would dare to bully him? If he also had such skills, he could protect his father and sister from being bullied.

The big man's move of killing a chicken to scare the monkeys immediately stunned everyone. The few people who jumped out to leave also retreated with horror, looking at the few people in front of Bailian Hall with fear in their eyes.

Obviously, Wu Lian was very satisfied with the scene in front of him, and a smile appeared on his face again.

"Isn't that right? Don't worry, when you mine here, in addition to handing in the required weight of ore every month, you can get a commission of 1% of the excess, which can be converted into silver as your reward. If someone performs well and can dig more than twice the amount of ore for three consecutive months and exceed the monthly task, they can also join our Bailian Hall and become an outer disciple. Becoming an outer disciple will bring more benefits. Not only will you get a salary of one or two silver coins every month, you can also learn the basic martial arts of our Bailian Hall and related basic knowledge of ore. From then on, you can get rid of the hard work of mining and become a prospector." Then Wu Lian's face changed, and he took on a fierce expression again: "But I want to warn you, Don't think about running away here. It's impossible to get out from here. Not to mention that our Bailiantang disciples are deployed around here, and there are many secret sentries outside. You can't get out of this nearly 200-mile mountain road. So don't be petty. Mining here peacefully and strive to become an outer disciple of our Bailiantang. This road is your only way to survive. "

No one came out again. Everyone was stunned by Wu Lian's soft and hard methods. They knew that what Wu Lian said was true. Not to mention the dozen big men around, it was impossible to run out of the mountain road of Tianlu Mountain Range without a leader or a large number of people.

"Sun Fang, take them to get mining supplies and clothes." Wu Lian understood that these people in front of him were completely tamed by him. He greeted the big man beside him, turned around and left, and walked towards the attic.

The big man called Sun Fang was the one who killed the strong man. Everyone looked at him with fear.

"You follow me." Sun Fang led everyone to a temporary fenced-off open space in front of the hut on the left. The open space was a hundred feet wide. In the innermost part of the open space, a tent was propped up with coarse cloth. Under the tent were two tables and chairs. Two people were sitting there. One of them was holding a list, and the other was sorting out the items beside him.

"You line up and collect the items and house numbers one by one. Remember, find your house according to the number on the house number. Take a day off today and gather here early tomorrow morning. I will arrange work for you then." After saying that, Sun Fang looked at everyone coldly, sneered and turned away.

He received a coarse gray coat, a kerosene lamp, a fire starter, an iron pickaxe, a bamboo basket, and a wooden sign. The wooden sign said East 21. Xiao Lin glanced at Xiao Shi beside him. The wooden sign in his hand said West 33.

Xiao Lin couldn't help but smile bitterly. His idea of ​​living with Xiao Shi was completely shattered. Xiao Shi was also helpless. He wanted to discuss with the big man who distributed the items whether he could change to East 21, but was glared back.

Xiao Lin had no choice but to say hello to Xiao Shi, and then took the doorplate to find his residence.

After a while, Xiao Lin found his hut. He gently pushed the door. The door was not locked and opened directly. He walked in and saw that the hut was not big, only two feet wide. There were five wooden beds arranged in a row. There was a set of gray thin quilts on the beds and a wooden washbasin. Apart from that, there was nothing. He glanced around and found that only three of the five wooden beds seemed to have been touched. It seemed that there were four people living here, including him.

Xiao Lin put the things on the bed and stared at the door in a daze. He thought of his father and younger sister. He didn't know if they had arrived in Huai County? Did they find a place to stay?

Originally, he thought that it would not take too long to wipe out the bandits, whether successful or not, but he did not expect to be sold to Bailian Hall as a miner. Although Wu Lian said that as long as he was good at mining, he could become an outer disciple of Bailian Hall, but Xiao Lin felt that it would not be easy to become an outer disciple of Bailian Hall.

If he could not become an outer disciple of Bailian Hall, then leaving here would basically be a long way off. Although he made marks along the way, he could not get out of the Tianlu Mountains without enough food, not to mention that there were many ferocious beasts in the deep mountains.

No matter how he thought about it, Xiao Lin felt that the success rate of escaping from here was almost zero, so he completely gave up the idea of ​​escaping, and simply climbed onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.