The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 361 The Devil in the Coal Mine
Another shining pearl on the industrial crown appeared, once again confirming Wu Chang’s previous speculation.

In the Steam Phantom copy, the so-called jewel in the crown of industry refers to the various extraordinary steam engines.

Ravington looked at the coal in Wu Chang's hand and asked Thomas:

"Our previous promises are still valid. If you know anything, just tell us."

Thomas asked guiltily, "Sir, you saw it from the beginning, didn't you?"

Ravington shrugged and said:
"The detective business relies a lot on intelligence and connections. Coincidentally, my connections are pretty good."

"When I was learning detective skills, I got to know several theft gangs in Grimland. There were several young men among them who were very skilled and had worked in mines before."

"At that time, I heard from them that some theft gangs would disguise themselves as miners, enter precious metal mines, and steal the raw stones in exchange for money."

Ravington looked at Thomas, who was becoming more and more reserved, and continued:
"When you tried to take my wallet, I noticed that your technique was well-trained, but surprisingly not well-practiced."

"If it was a gang of thieves living in the city, they would have very good eyesight and could easily identify who they should not mess with, so they would not take the risk of stealing my wallet."

"A clumsy thief who has skills but lacks practice, and happens to be a miner. It's hard for me not to think too much about him."

After hearing this, Thomas said honestly without a trace of luck on his face:
"Sir, you are right. There is indeed a gang of thieves in the Pine Tree Coal Mine, and I am one of them."

Raventon glanced at Wu Chang and said with a hint of satisfaction:
"You see, as I said, the truth of the matter lies in the details."

Wu Chang shook his head slightly and said;
"Everyone has different ways of solving crimes. For example, I don't need details."

Ravington asked curiously, "Then how do you find the truth?"

"Intuition, or inspiration." Wu Chang spread his hands.

Ravington suddenly thought of something and said with caution: "You are not praying to the Light of Eternal Purity to let the gods tell you the truth, that would be cheating."

Wu Chang denied, "Of course not. When your mysticism reaches my level, you will understand the importance of inspiration."

Ravington said noncommittally, "I hope to see your inspirational method of solving crimes one day."

"Now, let's hear what Thomas has to say."

Now that the biggest secret has been revealed, Thomas no longer hides it and tells everything he knows about Jet Spirit.

At the beginning, as he said, because of his short stature, he could easily move around in the mine tunnels, especially in the deep coal mining areas, so he was selected by the coal mine management to convey various orders.

About two years ago, a group of mine thieves came to Songshu Coal Mine and took a fancy to him.

They found Thomas late at night and asked him to scout the area for them, confirm the status of the mine, and pass messages to members within the gang while delivering management instructions.

As a reward, he can join a theft organization and learn theft skills.

Under the instructions of the gang of thieves, Thomas discovered that every month or so, a cart of special coal would be produced in the deep mine.

This truckload of coal will not be shipped out of the mine with other coal mines, but will be packaged by the coal mine management and sent directly to the mine owner's office.

What they have to do is to find an opportunity to steal the special coal when it is being transported from deep mines to shallow mines.

That is jet.

Thomas was responsible for, first, determining through instructions which deep mines the special coal for that month would be delivered from.

The second is to identify the escort personnel, find those who are less vigilant, and help the miners pass messages so that they can make plans in advance based on the route.

The most important thing is to help the gang of miners pay attention to the movements of the mine owners and managers after the mission is accomplished to see if they have discovered any coal missing.

Thomas was reluctant to get involved at first, but he had no choice because the other party offered too much.

For every successful operation, the gang of miners would give him 20 shillings as a dividend.

Thomas was only twelve years old and earned the minimum child wage in the mine, working six days a week, 14 hours a day, for a monthly salary of only 15 shillings.

If he helps the mining gang once a month, he can get double his salary. This temptation is simply irresistible for Thomas who wants to move out of the slums with his sister.

After listening to Thomas' description, Reventon asked:

"It is produced once a month. How much coal is produced each time?"

“Probably eight cars,” Thomas recalled.

"Eight cars? Standard mine cars with a capacity of one ton?" Raventon was shocked by the number.

Thomas nodded and said, "Yes."

Ravington seemed to have grasped the key to the problem. His voice became much more excited. He said:
"As far as I know, the annual production of coal in the whole of Stiland does not reach eight cars."

"The density of jet is less than half that of coal, but eight carts of jet weigh nearly four tons. The unit price of jet is higher than that of silver, reaching 6 shillings per ounce, and the value of one ton is more than gold pounds."

“No wonder the output value of the deep layer of the entire Songshu Coal Mine is higher than that of the shallow layer coal. Now it seems that not only did they not overstate the report, but they were even conservative.”

Wu Chang already knew where the problem was through the information provided by the King's Badge, and said:

"That is to say, there are some special secrets hidden deep in the Songshu Coal Mine. This special secret makes the coal production here abnormally high."

Raventon showed an approving expression and said:
"That's right. What we have to do next is to enter the mine and see what is hidden inside."

"It just so happens that we have an excellent underground guide here."

To investigate a mine explosion, one naturally has to first check the mine where the explosion occurred.

The cause of the Songshu Coal Mine explosion announced to the public was excessive accumulation of gas deep in the mine, which triggered a huge explosion from deep to shallow.

The mine where the explosion occurred has been temporarily cleaned up. According to statistics from Songshu Coal Mine itself, more than four hundred miners died in the explosion.

However, the explosion was too violent, and some mines had not yet been cleaned out, so only about 200 bodies of miners have been found so far.

The shallow mining area where the explosion occurred has been carefully handled and there is no danger or clues.

Ravington held up the lantern, illuminating the mine wall with dark red blood stains, and said:
"The excavation and cleanup of the Pine Tree Coal Mine explosion was personally in charge and supervised by Prime Minister Ron. I happened to be present during the excavation and observed it closely."

"It was professional, fast, clean and efficient. Every detail was well taken care of. It was a textbook-level mining disaster."

"But unfortunately, because it's so standard, I can't see any additional clues."

"I wonder what our inspiration detectives have discovered here."

Just as Ravington said, the area of ​​the mine that had been cleared was very clean and there was nothing unusual. He could not detect any abnormalities just by relying on inspiration.

But he never relied solely on inspiration to investigate the truth.

He didn't believe that an accident in which more than four hundred people died would leave no resentment behind.

He walked along the mine for more than ten meters and indeed found a place of resentment. The owner of the resentment was just an ordinary miner, which made his resentment only light red.

But that's enough.

He looked at the resentment, and light red blood burst out, engulfing him in an instant.

Turning back, he had already possessed the body of the miner, experiencing everything that happened on the day of the explosion from a first-person perspective.

The owner of the resentment had finished his work and was about to leave the mine to take over from others.

When the perspective of the owner of the resentment just shifted, Wu Chang could vaguely hear someone asking:
"Art, why do you change shifts so early today? Normally you would stay two more hours."

The resentful master named Art said:

"Not today. My wife has malaria and is resting at home. I need to go back and cook for her."

The worker asked with concern: "Is she okay?"

Art said, "It's just mild malaria. The priest next door checked her out and said she'll get better soon."

The coworker smiled and said, "Give Perri my regards. I'll pray that her diarrhea doesn't get worse after eating the dinner you made."

As the group was laughing and joking, a miner suddenly cried out in front of the mine:
"The mine cart is stuck. Is there something wrong with the track?"

"Damn it, fix it quickly, the coal from the deep mines will be coming up soon!"

Art followed the sound and said, "Let me take a look."

Before he could get close, a miner who wanted to leave the mine and find a track maintenance worker suddenly sat down on the ground.

He covered his face and sat up from the ground, cursing: "Which idiot walks without eyes?"

But when he raised his head, he found that there was only air in front of him and no one was there.

The miner was stunned. He reached out his hand, but when his hand was halfway out, it was blocked by something.

"My Queen! There's nothing wrong with the mine cart. There's a transparent wall here!"

At this time, Art happened to walk nearby. He approached doubtfully and put out his hand to touch the place where the worker said. Surprisingly, he felt the same reality as touching a wall in the air.

A bad premonition arose in his heart. Before he could say anything, he saw a dazzling light deep in the mine, approaching him quickly. The air wall he was holding disappeared the moment the light came on, but before he could react, there was only a voice in his ears.

boom!
The next moment, a violent explosion engulfed the entire mine.

Wu Chang's eyes went dark and he was freed from his resentment.

Art didn't understand what was happening, but he, who was possessed by Art, saw it very clearly.

The wall of air blocking the entrance to the mine was clearly an occult magic array.

The Songshu Coal Mine explosion was a pure man-made disaster!

Raventon's voice sounded behind him, "Master, has your inspiration given you any clues?"

Wu Chang took a deep breath, and first communicated with Irene through mental communication to let her take Thomas forward first. Then he waved at Raventon, indicating that Raventon should follow him.

Raventon appeared calm on the surface, but his heart skipped a beat. He looked at Wu Chang in confusion, thinking that the captain might have some clues.

In the case of the Pine Tree Mine explosion, the explosion and occult rituals went hand in hand.

The moment the explosion occurred, the air wall disappeared, making the death of the workers in the mine very natural, without any trace of boundaries.

Art was blown far away by the explosion, and the place where the resentment was located was some distance away from the air wall.

Wu Chang took Raventon and walked for more than ten meters until they came to the location where the air wall existed in Art's resentment.

Complex mystical runes flashed on his palm, and then he wiped his hand towards the wall of the mine, and an invisible mark appeared on the surface of the wall.

"Mr. Detective, can you tell what this means?"

Ravington took out a folding magnifying glass and observed the traces for a minute or two. Then he folded the magnifying glass and said in a daze:
"Rites of Passage are forbidden."

Wu Chang praised: "It seems that your occult literacy is not too bad. If you can go a step further and restore the traces of occult rituals, it will be even better."

Ravington asked in confusion: "How did you find out?"

Not to mention the forbidden passage ceremony on the wall, which had been cleaned up manually, and the cleaner was very skilled, leaving almost no trace.

Even if the other party left a trace, he could be sure that Wu Chang had never seen that trace before.

Wu Chang was just a dozen meters away, looking thoughtfully into the air. In almost the blink of an eye, he seemed to have received divine inspiration and discovered the hidden clue.

Wu Chang faced Raventon's question and said as a matter of course: "I said it was based on inspiration."

Raventon immediately shook his head and denied it. "So-called inspiration also requires collecting enough clues, combining the actual situation at the scene, and using logical reasoning to eliminate most of the impossible options, before a flash of inspiration will flash through your mind."

"What you just demonstrated was clearly a more cheating method besides inspiration."

Wu Chang shook his head and said, "This is my talent. I am not very clear about the principle of its effectiveness. Sorry, I am not knowledgeable enough and it is difficult for me to explain what happened to you who have no talent."

Raventon laughed, angrily.

"I just don't believe that your so-called inspiration can be so accurate every time."

Wu Chang raised his eyebrows and asked:

"You mean, you want to compete with me to see who can be the first to find out the truth about the Songshu Coal Mine explosion?"

Raventon straightened his chest and said solemnly:

"of course."

Wu Chang asked, "What's the bet?"

Raverton opened his wallet and said, "Forty, no, after deducting next month's rent, the stakes are thirty-three gold pounds."

Wu Chang originally thought that Raventon would bet big, but he didn't expect it was just gold pounds.

He said with a smile: "Okay, I accept your challenge."

Wu Chang and others continued investigating in the cleared mine.

There is a lot of resentment in the mine, but the information contained in it is not much different from Art's resentment.

The deeper levels of the mine were still in a state of collapse and they couldn't go any further down. In order to investigate the secrets deep inside the mine, they could only ask Thomas to find a mine that had not collapsed and try to get deeper into the mine.

Before entering the new mine, Raventon took out a canary and walked at the front of the team.

Unlike the collapsed mines, the uncollapsed mines have no one to clean them, and there is a high possibility of other harmful gases inside.

Carrying a canary with them is a common method used by miners to monitor the air in the mines. Canaries are sensitive to changes in the air. If it shows abnormalities such as lethargy, it means that the air in the mine is dangerous and needs to be evacuated.

They moved forward until they reached the junction of the deep and shallow layers of the mine, and the canary did not react at all.

The deep levels of several mines are connected to each other, but the current situation seems that the leaked gas has concentrated in several of the mine tunnels.

This performance further confirms that the explosion at Songshu Coal Mine was artificially manipulated.

The few of them continued to walk deeper into the mine. The deeper they went, the smaller the mine became.

Everyone soon came to a heavy wooden door. According to Thomas, this door was located two hundred meters underground and divided the shallow mining area from the deep mining area.

Thomas knew how to open the door and he opened it very smoothly, but judging from Thomas's actions, he was extremely tense and looked very uneasy, and his body unconsciously moved closer to Irene.

Wu Chang asked, "What is there in the deep mine area that scares you so much?"

Thomas said with a slight tremor in his voice:

"Sir, I heard from my fellow workers that there are demons living in the deep mines. They appear at night and kidnap the miners."

Wu Chang became interested and asked, "Demons in the deep mines? Tell me more about it."

As they walked forward, they listened to what Thomas said.

In Stirland, mining is a dangerous job, especially coal miners, who have a higher mortality rate than railway workers, who are generally recognized as dangerous occupations.

In a small coal mine with a workforce of a hundred people, three or four people die in accidents every year, not to mention a super-large coal mine like Songshu Coal Mine with over three thousand people.

But from the data, if we don’t count the recent coal mine explosion, the death rate of miners in Songshu Coal Mine is actually much lower than that in ordinary coal mines.

This comes from Songshu Coal Mine's good ventilation and drainage mechanisms, as well as its strict management system.

These standardized controls have greatly reduced the risk of miners dying in accidents, but the number of casualties at Songshu Coal Mine is still around 20 per year.

One of the reasons is the deep mining area.

Miners often disappear in deep mines, with no trace of their bodies found.

The deepest part of Songshu Coal Mine is 600 meters underground. Many times, the miners do not have time to return to the surface and have to stay overnight in a temporary resting place deep underground.

Many miners claimed that when they were sleeping soundly in the middle of the night, they saw some of their co-workers sleepwalking into the depths of the mine and not returning the next day.

Thomas' voice became dry when he said this.

"Compared to ordinary miners, members of the mine thieves gang, especially those who have touched coal spirits, are more likely to be attacked by demons."

"Before the explosion, five members of the gang of miners had disappeared in succession."

After hearing this, Ravington showed a thoughtful expression and asked:
"How much coal do you steal each time?"

Thomas said: "In order to avoid being discovered by the mine management, we picked up small pieces of coal each time, about half the coal on the mine owner's desk."

"We take 80 to 100 pieces at a time, and no more than 15 pieces per car. We never take more than that. For every piece we take, we will put in a piece of coal of similar size."

Raventon was silent for a moment and said:

"According to what you said, each piece of jet you took weighed about an ounce, which, taking the median value of ninety pieces, would be five pounds."

"This weight may not be much if it is spread over eight loads of coal, but have you ever thought that if the coal mine owner knew the total weight of each load of coal, the five pounds you took away would be particularly noticeable."

Thomas said immediately, "Impossible. Carley said that coal ore is very difficult to mine, so it is normal for it to be mixed into ordinary coal mines."

"And the eight carts of jet were produced from different mines. They don't know the total number."

Ravington seemed to have guessed what happened in the mine. He said in a calm tone:

"Then did that Kali you mentioned ever tell you that ordinary coal mines cannot produce such a large amount of coal essence on such a regular basis?"

Thomas stopped talking, his eyes full of fear.

If the coal mine owner had discovered their actions from the beginning, why did the mine owner and mine management turn a blind eye to their behavior or even pretend not to know?
Wu Chang patted Thomas on the head gently and said:

"Don't think too much. For some things, knowing too much is not good for you."

(End of this chapter)