Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 88 Lost Everything

Xie Chongjun had considered getting rid of Xie Yuyan. If the Yang family hadn't been so useless, the woman would have already been buried underground, and none of this trouble would have happened.

But if he were to give orders, He Tan might discover the truth and follow the trail.

He had other ways to deal with Xie Yuyan, so there was no need to take the risk.

When Zhou Hu mentioned it, he subconsciously wanted to agree, but he also knew that it would be difficult to repay those favors.

If he handles it well, everyone will be happy; if he doesn't, and it gets really investigated, he will end up like the Yang family.

The man from the west was hiding in Yangjiazhuang. Although he committed suicide when the government arrested him, He Tan used this as leverage to detain the Yang family and others in the patrol office jail, claiming that the case was suspicious.

This case will cause trouble every day it remains unresolved, and he cannot allow the Xie family to fall into such a predicament.

Whether the people in the west will act on their own initiative is another matter.

However, he did not refuse. When the opportunity arose, Zhou Hu killed the man and escaped, leaving He Tan helpless.

Xie Chongjun called the steward outside the door in: "Go to the north gate immediately and ask how much the land is for sale. Sign the contract with that family as soon as possible."

The manager responded.

……

Sanhe Village.

The Yang family's carriage arrived in the village early in the morning.

Although the villagers of Sanhe Village have not yet moved, they have vacated the houses in the village where coal was found. The coal mine had already been mined, and burning it loosened the backfill soil.

Meng Jiu and a few men quickly cleared the mine pit, making further digging much easier. They didn't plan to dig very deep; their main purpose was to teach the hired workers how to place pit timber. The coal they dug up was naturally collected by the villagers to make lotus root charcoal.

Since Xie Yuyan started making lotus root charcoal in the village, the villagers of Sanhe Village no longer have to suffer from the cold. The lotus root charcoal they receive each day is enough to get them through the cold winter nights.

Now that so many workers have come to the village, the village will even cook for them.

The elderly, women, and children were given work to do, and Madam Xie even paid them wages, which made them extremely happy.

Those who have endured hardship understand how hard-won everything is today, so no matter how much outsiders inquire in the village, the villagers will not reveal the method of making lotus root charcoal.

Xie Yuyan sat in Meng Jiu's house, listening to Meng Jiu's mother say, "Shi Yong and the others aren't here, so every night Meng Jiu takes people around the village a few times."

“There are several big dogs in the courtyard. The night before last, we heard the dogs barking, so Meng Jiu and the others grabbed sticks and chased after them. It was people from the next village.”

Meng Jiuniang moved the charcoal brazier closer to Xie Yuyan's feet, then smiled and said, "It's too late to deliver it to the yamen, so we had a few men from the village take turns watching him and forced him to tell the truth."

“Now that someone is offering fifty taels of silver to buy the method of making lotus root charcoal, he has bad intentions and wants to come and see what we have mixed into the lotus root charcoal.”

Fifty taels of silver! They were shocked when they heard that.

Who would have thought it could sell for such a high price? Madam Xie must have trusted them so much to entrust them with this task.

Another woman said, "He even persuaded Meng Jiu and the others to help us meet the buyer. He said he wouldn't take a single penny, and all fifty taels would go to the village."

"They also said that the buyer wasn't from Daming Prefecture, and that once they got the method, they would sell it outside, so the lady of the house wouldn't know."

"Can we do that?"

“The lady gave us money, land, and even helped us build houses. If we still had such thoughts, wouldn’t we be even more hateful than Zhao Shan?”

Everyone nodded in agreement.

They valued the method of making lotus root charcoal more than their own lives. Not only had Madam Xie saved the entire village, but they also knew that making lotus root charcoal would provide a livelihood in the future. If Madam Xie's business continued for a long time, they would never have to worry about food again. The village elders wouldn't have to hang themselves or starve to death to save food. Who would harm them?

Xie Yuyan looked at the villagers of Sanhe Village and said, "Things will be better after spring plowing."

After spring plowing?
The villagers, who wanted to keep the secret for life, didn't quite understand. But then they thought about it, and realized that what Madam Xie meant was that their lives had improved back then.

Xie Yuyan drank the hot water and felt much warmer. He stood up and said, "Let's go take a look at the mine."

Meng Jiuniang led the way, saying, "We haven't dug very deep, but we've still managed to get quite a bit of coal." The main reason is that we have plenty of manpower and are provided with plenty of food, so everyone is working hard.

The place where the coal was mined was Zhao Shan's house. After Zhao Shan was flogged, he was carried to an empty house at the end of the village. Every day, the villagers would bring him some food so that he wouldn't freeze or starve to death. The villagers had decided that they would take care of Zhao Shan for the rest of his life. As for how they would take care of him, that was up to the villagers.

Once inside the courtyard, you can see people constantly going in and out of the house.

Upon seeing Xie Yuyan, the men all stopped what they were doing.

Meng Jiu climbed out of the mine pit and led Xie Yuyan to see the situation: "The pit has been dug two zhang long. If we dig another two or three zhang, we can start the pit battle."

Meng Jiuxing said excitedly, "But there's already quite a bit of coal." This wasn't surprising; they had found coal in the mines outside the village, and sometimes they could find it just by digging a few times.

The space is still a bit small, making it difficult to carry out the actual work.

According to Madam Xie, at least a very deep vertical well should be dug, with an opening at least three feet deep, but that's still far from enough.

Xie Yuyan went to see the excavated coal. Under the sunlight, the dark coal shimmered with a luster.

“There are some other stones,” Meng Jiu said with a smile. “We don’t know what they are, but we just followed the craftsmen’s instructions and brought them all up.”

Meng Jiu pointed to a corner as he spoke.

Xie Yuyan walked over. The stone had been carefully cleaned and looked slightly yellowish.

As Xie Yuyan was watching, he heard a noise from the mine. Several more stones were hoisted up, followed by two men skilled in prospecting.

The two men looked rather grim. They casually brushed the dust off their clothes and walked over to Xie Yuyan.

One of them spoke up: "Madam, let's go over and have a few words."

Xie Yuyan followed the two out of the house.

“Madam,” the older man said in a low voice, “we’ve found a lot more of those kinds of stones that we dug out before in the pit.”

The man paused for a moment before continuing, "Before, we only dug out some broken stones, but now that we've dug the shaft deeper, we've seen even more stones."

"Now we can confirm that your mine... contains not only coal, but also... copper."

As the two spoke, Xie Yuyan's expression gradually darkened.

The imperial court prohibited private copper mining, and if a copper mine was discovered, it had to be reported to the government office immediately.

"The amount of copper ore in that pit may be quite large, and it may not be possible to hide it. Unless the pit is filled in and another place is found to dig deeper."

The two knew that Madam Xie had spent a lot of money to buy this land, and if the imperial court really took it away, they would lose it all.

Xie Yuyan was pondering something and hadn't spoken yet when he looked up and saw a group of people coming this way. The leader was wearing official robes and was obviously from the government office.

Without much hesitation, Xie Yuyan ordered, "Put those stones away first."

(End of this chapter)