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Chapter 286 Silencing
boom!
Zhu Cheng couldn't contain his anger any longer and slammed his fist on the table, veins popping out on his forehead.

The guard was so frightened that he couldn't finish his sentence.

Zhu Yu nodded to him, signaling him to continue.

The guard hesitated for a moment, then continued cautiously, "Before we left, the prince instructed us to handle things properly once we got there, to avoid conflict and to keep quiet. So we didn't take any immediate action and tried to make the other side understand the situation."

As they were talking, several people suddenly emerged from inside, hurriedly saying they wanted to call the coachman to bring the carriage over and take the ore away.

This immediately exposed the illegal mining of black iron ore. Without hesitation, we pinned everyone to the ground and arrested the thieves who were just about to transport the ore away. After interrogation, we learned that they were secretly transporting it back to refine black iron, so the Pang family could prepare in advance what kind of cauldron the Emperor might want next year…”

The guard spoke with little confidence, because before that, not only were they insignificant figures unaware of the Emperor's plan to build a cauldron next year, but even Prince Zhu Cheng seemed to know nothing about it. Therefore, he didn't know if this was some kind of inexplicable trick played by the Pang family. When it came to the Emperor, saying the wrong thing could have serious consequences, so he couldn't help but feel nervous.

"What cauldron?" Zhu Cheng asked, forgetting his anger and looking puzzled.

Only Zhu Yu and Lu Qing knew the truth about this matter. Zhu Yu leaned close to Zhu Cheng and told him about how they had suspected the Pang family of acting on their own and had deliberately spread false information to Zhu Ning.

Lu Qing and Zhu Yu's attitude towards the Pang family is now quite clear. Their actions don't seem to have surprised Zhu Cheng. Zhu Cheng didn't react much. After hearing the news, he was relieved to know that Emperor Jin had no such decree.

"What's the situation over there now? Why did you rush back? Have all the Pang family members been brought back? Or has something else happened?" Zhu Cheng asked the guard.

"Your Highness, the Pang family members are still there. After we imprisoned them all, we went to inspect the Wutie Mine and found that a lot of the mine had been illegally mined. There were still a few people inside who didn't know what was happening outside and were still digging. After we arrested them, they cried and begged us to let them go back to mining, saying they didn't want to die."

We felt something was amiss, so we tortured the people sent by the Pang family. At first, they couldn't say anything, but later they couldn't withstand the beating and finally told the truth.

They said they were only responsible for guarding the outside and did not interfere in matters inside the mine.

Previously, another group of people secretly recruited many able-bodied men from elsewhere for them. Some of them mined ore in the mines, some were responsible for smelting black iron, and others knew how to forge ironware and were responsible for making black iron weapons according to those people's requirements.

However, we have inspected the mine and found that the amount of ore that had been illegally mined was enormous, something that those few eccentric people present could never have done.

After another round of interrogation, those people finally confessed completely, saying that there were at least dozens of people mining and smelting iron there before, but because the work was too tiring, those who had abducted people did not allow the able-bodied men to rest...

Those people couldn't eat well, couldn't sleep well, and worked day and night mining. They usually died from exhaustion in no time.

Those people would take away able-bodied men like that, and then send in new ones to replace them, so they could continue working. The few we pulled out of the mine were all lucky to have survived; they hadn't been worked to death.”

When Zhu Cheng went out with Lu Qing and Zhu Yu to check on the progress of the canal digging, he had already discovered the disappearance of the able-bodied men under their guidance. However, the Black Stone Mountain area was far away from the location of the Wutie Mine, and he was quite surprised. He wondered how these people would obediently follow him to mine: "Did they say anything about why those people obeyed their orders?"
Since you said that the Pang family in charge over there didn't have many servants, but instead had many able-bodied men taken away for mining and iron smelting, didn't those men ever think of resisting and escaping? Why did they obediently submit to their enslavement?
"How come after you captured them, they're begging you to let them go back to mining?"

"Your Highness, the Pang family said it was a different group. They first tricked those people by saying they could teach them alchemy secrets, and after mastering them, they would be able to turn iron into gold, and from then on, they would live a life of wealth and honor."

Once those people are tempted, they are tricked into taking a secret medicine. After taking it, they feel refreshed and have inexhaustible energy. However, if they do not take more medicine after a while, they will become weak and feel like they are being eaten by insects from the inside out. In the end, they will die suddenly, and their death will look like they are possessed.

So after those people were tricked into working at the Wutie Mine, they knew they had been fooled and that there was no alchemical secret at all, but they had no way to resist and had to work desperately in order to beg those people to send them the medicine regularly.

The guard had been by Zhu Cheng's side for many years and had always witnessed his kind and generous way of treating people. He had never imagined that someone would use such a vicious method to persecute the people. When he recounted all of this, he still couldn't help but show his disgust and resentment.

Zhu Yu recalled the stories they had heard on their journey from Black Stone Mountain into Shuodi, all the way to the capital. One of them was a strong man who had been discovered by his family and forcibly kept from leaving, and it seemed that this was how he died.

It's that same kind of secret medicine that can make someone radiant one minute and wretched the next...

Recently, all sorts of insidious and vicious secret medicines have been appearing quite frequently.

Zhu Yu frowned, glanced at Lu Qing, and remained silent.

"How are those people who were brought out? Do the Pang family's servants have any extra medicine that can temporarily stabilize their lives?" Zhu Cheng asked.

As long as there is still medicine to save those people's lives for the time being, he is not worried about the rest.

The renowned physician Yan Daoxin is at my residence, so it shouldn't be difficult to get him to prepare the antidote.

The result was that such a simple question caused the guard's face to tense up again. He looked at Zhu Cheng and pursed his lips with some difficulty.

"If it's there, it's there; if it's not, it's not. What are you hesitating for?!" Zhu Cheng urged impatiently.

The guard secretly wiped the sweat from his palms on both sides of his trousers and said cautiously, "It doesn't matter whether they exist or not, those people... have all been killed."