The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

The door to the stone chamber was ajar, and bright light shone from inside, along with the faint sounds of drinking games.

Jiang Lin and Zhao Lingjun, like two geckos, silently clung to the rock wall outside the stone chamber.

"...Five champions! Six six six! Drink!"

"Damn it, Wang Ermazi, you cheated again! This round doesn't count, let's start over!"

The noise inside was deafening; it sounded like seven or eight people were gambling and drinking, and their guard was very lax.

Jiang Lin gestured to Zhao Lingjun, signaling her to stay put, while he cautiously peered through the crack in the door.

The stone chamber was small, with a large wooden table inside. Seven or eight men dressed in black were shouting and yelling around the table.

The table was a mess of cups and plates, with dice and coins scattered around. In a corner of the stone chamber, against the wall, stood a half-person-high iron cabinet with a large brass padlock hanging on it.

Jiang Lin's gaze instantly locked onto the metal cabinet.

His intuition told him that the ledger was in there.

He pulled his head back, mouthed "cabinet" to Zhao Lingjun, then pointed to the people inside, shook his head, indicating that there were too many people and it was difficult to make a move.

Zhao Lingjun understood and nodded, a hint of nervousness in his eyes.

Jiang Lin gestured for her to calm down, then listened intently to the sounds coming from afar.

He was waiting, waiting for Shen Kuo's signal.

About the time it takes to drink a cup of tea has passed.

"boom!"

A muffled explosion suddenly came from the other end of the tunnel, shaking the entire mine shaft and causing rubble to fall from above.

Inside the stone chamber, the sounds of drinking games abruptly ceased.

"What happened? Was it an earthquake?"

"No! That sound... seems to be coming from the alchemy room!"

"Let's go! Let's take a look!"

The men inside immediately became alert, grabbed their weapons leaning against the wall, and rushed out of the stone chamber cursing.

"Damn it, it's those disciples of Old Master Shen messing things up again! They're going to blow up this mine sooner or later!"

"Didn't the boss say they weren't allowed to touch those blast furnaces? Why won't they listen?"

The seven or eight people quickly ran away, their footsteps disappearing around the corner of the tunnel.

Jiang Lin nodded to Zhao Lingjun: "The opportunity has arrived!"

The two immediately slipped into the stone chamber.

A strong smell of alcohol and sweat hit them. Zhao Lingjun frowned in disgust, but still immediately followed Jiang Lin to the metal cabinet.

"It's locked." Jiang Lin tried to tug at the large brass lock, but it didn't budge.

"I'll do it."

Niu Aihua, who had been waiting outside the door, came in. She glanced at the lock, and without saying a word, pulled the bull-ear-shaped dagger from her leg and inserted the tip of the blade into the keyhole.

With a slight twist of her wrist, she made a sound.

"Snap!"

With a sharp crack, the seemingly sturdy brass lock's cylinder was snapped in two by her brute force.

Zhao Lingjun was dumbfounded. She had always known that Niu Aihua was strong, but she hadn't expected her to be this strong. This was no longer just simple strength, but a kind of exquisite control over strength.

Jiang Lin, unfazed, simply opened the cabinet door.

The cabinet was completely full, filled with stacks of account books.

"So many?" Zhao Lingjun was taken aback.

"Separate teams to search," Jiang Lin said in a deep voice. "Find records related to words like 'Ministry of Revenue,' 'deficit,' 'vagrants,' and 'prisoners.' Be quick; they could be back at any moment."

The three of them immediately got to work, taking all the account books out of the cabinet, spreading them on the table, and quickly flipping through them by the light.

These ledgers are extremely detailed, recording everything from the output of each batch of ore to the "purchase" price of each slave, and the destination of every sale of "black water."

Jiang Lin flipped through the pages extremely quickly, almost reading ten lines at a glance. His expression grew increasingly gloomy as he read.

This record contains not only money, but also countless bloody human lives.

"In the spring of the third year of Jiayou, 300 'sickly and dead' were purchased, costing 1,500 taels of silver. Three months later, 120 of them survived."

"In the summer of the third year of the Jiayou era, Daming Prefecture was flooded. Five hundred refugees were taken in and there were no casualties. Five months later, less than two hundred survived."

"In the autumn of the fourth year of the Jiayou reign, eighty serious criminals were transferred from the Ministry of Justice prison, costing three thousand taels of silver for bribery..."

Every record is like a knife, stabbing into one's heart.

Zhao Lingjun's hands were trembling. As she looked at the cold numbers on the ledger, countless desperate and painful faces seemed to appear before her eyes.

"Beasts...they are nothing but beasts!" Her voice was choked with sobs and uncontrollable rage.

"Found it!" Jiang Lin suddenly shouted.

He pulled out a booklet that was noticeably thicker and had a more exquisite cover from the bottom of a pile of account books.

There were no words written on the cover of the booklet.

Jiang Lin's pupils contracted as soon as he turned to the first page.

What's recorded here is no longer a simple account of the mining operation, but a huge and complex network of profit transfer.

From the prefectural magistrate and military commander of Daming Prefecture, to the transport commissioner of Hebei Circuit, and then to certain high-ranking officials in the capital... familiar names were listed one after another. Under each person's name, there were shocking figures.

Zhao Liben is at the center of this network.

Through this underground black kingdom, he amassed a vast fortune, and then used this wealth to weave a protective umbrella that covered the entire Hebei province and even extended into the imperial court.

"So that's how it is..." Jiang Lin muttered to himself, "No wonder he dared to be so reckless. It turns out there are so many people standing behind him."

Zhao Lingjun also came over and saw what was written on it; her face instantly drained of all color.

"No...it's impossible...Uncle Zhang...how could he..." She pointed to a name in the booklet, her voice trembling. That name belonged to one of the Three Ministers, whom her father, the Emperor, greatly trusted.

"No one is clean when faced with enormous profits," Jiang Lin said coldly. "Because you have no idea who your real enemy is."

Zhao Lingjun fell silent. She felt a chill rise from the soles of her feet and instantly spread throughout her body.

"Take this general ledger, and these records of the slave origins. Don't take the others," Jiang Lin quickly decided. He knew better than to bite off more than he could chew; as long as he had the core evidence, it would be enough to deliver a fatal blow to Zhao Liben.

He stuffed the selected ledgers into his cloth bag, then haphazardly shoved the rest back into the metal cabinet, creating the illusion that they had been hastily flipped through.

"Let's go!" Jiang Lin whispered to Niu Aihua and Zhao Lingjun.

However, just as they were preparing to leave the stone chamber...

"Squeak—"

The door to the stone chamber was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

A tall, imposing figure appeared at the doorway, blocking all their escape routes.

The man was dressed in a black, close-fitting outfit. He had a scar on his face that stretched from the corner of his eye to the corner of his mouth, and his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's. He carried a still-dripping knife in his hand, and his body reeked of blood.

It was Xue Gang who escorted them all the way here.

Xue Gang's gaze swept across the chaotic stone chamber, finally settling on Jiang Lin and his two companions. A cruel smile appeared on his face.

"I'm still wondering what kind of rat dares to come here to steal things."

His gaze finally settled on Jiang Lin's bulging cloth bag.

"It seems I've arrived just in time. Leave your things behind, and perhaps I can grant you a proper burial."

The air froze in that instant.

Niu Aihua silently shielded Zhao Lingjun behind her, gripped the hilt of her knife with both hands, and crouched slightly, like a cheetah ready to pounce.

Jiang Lin's expression remained unchanged; he even smiled at Xue Gang.

"If we said we came in... to use the restroom, would you believe us?"

Xue Gang's scar twitched, and his eyes grew even colder.

"It seems you've chosen to die a gruesome death."

Before he finished speaking, he charged straight at Jiang Lin like a cannonball, his steel knife drawing a bright arc and bringing with it a fierce gust of wind that sliced ​​through the air.

This strike was swift and ruthless, leaving absolutely no room for error!