Blue, Red and White Dark Abyss Cauldron

The slaves were driven slowly by the supervisors for about five or six miles. A few stone houses appeared in a valley ahead. White smoke rose from the roofs. It turned out that this was the place where meals were cooked for the slaves.

The people who served the meals were all women, young and old, and there were several supervisors behind them, walking back and forth with whips in their hands.

Chu Xiaomu looked around, searching for Yang Dou and Huai Xiaomeng in the crowd. The supervisor surnamed Ma whipped him with a whip and scolded, "What are you looking at? Be quiet!"

Chu Xiaomu was in unbearable pain and didn't dare to look around. He could only watch secretly.

Yu Aqi whispered, "If you want to find someone, you can only do it secretly. You will suffer if you do that. You might even be locked up in a dark room."

Before going to work every day, meals were distributed. Chu Xiaomu lined up to receive a bowl. It was full of rotten vegetables and even blackened rice grains. There was no trace of meat at all. He thought to himself, how could we have the energy to work if we only eat this much every day? Then he thought again, yes, these supervisors and soldiers were afraid that the slaves would cause trouble or escape, so of course they would not let everyone eat enough.

Chu Xiaomu held a ceramic food bowl and, like the other slaves, squatted on the ground in groups of three or five, slurping their food.

The supervisors kept urging the slaves to eat, and drove them back to the mountains to work before they had finished eating. Some of the slaves who ate slowly had their bowls knocked over and were not allowed to eat any more. Seeing this, the others had no choice but to eat faster by wolfing down their food.

After dinner, several supervisors led the slaves from each slave house into the deep mountains. After crossing a ridge, a sloping stone wall several dozen feet high appeared in front of them.

The stone wall was black in color, and was covered with dozens of dark holes. Artificially carved paths meandered around, connecting the holes together. These holes were naturally the so-called black iron ore caves.

There is only one way in and out of the stone wall, which is slightly wider than the small path on the stone wall, about two feet wide.

Chu Xiaomu thought: "The slaves are working here. It would be difficult for them to escape if there were only one or two soldiers guarding the intersection. No wonder there are so few sentry towers."

Slowly descending along the cliff path, Chu Xiaomu was led by three supervisors to the entrance of a mine.

Yu Aqi learned that the three supervisors were named Ma, Meng, and Wu. The supervisor named Ma had a bad temper and liked to insult and whip the slaves. The supervisor named Meng had a milder temper and the slaves liked to ask him for help when they had problems. The supervisor named Wu didn't like to take care of things and just lay aside and slept all day.

Although the three of them were only small overseers, they all liked the slaves to call them overseers, otherwise they would be unhappy. The overseer named Ma would even whip people severely with a whip.

The supervisor surnamed Ma was already out of breath, so he sat down at the entrance of the cave and shouted, "Hurry up, all you slaves! As usual, if you don't dig enough ore, you are not allowed to come out. If you are one basket short, you will be whipped. You will have twenty-seven... No, today is twenty-eight, and all twenty-eight bastards will have a share!"

It turned out that the supervisors did not always keep an eye on the slaves while they worked. They only stipulated that each cell had to mine 300 baskets of ore every day before they could leave the mine. Otherwise, not only would everyone in the cell be whipped, but they would also have their food rations reduced and suffer from hunger.

A basket can hold about 120 to 130 kilograms. After conversion, a slave house has to mine about 40,000 kilograms of ore a day.

Chu Xiaomu felt secretly apologetic in his heart, because it turned out that Lu Quangao, Xuanying, Yu Aqi and other slaves had been helping him with the work for so many days.

The mine was pitch black, and everyone lit three or four torches and filed in. After walking about forty or fifty feet, they reached the end of the mine.

Everyone took off their outer clothes, tattered leather robes, cotton-padded jackets and other similar clothing, picked up shovels, hammers and pickaxes and began to mine the ore with clanging sounds.

Chu Xiaomu only suffered minor injuries, but fortunately he did not lose any physical strength. In addition, he was in good health. Although he had lost a lot of weight due to hunger these days, his strength had not decreased at all. He swung the pickaxe and started smashing. Soon he dug out a large pile of ore.

Several slaves carried the ore to the cave entrance in rattan baskets, and other slaves with green stripes on their foreheads carried the ore away on their backs.

Yu Aqi smiled and said, "Xiao Mu, why don't you get better earlier and work with us? This way we can save half the effort."

However, Lu Quangao said, "Slow down, slow down... It's hard to maintain your strength like this, and you can't do it for long." Everyone advised him not to be too anxious, as it was useless to be anxious.

But Chu Xiaomu was still full of energy after half a day, which left everyone dumbfounded.

Three supervisors stood guard outside the cave. They could not see the movement of the people, so the slaves started chatting while mining the ore. One of them mentioned that he was kidnapped to Jiaoshan in Jinyang City after his family was ruined, and he could not help crying.

Everyone was filled with emotion and talked about the reasons why they became slaves.

It turns out that Lu Quangao was originally a farmer outside Xihai City. After a disaster, he went to the city to beg but was caught by a slave seller and sold as a slave. Liu Zang loved gambling. After a big bet, he not only lost everything but also owed hundreds of gold coins. He was sold as a slave by his creditor to pay off the gambling debt. Luo Daxi and Hai Wuqing had similar experiences. They both went to Xihai City to do business, but they lost so much money that they couldn't even afford to eat. They had to sell themselves to make a living. Gao Yijue was a soldier. He was originally in Beihuguan between Yancheng and Fengbao City. He was a garrison guarding the pass, but was framed by others and fell into poverty after escaping, and was sold as a slave; Yu Aqi was from Anfeng City, and because he admired the Golden Sword and Black Sword of Jinyang City, he came from afar to learn the art of swordsmanship, but he couldn't even get through the gate, and was captured by a vicious warrior under the Golden Sword and Black Sword and taken to Jiaoshan to be sold as a slave... When Xuanying was asked, he refused to say, and everyone urged him, and he said that he was from the south of Baijun City, and fled to Baijun City after his family was destroyed, and then to Xihai City, and then became a slave, but he refused to elaborate on how his family was destroyed.

The group managed to dig 300 baskets and it was not yet dark when they came out of the cave, which was more than half an hour earlier than usual.

The supervisor named Ma said, "It's still early. Do you want to eat already? Go back and dig another thirty baskets, otherwise you won't have anything to eat!" Everyone was furious, but knowing that this man had a bad temper, they didn't dare to argue.

Xuanying was furious. When he turned around, he glared at the supervisor named Ma. Unfortunately, he was seen by the supervisor. He raised his whip and hit Xuanying on the head with all his strength, cursing: "What are you looking at, kid? Do you want to rebel?!"

Xuanying was hit on the head and body with dozens of whips, and was in extreme pain. Although he was furious, his expression did not change at all. He endured the beating from the supervisor named Ma, then turned around and followed the slaves into the cave to dig for ore.

After a day's work, everyone was tired and hungry. They worked for more than an hour before they dug another thirty baskets of stones. Lu Quangao was so tired that he collapsed to the ground. Chu Xiaomu and Yu Aqi helped him up before he could barely walk.

When they were leaving the cave, the supervisor named Ma said grimly, "From today on, you guys in Shed Bing 2 need to hand in 30 extra baskets of ore every day. If you hand in one basket less, each person will be whipped twice."

Although everyone hated him to the core, they did not dare to speak out against him.