Before the house is confiscated, the enemy's warehouse is emptied and exiled

It was a long and dim passage with a rugged ground, wet and slippery rock walls, and rocks hanging low overhead, making people feel oppressive and suffocated.

From time to time, the footsteps of patrolling guards could be heard in the corridor, accompanied by the faint flicker of torches. Shen Qingge had no choice but to concentrate, quickly passing through this dark corridor, and always vigilant about his surroundings.

Half an incense stick later, she finally entered a vast cave. The cave was tall and spacious, eight feet high and ten feet wide. The surrounding rock walls were covered in clumps of milky white crystals, some small but clustered together, while others were enormous.

Inside the cave, hundreds of strong men were working diligently along the rock wall, wielding shovels and hammers, striking the hard rock salt blocks with force, occasionally making crisp "ding-dong" sounds.

Furthermore, dozens of bowl-sized wells were densely packed throughout the cave's vast open space. Laborers were using specially constructed iron tubes to transport brine from the wells. The constant flow of brine forced the workers to work tirelessly to prevent it from overflowing.

This high-intensity physical work made the workers exhausted. Their faces were covered in sweat and they were panting, but they could not stop to rest for a moment.

This is because behind them, hundreds of supervisors holding whips are watching their every move. Once they find someone slacking off, they will swing the whips mercilessly and beat the laborers until they scream in pain.

Shen Qingge, hiding in a corner, was shocked by the scene before him and sighed softly. Not only was the overseers' treatment of the laborers cruel and inhumane, but also the salt resources within the mine were so abundant, as could be seen from the loads of salt ore and brine being carried out.

She didn't know much about salt mines, but she did have some basic knowledge. There weren't many such mines in the entire Zhou Dynasty, combining rock salt and well salt, with such a massive output. Furthermore, she suspected there wasn't just one mine in the mountain; she could hear the sound of rocks knocking from elsewhere, even through the slight vibrations of the mountain.

Although Beiling State is vast, it doesn't have access to the sea. The salt available from its mountains, rivers, and lakes is extremely rare. Therefore, the only ways to obtain salt in Beiling State are rock salt and well salt. However, the production of rock salt and well salt is difficult and labor-intensive, resulting in very little salt reserves within Beiling State.

Salt is a necessity for people's survival. No matter royal family members or common people, they all have to buy salt. Due to insufficient salt production, they often have to purchase it at high prices from several small countries near the sea, which leads to the inflated salt prices in Beiling Kingdom.

Ordinary people were considered wealthy if they could eat a meal with salt in it every day. She remembered that her father had been extremely worried about the shortage of salt for the Zhenbei Army and had repeatedly petitioned the court to distribute more salt to alleviate the urgent need.

How could the imperial court be unaware of this situation? Furthermore, salt mines were a vital source of tax revenue for the nation, and therefore, successive Beiling monarchs had strictly controlled the mining and sale of salt. Anyone illegally mining and selling it at exorbitant prices was punishable by death.

While Anshan County wasn't directly under the Imperial City, it wasn't all that far away. Furthermore, judging by the rock walls of the mine, it was at least ten years old. This group had been able to conceal their activities for so many years. Their rampant behavior revealed the vast power and complex connections behind them, demonstrating their complete disregard for the imperial court.

No wonder, as the legitimate daughter of the Minister of Personnel, with a powerful maternal family and the status of Imperial Noble Consort, only one step away from the Empress, Defei was willing to let her own brother be demoted to a place far away from the capital and become a small county governor.

It turned out that they had discovered that this place was profitable a long time ago, and they must have made a lot of money in recent years, recruiting soldiers and horses for King Qin Xiao Mo, making arrangements, and paving the way for him.

It really is a case of preparing for a rainy day and taking every step carefully!

Then she, Shen Qingge, would naturally not leave this place to King Qin, and she must blow it up without leaving a single piece of armor.

However, before that, she planned to continue walking around because she vaguely heard wailing sounds coming from not far away from time to time.

Could it be that there is a cage here?

With this doubt, Shen Qingge followed the path, passed through two or three deep corridors, crossed the winding stone steps, and finally came to the place where the wailing sound came from.

She hid in the dark and took a closer look. She couldn't help but gasp, her heart filled with shock and anger.

This dimly lit cave was filled with densely packed wooden cages, and the people imprisoned in the cages were probably laborers who had just finished work elsewhere.

Each cage was crammed with dozens of laborers, who were squeezed into a small space and had difficulty even moving.

Some laborers were covered with scars, obviously having been whipped not long ago; others fell sick on the ground, without food or water, and were thrown into one or two cages, left to fend for themselves.

Due to the large number of people, the air in the cave was extremely stuffy, and the entire cage area was like a place for keeping livestock.

Shen Qingge made a rough count and found that the total number of laborers working outside, plus the laborers here, should be more than a thousand.

The laborers ranged in age from teenagers to men in their thirties and forties. It seemed that all the missing men in Anshan County had been brought here over the years!

Shen Qingge, having learned the truth, clenched her fists in anger. In her previous life, how could she have ever fallen for such a devilish man? He was simply a beast in human form, truly outrageous!

How can such a person, who does not treat his own people as human beings, be worthy of being an emperor? If he really succeeds, the people will suffer and the entire Beiling Kingdom will be plunged into dire straits.

She continued to look at the dying laborers in front of her, feeling very sorry. Even if she had to blow up the entire salt mine, she had to transfer these innocent people out first.

How to do it?

You can't use teleportation to move such a large group of people away, right?

When she was at a loss, she heard the voices of several people talking nearby.

"Brother Cheng, how about we rebel tonight? There are so many of us, and we have weapons in our hands. Why should we be afraid of those two or three hundred overseers? Let's fight our way out!"

"No, it's true that there aren't many overseers in this mountain, but you think we'll be done for if we just rush out. There are still many guards outside this mountain. If you dare to go out, you'll be riddled with arrows!"

"What should we do then? Is the abandoned mine tunnel in the back mountain feasible?"

"For the past four or five months, I've been going in and out of that abandoned mine, carrying out stones bit by bit. I'm sure the mine has been opened, and the entrance leads to the foot of the mountain at another place!"