It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

This trip was full of twists and turns.

Although Song San led his team to Dongshan Village to look for clues about the location of Fang Shi's private mine, they had already prepared themselves for the possibility of finding nothing.

When he discovered Jiang Fu and others acting suspiciously, he just followed them instinctively, but he didn't expect to make a mistake.

In order to survive, they took the initiative to tell Governor Fang about the evil deeds he had done to the villagers, hoping that they would be persuaded to spare their lives because they had a common enemy and the goal of saving people.

He never expected that he would accidentally find out that these people had most likely entered the private mine of Governor Fang and successfully escaped.

Song San breathed a sigh of relief quietly, feeling more confident in convincing them.

He quickly talked about the extremely harsh environmental conditions in the various private mines he knew about, and the managers would enslave the laborers day and night. If they could no longer bear the consequences, they would not even have a straw mat and would be abandoned to fend for themselves.

The laborers taken away by Governor Fang had already endured four years of hardship building the palace, and half of them had died of exhaustion. If they were forced to work mining without a break... by the time the severe cold weather arrives, I'm afraid no one will survive.

Gao Zhuang knew very well that life in the mine was difficult. Hearing the familiar scene, he couldn't help but pull at the back of Jiang Fu and Xu Yuan's clothes with both hands, waiting for them to make a decision.

Jiang Fu was very conflicted. He thought about secretly returning to the smuggled mine to rescue the people, but he knew rationally that they had no chance of winning against the guards at the mine. They were able to escape only because the flood caught the guards off guard. Going there now would only mean walking into a trap.

Moreover, if he was captured, not only the people in Dongshan Village, but also the relatives and friends of his brothers would be the target of the anger of Governor Fang.

While Song San was trying to negotiate, his subordinates also lay down on the outside and watched the other party's actions closely. They happened to see Gao Zhuang's small movements. Knowing that they had wavered, they quickly added:

"If the mine loses too many people, they'll probably recruit reinforcements from outside. Your area is remote, and the county magistrate only follows the governor's orders. If there's chaos and a dozen or so people are missing, no one will notice.

Just like the villagers from other villages affected by the disaster in your county, they were taken away by Governor Fang and sent to illegal mines. If we hadn't discovered this, you would never have known about it in your lifetime, right?

Gao Zhuang didn't understand what "follow the leader" meant, but when he heard that there were still disaster victims being sent to the private mine, he couldn't control his emotions at all. He took a step forward and walked up to the subordinate, shouting excitedly, "Are you sure all those disaster victims have been sent to the mine?"

The subordinate nodded and said affirmatively: "We found their last trace in Qinshan Mountain, which is on the border between Heding Prefecture and Nanqi Prefecture. What else is there in the mountain besides the mines?"

This location... Jiang Fu and others no longer hesitated, but began to think about how to rescue the people.

Song San felt helpless as they faced off directly without any preparation. From the very beginning, they had misunderstood that the other party was from Dongshan Village, and knew nothing about their other identities and experiences. This led to a disorganized negotiation, where they had to rely entirely on experience and the information they had to test and correct things bit by bit.

Fortunately, the final result was good and their lives were saved.

Jiang Fu and the others changed the tied-up position of Song San and the other three into a more relaxed one, and then discussed for a long time how to rescue them.

The final decision was to detain Song San here. Jiang Fu, He Da, Zhu Xiaohu and Gao Zhuang would take Song San's subordinates to investigate Fang Shi's private mine as soon as possible. After bringing out more detailed information, they would coordinate with the master behind Song San to attack the mine and launch an operation to rescue the laborers.