Fairy Tree

Although he was full of doubts, hundreds of officers and soldiers vaguely surrounded them along the way, seeming to have been prepared for their escape, which made Xiao Lin choose to endure it.

"Xiao Lin, do you think they are really going to exterminate the bandits?" Xiao Shi approached Xiao Lin and whispered, obviously he also felt something was wrong.

"No matter where you go, just follow." Although Xiao Lin's heart had sunk a long time ago, he still understood the current situation. People had to lower their heads under the eaves. Along the way, every hundred feet or so, Xiao Lin would Inadvertently, I scratched the tree trunk with the stone in my hand.

After walking for another three days, the trees in front of them suddenly became sparse, and a bare mountain appeared faintly in the distance. It was not accurate to say that it was completely bare. When they walked in, Xiao Lin discovered that half of the mountain was covered with trees. It is bare, but above the mountainside, it is covered with rushing green. In the bare part below the mountainside, there are more than a dozen dark cave entrances.

On the right side of the mountain, next to the forest, there is a three-story wooden building. Next to the small building is a neat thatched house. Surrounding the thatched house, there are also towers. Xiao Lin can see at a glance that there are towers on each tower. Standing was a burly man holding a crossbow.

On the left side of the mountain, there is a lake that is dozens of acres in size. The lake is green and green, and ripples are swaying with the breeze in the mountain.

Xiao Lin saw that after they approached the thatched house, several strong men came out of the rather grand-looking three-story attic next to the thatched house. They were all wearing blue linen gowns and had big palm-sized palms on their left shoulders. A piece of metal shoulder pads, and on their chests, there is a small knife and a small sword embroidered in a cross shape.

The man at the front of the group had gray cuffs on his coarse robe, which was very conspicuous. It was obvious that this man was the leader of that group of big men.

Seeing those people, the scar on Liu Dali's face shone brightly, and a strange smile appeared on his face. He dismounted, and with a few close followers, he headed towards those people.

The leader of the group and Liu Dali kept discussing something in a low voice. Not long after, Liu Dali took a bag from a big man next to the leader. It looked heavy. He weighed it. There was a satisfied expression on his face.

Seeing this scene, Xiao Lin's heart sank completely. He understood that his group of people had been betrayed by Liu Dali.

Sure enough, Liu Dali came back after a while, and then ordered his subordinates to drive hundreds of workers in front of the big men. Then he said hello to the leader and left with his subordinates in a swaggering manner.

There was a commotion in the crowd.

In this situation, no matter how stupid you are, you know that you have been betrayed by Liu Dali, and those big men don't know who they are. Many people are guessing that they are bandits, right?

"Aren't you very surprised, where is this place?" The leader glanced at everyone and said with a sneer on his lips.

"First of all, let me introduce to you. I am Wu Lian, the helmsman of Bailiantang's Huai County branch. The mountain you see is our Bailiantang's mine in Huai County. As for you, you have been sold to You have joined our Bailiantang as a miner. From now on, your job is to mine. You must turn in a certain amount of ore every month, otherwise you will be whipped." After saying that, he looked at everyone with a sneer on his face.

"We are migrant workers who carry siege equipment for the army, not miners. If we don't go to capture the bandits, then we would rather go back to Huai County." A very strong-looking man stood up, about thirty years old, wearing a The clothes were in tatters, but they did not cover the exposed tendons, which made it clear at a glance that this man was quite strong.

"Yes, we want to go back, we are not miners."

As soon as they saw someone taking the lead, several people jumped out and clamored to go back.

Xiao Lin grabbed Xiao Shi, who was about to stand up, and winked at him to signal him to calm down.

Wu Lian looked at the people who came out. There was no expression on his face, and the sneer at the corner of his mouth disappeared. He didn't say anything, just snorted coldly.

Suddenly, a big man next to him jumped two feet away and suddenly appeared in front of the thirty-year-old strong man. The strong man's face changed, and he punched out instinctively, but this time he The punch was in vain. As soon as the word "bad" came to his mind, he felt as if his chest was hit by a huge boulder. His eyes went black and he completely lost consciousness.

What Xiao Lin and the others saw was the big man from Bailiantang pressing the strong man's chest with a light palm, and then the strong man flew out, spraying a mouthful of blood in mid-air, and he was completely dead after landing. .

Seeing this scene, everyone was stunned. Xiao Lin and Xiao Shi were also dumbfounded. Two words came to Xiao Lin's mind: "Martial skills."

As early as when he was in the village, he heard from the elders in the village that there were some gangs in Huai County. These gangs would recruit qualified disciples and teach them martial arts from an early age. After practicing for more than ten years, these people not only had great strength, And they come and go without a trace, and even a dozen ordinary people can't defeat one of them, and this kind of people are also called charlatans.

Xiao Lin suddenly felt envious of that big man. With such abilities, who would dare to bully him? If I had this ability, I could protect my father and sister from being bullied.

This move of the big man killed the chickens and warned the monkeys, and immediately calmed everyone. The few people who jumped out to leave also stepped back with horror on their faces. They looked at the people in Bailiantang in front of them, their eyes full of fear.

Obviously, Wu Lian was very satisfied with the scene in front of him, and he put a smile on his face again.

"Is this right? Don't worry, for mining here, in addition to handing over the specified weight of ore every month, the excess can be converted into silver taels as your reward. If someone performs well, he can If you dig out more than twice the amount of ore for three consecutive months and exceed your monthly tasks, you can also join our Bailiantang and become an outer disciple. Becoming an outer disciple will bring even more benefits. Not only will you get one or two ounces per month With a salary of silver, you can also learn the basic martial arts of our Bailiantang and related basic knowledge of ores. From now on, you can get rid of the hard work of mining and become an ore prospector. "

Then Wu Lian's face changed, and he took on a fierce expression: "But I want to warn you, don't even think about running away from here. It is impossible to get out from here, not to mention the surrounding arrangements. We, the disciples of Bailiantang, there are many secret sentries outside. You can’t get out of this nearly two hundred miles of mountain road alone, so you’d better not be too careful, just dig here with peace of mind, and strive to become our Outer disciples of Bailiantang, this road is your only way to survive."

No one came out again. Everyone was suppressed by Wu Lian's hard and soft methods. They knew that what Wu Lian said was true. Not to mention the dozen or so big men around him, the mountain roads of the Tianlu Mountains alone were unstoppable. It is impossible to escape if you are led by someone or there are many people.

"Sun Fang, take them to collect mining supplies and clothing." Wu Lian understood that these people in front of him were completely tamed by him. He greeted the big man next to him, turned around and left, heading towards the attic.

The big man named Sun Fang was the one who killed the muscular man. Everyone looked at him with fear.

"Follow me." Sun Fang led everyone to a temporarily fenced open space in front of the hut on the left. The open space was about a hundred feet wide. A tent was propped up with coarse cloth in the innermost part of the open space. Under the tent There are two tables and chairs, and two people are sitting there. One of them is holding a roster, and the other is sorting the items around him.

"You line up and receive the items and house numbers one by one. Remember, follow the number on the house number to find your own house. You have a day off today and will gather here early tomorrow morning. I will arrange work for you then." After that, Sun Fang glanced at everyone coldly, sneered and turned to leave.

He received a pair of coarse gray clothes, a kerosene lamp, a fire stick, an iron pick and a bamboo basket, plus a wooden sign with Dong Twenty-one written on it. Xiao Lin glanced at Xiao Lin beside him. Shi, the wooden sign he is holding is West Thirty Three.

Xiao Lin couldn't help but smile bitterly. His idea of ​​living with Xiao Shi was completely disappointed. Xiao Shi also looked helpless. He originally wanted to discuss with the big man who handed out the items whether he could exchange it for Dong 21. But he was glared back directly.

Xiao Lin had no choice but to say hello to Xiao Shi, and then took the house number to find his residence.

After a while, Xiao Lin found his hut, pushed the door gently, and the door was opened directly without lock. When he walked in, he saw that the hut was not big, only two feet wide, and there were five wooden beds arranged in a row. He was wearing a set of gray thin quilts and a wooden washbasin. Apart from that, there was nothing else. He glanced around and found that only three of the five wooden beds had the quilts on them that seemed to have been touched. It seemed that including him, there were a total of Four people lived there.

Xiao Lin put the things on the bed and stared at the door in a daze. He thought of his father and little sister. He didn't know if they had arrived in Huai County. Have you found a place to stay?

I originally thought that it would not take too long to exterminate the bandits, whether successful or not, but I didn't expect that I would be sold to Bailiantang as a miner. Even though the martial artist said well, as long as the mining is done well, He could become an outer disciple of Bailian Hall, but Xiao Lin vaguely felt that becoming an outer disciple of Bailian Hall would not be an easy task.

If he couldn't become an outer disciple of Bailiantang, then leaving here would be basically impossible. Although he had marked the way, he couldn't get out of the Tianlu Mountains without enough food. What's more, this There are many ferocious beasts in the mountains.

No matter how much he thought about it, Xiao Lin felt that the success rate of escaping from here was almost zero, so in the end he gave up all thoughts of escaping and simply climbed into bed and fell into a deep sleep.