It was true that the Fang family could not spare 100 qualified workers. Except for those who had gone to the construction site to repair the road, the remaining family members were less than 200. However, most of these people were old, weak, women, and children. There were less than 50 young men in the prime of their lives. But at this time, they had no way out. Their conspiracy had been discovered. They could only be forgiven by Ang Lee by doing their best. Therefore, even if they did not have enough manpower, they had to complete the work of 100 workers.
"Good, very good. The head of the Fang family is willing to repair the road himself. This will certainly encourage the family members. If you do a good job, I will reward you. You can go now!"
Ang Lee said indifferently.
The head of the Fang family was relieved and hurriedly thanked him. Although the requirement of 100 workers was not low, as long as they put in all the available manpower, they could barely complete the task. As long as they completed the task, they would not be held accountable. At least, they could safely get through this crisis.
The team of more than 100 people was still searching. Ang Lee did not believe that the Fang family was the only one who had the idea of digging a robber's hole. There must be other families who had the same idea. Because the nearby forest was relatively dense, the robber's hole was not so easy to find. It needed to be carefully searched to find it and expand the search area.
"Assistant Minister Li, isn't it a bit too cruel for the head of the Fang family and the children over the age of six to repair the road? Can these guys really complete 100 jobs?"
Chen Long said.
He hoped to get a sum of money from the Fang family instead of letting these old guys repair the road themselves.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "The effect is better this way. If you ask for money, it will affect my image. Now is the critical moment of the road repair. With the head of the Fang family working in person, the other families will not dare to slack. In this way, the road may be repaired as soon as possible. This will make this place prosperous. Don't worry! This official is well aware of the Fang Clan's remaining manpower. The old won't be able to do it, but the young can do a little more. One hundred jobs a day can definitely be completed. However, this will truly drain the Fang Clan of all their manpower, and their clan's business will probably be impossible to manage. Repairing the roads won't take a day or two, but a long time. The Fang Clan's losses will not be small. This can be considered a lesson to them. This is the result of daring to have designs on my Great Tang. "
"I understand now. This is like cutting flesh with a blunt knife. The longer the road is repaired, the greater the Fang Clan's losses will be. This is even more serious than a single compensation, and it can also speed up the road repair process. This is indeed a good plan."
Chen Long said.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "There's definitely more than one person who dug the hole. Continue to increase the number of people and expand the search area. We must find all the people who dug the hole. The profit from these gem mines is great. We must not let anyone steal them."
"Don't worry. None of these guys can escape. However, we must block the nearby area first. Otherwise, if we conduct a large-scale search and they escape in advance, we will be in trouble. If we only find the hole but not the person who dug it, we won't be able to find the force behind it."
Chen Long said with a smile.
More than a thousand soldiers were soon dispatched and surrounded the surrounding area with a radius of 15 miles. Some soldiers surrounded this area and did not allow anyone to enter or leave, while more soldiers entered this area to search. Each group of three was responsible for a fixed area. Only in this way could the search be carried out with the greatest efficiency and find the hidden hole as soon as possible.
Soon, there was another discovery. In a forest less than three li away from the previous robber's cave, another robber's cave was found. There was a small river beside this robber's cave. The soil that was dug out was thrown into the river, so there were no piles of soil around. Because they all chose to pour the soil into the river at night, the river water was not dirty. During the day, the polluted river water immediately turned clean.
Digging a hole on the slope by the river was indeed very hidden. There were many shrubs and stones on the slope, and there was really no trace of an accident. If the soldiers in charge of the search were not very careful and used a wooden stick to pry open the shrubs on the slope by the river, they really would not have found this hole. When they first found it, they did not see that this hole was really a hole. They thought it was the nest of a small animal. After entering, they found that it was a hole dug by a person. It could accommodate an adult.
"They are really good. Each one is better hidden than the other. No wonder they are so daring. This cave is even better. It is even more hidden than the previous one. Even the soil dug out can be washed away by the river. It really won't leave any trace. Wonderful! Which family will this be? "
Ang Lee looked at the hole and said.
"The soldiers have already entered. I believe there will be a result soon."
Chen Long also seemed to be looking forward to it.
Soon, the soldiers who entered the hole all captured the five guards who dug the hole. These five people were the core disciples of the Mu family.
"Assistant Minister Li, these families are really bold. Why did they let the core disciples of the family dig a hole? It's too dangerous. Can't they just hire people secretly and not expose their identity?"
Chen Long said.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "They are afraid of being exposed, so they have no choice but to use the core disciples of their family. They definitely can't trust hiring people. These people are not of the same mind as the family. If after digging through the hole, they steal it themselves or leak the news, wouldn't it be troublesome? Only the core disciples of the family can be trusted. Only by handing this matter to the core disciples of the family can they really rest assured."
Chen Long also agreed.
Now that the Mu family had been discovered, the next step was naturally to imitate them. They would punish the Mu family in the same way they punished the Fang family before. They would let the Mu family and the Fang family be partners and let them work together to build the road. They would be in the same group so that they could supervise each other. Ang Lee was very clear that the Fang family and the Mu family had a grudge against each other. As long as the two families met, they would be jealous. If they worked together, they would definitely be able to supervise each other.
Later, the search team found several more holes and found several forces one after another. This made the road construction army more manpower, and the speed of the road construction would definitely be much faster.
After dark, the search stopped, but the soldiers of the Tang dynasty who had surrounded the area with a radius of more than ten miles did not stop. They were still guarding the periphery and monitoring every movement nearby. Although the search had been very serious before, it was hard to guarantee that there would not be any fish that escaped the net. It would be bad if the fish that escaped the net escaped at night.
Sure enough, at night, the patrolling soldiers caught more than ten people. These people were the diggers who were hiding in the robber's cave. They discovered the patrolling soldiers in advance and cleverly blocked the entrance of the cave. They hid in the cave and waited until it was dark before coming out. They thought that they had escaped a disaster, but unexpectedly, they were caught directly.
These diggers who were caught were naturally detained nearby and would be dealt with the next morning. These people first had to tell them which families they belonged to. At the same time, they had to find the holes they dug and let the soldiers of the Tang dynasty fill them again.
"Good! That's really good! We found eight families who dug the holes in one go. Each family contributed 100 workers, so eight families will have 800 workers. This will definitely greatly speed up the construction of the railway into the city. This is a good thing! "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
After discovering the robber's hole, the soldiers of Tang and the people of Angi family entered the gem mine together and searched it carefully. However, they didn't find any connection between the robber's hole and the mining area. At least, they could be sure that those who dug the hole didn't dig into the mine. However, it didn't mean that they didn't dig into the gem mine. Although the robber's holes dug by the core disciples of the eight families had been checked and they didn't find any gem mine, these eight robber's holes might not be all the robber's holes. There might be other robber's holes that hadn't been discovered yet. These robber's holes might lead to gem mine. Therefore, they couldn't be careless.
Early the next morning, the soldiers of the Tang dynasty continued their search. This time, Ang Lee mobilized more troops and expanded the search team to more than 2,000 people. The maximum search range was expanded to 20 miles away, which was already a terrifying distance. It was almost unimaginable to dig a hole from 20 miles away. However, considering the quality of the gem mine, this impossible became possible. For the sake of these top-quality gem mines and their own safety, it was not impossible to dig a hole from 20 miles away. It was just that the digging cycle was longer. Along the way, they had to insert a lot of breathable bamboo poles. In such a dense forest environment, it was not a big deal to insert some breathable bamboo poles along the way. Generally, they would not be noticed.
The result of the search was very surprising. At a place 15 miles away from the gem mine, they actually found a robber's hole. This robber's hole was so far away, which surprised Ang Lee. What surprised Ang Lee even more was that they only dug less than 300 steps into the hole and found high-quality gems. In other words, these stolen gems were 15 miles away from the gem mine of the Angji family. This really surprised Ang Lee.
Although it was 15 miles away, it was still the territory of the Angji family. These people's actions were still considered as robberies, which still violated the interests of the Tang dynasty.
There was nothing more to say. The robber's families were all sent to build roads, and this robber's hole was controlled by the Tang dynasty.
"Assistant Minister Li, this place is 15 miles away from the gem mine. I didn't expect to find gems here. Moreover, the quality of the gems is not bad at all. It seems that the Angji family's gem mine is very wide! What should we do? Should we ask the Angji family to come and mine? Or should we mine it ourselves? "
Chen Long said excitedly.
Ang Lee naturally adopted Chen Long's idea. He smiled and said, "Send 50 soldiers to mine gems here. In addition, station 200 people in a camp nearby and seal off the nearby area. No one is allowed to enter or leave at will. This newly discovered gem mine area all belongs to the Tang dynasty."
Chen Long nodded happily and said, "Don't worry. Leave it to me. However, our brothers have worked hard to mine the gems. If we hand them all over to the imperial court, we will suffer a great loss. Our brothers will also have objections."
Obviously, this guy wanted to take the gem mine for himself. How could he hide this from Ang Lee?
"Don't worry. The imperial court has half of the shares of the previous gem mine. This gem mine completely belongs to us who discovered it. None of the gems mined will be handed over to the imperial court. We will divide them among ourselves. All the soldiers in charge of mining and guarding will get a large amount of gems. You, Chen Long, will definitely get more. I'm afraid that it will be more than enough for you to marry hundreds of concubines. Hahaha!"
Ang Lee said with a smile.
Since ancient times, money moved people's hearts. Everyone was greedy for money. Chen Long was no exception. Ang Lee had too much money and no matter how many treasures he had, they could not arouse Ang Lee's interest. It was better to let the soldiers have more gems, which could also improve their morale. Ang Lee would also share some of the gems, not to own them, but to reward the soldiers who had rendered meritorious services in the future. The particularly beautiful gems could be made into jewelry and given to the beautiful girls he liked to add to the fun of life.
The Tang Dynasty occupied the gem mine so aggressively and did not share it with anyone. Even if the Angi family had objections, they could only hold it in. They could not question the Tang Dynasty and ask the Tang Dynasty to give them an explanation. The Tang Dynasty blocked the area where the gem mine was found. The reason was that it was a military training area and no one was allowed to approach it. As for what was going on inside every day, outsiders had no way to know.
As long as the family who discovered the gem mine did not talk nonsense, even the Angi family would not know why the Tang Dynasty suddenly camped 15 miles away. The Angi family really did not know why the Tang Dynasty did this. They thought that the Tang Dynasty was guarding the gem mine to prevent the surrounding families from continuing to dig robbers' holes. They did not expect that the Tang Dynasty had mined another gem mine.
It was not their fault that they did not think of this. After all, 15 miles away was a little too far. They did not believe that there was a gem mine 15 miles away. After all, there were no gems found in the robbers' holes within a radius of 5 miles. So, how could gems be found 15 miles away? This was very unscientific!
Of course, the Tang Dynasty would not tell the Angi family the truth. The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were far away from their homeland. It was very hard for them to be stationed here in the Angi family. It was reasonable for them to get more benefits. This could also improve the morale of the soldiers and make them stationed here in a better mood.
At a road construction site, the head of the Fang family raised his waist with difficulty, his face full of pain. He was more than 60 years old and could be considered an old man, but he had to stay at the construction site and work hard. He intended to steal the gem mine that the Tang Dynasty and the Angi family cooperated to mine, but he was discovered by the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. In order to prevent the Fang family from being punished, he could only agree to Ang Lee's request and personally lead the whole family to help the Tang Dynasty build the road. He had no other choice. Although the work was tiring, he had to bear it. Even if his old bones were broken, he could not shrink back.
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