flstandardbreds Chapter 175 The thief shouts to catch the thief
Chapter 175 The thief shouts to catch the thief
The drenched captain instantly bristled, "Ah! You, you shrew, how dare you splash water on me?"
"Who splashed you? I'm putting out a fire. Who are you?"
Jiang Mianmian turned to the group of people who were traveling with the drenched man and asked, "Where are you all from? Who is this guy?"
As she moved, the water gun in her hand moved as well.
The water gun was left on.
"呲~~"
As a result, the remaining firefighters also ended up soaked to the bone.
The miners, who were already quite unhappy with their attitude, burst into laughter upon seeing this.
"I think you should stop calling yourselves the Firefighting Team and start calling yourselves the Diving Team!"
"No, no, it should be called the Drenched Chicken Team!"
"Our Mianmian's water is so precious, and it's all being wasted on them! Bah, shameless! In this sweltering heat, not only do they not come to put out the fire, but they also come to mooch our water!"
"Pay up! Make them pay Mianmian's water bill!"
"Yes, I agree! You're not allowed to leave until you pay!"
One person said one sentence, and they slowly gathered around.
Those who could become miners were all tough men, and they were very good at reading people.
Jiang Mianmian is now their master. Her attitude towards the Qianhuo team is clear, and the miners naturally understand what to do, all putting on fierce expressions.
The firefighting team didn't have many people to begin with, and they were trembling with fear.
The captain of the firefighting team, in particular, completely forgot the instructions given by his employer before they came and immediately softened his attitude, saying, "Heroes, we haven't been paid for several months. Where would we get the money to pay you?"
He came all this way in this sweltering heat, wasn't it all to earn more money?
And let's not even talk about how easy this trip will be. How come there's this inexplicable shrew here, acting like she's their master? It's really strange. How can a man recognize a woman as his master?
He was indignant, but dared not show it on his face. His tone was extremely obsequious: "We came here to put out the fire, didn't we? Now that the fire is out, we won't stay any longer."
He stood up as he spoke, intending to leave with his teammates.
"Wait a minute, do I let you go?"
Jiang Mianmian put the water gun back and walked up to the group. "Your firefighting team doesn't have a lookout tower here, does it? How come you're so efficient? My mine just caught fire, and you're already here?"
Seeing their clothes, she remembered that she had vaguely seen them on the road earlier!
This means that they are either extremely dedicated and constantly patrolling the mountain to prevent fires, or they knew in advance that a fire would break out in the mine and deliberately arrived at the right time!
It was just a fleeting moment, but she clearly remembered that the group looked relaxed and showed no signs of anxiety, yet their direction was clearly the same as hers!
That leaves only the last possibility, and it goes without saying what these people are here for.
That's a really clever way to play the thief crying "stop thief!"
The soaked captain looked aggrieved. "Young lady, you're wrong. When have we ever been lazy in our firefighting team? In this heat, have you ever heard of any fires on this mountain? It's all because we put out the fires in time."
"is it?"
Jiang Mianmian hid a tracking Gu in her palm and gently patted his face. "Thank you so much, Captain. Since you don't plan to pay the water bill, then get lost."
Disdain, contempt, humiliation.
The captain's expression changed several times, but in the end he said nothing, lowered his head, and led his team away.
By this time, the miners had rescued everyone from the mansion, and the bodies of the three dead team leaders had also been carried out and covered with white sheets.
In addition, two others were seriously injured and three others were slightly injured; all of them were team captains.
"Alright, go do what you need to do and change it."
Jiang Mianmian waved the miners away. Once they were almost all gone, she led the injured captain into Peach Blossom Spring. "You can rest here and recover. I'll handle things at the mine."
He handed everyone over to Cheng Nian for treatment and then left.
The other team leaders had already arranged for people to start cleaning up the mansion. When they saw her appear, they quickly explained the whole story.
"For some reason, no one has been slacking off at the mine these past few days, but the amount of iron ore mined out is always different."
“We suspected there was a mole, that someone might have stolen it and sold it, so we team leaders decided to have a meeting to discuss how to find the mole.”
"But before we could come up with a solution, I felt dizzy and when I woke up, the place was on fire."
The situation was urgent, and everyone was desperately trying to escape, but the fire was too intense. Some people's clothes were completely set on fire, and others were hit by burning pillars and died instantly.
Recalling that scene, the survivors were still terrified. "If our master hadn't arrived in time, we might all have died in the fire!"
"Yes, when we die, these miners will be without anyone in charge, and who knows what will happen to them."
Jiang Mianmian sneered, "What else can happen? Maybe by the time I get back, the entire mine will be an empty mountain!"
To put it mildly, once the people behind it have finished moving their things, they can start another big fire, burning the mountain to the ground. If they were even more ruthless, they could spread the fire to the villages below the mountain, killing or injuring some villagers. That would be a much bigger crime!
As the owner of the mine, neither the government nor the surviving villagers would let him go. But who exactly had such a deep grudge against him?
Could it be a member of the family of those pot-bellied lords in the prefectural city? No, they don't know this mine belongs to them, so who else could it be?
Unable to figure it out, Jiang Mianmian stopped thinking about it. Anyway, she had already used the tracking Gu, and she would find out by following the trail later.
She arranged for these people to do their own work, and then counted the iron ore that had been dug up and put it into the warehouse. Sure enough, there were only about 100 tons, which was half less than the estimate!
One hundred tons of iron ore, and not even refined iron, if all of it were made into armor, would only be enough for two or three thousand people. Her Peach Blossom Village has far more than just that; its population will only grow in the future. Moreover, if they were to truly clash with the Lu family army, Peach Blossom Village's equipment must keep pace!
Jiang Mianmian felt they had to speed up the mining operation. "How many people do we have now?"
"Three thousand miners, all the new ones have already signed their contracts, this is for you."
One of the captains had already prepared the indentures, put them in a box, and handed them to her.
Jiang Mianmian nodded, and sure enough, that was the number. The indentures were all neatly arranged according to the different teams. She couldn't help but glance at him, "Did you organize all of these yourself? How many people have you recruited during this time?"
"Reporting to Master, I recruited six hundred men, so the other captains entrusted all these indentures to me for safekeeping."
One person took up more than half of the spots; in modern terms, that would be a top salesperson and management talent!
Jiang Mianmian smiled and said, "I'm currently short of a mine manager. Would you like to consider it?"