kingnovel Chapter 1362 She's here, she's here!
Chapter 1362 She's here, she's here!
"Boom-"
With a muffled thud, someone smacked the garrison soldier on the head with a carrying pole.
After a moment of silence, the scene descended into complete chaos.
"Let's charge in!"
Taking advantage of the chaos, someone shouted, "Tong'an County is so far away, and the road is muddy. There's no way Lord Shen could come! We should rely on ourselves instead of others. Fellow villagers, follow me and rush in to save them!"
"Charge—!"
"Help! Help! Help!"
The people became increasingly agitated, turning their wooden buckets and carrying poles into weapons, which they hurled at the garrison one after another.
The soldiers initially tried to dodge and dissuade them, but as they watched their comrades being hit on the head, their eyes gradually turned red.
"bass--"
A flash of cold light, and the sword was drawn.
"Let's see who dares to take another step forward!" A garrison soldier, unable to contain his anger any longer, raised his sword and shouted, "I'll say it again, you'll only cause trouble if you go in! If anyone dares to lay a hand on me again, don't blame the sword for being merciless!"
The thronging crowd froze for a moment, then cried out in alarm, "They're going to kill people! The imperial court is going to kill people! Heaven, open your eyes and see! They've already taken more than a dozen lives, and now they want to take ours too! Heaven, you can't stand idly by!"
"You unruly people, what nonsense are you spouting!" The garrison soldier with the sword trembled with anger.
Seeing that he seemed hesitant to act, the people felt a little emboldened: "We're just telling the truth! The military rations and uniforms you eat all come from us ordinary people. Now your breadwinners are trapped in the mine, and you do nothing but let them die!"
"You ungrateful wretches!"
"Yes! You ingrate!"
"Spit out what you ate from us!"
"Spit it all out!"
"Shut up, all of you!"
Suddenly, a sharp shout pierced through the sound of rain and the chaotic shouts of anger, reaching the ears of everyone from behind the crowd.
Everyone instinctively turned to look, and saw a woman push through the crowd and stride up to the garrison.
She wiped the rain off her face, looked at the mine, and said to the garrison, "Take me to Kang Le Well."
The garrison soldier was momentarily stunned, then overjoyed: "You are... Lord Shen?!"
Lord Shen arrived so quickly?
Shen Zheng nodded: "Let's go, lives can't be wasted."
The garrison soldier immediately nodded, sheathed his sword, and led the way: "Lord Shen, this way please!"
In just a moment, Shen Zheng's figure disappeared into the rain.
The people outside the gate seemed to be in a dream: "Was that... Lord Shen just now?"
"That's right! That's right! It's Lord Shen! I've seen Lord Shen's portrait, that's exactly what he looks like!"
"Lord Shen... has he really come?"
"The trapped miners are saved! They won't die!"
The people were overjoyed, and the garrison soldiers could finally stand up straight: "Lord Shen is here! Now you can all rest easy, right? Step back! Don't block the entrance!"
"Yes, yes, yes..." The people picked up the wooden buckets and retreated.
Someone peered into the room and asked, "Sir, could you ask Lord Shen if there's anything we can do to help? We have a lot of people, so we can lend Lord Shen a hand, right?"
The garrison gritted their teeth.
OK OK.
Before Lord Shen arrived, they were "heartless" and "ungrateful wretches".
Now that Lord Shen has arrived, they are called "military lords" again.
......
The rain continued to fall, the fine rain threads weaving a gray net that enveloped the entire Jiangbei mining area.
Led by the garrison, Shen Zheng trudged through the mud, her steps uneven. Before she even reached the Kang Le Well, two figures strode over to greet her.
"Lord Shen!"
The person who spoke first, calling out to Shen Zheng, was dressed in black armor, with dark circles under his eyes. It didn't look like he had been staying up all night; it looked more like he had been beaten.
Shen Zheng was slightly taken aback, then heard him say, "I am Gao Cheng, commanding the garrison in Linjiang, and he is Shao Weishan, commanding the garrison in Fuzhou. Lord Shen, I didn't expect you to actually be willing to come..."
He had actually thought that it would be more reasonable for Shen Zheng to refuse to come, and he wouldn't blame her.
But now, she's actually willing to take on this hot potato...
"General Gao, General Shao." Shen Zheng nodded, ceasing the pleasantries, and asked directly, "How is the Kang Le Well doing now? How high has the water level risen? Are the trapped miners still responding?"
Hearing her get straight to the point, Gao Cheng's anxious heart calmed down a little.
"This way, Lord Shen!" He wasn't wearing an oilcloth, casually wiping the rain from his face, and led the way, saying, "Kang Le Well is a vertical well, twenty zhang deep, with a circumference of less than seven chi. Every five zhang along the well wall, there is a section of well support, which was originally quite sturdy. However, this time the backflow of the underground river was so strong that two sections of the support in the middle of the well have been washed away, and there are slight signs of collapse in the well wall..."
"The water level has now risen to three zhang below the wellhead, and it's about to overflow the well chamber..."
"Every hour, the miners inside the tunnel would knock on the ceiling to let everyone know they were safe. The last time they did, all sixteen of them were still there, but the next time..."
"We tried throwing buckets to fetch water, but... it was just a drop in the ocean."
"Lord Shen, at most, they can hold out for another twelve hours."
"Do you... have a solution?"
Gao Cheng placed almost all his hopes on Shen Zheng.
Although he knew that the girl in front of him was only in her twenties and had nothing to do with him, Linjiang Prefecture, or the mine, she shouldn't have to bear this pressure.
But at this point, he had no other choice.
"Yes." Shen Zheng looked ahead at the brightly lit area and asked, "Is that Kang Le Well?"
"Yes......"
As he spoke, Gao Cheng looked surprised: "No... Lord Shen, you said you have a solution?"
Shen Zheng nodded slightly and looked at the crowd surrounding Kang Lejing, saying, "I need to see the specifics for myself."
Whether it's iron pipe or bamboo pipe, it's difficult to bend directly. If the passage inside the well is rugged, it will take several hours just to forge the pipe and connect the pipe.
"The tools are on their way, and we should arrive by dawn at the latest." She said, "General Gao, please take me to the wellhead first."
Gao Cheng snapped out of his daze, immediately pushed through the crowd surrounding the well, and led her to the wellhead.
A rain shelter was erected above the wellhead, and the tarpaulin had long been swollen from being soaked in rainwater. Several soldiers were changing it at that moment.
Small pieces of coal were scattered around the wellhead, sticky and slippery to the touch.
Shen Zheng steadied herself, took the torch from Gao Cheng, bent down and looked into the well. Cries, sighs and the sound of rain mingled in her ears.
......
The sky gradually brightened.
That night, Shen Zheng obtained the shaft map and learned about the situation from the mine owner and several miners. She received good news—Kang Le Mine's shaft went straight down, making it a vertical shaft within a vertical shaft, with only a few bends in the shaft, none of which were too large.
In this way, the bamboo tube and the iron tube can be easily joined together and placed into the well.
That very night, news that "Lord Shen of Liuyang Prefecture has come to the rescue" spread throughout the mine.
At Chenshi (7-9 AM), the first batch of bamboo tubes delivered by Tong'an Workshop arrived.
At 9:00 AM, the iron parts delivered by the Salt and Iron Bureau also arrived.
At noon, Shen Zheng had Gao Cheng rebuild a shelter with cover on all four sides next to the well, and then moved all the tools into the shelter.
At 1:00 PM, the second batch of bamboo tubes delivered by Tongan County successfully arrived.
At 1-3 PM, there was no movement inside the shed.
Even at Shenshi (3-5 PM), there was still no movement inside the shed.
It was almost dark at the hour of You (5-7 PM).
Ten hours passed so quickly.
This time, the tunnel only knocked fifteen times to let the surface know that everything was alright.
Inside the tunnel, there were clearly sixteen miners.