NOVPUBAs soon as Chen Xi turned his head, Yu Jin’s voice appeared in his ear, "Strategist, using these gold cakes can kill people, you can use gold beads, gold leaves, gold cakes, gold ingots, these people can’t use them."
Chen Xi was speechless; he had always carried gold beads on him, and had some copper coins, but no more than twenty of them. How could he know whether using them could kill people or not? However, considering the circumstances of the era, it wasn’t impossible that using them could lead to death.
"Who among you has the highest level of skill in digging wells?" Chen Xi no longer worried about the gold and copper coins, as long as he paid the money and they were willing to work.
With a "swish," everyone dispersed, leaving only a hunchbacked old man in his forties standing in the middle, shivering as he extended a finger, nearly spitting out a mouthful of blood at the situation.
"Good, it’s you, come here, take half the money," Chen Xi said. "Zijian, take this expert to look at the terrain and figure out how to start." Seeing that everyone recognized the old man as the highest skilled, Chen Xi was overjoyed. Look, every trade has its leader; that’s exactly the kind of person he needed.
The people who had scattered were almost spitting blood; that guy didn’t disperse simply because he was in the middle, and as a result, when everyone else scattered, he became the obvious standout. Yet, no one claimed that the man in the middle had a higher level of skill than themselves.
Yu Jin felt somewhat embarrassed, so he silently turned his head away. Chen Xi could be somewhat obtuse at times, like now when it should have been obvious to anyone not too foolish that this guy didn’t volunteer to stand out, yet Chen Xi immediately took him to be the leader.
"Clanging!" Hua Xiong filled a bucket with money, looked at it, and realizing it couldn’t hold any more, casually took two gold cakes from his trusted aide’s possessions and tossed them into the bucket of money, "Take this bucket of money, from now on you’re with me, I need your kind of professional talent!"
Although Hua Xiong didn’t quite understand why Chen Xi’s tongue-twisting phrase "professional talent" was used, he felt it was quite impressive; who knows, there might come a day when such people would be useful. Bring them along.
Obviously, in terms of social niceties, there was quite a gap between Hua Xiong and Yu Jin. This was essentially poaching, but it was clear that Chen Xi generally pretended not to see such things.
Hua Xiong took the little old man away, leaving the rest of the group with teary eyes, looking at Chen Xi. If only they had known, they would have stood in the middle themselves.
"Does the gentleman need us to dig something up?" Indeed, a large forest shelters all sorts of birds, look there, a good bird comes out, creating an opportunity—a good bird shows up.
"You, yeah, you, the one who spoke, come out," Chen Xi didn’t know who had spoken, but someone did, which showed initiative and courage to create opportunities, deserving of promotion.
After hesitating for a moment, the man who had spoken still came forward and gave Chen Xi a formal salute.
Chen Xi looked the man up and down, twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, with a strong physique, dressed in coarse cloth. He glanced around at the other guys; this one completely stood out. What was the situation? Never mind, maybe the man was an archaeology major. Who knew? It’s not like the ancient times necessarily lacked this profession.
"Give him half the money, he’s the foreman now," Chen Xi instructed Yu Jin. It didn’t really matter who was in charge—tomb robbers or archaeologists, even if Hua Xiong had chosen incorrectly, it wasn’t an issue; Chen Xi just needed a team leader.
Meanwhile, Hua Xiong, with the professional talent, began to inquire while standing on the hillside.
"What’s your name?" "The unworthy one is called Cloth Bag."
"Cloth Bag, stand here and tell me where we can dig a tunnel safely to Pingyu City?" Hua Xiong said, pointing at Pingyu City while the catapult beside him threw seven or eight stones at intervals, merely to disgust the enemy’s morale, not seeking to kill but to nauseate.
The old man was taken aback, then squinted his eyes at the interior of Pingyu City. Although he was not the best among the tomb robbers, he still had the basic skills.
"General, there are many places you can dig through, but the moat is quite difficult to cross. The tunnel would better be dug deeper, but there are many water veins in Runan, and digging too deep would easily lead to water seepage," Cloth Bag said cautiously.
Hua Xiong knew that this place had an unusually high water level just by looking at the ponds under the piles of earth,
"How long will it take to dig into the city?" Hua Xiong asked.
"With the current soil condition, and if we work around the clock with everyone’s effort, it will take twenty days to dig a tunnel big enough for two people to pass through," Cloth Bag cautiously made it sound simple, something any tomb robber could do.
"It must be secretive," Hua Xiong warned.
Upon hearing this, Cloth Bag sighed in relief. It seemed this renowned general had no understanding of the industry; if tomb robbers weren’t cautious and secretive, they’d all be long dead.
"You can rest assured, general. I can have the exit connected to that well without damaging its structure." Once Cloth Bag realized that Hua Xiong was an amateur in this area, his courage swelled. Such tasks were effortless for people like them.
"Hmm, get on with it then. Once it’s done well, I won’t care about the reward," Hua Xiong patted Cloth Bag’s shoulder, indicating his satisfaction. Once the tunnel was sorted out, money was just a passing cloud.
With a designer at hand, though not the best, and a foreman, whose competence was yet to be proven, they could finally start work. Hua Xiong was like a coal mine boss, indifferent to cave-ins and human resources.
Eighteen hours a day of work, truly the epitome of a ruthless businessman. As for why they worked such long hours, it was because Hua Xiong had heard that tomb robbers were most efficient at night, but daytime shouldn’t be wasted...
In Hua Xiong’s view, these people deserved dispensing with; digging the tunnel could redeem their past wrongs. If they died because the tunnel collapsed, it meant the Lord of Heaven could no longer bear to watch and decided to reclaim their souls, which had nothing to do with him, Hua Xiong. As for dying of exhaustion, that was just them not being able to hold out. After all, in that era, captured tomb robbers deserved to be sunk in the lake...
For this reason, Hua Xiong proudly considered himself generous and benevolent for not binding the captured tomb robbers with boulders to sink them in the Yangtze River. Indeed, Heaven holds mercy for all living beings.
Another mound appeared in front of Pingyu City. This mound, relatively speaking, was much closer to the city wall and piled very high. The work of over ten thousand people for five days, tsk tsk, after it was built, Chen Xi sent people to shoot arrows at the other side every day, not seeking to harm the enemy, just to disgust them. Chen Xi had seen Qiaoi Rui curse his mother from on top of the hill several times, probably frustrated to death.
However, all this was not very important. What mattered was that the tunnel Hua Xiong oversaw had passed under the moat. It had to be said, these tomb robbers knew their craft. Although the twenty-odd meter section passing the moat was damp, they were able to prevent collapse using wooden boards and pillars.
But Cloth Bag also mentioned that this shoddy construction would at most last a month. Over time, the water would seep in more, and eventually, the entire tunnel would be flooded. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for it at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to continue reading.)
