Chapter 283: Shelter

Chapter 283: Shelter

The next day, at first light, Cheng Ge left a heartfelt note for Sun Buyu, solemnly entrusting Jiyue to his care.

It wasn't that he didn't want to stay and look after him, but the situation was now critical, leaving him no time to catch his breath.

Their whereabouts were already out in the open. The Canal Gang and the forces behind it were no ordinary foes, and news would surely have been passed up through various channels.

Those parasites in Yuanzhou, Chengping, and beyond were sharp and ruthless.

Now that they were off the grid, the enemy, unable to target them, would go straight to destroying the evidence.

And the most important evidence was the miners in the mines. He had to get them out before the enemy shut them up.

However, he was desperately short on people. Wufeng was tough, but one man can only do so much.

Normally, the smart move would be to seek help from the local government office.

But in this region of Yuanzhou and Chengping, where officials had each other's backs, they wouldn't just refuse to help—the second word got out, the knives would be out.

So he had to look outside for help.

He fired off two letters: one rushed to the Lin Family Trading Company, and the other was addressed to Song Yunzhi in Yingzhou.

In the letter to Song Yunzhi, Cheng Ge cut the crap and laid out the stakes: the crooked officials and local thugs were in cahoots, mining iron ore illegally, helping the enemy and selling out the country, tormenting the people.

If these parasites weren't taken out, even if the bandit mess in Yingzhou got sorted for now, bigger disasters would come down the line, and there'd never be peace.

He begged Song Yunzhi, for the country and the people's sake, to quietly send a crack team to back them up.

"Hope Old Song comes through like he always does this time..." Cheng Ge sent the letter, feeling a little on edge.

After all, moving troops without authorization was a big deal, and although Yingzhou and Mincheng weren't far apart, they were still in different prefectures and counties.

But to Cheng Ge's surprise, Song Yunzhi came through faster and harder than he'd hoped.

In just a few days, a squad of about fifty elite soldiers, dressed as merchants and refugees, split up and slipped in.

They quietly crossed into Mincheng and linked up with Cheng Ge.

The captain handed over Song Yunzhi's reply—just a few words: "Troops are there. Go for it. I've got your back."

At the same time, the Lin family also sent over twenty skilled guards.

They also provided fresh maps with detailed terrain and troop positions for several major mines, including Luoying Ridge and Heishui Valley.

The numbers weren't huge, but they were tough and dependable—that's what mattered!

Cheng Ge felt a surge of energy. He knew speed was everything in a fight; every second wasted put the miners in more danger.

He quickly hammered out a detailed strike plan with Wufeng, the Lin family leader, and the military captain.

Using the account books and intel, they pinpointed the seven biggest mining sites.

Time was tight—every delay could mean another mine's survivors getting wiped out.

Cheng Ge and Wufeng talked it over and split up without hesitation to hit every mine on the list as fast as possible.

"Wufeng, take thirty of General Song's best men and ten Lin family pros, and according to the map, cover these three mines on the eastern line."

Cheng Ge's finger quickly traced across the map, his tone urgent and firm. "I'll take the rest and handle these four on the western line."

"Remember, priority is to get the miners out, lock things down, and move fast. We'll meet up at Wild Wolf Valley!"

"Understood!" Wufeng clasped his fists, his eyes sharp as a knife, and said nothing extra.

He gathered his men and melted into the forest without a sound, heading for the first target.

Cheng Ge didn't hesitate—he led the remaining twenty-plus soldiers and Lin guards, riding hard for the nearest mine on the western line.

The next two days turned into a lightning-fast race for justice in those crime-ridden mountains.

The first mine had sloppy guards. They snuck in at night and quietly took out the sentries.

Barely a drop of blood was spilled—they took the overseers and freed over a hundred trapped miners.

The second mine was larger and heavily guarded, so Cheng Ge adopted a strategy of feinting east while attacking west.

He sent a small detachment to feign an attack on the main gate to draw attention, while he himself led the main force to climb down the cliff at the side and rear.

Catching the guards off guard, they broke their resistance after a brief fierce fight.

The third, the fourth... Cheng Ge's team swept through like a whirlwind, destroying four mines in succession with minimal cost.

Meanwhile, the three mines on the eastern line were also eliminated one by one by Wufeng within two days.

The two groups, within just two days, with an overwhelming force, destroyed seven private mines of various sizes in one fell swoop.

However, when Cheng Ge and Wufeng met as agreed at the last and most remote mine, Wild Wolf Valley...

Inside Wild Wolf Valley, it was terrifyingly silent.

The air was thick with a nauseating stench of blood, even overpowering the earthy smell of the forest.

The shacks where the miners lived had been burned to ashes, with wisps of black smoke still rising.

And on the flat open ground in front of the mine entrance, hundreds of miners' corpses were piled up haphazardly like garbage.

Blood flowed in streams, dyeing large areas of the ground dark red. On the face of each corpse, a large cross was carved.

This was a provocation, a blatant provocation!

Cheng Ge stood before the mountain of corpses, his body rigid, his fists clenched tightly.

His knuckles cracked from excessive force, and veins bulged on the back of his hands.

His eyes were bloodshot, staring fixedly at the pile of corpses, his chest heaving violently as if it would tear him apart.

Wufeng stood beside him, still expressionless, but with deep darkness in his eyes.

Cheng Ge suddenly closed his bloodshot eyes, took a deep breath of the heavily blood-tainted air, and forced himself to calm down.

He could not panic. If he panicked, the people behind him, who had just escaped the tiger's mouth, would have no way out.

He slowly turned around to face the dense crowd behind him.

They were the hundreds of miners they had risked their lives to rescue from the other six mines.

Each of them was skin and bones, dressed in rags, their bodies covered with crisscrossing old and new scars.

At this moment, they gazed at the small mound of their comrades' corpses piled not far away, their eyes filled with boundless terror and a trace of survivor's daze.

When their eyes finally turned to Cheng Ge, that daze transformed into the final, only hope.

Someone took the lead, and the crowd, like a wheat field bent by the wind, fell to their knees in unison before Cheng Ge, a dark sea of people.

Using all their remaining strength, they pressed their foreheads to the ground, producing dull thuds, mingled with suppressed sobs and hoarse pleas:

"Your Honor! We beg you to grant us a way to survive!"

"Master! Save us! We have nowhere left to go!"

"Please give us your protection! We'll work like dogs to repay you!"

Every cry was blood and tears, every word heart-wrenching.

Cheng Ge looked at the suffering masses kneeling before him, his chest tight with emotion.

Powerful enemies were lurking all around, and pursuers might be nearby; he couldn't take these people with him. He had to find them a safe refuge.

In a flash, a place name popped into Cheng Ge's mind—Shen Chongzhuo.