Ji Yijun and Huang Zheng were both very surprised, because there were no Chinese people with this appearance in the local area. Perhaps because of the magic, the hair color and eye color of the people here were different from those of the various races on Earth, and the difference was very obvious.
If Avalo is telling the truth, doesn't that mean that the Chinese were involved in what happened to him before
"We want to hear the details. Can you tell us what happened after you were arrested?" Huang Zheng asked.
Avalor glanced at Wu Qi, and seeing the other party nodding in encouragement, he began to narrate slowly: "I was sold by Janola to a somewhat remote village. The village was originally in the mountains, with a river flowing by the side. There were many uninhabited houses in the village. They were very dilapidated, and half of them collapsed. The village must have been smaller than my hometown village. But when I got there, many wooden houses had been built, some of which were workshops, and some were houses for living. There were also many people there, including slaves, guards, and hired craftsmen."
"How many people are there approximately?" Ji Yijun asked.
Avalor's face flushed. "I, I don't know how to count, so I can't count how many people there are. But the slaves in the room I live in are more than the fingers on my two hands and two feet. There are many, many rooms like this."
"If there are more than 20 people in one room, and there are many rooms, there must be at least 200 to 300 people, right?" Ji Yijun roughly estimated, "What do they use so many slaves for?"
Avalor said, "There are many workshops in the town. One of them is very closely guarded. It looks like a big round chimney. I saw stones being transported in and turned into iron blocks and iron bars when they came out. The other one produced even higher-grade steel blocks. We can't enter these two workshops. There are guards guarding them every day. Anyone who approaches will be beaten. Only hired craftsmen can work inside.
The ordinary workshops where we worked had both craftsmen and slaves. Some workshops specialized in making iron cups and jars, some made pottery jars and bottles, some used steel to make weapons and armor, and there were also workshops run entirely by women, making clothes of all kinds of strange styles.
They put me to work in the armor workshop, operating a human blower to blow air into the iron furnace. That’s what I did for the rest of my life.”
"He should be talking about the small blast furnace. We just restored this thing not long ago, and the locals can't make it." Huang Zheng may feel that the situation is serious, and he keeps stroking his chin. The stubble makes a hissing sound.
"Who would do that? Why would they set up a new group outside the school? And how could they do this secretly?" Ji Yijun asked puzzled.
"There must be some help from local people, otherwise it wouldn't be possible. As for the reason, it's because the money earned from this goes into these people's own pockets. Now that we have established ourselves, there will naturally be people who will plan for the future. Who is as heartless as you?" Huang Zheng asked Avalo again, "Where do they get the materials for smelting iron and steel?"
Avalo recalled: "I only know that there are two mines not far from the town, a coal mine and an iron mine. I have never been there, but many slaves in the town are assigned to work in the mines. The slaves who go to the mines are the most miserable and the most dangerous. During the time I stayed there, the mine collapsed twice, and each time many miners died. However, the town managers would immediately add more slaves to reopen the mines."
"Hey, this is to build a coal and iron complex industrial center." Huang Zheng asked again, "How do they treat you slaves? How does it compare to the plantations you worked on before?"
Avalor's expression was filled with fear and hatred. "Working here is much harder than working on the plantation. The rules are very strict. If you don't finish the work, you will be punished. If you don't do it well, you will be punished. If you don't follow the rules, you will be punished. Every afternoon, the steward will whip those who do not do well in the center of the town. I have been whipped twice. If a slave commits a more serious crime, he will die. There is a row of gallows in the middle of the town, and every now and then someone will be hanged on it for violating various regulations.
Normally, these workshops and mines are managed by two managers, but there is a young man who is more powerful than them. He comes almost every two weeks and makes many requests every time. He has the final say on all the rules in the workshop. He... He is the black-haired devil. "
"Why is he called the black-haired devil? Has he killed many people?" Ji Yijun asked.
"No, I've never seen him kill anyone. But he made all the rules for killing people. For example, he made a method called, 'Last-place Elimination Method'."
Ji Yijun glanced at Huang Zheng and said, "There's no way to escape. It must have been someone from our side who did it."
Huang Zheng waved his hand, asking him to calm down, and then asked Avalor: "Tell me, how do you eliminate the last place?"
"Those who produce the least or do the worst work in the workshop every month will be punished. The managers will select the three worst ones, and they will be hanged."
"Bastard!" Ji Yijun couldn't help but curse.
"Even if they weren't the last three, the last dozen or so would be whipped. So everyone would work very hard. New slaves usually couldn't beat the old ones, and most of those who were hanged were new. I was almost hanged the first week after I went there, and then I was whipped." Avalor lifted the clothes on his back, where there were many scars. "There are other punishment methods, most of which were thought up by the black-haired devil. I heard him say to the stewards: If killing one person can make a hundred people work better, then it's a big profit."
At this time, even Wu Qi couldn't help but say, "How can there be such a person? How can his heart be so dark?"
Ji Yijun frowned and said, "I don't believe my classmates or teachers would become like that. They were educated in the same place as us, how could they become like that? Are they still human?"
"Is it strange? When you think that the locals are all barbarians, or even monkeys, and not human beings at all, you will not have any sympathy for them. If there is no legal restraint, I will not be surprised at what they do. I have seen how bad people can be much more than you have." Huang Zheng's gaze seemed to penetrate the tent and travel to a far place.
Ji Yijun looked at Avalor with suspicion: "Then how did you escape?"
"I, I saw Ava there later..."