It was already completely dark from the time the family came out. There are many fewer pedestrians on the street, but there are still a lot of homeless people cowering in the corners. Red lanterns had been hung in the kilns facing the street, and the vulgar and half-aged milfs dressed in bewitching clothes snuggled up to the doorframes of their homes and began to solicit passing men. From time to time, there was a lewd and numb laughter.

After a day's drive today, the body was almost upside down in the carriage, and the weather was cold, so the three of them returned to the inn, asked for a table of wine and food with the store, and began to drink slowly.

After a few glasses of wine, He Zhiyuan first asked: "I don't know what the two of you think of the family just now?" ”

Yan Jihai, who has not spoken today, said: "Anyway, I don't have a good impression of this Boss Luo, this person is a local snake, a miner from other places who came here to find a living." ”

Boss Sun said: "It's absolutely right to be a local snake, he not only pits miners from other places to find a living, but also pits coal bosses from other places, and eats them on both sides." Did He Gongzi notice the weird smile he had when he spoke before leaving? There is evil in this. ”

"Harboring evil intentions?" He Zhiyuan and Yan Jihai asked at the same time.

"Yes, all the manpower shops in this town are run by locals, and these people control almost the entire coal kiln. If the coal boss wants to recruit people, he must find these manpower tooth shops, if the local coal bosses are better, just let them recruit workers, if the bosses from other places come to open mines, they don't recruit people from him or don't let the tooth shop be all-inclusive, they will think of you to make it bad, so that you can't open here. ”

He Zhiyuan nodded slightly and motioned for Boss Sun to continue.

Boss Sun continued: "If the coal boss didn't recruit people from their tooth shop, or offended the people in the tooth shop. They will instruct some ruffians and hooligans to come to your mine to find work, and if you take them in, these people will cause some trouble in your mine, such as landslides, water penetration, explosions, etc., which are their specialty. What kind of coal boss can stand this, as long as there is an accident, he will be shut down by the government for a few months, or he will suffer a lawsuit, and even accompany his life. ”

"Then can't you do without these people?" Yan Jihai asked.

"That's not going to work, these people are locals, and they come every day to make trouble and make you uncomfortable. What's worse is that they will prevent merchants from coming to your mine to buy coal, and you still can't drive it. ”

"So, if an outsider like me comes here to open a mine, he really can't open it?" He Zhiyuan asked.

"It's not absolute, as long as you have a good relationship with these tooth shops and let them recruit workers, they will generally not trouble you." Boss Sun said.

He Zhiyuan took a sip of wine, and then asked: "If you open a coal kiln with 100 miners, how much coal can be mined in a year, and how much profit can you make?" ”

"It's hard to say, if you run into a good mine, you can produce eight or nine million catties of coal a year. If the ore layer is deep and there are many stones, it is five or six million catties. If it is calculated according to 7 million catties of coal per year, there is about 4,000 taels of profit a year. This is still smooth sailing, and if there is no major disaster or small disaster, if there is a disaster, it is difficult to say. ”

When He Zhiyuan heard this, he couldn't help but be surprised: "I only have an income of four thousand taels of silver a year, and I have to give one thousand taels to the tooth man." ”

He Zhiyuan usually makes money too easily, and he really can't look down on the four thousand taels of silver. If it weren't for knowing that coal was

He will never get involved in this industry, which will be an important strategic energy source in the next few decades.

"No, these tooth shop bosses earn no less than coal bosses."

Listening to Boss Sun's words, He Zhiyuan pondered and picked up the wine glass, drank the wine in the glass, and at the same time thought to himself, it seems that if you want to dig coal here, you must first clean up these ground snakes!

After a night of nothing, the next morning, the three of them had breakfast casually in the inn, and then drove the carriage to the tooth shop of the horse shopkeeper. The shopkeeper had already prepared a carriage and was waiting at the door of the store with a fellow.

After the five people converged, the carriage of the horse shopkeeper led the way, and the two cars left Luoquanzhuang one after the other, and continued to walk west along the uneven road. Just after about three or four miles away, the road is even more difficult to walk, and a mountain range stretching from north to south can be seen not far away.

Boss Sun told He Zhiyuan that this mountain range is called Heishi Mountain locally, which is about 30 miles long from north to south and more than 10 miles from east to west, and the coal kilns now excavated are all in this mountain range.

After another three or four miles, the road began to become narrower and steeper. The carriage could no longer go on, so they left it at a car shop at the bottom of the mountain.

The seller, Boss Yin, was already waiting in the car shop at the bottom of the mountain, and Boss Ma introduced the two parties to each other, and then Boss Yin led the way and continued to walk forward.

Along the mountain road, from time to time, I saw a foreman holding a whip and driving a group of cranes down the mountain. I saw that the flat shoulders on the shoulders of those pickers were bent into crescents, and the weight of the coal in the basket was one or two hundred catties, to say the least.

"Is that how the coal is transported down the mountain?" He Zhiyuan asked Yin Laoxi, who was accompanying him, in surprise.

"Elsewhere, where it's gentler, you can use a wheelbarrow." Boss Yin hurriedly replied with a smile: "No way, the road in Blackstone Mountain is too steep...... But they also earn a lot of money by picking up jobs in this way, and they are willing to do this work. ”

He Zhiyuan nodded noncommittally, and asked Boss Yin about the situation of the entire Heishishan coal kiln.

"There are about two or three hundred coal kilns in the entire Black Rock Mountain, all on the east side of the mountain." Boss Yin replied, and then added: "But it's not certain, the coal kiln is easy to seep water if it is accidentally dug on the water vein, as long as the water seeps, the kiln will be full in a short time, so it has to be abandoned and not used, and then dig again." It's so often wasted and often dug up, and there is no accurate number......"

"Is there an official kiln in here?"

"The private kilns account for more than eighty percent, and the official kilns are less than one percent, mainly the official kilns of Yizhou Prefecture. However, they do not operate themselves, but entrust the management to the private kiln, except for a certain amount of silver handed over every year, nothing else...... "Boss Yin originally wanted to say that even the private kiln has to provide to the government every year, and not only to the government. But thinking that he was a buyer, saying such things would scare him away, so he didn't say any more.

"Is it heavy to collect taxes?" He Zhiyuan asked again.

At this time, the shopkeeper replied for Boss Yin: "Thirty taxes and one is not heavy." As long as you pay taxes, the other governments will not care about you. ”

Boss Yin smiled bitterly in his heart, it's strange that the government doesn't care about you, in addition to paying taxes, which year is the apportionment less? As long as there is a dot that can't be checked, they can always find a reason and block it at every turn. But he can't pour these bitter waters in front of He Zhiyuan......

After walking along the mountain road for about an hour, I finally arrived at the mining area in the valley, and I saw that the opposite hillside was dotted like a honeycomb

More than a dozen mines. Hundreds of black-covered coal-carrying workers walked in and out of the mines, carrying baskets of coal like ants and pouring them into a row of special dendrums made in the coal dumps. Wait for the keeper to keep the accounts, wait for the pickers next to them to pour the coal into the basket, pick it up and walk down the hillside to the coal yard outside the mountain.

After just turning around the mine, He Zhiyuan thought of more than a dozen ways to improve production efficiency. However, he had already made up his mind, and today he only looked at it and asked without talking, so naturally he would not tell Boss Yin.

"These are your coal kilns?" He Zhiyuan asked Boss Yin, who had been by his side.

"If there are so many kilns, I won't sell these three kilns." Boss Yin smiled bitterly: "There are a total of six dozen kilns on this slope, and only these three kilns are me." ”

"Can you go down and have a look?" He Zhiyuan stood outside the dark coal kiln and asked Boss Yin.

Boss Yin was embarrassed and said: "Gongzi He, the environment below is very bad, how can it be a place for a decent person like Gongzi He to go." Don't hide it from the son, the contemptible person has only gone down once. ”

The shopkeeper also said on the side: "How can a noble person like He Gongzi go to a dirty and smelly kiln." You can rest assured, these three kilns have only been open for a little more than a year, and it is a good time to mine. ”

He Zhiyuan looked at a coal worker who climbed out of the hole, covered in black soot, and only his two eyes and teeth were white. Looking at the fur coat I was wearing today, I finally dispelled the idea of going down.

At this time, Yan Jihai, who had been following him, quietly told He Zhiyuan: "I asked the coal back just now, these three mine caves are not deep, they are more than two zhang, less than three zhang." There were about thirty or so coal diggers in each mine, sixty or seventy coal bearers, and about two or three hundred people in three mines. ”

He Zhiyuan nodded with satisfaction, not only satisfied with the three mines, but also satisfied with this clever apprentice.

After visiting these small coal kilns, He Zhiyuan asked Boss Yin again: "Boss Yin's family is local?" ”

Boss Yin sighed and said, "It would be nice if I were a local, my hometown is from Yi County, and I only came here last year, and I finally found these three mines." I didn't expect something to happen at home this year......"

The shopkeeper saw that Boss Yin was going to move the topic away, so he quickly diverted the topic and asked Boss Yin: "How deep are these three mines?" ”

"The deepest one is two zhang six feet, the shallowest is two zhang two, and these three mines are more than one zhang to produce coal." Boss Yin said proudly.

He Zhiyuan then asked him: "How much coal can be dug in a year by these three coal kilns?" ”

Boss Yin thought for a while and said: "From the start of construction last year to the present, it has been a total of one year and two months, and a total of more than 20 million catties of coal have been dug. These three mines are the positions that I have been looking for for two or three months to set, the coal seam is shallow, the quality is good, and the coal seam is thick, and more than ten zhang down are coal. ”

This is exactly the same as what Yan Jihai heard just now, and the output is about the same as what Boss Sun estimated last night. He Zhiyuan couldn't help but have some good feelings about this Boss Yin, at least he didn't exaggerate.

He Zhiyuan then asked: "How did Boss Yin discover these three mines?" ”

Boss Yin said: "Don't hide it from He Gongzi, I used to find ore veins for the owner in Yishan County, and I have been doing this for more than ten years, and I have my own set of methods on how to prospect for minerals." Later, after saving some silver, I thought about coming to Yizhou to open a coal kiln by myself. I didn't expect ...... Ay! Don't say it......"

(End of chapter)

The little people of the Ming Dynasty

The little people of the Ming Dynasty

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