“…… The Zheng family usurped the throne and sought power, and the descendants of the Li family were punished...... Wang Shi in Annan all over the descendants of the Li family, want to establish as the king, Annan officials Qi Lao Yan "extinguished, there is no inheritance of Li", to the imperial court proposed to the court "Annan country this heavenly dynasty Jiaozhi, willing to restore the county, and the people to renew", Xingqian four years of March on the first day, His Majesty issued the "Ping An Nan Zhao", although there is an invitation from the officials of Annan Elders, it is reasonable to restore Jiaozhi County, and the people are renewed, but Jiaozhi Shu several barbarians need to be pretended to educate, so send the clan Zhenguo general, auxiliary general, Sun Fengguo general 41 people to seal the Jiaozhi establishment of the country 41, care for the Jiaozhi Shu several barbarians, so that it is returned to China……”

On the day when the general of Luxi County and a group of forty-one clans were canonized, they were in Hulukou, Xinhua County, Hunan

In recent years, coal mines in Hunan have sprung up one after another, especially in Xinhua, there are hundreds of thousands of large and small coal mines, with no less than tens of thousands of miners, and thousands of woolen ships are sent out every year to load coal and transport coal to Changsha, Wuchang and other places. This is because Xinhua produces high-quality anthracite, which is most suitable for urban people to make fires for cooking.

For the people in the city, honeycomb briquettes and clay briquette stoves are a necessity, but for many local people, like Wen Yujia, coal is a livelihood. Wen Yujia, who had just turned fifteen years old, was woken up by his father. Wen Lao Liu's method is very effective, that is, to shout, if there is no response, he will directly slap him in the face, not heavy, not light, just right. Therefore, every time after being slapped, Wen Yujia would immediately open his eyes, and then a spirit sat up.

"The sky is clear."

Wen Lao Liu said a word, turned around and left the room.

Today, like many teenagers, Wen Yujia is going to start his career, becoming an apprentice, a miner in a mine, Xinhua coal mine has a long history, it is said that as early as the Song Dynasty, there have been people mining, but in recent years, there are more and more mines, and the mining methods are becoming more and more new, I heard that in the academy, there is a gentleman who specializes in mining.

In fact, at the beginning, there were still teenage children or even younger children in the mine, but since the emperor asked him to run a social school a few years ago, Wen Yu's family, like many people, was ordered by the government to enter the social school to read and write, so as to know the law and etiquette.

Of course, at the age of fifteen, he can go out of social studies, although in reality, he did not graduate from social studies, but at the age of fifteen, it is time to go to work.

The village was about his size, and for the past few years, he had been in the mines since his age. He wanted to be like a miner, because someone was scared and cried on the first day of work, so everyone is still laughing at him, and Wen Yujia doesn't want people to laugh at him.

Four taels of silver a month!

This is the wages in the coal mine, and ordinary people can't earn dozens of taels of silver if they dig in the field. Four taels of silver, enough to buy three stones of polished rice, in fact, the Wen family of six people, at most one and a half stones a month, even if they eat some meat and vegetables, when they eat, there is still a lot of Yueyue left, and there are still a few acres of paddy fields at home, with this salary, the family can live a good life.

But in fact, this salary is not much, after all, a pound of coal costs a penny, and each of them has to dig out at least a thousand catties of coal every day. But for ordinary people, this is a lot of income.

In the early morning, the light outside the window shone into the house through the curtain paper pasted in the small window, Wen Yujia looked at his younger brother lying next to him, this time the younger brother had woken up, his eyes were open. Every time Wen Yujia got up, he was awake.

"Sleep again, wait for my brother to get paid, and buy you candy to eat, it's the milk candy that is full of flavor!"

Milk candy!

In the past two years, with the prosperity of the coal mine, it is said that it came from the northeast at the earliest, and the taste is very fragrant and sweet, but the price is not cheap, and only a few people can afford it.

Wen Yujia got out of bed, wearing only cotton shirts, when it was cold, he wore a shirt to sleep, although the weather has become warmer, but the night is still a little cold.

After changing into a full-length blue overalls, Wen Yujia felt a bit like a miner, this kind of overalls are similar to military uniforms, compared to ordinary clothes, it is easier to wear on the body to work, and it is also economical. The pants of this kind of dress are made of thick cotton, this thick twill, a symbol of entering the world of men, after putting on the pants, he wears a thick belt, and puts on leather boots, which his father bought for him, and the reason why he wears leather boots is because in the mine, wearing cloth shoes is easy to smash his feet.

After getting dressed, Wen Yujia walked out of the door. As soon as he got out of the house, he could see the coal mountain, which was the coal that had been brought out of the mines, and it would be loaded onto horse-drawn carts, and then it would be transported to the docks, and then to thousands of homes, but because of the proximity of the house, sometimes a gust of wind would blow fine black soot into the house. But even so, their family eats in the courtyard.

"Get up."

Wen Lao Liu glanced at his son, and then pointed to the rice on the table and said.

"Hurry up and eat, I'll have to go to work later."

The meal he eats now is different from what he used to eat - yesterday morning, he only had a bowl of rice noodles, but today the bowl is bigger and has an egg in it. The mother looked at Wen Yujia and said to him.

"You're going to work in the well, you need to eat more to have strength."

In the past, this was the treatment only his father had, and now he has such treatment.

Glancing at his son, Wen Lao Liu buried his head in eating, and then said.

"Damn, the smell is a little light today, sprinkle a little more salt in the bowl, and you will sweat more under the well."

These are all years of experience in the well, salt is not cheap, a pound of salt in Xinhua is 40 yuan, more expensive than grain. But fortunately, I don't eat much salt, which is more than a dozen catties of salt all year round.

"Don't look so nervous,"

Wen Lao said without raising his head.

"I went down the mine when I was 19 years old, and at that time, there were no wooden beams in the mines, and I didn't see the sun for almost ten years from the dawn of the morning until the evening."

Wen Lao Liu is the oldest qualified "miner" here, he has been in the mine for the longest time, but at that time the salary was small, if it were not for the poverty of the family, he would not be like this, only when the farm is busy, he will come out of the mine, after the work in the field, he will return to the mine, continue to work.

"I'm not nervous."

Wen Yujia said. But this was obviously not true, and he was actually so frightened that his whole body stiffened.

In fact, he didn't want to go down the mine, because he had heard that there was a coal mine collapse, and when the coal mine collapsed, people were buried in it, and there was no life. This digging coal can be said to be "stone sandwich meat", exchanging life for silver. Compared to going into the well, he hopes to be able to go out to see the world as a soldier as written in the newspaper, although there are some risks, but no matter what, it is better than being trapped here.

"Listen to this."

Wen Lao Liu had a newspaper in front of him, and he never bought it, but this did not prevent him from sometimes taking home the newspapers that others had read, and then reading the newspaper there with the words he had learned in his private life when he was young.

"This said, as long as you are willing to be a soldier of the clan, you will give 200 acres of paddy fields, and return five slaves and maids, there are such good things in this world, and give fields, and slaves and maids, in fact, it is not to let people go to them to sell their lives, as for this field, this slave and maid, they must all rob people, just like the early years of "driving seedlings and seizing industry", it is nothing more than robbing the barbarian field, and then plundering the barbarian as a slave and a maid. ”

As a native of Hunan, Wen Yujia knows that because there are many Miao people here, they naturally know what it is to "drive Miao to seize industry", that is, during the Wanli period, the Miao people will be driven farther into the mountains and seize their fields and family properties, of course, this is carried out under the leadership of the government, in the past, it was because there were few people in the fields, so it was necessary to "open up the border land, drive the seedlings to seize the industry", and now it is naturally not needed, and the government will not do it again.

"It's written in the newspaper?"

Compared with "driving seedlings and seizing business", Wen Yujia was attracted by the content of the newspaper.

"Is there really two hundred acres of paddy fields, and slaves and maids?"

If there are 200 acres of paddy fields, and a few slaves and maids help to cultivate the land, there is still a need to dig coal in the mines. As soon as Wen Yujia's words fell, he was reprimanded by his father.

"It's not a mess of brains, what kind of people are they who will go to Nanyang, they all break the law, what do you think the clan did in the past? It's to suppress the barbarians, to be a government soldier, maybe just arrived there to catch up with the fashion, and was hacked to death by the barbarians, when the seedlings were driven to seize the industry, the industry was taken, and how much did the soldiers end up with? Dead, who asks? ”

After a reprimand, Wen Lao Liu looked at his son and said.

"Don't think about what to be a soldier and divide the field, that field is a military field, and only one can be passed on to the descendants, our family is only about ten acres of land, but don't forget, we have coal here, now there are more and more coal in the city, as long as there is coal in the mountains, this life will not be able to eat and drink, rather than taking those risks, it is better to dig coal at home, the salary of four taels of silver a month ......"

Again, Wen Lao Liu was there and said "four taels of silver", which is indeed a lot, but for Wen Yu's family, it is not the silver that attracts him, but a new life.

What does the outside world look like?

When he walked towards the mine with his tools, Wen Yujia's mind was still thinking about the outside world, although in books, he knew that there was not only one Ming in the world, but also many countries, and knew that there was a broader world outside.

But what about that?

When he was about to walk into the mine, looking at the black hole in the mine, Wen Yujia only had a thought left in his mind.

Is this the end of my life spent in a mine where no light of day dawned?