Yu Fuyang is actually a coal mining craftsman, and what makes him stronger than others is that he is better at learning, so in the process of being a righteous husband, he gradually learned to survey coal veins and the whole set of processes of drilling and mining coal. Because he felt that the money he earned as a craftsman was too little, he scraped together some money and pulled a group of people out to work alone, and he became his own leader, so that he could not only get a salary for digging coal, but also get the profit of the coal kiln.

After working like this for five or six years, Yu Fuyang also made some money, but the hardships are beyond words. When he was purely a craftsman, he just had to do what he could. When you become the head of the town, you have to coordinate the relationship between the mountain farm owner, the government, the buyer, the righteous husband and other parties, which is time-consuming, laborious and costly. The few coal kilns he mined had never been licensed, but the expenses for doing errand work were not a lot at all.

In the case of a better coal vein, his efforts are still worth it, and a coal kiln can earn him hundreds of taels of silver. But if you look away and you don't see a coal star when you dig a well, at least a few dozen taels of silver will be wasted. Coal mining is a high-risk job, and if there is an accident underground that causes the death or injury of a worker, he, as the owner, is also responsible for compensation, which is often a large expense.

Yu Fuyang sometimes thought that if someone was willing to pay for him to dig a well, help him settle various relationships, and take the risk of drilling mistakes, then he would rather give up his own work and do things for others.

This is a bit like some white-collar workers in later generations, when they were employees, they always wanted to go out and start their own business and become a boss; After being a boss for a few years, I know that it is not bad to work for others, at least I can ensure income from drought and flood, and I don't have to open my eyes every day to think about where to get some money to come back to support the whole company.

It was precisely because Yu Fuyang had thought about such a question that as soon as Su Hao asked, he immediately replied, which made Su Hao a little surprised.

"Yu Tongtou, are you really willing to throw away your own coal and go to coal mining for others?" Su Hao didn't care about Yu Fuyang's gaffe, but just asked calmly.

Yu Fuyang's mind turned a few times, and he replied cautiously: "Master Su, what you said is true?" ”

Su Hao shrugged his shoulders and said, "I came to this barren mountain just to have fun with you?" ”

Yu Fuyang said: "If what Master Su said is true, then the little one is willing to do things for the master, as long as the master can give the little one a suitable piece of food and silver." ”

Su Hao asked: "If you want to be asked to be a coal miner, how much labor and food silver do you need a year?" ”

Yu Fuyang said: "Back to Master, the coal mining industry has its own rules. If it is simply a head, just take care of coal exploration, and then lead Yifu to dig a well to mine coal, a year is 100 taels of silver, plus the profit of the coal kiln dividend, it is generally the rule of 30 draws. ”

According to Yu Fuyang's statement, his requirement is a salary of 100 taels of silver a year, plus about 3.3% of the dividend. Like the coal kiln opened by Yu Fuyang himself, under normal circumstances, the annual dividend is three or four hundred taels of silver, and if you draw one out of thirty, you can only get about 10 taels, which is not a big amount. This money, in later terms, is performance-based pay, which is set to increase the motivation of Tongtou.

Su Hao has also learned about the wage standard of the Ming Dynasty these days, generally a slightly skilled craftsman, a month's salary is 1.5 taels of silver, and a year is 18 taels. Yu Fuyang's role belongs to the foreman, who has both technical and executive positions, and his salary is 5 times that of ordinary craftsmen, which is not outrageous.

Director Su Hao is just surveying coal mines, and he doesn't know much about how to dig coal mines, especially how to use the technology of the Ming Dynasty to excavate, and these things must be done by professionals. Before this trip, he had such a plan, ready to recruit some small coal kiln foremen and workers for his own use, Yu Fuyang was just the first target he fancied.

"The price you offer is reasonable. Still, I'll have to see your craft first. Su Hao replied.

Hearing Su Hao say that he still didn't trust his technology, Yu Fuyang was a little anxious. He patted his chest and said: "Master Su, I don't know how many craftsmen you have seen digging wells, if you want to say that in our Fengcheng County, the craftsmanship is better than mine, I dare not say no, at most one slap can be counted." If you don't believe me, you can go and see the well we're working. ”

Su Hao nodded and said, "That's what I mean." ”

"Then let's go, not far ahead." Yu Fuyang said.

Under the leadership of Yu Fuyang, the group came to the coal kiln that was being mined. These people, including Su Hao and Chen Guanyu, have not seen the coal kilns of the Ming Dynasty so closely, so there are some mysteries that Yu Fuyang needs to explain to them.

The coal kilns of the Ming Dynasty were roughly divided into two types: vertical shafts and horizontal shafts. A shaft is a deep shaft drilled vertically above the coal reservoir down to the coal seam. The cross shaft is aimed at the shallow burial of the coal seam, and a horizontal or slightly inclined roadway is drilled from the side of the mountain to the coal seam.

Whether it is a vertical shaft or a horizontal shaft, after digging the coal seam, it is necessary to turn to the horizontal direction and start digging along the distribution of the coal seam. In order to avoid large-scale goafs, coal excavation is carried out along a roadway, and each mining face is called a bore, stubble, socket, tip, tunnel face and so on. Mining technology at that time was already able to dig nearly 100 meters deep, and the horizontal extension of the roadway could be up to one or two miles.

The coal kiln owned by Yu Fuyang adopts the technology of shaft excavation, with a depth of 60 meters and a diameter of more than 2 meters. At the entrance of the cave, everyone also saw seven or eight thick bamboos, the lower end of which stretched into the well. Looking at the probe, it can be vaguely seen that the ends of the moso bamboo are connected to other moso bamboos, one after another, until they reach the bottom of the black well.

"What are these bamboos for?" Ma Yu asked first, this curious talent is very interested in everything unknown.

Yu Fuyang replied very seriously: "These bamboos are used to remove the filth in the well, these filth can hurt people, if they are not discharged, the craftsman will have to worry about his life when he goes down the well." ”

Of course, Su Hao knew that the filthy gas that Yu Fuyang said was actually the gas in the well. These bamboos are all connected to the bamboo joints, like pipes, extending into the well, which can discharge the gas. However, how efficient this method of exhaust is another matter. Thinking about it, this well should belong to a low-gas well, otherwise it is far from enough to rely on a few bamboo pipes to discharge gas.

"I'll go down the well and have a look." Su Hao said to Yu Fuyang.

Yu Fuyang hurriedly stopped: "Master Su, no, this well is not an ordinary place, there are no people who are used to going to the well, but they don't dare to go down at will." ”

Su Hao smiled: "Old Yu, if you don't like to hear it, I may not have been in the well as long as you, but when it comes to the well, I am more than 10 times more than you." Last month, I was ordered by the county magistrate to dig wells in the county to fight the drought. How many wells like this have been drilled a hundred? ”

"Digging wells to fight drought?" Yu Fuyang's mind lit up, "Are you the young master of the county government who is called the earth master by the people?" ”

"Earth Master......" Su Hao sweated again, "Who gave this nickname?" ”

Yu Fuyang recalled it all of a sudden: "Yes, yes, I remembered, the people in our village said that the old man was surnamed Su, and his age was similar to yours, so it should be you." Everyone says that you are a hundred times stronger than the best feng shui gentleman. My village relied on the two wells you drilled to keep this year's harvest. You don't know, many people have set up your tablet, treat you as a Buddha of ten thousand families, and burn incense and kowtow to you. ”

"No, I'm still alive, I'll set up a tablet." Su Hao said with a smile, "Actually, I'm blind, and I happened to drill a few good wells, where can I be worthy of the title of earth master." ”

Yu Fuyang said: "If a good well is drilled, it may be blind." But everyone knows that your Master Su has drilled hundreds of wells, each of which is a good well, and that is something that only a geomaster can do. ”

Su Hao corrected: "This can't be made up randomly, the location of the well I surveyed, there are also two percent wrong, how can there be a hundred shots and a hundred hits." ”

"Eighty percent of the well can have water, is this worth it?" Yu Fuyang said, "If we are looking for a coal master to prospect for coal, if we can see fifty percent of them, we are already very good masters." A good coal master like this will pay at least 20 taels of incense for a mouthful of coal. ”

"So valuable?" This time it was Su Hao's turn to be surprised, and he joked: "I knew this was the case, what kind of coal kiln did I open, I would go to prospect for others for coal." If I go to coal prospecting, I dare not say more, at least seventy or eighty percent of the success is still there. ”

"There must be, there must be." Yu Fuyang said repeatedly. Although he is a coal miner, his family is also in the countryside. Su Hao's investigation of the well has been passed down into a mythical story in various villages in Fengcheng County, some say that he is a descendant of Wenqu Xing, some say that he is the descendant of several generations of heavenly masters in Longhu Mountain, and some say that he has a pair of fiery eyes and can see through the land. Yu Fuyang himself has learned some coal exploration skills and knows the difficulty of exploration, so he admires Su Hao's exploration skills even more. Now that he saw the living Su Hao, and heard him say that he could not only survey for water, but also for coal, Yu Fuyang was naturally convinced.

"Well, now you won't stop me from going down the well, will you?" Su Hao asked.

"Don't dare, don't dare. The little one will accompany the master to go down the well. Yu Fuyang said.