"Ladies and gentlemen, the little Yu Fuyang is the head of this coal tong, and he is the head of this coal tong, and he is here to salute all of you."

The man who looked like a foreman walked up to Su Hao and the others and made a big salute respectfully. A few of his men stood behind him, expressionless, but there was a faint shackle under his feet. Look at this meaning, this guy named Yu Fuyang is ready to do both, in case Su Hao and they come to trouble the coal kiln, Yu Fuyang will take the craftsmen to show his strength.

There are many kinds of names for coal kilns in ancient China, such as coal holes, coal pots, coal troughs, coal nests, coal holes, etc., and coal kilns are a relatively written name. The person who is responsible for leading the people to dig the coal is called Tongtou, and the workers are called Yifu. If it is a relatively large coal mine, there are various roles such as attackers, wellheads, and account offices, so there is no need to elaborate on these.

Su Hao and his group are dressed very strangely, Su Hao and Ma Yu are dressed as students, Chen Guanyu is wearing Taoist robes, Xu Zong is wearing the uniform of the officials, and the other people's costumes are also different. Such a group of people got together and suddenly appeared near the coal kiln, which could not help but make Yu Fuyang vigilant. His coal kiln has not been filed with the county government, and the tolerance of the county government is here, which is definitely not a good thing in his opinion.

"Oh, Yu Tongtou, in Xia Su Hao, is the master of the county government workshop, today I went out on an errand with my brothers, and I happened to pass by here and saw that coal was being mined here, so I came to observe one or two. Please forgive me for any interruptions. Su Hao arched his hand to Yu Fuyang and said politely.

"It turned out to be Master Su, disrespectful, disrespectful." Yu Fuyang responded perfunctorily, while looking at Su Hao and his entourage back and forth with his eyes, guessing the motives of this group. Su Hao said that he was passing by by by accident on an errand, and it was just a matter of coaxing others, but Yu Fuyang would never believe it. The mountain nest where his coal kiln is located is not a traffic artery at all, so why should he do it in a place where such birds do not lay eggs?

But to say that the other party is specifically here to find fault, Yu Fuyang doesn't think it's like it. Who doesn't know that the coal kiln has a bit of a black background, and this black not only refers to the black of the coal, but also the meaning of the black road. If Su Hao and his entourage were specifically here to raid their small unlicensed coal kiln, the manpower would be too small, and if they started, the officials would not have the upper hand.

Unable to understand the intentions of Su Hao and the others, Yu Fuyang decided to brake quietly and observe the other party's actions first.

"Yu Tongtou, can you let us go over and observe the state of your coal mining?" Su Hao asked.

"I'm afraid this doesn't have to be." Yu Fuyang said, "The coal mining place is filthy, how dare the little one insult the dignity of the master and the officials?" In this way, you have worked hard to come from afar, and there is no way to entertain you on this mountain, so I will let people go and fetch five taels of silver, which is considered the wine fee for me to invite you to the town to drink, what do you think? ”

Yu Fuyang decided that Su Hao and others wanted to take the opportunity to blackmail, he was also an unlicensed coal kiln, and when he encountered an official errand, he could only send some money to make a point. In his thoughts, the price of five taels of silver was not too low, and these officials took the silver and naturally went back.

Who knows, Su Hao didn't appreciate Yu Fuyang's bribery, he said with a smile: "Yu Tongtou, silver or something, it's free." Rest assured, we are not here to check the mining tax, nor are we here to extort money. I'm just a little interested in your coal mining methods and want to see them. ”

"Where, where." Hearing Su Hao's refusal, Yu Fuyang felt a little surprised, he hesitated slightly, and then made an inviting gesture, "Since Master Su wants to see it, how dare the little one disobey." Ladies and gentlemen, please come here. ”

Yu Fuyang led the way in front, Su Hao walked forward side by side with him, and the rest of the people followed closely behind them. Su Hao asked Yu Fuyang about the depth of the coal kiln, the thickness of the coal seam, the length of the roadway, etc., which made Yu Fuyang even more strange, he had never met an official who was so proficient in coal mining technology.

"I don't know what Master Su did in the past, could it be that there are also coal workers in the family?" Yu Fuyang asked curiously.

Su Hao smiled and said, "People often say that if Xiucai doesn't go out, he knows the world. I have never seen a coal kiln in Daming, but I just saw some statements in the book and wanted to ask Yu Tongtou for verification. ”

Su Hao is absolutely not a lie, he has indeed not seen a coal kiln in Daming, but this does not mean that he has not gone down the mine in that society 400 years later. As a geologist, Su Hao has been to countless mines, and the mine information he has seen is full of sweat, and after a brief chat with Yu Fuyang, he already knows the basic situation of this coal kiln.

"Master Su is really well-read and strong-minded, and I admire it so much." Yu Fuyang Road.

"Yu Tongtou, you coal tong, after digging for another month, you should turn it off and find a new vein, right?" Su Hao pretended to be careless and said to Yu Fuyang.

Yu Fuyang was stunned for a moment, and then said with a smile: "Master Su is really good at telling jokes, it was not easy for the little one to find a mineral vein, how could he give up halfway." ”

Su Hao said: "I heard you say that you have dug 40 feet to the east and 30 feet to the west, and you are now digging in the north and south directions. If it weren't for the fact that the edges of the coal veins had been dug on the east and west sides, how could you have stopped digging only thirty or forty feet? Now you are digging in the north-south direction, and I estimate that the prospect is not good, and if you dig a dozen feet, you may reach the edge. ”

"This ......" Yu Fuyang's eyes began to get complicated when he looked at Su Hao. Because of the situation Su Hao said, it was as if he had personally gone down to the well to see it.

This coal vein was surveyed by Yu Fuyang himself, and at the beginning, he felt that the underground reserves were very rich, so he recruited a group of workers to start mining. Who knows, after digging the coal seam, how far to the east and west has not been dug out, the coal seam is already so thin that it has no mining value. Now he led people to dig on the north and south sides, the roadway on both sides has just been drilled about 20 feet, and the coal seam has dropped from the original three feet thick to two feet thick.

"Master Su seems to be an expert in coal mining." Yu Fuyang said.

Su Hao said: "It's not a secret, Yu Tongtou, when he came down to this Wangjiapo, he also wanted to open a tong to dig coal, but he was unexpectedly preempted by Yu Tongtou." ”

Yu Fuyang had already regarded Su Hao as his peer at this time, and completely forgot that Su Hao was a person in the yamen. He sighed and said, "Alas, I'd rather be preempted by you, this coal pot can be regarded as making me miserable." ”

"Yu Tongtou, this is cheap, right?" Xu Zong, who was following behind Su Hao, interjected, "This coal mining is a profitable business, you coal tong, you must not have a kiln license, and you haven't paid taxes to the yamen, right?" You earned as much coal as you dug up, and you said that it was pitted. ”

Xu Zong was a man with experience in the rivers and lakes, and he knew that there were many privately mined coal mines and other mines in the Fengcheng Mountains, and because of their small scale and hidden in the mountains, they would not be easily discovered by the government, so they generally did not apply for licenses and did not pay taxes. When an official comes to investigate, the owners of these mines only need to take out some silver to stop the officials. He saw that Yu Fuyang's coal kiln was hidden in a mountain depression, so he expected that this was also the case.

Yu Fuyang said angrily: "Who said that coal mining is unprofitable? Try it out for yourself. If I want to open a kiln, don't I pay money to the owner of the mountain farm? I paid a full 20 taels of silver to get Zhao Yuanwai, the owner of this mountain farm, to allow me to mine coal here.

After paying the money, I can open a shaft and dig a shaft, which is a few dozen taels of silver for nothing, and if there is no coal in the mine, the well will be considered useless. Even if there is coal underground, if it happens like this, the coal vein is too small, and I can recover the capital to thank God. That's it, if you ask me to pay taxes, how can I have the money to pay? ”

"So, it makes sense that you don't pay taxes?" Su Hao asked half-jokingly and half-seriously.

"Master, that's not what I meant." Yu Fuyang realized that he had leaked his mouth, how could he say that he didn't pay taxes in front of the yamen, he said hesitantly: "Master, you don't know, we mine coal, even if we gamble." If you bet on a big coal vein, you will get rich, and you will earn hundreds or thousands of taels of silver. If you don't win the bet, all the money spent in front of you will be wasted. ”

"This coal prospecting is not accurate, it's really too cheating." Su Hao said with a smile.

"yes, yes, it's too bad...... This daddy. Yu Fuyang accepted Su Hao's witty words and said along.

"Yu Tongtou, have you ever thought of a different way?" Su Hao asked.

Yu Fuyang asked, "What is the alternative?" ”

Su Hao said: "If I ask you to help mine coal, the money for renting mountain farms, the money for digging wells, and the money for hiring a righteous husband will all be paid by me, no matter whether you can dig up coal or not, I will give you a share of the money, will you do such a thing?" Su Hao asked.

Yu Fuyang replied without hesitation: "Yes, as long as the money given is enough, the grandson is willing to pay for the well himself." ”

"How do you talk!" Without waiting for Su Hao to react, Xu Zong jumped up first.

Okay, Su Hao said that he paid for Yu Fuyang to dig coal, and Yu Fuyang said that his grandson was willing to pay for digging wells by himself, didn't he scold Su Hao by turning a corner? Today's Su Hao already has a supreme position among the servants in the workshop, how can Xu Zong not be annoyed when he hears Yu Fuyang scolding Su Hao.

"Uh...... Damn the little ones, damn the little ones! Yu Fuyang hurriedly bowed to Su Hao to apologize, and he also knew that he had said the wrong thing.