Early the next morning, Yang Jing got into the jeep he had taken again, and headed west through the mountains and primeval jungles.

Just as Wu Qin-Maung said, the road from Myitkyina to Hpakant, which is more than 100 kilometers, is not a road traveled by people at all! Compared with this section of the road, the road from Mandela to Myitkyina is simply a two-way four-lane highway!

You say this is not a road, but there is a clear boundary between the two sides of this winding and uneven road and the primeval jungle next to it, but you have to say that this is a road, who the hell believes in it.

This is clearly a long muddy pond that elephants have stepped on in the jungle!

Yang Jing saw no less than a hundred elephants along the way, and these elephants either carried huge bamboo baskets containing jadeite rough stones, or simply tied up some huge jadeite rough stones with hemp vines and let the elephants drag them on the ground......

Of course, more are the Burmese locals who carry the burden on their shoulders.

Deep in the mountains of Kachin State in the western part of Kachin State, the Hpakant mining area is bordered by Sagaing State, but the area is truly a pristine jungle area. If jadeite hadn't been found in that area, it would have been designated as a no-man's land.

The jeep that Yang Jing was riding in couldn't run at all, and the road was full of potholes except for mud, and if you didn't pay attention to the car, you would sink into it. On the road from Myitkyina to Hpakant, which is more than 170 kilometers, this car has been trapped thirteen times, if it were not for the fact that there are many elephants on this road, they can pull up the trapped car, Yang Jing and they had to go to Hpakant one by one when they first fell in.

Especially when he crossed Kumen Ridge, Yang Jing's liver and intestines almost came upside down.

This kind of road made Yang Jing really doubt how to transport the jade rough stones he dug up from the mining area, could it be that he could only use elephants or people to carry them out?

I set off at five o'clock in the morning and arrived at the old Hpakant mine at nine o'clock in the evening.

As soon as Yang Jing got out of the car, he almost knelt on the ground and couldn't get up again, this sister is really not a human sin!

Now the jadeite mining area in Myanmar is far from being compared with the mining area after the new century, in fact, even after entering the new century, the price of jadeite has skyrocketed, and the major jadeite fields are still dilapidated. Except for the places where the mine owners stayed and the jade rough warehouse, there were no other places where people lived.

The owners of the jade mines are billionaires, but these billionaires will never spend their money on the workers in the mines.

It's only 1986, and it's even more unsightly, although Yang Jing can't see anything, he can feel the ruin here from where he lives at night.

Yang Jing and Wu Qinxiang lived in a bamboo building. It's the kind of bamboo building that is held up by bamboo, and the floor of the house is about a meter and a half high from the ground, and then the whole house is woven out of bamboo.

To say that living in a bamboo building is also quite emotional, but if there are a few pigs under the bamboo building where you live, there is only a layer of bamboo rows between you and the pigs, it is estimated that you will not think that living in a bamboo building has a mood.

Although the bamboo building is not directly grounded, the pigs below are really unbearable. The pig snorted and didn't say anything, the smell alone made Yang Jing almost vomit out sourly.

In the end, Yang Jing still couldn't resist the sour taste, and regardless of the severe pain in his body, he asked an officer who came with him to find another room for himself.

This house cannot be called a "house", it is a thatched house......

The thatched house is a thatched house, at least there is no sour taste, which is enough for Yang Jing to sleep peacefully on the bamboo bed of the thatched house.

After waking up the next morning, Yang Jing found that more than 95 percent of the houses here were thatched huts of this kind. A bamboo building like the one I first stayed in last night is considered a high-end house here. This kind of bamboo building is usually inhabited by mine owners or stewards.

Of course, there are also stone-walled houses in the mining area, and those houses are very large, needless to say, they are warehouses for jadeite rough.

In the new century and now in the '80s, there are tens of thousands of miners working here, even if each person is only paid about 12 cents a day – even in 2016, miners here earn only $1 a day......

The only stones of different sizes and shapes that are valuable here are jadeite rough.

After breakfast, Yang Jing and Wu Qinmaung took action again. Wu Qinmao's opening in the Damukan mining area is still some distance away from the old Hpakant mining area - Yang Jing and Wu Qinmao need to ride elephants for about half a day.

The Tamkan mining area is only about 30 kilometers away from the old Hpakant mining area, but even after the new century, there is no road connection between the two mining areas, only a mountain road trodden by elephants.

Therefore, Yang Jing and Wu Qinmaung, as well as the entourage who followed, needed to take an elephant to wander around the mountains for more than half a day to reach the entrance. Not to mention, although the elephant ride is a little slower, it is really comfortable. The elephant has a rattan chair on its wide back, and the person sits in it. As the elephant moves forward, the rattan chair sways from side to side, like a rocking bed, very comfortable and not bumpy at all.

Yang Jing even slept beautifully in the rattan chair......

As for the big box that was unloaded from the jeep that Yang Jing was riding, it was placed on the elephant's back along with Yang Jing.

In the afternoon, the team of eight elephants and more than 50 miners arrived at the Damukan mining area. Wu Qinmaung's opening of this field, located on the edge of the Hangba field, is a piece of land with a length of 2.3 kilometers, a width of 1.7 kilometers, and an area of almost 4 square kilometers.

To the north of the mouth of the field is the main channel of the winding Wulu River, and there is also a tributary of the Wulu River in the mouth of the field.

The area is relatively flat, and there are already dense pits on the ground, and countless miners are climbing up and down the pit to move stones with muddy water out of the pits.

This is the first time Yang Jing has seen the scene of the excavation of the jadeite rough, although the scene is spectacular, but Yang Jing looked at it for a while, and he couldn't bear to look at it anymore.

The main thing is that those miners are really a little too miserable, and their bodies are in tatters, worse than what beggars wear. Some miners even wore a crotch cloth with yellow mud all over their bodies......

In addition to these miners, there are also many bare-chested children who are also helping adults carry some smaller jadeite roughs.

In the past, I only heard about how hard it was for the miners to dig jadeite, but I never saw it with my own eyes, but now after finally seeing with my own eyes how these hard-working miners dig jadeite rough, Yang Jing is really a little unbearable.

seemed to see that his big boss was a little unbearable, and Wu Qinxiang on the side said: "Boss, the workers here are like this. They can be said to have lived off mining for generations, and although these workers do not earn much money, they at least have a stable income compared to those who can't. ”

As he spoke, Wu Qinmaung pointed to the fields further away and said: "These fields are all connected, and there are forty or fifty thousand miners mining in the Damukan mining area. The income of the miners is basically the same, which is a tacit thing for the mine owners at each site. As newcomers, we naturally can't just break this default rule, otherwise, the mine owners at those sites will have trouble with us. ”

Yang Jing nodded silently, looked at it for a while and then asked, "How are the workers eating?"

Wu Qinyang said in a low voice: "This is no problem. Although the miners at each site are paid almost the same salary, the food at our site is still quite good, at least we can feed the workers, which is better than many farms. ”

After a pause, Wu Qinmaung continued: "Boss, you have also walked the way here, and you have also seen the situation here, so all the materials here, whether they are food, clothing or use, need to be pulled in from the outside. There are now more than 3,800 people in our field of mining, so I specially formed a transport team of more than 100 people and 50 elephants specially used to transport grain, and went back and forth between the field and Mogang every day, pulling grain and some necessary materials from Mogang to the field. ”

Yang Jing asked: "So how much money is needed for workers' wages and food and drink expenses over the past year?"

"It doesn't cost much money, just enough to feed the workers here, and if you count their wages, plus food and other expenses, it will cost less than $2 million a year. Security costs account for nearly half of this. ”

Hearing this number, Yang Jing was also a little uncomfortable in his heart. There are almost 4,000 people, including salaries and food, and they only spend about a million dollars a year, and the standard of living here is really too low.

You must know that Wu Qinmaung's salary alone is enough to be one million dollars a year. This guy's salary alone is worth the hard work of nearly 4,000 people for a year.

However, Yang Jing knew that there was no way to do this, as Wu Qinmaung said just now, this is what it looks like here, these miners have been like this for almost generations. Especially in the old Hpakant mining area, it is even more brutal than here.

It is said that African diamonds are blood diamonds, but in fact, the jadeite in Myanmar is similar to those blood diamonds.

But Yang Jing is powerless to change the situation here. This circle has been formed for a long time, and it is not something that can be easily changed by one or two people. And if you change the rules here, it may backfire.

The workers here are used to it, or rather, they are completely accustomed to this exploitation.

It's sad, but there's no way to change it.

Yang Jing could only silently feel sorry for these workers in his heart. But if you let Yang Jing give up this scene in front of him because of this kind of regret, he will definitely not do it. This is not Huaxia, and these workers are not Huaxia, so Yang Jing will not give up this scene because of his pity.

"Old Wu, send more men and elephants, and bring more grain and meat every day. There's nothing I can do to change the status quo here, but I can make my workers eat better!"

Wu Qinmao clasped his hands together and said, "Boss, you are really good, I thank you for these workers." ”

Yang Jing waved his hand and said, "Where is our warehouse?" ”

Under the leadership of Wu Qinmaung, Yang Jing came to a very tightly guarded area. This area is full of large houses made of heavy stones, and needless to say, this is a warehouse with jadeite rough......