In the seventh year of Chongzhen, the first day of the first month.

In the north of Xuzhou City, Hujia Villa, a newly built five-story building with a reinforced concrete structure, covers an area of about one acre, and there are 218 rooms in it.

The interior has cement floors, white walls, glass windows, running water, floor heating, indoor flushing toilets and other facilities, which is the most popular villa building very close to the style of Xujiazhuang.

This is the new home built by businessman Hu Wenting in his hometown in Xuzhou with more than 70,000 silver yuan, and he will come back every year to live for half a month, and then he will return to Yi County, Shandong Province after the New Year, and then spend most of his time in the mine.

It's just not the same as I imagined.

Hu Wenting returned to his hometown, the purpose was to relax his mood, the purpose was to temporarily put aside business matters, and wanted to live a few days of normal people's less copper-smelling life, by the way, to take a look at the books of the sages who had memorized them, and read them again, in order to tell himself not to forget the teachings of the sages, and to remind himself that he was not a businessman, but a scholar who had no choice but to do business.

But soon these plans of his were disrupted and ruined.

The uneasy things are one after the other.

The first is his wife, Wang, who complained that he earned less last year, far inferior to other Shandong miners, and almost the bottom of the ranking.

"Last year, the coal mine produced more than 3.5 million stones, and the output was extremely considerable, but the net profit was only 210,000 silver dollars, and other miners earned 3.5 million yuan, and Lu Youxing is said to have earned more than 1 million silver dollars.

Wang, his wife, who has been in charge of taking care of the accounts, said: "Husband, you are too benevolent to those miners, and the salary of 1 yuan per pound of coal is too high. ”

"If we reduce the wages of the workers to a pound and a half of the mine, under the pretext of saying that the price of buying mines in Xujiazhuang has fallen, and then the food standard of the workers has been lowered, it will be said that the price of grain has also risen, as long as these two tricks are made, our mine will definitely be able to earn more than 500,000 silver dollars this year, which can be doubled."

"Husband, it's better to do what I say, it's not okay to be too benevolent and righteous, and the workers are not necessarily grateful, but feel that the owner is stupid, and we can't be wronged anymore."

Listened to these words of the Wang family.

Hu Wenting looked at her, and really didn't want to argue with her anymore.

Because of similar words, Wang had already said it in his ear several times, dozens of times, and the calluses were almost audible, but his wife Wang just kept saying it, just hoping to influence his thoughts, and the purpose was to make more money.

"Wang, if you say such coppery words again, I will immediately write a letter of divorce to divorce you, and you will find a richer one to marry!"

Hu Wenting glared at Wang and said to her who got into the eyes of Qian.

"Husband, I, I'm also for this family......"

Wang's aggrieved tears fell, and he planned to start his own tirade, what more than a dozen children will cost a lot of money in the future, and Xujiazhuang's promise cannot be valid forever, what if he can't eat so many mines that day? Although the relationship between Shandong miners is close cooperation, it does not mean that there is no competition between each other, and the mine will be dug sooner or later, and when it is time to buy a new mine, other miners have money but Hu Wenting has no money, so will it not be possible to go out at that time?

In short, in the long-term consideration of the future, Wang gave several very convincing reasons and came to the conclusion that it was necessary to increase the profitability of the mine.

"Enough, how to arrange it in the future, I have my own plans, you will stay here in Xuzhou in the future, don't go to the mine, I will find an account office to replace you."

Hu Wenting said impatiently, and completely excluded his wife Wang from the operation of the mine.

"Husband!"

Wang's tears rained down, but it didn't work, so he had to stomp his feet to pack up his things and go to his parents' house for two days.

Hu Wenting's ears suddenly cleared up a lot.

In fact, how can Hu Wenting not know the truths that Wang said? If the mine can make more profits, he is happy to see it, after all, no one wants to make less money.

It's just that there are some bottom lines, and he really can't give in.

A pound of coal mines, this is a well-designed reference price in Xujiazhuang, as long as the miners can get more, the labor enthusiasm will be very high, and the output of the coal mine can be maximized.

The standard of food should not be lowered, the price should not be too expensive, otherwise it will increase the cost of living of the miners, there will not be enough dry energy, the frequency of mining disasters will increase, and the management costs will also increase in order to suppress the angry and dissatisfied miners, and the final consequence will also be a decline in coal mine production.

It's just that under this model, as the mine owner Hu Wenting, it is difficult to maximize his personal interests, unless he puts down the bottom line and increases the intensity of exploitation.

Last year, he only earned 210,000 silver dollars, and among the large miners who have reached 22, he is at the bottom of the net income, which is completely helpless.

After all, he still has a little bit of humanity and bottom line.

But!

Hu Wenting is not passive and has no way to deal with it, he has found a set of effective ways to deal with it.

Open a new mine!

Go to Shanxi, contract an open-pit or semi-open-pit coal mine with a coal seam buried depth of less than 10 zhang, there are many such coal mines in Shanxi, and the contract price is not expensive, spend about 100,000 silver dollars, you can buy a large area of mines from Xujiazhuang, and you can continue to cooperate and sign the "unlimited coal supply agreement".

Secondly, it is to adopt the latest explosives mining method to replace the traditional mining mode of miners in the mine, and the mining efficiency will be greatly improved in the loud bang of high-power explosives.

It's just that ammonium nitrate, oil oil, detonators and other materials that constitute explosives can only be purchased from Xujiazhuang, and the price is quite expensive.

Hu Wenting organized personnel to carry out many experiments on explosives mining, and only after hitting a dozen blast holes, he spent more than 50,000 silver dollars, and the income was less than 5,000 silver dollars -- because the coal seam was buried too deeply, mines such as the Fengmingshan Coal Mine were not competitive in explosives mining.

You have to contract a shallow coal mine.

However, Hu Wenting's wife, Wang, felt that these plans were very unreliable, thinking that the cost of mining was too exaggerated, so she had been opposed, and Hu Wenting concealed that she had carried out relevant tests to prove that the explosives mining method was possible, not to mention that the explosives-related raw materials sold by Xujiazhuang would most likely reduce the price in the future, so that the advantages of the explosives mining method will continue to appear.

"Such a woman, with long hair and short knowledge, is not to discuss great things with her."

Hu Wenting shook his head and said.

And his wife Wang felt wronged and went back to her parents' house, and there were concubines Ge, Lu, and Zhou at home, and they were concubines, but they were much more gentle and considerate than their main wife Wang, and they were obedient in all aspects, and they would never dare to speak against each other, but would change their tricks to please them.

This allowed Hu Wenting to enjoy a few days like a fairy.

But he soon noticed that something was wrong.

That is, when he sat on a table with these concubines to play horse hanging, Hu Wenting just lost or lost, losing more than 5,000 silver dollars in just three days, and his luck was amazing.

Or his son Hu Yaozong told him privately that the three mothers privately said that they wanted to win their father's money and colluded with thousands on the card field, and his father was a gentleman and would admit defeat.

"What?"

Hu Wenting's eyes widened, even if his wife Wang wanted to control him, even the three concubines who seemed to be obedient were connected to trap him?

No wonder.

It's no wonder that Ge's, Lu's, and Zhou's have been so enthusiastic and obedient these days, and they don't have enough money to win on the card field, and they also have various requirements in private, especially after the joy, they begged him to arrange a job for this brother-in-law in the mine, and arrange a housekeeping job for that relative, Hu Wenting mostly agreed, and now I think about it, once these relatives enter their own mines, what kind of consequences will it be, will it bring benefits or disadvantages?

I can't stay any longer.

Hu Wenting felt that he couldn't stay in his hometown anymore, and he couldn't go on with peace of mind this year.

Everyone only talks about profit and only silver dollars, and no one talks about righteousness anymore, and there is no human touch in the past.

People's hearts have become more and more impetuous, and at the same time, they have become more and more sinister.

And what exactly is this bringing about?

Is it brought by Xujiazhuang in the south of the Yangtze River - now many gentry and scholars have blamed Xujiazhuang for not being weird, and criticize and criticize it every day.

But Hu Wenting doesn't think it's Xujiazhuang's problem, he has been in business for so many years, before Xujiazhuang didn't rise, he was in the shopping mall, and saw countless ugly phenomena, it can be seen that as long as there are interests, people's hearts will change greatly, only when everyone is poor and materially expensive, there are some human feelings and warmth, but as long as interests appear, the family will also fall apart, just like the emperor's sons fight for the throne, fighting for each other to kill each other without family affection, isn't it the alienation brought by interests?

Romance

Therefore, Xujiazhuang is by no means the source of the problem.

Profit is!

The more interests there are, the greater the degree of alienation.

Hu Wenting hopes to stick to his own heart, a benevolent heart that a scholar has, stick to the bottom line that interests cannot be taken over, leave room for everything, and stop in moderation, even if he can't make the world a grand duke, he will try his best to be fairer around him.

But the environment around him has deteriorated like this, how long can he persist without being affected?

Will he change someday in the future?

Walk!

Or go back to the mine in Yixian County, Shandong, this hometown is not able to stay and dare not stay anymore, the longer you stay, the more uncomfortable you will feel, because every day there are all kinds of relatives you don't know come to visit him, every day there are all kinds of people begging him to calculate him, just don't want to be clean for a moment, he feels that sooner or later he will be tossed crazy by these people.

……

The fifth day of the first month.

Outdoors, it is still like ice and snow, dripping into ice.

Hu Wenting wrapped himself tightly, took more than a dozen mine guards, and rode on horseback to the Yixian mine, without even saying hello to his family, and suddenly left, saying that he was going to deal with the affairs of the mine, and soon disappeared on the official road, leaving only a string of horse hoof traces.

and the stunned, helpless and lost expressions of those family members.