Fengming Mountain Mine.

Recently, this large mining plant, which is home to more than 20,000 miners, has become much calmer than usual.

Because the boss Hu Wenting is kind-hearted, he gives all the miners a seven-day annual leave, while other mines, it is good to have three days of rest, some have no day off, as long as there is no illness, no disaster and no accident, the mine has to start every day, and those who are absent from work a lot will be punished in various ways, such as deducting wages, arranging to work in dangerous mining areas, deliberately pressing scales, etc., there is always a way to force you to work hard.

Mine owners like Hu Wenting can only be said to be very few, and the miners of Fengmingshan Mine, under the special publicity, basically understand the work and survival of other mines, so they work harder to mine at the same time, but also rarely dissatisfied and complain, after all, compared with hell elsewhere, Fengmingshan Mine cannot be said to be a paradise, at least like a place to stay, should feel content.

It's been almost a year.

For Li Dingguo, a young miner, he has been working in this mine for almost a year.

Let's summarize the harvest of the past year.

Li Dingguo went to the mine for a total of 288 days.

A total of 77,184 catties of coal and stone were excavated, and the income was 77.184 silver dollars.

But it cost 22 silver dollars to eat.

A total of 24 silver dollars were spent on clothing, shoes, socks, mining tools, medicines, daily necessities, etc.

In the end, there was a balance of 31 silver dollars and 184 light coins.

That is, after nearly a year of hard work, he saved a little more than thirty silver dollars.

In fact, Li Dingguo dug out more coal and stone than he had planned before, and he could dig an average of 270 catties of coal every day, which was no less than that of those adult miners.

However, the amount of money saved was much less than originally envisaged, and the goal of saving at least fifty silver dollars a year was not reached.

The plan to save enough money to get a free body in more than eight years, and at the age of early twenties, it seems that it will most likely be postponed.

However, this is not the place where Li Dingguo feels that the plan cannot catch up with the changes, and the good expectations obviously lag behind the reality.

An incident happened two months ago that made him feel even more hopeless.

The fourth brother, Ainengqi, died.

encountered a mining disaster with a low probability, and never ascended to the mine again, and it was difficult to find the corpse.

Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu and other teenagers all felt unbelievable that the fourth brother, who was less than twelve years old, left them forever, and for the first time strongly felt what it means to be fateful, life and death.

But it can't be helped.

The mining accident is a small probability event, but whoever touches it is finished, and only a few can survive by luck, and they can only blame themselves for their bad luck.

At that time, Li Dingguo really thought so, and didn't think too much about it.

But last month, the third brother Liu Wenxiu suddenly pulled him and Zhang Kewang over, shed tears, and said with fear on his face: "Big brother and second brother, I have investigated clearly, the death of the fourth brother may not be an accident, but was deliberately killed, and the person who killed the fourth brother is very likely to be our Ah Da!" ”

Airplanes~

As if something had exploded, Li Dingguo shook his head again and again: "Impossible, impossible!" Why did the father-in-law kill the fourth brother? The fourth brother didn't do anything angry and resentful, and the mining disaster is not something that people can control, does his father-in-law have such a great ability? Don't guess, an accident, it must just be an accident. He expressed vehemently denial.

But Liu Wenxiu offers several huge doubts.

First, the father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong, in the first few months of the fourth brother Ainengqi's mining disaster, can be described as a waste of money, the money earned from mining every day is used to help make friends, and successfully won more than 30 'good brothers' and 'old brothers', and faintly headed by Zhang Xianzhong, it seems to have returned to the past kind of echo days, although they have made friends with wine and meat, but it is no problem to let them help do some small things.

Second, the location where the fourth brother Ainengqi encountered a mining disaster is an area with a high incidence of mining disasters, under normal circumstances, except for the daring mining masters, ordinary people rarely go to mining, but on the day of the mining disaster, I don't know what happened, the fourth brother Ainengqi was introduced to the depths of the dangerous mine, and the person who lured Ainengqi to the depths of the mine, named Li Laisheng, is a friend with the best relationship with his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong.

Third, Liu Wenxiu found a way to find someone to help and invited Li Laisheng to drink a few times, and then a sentence came out of his mouth: 'That kid is too greedy, as long as he doesn't tell him that it is a dangerous mine, and there are many bits and pieces of coal and stone in it, he will slowly put his life into it, what Brother Zhang told him, it was done, I heard that the kid still has a salary of more than 30 silver dollars in his account, Brother Zhang has taken it out, I have to ask him to invite me to drink a few more times'.

Fourth, the salary of the 33 silver dollars that the fourth brother Ainengqi stored in the account of the mine money bank was taken out on the day he encountered the mining disaster, and there was no one else who was qualified to take out the money except for his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong.

Summarize the above clues.

But anyone with a normal head can roughly guess what the cause and effect are, after all, the person who came up with the idea to deprive Zhang Xianzhong of the right to occupy the wages of his righteous sons is the fourth brother Ai Nengqi.

After such an analysis.

Sun Kewang trembled and said: "Just because I offended Ah Da a little, the life of the fourth brother will be gone, if you don't listen to Ah Da again, will it be our turn soon, and Ah Da also has a way to let us die under the mine." ”

Liu Wenxiu said: "Big brother, second brother, let's hurry up and report to the mine, just yesterday, my father-in-law has begun to ask me for money to spend, I said that the money can't be withdrawn, he glared at me fiercely, saying that he will take it out sooner or later, so that I can get acquainted, I think it's really about our turn, and the end of not giving money is the same as the fourth brother." ”

Sun Kewang said: "Father-in-law, he has long been degenerate, he earns as much as he spends, he doesn't lose any wine and meat women, he never thinks about leaving the mine at all, and he has to drag us into the water together, and we want to serve him until he dies!" If we don't report it, we don't even want to live well! ”

Li Dingguo always held his head, looking unacceptable, and muttered: "No, it's definitely not like this, Neng Qi is also your son, the tiger poison does not eat children, no matter how angry you are with the fourth brother, you will not kill him." ”

But no matter how Li Dingguo can't accept it, for the doubts about the fourth brother Ai Nengqi's encounter with the mining disaster, his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong can't get rid of it after all.

Even so.

Li Dingguo still tried his best to stop Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu, and planned to report the actions of his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong, because it meant that he would completely tear his face and would likely be retaliated against immediately, so he persuaded them not to do so.

As for his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong, who wants money to spend, okay, he will give it, he Li Dingguo will give it, he will give as much as he wants, his life is given by his father-in-law, what if he returns it to his father-in-law?

So when Zhang Xianzhong ran to him and asked for money, Li Dingguo personally took out all the thirty silver dollars in the money bank's account and handed them to Zhang Xianzhong, and said that this was a little heart of the three brothers, which was equivalent to ten silver dollars each of them.

"Okay, don't make up for them, Dingguo, I know that you are the most filial among the sons, they are all brutes and bastards, and I will make them regret it sooner or later."

Zhang Xianzhong threw away the silver dollar in his hand, scolded and left, and went to the most lively gambling stall in the mine's living area, and lost all the thirty silver dollars that day.

But Li Dingguo has become numb and has given up completely, intending to accept this dark and hopeless life.

The plan to save money has also been canceled, and he no longer asks himself to dig so much coal every day, as long as he digs about 200 catties, he doesn't have to force himself every day.

In short, before his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong died, his life was to repay his father-in-law.

Although Li Dingguo at this time can already be described as 'giving up treatment'.

But that doesn't mean he has given up hope entirely.

On the contrary, because of the increase in spare time in his spare time, he actually had a strong interest in learning, and was very eager to use the extra time, but to learn some useful things, instead of being asked to follow by his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong, go to this gambling stall today, go to the black kiln tomorrow, and drink with friends the day after tomorrow, Li Dingguo didn't want to go on these occasions, he would rather find a quiet place, pick up a book and pretend to look at it, even if he can't understand it at all, he can use this as an excuse to escape, after all, his father-in-law hates books and readers the most, but I have to show respect, and it is not good to take forced actions again, which seems contradictory and reasonable.

In order to understand the knowledge in books, Li Dingguo had to look for someone who could read and hyphenate in the mine, and sure enough, he found a Xiucai surnamed Niu, and after kowtowing to the teacher, he studied with Niu Xiucai for a period of time.

Li Dingguo's learning talent is very good, it can be said that he will never forget it, and in less than a month's effort, he hollowed out the dry goods in the stomach of this Niu Xiucai, only to find that this Niu Xiucai is half a bucket of water, and Xiucai's fame is bought by bribery, and the actual level is not high.

But in the mines where illiteracy is everywhere, Niu Xiucai stands out from the crowd and is very respected.

Li Dingguo has hollowed out all his dry goods, and he will definitely be the second most respected cultural person in the mine in the future.

It's just that Li Dingguo is not satisfied, he has a lot of free time, and there is no pressure to save money, he is only eager to master more knowledge and enrich himself now.

So he desperately taught himself.

And soon set his sights on a new category of knowledge that he was very interested in.

That is another set of knowledge system that has been passed down from Xujiazhuang.

Such as simplified Chinese.

Such as mathematics, physics, and so on.

In the process of studying this knowledge, Li Dingguo became more and more excited the more he learned, as if he had discovered a vast world, believing that this new knowledge would be able to play a great role, and even improve the efficiency of mining dozens of times and hundreds of times, reducing the amount of work that a miner would need to complete in a few years or more to a few days.

For example, the mine pumping machine from Xujiazhuang (used in an emergency) can quickly pump away the underground water with thousands of manpower.

For example, the electric mine pickaxe from Xujiazhuang, at present, Fengmingshan Mine has introduced a set, which can dig tens of thousands of catties of coal in a day, which is equivalent to forty or fifty manpower.

And so on and so forth.

If you can master those new knowledge from Xujiazhuang.

And then have the ability to use and maintain these mining equipment, in the future, he may be able to become a miner who controls the machine, and when his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong leaves, he may use these machines to complete the mining task for ten years within a year, and successfully earn 500 silver dollars to atone for his sin, and quickly gain freedom.

Agitated.

Thinking of these, Li Dingguo can be said to be excited!

But......

A person groping and studying, no matter how smart his mind is, he can't master and digest these new knowledge, not to mention that there are very few books that can be found in the mine, let alone form a knowledge system, it is difficult to study systematically, he just studied for five years and ten years, and he didn't want to make much progress.

Even no matter how talented a person is, it won't work behind closed doors.

Among all the personnel in the mine, the one with the highest level of education and the most familiar with the new knowledge of Xujiazhuang is the mine owner Hu Wenting, some bookkeepers, managers, technicians, etc.

If you want to learn and master those new knowledge, you must learn from these people, and you must get the approval of the mine owner Hu Wenting.

After thinking about it, Li Dingguo mustered up great courage, took a broken book in his hand, came to the dock fort at the foot of the mountain, and made a request to see the mine owner.