Chongzhen ten years, late January.

Shanxi, Wolonggou Coal Mine.

Recently, the weather has been unusually cold, dripping into ice, but this year's Spring Festival holiday is over, the mine is still up and running quickly, and tens of thousands of miners are working very hard to make a living.

Li Dingguo, who turned sixteen years old and counted as seventeen years old, was also in Xuzhou, and after the Shangyuan Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he took his brothers Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu the next day and returned to Shanxi and returned to their jobs.

As a matter of fact!

His fiancée, Hu Xuan'er, hopes that he will stay at home for a while longer and wait until February to work in the mine, after all, he is only 16 years old, and according to Xujiazhuang's standards, he is not even an eighteen-year-old adult, so there is no need to start working so early, bearing the pressure that does not belong to this age.

According to Hu Xuan'er's ideas and plans, she hopes that Li Dingguo will obey her arrangement, first go to Xujiazhuang Harbour City to study for three years as an older transfer student, get a junior high school diploma with gold content, and then officially marry her, establish a family, and then start to take over the management of the Hu family coal mine, or the Hu family will provide financial sponsorship, allowing Li Dingguo to contract the mine by himself and start a business alone, but all the shares should be put in Hu Xuan'er's name.

Li Dingguo didn't think much about the development path that Hu Xuaner planned for himself, so he refused, although he knew that his fiancée was for his own good, although such development prospects were not bad, in exchange for those men who had a bad stomach and could only eat soft rice, they would definitely raise their hands to express their willingness.

But......

Li Dingguo feels that his stomach is very good, not suitable for soft rice, he prefers to eat hard rice, and does not like others to plan his life.

Moreover, he has his own ideas and opinions, and he has to make his own decisions about his life, and he doesn't want others to dictate him.

Freely.

In his heart, he still yearns for that absolute freedom, longs for one day to live himself, and to see the scenery of all parts of the Ming Dynasty, and to visit the beautiful mountains and rivers with his own eyes.

As for the current stage, he is actually still working to pay off his debts.

In private, Li Dingguo said to his two brothers, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu: "Before I am about twenty years old, I will find a way to save one million silver dollars, and then give all of them to the teacher, let him give me the freedom to go out for a few years, allow me to walk around, and not interfere with any decisions against me, and when I have enough experience outside, I will definitely come back when I am about twenty-five years old, and I will not go back forever." ”

This thought of him.

Sun Kewang was very surprised: "Second brother, what is there to see outside?" Things outside, just look at the "Oriental Times", which claims to know everything about the world without leaving home, so why bother to see it in person? I have to put down my career and family for a long time...... It's not a good deal, you have to think twice. ”

Liu Wenxiu said: "Second brother, when you encounter such a good thing, the eyes of others are red with envy, why do you want to pursue freedom?" I think life is pretty good now, don't you suddenly lose sight of it. ”

It was indeed difficult for the two of them to understand Li Dingguo's thoughts.

Because since the beginning of last year, the two of them were redeemed by Li Dingguo from the identity of defeated mining slaves, and after they had a free body, they had a new life and a new life, and they didn't know how cool they were.

Never dug a single piece of coal in the mine again.

Every day, I followed Li Dingguo to learn how to use explosives, configure explosives, learn how to design the best blasting plan, etc., and spent almost every day playing with explosives, nervous, exciting and excited, I felt that every day was not only at work, but also playing and having fun, which was very interesting.

As for the results, last year there were a total of 23 blasts, all of which were successful, bringing in a profit of more than 1.5 million silver dollars.

As the chief engineer of blasting, Li Dingguo received a dividend of nearly 50,000 silver dollars.

Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu are assistants, but they don't have the talent of Li Dingguo, and they have mastered the know-how of explosives mining at most, and they have not been able to learn the core technology, let alone operate independently, at least they have to learn another three or five years before they can barely have the ability to bomb mines independently.

So the salary is only one percent of Li Dingguo's, and each person only earns 500 silver dollars.

Even so, they belong to the top 1% of the high-income class in the entire Ming Dynasty.

And these wages are at their disposal, they eat what they want, buy what they want, and they can save a lot of fish and meat every day, not to mention how moisturizing they are.

But such a good day, only a year has passed, Li Dingguo suddenly said what he wanted to say, he wanted to pursue freedom, and he wanted to go to all parts of the Ming Dynasty to see, which made them unable to understand, now that life is so good, what freedom do you want, don't toss around?

If you're free, what are we going to do? We don't have the ability to take charge on our own, how can we continue to get a high salary without your brother's help?

For the sake of their own interests, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu can't understand Li Dingguo's idea of 'pursuing freedom', and it is difficult to support it, after all, you Li Dingguo has already achieved wealth, can't you take your brothers for a while? Your previous promise was to share prosperity.

But Li Dingguo seems to have made up his mind to pay attention, and it should not be changed in the short term.

However, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu were not too anxious, because according to the current blasting method, the dividends that Li Dingguo can get in a year are about 50,000 silver dollars, which is still early to save one million silver dollars, at least five or even ten years, and it is impossible to achieve this goal before the age of twenty.

However, not long after returning to the mine, after many days of brain-burning calculations, Li Dingguo came up with a new blasting plan.

Call it the "mass blasting method".

Increase the amount of explosives used from about 100 tons to 1,000 tons.

The coverage area has increased from three to five acres to nearly fifty acres.

In turn, the coal and stone that can be mined in the open pit will increase from an average of 6.7 million stone to more than 5 million stone.

Net profit will also increase at least tenfold.

It's just that the risk has also increased significantly, because not to mention other costs, thousands of tons of explosive materials alone will cost more than 200,000 silver dollars, and the total cost will exceed 300,000.

But Li Dingguo still decided to play big!

Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu are not easy to stop, after all, once they fail, they don't need to be responsible for losing money, and it will not affect their salary, so no matter how big they play, it will not affect them.

Even, they have a dark thought, maybe it is better to fail, so that Dingguo will not think about pursuing any freedom, can only continue to work in the mine to pay off debts, people with pressure and burden, will not think so much messy and unrealistic things, but they are ashamed of this thought, after all, they are the best brothers, how can they hope that their brothers are not good?

……

January 28, morning.

Wolonggou mine, a certain area at the foot of the mountain.

"Start detonating!" Li Dingguo gave an order.

Sun Kewang pressed the power-on button hard.

Boom Boom Boom!

Violent and regular muffled explosions one after another.

In the mining area, it is like a dragon turning over below, and countless earth and rocks rise in rows like waves, blowing up from beginning to tail, so that the surrounding ground is filled with bursts of violent vibration, like a small earthquake, and the soles of people's feet can be intuitively felt.

The scene ends with a shocking blast.

The old master ran to check the effect of the explosion, and after half an hour, he said excitedly: "Perfect, this explosion is too perfect, the surface soil and stone are all loosened and shattered, and the twelve or thirteen-meter-thick coal seam below, if all mined out, can get tens of millions of high-quality coal, bringing more than three million silver dollars in income, and at least two million silver dollars in profits. ”

"Yes, it's not bad." Li Dingguo nodded slightly, as if he was completely expected.

"Master Xiao Li, you have just created a new record in the mining industry of Daming, detonating thousands of tons of explosives at one time, and achieved great success, only your team has done it, what do you think?" A female reporter of the "Oriental Times" not only used a camera to record the scene of the bombing of the mountain just now, but also handed the microphone to Li Dingguo to interview him.

"Uh, uh, I don't think this is a particularly difficult thing, as long as you find a pattern, that is, detonate 3,000 tons and 5,000 tons of explosives at the same time, I have more than ninety percent of the success of it, tens of thousands of tons of explosives don't dare to think for the time being, that's too much, then you have to blow up the whole mountain......" Li Dingguo said a little shy but extremely confident.

"If one day there was an opportunity that allowed you to use up tens of thousands of tons of explosives to build a giant dam or work on a project, would you be willing to accept such a challenge?" The female reporter asked.

"Of course, I'm happy to take on such a challenge." Li Ding National Road.

And saw this brother, talking eloquently in an interview with reporters.

I remembered the shocking scene just now.

"Third brother, I think the second brother should be able to save a million silver dollars before he is twenty years old, and if he wants to go out to wander by then, I plan to follow him, if I don't follow the second brother, I think we will definitely not be able to make a name." Sun Kewang said to Liu Wenxiu in a murmuring tone.

"That's what I thought too."

Liu Wenxiu nodded: "Our three brothers are one, the second brother is the most promising, no matter where he goes, he will definitely be able to have a great future, anyway, it will not be wrong to follow him." ”

At this moment, they reached a consensus that no matter whether Li Dingguo wanted to pursue freedom or something in the future, they would follow and not be separated.

……

Two days later.

The latest issue of the "Oriental Times" was released, and in the headline of the secondary page, an article was published "1,000 tons of explosives were detonated at the same time, the scene was shocking, and the mining industry of Daming will enter a new era".

And with a color picture of the earth dragon surging and the earth and rocks flying.

This report immediately caused a lot of sensation in Daming, and the young explosive genius Li Dingguo quickly became a celebrity, and because of his handsome and delicate appearance, he has a lot of female fans and is admired by many people.