In Fengmingshan Coal Mine, Yixian County, Shandong Province, there is a fairly neat and orderly work shed at the foot of the mountain.
Bingqi wooden shed, No. 3 Datong shop.
At seven o'clock in the morning, just after dawn, I heard the clang of the work gong.
Miner Mao Xilong opened his eyes, lifted the quilt, reluctantly left the warm bed, put on his clothes, and after a brief wash, he took a bowl as big as a ladle and filled a serving of multigrain porridge in the canteen (
Mixed with rice, wheat, corn, sweet potato, etc.), I ordered two sesame seed cakes stuffed with shredded radish, and squatted aside to eat them.
Grain porridge costs five cents, sesame seed cakes cost three cents each, plus a free green onion. This breakfast costs a total of eleven cents.
Hula~
Mao Xilong drank the porridge loudly and ate the sesame biscuits very quickly. He ate the same way as the workers around him. He didn't pay any attention to civilized eating. He just wanted to feel comfortable eating. He even made the slurping sound deliberately louder to express "
My food is delicious. If you dare to disturb me, I will kill you.'
Most of the people who have this kind of habit of eating after being reincarnated by starving ghosts are miners from Dongjiang Town. After all, they have not developed this kind of habit in the years they spent on Pi Island, Shuangdao and other islands, and in the life of constant lack of food and clothing.
Most of those who have poor eating habits have died of starvation.
Calculate the time.
It has been more than a year since he was defeated and captured in December of the previous year, and now he has become a miner who concentrates on mining.
The mining career of more than a year has been very hard for Mao Xilong. There is almost no easier job than this. Especially at the beginning, he was extremely uncomfortable. Not only did he have the idea of resisting and escaping, but he almost put it into practice.
took action.
But...
failed.
Under the strict guard of more than 300 elite mine protection teams, the success rate of escape is very slim, and only a beating will be in vain.
As for those who tried to riot or escape more than twice in total, the mine owner Hu Wenting was kind-hearted and would not torture or kill people. He would just sell these miners to the iron ore mine operator at a loss of twenty silver dollars.
Lu Youxing is known as the Demon King of Hell. The fate of the miners who fall into his hands can be imagined.
The huge risk of being resold made Mao Xilong afraid to act rashly.
After working for several months and gradually adapting to the labor intensity of mining, Mao Xilong slowly discovered that he had actually begun to adapt to this kind of life.
There were mainly three aspects that made him feel satisfied, which gradually dissipated his yearning for freedom.
First, in terms of food, although the variety of meals provided in the canteen is not very rich, it does one thing - you are full.
As long as the miners can afford it, they can eat as much as they want. Fish and meat are also available every now and then, and you can buy them with your money, satisfying everyone's appetite.
And this kind of life that can be fed for a long time is the life that Mao Xilong once dreamed of living. After the army launched the rebellion in Dongjiang Town, he enjoyed it for a while, but it was not stable for a long time. Now working in the mines, he actually relies on hard work to make a living.
Working hard to get food and clothing, eating fish once every three days, meat once every seven days, and making white rice and noodles as you like, this kind of life is paradise.
The second is that mining income is higher.
Mining in Fengmingshan Coal Mine, whether it is free miners from surrounding villages and towns, captive miners from Dongjiang Town rebels like Mao Xilong, or contract miners from Jiangnan, there are tens of thousands of miners, for
In order to facilitate management and increase mining enthusiasm, mine owner Hu Wenting did not adopt a fixed salary system, but more work, more rewards, and wages were calculated based on the weight of coal.
A pound of raw coal dug out is worth 1 penny.
If you dig out one hundred kilograms of coal, it will cost you 100 Wen.
The more you dig, the higher your salary will be. There is no upper limit and no deductions.
The Fengmingshan Coal Mine is a shallow coal mine, with a burial depth of only twenty or thirty meters. The workload of digging wells, ventilation, and drainage is not too large (this type of safe work is done by old people, women, and children, and they receive a fixed salary of fifty cash per day).
), after carrying a basket on his back into the mine, Mao Xilong could dig out at least two to three hundred kilograms of coal a day.
This means a daily salary of two to three hundred cash.
In this era, it definitely belongs to the high-paying class.
Excluding the food expenses for three meals a day, the purchase of clothing and daily necessities, you can save at least 100 cash a day and at least 30 silver dollars a year.
Finally, there is a glimmer of hope.
A sliver of hope of leaving the mines and gaining freedom.
Because as a prisoner of the rebels in Dongjiang Town, Mao Xilong's atonement silver was 500 taels, that is, as long as he managed to save enough money, he could atone for his sins, gain freedom, go wherever he wanted, and live in seclusion in the mountains.
Plow the fields as farmers, marry a wife, have children, and reproduce.
Mao Xilong is 23 years old this year. Assuming that he saves thirty silver dollars every year in the future, it will only take a little over sixteen years, that is, when he is almost forty years old, to save enough atonement silver and embrace precious freedom.
It was this glimmer of hope that made him work hard to mine and formulate a plan to save money.
More than a year has passed, and his current progress in saving money is that he only has less than 5 silver dollars.
What happened? How did he save so little? Where did the dozens of silver dollars go?
No way, Mao Xilong likes to eat, and his food expenses are always higher than others. He must order braised pork for 300 yuan a portion every seven days, which means that he eats one day's salary.
Mao Xilong also likes to gamble. Every day when he comes back from work, he and his co-workers will gather to gamble twice. Some lose and some win, and the more they lose, the less they win.
Mao Xilong also liked P. No, it was Widow Liu who also worked in the mine and was responsible for drainage. Seeing his handsome appearance, she often took the initiative to seduce him. Mao Xilong couldn't stand Widow Liu's temptation, so he would occasionally go to the back of the mine with her to hang out.
Not only will a lot of nutrients be lost, but the wallet will also be depleted.
After considering various factors.
It took Mao Xilong more than a year to save 5 silver dollars, which means that it would take a hundred years to save enough silver for atonement, and the probability of obtaining freedom is very slim.
But Mao Xilong doesn't plan to think about this aspect anymore. He has food, drink, gambling, and women. This kind of life is quite good. Besides, not many people in this era can live beyond the age of forty. How could he think so far ahead?
Just lie down and enjoy the moment.
After breakfast.
In a special place where tools are kept, I received my own safety helmet, backpack, pickaxe, small LED flashlight and other tools, and then went down the mine through the shaft.
In the dark underground mine tunnel, through the weak white light emitted by the small flashlight, you can barely see the road and find the black coal. Then you pick up the pickaxe and dig hard to peel off the extremely hard coal.
, put it into the backpack.
This process is not only hard work, but also involves considerable dangers. Even though the mine owner Hu Wenting pays great attention to the safety of the miners and has added a lot of reinforcement, ventilation and drainage facilities to the mine tunnels, landslides still occur two or three times a month.
Incident, several people were killed or injured. Once such a small probability accident occurs, most miners can only admit that they are unlucky, and only free miners can get some compensation.
After digging hard for a while, the basket next to me gradually filled up.
In the mine tunnel, some chatter began to appear.
"Hey, everyone, I heard that there is an electric pneumatic pickaxe at the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine. It is driven by lightning and can crush thousands of kilograms of raw ore in a day. Not only is it not tiring, it is much more efficient than our iron pickaxe.
I wonder when we will be able to use this kind of mining tool." A free miner said.
"Is it true? Thousands of kilograms of raw ore are crushed in a day. If it is used to mine coal, wouldn't it be possible to earn a few silver dollars a day?" asked a miner with a Jiangnan accent.
"It must be true, Jiang Nanzi. I will go to the Zhaoyuan Gold Mine in a few days to have a look. I will use it myself and tell you how to use it when I come back." The free miner said with a proud tone.
"Okay, if there really is such a mining tool, how about a lot of us working together to buy one? Every day we can crush thousands of kilograms of ore, which is much faster than our mining, and it's easier for people, even if we don't make much money.
It's too much, and it's much better than now." This miner with a Jiangnan accent said with a very business sense.
"It's feasible. As long as that kind of electric pickaxe can be purchased, Jiangnanzai, I will definitely find you to partner with me."
"How about I buy a share too?"
Mao Xilong's heart moved and he quickly interjected: "I have money and want to join you."
"You're a barbarian from Liaodong, and you also want to invest in it. Do you think you're worthy?"
"Liaodong Manzi, we are discussing things, please don't interrupt. It is not your turn to buy shares."
"Hahaha, after a lifetime of mining, do you still want to turn over? Stop dreaming!"
For a while.
Mao Xilong was ridiculed by the local miners with Shandong and Jiangnan accents. They all laughed at him for not overestimating his abilities and daydreaming, and asked him to pee and look at himself.
"you--"
Amidst the harsh laughter, Mao Xilong was so angry that he wanted to hit them to death with a pickaxe, but in the end he could only choose to swallow his anger and say nothing.
There is no way, this is the living situation of the rebel miners in Dongjiang Town in the mine.
There is nothing that can be done about the high status of the local free miners, because they are all good citizens and are not only protected by the government but also by the Xujiazhuang Mining Law. In addition, they have freedom of movement, so they are the masters of the mines.
!No matter how fierce and arrogant the miner is, he would not dare to offend him in the slightest. Mao Xilong had been slapped several times by the free miners because of fighting for the mine tunnel. It was obviously not Mao Xilong who was in the wrong, but he was the one who was asked to apologize. Who asked him to
Are they the Dongjiang Town rebels? Who are they qualified to rob the free people's mines?
It’s okay to suffer some grievances from the free miners. I can only admit that I’m unlucky. But I didn’t expect that the Jiangnan miners who were also captives actually became the second masters in the mines. They couldn’t provoke or offend them. Occasionally, they would be harassed by the Jiangnan miners.
bullied and slapped by them.
But who told Jiangnan miners to redeem themselves with only 100 taels of silver, which is one-fifth that of the rebel miners in Dongjiang Town. They can redeem themselves after working for two or three years at most, and then be promoted to free miners, so Jiangnan miners are also higher than them.
Wait.
Unfair, really unfair!
In addition to complaining in their hearts, Mao Xilong and the others could only be cautious in front of the Jiangnan miners, treating them like second masters and not daring to call them Jiangnanzi.
Fortunately, in the despised chain of Fengmingshan Coal Mine, Mao Xilong and other Dongjiang Town rebel prisoners are not at the lowest level of despair. There are also more than 20 Xiyi miners (the remaining Western artillery captured in the Jiangnan War)
, these Xiyi people are at the bottom of the contempt chain, so every time Mao Xilong and others feel aggrieved, they will call hundreds of Dongjiang Town brothers to trouble these Xiyi people and beat them up.
Finally, let them kneel down and call me "Lord".
It was just more than half a year ago, maybe because they were beaten badly, those Xiyi people were transferred to someone unknown. As a result, every time they were wronged by the uncle and the second gentleman, they couldn't even find an outlet, and they were full of anger.
I felt so depressed that I could only vent my feelings on the coal and stones in the mine tunnel.
…
In the afternoon, the gong sounded for the end of work.
At the weighing station not far from the mine entrance, Mao Xilong received the fruit of today's labor - 355 Wen, which was an extraordinary performance compared to usual.
"Let's order a 50-yuan hairtail later and treat yourself."
suddenly.
A noisy sound came from the foot of the mountain, and accompanied by a message, like a gust of wind, reached the ears of all the miners:
"New miners are here today!"
"They are all bandits from the Central Plains, and they are all murderous people without blinking an eye."
"Now they come to the mine to keep us company, and they will be our fellow workers from now on!"
heard the news.
Mao Xilong, who originally planned to go to the cafeteria to eat, immediately changed his mind and stopped eating dinner for the time being. He took several hundred Dongjiang Town rebel brothers and ran to Wubao Town down the mountain to watch the excitement.
…
Outside Wubao.
A team of about 5,000 people, including men, women and children, all tied with a short rope that made it difficult to run fast. Everyone looked numb. Under the escort of hundreds of mine protection team members, they filed into the dock.
, arrived at their destination.
And in this team.
A strong man whose legs were seriously injured and could only lie on a sliding pole was carried by four thin teenagers. Not only did his face not look numb with despair, but he looked at the dock and mine ahead with a look of disdain.
"Is this the land of my Zhang Xianzhong's Dragon Pan?"
"Judging from the popularity of the fireworks on the mountain, at least tens of thousands of people gathered here."
"Okay, okay. It seems that the miners and even the most powerful soldier, Zhang Xianzhong, the eighth king, will be able to make a comeback soon."
Zhang Xianzhong looked at everything in front of him with confidence. Not only did he not pay attention to the mine protection team members next to him, but he seemed to be patrolling his own territory. His eyes were moving cunningly, and he didn't know what plan he was brewing.
Zhang Xianzhong's unruly and flamboyant behavior, like a coal mine illuminated by a small flashlight, quickly attracted Mao Xilong's attention.
He rushed over quickly and came to the sliding pole that had just been placed on the ground. He rounded his arms and slapped Zhang Xianzhong on the black face. Mao Xilong said fiercely: "Damn it, call me master quickly. This is what you want."
The first rule to follow!”
Zhang Xianzhong was beaten until stars appeared in his eyes and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. This unprovoked slap immediately cast a shadow on his inner plan.
