The weather has been extremely cold recently, and the dripping water turned into ice. However, this year's Spring Festival holiday is over, and the mine has started working very quickly. In order to make a living, tens of thousands of miners are working very hard.
Li Dingguo, who turned sixteen years old and was counted as seventeen years old, was also in Xuzhou. After celebrating the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he took his brothers Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu and others back to Shanxi the next day.
their jobs.
Actually!
His fiancée Hu Xuan'er hopes that he will stay at home for a while and wait until February to work in the mine. After all, he is only sixteen years old. According to Xujiazhuang's standards, he is not even an eighteen-year-old adult. There is no need.
I started working so early and was under pressure that was beyond my age.
According to Hu Xuan'er's thoughts and plans, she hoped that Li Dingguo would follow her arrangements and first go to Xujiazhuang Harbor City to study for three years as an older transfer student, obtain a valuable junior high school diploma, and then formally marry her and establish a family.
The family will then take over the management of the Hu family's coal mine, or the Hu family will provide financial sponsorship and allow Li Dingguo to contract the mine and start a business alone, but all the shares must be placed in Hu Xuan'er's name.
Regarding the development path Hu Xuan'er planned for himself, Li Dingguo refused without even thinking about it. Although he knew that his fiancée was doing it for his own good, and although the development prospects were good, for those with bad gastrointestinal problems, they could only eat
A soft-hearted man will definitely raise his hands to express his willingness.
but……
Li Dingguo feels that his intestines and stomach are very good and are not suitable for eating soft food. He prefers to eat hard food and does not like others to plan his life.
Moreover, he has his own thoughts and opinions. He wants to make the decision on his own life and does not want others to dictate.
free.
In his heart, he still longed for that kind of absolute freedom, and longed to live out his life one day, see the scenery around the Ming Dynasty, and visit the beautiful splendid mountains and rivers with his own eyes.
As for the current stage, he is actually still working to pay off his debts.
Privately, Li Dingguo said to his two brothers, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu: "About twenty years old, I will find a way to save one million silver dollars, and then give it all to the teacher, and ask him to give me the freedom to go out for a few years, and allow me to
I will walk around and look around, and will not interfere with any decisions that are against me. When I have had enough adventures outside and have seen enough, when I am about twenty-five years old, I will definitely come back and I will not leave without ever returning."
thoughts about him.
Sun Kewang was very surprised: "Second brother, what is there to see outside? Just read the "Oriental Times" to know the things outside. It is said that you can know everything about the world without leaving home, so why bother to see it in person? What's more?
It’s not cost-effective to put down your career and family for a long time, so you should think twice before doing so.”
Liu Wenxiu said: "Second brother, when you encounter such a good thing, other people's eyes turn red with envy. Why do you want to pursue freedom? I think your life is pretty good now. Don't suddenly get stuck in your thoughts."
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 their identities as defeated mining slaves and became free. They had a new life and a new life. I don't know how happy they were.
I never went down into a mine to dig out a piece of coal again.
I follow Li Dingguo every day to learn how to use explosives, configure explosives, and learn how to design the best blasting plan. I spend almost every day playing with explosives. I am nervous, exciting and excited. I feel like I am working and having fun every day. It is very
It's interesting.
As for the results, there were a total of 23 explosions last year, all of which were successful, bringing in profits of more than 1.5 million silver dollars.
As the chief blasting engineer, Li Dingguo received a dividend of nearly 50,000 silver dollars.
Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu are assistants, but they do not have the talent of Li Dingguo. They have at most mastered 30 to 40% of the know-how of explosive mining. They have not yet learned the core technology, let alone operate it independently. At least they have to learn it again.
It took three to five years before I was barely able to independently explode mines.
Therefore, the salary is only one percent of Li Dingguo's, and each person only earns 500 silver dollars.
Even so, they are still among the top 1% of high-income earners in the entire Ming Dynasty.
Moreover, they can freely use these wages to eat whatever they want and buy whatever they want. Even if they eat a lot of meat and fish every day, they can still save a lot, not to mention how nourishing they are.
But such good days had only passed for a mere year. Li Dingguo suddenly said what he wanted to say: he wanted to pursue freedom and visit various places in the Ming Dynasty. This made them unable to understand that life was already so good now, so what kind of freedom was needed?
, stop messing around, okay?
If you are free, what will we do? If we don’t have the ability to stand alone, how can we continue to get high salaries without you as a brother to help us?
Considering their own interests, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu cannot understand Li Dingguo's idea of "pursuing freedom", and it is difficult to support it. After all, you, Li Dingguo, have already achieved wealth. Can't you take care of your brothers for a while longer? Your previous promise, but
We want to be rich together.
But Li Dingguo seems to have made up his mind and will not be able to change it in the short term.
However, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu are not too anxious, because according to the current blasting method, the dividends Li Dingguo can get in a year is about 50,000 silver dollars. It is still early to save a million silver dollars, and it will take at least five years.
It is impossible to achieve this goal even in ten years or 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.
It's called "massive blasting".
Increase the amount of explosive materials used from about a hundred tons to thousands of tons.
The coverage area increased from three to five acres to nearly fifty acres.
This further increased the amount of coal that can be mined from the open pit from an average of 6 to 700,000 shi to more than 5 million shi.
Net profit will also increase at least ten times.
But the risk has also increased significantly, because not to mention other costs, thousands of tons of explosive materials alone cost more than 200,000 silver dollars, and the total cost exceeds 300,000. Once the blasting fails, the losses will be unimaginable, and it is impossible to lose yourself.
not enough.
But Li Dingguo still decided to play big!
Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu couldn't stop them. After all, if they failed, they wouldn't be responsible for paying compensation, and it wouldn't affect their wages. Therefore, no matter how big the game was, it would have no impact on them.
They even thought darkly that maybe it would be better if they failed, so that Dingguo would not think about pursuing any freedom and could only continue to work in the mine to pay off debts. People who are stressed and burdened would not think so much.
It's a mess and unrealistic thing, but I feel ashamed of this idea. After all, they are the brothers with the best relationship. How can you expect your brother to be bad?
…
January 28, morning.
Wolonggou Mine, an area at the foot of a certain mountain.
"Start detonating!" Li Dingguo ordered.
Sun Kewang pressed the power button hard.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Amidst the violent and regular muffled explosions one after another.
In the mining area, it was as if an earth dragon was turning over below. Countless rocks and earth rose in rows like waves, blasting from beginning to end, causing waves of violent vibrations to be heard on the surrounding ground. It was like a small earthquake, which could be felt intuitively with the soles of people's feet.
arrived.
The scene ended with a shocking explosion.
The old master ran to check the effect of the explosion. Half an hour later he said with great excitement: "Perfect, this explosion is so perfect. All the surface soil and rocks were loosened and shattered. If all the coal seams 12 to 3 meters thick below were mined out,
, you can get tens of millions of stones of high-quality coal, bring in an income of more than three million silver dollars, and make a profit of at least two million silver dollars. It’s a huge profit!”
"Okay, not bad." Li Dingguo nodded slightly, as if it was completely what he expected.
"Master Xiao Li, you have just set a new record in the Ming Dynasty's mining industry. You detonated thousands of tons of explosives at once and achieved great success. So far, only your team has done it. What do you think?" "Oriental Times"
"A female reporter not only recorded the scene of the mountain explosion with a camera, 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 I find the pattern, I can detonate three thousand tons or five thousand tons of explosives at the same time. I have more than 90% chance of success. Tens of thousands of tons of explosives will not be used for the time being.
If you dare to think, it would be too much, and the whole mountain would have to be blown up..." Li Dingguo said a little shyly but extremely confidently.
"If one day there was an opportunity that allowed you to use tens of thousands of tons of explosives to build a giant dam or participate in completing a certain project, would you be willing to accept such a challenge?" the female reporter asked.
"Of course, I am happy to accept such a challenge." Li Dingguo said.
And I saw this brother talking eloquently during an interview with a reporter.
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. If he wants to go out and make a living, I plan to follow him. If I don't follow the second brother, I think we will definitely not be able to achieve anything.
." Sun Kewang whispered to Liu Wenxiu.
"I thought so too."
Liu Wenxiu nodded: "We three brothers are one. The second brother is the most promising. No matter where he goes, he will definitely have a big future. Anyway, you can't go wrong by following him."
At this moment they reached a consensus that no matter what Li Dingguo wanted to pursue in the future, they would follow him and not be separated.
…
Two days later.
The latest issue of "Oriental Times" was released, and on the headline of the secondary page, there was an article "Thousands of tons of explosives were detonated at the same time, the scene was shocking, the Ming Dynasty's mining industry will enter a new era".
It is also paired with a color picture of earth dragons surging and earth and rocks flying.
This report immediately caused quite a stir in the Ming Dynasty. The young explosives genius Li Dingguo quickly became a celebrity. Because of his handsome and delicate appearance, he also had many female fans and was admired by many people.