"Dear masters, little Yu Fuyang is the leader of this coal mine, and as a righteous husband of this mine, I would like to salute you all."
The man who looked like a foreman walked up to Su Hao and the others and bowed respectfully. The few men he brought with him stood behind him, expressionless, but their feet were slightly in a horse stance.
Judging from this, this guy named Yu Fuyang was well prepared. If Su Hao and the others came to cause trouble in the coal mine, Yu Fuyang would lead the craftsmen to show off their force.
In ancient China, there were many names for coal mines, such as coal tunnels, coal tunnels, coal troughs, coal nests, coal tunnels, etc. Coal tunnels are a more literal name. The person who is responsible for leading the crowd to dig the coal tunnels is called the tunnel head.
The workers are called righteous husbands. If it is a relatively large coal mine, there are also various roles such as the mine head, the mine head, the accountant, etc., and there is no need to go into detail about these.
Su Hao and his group were dressed very strangely. Su Hao and Ma Yu were dressed as raw workers, Chen Guanyu was wearing a Taoist robe, Xu Zong was wearing a government uniform, and everyone else had different attires. Such a group of people came together
Together, the sudden appearance of a coal kiln made Yu Fuyang wary. His coal kiln was not registered with the county government, and it was definitely not a good thing in his opinion for the county government's official business to appear here.
"Oh, Yu Dongtou, I am Su Hao, the master of the county government office. Today I went out on business with my brothers. I happened to pass by here and saw coal mining here, so I came to observe. If I disturbed you, I will return it.
Please forgive me." Su Hao bowed his hand to Yu Fuyang and said politely.
"It turns out to be Master Su. I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Yu Fuyang responded perfunctorily, while looking back and forth at Su Hao and his entourage, guessing the group's motives. Su Hao said that he was out on business and passed by by chance.
These words are just to trick others, but Yu Fuyang will never believe it. The Shanwowo where his coal mine is located is not a traffic artery at all. What kind of errands need to be done in a place where birds do not lay eggs?
But to say that the other party is specifically looking for trouble, Yu Fuyang doesn't think it is like it. Who doesn't know that opening a coal kiln has a somewhat black background. This black not only refers to the blackness of coal, but also has the meaning of black. Su Hao and his party
If they came specifically to inspect their small unlicensed coal mine, they would have too few manpower. If they started to take action, officials would not have the upper hand.
Unable to figure out the intentions of Su Hao and others, Yu Fuyang decided to stop quietly and observe the other party's actions first.
"Yu Dongtou, can we go over and observe your coal mining situation?" Su Hao asked.
"I'm afraid this is unnecessary." Yu Fuyang said, "The place where coal is mined is so filthy. How dare you insult the honor of the master and all the officials? Well, it's hard work for you all to come here, and there's nothing you can do about it on this mountain.
To entertain you all, I will send someone to get five taels of silver right now, which will be used as the money for me to invite you to the town for a drink. What do you think?"
Yu Fuyang believed that Su Hao and others wanted to take the opportunity to blackmail him. He was originally an unlicensed coal mine, and when he encountered official duties, he could only give some money to make ends meet. In his opinion, the price of five taels of silver was not too low.
After these officials took the money, they naturally went back.
Unexpectedly, Su Hao didn't appreciate Yu Fuyang's bribery at all. He smiled and said: "Yu Dongtou, the money will be waived. Don't worry, we are not here to check mining taxes, nor are we here to extort money."
.I am just somewhat interested in your coal mining methods and want to take a look."
"Where." Hearing Su Hao's polite refusal, Yu Fuyang was a little surprised. He hesitated for a moment and then made an invitation gesture, "Since Master Su wants to see it, how dare you not refuse? Dear Masters
, please come this way.”
Yu Fuyang led the way, Su Hao walked side by side with him, and the others followed closely behind them. As Su Hao walked, he asked Yu Fuyang about the depth of the coal kiln, the thickness of the coal seam, the length of the tunnel, etc.
Waiting, this made Yu Fuyang even more surprised. He had never encountered an official who was so proficient in coal mining technology.
"I wonder what Mr. Su did in the past. Is it possible that some of his family members also opened coal mines?" Yu Fuyang asked curiously.
Su Hao smiled and said: "People often say that a scholar can know the affairs of the world without going out. I have never seen a coal mine in the Ming Dynasty. I just saw some sayings in books and wanted to confirm it with Yu Dongtou.
.”
Su Hao was definitely not lying. He had indeed never seen a coal mine in the Ming Dynasty, but this did not mean that he had not been in a mine in that society 400 years later. As a geologist, Su Hao had been
There are countless mines in the country, and he has read a lot of mine information. After a few simple chats with Yu Fuyang, he already had a clear understanding of the basic situation of this coal mine.
"Master Su is indeed a man of profound knowledge and strong memorization. I admire him greatly." Yu Fuyang said.
"Yu Dongtou, if you dig this coal mine for a few more months, you should shut it down and start looking for new mines, right?" Su Hao pretended to be careless and said to Yu Fuyang.
Yu Fuyang was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "Master Su is really good at telling jokes. I just found a mine with great difficulty, how could I give up halfway?"
Su Hao said: "I just heard you say that for this well, you dug 40 feet to the east and 30 feet to the west. Now you are digging in the north and south directions. If the east and west sides had not been dug to the edge of the coal vein, how could you have done it?
Why don't you stop after digging only thirty or forty feet? If you dig in the north-south direction now, I guess the prospects are not good. If you dig another dozen feet, you may reach the edge."
"This..." Yu Fuyang's eyes when he looked at Su Hao began to become complicated. Because what Su Hao said was as if he had gone down the well to see it himself.
This coal vein was surveyed by Yu Fuyang himself. At first, he felt that the underground reserves were very rich, so he recruited a group of workers to start mining. Who knows, after digging the coal seam, he did not dig far to the east or west.
, the coal seam has become so thin that it has no mining value. Now he led the people to excavate on the north and south sides. The tunnels on both sides have just been drilled for about 20 feet, and the coal seam has dropped from the original three feet thick to two feet thick. If he follows this
If the trend continues, if we dig another dozen feet, the coal seam will be so thin that it will be worthless for mining.
"Master Su seems to be an expert in coal mining," Yu Fuyang said.
Su Hao said: "To be honest, Yu Dongtou, when I came to Wangjiapo, I also wanted to open a tunnel to dig coal, but unexpectedly I was beaten to the spot by Yu Dongtou."
At this time, Yu Fuyang had already regarded Su Hao as his colleague, and completely forgot that Su Hao was from the Yamen. He sighed and said: "Oh, I would rather be beaten by you. This coal pit has tricked me."
It’s painful.”
"Yu Dongtou is getting a bargain, right?" Xu Zong, who was following Su Hao, interjected, "Coal mining is a business with no capital and huge profits. You, a coal mine, must not have obtained a kiln license or submitted it to the Yamen.
Taxes, right? How much coal you dug out was earned by yourself, how can you say you were cheated?"
Xu Zong is a man with experience in the world. He knows that there are many privately mined coal mines and other mines in the Fengcheng Mountains. Because these mines are small in scale and hidden in the mountains, they are not easily discovered by the government, so they are generally not discovered.
Those who apply for licenses and do not pay taxes. When officials come to investigate, the owners of these mines only need to take out some money to silence the officials. Seeing that Yu Fuyang's coal mine is hidden in a mountain valley, he
This is expected to be the case as well.
Yu Fuyang said angrily: "Who said coal mining is cost-effective? You will know if you try it yourself. If you want to open a tunnel, don't I have to pay the owner of the mountain farm? I paid a full 20 taels of silver to let this mountain
The owner of the mine, Zhao Yuanwai, allowed me to mine coal here.
Only after paying money can I dig a shaft and throw dozens of taels of silver into it. If there is no coal in the well, the well will be considered useless. Even if there is coal in the well, if something like this happens,
The coal veins are too small. If I can get my capital back, I will be grateful to God. Just like this, if you ask me to pay taxes, how can I have the money to pay them?"
"So, it makes sense for you not to pay taxes?" Su Hao asked, half jokingly and half seriously.
"Master, that's not what I meant." Only then did Yu Fuyang realize that he had spilled the beans. How could he say that he did not pay taxes in front of the government officials? He hesitated and said: "Master, you don't know, even if we mine coal,
It's the same as gambling. If you win the bet on a big coal vein, you will get rich and earn hundreds or thousands of taels of silver. If you don't win the bet, the money you spent earlier will be lost.
It’s all wasted.”
"This coal prospecting is not accurate, it's really a scam." Su Hao said with a smile.
"Yes, yes, this is so deceptive... This father is so stupid." Yu Fuyang accepted Su Hao's wise words and followed suit.
"Yu Dongtou, have you ever thought of another way?" Su Hao asked.
Yu Fuyang asked: "What alternative?"
Su Hao said: "If I invite you to help mine coal, I will pay for the rent of the mountain site, the money for digging the well, and the money for hiring a righteous man. Regardless of whether the coal can be dug out or not, I will give you a share of the money. In this way
Do you want to do it?" Su Hao asked.
Yu Fuyang replied without hesitation: "Fuck, as long as the money is enough, my grandson will be willing to pay for the well himself."
"Why are you talking!" Before Su Hao could react, Xu Zong jumped up.
Well, Su Hao said that he paid for Yu Fuyang to dig coal. Yu Fuyang said that only his grandson would pay for the well. Isn't this a roundabout way of scolding Su Hao? Today, Su Hao is among the yamen in the workshop.
He already had the supreme status. How could Xu Zong not be angry when he heard Yu Fuyang scolding Su Hao.
"Uh... you deserve to die, you deserve to die!" Yu Fuyang quickly bowed to Su Hao to apologize. He also knew that he had said the wrong thing.