Yu Fuyang was actually a coal mining craftsman. What made him better than others was that he was better at learning, so in the process of becoming a righteous man, he gradually learned the complete process of prospecting coal veins and digging wells to mine coal. Because
He felt that the money earned by being a craftsman was too little, so he scraped together some money and recruited a group of people to work alone. He himself became the pit leader, so that he could not only get a share of the coal digging wages, but also gain profits from the coal mine.
After working like this for five or six years, Yu Fuyang also made some money, but the pain was beyond words. When he was purely a craftsman, he just worked hard. When he became a gang leader, he had to coordinate with the owner of the farm.
The relationship between the government, buyers, righteous husbands and other parties is time-consuming, energy-consuming and expensive. In several coal mines he has mined, he has never applied for kiln licenses, but only a little money is spent on running errands.
Quite a few.
When the coal veins are relatively good, his efforts are worth it. A coal kiln can earn him several hundred taels of silver. But if he makes a mistake and digs a well without finding any coal stars, he will earn at least several hundred taels of silver.
Two taels of silver were wasted. Coal mining is a high-risk job. If an accident occurs underground and a worker is killed or injured, as the owner of the mine, he will be responsible for compensation, which is often a large expense.
Yu Fuyang sometimes thought that if someone was willing to pay for him to dig a well, help him settle various relationships, and bear the risk of drilling mistakes, then he would rather give up digging a hole himself and do things for others.
This is a bit like some white-collar workers in later generations. When they were employees, they always thought about starting their own business and becoming a boss. After being a boss for a few years, they realized that working for others is not bad at all. At least they can maintain their income during droughts and floods without having to open their eyes every day.
You have to think about where to get some money to support the whole company.
Precisely because Yu Fuyang had thought about such a question before, as soon as Su Hao asked the question, he immediately responded, which surprised Su Hao.
"Yu Dongtou, are you really willing to abandon your own coal mine and mine coal for others?" Su Hao didn't care about Yu Fuyang's gaffe and just asked calmly.
Yu Fuyang's mind turned around a few times and he answered cautiously: "Master Su, what you just said is true?"
Su Hao shrugged his shoulders and said, "I came to this barren mountain just to make fun of you when I was full and had nothing to do?"
Yu Fuyang said: "If what Master Su said is true, then I am willing to work for Master, as long as Master can give me a suitable salary and food bank."
Su Hao asked: "If I want to hire you to mine coal, how much labor and food money will it cost per year?"
Yu Fuyang said: "Master, the coal mining industry has its own rules and regulations. If you are just a mine operator and just mine coal, and then lead your righteous husband to dig wells and mine coal, you will receive 100 taels of labor and food silver a year, plus an additional
The profit sharing of coal mine bonuses is generally based on the rule of 1 in 30."
Industrial silver is the salary. According to Yu Fuyang, his requirement is a salary of 100 taels a year, plus a dividend of about 3.3%. For example, in the coal mine opened by Yu Fuyang, the annual dividend is normally only 3.3%.
Four hundred taels of silver, drawn every thirty taels, can only get about 10 taels, which is not a large amount. In the terminology of later generations, this amount of money is performance pay, which is to increase Dongtou's work enthusiasm.
set.
Su Hao has also learned about the wage standards of the Ming Dynasty these days. Generally, a craftsman with some skills will be paid 1.5 taels of silver a month and 18 taels a year. Yu Fuyang's role is that of a foreman, who has both technical and executive duties.
The salary is five times that of ordinary craftsmen, which is not outrageous.
Director Su Hao only surveyed coal mines. He didn't know much about how to dig coal wells, especially how to use Ming Dynasty technology to excavate. These things must be done by professionals. This trip
Before he came out, he had planned to recruit some foremen and workers from small coal mines for his own use. Yu Fuyang was just the first target he took a fancy to.
"The price you offered is quite reasonable. However, I still have to see your craftsmanship first." Su Hao replied.
Hearing Su Hao say that he still didn't trust his skills, Yu Fuyang became a little anxious. He patted his chest and said: "Master Su, I don't know how many well-dwelling craftsmen you have seen. In our Fengcheng County, the craftsmanship
I dare not say that there are no better ones than me. They can be counted with one slap at most. If you don’t believe it, you can go and see the well we are mining.”
Su Hao nodded and said, "That's exactly what I meant."
"Then let's go, it's not far ahead." Yu Fuyang said.
Led by Yu Fuyang, a group of people came to the coal mine that was being mined. None of these people, including Su Hao and Chen Guanyu, had ever seen the coal mines of the Ming Dynasty so close, so there was something mysterious about it.
They still need Yu Fuyang to explain it to them.
Coal kilns in the Ming Dynasty were roughly divided into two types: vertical shafts and horizontal shafts. A vertical shaft was a deep well dug vertically above the coal reservoir, leading all the way to the coal seam. A horizontal shaft was a horizontal or horizontal shaft dug from the side of the mountain for shallow coal seams.
The tunnel that slopes slightly downwards leads all the way to the coal seam.
Whether it is a vertical shaft or a horizontal shaft, after digging into the coal seam, it is necessary to turn to the horizontal direction and start digging along the distribution of the coal seam. In order to avoid large-area goafs, coal mining is carried out along the tunnels one by one. Each mining operation
The surface is called chamber, stubble, nest, tip, tunnel face, etc. The mining technology of that year was able to dig mines nearly 100 meters deep, and the horizontally extending tunnels could be up to one or two miles long.
The coal kiln owned by Yu Fuyang adopts the technology of shaft excavation. The well is 60 meters deep and the diameter of the well head is more than 2 meters. It is equipped with a huge windlass, which is used to extract the excavated coal from the underground and to allow workers to enter and exit.
At the entrance of the cave, everyone also saw seven or eight thick moso bamboos, with their lower ends extending into the well. Looking through their heads, they could vaguely see that the ends of the moso bamboos were connected to other moso bamboos, one after another, all the way to the dark bottom of the well.
.
"What are these moso bamboos used for?" Ma Yu asked first. This curious scholar was very interested in all unknown things.
Yu Fuyang replied very seriously: "These moso bamboos are used to remove the foul smell from the well. This foul smell can hurt people. If it is not discharged, the craftsmen who go down the well will be in danger of their lives."
Of course, Su Hao knew that the foul smell Yu Fuyang was talking about was actually the gas underground. These moso bamboos have bamboo joints opened up, like pipes, which can be extended into the underground to discharge the gas. However, this exhaust method
How efficient it is is another matter. I think this well should be a low-gas well, otherwise it would not be enough to just rely on a few moso bamboo pipes to drain the gas.
"I'll go down to the well and have a look." Su Hao said to Yu Fuyang.
Yu Fuyang quickly stopped him: "Master Su, no, this well is an unusual place. People who are not accustomed to wells should never dare to go down casually."
Su Hao smiled and said: "Old Yu, let me tell you something you don't like to hear. I may not have spent as long as you in the wells, but in terms of the number of wells I have been in, I am more than 10 times more than you. Last month
I was ordered by the county magistrate to dig wells throughout the county to fight drought. How many wells have been drilled like this?"
"Dig wells to fight drought?" Yu Fuyang's mind flashed, "Are you the young master of the county government who is called the Earth Master by the people?"
"Earth Master..." Su Hao sweated again, "Who gave these nicknames?"
Yu Fuyang recalled it all at once: "Yes, I remembered it. People in our village said that the earth master's surname was Su, and he was about the same age as you. He should be you. Everyone said, you survey
The wells are always on target, a hundred times better than the best Feng Shui master. My village relied on the two wells dug under your guidance to maintain this year's harvest. You don't know that many families have placed your memorial tablets.
You think you are the Buddha of all families, and I will burn incense and kowtow to you."
"No way, a memorial tablet was placed for me while I was still alive." Su Hao said with a smile, "Actually, I am just blind. I happen to have dug a few good wells. How can I be worthy of the title of Earth Master?"
Yu Fuyang said: "If you dug a good well, it might have been done blindly. But everyone knows that Master Su, you, has dug hundreds of wells, and every one of them is a good well. That is, only the Earth Master can do it."
That’s it.”
Su Hao corrected: "This cannot be made up randomly. Twenty percent of the well locations I surveyed are wrong. There is no such thing as a perfect shot."
"How good is it that 80% of the wells can be prospected with water?" Yu Fuyang said, "If we look for coal engineers to prospect for coal, if 50% of them are accurate, then they are already very good. A good coal engineer like this,
The incense fee for a coal mine is at least 20 taels."
"So valuable?" This time it was Su Hao's turn to be surprised. He joked: "If I had known this, I wouldn't have opened a coal kiln. I would just mine coal for others. If I went to mine coal, I wouldn't dare to tell anyone.
, at least 70% to 80% success rate is still possible.”
"There must be, there must be." Yu Fuyang said repeatedly. Although he is a coal mining craftsman, his family is also in the countryside. Su Hao's well exploration has been passed down as a fairy tale in various villages in Fengcheng County. Some say that he
It is Wenquxing who descended to earth. Some say that he is the descendant of several generations of heavenly masters from Longhu Mountain. Others say that he has a pair of fiery eyes and can see through the land. Yu Fuyang himself has learned some coal prospecting techniques and knows the difficulty of prospecting, so
He admired Su Hao's exploration skills to the point of admiration. Now that he had seen Su Hao alive and heard him say that he could not only prospect for water but also for coal, Yu Fuyang naturally believed him.
"How about it, won't you stop me from going down the well now?" Su Hao asked.
"I don't dare, I don't dare. I will go down to the well with my master now," Yu Fuyang said.