There are four coal mines, covering an area of about 100 acres. The highlands and hills are surrounded by two-person-high barbed wire fences. Although there are no bunkers like in the big coal mines, the miners have to be searched all over when entering and leaving, and not even a piece of coal slag can be taken out.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, hundreds of coal miners gathered in front of a row of wooden houses in the mining area, which served as the office area for managers.
More than a dozen illegal workers who had been tortured beyond recognition had been sent to the health center. These miners had already vaguely sensed that something serious was about to happen.
The gray-haired old man in a short-sleeved shirt standing on a half-broken wooden stake and shouting at the top of his lungs was Liu Sili's father, Liu Jingtang.
"Mr. Lu is committed to building a civilized and humane mining area! Implement a safe mine system! Provide sufficient safety and labor protection supplies!"
The miners were all confused and had no idea what Accountant Liu was talking about.
Lu Ming, who was standing on a higher wooden stake, was also helpless, but it seemed that although the miners did not understand, they still believed him. Civilized people like Mr. Liu spoke in a profound and mysterious way, and they were too stupid to understand, but everyone admired Mr. Liu.
Liu Jingtang's speech finally came to an end. "Come on, let's welcome Mr. Lu to give us a speech! Everyone applaud!"
The miners immediately applauded enthusiastically. The new boss at least looked much friendlier than Brigade Commander Hu, and he didn't ask whose wife was pretty when he first arrived at the mine.
"Manager Liu has said everything I wanted to say, so I'll just say a few words!" Lu Ming raised his voice slightly, "After I came here, there was only one change. Everyone's income will definitely be higher than before. Every month, those who are over fourteen years old will get a two-yuan bonus, and those who are under fourteen will get a one-yuan bonus."
Lu Ming does not want to use child labor, but the current situation is that if you don't use child labor, many people's livelihoods will be cut off. Some families will go bankrupt due to insufficient income, and younger children may even starve to death.
We can only take everything slowly.
"What is a bonus? As long as you do not leave early or come in late as before and complete the normal workload, you can get a bonus of two yuan. In addition, there is a floating bonus for workers who perform well every month, ranging from 1 to 3 yuan."
Seeing that most of the miners looked confused, Lu Ming smiled and said, "To put it simply, if everyone works hard as before, those over fourteen will get a 2 yuan salary increase each month, and those under fourteen will get a 1 yuan salary increase each month!"
"Good!" "Good!" The miners immediately applauded excitedly, "Mr. Lu is a good man!" "Mr. Lu is a kind man!"
"Mr. Lu, please be merciful!" The one who took the lead in shouting this should be the foreman who is a little knowledgeable and experienced.
Liu Jingtang shouted again in a slightly hoarse voice: "Okay, the section chiefs stay, and the rest of you can go. Don't leave the mining area. Tomorrow, Mr. Lu will officially open the mine. He will invite many dignitaries from the county and set off firecrackers. Everyone come, the more lively the better. Tonight, the mine will have a celebratory dish, pork stewed with vermicelli! White steamed buns! As much as you can eat!"
"Good!" "Good!" Cheers broke out immediately, and the eyes of miners of all sizes turned green.
When it comes to salary increase or something like that, many big bosses will write blank checks, and in the end nothing may come of it. But when it comes to mining opening meals, there is plenty of pork stewed with vermicelli and big steamed buns, and this is real. The bosses all want good luck and will not cheat on the mining opening meals.
Lu Ming smiled bitterly as he watched this scene. Rather than offering them a raise or something like that, it would be more satisfying to give them a pound of pork every month. Although 2 yuan is enough to buy more than 10 pounds of pork in Longgang.
…
In the wooden house, Lu Ming and Liu Jingtang drank tea and chatted casually.
"Mr. Lu, are you really going to pay for all the medical expenses of those illegal workers?" Liu Jingtang looked at Lu Ming in surprise and admiration.
"I will pay for it!" Lu Ming smiled. "Since the county has not issued a wanted order, they still want to confiscate all of Hu Ergou's property? When the time comes, just reimburse me from the confiscated property."
Liu Jingtang nodded, thinking that there are always people better than you.
A bully like Brigade Commander Hu would never have thought that after meeting Mr. Lu, he would become a wanted criminal within a day.
In the morning, he instructed his men to instigate the miners to attack Mr. Lu. By the afternoon, the county government had issued a wanted warrant and an order to confiscate his property.
Now Sili is probably leading people to seal off his house.
"Mr. Lu, will you leave after presiding over the mining opening ceremony tomorrow?" Liu Jingtang hesitated to speak.
Lu Ming smiled and said, "Yes, I can't do without my business in Donghai. I'll have to come back later. Uncle Liu, I'll be relieved to have you here. In addition, ten muskets will be delivered tomorrow. Heitou will stay to train our miners and their families to use guns. He will select loyal and reliable ones and maintain a ten-man mining protection team at ordinary times, so there shouldn't be any trouble."
Liu Jingtang was worried about the safety of the mine. He smiled and said, "Mr. Lu has thought of everything. Apart from helping Mr. Lu, I have nothing else to worry about."
Lu Ming glanced at Liu Jingtang and said with a smile, "Uncle Liu, I heard that when the Jingyang Mine was first discovered more than 20 years ago, you helped the first mine owner to run it? You should also be very familiar with the current Jingyang Mine, right?"
Jingyang Mine is the largest coal mine outside of the four major coal mines in Longgang. The coal seam is extremely shallow, but it was discovered the latest. Mining began more than 20 years ago, and now it adopts open-pit mining.
Jingyang Town is also a town established in Longgang County ten years ago. It is located in the easternmost part of Longgang. Further east is the majestic Heishan Mountains.
Several decades later, bandits appeared again in the Montenegrin Mountains.
It seems that the Jingyang Mine today, for the sake of safety, pays tribute to the bandits every month.
Liu Jingtang listened to Lu Ming talking about Jingyang Mine and sighed deeply. "My old boss was good. We got along very well back then. But later a new major shareholder came in and insisted on releasing his people from the accounting office. That person and I quarreled every day. I knew he was trying to squeeze me out, but I just couldn't keep my cool at that time, so I resigned in anger. Now, I feel sorry for my boss."
His eyes flickered, as if he was recalling many past events, and he sighed: "Now I still communicate with him occasionally. Five years ago, when the province changed the governor, the major shareholder who had forced himself into the company withdrew his shares. My employer almost went bankrupt before he redeemed the shares from that major shareholder. He had to redeem them. You tell me, alas..." Liu Jingtang shook his head.
After a pause, he continued, "My old friend has not recovered yet. In the past two years, he has had to give half of his income to the bandits. My old friend is not in good health. The last time he wrote to me, he seemed to say that most of the affairs of the coal mine were handed over to his daughter-in-law. The daughter-in-law is very capable and maintains all aspects. He can barely survive."
"His daughter-in-law is called He Mojun, a bookish name. You can tell she went to school, so I remember it. I hope there will be someone to carry on the family tradition!"
Lu Ming nodded, and was slightly startled. He Mojun? She had the same name as his ex-sister-in-law. Four years ago, after his elder brother fell into the lake after getting drunk, his sister-in-law remarried, but she should have married to Lin County.
Nowadays, new women in the north all choose names like Aijun or Mojun. The name Mojun is also very common.
Liu Jingtang hesitated for a moment, then said carefully, "Mr. Lu, next time you come, will you stay in the county? The old man is talking nonsense, just listen to him. I think you should also have a place to stay in this town. You are the boss, so you should come back often."
Lu Ming smiled and said, "Uncle Liu is right. I was thinking of buying a house in this town. Now is the perfect time. Isn't Hu Ergou's house sealed? I'll see Si Li later and tell him to sell the house to me at the market price. That way, when he pays the fugitive's confiscated property to the county treasury, he can be commended and do things cleanly and efficiently."
Liu Jingtang was stunned. This was a good idea. “Mr. Lu, you don’t have any taboos…” Liu Jingtang exclaimed.
Lu Ming smiled and said, "What's there to be ashamed of for a small thug's crime?"
"Oh, speak of the devil and he will appear!" Lu Ming looked up and smiled.
Outside the wooden house, Liu Sili was striding towards them. Judging from the way he walked, he had become more confident than in the morning.
…
Brigade Commander Hu's residence is extremely prominent among the many earthen houses and thatched cottages in the town. It has a large courtyard surrounded by high blue brick walls. The black wooden door on the stone steps has a huge door knocker. On both sides of the steps are two ferocious stone lions.
There are two side rooms on the east and west sides, and six main rooms. Inside is the main hall, and there is one room on the east and west sides. Going inside the main hall, there are three inner rooms.
Today, the earthenware lamps hanging high in the courtyard are bright, and many women and children are cleaning every room and flushing it with clean water.
Lu Ming was wandering around inside, and following him was a buck-toothed woman, Zhang Agou's wife, whose surname was also Zhang.
Heitou will live here temporarily, and Mrs. Zhang will cook for her and clean the room for her. She will be paid 6 yuan a month, the same salary as an adult worker before.
She had found all the women and children who came to clean up the house. She had finished cleaning up in one night and had found more than a dozen women and children. She paid each of them 1 yuan. Where could she find such a good job? So everyone worked very hard. When they saw Lu Ming, they all stood aside and bowed their heads in silence.
However, from the woodshed in the west wing, a woman's cursing could be heard from time to time, but no one paid any attention to it. However, it seemed that everyone was a little afraid of the people inside and kept their distance.
It was Hu Ergou's mistress Wang, the top prostitute in a brothel in Longgang. But she was gradually getting old and ugly, and Hu Ergou happened to become rich, so he brought her to Sansha Town.
Now that he has been arrested, the town government has no place to detain him, so they temporarily lock him up in the woodshed here.
Once Liu Sili has seized the property and sorted it out, they will be escorted to the county together.
Lu Mingzi ignored her, and Lei Bao and Hei Feng stayed nearby. If Hu Ergou came to rescue his lover, they could capture him.
"Master, if it's your turn, a bitch like this should be stripped naked and paraded through the streets!" Mrs. Zhang gritted her teeth and said, "Later, we'll go and deal with that little slut Wei Chunli!"
Lu Ming was stunned, but said nothing.
…
The opening ceremony of the mine the next day was grand and solemn, and almost all the leaders of the county government were present.
There is news that after taking over the Sansha Coal Mine, Director Gong's relative Mr. Lu Xiao returned to Donghai. Naturally, many people breathed a sigh of relief and were all happy.
Mr. Lu also left Sansha Town in the afternoon. What puzzled the townspeople was that Miss Hei, the follower Mr. Lu left behind, was supposed to be Mrs. Zhang's maid, but in the end, it was replaced by the young wife of the deceased Wei San. And just last night, the young wife of Wei San was tied to a tree by a group of people after her hair was cut and she was thrown dog shit and urine. When people were clamoring to strip her clothes, Miss Hei came and rescued her. Then, Mrs. Wei became Miss Hei's maid.
…
A private room at the Friendship Hotel in Longgang County.
The middle-aged man in a long gown sitting opposite Lu Ming was called Li Yulong, who was Li Yumei's distant cousin.
Being a foreman in Zuodun Coal Mine is considered a pretty good career move for Longgang County.
Lu Ming sipped his tea and sighed quietly in his heart. When people were not enlightened, the upper ruling class would often change the soup but not the medicine. In fact, sometimes, they had no choice but to do so.
For example, Mrs. Zhang has no sense of propriety at all and has been suppressed for too long. She has really become a maid for Blackhead. In Sansha Town, she will immediately become the one who does what he wants. Her cruelty and domineering nature may be even worse than the wives of the former Brigade Commander Hu's gang. The original wives were more or less educated and had seen some of the world, but Mrs. Zhang only acts according to her instinctive likes and dislikes.
Take Wei Chunli for example. She studied in the county school for a few years and was occupied by Wei San. She was originally a poor and docile person, but after Wei San's death, she became the target of arbitrary oppression. It seemed that all the fear of Wei San was now backfired and vented on her.
Unfortunately, Wang, who was used to being domineering, still had some influence, and many people were still afraid of her.
Although most of the time, the relatives of bullies and even some criminals are never completely innocent, at least they have benefited greatly. Some of the collective punishments in ancient times are not without reason.
However, specific cases still need to be analyzed specifically, and we cannot say that relatives are guilty of the same crime as the criminal.
Sansha Town has already assigned people to plan the construction of a primary school for children of miners, but many changes cannot be made overnight.
Thinking about it, Lu Ming shook his head.
Li Yulong was talking about the situation at Zuodun Coal Mine.
My cousin's letter said that Mr. Lu was a high-class figure in Donghai.
It's easy to imagine that when Mr. Lu saw me, he might be interested in Zuodun Coal Mine.
The situation at Zuodun Coal Mine is not very good now. Just a few days later, the Heishan Mining Bureau notified it to suspend operations and rectify the situation.
It seems that after Commander Hu in the provincial capital occupied the Nanping Mine among the four major coal mines, he set his sights on the Zuodun Coal Mine.
The boss was also stubborn and refused to agree to his investment.
Li Yulong sighed inwardly, but he did not hide anything and told Mr. Lu everything in detail.
Lu Ming listened silently.
There were footsteps outside the private room, and Sun Bo said softly, "Master, this is the messenger sent by Director Gong."
Lu Ming responded, and Sun Bo came in with a letter.
After opening it, it was indeed Mr. Gong's handwriting, saying that it was Hu Dewang, the secretary general of the Heishan City Government, who called him and asked him to withdraw the arrest warrant against Hu Ergou and re-investigate Hu Ergou's case.
Mr. Gong said that he had quickly written a formal reply letter rejecting the other party's request.
Lu Ming looked at the letter and nodded. It seemed that Brigade Commander Hu had some connection with the Hu family. Moreover, those who were easily influenced would definitely think that even if Brigade Commander Hu was using the name of the Hu family as a banner, he was still using the name of the Hu family. Now that his house had been raided and he was wanted, it was not a good thing for the Hu family.
He looked up at Li Yulong and said, "Yulong, thank you for today. Come on, have a drink. I will have to trouble you again in the future." Lu Ming raised his glass with a smile.
Li Yulong held the cup with both hands, stood up and drank it all in one gulp. "Mr. Lu, if you have anything to ask in the future, just tell me."