Chapter 30 Chapter Thirty

Xiao Taiping's first coal mine was started in the winter of the twelfth year of Tongzhi.The site of the kiln is located on a piece of wasteland along Erliduo Road on the slope of Zazipo. The northern boundary is close to Wangjiayao, the east is not far from Qiaotou Town, and the south is adjacent to the Damo River.The auspicious day of the zodiac was selected by two Feng Shui masters after several iterations. On the day when the ground was broken, thousands of "Heaven and Earth Rings" were released.Mr. Bai Er, Mr. Li Wu, Uncle Wang and Yu Guer all came to congratulate, and the brothers who had not left the kiln on the sloping kiln also ran to watch and cheer, and the construction site was bustling with activity.

The Xiao’s kiln was digging, and the charcoal hadn’t been produced yet. Xiao Taiping borrowed more than 3,800 taels of silver from Mr. Bai Er with the kiln as a mortgage, and built the first coal wharf on the Damo River, and purchased the second coal wharf. A group of large wooden ships transporting coal. In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, Xiao Taiping's coal wharf and large wooden boats were used when Xiaojiayao produced charcoal.A fleet of eight large wooden boats began to go southward with the masts, and directly transported coal to the south of the Yangtze River and even to Shanghai along the Dam River and into the canal.In the past, the coal in Qiaotou Town was transported to Mohe County by truck on land, and then sold and transported south along the canal waterway and land road official road from Mohe County.Due to too many transfers, time-consuming and labor-intensive, and high freight costs, the kiln earns less money.Others didn't see this, but Xiao Taiping did, so from the time he bought the kiln land, Xiao Taiping kept his eye on the Damo River, he insisted on buying kiln land by the Damo River, and he insisted on setting up a kiln by the Damo River.

Mr. Bai Er, Li Wuye, and Uncle Wang didn't quite understand it at first, thinking it was madness seeking death.Mr. Bai Er kindly persuaded Xiao Taiping, asking Xiao Taiping to be careful not to let the water of Damohe into the kiln, and be harmed by Damohe.The result is that not only did Da Mohe not harm Xiao Taiping, but he helped Xiao Taiping.The coal of Xiaojiayao entered the coal wharf after leaving the kiln mouth, and there was no need for land transfer, and the profit and silver increased by more than 20% all of a sudden.Mr. Bai Er, Li Wuye and Uncle Wang discovered Xiao Taiping's extraordinary gaze once again.

Because of Xiao Taiping's extraordinary vision, a new era of bridgehead coal going directly to the south of the Yangtze River began irreversibly—although there were only eight boats at the beginning, and the scale was very small. That is to say, around the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, the shortage of kiln manpower was alleviated.People from the three provinces and four counties around Qiaotou Town gradually gathered in this emerging kiln area, and they came to the kiln in groups during the slack season.Since then, the four kilns of Bai Li Wang and Xiao have basically no shortage of manpower except during the busy farming seasons of summer and autumn.

Although he got his wish and opened his own Xiao's kiln and became the owner of the kiln, Xiao Taiping did not look arrogant, but still devoted himself to being the kiln shopkeeper of Bai's kiln, and his relationship with Mr. Bai Er was not only not alienated, but went even closer. It's close, it's like a family.Xiao Taiping remembers the benefits of Mr. Bai Er, and sincerely believes that without Mr. Bai Er, he would not be prosperous.In the eighth year of Tongzhi, Mr. Bai Er let him contract the Baijiayao and gave him the opportunity to make a fortune.In the tenth year of Tongzhi, Mr. Bai Er took the risk of trapping bandits, resolutely dealt with Mr. Zhang, and fundamentally protected him.When he got to open a kiln and build a coal wharf, Mr. Bai Er came out to help him buy land and borrow money.

These benefits of Mr. Bai Er made Xiao Taiping remember his whole life, until his death.The first of the two legacy Xiao Taiping left after his death is that the descendants of the Xiao family must firmly remember the kindness of the Bai family. In the future, when there is a dispute with the Bai family, the descendants of the Xiao family must avoid it.The latter item has nothing to do with the Bai family: Do not make friends with poor relatives and friends at any time.Poor relatives and friends will not bring benefits to the Xiao family, but will only bring troubles, and if things go wrong, they will also bring unreasonable jealousy and hatred.

Xiao Taiping's respect to Mr. Bai Er was also respected by Mr. Bai Er in return.Mr. Bai Er is not confused, Mr. Bai Er knows that he has fulfilled Xiao Taiping, and in turn Xiao Taiping has fulfilled him.Without Xiao Taiping, the former head of the Second Regiment of the Nien Party, there would be no comprehensive prosperity of the Baijia and even the entire Qiaotou Town coal kiln industry.Mr. Bai Er refused to obey others all his life, only Xiao Taiping.At the end of the year, Xiao Taiping had been dead for many years, and Mr. Bai Er often mentioned Xiao Taiping one by one. Mr. Bai Er often said to people, what is benevolence and righteousness?Uncle Xiao's life is called benevolence and righteousness.With Uncle Xiao's extraordinary style and ability, after eight years of Tongzhi, he can open a kiln and be a kiln owner any day he wants, and he can make a lot of trouble.But Uncle Xiao has been patiently not moving, why?Just because he didn't want to compete with the old master's kiln master.It wasn't until the thirteenth year of Tongzhi, when there was no shortage of labor, that Uncle Xiao started his own kiln in a leisurely manner.Who can refuse to accept such a master?People are gentlemen who love money and get it in a proper way.Speaking of Xiao Taiping's ability, Mr. Bai Er always mentioned the day and night operation system of the coal mines in the eighth year of Tongzhi, as well as the coal terminal and fleet of the thirteenth year of Tongzhi.As time went on, people could see more clearly that the significance of the day and night operation system was not only to change one coal mine into two, but also to change the living habits of the people of Qiaotou town for generations.The changes brought by the coal wharf and the fleet to the coal kiln industry in Qiaotou Town are even more historic. The appearance of the coal wharf and the fleet made Qiaotou coal of high quality and low price open the South Canal before the advent of the railway era. There are huge markets on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and cities in the south of the Yangtze River.

During this period, the cooperation between Xiao Taiping and Li Wuye also entered a new stage. Li Wuye saw the way to save labor and money on Xiao Taiping's coal wharf, so he wanted to use Xiao Taiping's wharf to transport the coal from his own kiln. Team.Later, after discussing with Xiao Taiping, he simply handed over the Lijiayao to Xiao Taiping, and he was the second shopkeeper who specialized in coal transportation and sales—not only the coal from his own kiln, but also the coal from Xiao’s kiln. coal.In the second year—the first year of Guangxu, Baijiayao also built a road leading to the coal wharf of Damohe under Xiao Taiping's strong support. Li Wuye even sold the coal of Baijiayao.

In the second year of Guangxu, except for Uncle Wang's Wangjiayao, the first big alliance of the coal mining industry and the transportation and marketing industry in Qiaotou Town was naturally completed.Direct waterway transportation and joint procurement and marketing greatly reduced the cost of Baixiao Li Sanyao, and also objectively formed a powerful deterrent force of the capital group against the increasingly powerful labor group. Naturally, this first large coalition in the history of the coal mine industry in Qiaotou Town is different from the combination, merger and expansion of those later coal mining companies with modern significance.The foundation of this alliance is not solid. There is no such thing as shares or holdings, and no one can uniformly allocate the capital of the three small kilns.Mr. Bai Er, Xiao Taiping, and Li Wuye kept their own accounts whether coal was produced or sold.Behaviors of interests rely on each other and control each other.Xiao Taiping controls Li Wuye's kiln, Li Wuye controls the charcoal that Xiao Taiping sells, and Mr. Bai Er controls the general ledger of the three companies' silver charcoal.

The large wooden boats carrying coal were launched one by one, and when the coal poles at the bridge head were fully loaded and went south, the girls on the big and small flower boats under the three-hole bridge came ashore one after another.The era of flower boats in the history of prostitution in Qiaotou Town has come to an end, and the era of flower kilns, which is worthy of the name, has begun. In Qiaotou Town in the early years of Guangxu, there were no less than 2,000 single kiln workers working in the four kilns of Baixiao and Liwang all the year round, and there were more than 2,500 workers including the workers on the coal wharf and the fleet. .During the slack seasons of winter and spring, people from all over the world come to the kiln to earn cash, and the town is actually crowded with people, busier than Mohe City.In this way, a dozen or so flower boats and twenty girls are far from being able to cope with more and more young and strong men.In the spring of the first year of Guangxu, Yuguer built eight new kiln houses with blue bricks and red tiles under the Sankong Bridge, went ashore by himself, and placed a group of newly bought girls on the shore.In the second year of Guangxu, Yu Gu'er built twelve east and west wing rooms at both ends of the eight kiln houses. Except for a building boat that was in good condition, he sold all the remaining flower boats and dragged most of the girls ashore.

The well-known Flower Kiln in Qiaotou Town officially appeared this year.The name of the flower kiln is "Nuanxiang Pavilion". It was Yugu'er who invited a flower wine and asked the scholar to set it up. On the opening day of Nuanxiang Pavilion, Xiao Taiping, Li Wuye and several masters from Mohe City all arrived.Mr. Bai Er was forced by Xiao Taiping to invite him, so he also made an exception to come.Yu Gu'er entertained the masters with good wine and a new girl, and later gave a girl named Xiaoxiang to Mr. Bai Er as the third wife.Mr. Bai Er was very sorry and gave Yu Gu'er a road - out of silver, he built a section of yellow mud road from the front of Nuanxiang Pavilion to the head of Sankong Bridge.The road was well-built with gangue as the base and fine gravel as the top pavement. It was about two feet wide and extremely flat. In rainy days, your feet would not touch your feet. The chariots, horses and sedan chairs of adults and lords could reach the door of Nuanxiang Pavilion without any hindrance. Also in this year, under the leadership of Xiao Taiping, Xiao Bai, Li Wang, and the four kiln kings donated silver to build the Shengping Road from the east of the town to the west of the town.At the same time, Xiao Taiping paid for the construction of the Carriage and Horse Road from Qiaotou Town via Xiaojiayao to the Zazipo Coal Wharf.In addition to the original old roads, a road network with Qiaotou Town as the center, connecting four small kilns, coal wharves and royal official roads was formed.This made Mr. Zhao, the Taoist chief of the official kiln bureau, fall in love with this place at a glance. The official kiln bureau of the imperial court was not set up in Mohe city, but in this little-known Qiaotou town. At this time, the imperial court started to set up official kilns.In June of the first year of Guangxu, the Holy Mother, the Empress Dowager Yiyi, granted Li Zhongtang's request for coal and iron mining.In August of the third year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Li Zhongtang formally set up an official kiln bureau in the kiln area of ​​Kaiping Town in the North, to mine coal on a large scale with the modern method of western wells.It is only a matter of time before Qiaotou Town enters the eyes of the government and carries out modern Western-style mining. As a result, the attitude of Mr. Wang, the prefect of Mohe County, has changed. Let alone the coal mine in Qiaotou town "hiding the murderer" and "hiding the dead and accepting the traitor".Whenever the gentry and elders in the city scolded the coal mines in Qiaotou Town, Mr. Wang always said that Li Zhongtang was right. Now it seems that to make the country rich and the army strong, it is necessary to mine coal and smelt iron.When Mr. De Wang resigned because of the Mohe teaching case, Mr. Qian Baoshan became the magistrate of Mohe County, and even plunged into the kiln in Qiaotou Town, fighting fiercely with Xiao Taiping. At that time, no one would have expected that later—the Guanyao Bureau in the seventeenth year of Guangxu would bring a huge and bloody disaster to Qiaotou Town, and Xiao Taiping would fall to his death in such despair in Heguan Kiln Bureau and Dayangjing Town. In the struggle of blood and tears, the era of Xiaoyao represented by him ended, and the prosperous dream of the Xiao family generation ended...