Chapter 52 postscript

My childhood and youth were spent in the mines, although I was not the son of miners. In my childhood impression, miners are a very high-paying profession.At that time, we lived in dilapidated small bungalows, but many of the miners lived in high-rise buildings. Their families were very wealthy, and the schools in the mining area were as beautiful as gardens.But behind the rich coal mines, there are always many unimaginable things.When I grew up, I was with the secretary of a certain provincial party committee once. One thing he said confirmed my original opinion: the secretary was the director of a certain mining bureau when he was young.One year before the Spring Festival, the bureau leaders went to the miners’ homes to condolences, and found that as long as the miners married foreign women as wives, they could always see big fish, meat, and flour dumplings on the New Year’s dinner table; The New Year's Eve dinner at the miner's house where the woman is the daughter-in-law is still mashed corn and cornbread pickles.The leader who went to condolences was just uncomfortable and angry at first.But I went to several houses in a row and found that they were all like this.The leader couldn't take it anymore, overturned the pots and bowls of the miner's house on the spot, and scolded the women in Shanxi: "Men earn money for you every day in the gate of hell, and now it's Chinese New Year, and they don't give you a good meal. It's too shameful... …

Later, I worked in the Communist Youth League and once served as the Minister of the Youth Industry Department of the Youth League Committee of Taiyuan City.During this period, I had an unforgettable mining experience.I put on work clothes, wrapped a white towel, got on the mine cart, and went all the way deep into the depths of the mine thousands of meters underground.It was sooty and pitch black inside.After turning on the miner's lamp, I suddenly found a surprising discovery: in the deepest part of the mine, there was a group of squeaking and running around rats.What surprised me even more was that when the miners saw the mice, not only did they not do anything to eliminate these scourges, but they took out the bread in their pockets and fed them.Seeing that I was puzzled, my friend in the mine explained: In the eyes of their coal miners, mice are not only the closest life to them, but also their "protector god".Rats have a very sensitive sense of smell. As long as the gas concentration in the mine changes or there is a problem with the surrounding geological structure, the rats will react immediately, either dying or barking wildly.As long as this happens, miners must immediately evacuate underground.Rats predict disasters as accurately as swallows predict heavy rain.Therefore, in the eyes of the miners, the mice in the mine are as cute as the pets of the rich.After hearing such a story, I feel very uncomfortable...

Recently, I also encountered a surprising thing: a classmate of my middle school came to Beijing to find me, holding a batch of "Yuan blue and white flowers".He hoped to find experts in Beijing to verify the authenticity through me.This classmate left a deep impression on me.Back then, when we were studying hard, he gave up his studies and started a coal business.Twenty years ago, he drove his own car and lived in a villa.His premature success has aroused the envy of many classmates.I was quite surprised that the rich man who didn't want to study in the past started a porcelain business with a high cultural content.He explained: Now his hometown has shut down the small coal mine, squeezing him out of the coal industry.There is a lot of spare money in hand, if you don't find a good deal, it is easy to lose this wealth by gambling.I heard that blue and white porcelain trading is as profitable as coal, so I poured all my funds into it.After hearing this, I couldn't help worrying about him.Coincidentally, at that time, Beijing happened to hold the "Exhibition of Chinese and Foreign Yuan Blue and White Porcelain".The most special thing about this exhibition is that there are a group of Yuan blue and white flowers exported to Iran more than 700 years ago.Among them, five large blue and white vessels from the Yuan Dynasty were exported from Jingdezhen, China to Iran. They were regarded as sacred objects by successive Iranian kings and enshrined in royal mosques, where they have been passed down.It can be said that the inheritance is well-established, the records are clear, and there is no objection. It is the standard blue-and-white Yuan Dynasty universally recognized.When my classmates and I went to see the exhibition, he was very excited and complicated.When he entered the exhibition hall, he observed very carefully, from the tire quality, glaze color, decoration, vessel type, inscription, paste, especially the details that others cannot realize, such as hair color, smudge, glaze layer, etc. Very finely focused.I knew in my heart that what he was thinking in his mind was not just the standard instruments in front of him, but secretly comparing the batch of things he invested in with the exhibitors in front of him one by one.I found that the longer he watched, the heavier his panting, the paler his face, and the more confused his thinking became.By this time, I understood everything, and took the initiative to pull him out of the exhibition site that broke his heart.When drinking at noon, the classmate sighed: I have been engaged in coal for so many years, and I have never missed a single shot.But in this porcelain business, how can you make an eye out as soon as you get started? !It seems that the safest and most secure profitable business in the world is coal! ...

After a while, an elder brother from the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee came to see me in Beijing.During the meal, I had no intention of talking about it: There is a large amount of high-quality coal stored in a certain county, which can be mined as long as the top of the mountain is lifted.However, a ban can be issued from above: all coal mines with an annual output of less than 150,000 tons will be shut down.The local people could not afford to invest in large coal mines, so they had to go out of business and return to poverty.Then came the rich and powerful big shots, opened up various relationships, and mined wildly here. The daily net profit is several million, and the income is several hundred million in a year, and the only thing left to the local area is pollution and destruction.The people who have been watching here for generations have been excluded by the levers of policy.Seeing that the things left by the ancestors were mined by the rich outsiders, they had no choice but to look at the coal and sigh, and even begged from other places.I was very sad to hear that.

What needs to be explained in particular is that Duan Tiansheng, secretary of the municipal party committee, and many other characters in the novel are all fictional.But the whole novel is soaked in my thinking and observation of Shanxi's economic and social development over the years, and also soaked in my sincere affection for my hometown. Since living in Beijing, I have received support from many leaders and friends.I would like to take this opportunity to thank the teachers and friends who have inspired and helped me the most in my life. They are: Ji Chaozhu, former deputy secretary-general of the United Nations, Liu Zhenhua, former governor of Shanxi Province, Gao Feng, deputy chief editor of CCTV Zhang Huashan, producer Yang Shulin, "Focus Interview" reporter Qu Changying, commissioner of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Xing Tianrong, former deputy political commissar of the Naval Aviation Li Chunming, secretary-general of the Scientific Research Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Li Qian, assistant director of the Institute of Literature Tao Guobin, Hong Kong Phoenix TV Beijing Wang Baoyu, deputy director of the base, Xie Haiyang, former chief of staff of the Tank Brigade of the Beijing Military Region, etc.; at the same time, I would also like to thank the leaders and friends in my hometown of Shanxi who have supported and helped me for many years. They are: Zhou Ran, Li Haiheng, Li Nusheng, Guo Zhenzhong, Zhang Guiyuan, Fan Shikang, Zhang Zheng, Wang Aiping, Wang Jizu, Chen Hecai, Lu Dekun, Li Gang, Wang Yunfei, Cheng Shunwang, Wang Lisheng, Song Jianguo, Sun Jianqi, Li Yanpeng, Yin Tongsan, Liang Zhihong, Sun Tao, Zhang Huijun, Jin Ruping, Xu Jianhong, Zhao Mengtian, Song Yaozhen, Tang Jin and so on.