Chapter 47 Series of Investigations: Survey on the Life of Coal Bosses

In China, coal mine production sites can be said to be the most unsafe workplaces, and coal bosses also claim to be the most insecure group of people. Indeed, they cross-border mining and illegal construction have led to frequent accidents in the pit, and countless workers were killed and injured. It is naturally difficult to sleep peacefully when exchanging "conscience" for black-hearted money. Zhang Jinjun, primary school education, 49 years old this year. In the second half of 1985, after he contracted a small state-owned coal mine and made a small fortune, he got his first "drive" - ​​Jialing 70 motorcycle.He recalled that the purchase price of this kind of transportation at that time was 4,600 yuan, which was already an "astronomical figure" in the eyes of ordinary local people.

According to him, the purpose of buying this motorcycle at that time was to go to the county to purchase equipment for the mine, such as V-belts for production, fuses, electric drills and electric switch construction and production materials. People still remember that in those years, he was always the "busiest person" in this coal mine, often day and night, as long as the equipment in the pit broke down and parts needed to be purchased, he had to get out of bed immediately , Start the motorcycle, go over the mountains and ridges to "complete the task", and become a full-fledged "purchaser".

Some people may say that there is actually no need for Mr. Zhang to "do everything by himself", because it makes himself very hard, so why not just send someone to buy it! No, in Zhang Jinjun's opinion, who is "always stingy", he must "do everything personally" when it comes to spending money in coal mines, because he is not at ease when others spend money. Sometimes when he sleeps at night, he often wakes up in his dreams for no reason, because he dreams that the equipment in the pit is malfunctioning, or that there is an accident.Later, with the gradual improvement of the domestic coal market environment, Boss Zhang's life of "doing everything by himself" only lasted for three years, and soon he lived a fairly prosperous life.

Today, if you ask him what his greatest wish is now, he will answer without hesitation: "If you earn enough money, change careers." Because it was, as he put it, "terrifyingly scary" to be in the business. In fact, what makes Boss Zhang even more "terrified" is his "terrified" after "terrified". This sentence means that in the process of panning for the first pot of gold, he experienced a lot of "fear and fear", but faced with the confusion of getting rich and then poor, he was even more "frightened" about his future and future. .

Most of these coal bosses are from "bumpkin" farmers, and they started coal with nothing more than to realize the simple and realistic wish of "warming the kang with their wives and children".But when they got the money they dreamed of, they gradually abandoned their original "wishes for life" and painted a more brilliant "wealth plan" for themselves in the confusion and confusion of being rich but still poor. Like most coal bosses, Zhang Jinjun always hoped that his children could receive a better education, so he did everything possible to send his wife and children to live in Beijing.His personal life has returned to the freedom of being "single". In addition, he has endless money, so his life has become without any restraint.

The sudden material wealth of the coal bosses and their special "Beijing complex" represent their spiritual "poverty" under certain circumstances.And using money and material things to fill their spiritual emptiness has also become the "self-cultivation" of coal bosses in a world constructed by desire and vanity. Of course, Zhang Jinjun’s later stories basically follow the life trajectory of ordinary people after they have money. When there is an "affair"—his wife makes a scene—he pays for the "backyard" firefighting, and then "everyone gets what he wants" and "lives in peace."