Ethan Li's Lantern Love Chapter 6

The Zheng family's jade mine is located in Hada Township in the northwest of the city, more than 40 miles away from the ancient town.

The mining area is full of stone ridges and jade peaks, with numerous mountains, rapid streams, and rolling mountains. Green pines and cypresses stand out among the steep rocks. Looking from a distance, it is a strange scenery created by nature.

It has unique and beautiful natural scenery and rich mineral resources underground. As a jade producing area, the jade mineral here has a long history of mining. Xiuyan jade is famous for its natural characteristics such as warm and crystal clear texture, diverse colors, and beautiful texture. It has been worshiped and appreciated by humans since ancient times.

However, due to its location in a mountainous area with inconvenient external transportation, poor information, and lack of local technicians, the jade carving industry has developed slowly and is very backward. Since ancient times, most of the jade raw materials quarried here have been trafficked to Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Yangzhou and other places for processing. The jade carving craft has been occupied by outsiders. The jade carving industry in Xiuyan area is just a blank.

The Zheng family is a member of the Manchurian Yellow Banner. Their ancestors originally moved to Beijing from Changbai Mountain, and then moved their family to Xiuyan during the Qianlong period. After coming here, after years of hard work, Xavier Zheng's great-grandfather Zheng Guirong purchased a large area of   mines and land here. By the time of his father Zheng Shiqing's generation, the Zheng family had become a wealthy family that developed jade mines in the area.

In the tenth year of Xianfeng's reign, his father Zheng Shiqing died of illness. Xavier Zheng, who had just turned 30, took over the family business.

Xavier Zheng is young and promising, with an open mind. Since he started his own business, he has identified potential development opportunities and profit margins in the jade carving industry. Moreover, he was determined to break the rules, broaden his business scope, and prepare to start a jade carving business. He wanted to make his own jade mine resources self-supply for export and take into account development, and he was determined to carry forward China's magical jade carving craftsmanship.

In the second year of Tongzhi, Xavier Zheng's period of filial piety expired. In order to implement the blueprint and facilitate operations, at the beginning of the auspicious spring of Guihai, he handed over the mining affairs to capable people. He and his family left the old country house in the mine and moved into the city.

Since ancient times, jade can be mined in the open air or shallow layers of the ground in the jade mining area here. After the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, due to the influence of the jade-oriented trend of thought, Xiuyan jade was particularly loved and valued by the world because of its crystal clear texture, magnificent beauty, and "five-color stone". The jade carving industry has developed rapidly, and mines have increased their mining efforts. The jade in the shallow layers here has been basically mined.

In order to explore deep underground mineral sources. When Xavier Zheng's grandfather, Zheng Guirong, was still alive, he organized manpower to dig deep inclined mines and explore deep underground veins with rich reserves. After years of careful exploration, talented people have mastered some underground excavation skills and exploration skills, and the several mines set up by the Zheng family in the mining area have reached a certain scale of mining.

It is difficult to dig mountains and mines. The mineral deposits are contained deep in the earth's surface, tens of meters above the ground. The mine is set in a mid-mountain depression with a gentle slope. The width of the shaft mouth is about five or six feet. Standing on top of the shaft and looking down, the inside looks like a long, deep, and long black hole.

The hardships of the miners are well known to outsiders. It is dark and humid below the mine, and there is no ventilation or drainage facilities. When miners go down to quarry, they can only light miner's lamps made of pine trees. In the tunnel, it is dark and deep, winding and narrow, with uneven unevenness. The miner's lamps are faint and dim, and the light reflected is faint and hazy.

When working, the miners wore rough clothes and held picks, sledgehammers, drills and other tools in their hands. Each of them bent down and tied their necks, pounding with picks, and hammering rocks... . The sound of the impact of iron tools and ores is deafening, and the dust and debris are flying everywhere. If you are not careful, your skin and flesh will be scratched. If you are not careful or don't take proper precautions, you will be injured by stones, and it may even cause a catastrophe. However, the land of China has been plagued by famines for many years, the people are in dire straits, and there are many voices of people dying of hunger on the streets. Therefore, there are many poor people who come to work in the mines to fill their stomachs.

At the foot of the mine, there is a large stone-walled courtyard. Around the courtyard, trees such as locust trees, mulberry trees, and oak trees grow naturally, as well as some grasses and grasses. It's summer, and the trees look majestic, green, lush, and dense. In front of the compound is a dirt road that passes through the mining area and leads out of the mountain. The road is winding and uneven, and can only be used by a carriage.

Most of the stones excavated from the mines were moved and piled in front of the courtyard. Jade wool of various sizes and shapes is piled here and then transported out by horse-drawn carriage.

The courtyard is in a desolate location, old and crude. Only the Spring Festival couplets on the door, which change once a year at the end of the year, still look eye-catching:

Opening mountains and mining, peace is a blessing

Go down the well and dig rocks for health and good fortune

There are two houses in the compound, with gray bricks and gray tiles. The house in front is divided into three rooms. The room near the door is a reception room. The facilities in the room are extremely simple, with only a rectangular smoke-brown table and a few chairs.

The room in the middle is relatively large, with several simple dining tables and some long benches inside, which is where the miners eat.

The room inside is a kitchen, equipped with two large pots and some simple cooking and drinking utensils. In front of this house, there is a large open space. Every spring when the ice and snow melt, a mountain worship ceremony is held to start the work, or when the work is finished due to the cold, the owner will organize the miners to have a dinner here to celebrate.

A house at the back is also divided into several rooms. In every room, there is a long fire bed. On the kang bunk, some simple bedding and luggage were rolled up. Miners live and eat here all year round, so it is also called the "workhouse".

It was past noon, the sun was scorching, and the mountain mining area was extremely hot. Xavier Zheng took a carriage driven by an old man and went all the way around the mountains and stopped in front of the workshop yard of the jade mine.

In front of the jade pile. A middle-aged man wearing a blue faded old cloth jacket and dark blue trousers was bending down, turning over jade wool and checking the quality one by one. Hearing the noise, he looked up and saw the carriage approaching. He straightened his back and greeted cheerfully: "My boss is here."

Xavier Zheng jumped off the carriage, looked at the jade pile, and asked casually, "Foreman Li, how is the quality of the jade recently excavated?"

Foreman; Li Yongshun. He has a dark complexion and always has a kind look in his eyes. He is of medium build, speaks little, and has a calm demeanor. He is an expert in digging mountains and mining. At this time, he pointed at the pile of jade materials and answered confidently and readily: "My boss, the quality of the jade raw materials recently quarried is quite good. I took a general look and found that there are really a lot of high-quality jade materials."

Xavier Zheng walked up to him, looked at the jade pile, nodded with a smile on his face and said, "Yes, the wool excavated in the mines in the past had too many miscellaneous stones and the output was small. It was possible to excavate such A good batch of jade wool would be very good. "

At this time, Foreman Li lifted up a wooden bucket next to the jade pile and poured a full bucket of water on the jade pile. Immediately, he bent down and picked up a piece of jade wool that was about the size of a ruler and soaked in water with both hands. Immediately, he and his boss held it in front of their eyes and compared it with the sun's rays. The texture, color, dirty strands, flaws, grain direction, etc. of this piece of jade material were clearly presented in front of them. Occasionally, he pursed his lips, smiled and said, "Look, boss, the texture of this piece of jade is good. Although it contains some impurities and flaws, and the surface is somewhat weathered, the materials must be selected according to the material and used skillfully. It is a piece of pure color." Excellent food."

At this time, Xavier Zheng was also looking at the jade material carefully. He was smug and confident, and agreed happily; "Okay, okay, it's really gratifying that the mine can excavate such a batch of good materials! Now, we have opened our own jade grinding workshop and hired a highly skilled jade grinder." As jade carving and painting craftsmen, they can supply their own jade materials for export and take into account their development. If the quality of jade carving can be improved, the prospects for the Zheng family's jade business will be very optimistic. "

Managing a mine comes with a lot of responsibility. In his position, Foreman Li must take care of both employer and employer and fulfill his responsibilities on both sides. At this time, he put down the jade material in his hand, turned around happily, and discussed with a smile: "My boss, now --- this mineral vein being explored underground requires a lot of work and effort to mine, and the ore layer is The deeper we dig, the more high-quality jade material we can unearth. It takes a lot of effort from the miners. "

"Oh, miners work hard, and work requires strength." Xavier Zheng, as the owner, is shrewd and careful, handles and considers things thoughtfully, and immediately agreed with sympathy: "Now, although the miners' meals are simpler, they have to be more expensive." Let everyone be fed at an affordable price. Today, I will allocate some more money when I go back to improve the miners' food from time to time. "

"It's the boss who knows the cold and heat, and has the strength of a miner." Foreman Li was also a miner. He is a down-to-earth and kind man, smart and capable, organized and very capable. At this time, he smiled brightly and continued sincerely: "In order for the miners to avoid hunger and avoid going to the toilet while working, I arrange for the miners to have two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, and only porridge in the evening. I am waiting for the money from my employer. , the miners' food will be improved, and everyone is encouraged to pick more good jade and produce more good materials, please rest assured. "

Xavier Zheng is cheerful and open-minded, calm in dealing with things, ambitious and good at employing people. Feeling happy in his heart, he encouraged with a cheerful face: "When the miners have a full stomach and have enough strength, they can dig out more good materials and see more results, and then they will have everything."

While the two were talking, the old coachman had already called the workers and loaded some jade and wool materials onto the carriage properly.

Immediately, Xavier Zheng boarded the carriage and sat on it. Just listen to the coachman, the old man cracked his whip, and the familiar word "drive", the wheels rolled, the horses' hooves flew, and the carriage quickly drove out of the mining area...