New Shun 1730

The truth is that it is better to keep the meat rotten in the pot. Of course, the more railways are built in China, the better. It doesn't matter who owns it, what matters is that there is this thing. Whoever owns it can be revolutionized, confiscated, acquired, etc. in the future, but the key is to have this thing.

But despite this, doing things internally is more troublesome than in a colony, and internal conflicts of interest have to be considered.

This time, the construction of the railway from Mentougou to Beijing offended many people, who were roughly divided into three groups.

One group was the sea households and sea people who sold seawood in Nanyuan.

One group was driving camels to transport coal. There were many camels in Beijing before, which were used to transport coal from the west of Beijing to Beijing. Now they are all unemployed.

The most troublesome group is a bunch of monks in the west of Beijing.

Jingming Temple, Tanzhe Temple, and Jietai Temple are famous temples. Many stories about the coal industry in Beijing in history cannot be avoided by these large temples in the west of Beijing.

The worst of them, Jingming Temple, also has a stele of the Emperor Yingzong of the Ming Dynasty.

And Tanzhe Temple, Jietai Temple, etc., needless to say, are much better than Jingming Temple.

The trouble is that this is near the capital, and there are monks. Liu Yu is tied up in the capital and can't strike hard.

It's even harder to make a wave of social rumors caused by foreign populations in Songsu area, make false cases, force monks to say that they spread the rumors, and thus confiscate land, demolish temples, divert conflicts, etc.

The reason why these temples are famous in the coal industry history of the capital is not just a casual talk.

There is a kiln god temple near Mentougou Quanmen. The so-called kiln god is the industry god worshipped by miners, because the death rate of coal mining is very high, and it is very normal for people to die.

The legend of this kiln temple is very interesting: the monks of Jingming Temple opened a coal mine and forced labor. It is said that an official who went on a secret visit was tricked by the monks of Jingming Temple into working in the coal mine. The high walls and courtyards were heavily guarded, and he could not escape. Finally, the official finally escaped, so he strictly investigated the problem of coal slaves in the coal mines in western Beijing. Then, the miners built a temple to worship him and regarded him as a patron saint.

This rumor is probably just a legend, but legends mostly come from life.

At least from the evidence available now, after Ming Yingzong, and then during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, and even later, there are indeed many "coal mine opening contracts" in existence.

The "landlord" column in the signature is clearly written as a high monk of Jingming Temple. After all, normal people cannot call the landlord Mingxiang, landlord Xinghuan... This is obviously a monk, and normal people cannot give him such a name.

In fact, since Sichuan and Beijing are both China, the form is similar. Well salt is a share system, and the coal mines here are also a share system: there are thirty days in a month, and the output of five days belongs to the monks.

This is an open contract, a Yin-Yang contract, and the Yin-Yang contract also involves issues such as tax exemption for temple industries.

To put it bluntly, this is the "land ownership" problem that capitalists have always been worried about. Why does the coal under the ground belong to the monks? And why does the salt in southern Sichuan belong to the landlords?

This is the contradiction between capitalists and landlords. Lao Ma said that for industrial capital, landlords are a group of useless burdens.

As for Tanzhe Temple and Jietai Temple, they also had a "big name" in history.

In history, when the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway branch line was built, the land of Tanzhe Temple and Jietai Temple had to be occupied. So the people of Tanzhe Temple and Jietai Temple, relying on their relationship with the court, were all imperially conferred temples, so they found someone to say "transporting coal may hinder the livelihood of the poor."

Such things, and similar things, will naturally repeat themselves in Dashun.

This is not a special kind of ignorance, but a universal reaction.

If this happened in a remote area or a colony, it would be too simple.

They could just send troops to smash and destroy things, and then frame people with crimes, just like Liu Yu did in the Songsu area. They could blame people for the rumors, and criticize them. Or they could be more ruthless and make all the land legally owned, just like the British East India Company did in India.

Or, the final solution is to use ideology to determine who owns the means of production and land and minerals. The debate tells the world that the minerals under the ground should not belong to the landlords. Of course, reasoning still needs to be supported by violence. Criticism and weapons complement each other.

It's a pity that these methods cannot be used in the capital.

Then they have to spend the money of 10,000 taels of silver for one mile of railway, and all parties have to be reconciled.

Some private coal mines have to pay tribute to Jingming Temple and Tanzhe Temple on a monthly basis. When occupying land, they can only rent the land of the temple and pay rent annually.

The interpersonal relationships in the temples in the capital are too complicated. Unlike the well salt in southern Sichuan, they can directly go to the army and demand that wasteland be taken back by the government, and they don’t have to worry about nonsense like "King Li’s tyranny and the government’s ownership of mountains and swamps is a great harm to the people."

According to European Enlightenment thinkers, Dashun is the most law-abiding. The ruling class is the landlord class, and the law is to protect the interests of the landlord class. Under private ownership, whether it is the landlords occupying the well salt producing area or the landlords occupying the coal producing area, if they want to open a mine, they must obtain the consent of the landlord. This is not a matter of buying or selling. If they want "one month, five days of output belongs to me" or "one month, ten days of output belongs to me", what should I do?

So in this case, Dashun’s first regular steam locomotive railway station, that is, the railway station near Xizhimen, became a very special place.

A place similar to a "religious holy land".

The group of people who believe in "science" or "realistic learning and productivity" will naturally come here to see and experience the legendary symbol of the new era as long as they come to Beijing.

Touch it, touch it, sit on it.

And Buddhists will also rush here.

Because the several major temples in the western part of Beijing are rich due to land acquisition, mining, rent collection, etc.

If you have money, the temples will be beautiful.

In the places with mountains and water in the west of Beijing, if you only talk about exquisiteness, they are much better than those temples crowded in Beijing. Moreover, temples in the mountains also have a sense of sacredness.

If you have money, you can repair it beautifully, add golden bodies and repair colored glaze. Those who make money by donating from donors will definitely not make as much money as those who make money by mining, land rent, land compensation, etc.

Without money, there will be no magnificent temples.

Now the railway has been built, and it is much more convenient to travel. The temples in the west of Beijing, taking advantage of the railway, often hold some activities. Naturally, many people squeeze on the train to go to the temples in the west of Beijing to burn incense and worship Buddha.

Even if they are on the same train carrying coal and lime, the difference between the two groups of people can be seen.

Those who are in high spirits, standing on the train to blow the wind, and even deliberately holding the railing with one hand, sniffing hard, smelling the intoxicating smell of coal smoke, and screaming from time to time are mostly people who actually learn "science religion".

Those who bring their families with them, sit obediently on the train, are nervous and uneasy, and mutter to themselves, are mostly people who go to the west of Beijing to burn incense and worship Buddha.

This matter is actually quite interesting.

A group of people who believe that science should be based on reality, imagine the future of this shabby and makeshift railway; while a group of people who believe that reincarnation is based on the past life, worship the magnificent new temple in reality.

Therefore, it was quite crowded when rushing from the city to the vicinity of Xizhimen. From a distance, you could see many people with different purposes entering and exiting along the grand Xizhimen.

Trains were not allowed in the city, whether it was the real threat of fire and smoke from steam locomotives to wooden houses, or the concerns about feng shui vibration caused by such strange things as steam locomotives.

However, coal could not be piled outside the city wall, so the real coal yard was in the city of Xizhimen. It was necessary to rely on horse-drawn carriages and the like to pour coal from outside into the inside when pedestrians entered and exited, and then distribute and sell it.

The reason why coal was not allowed to be piled outside was naturally for safety reasons.

First, once the city was closed, the coal would be piled outside, what would be burned inside? Therefore, it would be better to spend more time and pile the coal unloaded from the train in the newly built coal yard in the city.

Second, if the coal was piled outside the city, once something happened, such as war or uprising. These coals can be used to burn the city walls and gates, or piled up to block the moat, or piled up into mountains to cling to the city walls.

For the most basic safety consideration, no buildings or earthen mounds are allowed around the city walls of the capital. This has nothing to do with whether it is a feudal dynasty, it is just a simple safety consideration.

In fact, before this railway was built, Dashun's coal was transported to Fuchengmen, which is a little south of Xizhimen.

Xizhimen is a water gate, which transports water from the Yuquan River to the palace; Fuchengmen is the coal gate, and coal has been transported from here since the Yuan Dynasty.

However, because Xizhimen has the second largest gate of Dashun Capital and a large-scale fortress left by the previous dynasty.

The additional artillery platform and a large number of artillery are facing the newly built station. It can be controlled from a high position.

Fuchengmen is connected to the original official road. From the perspective of Fengshui, Fuchengmen faces the Forbidden City and the place where the man hanged himself in the back mountain. Dashun boasts of its virtue of water, and it is not auspicious to face the Forbidden City and the crooked tree with fire and thick smoke.

Moreover, Fuchengmen was originally a road for transporting coal. There are many buildings outside the city and the population is dense, so it is really unaffordable to demolish it.

Xizhimen is still a large area of ​​reed marshes with a sparse population. In addition, it is closer to the Academy of Sciences of Dashun, so in the end, it did not occupy the original Jingxi official road, but chose the more open Xizhimen - another reason is that the garden built on the ruins of the former temples around Xizhimen is the official land of the court, so it is more convenient to occupy land.

The railway station is a new thing.

But in the final analysis, it is still a part of the new era. Some of the characteristics of the new era were seen by Niu Er when he was in Songsu.

For example, next to this train station, there is a tall, eye-catching sign, just like the dock area in Songsu.

[Recruiting child laborers]

Ages 10 and over. Food and lodging are provided, parents must sign a guarantee, and in principle, kidnapped children are not accepted.

The reason why Songsu hired a large number of child laborers is because the factory owners found that "it is impossible for an adult farmer to connect the ends of yarn in the factory. Children's fingers are more flexible."

The reason why coal mines in Beijing hired a large number of child laborers is that technological progress has led to jobs such as pushing rail cars and hanging ropes, which can also be done by children, and the price is cheap, only one-third of the salary. Some deep and narrow mines, such as places where explosives are difficult to blast, also have to carry coal for children.

Furthermore, with the use of coal and the emergence of new architectural styles, some children are also needed to clear chimneys. Adults can't climb in, but children can easily get in and out. After all, there were no high-power blowers to smoke chimneys in this era.

Another reason is that the widespread use of coal, the advancement of iron smelting technology, and the development of Liao iron mines have made iron stoves a necessary configuration for families in the capital. Cast iron is not expensive, but Dashun cannot roll out iron rolls effectively and cheaply, and cheap chimneys are not popular, so there are a little more people dying from gas poisoning every year.

Children can go to the coal yard and make coal powder balls. Ordinary families use coal blocks or coal cakes, while poor families can only use balls made of coal powder and yellow mud.

There is a poem "praise": Xinxing coal shop sells coal balls, and there is no flame on the stove; it is hateful that the coal seller is fake and collects the ash and yellow soil together.

Therefore, the people still trust these big stores more. After all, no one wants to save some money to buy coal balls, but the result is all yellow mud and ash, without any flame.

And making coal balls can be done by children. These big stores also have to hire more children to make coal balls before the winter comes-this does not even need to be paid. In winter, a batch of coal powder balls will be issued as wages.

If adults want to work, they will definitely have to ask for money, so it is better to hire children to do it without paying them. It is not that adults are special, but that adults have to support their families, and they will never do this work without paying.