#224 - Chapter 224 Coal Trading
Shanshi Coal Mine.
After daybreak, Zhong Yu brought his team back to the coal mine.
A group of people was already waiting at the mine.
"Captain Zhong, we've decided that every three days, we'll prepare 300 tons of coal for you to trade!"
As Zhong Yu stepped out of the vehicle, a middle-aged man emerged from the crowd waiting at the mine and shouted at him.
This man was one of the key figures who had reached an agreement with Zhong Yu yesterday.
"Good! Mr. Li, it's settled then! But 300 tons is just for the first three months. After that, I don't care if you expand your workforce or whatever, but after three months, it needs to increase to 500 tons!"
Zhong Yu, who often joked and laughed with Qin Jin and others, wore a different face in front of outsiders.
If not completely unapproachable, he was at least serious and cold.
This Shanshi Coal Mine was just a small coal mine.
According to Huaguo standards.
Annual production of around 200,000 tons is considered a small coal mine.
Annual production of around 600,000 tons is considered a medium-sized coal mine.
And annual production of 2 million tons or more is considered a large coal mine.
Now, there weren't many survivors here, and with the power outage, many heavy machines couldn't be used, so it was impossible to reach the previous annual output of hundreds of thousands of tons.
The requirement wasn't high. They only needed an annual output of 40,000 to 50,000 tons, which averaged to 4,000 to 5,000 tons per month, or 400 to 500 tons every three days, which would greatly alleviate the energy problem for the Green Source Base.
"No problem! We will definitely do it!"
The leader, surnamed Li, gritted his teeth and agreed.
He was also under considerable pressure.
Their group had gathered together recently, and they were relatively familiar with each other, but it was difficult for just over ten of them to mine nearly a hundred tons of coal every day.
They had to expand their workforce.
This involved the issues of recruitment and management.
This was also why Qin Jin wasn't so enthusiastic about this at first.
Compared to more important resources like oil, he would directly dispatch people to occupy and establish a defensive base for long-term stationing.
For other resources like coal, he chose to support local forces to collect it.
And then exchange it for food.
There was no doubt that food could be exchanged for resources. As time went on, the survivors would become increasingly aware of the value of food!
Currently, the food quota for exchanging 200 tons of coal was 10 kilograms.
That is, 1 jin of food for 10 tons of coal.
One transaction of 300 tons was 15 kilograms of food.
Future transactions of 500 tons would be 25 kilograms of food.
These survivors might think that the Green Source Base was exploiting them, but after some time, they would be grateful that there were still people willing to exchange with them like this.
"Then today, we'll help you clean up the remaining zombies in the mining area and leave you two generators!"
"In exchange, you first load the existing coal onto our trucks!"
Zhong Yu said.
This was part of the content communicated with this group of people after arriving here yesterday.
The environment in the mining area might have been relatively "comfortable," as it actually harbored some zombies.
They cleaned up a portion yesterday afternoon, but due to time constraints, they left early to find a place to spend the night. Today, they still needed to come over to help clean it up before handing it over to these people for future mining.
In exchange, they needed to hand over the existing finished coal in the mine for them to take away.
The newly mined coal could not be directly burned. It also needed to be classified and filtered by coal washing machines.
This required electricity, so they would give them two coal-burning generators.
Anyway, there was no shortage of anything here, except for coal. They could generate their own electricity for work in the future.
After cleaning up the zombies in the mine, they would install protective fences and other protections at the entrance to prevent zombies from entering in the future. They would have to handle these things themselves.
After confirming all the details, Zhong Yu and Liu Wenhao sent some team members to clean up the mine.
The remaining team members also followed these people to load the coal onto the trucks.
It was expected that they would only be able to return to the base after finishing tomorrow.
The middle-aged man surnamed Li watched these armed personnel with guns start working, and he also breathed a slight sigh of relief.
His name was Li Hongwen.
During peacetime, he was originally the boss of a company in Shanshi, and he also had some other businesses in Shenzhen.
After the apocalypse, he finally managed to survive for more than a month, only to be greeted by his wife and daughters who had come from Shenzhen!
Due to the food problem, he led his wife and daughters away from the original team.
At that time, the weather was getting colder and colder, so the three of them came to this famous coal mine in Shanshi, which was not far away, based on their memory.
Because they could get coal here to keep warm and make a fire.
He also met many survivors here who had the same idea.
Relying on some edible plants that he was lucky enough to find on the road, as well as the regional advantages here, he led his wife and daughters through that harsh winter.
He also made friends with many survivors.
Those survivors gradually became the leader of this group, thanks to the little food his daughter sent and Li Hongwen's personal charisma!
When spring came and the ice and snow melted, they met this group of armed personnel who had come from Guangyuan City to exchange for coal yesterday.
"Xiaolan, Cai, you take our people to help them load the coal onto the trucks."
He instructed the two women beside him.
One of the two women looked about forty years old and exuded a dignified temperament. The other was much younger and taller, looking only in her early twenties.
Even though she was wearing thick clothes and a scarf, and her face was smeared with some carbon ash, making her look dark, her pair of bright, large eyes were still bright, and it could still be seen that she was a pretty girl.
They were none other than Li Cai and Huang Cailan, mother and daughter!
After finding their husband and father, they had been relying on each other, surviving many disasters to this day!
"Okay, Dad, we'll go over and help first."
Li Cai smiled and walked to her group to call the uncles and elders to start working with their companions.
She heard that after loading the trucks, the group from the Green Source Base in Guangyuan City would give them an extra 3 jin of rice as a reward for establishing cooperation!
Although these people had survived that winter, they ate some banana cores, yams, sweet potato roots, cassava, and other plants. (Relying on coal for heating, they survived longer in the wild in winter)
They had learned it from a flyer that fell from a helicopter before the city was closed by heavy snow.
Otherwise, their family might have starved to death.
Not to mention saving other survivors who came here later.
"So they are the people from the Green Source Base! If it weren't for their flyers, we might not have survived that winter!"
She thought to herself.
Her father and his group had naturally seen the flyers and knew that there was such a place in Guangyuan City.
They had originally planned to go to Guangyuan City to join the Green Source Base when the weather got better.
But they didn't expect them to come over first.
So they were surprised when they found out yesterday, and quickly agreed to the trading conditions of these people.
Because those people from the Green Source Base said the same thing as on the flyer, even if they went there, they wouldn't directly join, and they still had to exchange materials for food.
Since they all had to exchange, it was better to guard this coal mine and have a long-term and stable exchange item.
Just.
I wonder if Brother Li, Brother Liang, and A Zhen have also gone to this Green Source Base?
(End of chapter)
