50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 718 The young man is also valuable.

During this period, the only way for a small county to make money was to open a factory or mine; tourism was simply not an option for the economy.

The true rise of the tourism industry is determined by two prerequisites: a large number of ordinary people have both leisure time and money, and are willing to spend money for leisure.

The nationwide implementation of the two-day weekend didn't begin until 95, the Golden Week holiday didn't start until 99, and people didn't have spare money until the mid-to-late 90s when wages generally increased.

Excluding tourism, opening a factory requires technology and investment, but who would want to open a factory in a remote, small county town?
Mining is possible; there are dozens of mineral deposits discovered in this area, including large-scale coal, iron, molybdenum, and antimony mines.

However, these mines are all buried deep in the mountains, where there are no roads, water, or electricity, making mining extremely difficult and costly.

Given that there are more readily accessible mineral veins elsewhere, there is no need for the government to spend a large sum of money to establish mines here.

For example, in the coal mines, there are many large coal mines in Pingdingshan within the province, and some places even have open-pit coal mines.

Those mines are where every shovelful of coal brings in money. The cost of mining a ton of thermal coal is only three to five yuan, but it can be sold for thirty to fifty yuan per ton. Those are the mines that are worth the government investing in.

For example, in the coal mines in the mountains of Lushi County, if you want to mine them, you first need to spend tens of millions to build roads. This hurdle alone reduces the possibility of mining to the lowest possible level.

Therefore, when Sun Zhiwei took the bus to Lushi County, the road conditions were worse than when he came from Shangdu.

After several hours of bumpy, potholed travel that nearly made him dizzy, he finally arrived in Lushi County.

The county seat of Lushi County spans both banks of the Luo River. The urban area is long and narrow, and the county seat is full of old ancient buildings. Only some government offices and local small factories and mines have cement buildings.

These small factories don't refer to large, profitable factories and mines, but rather to the small factories that exist in every county in China and can only supply the local area.

For example, fermented bean curd factories, soy sauce factories, match factories, machinery factories, cement factories, hardware factories, coal factories, iron factories, etc.

Yes, there are coal mines, but not large ones. They are small mines that supply fuel for the county town.

The same goes for iron ore; only a small amount is mined to supply the small blast furnace ironmaking plants and small hardware tool factories in the county.

It's impossible to dig up more and transport it to distant places to sell; the cost is too high and nobody wants it.

But it wouldn't work if we didn't set up small coal and iron mines, because the transportation costs for these raw materials and fuels were incredibly high.

That's why there were these small local factories, whose mining scale was even smaller than many private small coal mines in later generations.

In recent years, as the market has gradually opened up, many industrial and mining enterprises have begun to suffer losses year after year.

The coal industry was among the first to implement the contract management responsibility system.

They delegated the management rights of loss-making coal mines to individuals or collectives based on the principle of "paying enough to the state, keeping enough for the collective, and keeping the rest for themselves."

The later nationally renowned coal bosses were basically the first batch of these contractors.

Thinking about this, Sun Zhiwei suddenly realized that one of his judgments a few days ago might have been a bit presumptuous.

He originally thought that although there were many kidnappers, young men were still relatively safe.

But when he thought of coal mine owners, he realized that his idea had a flaw: women and children are valuable, and young men are valuable too.

He silently kept this idea in his heart and began to inquire about the road to Xiaoyuegou at the station.

Xiaoyuegou was indeed a small place; he had to ask many people before he learned the direction of Xiaoyuegou.

There are no buses to Xiaoyuegou; you can only wait outside the city and see if there are any horse-drawn carriages or donkey carts going in that direction.

If there's a bicycle, you can ride there yourself; there are only a few roads, so you're not afraid of getting lost. Having found out the details, Sun Zhiwei no longer hoped to find a ride.

He walked to a secluded spot outside the station, took out the motorcycle from his spatial storage, and began heading towards Xiaoyuegou based on the directions on the large map.

When he finally arrived at Xiaoyuegou Village, deep in the mountains, it was already noon the next day.

It only took him half a day to get from Xishuangbanna to Shangdu, but it took him a full three days to get from Shangdu to Xiaoyuegou, and he almost broke out in a cold sweat.

At this moment, he missed his days in Java terribly.

Although the roads there are difficult to travel, you can fly freely. If you want to go somewhere, just take out the Black Hawk helicopter and fly there yourself.

The Javanese army, navy, and air force pretended not to see the US military paint scheme on his Black Hawk and let him fly freely.

If you could fly your own plane here, it would only take a few hours to fly from Shangdu to Xiaoyuegou with a Black Hawk helicopter.

Unfortunately, he wouldn't dare to be so carefree at home.

Xiaoyuegou is a small mountain village, and in terms of economic conditions, it is not much different from Paqian Old Village in Xishuangbanna.

But the local customs here are clearly different from those on the border. The people in Lushi County seem to have a more scholarly air about them.

Even in Xiaoyuegou, a small mountain village, the villagers' clothes, though worn and tattered, were still neat and clean.

This place doesn't feel like a rural area; it's more like a small mountain village where people have a tradition of farming and studying.

Sun Zhiwei went to the village branch and asked the refined-looking village secretary about Li Cong's home.

In half a day, although he learned about the situation in Lin Cong's hometown, he did not find any suspicious points, which showed that this was not the place where Lin Cong disappeared.

He left some gifts for Lin Cong's family and then took his leave.

As for the compensation, he hasn't given it yet. Before he's certain of Lin Cong's fate, he doesn't intend to cut off the Li family's hopes.

Sensing the difficulty of the journey ahead, he returned to Lushi County and rested for a day at the county hotel.

After he had rested and recovered, he began to search along the route Lin Cong had taken.

This time he didn't take a car, but set off on a motorcycle.

He would stop and investigate every village he encountered on the road.

If he encountered anyone blocking his way, he didn't hold back. He broke the legs of every participant he saw and threw them to the side of the road.

There's no need to call the police; these people are all scoundrels, and the entire village will cover for them.

Therefore, wasting this time is unnecessary. We should make them pay a heavy enough price so that they will have some reservations.

That day, at a crossroads in the mountains, he encountered another group of people. This time, however, they didn't ask for money. Instead, several burly men came up and tried to grab him.

This is strange. If it's about money, many car owners would be willing to pay to avoid trouble, and paying a toll is not unbearable.

But directly arresting people is outrageous. Nowadays, who dares to travel far without some kind of protection? Who knows, someone might have a troll or something.

Besides, why are they arresting him? He's not a woman or child; he's a middle-aged man, not worth the trouble.
No, he suddenly remembered the possibility that had crossed his mind on the way here: the young man was also valuable.

(End of this chapter)