As soon as the Human Emperor Banner came out, I became the Lord of the Old Ones

Chapter 286 The Collapse of the Lifeline
When the numerous mining teams were to merge and form the "Dawn Mining Group," how to reflect the rights and interests of these miners became a very sensitive issue.

At the time, the BlackRock family led the largest mining team in the region.

However, its strength did not significantly surpass that of other mining teams, and it was unable to firmly maintain its dominance in the new company.

In order to become the undisputed number one shareholder, while engaging in a bloody battle with some unruly mining teams, the BlackRock family also adopted a very clever approach.

They bypassed part of the mining team's management.

They went straight to the ordinary miners at the grassroots level, found the more prestigious and skilled veterans among them, and painted a rosy picture of the bright future after the formation of the new company.

Of course, they also made a written promise to significantly increase the profit share of ordinary miners in the new company.

This strategy proved effective.

The BlackRock family bribed a large number of their competitors' frontline employees.

With the secret support of the BlackRock family, many ordinary miners launched passive resistance and even large-scale strikes to express their dissatisfaction with the management's failure to reach an agreement on the formation of a new company.

In this bloodless manner, the BlackRock family seized the top position in the "Dawn Mining Group" at minimal cost.

Even though "Liming Mining Group" evolved into "Liming Heavy Industry Group" decades later, the legitimate rights and interests of grassroots employees are still theoretically guaranteed.

This right is reflected through a dedicated fund.

The "Dawn Fund" will be responsible for the annual dividends of all miners, medical insurance and disability allowances after injuries or illnesses, high retirement pensions, and, in the unfortunate event of an accident, a pension sufficient to sustain their long-term livelihood, and so on.

It can be said that the "Dawn Fund" is the biggest reason why many miners are willing to do arduous work on the front line of high danger underground for a long time. It is everyone's safety rope and lifeline.

Many of the elderly people who have been mining here since before the establishment of Liming Heavy Industry also habitually refer to it as the "Life Fund".

The Dawn Foundation has been operating very well for the past few decades.

Not only does it receive substantial annual profits from Liming Heavy Industry, but the fund's own stable investment areas have also seen continuous growth, resulting in substantial profits.

Even those who occasionally take risks and venture into relatively radical emerging industries mostly succeed and reap rewards far beyond their expectations.

With the support of the ever-expanding Liming Fund, grassroots employees of Liming Heavy Industry enjoy benefits that are the envy of everyone within a radius of thousands of miles.

At the peak of the company's development, grassroots employees of Liming Heavy Industry could enjoy retirement pensions that were 300% higher than the social average.

As for the subsidies, allowances, dividends, and holiday benefits that are issued every now and then under various pretexts, needless to say.

At its peak, the company's management even brought in senior spirit masters from the core area to open a spirit master academy within the company. In addition to providing in-depth professional training for employees, it also allowed employees' children to receive the most rigorous and comprehensive spirit master education from an early age—a super benefit that people in border areas could only dream of.

However, none of the people who were happy at the time realized that such generous benefits were based entirely on two preconditions.

First, at that time, the entire Heroic Spirit Alliance was in a period of rapid development, and all walks of life had entered a stage where opportunities were everywhere, and you could grab them with your toes without even bending over.

It's fair to say that even if you were blindfolded and randomly chose an investment area by throwing darts, the return on investment wouldn't be too bad.

In retrospect, the investment returns of Liming Fund did not exceed the average level of several well-known funds, and were even slightly lower. This shows that neither the internal finance department of Liming Heavy Industry nor the so-called investment experts hired from outside had the insight and ability they claimed to possess.

Secondly, at that time, the miners at Liming Heavy Industry were generally young, and the underground crystal resources were abundant, with a large number of high-quality mineral veins that were easy to mine distributed on the shallow surface.

Being young means you don't have to worry about high retirement costs.

Moreover, they are physically strong, and even if they unfortunately suffer from spiritual erosion, they are often in the early stages that seem no different from normal people. Medical expenses are not high, and it does not affect their work. On the contrary, they can be stimulated by the remnants of the past, becoming energetic, strong, and improving their work efficiency.

The fact that the mineral veins are located on the shallow surface and are easy to mine means that the work is relatively dangerous, the safety costs required are relatively low, and mining accidents rarely occur, so there is no need to pay high follow-up expenses and compensation.

These favorable conditions enabled Liming Fund and Liming Heavy Industry to enter a golden age of rapid development.

At that time, all the miners firmly believed that the contract they had signed with the Blackride family was more unbreakable than a castle made of bronze and iron.

Unfortunately, there is no castle in the world that can never be breached.

Not to mention that this seemingly indestructible castle had long been riddled with holes by termites from the inside.

Today, Liming Heavy Industry has been developing for half a century. Like all middle-aged and elderly people over fifty, various ailments that were once ignored have gradually emerged.

The changes in the external environment were like the quiet arrival of winter, blowing razor-sharp winds into the bones of the elderly.

Firstly, investing is becoming increasingly difficult.

So-called "stable investment" often means ridiculously low returns.

Investments with slightly higher returns are very likely to result in total loss.

Even though the management of Liming Heavy Industry personally took charge of several transformations using money from the Liming Fund, the results were often not good. Instead of bringing the company out of its predicament, they added new burdens.

Secondly, the average age of the grassroots mining teams has increased significantly.

Many loyal and hardworking miners who have dedicated their lives to Liming Heavy Industry have reached retirement age and should be enjoying high pensions.

Many miners suffer from spiritual corruption, which, after a long period of more than ten or even several decades, progresses from mild to moderate, then to severe, and even to the terminal stage, turning them into irrational, incredibly strong, bloodthirsty monsters.

These miners' erosion syndromes are undoubtedly workplace injuries.

The company must bear full responsibility.

As is well known, Spirit Erosion is an incurable disease; it cannot be cured, only managed.

Every year, the medical expenses for maintaining their spiritual erosion, barely stopping its progression, or slowing its development are astronomical.

Not to mention the costs of caring for terminal patients with Spirit Erosion Syndrome, the living expenses of their families, and even the damage caused by the attacks of terminal patients with Spirit Erosion Syndrome, etc., expenses that were completely unimaginable at the time.

(End of this chapter)