The mine owner's name was Hu Teng, a native of Datong.
He was not a virtuous man by any measure. At best, he could be described as a small-time merchant with sharp instincts and flexible morals, the kind who always knew where profit hid and never cared too much about how clean his hands were afterward.
For generations, his family had survived by mining ore and selling it. It was the only trade they knew, and the only way they knew how to live.
Unfortunately, under the Ming Dynasty, private mining was strictly forbidden.
Anyone who wanted to mine legally had to weave their way into official circles, grease palms at every level, and maintain endless relationships with clerks, yamen runners, and minor officials. By the time all those mouths were fed, the profits left behind were laughable. Not only would the mine owner earn almost nothing, even the miners themselves would barely scrape together enough food to survive.
Hu Teng took one look at that road and abandoned it completely.
Instead, he chose the illegal path.
"The mountains are high, and the emperor is far away," he told himself. As long as he was not caught, who could say he was breaking the law?
At the beginning, his operation was small. A few dozen people, at most a hundred. They dug discreetly, extracted small amounts of ore, and sold it quietly. There was no noise, no trouble, no large gatherings. The local officials pretended not to see anything, and Hu Teng earned a modest but comfortable income.
Everything seemed stable.
Then, last year, the Manchu invasion swept through the region like a blade.
Villages were burned, homes destroyed, and countless upright civilians were forced to abandon everything they owned. They fled into the mountains, desperate, hungry, and terrified, eventually gathering around the areas near Hu Teng's mines.
Hu Teng found himself facing a dilemma.
On one hand, these people were labor. Cheap labor. If he took them in, he could expand production, dig more ore, and earn far more money than before.
On the other hand, when he looked at their hollow eyes and desperate pleas, he could not quite bring himself to drive them away.
In the end, greed and pity reached an uneasy compromise.
He took them in.
As a result, his mining operation ballooned at an alarming rate. What had once been a small illegal mine suddenly swelled to over a thousand people.
And once the number reached that scale, there was no hiding it anymore.
The authorities noticed.
Large-scale illegal mining was no minor crime. It was a serious offense.
Hu Teng understood very clearly that once the government intervened, things would not end with a simple fine. But by that point, there was no road left to retreat.
Unwilling to surrender without resistance, Hu Teng had no choice but to organize his miners and arm them for self-defense.
At that moment, the nature of everything changed.
What had once been an illegal mining operation instantly transformed into a rebel group.
The crime escalated accordingly.
What might have once been resolved with money became forced military service or exile. From there, it climbed further, until it reached the level of capital punishment. One step more, and it would even implicate his entire clan under the charge of treason.
Around that same time, Yang Sichang was newly appointed as Supreme Commander of the Three Borders.
The moment he took office, he began cracking down on instability. Hu Teng's group was swiftly marked as a target, and border troops were dispatched to suppress the bandits hiding in the mountains.
Against hardened frontier soldiers, Hu Teng's miners had no chance.
Their only option was to flee.
Fortunately, they were far more familiar with the terrain than the government troops. They scattered through forests, slipped through ravines, and used the mountains themselves as cover. After shaking off their pursuers, they crossed to the southern slopes and eventually found refuge in a secluded gully that contained a tile kiln.
There, they continued mining, not for profit anymore, but simply to survive.
Now, seeing Chen Yuanbo, the Prefect of Daizhou, standing before him in person, Hu Teng's heart sank violently.
His face darkened as he cursed inwardly.
"Damn it. I can't even stay in Daizhou now. Once an official of the Prefect's rank gets involved, I'll have to move again."
Just then, Chen Yuanbo spoke.
"Hey. Mine owner over there," he called out calmly. "I have a question for you. Answer me honestly. Are you simply a merchant trying to earn some money, or are you a rogue bandit intent on stirring up trouble?"
Hu Teng answered without hesitation.
"Is that even a question? Of course I just want to earn some money."
Chen Yuanbo smiled faintly.
"If it's just about money," he said, "then that's easy. I can give you an opportunity to make it."
Hu Teng froze.
Confusion spread across his face.
Chen Yuanbo continued, unhurried and composed.
"I plan to establish a government-run coal mine. However, I lack sufficient manpower, and more importantly, I lack people with real experience mining coal in the mountains. Therefore, I need someone to manage the mining operations on my behalf. I need an official. Are you willing to serve under me as a mining official?"
This was persuasion, pure and simple.
If Chen Yuanbo had merely said that he wanted to open a coal mine and hire a paid manager, Hu Teng, a man accustomed to wild freedom, would almost certainly have refused.
But the moment the word "official" was spoken, everything changed.
In the Great Ming, who had not dreamed of becoming an official?
Even an unranked position, even an office without formal status, was still an official post. It was something countless people longed for, something they chased desperately all their lives.
Hu Teng felt his heart stir.
Yet suspicion quickly followed.
He had dealt with officials before. He feared this might be a trick, a way to lure him out only to execute him publicly.
Chen Yuanbo seemed to see straight through his thoughts.
"I know what you are worried about," he said calmly. "I, Chen Yuanbo, will swear a public oath. I will grant you full pardon for your past crimes of illegal mining and organizing an armed group. All of it will be forgiven."
Hu Teng was stunned.
Then, joy burst out of him like a flood.
In that era, oaths still carried weight. Unlike later times, they were not empty words.
With the Prefect of Daizhou swearing publicly in his official capacity, there was nothing left to fear.
Hu Teng raised his voice and shouted, "Brothers, lay down your weapons. We're going out."
The miners collectively let out a breath they had been holding for far too long.
If they could return to being lawful commoners, who would want to continue living as fugitives? Since the authorities had offered them a way down, everyone was more than willing to take it.
Weapons were dropped one by one.
The miners walked out of the gully.
Thus, Chen Yuanbo created a new official post called Mining Administrator and appointed Hu Teng as the Mountain Mining Administrator, specifically responsible for managing mining affairs in Daizhou.
At first, Hu Teng planned to handle matters using his old methods.
But after working alongside Chen Yuanbo, he quickly realized just how narrow and crude his previous approach had been.
Chen Yuanbo raised miners' wages immediately. He introduced new machinery to improve efficiency. He even dispatched educated men to give the miners civic lectures and morale talks, teaching them discipline, unity, and purpose. They were taught to sing "We Workers Have Strength," their voices echoing through the mountains.
At the same time, Chen Yuanbo mobilized the people of Daizhou to build roads connecting the city directly to the tile kiln gully.
Almost overnight, those who had once been labeled members of a rebel party were transformed into proud coal miners.
However.
Only a few days after order had been established in the tile kiln gully, just as Chen Yuanbo was preparing to turn his attention elsewhere, Hu Teng rushed in with urgent news.
"My Lord Prefect, something bad has happened," he reported. "Another group of miners from Datong has arrived. They have occupied Chai Tree Forest and started digging an iron mine there."
Chen Yuanbo laughed softly.
"What is there to be surprised about?" he said. "Think back to how I convinced you. Go approach them and recruit their leader. Make him your deputy mining administrator."
Hu Teng was overjoyed.
"Your subordinate has that much authority?"
"Of course," Chen Yuanbo replied. "Go."
After a brief pause, Hu Teng added, "However, My Lord Prefect, counting us and these newcomers, two groups have already arrived. If Yang Sichang continues suppressing bandits in Datong, more private mine owners and miners will inevitably flee here. That could create further complications. I ask that you be aware of this."
Chen Yuanbo nodded slowly.
"That is indeed a problem. It seems I must discuss this matter with Supreme Commander Yang."
He picked up his brush and began writing a letter.
In it, he clearly distinguished private mine owners from genuine rebel forces, arguing that they required different methods of handling. He described the excellent results his own pacification policies had achieved and expressed his hope that Supreme Commander Yang would abandon wholesale extermination in favor of appeasement and integration.
Once the letter was complete, he dispatched a rider at full speed toward Datong.
Two days later, the letter arrived on Yang Sichang's desk.
Yang Sichang read it carefully from beginning to end.
Then he slowly shook his head, pushed the letter aside, and picked up his own brush.
In his reply, he wrote:
"Prefect Chen, while your current policy of appeasement appears to have achieved some success, these results are merely superficial. These miners will inevitably rebel again. They will never obediently work for the authorities. Once you relax your vigilance, they will gather strength, stir up trouble, and ravage the countryside. In the end, they will grow beyond control. My own father was dismissed from office because of this very issue. If you do not believe me, then just wait and see."