There are three Yao Desheng brothers. He is the boss. Father Yao Zhiting and mother Lin are farmers, and their families are poor. Yao Desheng has great ambitions since he was a child, which is different from ordinary children. Father told him to herd cattle, and in a few months, he could find a way to fatten the cattle. The work in his hometown made him strong. Later, his father took him to Xunwu and Menling, Jiangxi, 60 miles away from home, selling rice at home, sweating all day, but earning only a few tens of pence, and the family could not make a living at all. He thinks there is no future in this kind of business, and he always feels that there is nothing suitable for him in China, so he is depressed and confused!

Yao Desheng

Run to Nanyang

When Yao Desheng 19 years old, one day, he heard from Yu Zonger, a "water passenger" of Rezhe, that he had a chance to make a fortune in Nanyang. He was overjoyed, that is, he went home to pack his simple bags, bid farewell to his parents, and accompanied Yu Zonger, a water passenger, down the river by boat from his hometown dam head, via Xinpu in Jiaoling County and Songkou in Meixian County to Shantou in Chaozhou, and then by boat to Hong Kong. There was no boat at that time, so we took a "plywood boat" from Hong Kong and arrived in Singapore via 1400 nautical miles of "seven continents". Then he was transferred from Singapore to Furong Port, Malaysia, and was introduced to a tin mine as an employee by an old water customer. As the saying goes, "A hero is not afraid of humble origins", and he gladly joined the miners as coolies.

When Yao Desheng first entered the mine, he was not familiar with anything. He could only do some heavy work such as carrying soil and pushing harvesters with a minimum salary of seven or eight yuan per month. He is young, healthy, strong and efficient, trusted by the mine owner, and his salary is gradually increasing. Besides providing his own food and expenses, he can save a little. In just one year, the travel expenses paid by the old water passengers were paid off. Although he is a worker, he is concerned about the work of various mining departments and the organization of companies, as well as the refining and export of tin mines. He also learned that the tin industry in Ipoh Port is more developed, with greater prospects and better treatment for workers. Instead, I left Furong Port, found a friend to introduce me, and worked as a foreman in a mine in Ipoh. Two years later, when I had some savings, I stopped being an employee and became a peddler.