1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2442
"President Tao, the mining area is ahead!"

In fact, without Chen Yixin's reminder, Tao Donglai had already seen a few tall chimneys standing in the distance, which should be the furnace for smelting ore.

The mining activities of the Fushan Copper Mine have been going on for several years, and now there are matching smelters near the mining area, allowing the output to evolve from copper ore to copper ingots.Although the cost of building smelting facilities in Fukuyama County is high, it also greatly improves the efficiency of the use of maritime transport capacity. In the long run, it must be a good deal.

After passing through an armed checkpoint, Tao Donglai and his party arrived at the smelter located on the outskirts of the mining area.Although the Fushan mining area is affiliated to the Ministry of Industry in terms of establishment, due to the actual local situation, the daily operation and security work are actually directly managed by the military.Considering the current actual situation in Fushan County, additional troops were deployed around the mining area to keep out the refugees who entered the area.

At present, most of the commercial and trade organizations in Fushan County have entered a state of closure, but the production activities in the mining area have not stopped due to the influx of refugees. After all, the output here is directly related to the production arrangements of the Tiandu Industrial Zone thousands of miles away. The process of industrialization will also have many impacts. Unless it is a last resort, it will never enter a state of suspension of work and production.

At this time, the smelter is also full of production. Workers are using small carts to put the ore, limestone and other fluxes, coke, charcoal and other fuels obtained by crushing the ore into the airtight blast furnace.Chen Yixin said that these raw materials will be smelted at a high temperature of [-] degrees Celsius. During this process, most of the impurity elements such as sulfur, arsenic, and antimony in the ore can be removed, and matte with low copper content can be produced. The roasting method is used to smelt the matte in the next step to obtain blister copper for casting copper ingots.

"However, if these blister coppers are to be used to process some more sophisticated industrial parts, they need to be further processed and purified after being transported back to Sanya. The smelting facilities here are not complete enough, so we can only complete the process of smelting blister copper. See After this refugee wave is over, can you contact the Ministry of Industry to arrange technology upgrades!" Chen Yixin accompanied Tao Donglai to visit the production site while explaining the local production situation to him.

Tao Donglai is playing with a sample of thick copper bar in his hand. In fact, from the perspective of appearance and touch, the quality of this kind of thick copper is no different from that of ordinary copper products. The quality of local copper ingots is not as good as Not too low.Today, the production capacity of Fushan Copper Mine is stable, and the income obtained from this provides sufficient funds for the continuous improvement of production facilities here. Chen Yixin hopes that there will be no financial difficulties in upgrading the local production process after the refugee wave passes.

Adjacent to the smelter is the ore crushing plant, where there are two steam ore crushers produced in Sanya, which are used to crush ore into ore sand for smelting.This kind of mechanical device has been used in the Shilu mining area for many years. The reliability of long-term operation is high enough, and it is also easy to maintain. The processing efficiency is thousands of times faster than that of manpower. Where production capacity is directly proportional to income, as long as production efficiency can be greatly improved, it doesn't matter even if you spend more money on production equipment.

And these two pulverizers are not the only steam-powered equipment in the local area. The process of transporting the ore from the mine to here is driven by a small steam locomotive running on the track.Such a rail transportation system is not uncommon in the mines under Haihan's rule, and it is also a relatively mature technology.However, the entire transportation system here, including the steel rails, is packaged and shipped from the south, and its construction cost is much higher than that of the southern mine.

Of course, this is the same as the ore crusher. High investment brings high efficiency and high return. The ore pulled in one trip is equivalent to the carrying capacity of a hundred horse-drawn carts, far beyond the level of this era, and fully It proves what it means to be rich and easy to do things.As long as the funds are sufficient, even overseas mines far away from Haihan's mainland will not be inferior to local mines with more convenient conditions in terms of construction level and production capacity.

In the depths of the mine, the huge pothole that appeared on the ground is a vein that is currently being mined.Most of the ore veins in the Fushan Copper Mine are on the surface, so mining is not difficult, just open-pit excavation is enough.However, there are many armed guards near the mine, which also shows that the atmosphere of this place is somewhat unusual.

"Recently, a lot of people have been arrested due to the influx of refugees, and those who are not guilty of death are basically sent here to mine. Therefore, some extra staff have been specially assigned to take care of this place so as not to cause accidents." Chen Yixin said lightly. Explained the reason for the strict guard here.

It is already one of Haihan's traditions to send criminals to work as coolies in closed places like mines. Such cheap labor is useless for Haihan, as long as these people are provided with the most basic living conditions That's right, the cost of use is very low.

The only troublesome thing is that most of these people have committed minor or serious crimes, and their reliability is very low. In addition, they possess various metal tools during their labor, so more people must be sent to guard them strictly.Although this will inevitably take up a lot of manpower from the military, this measure must not be omitted. If it is careless, it may repeat the torture riot that occurred in the Shilu mining area that year.

"Currently there are more than 300 miners here, half of them are torture prisoners, and the proportion may continue to increase. After all, due to the impact of these free labor, the remuneration of miners is getting lower and lower, and many miners have switched to other jobs. But the overall number of miners is still increasing, and there are always some people who don’t like to live a stable life, and they will be honest if they come to this kind of place as coolies.”

As Chen Yixin said, he raised his finger and pointed to a place at the bottom of the pit: "Those who dig rocks at the bottom are generally felons who have been sentenced for more than three years, and they don't have much chance of getting out of here alive."

Chen Yixin would not show mercy to these tortured criminals. Most of those who entered Fushan County as refugees and dared to openly commit crimes were not good, and most of the crimes they committed were violent crimes such as robbery of other people's property.Even if these people are sent overseas for resettlement, they are very likely to become a security risk. It is better to intercept them here and let these people slowly reform in the local mine.

With the high-intensity labor and living conditions that the tortured prisoners endured, there are not many people who can survive for three years. At the level of normal people, the possibility of continuing to do evil after going out will be much lower.

Tao Donglai said: "You have managed this place in an orderly manner. It seems that you have been trained in the army!"

Chen Yixin smiled and said: "Mr. Tao, managing a mine is much easier than leading troops to fight. There are templates that can be copied for every business. After the production process is confirmed, there will be no major changes, so follow the ready-made plan. It's like the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, every decision and order issued may involve the lives of thousands of people, the pressure is very great!"

Tao Donglai continued to ask: "Then do you think you are more suitable to lead troops in the army, or to manage local affairs?"

Chen Yixin thought for a while before answering: "I should be more used to being a soldier now. Maybe in the future when peace in the north comes down, I will spend more energy on managing local affairs."

Chen Yixin has established a relatively solid foundation in both Shandong and Liaodong, and he also understands the situation in Northeast Asia very well. A high-ranking official like him who understands local government affairs and can lead troops to fight is not very good in Haihan. If he is to be in charge of the various northern colonial areas in the future, he will undoubtedly be a very reasonable candidate.

The question Tao Donglai raised was also testing Chen Yixin's attitude.If Chen Yixin himself is willing to take the initiative to stay in the north to develop, then of course it will be an ideal situation.As far as the situation has been seen so far, Chen Yixin's governance effect on Fushan County is quite good. In this extraordinary period, after taking in tens of thousands of refugees, he can still maintain the normal operation of local institutions. Good performance.If another person takes this position, it may not be able to perform as well.

However, the international situation in the north is still unclear, and it is still too early to talk about future work arrangements. At least we have to wait for the preliminary results of the multi-country meeting hosted by Tao Donglai to make arrangements, so he did not discuss this topic right now. Have an in-depth discussion with Chen Yixin, and then continue to understand the production situation of the mine.

Tao Donglai spent more time in the mine than he had spent visiting the refugee camp the day before. During the mining area, there were a few small conflicts of tortured prisoners, but they were quickly quelled by the guards' whips and sticks. Going down did not interfere with Tao Donglai's visit itinerary.Tao Donglai had a detailed understanding of the entire production process from prospecting for ore veins to casting copper ingots, and what technical support is needed locally to further expand production capacity and improve the quality of copper production.

Two days later, Tao Donglai received a message from Jinzhou that Wang Tom had arrived there together with North Korean minister Kim Sang-heon.North Korea's attitude towards this meeting is obviously much more positive than that of Ming Dynasty. When Li Yi learned that a comprehensive truce is expected to be achieved, he did not hesitate to send Kim Sang-heon as his country's representative to participate in this consultation.If it were not for the consideration of the principle of level reciprocity, perhaps he would prefer to attend the meeting in Golden State in person.

The Manchu and Qing sides were undoubtedly ready to negotiate. Even though they were unwilling to accept the participation of Ming and North Korea, they had already notified the Jinzhou authorities that King Zhishun Shang Kexi would represent the Qing to participate in the meeting.Although the Qing side did not change their candidates, both Qian Tiandun and Tom Wang in Jinzhou felt that Shang Kexi was not enough, and there might be other important people in the Qing Dynasty hiding in the dark to make decisions for the direction of this negotiation.

But now the only ones who have not made a clear response are the Daming family.In view of Daming's attitude towards peace talks in the past, Tao Donglai and others are not optimistic about the final result, at least they will not attend this consultation in the name of an armistice and peace talks.

For Ming Dynasty, Haihan and Manchu are just small neighboring countries that have only started to gain power in recent years, and North Korea has been a vassal state of the Central Plains Dynasty for hundreds of years, and its status is even more trivial.Now, to be on an equal footing with these small countries, and maybe even to see their faces at the negotiating table, this is indeed a difficult reality for Ming Dynasty, which has always regarded itself as a kingdom of heaven.

In view of Daming's silent attitude so far, Tao Donglai also had to study how to conduct this multinational consultation without Daming's absence.

If Daming didn't send someone to attend, then Haihan's plan to take this opportunity to make Daming bow to him would basically come to nothing, and the negotiation with Manqing would lose a very important condition.The Qing Dynasty will be the one that benefits from this, Haihan can no longer play the seesaw game in the middle, and the focus of the negotiation will return to bilateral relations. For the Qing Dynasty, the situation will be much simpler.

As for North Korea, it is basically just a role to help Haihan to wave the flag.Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the Manchu Qing Dynasty, under normal circumstances, they would not take North Korea's opinions to heart. They are not so much a participant, but more like a pawn controlled by the other three parties in turn.North Korea is so actively involved, and it may be somewhat worried that it will be used as a deal condition by the other three countries without their knowledge.

But for Daming, not attending seems to save his face, but it will put himself in a passive situation.Now both Manchu Qing and Haihan are stronger than Ming Dynasty in local military strength. Although Haihan's attitude is inclined to Ming Dynasty, it is not monolithic.The confrontation in Liaodong lasted for several years. Both sides invested a lot of troops, military expenditures and materials, but it failed to change the current regional situation. However, once the two countries ceased fighting, it meant that the Manchu Qing could finally free up their hands. Then the first unlucky person must be Daming.

If Daming attends, he can naturally try to persuade Haihan to continue to serve in Liaodong, hold back the Manchu troops, and share part of the military pressure for himself.But if you choose not to attend, it is equivalent to giving up such an opportunity automatically, which may become an opportunity for the Qing army to go south.

But Tao Donglai couldn't explain these truths to the high-level officials of Daming, and even if he told them, they might not be able to listen to them. He could only hope that Chongzhen and his ministers would not be too confused and gave up in order to save face. A chance to survive.

No matter what Daming's final attitude is, Haihan will still have talks with Manqing after all. Seeing that the agreed time is getting closer, Tao Donglai doesn't want to stay in Fushan County to wait for the news, so he decides to go to Liaodong first, and Qian Tian Dun and Wang Tom met to discuss the next strategy.Regarding the future situation in Liaodong, it is definitely not enough to just listen to Chen Yixin's views. The opinions of these two senior generals are also very important to the Executive Committee.

(End of this chapter)