1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3848

Meanwhile, after Lu Congshan left Tongling County, Shi Chengwu and Yue Shizong, who had met with him, did not rush back. Shi Chengwu had come to Tongling under the guise of an inspection tour, and since he was already there, he decided to spend some more time looking around and also let Yue Shizong see the results of Haihan's governance over the past few years.

Local officials in Tongling were only notified after arriving at the yamen today, and they rushed to Shi Chengwu's lodging to greet him.

Shi Chengwu's itinerary was also very simple, mainly to visit the copper mines near the county seat, which is currently the most important industry in Tongling County.

Shi Chengwu took the initiative to introduce Yue Shizong to the officials of Tongling County. Apart from the civil and military officials who were appointed by Hai Han, most of the others were actually officials from the Ming Dynasty.

Even so, Tongling County has undergone tremendous changes in just a few years.

As a gateway to the outside world, the wharf in Tongling County underwent a comprehensive renovation and expansion during this period, and a wide and smooth official road was built, leading to the county seat and nearby mines.

Although Tongling is a small place, the cargo throughput of its docks is quite large. Every day, a continuous stream of cargo ships bring large quantities of coal here. For this purpose, two steam-powered conveyor belts were even specially set up at the docks for unloading coal. Yue Shizong was amazed by the efficiency of this sight when he saw it for the first time.

"Most of the coal you see comes from Jiangxi. The coal consumption in Tongling alone exceeds the total coal consumption of all the prefectures in Jiangxi. You can imagine that this business supports a lot of people, which is one of the reasons why Tongling has remained stable since it was transferred from Chizhou to our country."

Upon hearing Shi Chengwu's explanation, Yue Shizong nodded slightly in understanding. Tongling is rich in copper mines, and after Haihan takes over, its production capacity will likely increase, inevitably leading to the construction of numerous smelting facilities. This will also increase the demand for fuel, boosting the coal and shipping industries in the surrounding areas.

These two industries alone would likely benefit tens of thousands of people, including many local dignitaries. Therefore, both the Han and the Ming dynasties needed Tongling to remain stable to ensure the normal operation of its mining and ore smelting.

Otherwise, if construction in Tongling were to halt, it wouldn't just affect Haihan, but also countless families in the Ming Dynasty who depend on this industrial chain for their livelihood. And the Ming Dynasty today is far more vulnerable to social unrest than Haihan; stability is more important than reclaiming lost territory.

Therefore, whether it is to maintain domestic stability in the Ming Dynasty or to maintain stable relations between the two countries, the Ming Dynasty must do its best to ensure the coal supply needed by Tongling.

The costs of purchasing coal from the Ming Dynasty, as well as expanding wharves and constructing official roads, naturally came from the local copper industry, which demonstrates the high profitability of this industry.

The group then traveled by car along the newly built official road to the foot of the mountain, more than ten miles from the river. This was the largest mining site in the area.

Without needing any reminders from the accompanying officials, Yue Shizong had already noticed the unusual nature of this mine.

On the two-mile-wide open-pit mine face, the most conspicuous sights are several towering steel excavators, using their massive buckets to carve through the mountainside. Although each movement of the bucket seems slow, one bucket's stroke is roughly equivalent to the work of a miner digging with a pickaxe for several days and nights.

Moreover, this machine is extremely powerful; it can even crush hard rocks, and its effectiveness far exceeds that of human power.

Seeing the massive steam boiler at the rear of the machine, constantly belching white smoke, Yue Shizong realized that this was also one of Haihan's proud applications of steam engines, its principle being the same as the propulsion system of the steamship he had traveled on from Hangzhou. And the steam equipment used in this mine went far beyond this one; the ore crusher, the ore-transporting railcars, and the conveyor belt he had seen earlier at the dock were all powered by steam.

Without a doubt, every piece of machinery here can replace the labor of hundreds of people without needing to stop and rest from time to time, and all it needs to operate is coal and water.

The resulting increase in production efficiency far surpasses what traditional manual labor methods can achieve.

What's even more alarming is that there are multiple copper mines of varying sizes in Tongling County. If they are all mined using the same method, the production capacity would be at least dozens of times that during the Ming Dynasty.

With such a large output of copper ore, there naturally needs to be corresponding smelting facilities to refine copper from the ore day and night. The amount of coal required would be even greater than that of the mine itself.

Yue Shizong thus understood why the coal demand of a small city like Tongling could exceed that of the entire Jiangxi province.

After visiting the mine, the group went to a nearby smelting plant, where Yue Shizong saw the towering Haihan-style blast furnace and various previously unheard-of smelting technologies for the first time.

The technical supervisor accompanying the visit explained in detail the differences between Haihan's and Daming's copper smelting technologies, as well as the cost issues that Yue Shizong was concerned about. Although Yue Shizong couldn't quite understand the technical terms, he realized that the gap between the two sides in this field was enormous, probably no less than that in military technology.

This is why the other party doesn't bother keeping these technologies secret at all, because even if the Ming Dynasty knew about these technologies, it would be difficult to replicate them, let alone achieve the mass production scale of Haihan.

Yue Shizong had heard before that Haihan's steel production capacity was at least a hundred times that of the Ming Dynasty, and now this can be seen as proof from another angle that this was indeed a despairing fact.

Yue Shizong understood why Shi Chengwu deliberately brought him to see these places. Besides showing off Haihan's technological strength, it was also a way to intimidate him.

If Yue Shizong had some reservations before this, after coming to Tongling, his remaining respect for the Ming Dynasty was gradually crumbling.

This not only allowed us to see the production scene at the Tongling Copper Mine, but also gave us a glimpse into the powerful national strength of this empire through the industry that Haihan was so proud of.

The Haihan people are no longer even considering whether they can take Jiangxi, but rather how to take Jiangxi quickly and peacefully.

In their eyes, Jiangxi is nothing more than a dish in a pot; all they need to consider is when and how to pick it into their bowl.

Thinking about this, Yue Shizong also felt that his and Lu Congshan's choice was wise. If the destruction of society caused by the war could be avoided, then helping Haihan take Jiujiang was the right thing to do.