1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 978 Shilu Mine
Just as Van Diemen expected, the investment of manpower, material and financial resources needed to build a railway is huge. Even if he is as rich as Haihan, building such a tens of kilometers long railway is also painful, and during the construction period. Other construction projects carried out during the same period had a certain impact, and the troubles caused were not limited to this area.

At the beginning, the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry tilted the resources at hand to Shichang Railway, so that part of the project in Sanya had to be suspended or postponed. pressure.At that time, the construction of the Shichang Railway was so urgent because Haihan’s short board in steel production capacity had to be solved by mining the Shilu Mine, otherwise the entire development process would be delayed. However, after the completion of the Shichang Railway, Haihan The demand for land transportation is not so urgent, and most areas can still rely on the increasingly developed sea transportation to solve transportation problems.At present, although the executive committee still has plans for several railway lines, they have not been implemented, partly because of the impact of such a large project on the overall construction process of Haihan.

Of course, Qiao Zhiya would not disclose the specific construction cost to Van Diemen, and responded evasively: "The cost of the railway is indeed not low, but considering the production efficiency it can improve for a long period of time, we think that this It’s well worth the investment.”

Fan Dimen noticed that a city was appearing from the distant wilderness outside the car window on the right, and Qiao Zhiya explained, "That is Changhua County built by the Ming Dynasty, but it is only a symbol now."

Although Changhua County still retains its original appearance, the situation today is similar to that of Yacheng. Daming lost control of this place early on, and the county government in the city only maintains a sense of existence in name only.The county seat is too small, and Qiao Zhiya has no interest in large-scale demolition and reconstruction, so the new administrative agencies are basically built in the new town of the port area next to the mouth of the Changjiang River, separated from the old county by several miles. The distance between the declines is only a few minutes' drive away.

In the following journey, the people on both sides of the railway became sparse, but from time to time, you can still see large tracts of farmland, some of which are still in a state of reclamation.Qiao Zhiya introduced: "We were not originally a grain-producing area, so most of the food consumed had to be transported from other places. However, considering the cost issue, we have also started to organize local reclamation since last year, planting rice, potatoes, corn and other food crops. , to solve part of the local food demand.”

It is more than 80 miles from Changhua Port to Shilu Mine. Before Haihan took over, this area was basically in an undeveloped state.The Shichang Railway was originally built along the north bank of the Changjiang River, so water resources and transportation along the way were not a problem. It would be a pity that the coastal plains with such good conditions were not used for agricultural development.So since last year, the Ministry of Agriculture has successively organized reclamation and cultivation of more than 2 mu of arable land, hoping to gradually realize self-sufficiency in food demand in Changhua.

Compared with the commercial crop plantations blooming everywhere in other areas, the reclamation situation in Changhua is much simpler.Considering that the industries in Shilu and Changhua are relatively sensitive, it is inappropriate for outsiders to frequently enter and exit these areas, so there is no open investment invitation to the outside world. All grain planting areas are cultivated by the Ministry of Agriculture and the local civil affairs department.And this kind of measure has also affected the development speed of local agricultural and forestry projects to a certain extent. The area of ​​cultivated land and the scale of planting are indeed inferior to those areas that are open to attract investment.

After traveling inland to the east for about half an hour, the train turned into a fork and came to a slow stop.Fan Dimen looked out of the car window, but saw that there were no people nearby, and wondered, "Why did you stop here?"

"Wait for the wrong train." After Qiao Zhiya finished speaking, seeing Fan Dimen still looked puzzled, he explained to him: "Because there is also a train coming from the opposite side, so we have to wait here and let the train on the other side go. Let it go before moving on.”

Considering the construction cost and actual usage conditions, the Shichang Railway has not realized the double-track construction of the whole process at present, but has set up several double-track sections for the wrong train on the way.When the double track is fully connected in the future, these existing forks will also be merged into the double track.After the car stopped for a short time, I heard the sound of sirens in the distance, and then a train of trucks full of ore came from the opposite side, roaring and galloping westward from the main road.

After the wrong train ended, Van Diemen's train started slowly again.After this departure, the train did not stop on the way, and ran directly to Shilu Station in one breath.

Van Diemen originally thought that the railway station located in the inland mountainous area would be a bit depressed. After all, there seemed to be no other institutions besides the mine, but the scene he saw after entering the station was indeed beyond his expectations. It is expected that there are as many as hundreds of laborers waiting to load and unload goods on the platform. It seems that the momentum is not worse than that of the cargo terminal in Changhua Port.There are also several belt conveyors driven by steam engines on the platform, which are used to quickly load the ore that has undergone preliminary crushing into the wagon.

In addition, Fan Dimen also noticed that there were many Haihan soldiers in military uniforms and live ammunition standing guard inside and outside the station, which seemed a bit heavily guarded.Van Diemen didn't know that there had been riots in this place two years ago, and the military had strengthened local security after that, thinking that this was a security measure specially arranged by the Haihan people for their visit.

After the Shilu riots in September 1631, the military carried out a relatively thorough campaign against the area within a radius of nearly a hundred miles of the Shilu mines, and all the cottages that participated in the riots were also destroyed.Since then, although the mine has continued to use a large number of hard labor prisoners as labor, the management has been strengthened a lot, and there have been no similar signs in the past two years.

Currently there are about 6000 miners working in the Shilu mine, and about eight of them are prisoners serving sentences.At the bottom of the most difficult and dangerous mine pits, these prisoners are all responsible for the labor.However, in the past two years, the mine has increased the reward of labor points for commutation of sentences, so that many prisoners whose sentences are not particularly long have reduced their rebellious psychology and will no longer take great risks to seek opportunities to escape.As for those serious criminals who probably won't have the chance to walk out of Shilu again, the mine often arranges very heavy labor tasks for them, so as to consume their physical strength and will as much as possible, so that they have no extra energy to think about what is wrong. thing.

Qiao Zhiya took Fan Dimen and Ning Qi straight to the Shilu No. [-] mine, which is the nearest to the train station.After climbing up a section of mountains, Qiao Zhiya pointed to the front and said, "The hollow in front is the mine."

Van Diemen walked all the way to the edge of the mine, and only then did he get a complete picture of the situation here.After three years of excavation, the No. [-] mine has formed a huge funnel-shaped pit on the surface.The diameter of this mine has exceeded one mile, and the depth of the deepest part is about ten feet.In this mine alone, about [-] laborers are constantly mining, and nearly [-] tons of ore are excavated from this mine every day.

These ores are initially crushed manually during the mining process, and then transported to the crushing and processing station between No. [-] and No. [-] mines, where they are further processed with ore crushers, and then shipped to the railway station. It was transported to the smelting workshop in Changhua via Shichang Railway.At present, there are three mines in Shilu, one large and one small, and the ore mined every day can probably fill the wagons of two freight trains.

Although in Fan Diemen's eyes, the scale of production here is quite astonishing, Haihan himself is not satisfied with the production efficiency here.As Changhua's smelting equipment and personnel are gradually in place, the production capacity has gradually increased. However, the ore output of Shilu Mine is restricted by the existing mining methods. If we just blindly increase labor input, the increase in output will The effect is actually very limited.

At present, the Ministry of Industry is already trial-producing steam-powered mechanical excavation equipment. After it is put into production in the future, the production capacity of one mechanical excavation equipment is at least equivalent to hundreds of miners. Only then is it expected that the mining speed of the mine will be greatly improved.However, the cost of this kind of mechanical equipment and the cost of later use and maintenance are not cheap. It is hard to say whether the cost of mining will decrease or increase.

Of course, it’s more than enough than the top. Haihan’s current steel production is definitely second to none in the South China Sea. The Dutch’s steel production in Batavia and other colonies can’t even reach one-tenth of its share. .However, with Van Diemen's perspective, it is difficult to understand Haihan's intention and long-term plan of needing a large amount of steel to establish an industrial society. He just instinctively feels that the two sides will widen the gap in strength in many fields because of this.For example, in terms of military manufacturing, the gap between the two sides is not only technology, but also directly linked to steel production capacity. Haihan can equip its army with powerful firearms on a large scale. Sufficient steel supply is one of the necessary conditions.

After taking a quick look at the production situation in the mine at the No. [-] mine, the sky has already darkened.Because Shilu is a pure production site, the living conditions are far inferior to those in Changhua Port.Fortunately, after Qiao Zhiya got off the car, he ordered someone to make preparations. On the dinner table, there were freshly hunted deer, pheasants, and hares, fish caught in the Changjiang River, and some locally grown vegetables and fruits. The food was quite rich.The accommodation is not bad. Like all Haihan settlements, there is a special place for the head to live temporarily, and Fan Dimen will continue to enjoy the high-level treatment.

Early the next morning, Van Diemen was awakened from his sleep by the sound of the siren. He turned over and looked out the window, and saw groups of people on the road leading to the mine. Labor, it seems that they are ready to go to work.Fan Dimen looked at the sky, and thought that this mine should be the first place to start construction among the places he visited these days. These Haihan people are really hardworking.Of course, he didn’t know that most of the laborers here are prisoners, so the working standards are much stricter than those in other places. Every day from dawn to sunset, the hard laborers have to work at their jobs Spending time, eating, drinking, and messing around are all on the construction site, and there is no chance to sleep in at all.

On the morning of the same day, under the leadership of Qiao Zhiya, Van Diemen visited two other mines and watched the working status of the ore crusher.Seeing this large machine capable of crushing stubborn rocks, Van Diemen once again admired the creativity of the Haihan people.However, he also saw that the principle of this machine was similar to the juicer he had seen before for squeezing sugar cane and oil crops, except that no liquid would appear after the ore was crushed.

Watching the baskets of ore being transported out of the pit and transported to the railway station through the laid track, it is not difficult for Van Diemen to imagine that these ores will be put into the Changhua smelting furnace a few hours later.The one-stop system of mining and smelting established by Haihan in Shilu Changhua has extremely high operational efficiency, which is a hard power that none of the surrounding countries have.Van Diemen can be sure that after the Haihan people find the next iron mine, they will also copy this complete set of mature operating methods. It remains to be seen when the East India Company will find an iron mine suitable for mining in Nanyang. Not even the slightest hope.

On the way back to Changhua after leaving Shilu, Fan Dimen's mood was obviously not as high as when he came here.To put it bluntly, the production situation he saw in Shilu was simply hopeless, and Haihan's steel production capacity would hardly be surpassed in the foreseeable future.He was very impressed by the ability of the Haihan people to organize production. Whether it was a plantation, a saltworks or a mine, the operating efficiency was far higher than that of contemporary competitors.As the governor of the East India Company, Van Diemen also knew a thing or two about the operation of its institutions. When he compared it with Haihan's side, the gap immediately appeared.Van Diemen's trip was supposed to find out Haihan's weaknesses, but it seems that he found a bunch of weaknesses in his own family, which is really a great irony.

After completing the inspection of the Shilu area in Changhua, Fan Dimen took the "Flying Speed" and continued northward along the coastline. The next stop he will go to is Danzhou, an important town in the northwest of Hainan Island.

Haihan's offensive against Qiongbei in 1630 started from Danzhou, and then swept the entire Qiongbei area in just a few months, and completed the control of Hainan Island the following year.After the Danzhou assassination case in 1631, the local area went through repeated purges, killing and arresting a group of country gentry who opposed Haihan, and transferred many naturalized people from Sanya to resettle them. It took two or three years to gradually stabilize the social situation in Danzhou.

(End of this chapter)