Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 127: Development of New Base

Luo Zhenhui inserted an iron rod into the crevice of the stone and pried it hard with both hands. A small piece of gray-black stone was lifted off and rolled to the side.

He bent down, picked up the slightly weathered stone, rubbed it a little hard, and his hands were stained with some gray. He brought it closer to look at it carefully.

"Director, this can't be eaten!" Liao Meng immediately reminded when he saw this.

"Oh, you think I'm ignorant!" Luo Zhenhui laughed softly and handed the stone to him. "Is this the limestone you mentioned?"

"Yes, that's right, it's limestone." Liao Meng reached out and took it, answering affirmatively.

"How can you be so sure?"

"There's a limestone mine in our village, and a small cement factory next to it," Liao Meng said. "When I was in middle school, I worked summer jobs at the mine and the cement factory. I'm incredibly familiar with limestone!"

"Oh..." Luo Zhenhui couldn't help but look at him deeply.

This former naval cadet was one of the few who came from a remote rural area. He must have suffered a lot in the countryside before being admitted to the Naval Academy.

It's no surprise, then, that he said he worked summer jobs in a limestone mine and a cement factory.

"So, do you know how to make cement?"

"I don't know." Liao Meng shook his head and said, "When I worked at the cement factory, I was only responsible for moving various mineral materials. I had never put materials into the kiln, so I don't know the exact ratio of cement raw materials. However, I do know the specific raw materials needed. Anyway, limestone accounts for the largest proportion of mineral materials, about 60 to 70 percent. The rest is gypsum, a small amount of clay and iron ore powder. ...Oh, and some coal is also added."

“Iron ore powder and coal are also used in cement production?”

"Yes, iron ore powder and coal are needed, but not much. Iron ore is the least, and coal accounts for about 7, 8, or 10 percent."

"Do you mean you want to try to calcine cement?" Luo Zhenhui looked back at the small hill in front of him. There were no trees or weeds, and large areas of weathered rocks were exposed. They should be limestone, one of the main raw materials for cement calcination.

"Director, although the Spanish may not be able to discover our presence in the short term, with our increasing activities in the surrounding waters, we will eventually come face to face with the Spanish," Liao Meng said. "If they discover our Qiming Island, they will definitely mobilize their troops to attack us. If we have cement, we can build our base into an impenetrable fortress to protect us all."

"Even if cement isn't used to build permanent fortifications, it will still be used in the construction of docks, breakwaters, roads, and a large number of houses and infrastructure."

"Two years ago, we were short on manpower and couldn't spare the time to produce cement. But now we have over 1,600 available workers. We might as well allocate a dozen or twenty people to start building a cement industry. Furthermore, to meet the needs of the ironworks in Guangfeng Fort, we've also developed a stone crusher. This way, we can use these machines to process the limestone, which will require much less labor."

"Hmm." Luo Zhenhui nodded after hearing this. "You make sense. When you get back, organize the construction plan and development ideas for the cement kiln. We're having an expanded meeting tomorrow night, so we can discuss the issue you raised."

"Okay, Director." Liao Meng responded excitedly.
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Su Zhijian stood outside the door of the conference hall with a knife slung over his waist, his chest straightened and his face tense, trying his best to look like a soldier.

Lu Chenfeng, who was standing opposite him, looked just like him, with his chest puffed out and his belly protruding, standing guard at the door in the standard posture of daily military training.

They were all street beggars brought back from the Ming Dynasty two years ago. They had no parents and no other relatives. The time travelers who were meeting in the conference hall to discuss important matters were their "reborn parents."

They provided them with food, clothing, and warm shelter, and taught them a lot of cultural knowledge. Even their formal names were given by the time travelers, thus completely freeing them from the fate of being treated as worthless as grass.

In Shixing Fort, these young people received meticulous care and attention, which gave them a strong sense of belonging.

Because they were orphans, they lived and ate with the other travelers on a daily basis. After a long period of exposure, all the young people were deeply influenced by the travelers, and each of them identified with this group from the bottom of their hearts and became their most steadfast supporters.

The discussion in the conference room was very lively, and from time to time, sounds could be heard through the windows and door cracks, allowing the two young men standing guard at the door to hear them clearly.

But they remained loyal to their duty, holding swords in their hands, looking straight ahead, standing outside the door, and forbidding any unauthorized persons to approach this confidential place.

"I'm also inclined to mine coal now to provide sufficient fuel for steelmaking," said Zhang Ruosong, a member of the decision-making committee, after listening to the discussions. "Although Shixing Fort is rich in forest resources and fuel is readily available, turning wood into charcoal still consumes a lot of manpower and time." "First, we need to organize a large number of people to cut down trees, then process the wood, then stack the wood in a charcoal kiln and bake it, and finally extract the charcoal to use as raw material for steelmaking. But if we mine coal directly, we only need to build a coke oven. As long as the coal supply keeps up, we can obtain a constant supply of coke."

"In addition, during the coke refining process, we can also obtain many by-products, such as coal tar, coal gas, crude benzene, coke powder, carbon black, etc. These materials can be used in related chemical industries to provide us with many useful products."

"While using coke to make steel produces a lot of slag, this slag can be used to produce building materials like cement and bricks. Of course, it can also be used for paving roads, converting the dirt roads leading to settlements into slag roads, thus avoiding the unpleasant situation of being covered in mud on rainy days and dirt on sunny days."

Luo Zhenhui and Li Xianqing looked at each other, nodded slightly, and reached a consensus on the issue of coal mining.

In fact, the meeting was originally intended to discuss how to expand the production scale of the ironworks and the redistribution of manpower, and also discussed whether to build a cement kiln.

Given the current human resource situation on Qiming Island, except for the staff who are fully loaded in the daily production of smoked meat and dried fish, many other factories and mining workshops are basically in a semi-shutdown and semi-production state.

For example, in an iron smelting workshop, people will be called in to light a fire and start a furnace only after a certain amount of iron ore and charcoal has accumulated, so as to refine the accumulated iron ore into iron materials, or continue to refine it into steel.

The blacksmith shop also only makes various agricultural tools and production tools, as well as trial-produces some "high-tech" mechanical products, after obtaining sufficient iron materials.

On weekdays, the blacksmith shop only repairs damaged farm tools and implements, or transforms and improves the few agricultural machinery and industrial equipment.

Because, under the current circumstances, in order to ensure the food supply for all personnel, most of the manpower is invested in agricultural production.

Although there are more than 100 tons of old grain stored in several granaries within the base, and daily hunting and fishing can also provide a large amount of meat every day, enough for all personnel to eat.

However, time travelers also have to consider the needs of upcoming immigrants.

If the two large ships are used according to the immigration scale of last year, the entire Qiming Island will have more than 600 newborns, which will greatly consume the existing food reserves.

If the harvest is poor this year due to climate or poor field management, a terrible famine may break out next year.

This led the time travelers to prioritize agricultural production in the short term and to invest the most human resources in it.

However, while paying attention to agricultural production, corresponding industrial development cannot be ignored.

With the arrival of two successive groups of Ming Dynasty craftsmen, the industrial development on Qiming Island also ushered in a period of expansion.

Not only did the many existing workshops and mines gain more manpower, but they also brought in new technologies and craftsmanship.

Many handicraft workshops related to people's livelihood were established one after another, including tofu workshops, barrel workshops, saddle and bridle workshops, copper workshops, leather workshops, as well as wine workshops, putty workshops, and Chinese medicine workshops, which greatly enhanced and improved the working and living conditions of all residents.

In view of the fact that in recent months, through the enticement of food and daily necessities, as well as the threat of muskets and swords, the time travelers from Qiming Island have successively conquered four Indian tribes of varying sizes from the river valley and Pingba area 20 to 30 kilometers away, and "recruited" more than 200 people, bringing the total number of people controlled by the entire group to more than 1,800.

To this end, some people proposed to go to the northern Nanaimo area to dig coal mines to provide the necessary coal for the ironworks and the planned cement kiln.

It is reported that the coal deposits there are very shallow. As long as a few meters of the surface soil is dug up, large-scale open-pit mining can be carried out. Even if only 20 to 30 people are provided, about 60 to 70 tons can be mined every day, which is enough for various industries that are still in the initial stage.

Those newly acquired Indians were wild and difficult to tame, and it was certainly impossible to teach them how to farm in a short period of time.

Instead of forcing them to dig for food in the fields, it is better to let them work in the mines first and exchange their labor for food and clothing.

I believe that this kind of simple mechanical labor will be very suitable for them.

"Since everyone agrees to go to the Nanaimo area to mine coal, we must dispatch the appropriate personnel to establish a branch base far away from Shixing Fort." Luo Zhenhui looked at the twenty or so remaining time travelers and asked in a deep voice, "Who among you is willing to lead the development and construction of this new base?"

(End of this chapter)