Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 130 The problem of high-tech stealing people's jobs

March 1591, 5 AD.

After some twists and turns, the local mine construction in Taipingzhuang finally started.

There are many coal fields around Taipingzhuang, and the Liu family has been operating here for many years, but to be honest, the scale of the mines they built is still too small, and most of them are small open pits.These small stopes, all taken together, have a monthly output of only a few hundred tons of coal.

Of course, such a large-scale output cannot meet the needs of Huang Laifu and various merchants. What Huang Laifu needs is a large coal mine with a monthly output of more than 1 tons.Although this scale is only the scale of some small coal mines in villages and towns in later generations, it can be regarded as the largest in the coal mining industry in Daming at this time.At this time, the price of Daming coal is more than three taels per ton, and the monthly output exceeds [-] tons. After excluding the cost, there can be a net income of more than [-] taels per month, which is very impressive.

Starting from the 16th, Huang Laifu ordered the miners to carry out large-scale expansion of the existing mine holes, improve the technology, and try to dig coal as deep as possible in the stratum. In addition, they also need to find more mine holes.

Due to the development of the commodity economy in the Ming Dynasty, the demand for coal in the society increased sharply. Therefore, coal mining and other industries at that time had very rich experience. At that time, they not only had rich experience in searching for coal on the ground, but also found coal in the deep strata. At that time, the people already knew the faults and coal pinch-out phenomena in the coal-measure strata, and they could mine the coal from deep underground.Among the coalfields discovered in China in later generations, almost all of them have been roughly mined in the late Ming Dynasty.

When Huang Laifu came to Shenchi Castle before, he took precautions, so he recruited more than 20 experienced coal miners from mines in various parts of Daming, especially Datong, at a high price. These people have more than ten years of experience in coal mining .

From the 16th, they led many Wuzhaibao miners along the Taipingzhuang area, looking for new coal fields.In addition, there were hundreds of miners from the original Taipingzhuang, all of whom were hired by Huang Laifu at the price of one tael of silver per month, and all joined in the construction of the new coal mine.After the employment, the people in the Taipingzhuang area have no worries about food and clothing, and their emotions have stabilized.

On the 18th, Master Yang Xiangrui from Datong was staring intently at a bare hillside in front of him. Master Yang was a man in his 40s, wearing a thick cloth shirt, with messy buns, and his face was often black all over. , On the hands, there is still a kind of deep black that cannot be washed off, a typical image of an old miner.Although he is only in his 40s, he has more than [-] years of working experience in various coal mountains, and it can be said that he has very rich experience in finding coal.

He concentrated on it for a long time, and said to Huang Laifu who was beside him: "My lord, after a small inspection, there is a very large coal hole under this hillside, and there may be no less than a million dan of coal in it."

Huang Laifu was very excited when he heard it, but at the same time he was very interested. He said, "How do you know that?"

Master Yang arched his hands and said: "My lord, check the stone coal. You can look at the stone, check the seedlings, and check the methods inside and outside. The surface soil on this hillside is black, and there is no vegetation. This is a sign of coal at the bottom of the mountain. Then Look at the mountain rocks, and count the stones, which shows that the bottom of the mountain is high-quality coal, and the little ones here congratulate the adults."

Huang Laifu laughed and said, "Okay, Master Yang, you have made great contributions in finding mines, and I will reward you heavily."

Master Yang Xiangrui was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Thank you sir."

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To be honest, although Huang Laifu brought a lot of scientific and technological materials from later generations, these scientific and technological materials also needed to match the productivity of the time in order to be effective.Moreover, although Huang Laifu said that he has a wealth of "theoretical" knowledge, he can only rely on the current scientific and technological talents to realize the results.Let him do it himself, no matter what he does, he can't compare to anyone in Daming at this time.

For Daming at this time, in coal mining, all kinds of manual operation techniques are already very perfect, without the equipment conditions of later generations. Although Huang Laifu has a lot of advanced materials for later generations, for him, the current technologies that can be improved are very difficult. few.The only thing he can do is to invest heavily and operate on a large scale.

This is also the characteristic of Huang Laifu, and also the place where he succeeds: atmosphere.No matter what you do, you will invest ten times more capital and scale than others.Of course, this kind of investment, the final return is also very generous.

On the 25th, the main body started the construction of the mine on this hillside. Huang Laifu personally named this place the Shenchibao Coal Mine.Thousands of miners dug pits here, dug shafts, and built houses nearby as coal yards.

The mine here is more than ten meters below the hillside. When coal is dug, in order to avoid burning people with poisonous gas, the miners, under the command of the miner, use some huge bamboos to chisel off the middle section and insert them into the coal. The poisonous gas came out from the bamboo.This method of removing poisonous gas underground has made great progress compared with the evasion method in the Song Dynasty. Even in the early 20th century, this method was often used.

In addition, the Shenchibao Coal Mine, under the command of the miners, is also very scientific in the deployment of the roadways.At this time, he knew how to arrange the uphill and downhill roadways, as well as the transportation and ventilation roadways according to the direction of the coal seam. Huang Laifu was amazed at the densely packed roadways that were finally built.

In addition, the Shenchibao Coal Mine also has unique features in the underground support.Under the command of Master Yang, the miners adopted the wooden support method of two columns and one beam, which prevented the roadway and working face from collapsing to the greatest extent.As for the drainage problem in the coal kiln, the method of oxen pulling the potter's wheel was used.

There is also the lighting of the mine. At this time, open fire oil bowls and oil pans are often used for mining coal.However, as the mining depth increases, the gas will increase, which can easily cause an explosion. Master Yang's solution is to add a cover to the lamp.The lamp with a cover can be used as a lighting tool, and can also detect the ventilation situation.

As for the ventilation of the mine, artificial ventilation is often used at this time, such as using windmills, wind cabinets, fans, cowhide bags, etc. to fan the inside of the mine.However, this artificial ventilation method is only effective for shallow coal mining.But according to Huang Laifu's plan, Shenchibao Coal Mine, of course, can't just be satisfied with mining some shallow coal, but only deep coal. How to get rid of this kind of mine ventilation?
Master Yang is the most experienced miner among all the miners, but he has no other way.

That night, Huang Laifu went back to check his data notes. After more than a year of recording, he had recorded all the scientific and technological data and useful things in his computer notebook in several notebooks.When he came to Shenchi Castle this time, he chose a notebook to record some information about coal and iron to bring with him.At this time, Huang Laifu looked through the information, trying to find a useful place.

Suddenly, Huang Laifu's heart moved. In Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu", two methods of natural ventilation were recorded, which were divided into single-well ventilation and double-well ventilation.

As long as you choose a higher place and make some air outlet shafts, you can solve the problem of double shaft ventilation.As for the ventilation of a single well shaft, as long as a triangular air return duct is built with slab stones, the return air duct is higher than the well shaft, shaped like a chimney, and ventilation can be achieved.Another simple method is to use a kind of bamboo with a diameter as thick as a bowl, chisel off the middle section, and put it into the well. The bamboo tube is higher than the well head, which can form a natural wind flow, and exhaust gas such as gas can be drawn out from the bamboo tube.

With these two methods, the ventilation problem in deep mines can be solved.

The next day, Huang Laifu recruited Master Yang and told him about this method. Master Yang gave Huang Laifu a half-believing look, wondering why the young guard in front of him knew about this kind of mine knowledge.However, the final result proved the practicality of Huang Laifu's method, which made Master Yang admire Huang Laifu.From then on, whenever he had the opportunity, he would hang around Huang Laifu and ask Huang Laifu for knowledge about various mines, which made Huang Laifu very annoying.

After the efforts of thousands of people, the mine here was built, and coal mining began on a large scale. The daily output of this mine alone exceeded the total daily output of all the small mines in Taipingzhuang.Of course, the operation of the mines here and the mines in Taipingzhuang is also based on the management methods of the various farms in Wuzhaibao, with different rewards and punishments to increase the enthusiasm of the miners.

However, Huang Laifu also saw that the coal mining tools at this time mainly used manual methods such as chisels, hammers, picks, and brazing. Huang Laifu instructed Master Yang and others to concentrate on the mining method using gunpowder blasting.But after the news came out, Huang Laifu found that many miners and their families looked sad.

In addition, there is also the problem of transportation. Huang Laifu saw that many local miners, as well as many women and children in the Taipingzhuang area, all of them were black and carried on their shoulders, carrying out baskets of coal from the mine. , How much reward can you get for each basket of coal on your back.Although the work is hard, everyone works hard. For them, after a month, it is enough for their family to have enough food and clothing.

Master Yang told Huang Laifu that there was actually a method of dragging baskets to transport coal in some mines in Daming at this time.This kind of drag basket is shaped like a boat or a rectangle, made of bamboo or wood, and iron bars or drag strips are nailed on the bottom, which makes the transportation of coal more convenient and labor-saving.After using this kind of drag basket, it can be faster and less labor-intensive than the manual shoulder-to-body method.

However, after Master Yang made this suggestion to Huang Laifu, the news spread that he encountered some problems...

That night, he was beaten with a black stick, covered his head with a cloth bag, and was beaten and kicked by countless people. Master Yang vaguely heard that those who beat him called him heartless and wanted everyone to lose their jobs.No, they scolded him, how many people would be deprived of food after using drag baskets to transport coal?
The next day, Huang Laifu was taken aback when he saw Master Yang with a bruised nose and swollen face. After hearing his cry, Huang Laifu also understood the contradiction between high technology and workers' jobs, which also gave Huang Laifu a series of ideas for improving mining technology. Paused for a moment.

In fact, Huang Laifu had experienced this kind of contradiction in Wuzhaibao. In Wuzhaibao Woolen Mill, he dared not improve the textile technology, because improving the technology would mean that many female workers would lose their jobs.Once they lose their jobs, it means that the family loses hope of survival.In the current situation where refugees like Daming are everywhere, this situation will add serious consequences.

After weighing the pros and cons, Huang Laifu stopped trying the mining method of gunpowder blasting and the method of dragging and transporting coal in baskets.Huang Laifu thought to himself, let's talk about the improvement of technology after the market demand reaches a certain level!
(End of this chapter)