Chapter 86 The issue of high-tech snatching jobs

May 16, 1591.

After some twists and turns, the construction of local mines in Taipingzhuang finally began.

There are many coal fields in Taipingzhuang area, and the Liu family has also operated here for many years. However, to be honest, the scale of the mines they built is still too small, and most of them are small open-pit mining sites. All of these small mining sites have a monthly output of only a few hundred tons.

Of course, this scale of 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 over 10,000 tons. Although this scale was only the scale of some small coal mines in villages and towns in later generations, it was considered a large Hubei in the coal mine industry at this time. At this time, the price of coal mines of more than three taels of silver per ton of Daming coal at this time, and the monthly output of over 10,000 tons, after minus the cost, the net income of more than 10,000 taels of silver per month can be considered considerable.

Starting from the 16th, Huang Laifu instructed the miners to expand the existing mine eyes on a large scale, improve their technology, and try to mine coal deep into the strata. In addition, they should also find more mine eyes.

Due to the development of the commodity economy in the Ming Dynasty, the demand for coal in society increased sharply, so the coal mining industries at that time had very rich experience. At that time, not only did the rich experience in finding coal on the ground, but also the knowledge of finding coal deep in the strata was also very rich. At that time, the people had already understood the faults and coal tips of coal formations, and could mine coal deep underground. Among the coal fields discovered by China in later generations, roughly all had been mined in the late Ming Dynasty.

When Huang Laifu came to Shenchi Castle, he prepared for the future and found more than 20 experienced coalfield miners from mines in various places in the Ming Dynasty, especially in Datong and other places. These people had more than ten years of experience in finding coal mining.

Starting from the 16th, they led a large number of Wuzhaibao miners. They searched for new coal fields along the Taipingzhuang area. In addition, hundreds of miners from the original Taipingzhuang were all hired by Huang Laifu at a price of one tael of silver per month and joined the construction of the new coal mine. After the recruitment, the people in the Taipingzhuang area had no worries about food and clothing, and their emotions stabilized.

On the 18th, Master Yang Xiangrui from Datong was staring at a bare hillside in front of him. Master Yang was a middle-aged man in his forties. He wore a thick cloth shirt and had a messy hair. His face was often black everywhere. He had a kind of dark black on his hands that could not be washed away. He was a typical image of an old miner. Although he was only in his forties, he was on various coal mountains. He had more than 30 years of experience in work, and it can be said that he had rich experience in finding coal.

He concentrated for a long time and said to Huang Laifu beside him: "Sir, after a small inspection, there is a very large coal eye under the hillside, and there is a coal stone inside, which is probably no less than a million pounds."

Huang Laifu was very excited when he heard this, but also very interested. He said, "How can I see it?"

Master Yang bowed his hand. He said, "Sir, I checked the stone coal, looked at the stones, looked at the seedlings, and looked at the surface and inside. The soil on the top of this hillside was black and there were no plants and trees. This is a sign of coal at the foot of the mountain. Look at the rocks again, and count the stones. It shows that the mountain is full of high-quality bright coal. The smaller ones are here to congratulate the adults."

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

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

To be honest, although Huang Laifu brought a lot of scientific and technological information from later generations, these scientific and technological information also needed to cooperate with the productivity at that time to exude effects. Moreover, although Huang Laifu was rich in "theoretical" knowledge, he could only rely on scientific and technological talents at this time to be concreted. No matter what he did, he could not compare to anyone in the Ming Dynasty at this time.

For the Ming Dynasty at this time, various manual operation techniques were very perfect in coal mining, without the equipment conditions for later generations. Although Huang Laifu had a lot of advanced information about later generations, for him, there were very few technologies that could be improved at present. The only place he could do was to invest heavily in large-scale operations.

This is also the characteristic of Huang Laifu and his success: grand. No matter what he does, he will invest as much as ten times more funds and scale than others. Of course, this investment will be very rewarding in the end.

On the 25th, the main body started construction with the mine construction on this hillside. Huang Laifu personally named the place Shenchibao Coal Mine. Thousands of miners dug holes here, digging wellbores, and building houses nearby, thinking that it was a coal yard.

This mine is more than ten meters below the hillside. When coal is dug, in order to avoid poison gas burning, the miners, under the command of the miners, used some huge bamboo to chisel out the middle section and insert it into the coal, and the poison gas leaked out from the bamboo. This method of eliminating poison gas from the well has made great progress compared to the method of evading in the Song Dynasty. This method was often used in the early 20th century.

In addition, the Shenchibao Coal Mine was also very scientific in the deployment of tunnels under the command of various miners. At this time, it was known to arrange the up and down mountains and down mountains according to the direction of the coal seam, and the transportation and ventilation tunnels were also built. Finally, various tunnels were densely built, which made Huang Laifu admire him.

In addition, Shenchibao Coal Mine has unique features in the underground support. Under the command of Master Yang, the miners used the wooden support method of two pillars and one beam to prevent the tunnels and working faces from collapse and rising. As for the drainage problem in the coal mine, the method of pulling the wheels was used.

There is also the lighting of mines. At this time, open flare oil bowls and oil pans are often used to dig coal. However, as the depth of mining increases, the gas increases, which is very easy to cause explosions. 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 ventilation.

Regarding the ventilation of the mine, artificial ventilation is often used at this time, such as using windmills, wind hoods, fans, cowhide bags, etc. to fan the well. However, this artificial ventilation method is only effective for shallow coal mining. According to Huang Laifu's plan, Shenchibao Coal Mine, of course, cannot be satisfied with mining some shallow coal, but only deep coal. How to remove ventilation in this mine?

Master Yang is the most experienced miner among the mining masters, 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 useful materials in his computer notebook on several notebooks. This time he came to Shenchi Castle, he chose a notebook to record coal and iron materials on his body. At this time, Huang Laifu looked through the information and tried to find a useful place.

Suddenly, Huang Laifu felt aroused. In Song Yingxing's "The Art of Heaven and the Works", two natural ventilation methods were recorded, divided into single-well-bore ventilation and double-well-bore ventilation.

As long as you choose to make some air outlet shafts at a higher place, you can solve the problem of ventilation of double well shafts. As for single well shaft ventilation, just use a piece of stone to build a triangular return air duct, which is higher than the well shaft and shaped like a chimney, and then you can ventilate. There is also a simple method, using a bamboo that is as thick as a bowl, chisels off the middle section, and put it into the well. The bamboo tube is higher than the wellhead, which can form a natural wind flow, and gas and other waste gas are extracted from the bamboo tube.

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

The next day, Huang Laifu attracted Master Yang and told him this method. Master Yang looked at Huang Laifu half-believingly, not understanding the knowledge of this mine, why the young garrison master in front of him knew about it. However, the final result proved the practicality of Huang Laifu's method, which made Master Yang admire Huang Laifu. After that, when he had the chance, he would entangle Huang Laifu and ask Huang Laifu for various mine knowledge, which made Huang Laifu very annoyed.

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

However, Huang Laifu also saw that the coal mining tools at this time were mainly manual methods such as chisels, hammers, picks, and chisels. Huang Laifu instructed Master Yang and others to concentrate on their efforts and try to understand the mining methods of gunpowder blasting. However, after the news came out, Huang Laifu found that many miners and their families looked worried.

In addition, there were transportation issues. Huang Laifu saw that many local miners and many women and children in the Taipingzhuang area were all black and carried by people on their backs. They carried baskets of coal from the mine. Each basket of coal was paid for each basket of coal. Although the work was hard, everyone worked hard, for them, in one month, it would be enough for their family to have enough food and clothing.

Master Yang told Huang Laifu that in fact, there was a method of dragging baskets in some mines in the Ming Dynasty at this time. This kind of dragging basket is like a boat or rectangular, made of bamboo or wooden, and there are iron bars or drag strips under it, making transporting coal more convenient and labor-saving. After using this kind of dragging basket, it can be faster than the manual shoulder-carrying method and requires less labor.

However, after Master Yang made such a suggestion to Huang Laifu, the news came out that he encountered some problems...

That night, he was beaten with a black stick and covered with a cloth bag on his head. I don’t know how many people punched and kicked him. Master Yang heard in a vague way that those who beat him called him stupid and wanted to make everyone unemployed.  Why, they scolded him, how many people would lose food after using a basket to transport coal?

The next day, Huang Laifu was shocked when he saw Master Yang with a bruised nose and swollen face. After hearing his crying, Huang Laifu also understood the contradiction between high-tech and workers' jobs, which also made Huang Laifu's series of mining technology improve ideas temporarily paused.

In fact, Huang Laifu had experienced this contradiction in Wuzhaibao. At Wuzhaibao Wool Spinning Factory, he dared not improve textile technology, because once the technology is improved, it means that many female workers are unemployed. Once they are unemployed, it means that the family loses hope of survival. At present, refugees like the Ming Dynasty are full of refugees, this situation will increase serious consequences.

After weighing the trade-offs, Huang Laifu stopped using gunpowder blasting mining method and dragging baskets to transport coal. Huang Laifu thought to himself that the improvement of technology should be done when the market demand reaches a certain level!
Chapter completed!