Chapter 978 Shilu Mine
As Van Diemen expected, the investment in manpower, material and financial resources required to build a railway is very huge. Even a rich man like Haihan will feel pain in building such a railway that is dozens of kilometers long, and there will be many people during the construction. Other construction projects carried out during the same period have had a certain impact, and the trouble caused is not limited to this area.
When the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Industry tilted their resources towards the Shichang-Changzhou Railway, part of the projects in Sanya had to be suspended or postponed because of this, which put a huge burden on the departments responsible for railway construction during the construction period of more than a year. pressure. The reason why the Shichang Railway was built so urgently at that time was because Haihan's shortcomings 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 maritime transportation to solve transportation problems. Although the executive committee currently has plans for several railway lines, they have not been implemented. Part of the reason is also due to the impact that such a large project will have on the overall construction process of Haihan.
Of course, Qiao Zhiya would not disclose the specific construction costs to Van Diemen, and responded evasively: "The cost of railway construction is indeed not low, but considering the production efficiency it can improve over a long period of time, we think this It’s well worth the investment.”
Fan Diemen noticed a city emerging from the distant wilderness outside the car window on the right. When Qiao Zhiya saw this, he explained: "That is the Changhua County seat built by the Ming Dynasty, but now it is just a symbol."
Although Changhua County still retains its original appearance, the situation today is similar to that of Yacheng. The Ming Dynasty has long lost control of this place, and the county government in the city only maintains a nominal presence. The county town is too small, and Qiao Zhiya has no interest in large-scale demolition and reconstruction. Therefore, the new administrative agencies are basically built in the new port area of the Changjiang River estuary, separated from the old county seat by several miles. The distance between them is only a few minutes' drive.
During the rest of the journey, the crowds on both sides of the railway became sparse, but from time to time one could still see large areas of farmland, some of which were still under cultivation. Qiao Zhiya said: "Our area was not originally a grain-producing area, so most of the grain we consumed had to be transported from other places. However, considering the cost issue, we began to organize local reclamation last year to plant rice, potatoes, corn and other food crops. , to solve part of the local food needs.”
It is more than eighty miles away from Changhua Port to Shilu Mine. Before Haihan took over, this area was basically in an undeveloped primitive state. The Shichang Railway was originally built along the north bank of the Changjiang River, so water conservancy resources and transportation in the areas along the way are not a problem. It would be a pity not to use the coastal plain area with such good conditions for agricultural development. Therefore, since last year, the Ministry of Agriculture has successively organized reclamation and cultivation of more than 20,000 acres of arable land, hoping to gradually achieve self-sufficiency in food needs in Changhua.
Compared with the commercial crop plantations that are blooming everywhere in other areas, the cultivation situation in Changhua area is much simpler. Considering that the industries in Shilu, Changhua and Shilu are relatively sensitive and it is not suitable for outsiders to frequently enter and leave these areas, 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. This 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 in areas open to investment.
After traveling inland to the east for about half an hour, the train entered a side road and came to a slow stop. Van Diemen looked out of the car window and saw that there were no people nearby. He wondered: "Why did you stop here?"
"Waiting for the wrong train." After Qiao Zhiya finished speaking, seeing Van Diemen still looking confused, he explained to him: "Because there is also a train coming from the opposite side, so we have to wait here and wait for the opposite train. Let it pass before moving on.”
Taking into account the construction costs and actual usage conditions, the Shichang Railway has not yet realized the full double-track construction, but has only set up a number of double-track sections along the way for staggered trains. When the double track is fully connected in the future, these existing branch roads will also be merged into the double track. Not long after the car stopped, sure enough, a whistle was heard in the distance, and then a truck loaded with ore came from the opposite direction, roaring and speeding westward from the main road.
After the miscarriage was over, 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 train station located in the inland mountainous area would be a little bit depressed. After all, there seemed to be no other institutions here except the mines, but the scene he saw after entering the station was indeed beyond his expectation. It is expected that there will be hundreds of workers waiting to load and unload goods on the platform alone. It seems that the momentum is no worse than that of the cargo terminal of Changhua Port. There are also several belt conveyors driven by steam engines on the platform to quickly transport the ore that has been initially crushed into freight cars.
In addition, Van Diemen also noticed that there were many Haihan soldiers in military uniforms and loaded with ammunition standing guard inside and outside the station, which seemed to be a bit heavily guarded. Van Diemen didn't know that there had been riots in this place two years ago. After that, the military strengthened local security, thinking that this was a security measure specially arranged by the Haihan people for their visit.
After the Shilu riot in September 1631, the military carried out a relatively thorough cleanup of the area within a hundred miles of the Shilu mine. All the cottages that participated in the rebellion were also destroyed. Since then, although the mine has continued to use a large number of hard labor prisoners as labor force, its management has been strengthened a lot, and there has been no similar phenomenon in the past two years.
There are currently about five to six thousand miners working in the Shilu Mine, and about eight of them are prisoners serving sentences. It is these prisoners who are responsible for working at the bottom of the mine where the conditions are the most difficult and dangerous. However, in the past two years, the mines have increased the rewards of reduced sentences based on labor points. As a result, 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. For those serious criminals who probably will not have the chance to leave Shilu again, the mines will often arrange very heavy labor tasks for them to wear down their physical strength and will as much as possible, so that they have no extra energy to consider illegal matters. thing. Qiao Zhiya took Fan Diemen and Ning Qi directly to the Shilu Mine No. 1, which is closest to the train station. After climbing up a section of the mountain, Qiao Zhiya pointed ahead and said: "The sunken place in front is the mine."
Van Diemen walked all the way to the edge of the mine before he had a full view of the situation here. After three years of excavation, Mine No. 1 has formed a huge funnel-shaped pit on the surface. The diameter of this mine is more than one mile, and the deepest depth is about ten feet. In this mine alone, about two thousand workers are engaged in mining operations, and nearly two hundred tons of ore are excavated from this mine every day.
During the mining process, these ores are initially crushed manually, and then transported to the crushing and processing station between the No. 1 and No. 2 mines, where they are further processed with an ore crusher. Next, they are shipped to the train station. It is transported to the smelting workshop in Changhua via Shichang Railway. There are currently three mines in Shilu, one large and two small. The ore mined every day can probably fill two freight trains.
Although in Van Diemen's eyes, the scale of production here is quite amazing, Haihan himself is not satisfied with the production efficiency here. As Changhua's smelting equipment and personnel are gradually put in place, production capacity has gradually increased. However, the ore output of Shilu Mine is limited by the existing mining methods. If we just blindly increase labor input, the increase in output will be The effect is actually very limited.
At present, the Ministry of Industry is already trial-producing steam-powered mechanical excavation equipment. When it is put into production in the future, the production capacity of one mechanical excavation equipment will be at least equivalent to hundreds of miners. Only then will the mining speed of the mine be significantly improved. However, the cost of construction and subsequent use and maintenance of this type of machinery and equipment are not cheap. It is difficult to say whether the cost of mining will decrease or increase.
Of course, it is more than enough. Haihan's current steel production is definitely second to none in the South China Sea. The steel production of the Dutch in Batavia and other colonies cannot even reach one-tenth of its share. . However, from 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 felt that the strength gap between the two sides would widen in many fields. For example, in terms of military manufacturing, the gap between the two sides is not only in technology, but also directly linked to steel production capacity. Haihan can equip his army with powerful firearms on a large scale, and sufficient steel supply is one of the necessary conditions.
After taking a quick look at the production conditions in the No. 1 Mine, the sky had already darkened. Because Shilu is a purely production place, the living conditions are far inferior to those in Changhua Port. Fortunately, Qiao Zhiya ordered someone to make preparations after getting off the car. On the dinner table were deer, pheasants and hares that had just been hunted, fish caught in the Changjiang River, and some fruits and vegetables grown locally. The food was quite rich. The accommodation was not bad. Like all Haihan settlements, there was a special place for the chief to live temporarily. Van Diemen continued to enjoy high-level treatment.
Early the next morning, Van Diemen was awakened from his sleep by the sharp sound of the whistle. He got up, went to the window and looked out, and saw groups of people on the road leading to the mine in the distance. The workers seem to be ready to go to work. Van Diemen looked at the sky and thought that this mine should be the first to start construction among the places he visited these days. These Haihan people are really hard-working. Of course, he didn't know that most of the workers here were prisoners, so the working standards were much stricter than in other places. From dawn to sunset every day, the hard laborers had to work at their jobs. Spend time, eat, drink, and defecate all on the construction site, and there will be no chance to sleep in.
That morning, Van Diemen, led by Qiao Zhiya, visited two other mines and watched the working conditions 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 juicers he had seen before for squeezing sugar cane and oil crops, except that no liquid would appear after the ore was crushed.
Watching baskets of ore being transported from the mine to the train station via laid tracks, Van Diemen could easily imagine the scene where the ore would be put into the Changhua smelting furnace a few hours later. The one-stop mining and smelting system established by Haihan in Shiluchanghua has extremely high operational efficiency, which is a hard power that neighboring countries do not possess. Van Diemen can be sure that the Haihan people will copy this complete set of mature operating methods after they find the next iron mine. 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 from Shilu, Fan Diemen's mood was obviously not as high as when he came. To put it bluntly, the production conditions he saw in Shilu were simply despairing, and Haihan's steel production capacity would be difficult to surpass in the foreseeable future. He was deeply impressed by the Haihan people's ability to organize production. Whether it was plantations, salt fields or mines, the efficiency of operations was far higher than that of competitors of the same era. As the governor of the East India Company, Van Diemen also knew a little bit about the operations of his institutions. When compared with Haihan, the gap immediately became apparent. Van Diemen's trip was originally to find out Haihan's weaknesses, but it seemed that he found a bunch of weaknesses in his own family. This is really a great irony.
After completing his inspection of the Shilu area in Changchang, Fan Diemen took the "Speed" and continued north along the coastline. His next stop was Danzhou, a key 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 control of Hainan Island the following year. After the assassination in Danzhou in 1631, the local area went through repeated purges, killing and arresting many squires who opposed Haihan, and transferred many naturalized people from Sanya to resettle them. It took two or three years for the social situation in Danzhou to gradually stabilize.
(End of chapter)