Chapter 1949
Heitu Port was developed much earlier than Changhua, so the rail transportation system here was actually built earlier than Changhua. However, in order to quickly and efficiently transport the ore from the inland mining area to the smelting area near the sea, Changhua had to build a huge freight railway. However, Heitu Port is not so troublesome. The coal mining area is right next to the port area. Not far away, the unique natural conditions eliminate the need to build a large freight railway, and the investment in transportation is much less than in Changhua.
However, for laymen like Li Bo, it is difficult to fully understand Haihan's approach to infrastructure construction in a short period of time. He can only compare the differences between the industrial bases he visited from a more intuitive perspective.
The current economic benefits of Heitu Port are quite good, and the urban area is no longer a complex of buildings dominated by bamboo and wooden shacks in the early years. Nowadays, the miners' buildings funded by the local government are all masonry structures, and the living facilities and supporting service agencies are also It is even more complete, and there are even basic education institutions set up specifically by Danzhou's academies here. In terms of the living conditions of miners, this place is even better than the Shilu Mine in Hainan Island. Moreover, most of the miners in Heitu Port are immigrants from Annan and Guangxi. There are no unstable factors such as hard labor camps, and the hidden dangers in public security are much smaller than those in Shilu Mine.
Xie Chun said he wanted to eat casually, but he still set up two large tables for a sumptuous banquet. One table was for Bai Kesi, Li Bo and his entourage, and the other table was for local officials and gentry celebrities who were accompanying them. Li Pu looked at the contents on the table and thought that this was almost the same as the reception banquet hosted by the executive committee at Sanya Victory Fort earlier. He found that the more polite these Haihan people were in speaking, the more high-profile they tended to be in their actions.
During the dinner, after receiving instructions from Bai Kesi, Xie Chun took the initiative to introduce the local production conditions to the Koreans. The coal veins in Heitu Port are almost on the surface, so the mining method is open-pit excavation, which is almost the same as that of Shilu Iron Mine. And because the coal quality of Heitu Port is excellent, the mined coal can be used directly as fuel. In the processing link Much simpler than iron ore.
With the gradual formalization of coal production in Heitu Port, Xie Chun is no longer satisfied with just using coal to make coke, coal tar and other primary by-products. In recent years, he has begun to seek to build chemical plants in Heitu Port that are matched with coal mines to manufacture Deeply processed products with higher added value, such as methane, ethane, methanol, ethanol, etc. However, the number of professionals currently trained by Haihan in the chemical industry is quite limited, and most of them work in the Tiandu Industrial Zone in the interior of Sanya. The scarcity of talents makes it impossible to implement Xie Chun's industrial upgrading plan.
This time, while Bai Kesi also came to Black Tu Port, Xie Chun also intended to take this opportunity to raise the request for building a chemical plant locally, although he also knew that the reason why the Executive Committee was dragging this matter was not necessarily to build a new chemical plant for Black Tu Port. threshold, but if this kind of long-term planning does not take the initiative to strive for, then it is unrealistic to expect Victory Fort to take the initiative to hand over this benefit to Black Earth Port. After all, there are more and more overseas jurisdictions now, and each overseas enclave has its own construction plan. Funding is often not the main problem that restricts the realization of these plans, but the serious lack of professionals, including officials. Black Earth Port wants to build a To carry out industrial upgrading on the current basis, the problem now faced is the huge gap of chemical talents.
"Lao Bai, you see, our chemical plant planning here is all funded by ourselves, so as not to increase the burden on Sanya. As long as Sanya is willing to give people, it can be put into operation on a small scale within one or two years, and by then it can also make up for the land. There is a capacity gap in the Du Chemical Plant. Moreover, the chemical products we produce here use coal as raw materials, and the cost is much lower than transporting coal to Sanya for production. How much does it cost here in a year? "
Xie Chun took advantage of the gap between the tables and spared no effort to persuade Bai Kesi, hoping that he would express his support for Heitu Port's plan to develop the chemical industry.
Bai Kesi responded: "The Executive Committee supports the chemical industry construction plan of Black Earth Port, but when it comes to talent supply, it is still powerless for the time being! The guarantee I can give you now is that Black Earth Port will be developed as a priority in the future. Candidate areas for the chemical industry will be biased here in terms of talent supply.”
Xie Chun was actually a little disappointed when he heard this answer, but he couldn't question the opinion of the executive committee, otherwise the effect might be counterproductive.
After the meal, everyone took a short break in the restaurant. After consulting Li Bo, Bai Kesi asked Xie Chun to arrange a visit to the mining area. After all, the main purpose of this trip to Heitu Port is to show the North Koreans the level of coal mining and operation in Haihan. Just eating and drinking is definitely not enough. Business must be done well, and the North Koreans cannot be upset about this temporary extra arrangement. Puzzled.
Xie Chun gave a few simple instructions, and soon the carriages and cavalry guards outside were ready. Then everyone left the restaurant and took the car to the mining area. It was only two or three miles from the city to the mining area, and it only took a moment to reach the destination by driving on a wide and flat official road.
After Li Pu got out of the car, he immediately realized the origin of the local place name. The soil under his feet seemed to be dyed with ink, and everything he could see was pure black. The so-called black soil is what we see in front of us.
The scene in the mining area is actually very similar to what Li Bo saw in the Shilu Iron Mine. Huge funnel-shaped pits were also dug out on the ground. Circles of spiral mining operations in this large pit with a diameter of 100 feet have been continuously Lead to the bottom of the pit. The process of transporting the coal mined from the pit to the top of the pit is the same as that of the Shilu Mine. Several steam-powered winches are used to pull it to high altitudes. This kind of mechanical device is undoubtedly much more efficient than human or animal power. The coal-loading bucket moves up and down the pit wall track back and forth much faster than if someone walks empty-handed.
There are three other mines similar to this one as far as Li Bo can see. These four mines are arranged in twos and twos. If viewed from the air, they should form a huge "field" structure. . Li Bo roughly estimated the number of miners working in the mine in front of him, which was about seven to eight hundred people. If the other three mines had the same mining scale, there would be at least about three thousand miners working here at the same time. Considering that the continuous working time of this kind of almost purely manual heavy labor is unlikely to last for a whole day, and there is probably a rotation scheduling system to ensure work efficiency, the actual number of local miners is likely to be one more. More than times.
Either to dissipate heat or not to let their clothes wear out too much during labor, most of these miners work shirtless and holding shovels and picks. The soot covering their bodies covers their original skin color and appearance. Everyone is as black as a Kunlun slave.
Just as Xie Chun was around, Li Bo asked him to confirm his guess: "Excuse me, Mr. Xie, are the local miners divided into several shifts, or are they just one group of people working full time?" Xie Chun said: "We work in two groups here. The working time of each shift is not too long, Prince, but each miner team has corresponding mining tasks. If the task cannot be completed within the shift time, it will be punished accordingly. A portion of the remuneration will also be deducted.”
In fact, the work tasks of miners are very heavy, and the three hours of working time does not leave much room for them to work. The specific workload has been tested repeatedly on a large scale, and it is determined that it can basically be completed within three hours. Squeeze the energy out of the miners. If you don't work hard enough, it is very likely that your team will not be able to complete the task. Of course, if the team's ability is strong enough to exceed the task, then corresponding bonuses will be given in proportion. Only arranging two shifts is not because Xie Chun is very kind, or because he considers that the mining cost of burning the midnight oil will be relatively high, but because the number of local miners is limited and there is no condition to arrange more shifts for rotation.
This kind of open-pit coal mine has many fewer risks than the underground coal mine, but some occupational diseases of miners are still unavoidable. For example, working for a long time in such an environment full of coal ash will inevitably affect the respiratory system of the body. Injuries, respiratory illnesses and lung diseases are all high among miners. Therefore, although the income of these miners is good, what they actually earn is a certain degree of hard work.
Of course, for these people who need to make a living and have no special skills, being a miner in Black Earth Port is a pretty good job. It is tiring, but the working hours are not too long, and the income is enough to support the family. Basically Housing is officially allocated, and the mine provides one meal per day. Most of them cannot find a better job than this.
Even miners who want to get rid of this job mostly place their hopes on the next generation. Xie Chun specially brought in teachers from Danzhou and established a school for miners' families there, allowing the miners to send their children to study and become literate. If there are outstanding talents, the government will pay the expenses and send them to Danzhou or even Sanya to receive a better education.
This is not because Xie Chun wants to create a good and benevolent persona for himself, but he knows that if he wants to vigorously develop industry, it is far from enough to rely solely on a large number of pure manual workers. There must be enough people who have received basic education. Education, industrial workers who can read and write and have certain learning abilities can support the labor demand in the industrial era. If Black Earth Port can train more educated workers locally, it can at least further increase the use of steam equipment, without having to limit the use of steam equipment in the production process due to a shortage of skilled workers.
What's more, Xie Chun still has industrial upgrading in mind. To develop coal-related chemical industries in Heitu Port, it currently seems very difficult to rely entirely on Sanya to provide professional talents. Xie Chun must also try to train some personnel on his own. Although it is impossible to create a group of chemical experts out of thin air in the short term, it is at least necessary to have a group of technicians with a cultural foundation who can quickly take up their posts after short-term training.
Li Fu is mainly interested in how to organize production here, because the domestic coal mines in the Datong River Basin will soon be mined. This large coal mine, which has been operated by Haihan for nearly ten years, is obviously an excellent model. There is actually nothing to say about the mining technology. Even if it is as advanced as Haihan, it still relies mainly on manual excavation, but a large amount of steam equipment is used in the transportation process. Although North Korea does not have steam engines, it is feasible to use manpower to make up for this gap.
After obtaining the permission of Bai Kesi and Xie Chun, Li Mu asked Xie Chun to find several foremen and asked them in detail about some details of the mining work. However, these foremen were all from Guangxi and were not very good at speaking Haihan Mandarin, and Li Fu could not understand Guangxi vernacular, so Xie Chun had to temporarily act as a translator.
What Li Bo mainly wants to know is how these teams work together to complete production tasks, and some issues they think need to be paid attention to during the mining process. These are details that were not covered in Xie Chun's explanation, and Li Bo believes that a better understanding will help the country's coal mine operations. These foremen who have been working on the front line for many years are undoubtedly the best research subjects.
After hearing Li Bo's question, Xie Chun couldn't help but admire the Joseon Crown Prince's intentions. He could see that the other party was not just here for a formality, but really wanted to understand the detailed operations here, and even wanted to share the experience of Heitu Port. Bring it back to North Korea.
However, since Bai Kesi made no special statement, Xie Chun would not make any obstruction to Li Bo's request. He also knew from the newspaper that there are currently many ongoing industrial cooperation projects between Haihan and North Korea, and the coal mine is probably one of them. one. The obvious purpose of arranging for North Koreans to visit Heitu Port is to let them learn from Haihan's successful experience. But Xie Chun did not expect that Bai Kesi still had reservations and did not tell him the real reason for arranging this temporary trip.
This is not because Bai Kesi cannot trust Xie Chun, but because he does not want unverified news to spread further. After all, whether the incident in Changhua was a premeditated attack or a misjudgment caused by the nervousness of the Ministry of Security will not be confirmed until there is further evidence. It was not easy to say before. Bai Kesi did not want Xie Chun to think that he was too neurotic, so he temporarily changed the itinerary of the Joseon Crown Prince because of an unconfirmed attack.
After the visit to the mine that afternoon, the group took a carriage back to the port according to Xie Chun's arrangement, and boarded the ship again to go to sea. However, their destination was not far away, it was a small island near Black Earth Port, which is now Xie Chun's private territory.
In addition to the manor where Xie Chun's family lives on the island, he also built some special facilities, such as a 25-meter-long swimming pool, a basketball court with a hardened cement ground, and a five-a-side football field. There is also a two-meter-wide jogging and fitness trail surrounding the entire estate, which is like a 17th-century version of a private sports activity center.
(End of chapter)