Chapter 2442
"Mr. Tao, the mining area is ahead!"
In fact, without Chen Yixin's reminder, Tao Donglai had already seen several tall chimneys standing in the distance, which should be furnaces used for smelting ore.
Mining activities at the Fushan Copper Mine have been going on for several years, and now there are supporting smelters near the mining area, allowing the output to evolve from copper ore to copper ingots. Although the construction of smelting facilities in Fushan County is expensive, it also greatly improves the efficiency of the use of maritime transportation capacity, which is definitely a good deal in the long run.
After passing an armed checkpoint, Tao Donglai and his party arrived at the smelter located on the outskirts of the mining area. Although the Fushan Mining Area is subordinate to the Ministry of Industry in terms of establishment, due to the actual local situation, daily operations and security work are actually directly managed by the military. Considering the current actual situation in Fushan County, additional troops have been deployed around the mining area to keep out the refugees entering the local area.
At present, most of the business institutions in Fushan County have gone out of business, but the production activities in the mining area have not stopped due to the refugee flow. After all, the output here is directly related to the production arrangements of Tiandu Industrial Zone thousands of miles away, which is very important to Haihan. The process of industrialization will also have many impacts, and we will never enter a state of shutdown of production unless it is absolutely necessary.
At this time, there was also a bustling production scene in the smelting plant. Workers were using small carts to put the ore obtained after crushing the ore, limestone and other fluxes, as well as coke, charcoal and other fuels into the sealed blast furnace. Chen Yixin said that these raw materials will be smelted at a high temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius later. In this process, most impurity elements such as sulfur, arsenic, and antimony in the ore can be removed, and matte with lower copper content can be produced, and then charcoal can be used. The matte is then smelted by the roasting method to obtain blister copper for casting copper ingots.
"However, if these blister coppers are to be used to process some relatively precise industrial parts, they will need to be transported back to Sanya for further processing and purification. The smelting facilities here are not complete enough, so we can only complete the process of smelting blister copper. See After this refugee wave, can you contact the Ministry of Industry to arrange technical upgrades?" Chen Yixin accompanied Tao Dong to visit the production site and explained the local production conditions to him.
Tao Donglai was playing with a thick copper bar sample in his hand. In fact, just from the perspective of look and feel, the quality of this thick copper is the same as that of ordinary copper products. The quality of locally produced copper ingots is not the same. Not too low. Nowadays, the production capacity of Fushan Copper Mine is stable, and the income gained from this has provided ample funds for the continuous improvement of production facilities here. Chen Yixin hopes that there will be no financial difficulties in upgrading the local production technology after the refugee wave.
Adjacent to the smelting plant is the ore crushing plant. There are two steam ore crushers produced in Sanya, which are used to crush the ore into ore that is easy to smelt. This kind of mechanical device has been used in the Shilu Mining Area for many years. It has high reliability for long-term operation and is easy to maintain. Its processing efficiency is hundreds of times faster than human labor. Although it is expensive, it is not cheap for a mine like this. Where production capacity is directly proportional to income, there is no harm in spending more money on production equipment as long as production efficiency can be greatly improved.
These two crushers are not the only steam-powered equipment in the area. The process of transporting the ore from the mine to here is powered by small steam locomotives running on the tracks. This kind of rail transportation system is not uncommon in the mines under Haihan's rule, and it is also a relatively mature technology. However, the entire transportation system here, including the rails, is packaged and shipped from the south, and its construction cost is much higher than that of the southern mine.
Of course, this is the same as the ore crusher. High investment results in high efficiency and high returns. The ore hauled in one trip is equivalent to the carrying capacity of a hundred carriages, which is far beyond the level of this era and fully sufficient. It proves what it means to have money and get things done easily. As long as funds are sufficient, even overseas mines far away from Haihan's mainland will not be inferior to local mines with more convenient conditions in terms of construction level and production capacity.
Arriving deep into the mine, the huge hole appearing on the ground is a vein currently being mined. Most of the ore veins in the Fushan Copper Mine are on the surface, so mining is not difficult. Just open-pit excavation is enough. However, there are many armed men serving as guards near the mine, which also shows that the atmosphere here is somewhat unusual.
"Recently, a lot of people have been arrested due to the refugee flow, and most of those who are not worthy of death have been sent here to mine. So we have specially sent some extra manpower to keep a close eye on this place to avoid trouble." Chen Yixin said lightly Explaining the reason for the tight security here.
It is one of Haihan's traditions to send criminals to work as coolies in closed environments such as mines. For Haihan, such cheap labor is not used in vain. It only needs to provide these people with the most basic living conditions. That’s it, the cost of use is very low.
The only troublesome thing is that most of these people have committed minor or serious crimes, and their reliability is very low. In addition, they hold various metal tools during labor, so more people must be sent to strictly monitor them. Although this will inevitably occupy a large amount of manpower in the military, this measure must not be omitted. Once careless, the prisoner riot that occurred in the Shilu Mining Area may be repeated.
"There are currently more than 1,300 miners here, half of whom are torture prisoners, and the proportion may continue to increase. After all, affected by these free labors, the miners' remuneration is getting lower and lower, and many miners have changed their jobs. They have gone to other professions, but the overall number of miners is still increasing. There are always some people who don’t like to live a stable life, and they have to work in this kind of place to be honest.”
Chen Yixin raised his hand and pointed to somewhere at the bottom of the pit: "Those people digging rocks at the bottom are generally serious criminals who have been sentenced to more than three years, and they don't have much chance of getting out of here alive."
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Chen Yixin would not be kind to these tortured prisoners. Most of those who entered Fushan County as refugees and dared to openly commit crimes were not good deeds, and most of the crimes they committed were mainly violent crimes such as robbing other people's property. Even if these people are sent overseas for resettlement, they will most likely become a security risk. It is better to intercept them here and let these people slowly be rehabilitated in local mines.
Given the high-intensity labor and subsistence living conditions endured by torture prisoners, there are indeed not many people who can survive three years. Even if they can barely survive, their bodies have long been overdrawn and it will be difficult to recover. At the level of a normal person, the possibility of continuing to do evil after going out will be much lower.
Tao Donglai said: "You have kept this place in order. It seems that you have been trained in the army!"
Chen Yixin smiled and said: "Mr. Tao, managing a mine is much easier than leading troops to fight. There are templates that can be copied for every matter. Once the production process is determined, there will be no major changes, so we just follow the ready-made plan. It's not like the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly. Every decision made and an order issued may involve the lives of thousands of people. It's very stressful!" Tao Donglai continued to ask: "Then do you think you are more important? Is it suitable to lead troops in the army or manage local affairs? ”
Chen Yixin thought for a while before responding: "Now I should be more accustomed to being a soldier. Maybe when the north becomes peaceful in the future, I will use more energy to manage local affairs."
Chen Yixin has established a relatively solid foundation in Shandong and Liaodong, and is well aware of the situation in Northeast Asia. A senior official like him who understands local government affairs and can lead troops to fight is not very popular within Haihan. If he were to take charge of the various northern colonial areas in the future, he would undoubtedly be a very reasonable candidate.
The questions raised by Tao Donglai were also testing Chen Yixin's attitude. If Chen Yixin himself is willing to take the initiative to stay in the north for development, it will certainly be an ideal situation. Judging from the situation that has been seen so far, Chen Yixin's governance effect in Fushan County is quite good. In this extraordinary period, he can still maintain the normal operation of local institutions after taking in tens of thousands of refugees. This in itself is an extreme example of his governance ability. Good performance. If someone else were to sit in this position, they might not be able to perform as well.
However, the international situation in the north is still unclear, and it is too early to talk about future work arrangements. At least we have to wait for the preliminary results of the multinational meeting hosted by Tao Donglai before we can make any arrangements, so he did not discuss this topic at the moment. Have an in-depth discussion with Chen Yixin and continue to understand the production situation of the mine.
Tao Donglai spent more time in the mine than the time he spent visiting the refugee camp the day before. During this period, there were several minor conflicts with torture prisoners in the mining area, but they were quickly quelled by the guards' whips and sticks. Going down did not interfere with Tao Donglai's visit. Tao Donglai learned in detail about the entire production process from exploring ore veins to casting copper ingots, and what technical support is needed locally to further expand production capacity and improve the quality of copper production.
Two days later, Tao Donglai received news from Jinzhou that Wang Tom had arrived there together with North Korean minister Kim Sang-heon. North Korea's attitude towards this meeting was obviously much more positive than that of Ming Dynasty. When Li Zhi learned that a comprehensive armistice was expected to be achieved, he did not hesitate to send Kim Sang-hyun as his country's representative to participate in this consultation. If it were not for the principle of level reciprocity, perhaps he would prefer to attend the meeting in person in Golden State.
There is no doubt that the Manchu and Qing Dynasties are ready for negotiations. Even if they are not willing to accept the participation of Ming and North Korea, they have notified the Jinzhou authorities that King Zhishun Shang Kexi will participate in this meeting on behalf of the Qing Dynasty. Although the Manchu and Qing Dynasties did not change the candidates, Qian Tiandun and Wang Tom, who were in Jinzhou, both believed that Shang Kexi was not worthy enough. There might be important figures in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties hiding in secret to make decisions on the direction of this negotiation.
And now the only one left who has not made a clear response is the Daming family. In view of Ming Dynasty's past attitude towards peace talks, Tao Donglai and others are not optimistic about the final result, at least they will not attend this consultation in the name of armistice and peace talks.
For the Ming Dynasty, the Haihan and Manchu Qing Dynasties were just small neighboring countries that had only begun to gain power in recent years. North Korea had been a vassal state of the Central Plains Dynasty for the past few hundred years, and its status was not worth mentioning. Nowadays, we have to be on an equal footing with these small countries, and we may even have to look at their faces at the negotiation table. This is indeed a difficult reality for Ming Dynasty, which has always regarded itself as a powerful country.
In view of Daming's silent attitude so far, Tao Donglai also had to study how to conduct this multi-country consultation in Daming's absence.
If the Ming Dynasty did not send people to attend, then Haihan's plan to take this opportunity to make the Ming Dynasty bow to him would basically come to nothing, and the negotiations with the Manchu and Qing Dynasties would also be missing a very important condition. The Manchu and Qing Dynasties will become the party that benefits from this. Haihan can no longer play the seesaw game in the middle, and the focus of negotiations will return to bilateral relations. The situation will be much simpler for the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.
As for North Korea, it basically just plays a role of cheering for Haihan. Regardless of the Ming Dynasty or the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they would not take North Korea's opinions to heart under normal circumstances. Rather than being a participant, they are more like a chess piece controlled by the other three parties in turn. North Korea is so actively involved that it may be somewhat worried that it will be used as a deal condition by the other three countries without knowing it.
But for Daming, not attending seemed to save his face, but it would put himself in a passive situation. Nowadays, both the Manchu and Qing Dynasties and Haihan are stronger than the Ming Dynasty in terms of local military strength. Although Haihan's attitude is inclined towards the Ming Dynasty, it is not monolithic. The confrontation in Liaodong lasted for several years. Both sides invested a large amount of troops, military expenditures and materials, but it failed to change the existing regional situation. However, once the two countries ceased fighting, it meant that the Manchu Qing Dynasty could finally free up its hands. So the first unlucky one must be Daming.
If the Ming Dynasty were present, they could naturally try to persuade Haihan to continue to send troops to Liaodong, hold back the Manchu troops, and share part of the military pressure for themselves. But if you choose not to attend, it will be equivalent to automatically giving up such an opportunity. This will inevitably become an opportunity for the Qing army to move south in a large scale.
But Tao Donglai couldn't tell these truths to Ming Dynasty's senior officials, and even if he told them, they might not be able to listen. He could only hope that Chongzhen and his ministers would not be too confused and give up in order to save face. A chance to survive.
No matter what the Ming Dynasty's final attitude was, Haihan still had to start talks with the Qing Dynasty. Seeing that the agreed time was getting closer, Tao Donglai no longer wanted to stay in Fushan County to wait for the news, so he decided to go to Liaodong first to meet with Qian Tian Dun met with Tom Wang to discuss some next strategies. Regarding the future direction of the situation in Liaodong, it is definitely not enough to listen to Chen Yixin's opinions. The opinions of these two senior generals are also very important to the Executive Committee.
(End of chapter)